General Frantisek Moravec
Frantisek Moravec grew up in the town of Caslav, east of Prague in the Austro Hungarian Empire, headed at the time by Emperor Franz Josef. At the outbreak of the First World War, Moravec was studying at the
University of Prague and fully intended to become a professor of
Philosophy. Interestingly, one of his instructors at this  time was Thomas Masaryk, later to become the first President of Czechoslovakia. With the outbreak of the Great War, Moravec was posted into the Austro-Hungarian army despite trying every avenue of avoidance. Dissidence in the army was high and in January 1916 Moravec followed
by the rest of his Battalion surrendered to the Russians. He was risking
his future, but preferred to fight for the Russians rather than against
them for the Austrians. There was great uncertainty over how the war
would end but hope for liberation from the Empire was spreading. From the camp in Kiev that Moravec and many other Czechs were
initially transferred to, he was soon moved to Kazan where they were
permitted to join the Serbian legion being organised in Odessa to fight
against the Empire. Moravec was sent as a Lieutenant to Dobrudza to fight on the Russian
side but was shot in the ankle by retreating Bulgarian forces in October
1916. He was recovering in hospital in Odessa in the latter part of 1916
leading up to the outbreak of the Russian Revolution. The czar was
overthrown and the liberal government that was set up as a replacement
was quickly recognised by the European allies. The Czechoslovak Council for Liberation had already been created and
was headed by T G Massaryk in London. He negotiated during this early
period for the creation of a Czechoslovak Legion within the Russian
army. This army was involved in the 'Kerensky' Offensive in the summer of
1917. Masaryk though, worried about the political situation in Russia,
arranged for the Czechoslovak Legion to be sent to the Western Front. Moravec found hismself transferred in this first group of 1100 men,
the only ones to get out in time. All the others became involved in the
revolution before finally being evacuated some time later. Moravec was
taken by train to the Baltic port of Archangel and then by Russian
steamer to England and then France. Moravec saw further action in Verdun (France), Salonika (Greece) and
the Piave (Italy) before the signing of the Amistice finally brought the
war to an end on the 11th November 1918. Moravec was in the entorage following Thomas Masaryk, the first
president of the newly independant Czechoslovakia, as he entered Prague
in the days before Christmas 1918. Moravec graduated from the military college in Prague in 1928. He was
promoted to Major and then assigned to the headquarters of the Second
Infantry Division in Pilsen. He was posted as Head of the Operations
Section of the Divisional Staff and was happy with the position for many
reasons. In 1929 he was unexpectedly posted by the General Staff to the
Intelligence section at the headquarters of the First Army in Prague. With assistance from the British SOE, Moravec flew out of
Czechoslovakia with 10 of his best men on the 14th March 1939, just
before the Nazis fully invaded Czechoslovakia. When the Communists took over Czechoslovakia in March 1948, Moravec
planned an escape. He set up a daily routine of buying a newspaper at a
railway station, which he broke on the 19th March, travelling by train
to a frontier spa where prearranged contacts in the Underground assisted
him crossing the border across the mountains into Germany. He carried
with him minimal possessions and left all secret documents behind. With a
falsified passport, his wife successfully travelled by train to Austria
the following day, and together they travelled to America where they
lived for the rest of their lives. Moravec died in 1966 at the age of 71 whilst travelling to a
regular job at the Pentagon. His daughter Hanyi Moravec Disher published
his memoirs, 'Master of Spies', a few years later.(c) http://www.czechsinexile.org
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