Masaryk Returns to Prague

JAN 01 1918 · 12:00

Czechoslovak legionnaires escort President Masaryk through Prague on 21 December 1918, his first day in the capital after four years in exile. Place: Wilson Station (Wilsonovo nádraží), Vinohrady · Prague Castle Figures: Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, first president · Charlotte Garrigue Masaryková · Karel Kramář, prime minister · the welcoming crowd Masaryk left Prague in December 1914, a 64-year-old professor of philosophy with a notebook and a small fund of émigré money. He has spent the war in Geneva, Paris, London, Petrograd, Tokyo, and Washington, organizing legions out of Czech prisoners of war and lobbying Allied governments for a state that did not yet exist. The Czechoslovak Legion in Siberia, 50,000 strong, has been his improbable diplomatic instrument; he leaves Vladivostok in April 1918, crosses the Pacific, the United States, the Atlantic, Italy, and finally enters the new Republic by train through Slovakia. On December 20 he reaches Břeclav, on the Moravian border. The route to Prague is lined with crowds at every station. He is 68 years old. He has not seen his city for four years and one week.