8/6/1918 The Komuch: an anti-Bolshevik government in Siberia, supported by the Czechoslovaks

An agreement between the Bolsheviks and the Czechoslovak Legion to transport the Czechoslovaks out of Russia via Vladivostok has broken down. After initially chasing the Red Guards from Chelyabinsk, the disciplined Czechoslovaks are taking over ever more towns along the Trans-Siberian Railway.

The Legionnaires initially declared themselves neutral in Russia’s civil war. Today however they find themselves attacking the Samara, capital of the Volga region, on behalf of the Komuch (the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly). Dominated by members of the right faction of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, the Komuch is an attempt to revive the Constituent Assembly, the elected parliament suppressed by the Bolsheviks in January.

The Czechoslovaks easily rout the Bolshevik defenders of Samara. Now the Komuch establishes itself there. Its leaders hope to unite democratic and moderate opposition to the Bolshevik government in Moscow, in contrast to the more reactionary aspirations of Denikin