Ludvík Svoboda (; 25 November 1895 – 20 September 1979) was a Czech general and politician. He fought in both World Wars, for which he was regarded as a national hero, Biography in Czech at his web page and he later served as the president of Czechoslovakia from 1968 to 1975.
Early and personal life Svoboda was born in Hroznatín, Margraviate of Moravia, Austria-Hungary (now part of Vysočina Region, Czech Republic), to the family of Jan Svoboda. His father died when he was one year old and he was raised by his mother Františka who remarried to František Nejedlý. Svoboda attended the agricultural school at Velké Meziříčí and worked at a vineyard. In 1915, he had to join the Austro-Hungarian Army.
Svodoba married Irena Svobodová (1901–1980) in 1923. One of their 2 children include the Czech economist and academic, Zoe Klusáková-Svobodová (1925–2022).
World War I Svoboda was sent to the Eastern Front, and fell into Russian captivity on 18 September 1915 at Tarnopol. He joined the Czechoslovak Legion and took part in the battles of Zborov and Bakhmach. He returned home through a "Siberian anabasis".
Interwar period Svoboda worked at his father's estate before launching his military career in the Czechoslovak Army as a member of the 3rd (Jan Žižka) infantry regiment in Kroměříž in 1921. He married Irena Stratilová in 1923. In the same year, Svoboda was transferred to the 36th infantry regiment in Uzhhorod, Subcarpathia, then part of Czechoslovakia, until 1931. He passed several courses and also learned the Hungarian language, which he taught between 1931 and 1934 at the Military Academy. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel in 1934 and transferred back to the 3rd infantry regiment. Lieutenant Colonel Svoboda served in several positions, and became a battalion commander until the German occupation of the rest of Czechoslovakia on 15 March 1939.
World War II After the German occupation and the establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia Lieutenant Colonel Svoboda became a member of a secret underground organization Obrana národa ("Defence of the Nation"). It is supposed that at the same time he established a connection with Soviet intelligence. In June 1939 he fled to Poland, and as the oldest and most senior officer formed a Czechoslovak military unit in Kraków. Hundreds of emigrating junior officers passed through this camp. Within three months, 1,200 airmen were dispatched to France. Those soldiers who remained in Poland joined the Czech Republic military unit on the territory of Poland.
The Polish president allowed the Czechoslovaks a military unit designated the "Legion of Czechs and Slovaks" only on 3 September 1939, the third day after the German invasion of Poland, so Svoboda had little opportunity to intervene in the fighting. After the defeat of Poland in September 1939, Svoboda transferred a group of more than 700 officers and soldiers to the Soviet Union (USSR) for asylum. The escape of the group to Romania was ruled out because there was a threat that the Romanians would hand them over to the Germans. In the USSR, the group was immediately renamed the "Eastern Group of the Czechoslovak Republic army". The group crossed without weapons and in civilian clothes, but as a military unit with the consent of the Czechoslovak ambassador in Poland, Juraj Slávik, and after negotiations with the Soviet diplomatic authorities on the territory of Poland. In order not to disperse as civilian emigrants to the Soviet Union, which at that time had a mutual non-aggression agreement with Germany (within the so-called Ribbentrop–Molotov Pact), the soldiers were isolated from the public in internment camps, where they lived according to Czechoslovak Republic army regulations. These internment camps were neither POW camps, nor labor camps, nor gulags.
During the internment, the "Čs. Eastern military groups" moved successively to Kamenec Podolský, Olchovce, Jarmolince, Oranky and the Spaso-Jevfimij Monastery in Suzdal. There was no Czechoslovak diplomatic representation on the territory of the USSR at that time, so Lt. Col. Svoboda led diplomatic negotiations with the Soviet authorities for two years, until the invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany. His goals were to keep the Czechoslovak military group together, to keep it materially supported, and to transport the larger part of its officers and non-commissioned officers to countries that fought against Germany—that is, first to France, then after France's fall, to Great Britain, and finally to the Middle East. A total of 12 transports with 662 men, 12 women and 6 children were dispatched with the help of the Soviets. At that time the Czechoslovak government in exile, led by President Edvard Beneš, was not yet recognized by Czechoslovakia's pre-Munich allies—that is, France and Great Britain. They had not yet declared the Munich Agreement and the borders of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia invalid. Czechoslovak airmen had to serve in the French Foreign Legion in France until it was invaded by Germany, but their military ranks were reduced or not recognized.
On 18 July 1941, one month after Germany attacked the USSR, Czechoslovak political representatives signed an agreement with the Soviet Union on the restoration of diplomatic relations and mutual cooperation in the war against Germany. The agreement made it possible to organize a separate Czechoslovak military unit in the Soviet Union. Lt. Col. Svoboda was significantly involved in the preparation of this military agreement and also in negotiating the conditions for the cooperation of the Soviet and Czechoslovak intelligence services. On the Czechoslovak side, the liaison officer was Colonel Heliodor Píka. Because of this, Svoboda left the USSR several times for Istanbul, Turkey.
