Josef Jiří Švec

Švec was born in Čenkov{{cite book | author=České národní sdružení | author2=České národní sdružení v Americe | title=Free Czechoslovakia | publisher=České národní sdružení v Americe | issue=sv. 3–4 | year=1941 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ylMoAQAAMAAJ}} (today part of Třešť), Moravia, Austria-Hungary. He attended the municipal school in Třešť and then grammar school in Pelhřimov, before studying at the teacher-training institute in Soběslav. He gained additional qualification as a physical education teacher.{{citation |title=Životopis plk. Švece: Sokolská župa plukovníka Švece |url=https://zupaplksvece.cz/o-sokolu/ |website=O Sokolu |language=cs-CZ}}

After eight years teaching at the municipal primary school in Třebíč he, as a member of the Sokol sport organization, accepted an offer to teach in the Russian Empire. Švec started as a physical education teacher at the economic lyceum in Yekaterinodar in the North Caucasus, but due to his poor health (recurring colds), he was forced to go to the Black Sea coast to the city of Gelendzhik.{{citation needed|date= December 2023}}

Here Švec received the news of the Sarajevo Assassination and the beginning of the First World War. As a Pan-Slavist and Russophile he decided not to return home to avoid being recruited to the Austro-Hungarian Army to fight against Russia. Instead, he volunteered for the {{lang|cs|Česká družina}} military troop formed in Kyiv by Czech expatriates in Russia; the troop was later transformed into the Czechoslovak Legion in Russia. He started as the commander of the first platoon, where he conducted intelligence work. While on military campaign near the town of Berezhnica, he converted to the Eastern Orthodox Church and gave himself the middle name Georgij (not George or Yuri).{{Relevance inline|date=January 2024|reason=Why is the form of "George" chosen significant? It needs to be expressed, as it's not obvious.}} Orthodoxy accepted more legionnaires, mainly for political reasons.{{citation needed|date= December 2023}}

File:Portrait of Josef Jiří Švec (1883-1918) Ruská Fronta.gif

He gained the greatest fame as the commander of the eighth company of the 1st Rifle Regiment. He and his company successfully fought in the Battle of Zboriv.{{Cite web|url=https://www.lovecpokladu.cz/en/home/19-7-1883-legionnaire-josef-jiri-svec-was-born-8133|title=19.7. 1883 Legionnaire Josef Jiří Švec was born|website=LovecPokladu.cz}} After this victory in battle, Švec was promoted to lieutenant for his heroism and appointed commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Regiment Mistra Jana Husa. After the Russian Civil War started, legionaries were forced to escape from the country by taking the Trans-Siberian Railway, embarking on the ships in Vladivostok and sailing around Asia to Europe. Švec was commander of his battalion when they participated in the Battle of Kazan, the Battle of Penza,{{cite book | last=Bradley | first=J.F.N. | title=The Czechoslovak Legion in Russia, 1914-1920 | publisher=East European Monographs | series=East European monographs | year=1991 | isbn=978-0-88033-218-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FjNnAAAAMAAJ}} the Battle of Lipyagi, and the capture of Samara by the Legion. These battles were fought against the Bolshevik Red Army, who were preventing the departure of the Czechoslovak Legion from Russia. In August 1918, Švec was promoted to colonel, and in mid-October he became the commander of the entire 1st division.{{citation needed|date= December 2023}}

His troops, based at the Aksakovo-Belebej station and onboarded in trains, were ordered by Švec on 24 October 1918 to attack and dislodge the superior force of the Bolsheviks from the Buzuluk-Bugulma line. His subordinates, mainly under the influence of the troop member and communist agitator Jan Vodička, disobeyed him and refused to comply with the order. Švec then returned to the staff wagon, wrote a farewell letter and at three o'clock in the morning on 25 October 1918, shot himself with his handgun. The death of their colonel shook the Czechoslovak soldiers, and they finally executed the order.{{cite book | last=Pynsent | first=R.B. | title=Questions of Identity: Czech and Slovak Ideas of Nationality and Personality | publisher=Central European University Press | series=Central European University Press Books | date=1994 | isbn=978-1-85866-005-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IJlhAAAAMAAJ}} Švec was buried in Chelyabinsk on 28 October 1918, the very same date when independent Czechoslovakia was established.

His story became well known, first among the legionary troops, and then in the newborn Czechoslovakia after their return there, and, especially, after Rudolf Medek's play Plukovník Švec (Colonel Švec), was staged,{{Cite web|url=https://www.narodni-divadlo.cz/en/show/plukovnik-svec-cinohra-1520297|title=Colonel Švec|website=www.narodni-divadlo.cz}} premiering at the National Theatre in Prague.{{cite book | last1=Cornwall | first1=M. | last2=Newman | first2=J.P. | title=Sacrifice and Rebirth: The Legacy of the Last Habsburg War | publisher=Berghahn Books | series=Austrian and Habsburg Studies | year=2016 | isbn=978-1-78238-849-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BFa2BgAAQBAJ&pg=PA164| page=164}} In 1933, during the liquidation of the Chelyabinsk military cemetery for residential development, Czechoslovak diplomats were able to persuade the Soviet government to allow the exhumation and transfer of the remains of Colonel Švec to Czechoslovakia. The remains were, along with the remains of Lt. Col. K. Vašátko, placed in the Liberation Memorial at Vítkov Hill in Prague. Twenty thousand people attended the funeral. During the Nazi occupation of the country, by order of the Gestapo, the remains were definitively placed in the family tomb in Třešť cemetery.{{Cite web|url=https://www.vets.cz/vpm/5642-hrob-josef-jiri-svec/|title=Hrob Josef Jiří Švec | Spolek pro vojenská pietní místa|website=www.vets.cz}}

Švec is also commemorated by multiple statues and memorial plaques; some of these were destroyed during the Nazi occupation. His diaries were first published in 1920.{{cite book | last=Fic | first=V.M. | title=The Bolsheviks and the Czechoslovak Legion: The Origin of Their Armed Conflict, March-May 1918 | publisher=Abhinav Publications | series=Czechoslovakia and the Russian question | date=1978 | isbn=978-81-7017-075-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hKTMy1Qrb8gC&pg=PA472| page=472}}

File: Statue of Josef Jiří Švec in Třebíč, Třebíč District.jpg |Jaroslav Šlezinger: Statue of Josef Jiří Švec in Třebíč

File:Pomník v Českých Budějovicích.jpg|Otto Birma: Statue of Josef Jiří Švec in České Budějovice (erected in 1928, removed in 1939)

File:Plaque of Josef Jiří Švec in Třebíč, Třebíč District.jpg|Memorial plaque in Třebíč

{{Reflist}}

• GÖBL, L. Osobnosti Vysočiny I.. 1st ed. Pelhřimov: Vydavatelství 999, 2005. 245 p. {{ISBN|80-86391-15-9}} (in Czech)
• BUDÍNSKÝ, L. Vraždy, sebevraždy, popravy slavných Čechů / Vydavatelství MAYDAY publishing, 2008. 62-63 s. {{ISBN|978-80-86986-31-9}} (in Czech)
• PRECLÍK, Vratislav. T.G. Masaryk a jeho legionáři, in ČAS, časopis Masarykova demokratického hnutí, No. 97, p. 4-8, ročník XX., January–March 2012, ISSN 1210-1648. (in Czech)

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Category:1883 births

Category:1918 deaths

Category:Russian military personnel of World War I

Category:Czechoslovak Legion personnel

Category:People from Třešť

Category:People of the Russian Civil War

Category:Expatriates from Austria-Hungary in the Russian Empire

Category:Suicides by firearm in Russia