09 Russian Officers´ Shashka of Rudolf Medek, 1918

Fotogalerie

Russian Shashka for Cossack Officers, personal weapon of General Rudolf Medek.

The native of Hradec Kralove enrolled for the compulsory military service in 1913. Despite his heart condition due to which he had been re-examined he was re-recruited by the end of 1914, this time to the 18th imperial and royal infantry regiment in Hradec Kralove. After completing the reserve Officers’ school in May 1915 he was deployed to the eastern front where he defected to the Russian side by the end of the year. After his admission to Česká družina he successfully involved in a series of combat operations including the battle of Zborov. His next activities related to his diplomatic and organizational talent that brought him to the post of the chair of the military department of the Czechoslovak National Council brand office in Russia. After his return to the homeland he became the first chief of the Resistance Memorial, the today’s Military History Institution in Prague. In autumn 1938, General Medek, in protest against the Munich Agreement, returned all British and French awards. He died broken in 1940.