Colonel Pika had already been leading a secret Czechoslovak military mission in Moscow during the spring of 1941, with Lt. Col. Svoboda as his deputy. At the turn of May and June 1941, Svoboda and intelligence officer Hieke-Stoj contacted L. Krna, the deputy ambassador of the Slovak Republic (a client state of Nazi Germany) in Moscow. Hieke-Stoj persuaded the diplomat to cooperate. In connection with this action, Svoboda was detained by Soviet counter-intelligence and accused of conspiring with Germany, the enemy of the Soviet Union, and of espionage. The misunderstanding was cleared up and Svoboda was acquitted of the charges. According to the speculative considerations of some historians, at that time Svoboda "committed to cooperation with the Soviet secret service, in which he remained until the end of his life". However, no evidence has been found for this claim. In Svoboda's diary, there is an entry related to this matter, which clarifies the reason for his detention and accusation of espionage. The head of the mission, Col. Píka, neglected to announce his and other members of the mission's contacts with the Slovak diplomat Dr. Krn. By this omission, “… he brought the mission, especially himself and me, into a very unpleasant situation, and thereby his and my position in the USSR was greatly deteriorated and confidence was shaken. I believe that this was the reason why the encryption key was demanded from us and the control over the radio traffic was tightened."
In the spring of 1942, attaché Josef Berounský sailed from Murmansk back to Great Britain on the cruiser HMS Edinburgh. He carried an important message from the head of the Czechoslovak military mission, Col. Heliodor Píka for the Czechoslovak government—a report on Czechoslovak citizens imprisoned in Soviet gulags co-signed by Lt. Col. Svoboda. On 30 April 1942, the cruiser was attacked by a German submarine and Josef Berounský died in his cabin. This event also influenced the work of Svoboda. With the death of Berounský, he lost hope that the conditions in which the Czechoslovak unit was formed would change. Svoboda blamed the Soviets for delaying the implementation of the agreement and had sharp disputes with Ambassador Zdeněk Fierlinger, the representative of the Czech government in exile, on the subject. The possibility of Svoboda going abroad was also dropped.
The activity of Svoboda throughout the rest of the war was connected with the organization and command of the Czechoslovak troops in the USSR. Svoboda, together with a group of 93 officers and non-commissioned officers that he prepared during the internment (the Oran Group), organized an independent field battalion from volunteers—Czechoslovak citizens who signed up from all over the USSR—which became the germ of the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps. However, this battalion had to be organizationally included in the structure of the Red Army. The unit included not only Czechs, Slovaks, Ruthenians from Subcarpathian Rus, Czechoslovak Jews and expatriates living in the territory of the USSR, but also German and Hungarian anti-fascists with Czechoslovak citizenship. Svoboda also accepted women into the army, although this was not in accordance with the rules of the Czechoslovak army. With the arrival of other volunteers, especially Rusyns who came from the gulags and Slovaks who went into Soviet captivity during the war—in which the puppet Slovak state was involved on the side of the Third Reich—the battalion gradually grew into an independent mixed brigade and then into an army corps. It became the largest Czechoslovak military unit abroad. Czechoslovak soldiers served on the Eastern Front the longest of all units of the Czechoslovak foreign army fighting against Germany in the Second World War.
Before going to the front—on 30 January 1943—Svoboda was promoted to colonel. Colonel Svoboda commanded a battalion that distinguished itself at Sokolovo (in the fight against the retaliatory operation of the German army for Stalingrad and Kharkiv). He commanded a brigade that played a significant role in the liberation of the capital of Ukraine, Kiev, and in the battles for western Ukraine. In December 1943, after the liberation of Kiev, he was appointed brigadier general. The brigade under his command liberated the cities of Ruda, Bíla Cerkev and many others. At Žaškov, the brigade took part in the Battle of Korsun–Cherkassy.
On 18 May 1944, Brigadier General Jan Kratochvíl was appointed commander of the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps. Under his command, the corps was deployed in the Carpathian-Dukel operation. "On 10 September 1944, command of the 1st Czechoslovak Corps passed from Brigadier General Jan Kratochvíl to Brigadier General Ludvík Svoboda (by order of the commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, Marshal of the USSR Konev). The change of commander was related to the unsuccessful start of the operation on 9 September 1944." Historian Jiří Bílek evaluates Kratochvíl's dismissal as "unjustified". Jan Bystrický quotes the assessment of the MS. Ministry of National Defense in London, which recognized the reasons for Koněv's decision.
The corps was further organized on the basis of the arrival of other volunteers, especially Volyn Czechs. The corps distinguished itself in the Carpathian-Dukel operation—the largest mountain operation of the Second World War and the largest operation in the Czechoslovak Republic army in its history. The artillerymen of the army corps took part in a massive artillery training in the Jaslo operation, aimed at the liberation of Kraków and eastern Poland. The army corps was liberating Slovakia and eastern Moravia. After the mobilization of Slovaks and the involvement of local partisans, the number of soldiers increased to roughly 50,000. On 3 April 1945, General Karel Klapálek took command of the corps. A tank brigade and a mixed air division from the corps took part in the Moravia–Ostrava offensive.