Chapter Six
Ruthenia
Ruthenia
After lunch had been devoured wholeheartedly, Zdado picked up the story right where he left off. "As I sat down in my pew, I felt a hand grab my shoulder. I turned towards the perpatrator of the action and saw that it was Miksa Fenyő. He smiled, with tears in his eyes, and told me, 'We can do this, Janko, we really can.' To which I smiled and nodded, for I was also too overcome by the possibility of success to keep a straight face. As Janoušek stood at the podium, ready to speak again, several men entered the church. Everyone turned to face them, when one of them spoke. He said, 'I heard there was a revolution, and that the Ruthenians would be able to help.' At this, the whole chapel stood and cheered."
"The Ruthenian part of Czechoslovakia had been left out of many of the descions regarding the revolution, because of their general dislike and distrust between us Slovaks and the Ruthenians. But, when they came in he chapel, it was like they were saying that if there was a revolution, then we would be in it together. The Ruthenians promised supplies, but could only afford to give us 3,000 men. The 3,000 men had turned out to be farmers, so there would be an even number of Cavalry after all. With the many supplies, we could now support all 40,000 troops for five months."
"The leader of the Ruthenian group walked up to the pulpit and began to speak. He could only speak in his Carpathio-Rusyn dialect, called Pryashiv Rusyn, but he had an assisstant translate for him. In essence, he said that, although Slovaks and Rusyns are different people, we can and will be united by communism. At this, many people clapped including myself. After the small Ruthenian delegation were seated, Janoušek walked back to the pulpit and the meeting continued. Janoušek said that Hungary had their troops readied and would, as promised, invade on May 1, 1919."
"Also at the meeting, we set up a military time-table for preparedness. Five days after the invasion, all the soliders were to recieve their orders to report to Kosice for training. By June 1, basic training would be over and the 40,000 men would be ready to fight. Not long after that discussion, Janoušek ended the meeting by making everyone agree to meet in St. Michael's again on April 30, the day before the invasion., and to stay here and start to work towards the actual formation of the government. After he finished, everybody left for home, including me."
"Once I got home, I started to prepare for the mission ahead. Before I left the Czechoslovak army, I stole many battle maps left over from the great war and I spent the next few days going over them, in addition to collecting more supplies. I guessed that once the Hungarians had left around mid-June that the Czechs would first look to take back Bratislava and the surrounding lowlands. This, unfortunately, was just beyond the range of the aircraft from Gelnica, so the battle there would have to be fought without air support. The good thing about the battle for Bratislava was that if we lost, we could live with that, because the rest of Slovakia would be under our control, and most of it was mountainous and exremely hard to attack."
The aircraft in question, a 1916 Albatross.
"Once we had made it as far as Nitra, the airpower could come into play and the tides could be turned more handily. After 13 days of waiting, the day finally came and I boarded the train to Kosice. The meeting was held at 11:00 PM at night. The inside of St. Michael's was illumenated by lightbulbs and hundreds of candles. I arrived a little late, at 11:06, but Janoušek didn't mind. Inside, the pews had been moved so that there would be different sections devoted to different departments, with all five comissars having their own desk in a seperate part of the chapel, with Janoušek's desk in the middle. Shortly after my arrival, Janoušek escorted me to my desk, which already had a nameplate on it. I can still se the faux gold-leaf embossed lettering, which read: Lt. Gen. Janko Tuca, Military Commisar. I sat down, and immediately a young man walked over to me. He said 'Hello, I'm Stanislav Mriksa, your new assisstant."
"I recognized the lad's face quite well, for he had served directly under me in the Czechoslovak Army. I inquired as to how he came to be working for the revolution, and he exlplained that he had been booted by the Czechoslovak army for being a communist only last week. He had heard rumors about the revolution, so he came out here and asked about it. He was given Janoušek's telephone and called him. After mentioning me, Janoušek readily signed Stanislav on as my assistant. After Stanislav finished his story, I promoted him to Maj. General, and awarded him comand of one of the yet-to-be formed divisions. He readily accepted and agreed to help me train the troops."
"As for the other three heads of the Divisons, I kept personal command of the Cavalry. The second infantry divison I gave to a man that Janoušek said was actually a military officer from Russia, named Vladimir Petrovich Broudenev. The command of the third infantry divison went to a Jewish man recommended by Janoušek whose name was Avram Goldstein. Avram was an excellent field commander and had served with distinction in the Balkan war and in WWI. In order, there was Lt. General Tuca, that's me, followed by Maj. Generals Mriksa, Broudenev, and Goldstein. We probably looked like a colorful lot, meeting for he first time in St. Michael's, because we were so physically different from each other. I had my dark hair and eyes, Stanislav was blonde and had very deep blue eyes, Vladimir had very light, almost white, blonde hair and grey eyes. Finally, we get to Avram who, with his dark, tan features and enormous black beard, was set apart from the rest of us in the extreme."
"Us four sat down together and started to discuss how best to train the troops. We had been talking for a while when we were called over to Janoušek's desk. All the place was gathering around him. I noticed he was on the phone, and I asked he person next to me who he was on the phone with. The person said that he was talking with Gen. Aurel Bloomfeld, and that the invasion was to begin very soon. Not too long after he finished telling me this, Janoušek got off the phone. He looked upon the clock on the wall, then spoke. He said that it was 11:57 right now, and when that clock strikes midnight, the invasion would begin."
Everyone returned to their desks and duties, but were keeping one eye on the clock. Suddenly, the chimes started and all of St. Michael's erupted in cheering. At the same time, 12 and a half miles to the south, Gen. Bloomfeld ordered his troops to march and our invasion was finally on."
Hungarian invasion routes.
Last edited:
. Well-written.
