Historical Dictionary of the Russian Civil Wars, 1916-1926

In September 1920, Voitsekhovskii went into emigration, settling first at Mukden, in Manchuria, where he led the local section of ROVS. In 1921, he accepted an invitation from the Czechoslovak government to resettle in Prague, where he entered the Czechoslovak Army as commander of the 24th Infantry Brigade (1921–1924) and then the 9th Infantry Division (1924–1927). In 1928, he was named commander of the Brno Military District and later, from 1932, of the Prague Military District. From 27 September to 14 October 1938, during the Munich Crisis, he was commander of the 1st Czechoslovak Army. Following the occupation of Czechoslovakia by German forces in March 1939, he was a member of the resistance organization Obrana národa (“Defense of the People”) and served as minister of war in the underground Czechoslovak government (1939–1945). He was arrested by Soviet intelligence forces in Prague on 25 May 1945 and was sent to Moscow. Following some months’ incarceration in the Butyrki prison, on 15 September 1945, he was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment by an NKVD tribunal for “counterrevolutionary” and “terrorist” activities. He died in 1951, midway through his sentence, in the Ozernyi camp near Taishet, Irkutsk guberniia.

On 28 October (the Czech national holiday) 1997, by order of President Václav Havel, Voitsekhovskii was posthumously awarded the Order of the White Lion, 3rd Class (the highest honor of the Czech Republic), and in 2003, a memorial plaque to him was unveiled at the Brno Electro-Technical Institute, which now occupies the premises of the staff of the Brno Military District in the interwar years.

VOKHR. The Forces of Internal Security of the Republic, or Voisko VOKhR (Voisko vnutrennei okhrany respubliki), was the formal name accorded to the internal security forces of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (i.e., those controlled by the Cheka and its successors). The institution was established according to an order of the Council of Workers’ and Peasants’ Defense of 28 May 1919, and was assigned the tasks of maintaining internal security, fighting counterrevolution, collecting grain supplies, etc. VOKhR was also considered to be a reserve force of the Red Army.

Voldemaras, Augustinas (16 April 1883–16 May 1942). The first prime minister of independent Lithuania, Augustinas Voldemaras was born into a middle-class family at Dysna, in what is today eastern Lithuania. He was awarded a master’s degree in history and philosophy by St. Petersburg University in 1910, and subsequently earned a PhD from the same institution. He taught in universities across Europe, as well as from 1915 in St. Petersburg, and was active in Lithuanian nationalist circles prior to the revolution of 1917. In September 1917, he represented Lithuania at the Congress of Non-Sovereign Nations, at Kiev.

Along with other faculty members of St. Petersburg University, Voldemaras was evacuated to Perm′ by the Soviet government in late 1917, but he returned to Lithuania in early 1918 and was invited to join the Taryba. He then journeyed to Lausanne with other Lithuanian groups in the summer of 1918, but returned again to Lithuania in the autumn and was chosen as prime minister by the Taryba when the defeat of Germany in the First World War provided the opportunity for a declaration of Lithuanian independence and the beginning of the Lithuanian Wars of Independence. He served as prime minister from 4 November to 26 December 1918; having left Lithuania to travel to the Paris Peace Conference at the very moment that Red forces were approaching Vilnius, he was accused of abandoning his post and was replaced by Mykolas Sleževicius. Despite this slur upon his character, he then served as minister of foreign affairs in successive Lithuanian governments, arguing for recognition before the Allies, Soviet Russia, and the League of Nations, and vehemently opposing Polish claims to sovereignty over Vilnius (Wilno).