The American cruiser Brooklyn in Vladivostok harbor, Russia in a 1919 Czech Legion photograph. The Legion consisted of Austro-Hungarian Czechs taken prisoner by the Russians, then organized to fight for Czech independence. With peace on the Russian front, they went east to leave Russia from Vladivostok, sometimes fighting their way through the Red Guard defending the Revolution. The Americans, British, and Japanese had forces in the city.
Text, in Czech:Americký křižník BrooklynAmerican cruiser Brooklyn
Russia's primary port on the Pacific coast, Vladivostok was the Empire's only port in winter — from early October to late May — when the Arctic port of Archangel was icebound. The Trans-Siberian railroad connected the port with European Russia and Moscow 6,000 miles away.On April 2, 1918, Florence Farmborough, an English nurse serving with the Russian Red Cross, rejoiced on her arrival in Vladivostok and the sight of a ship flying the Union Jack. After a 27-day journey by train from Moscow, it was over three weeks before Farmborough and other refugees boarded the Sheridan, a United States transport. Among her fellow passengers was Yasha Bachkarova, former leader of the Russian Women's Death Battalion. American and Japanese battleships were also anchored in the harborDuring the war, Czech prisoners of war held in Russia formed a Czech Legion fighting alongside Imperial Russian troops against Austria-Hungary. After the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk liberated German and Austro-Hungarian POWs, these Legionnaires made their way eastward to Vladivostok to return home to fight for an independent Czech state. The Bolsheviks tried to disarm the Czechs to ensure they would not be a military force that could turn on the Revolution. The Czechs eventually resisted. In May 1918, 60,000 Czech troops battled the Bolsheviks, fighting at Penza, Samara, Sysran on the Volga, Kazan, Simbirsk, and Yekaterinburg, and occupied nearly the whole Volga region. They defeated a German-Hungarian force in Siberia before reaching Vladivostok, which they took on June 29 after a skirmish with Bolshevik forces. Japanese and American ships transported the Czechoslovak troops to the United States. Japan landed troops in Vladivostok in support of a White Army under Admiral Kolchak. Japan controlled Vladivostok until 1922.
Vladivostok, Russia is a city in Russia.
