The Legione Redenta ("Redeemed Legion") was an Italian military formation that participated in the Siberian intervention during the Russian Civil War. It was formed from 2500 prisoners of war who had been captured by the Russians from the Austro-Hungarian Army.
The Legion fought against Bolshevik forces in Siberia and Manchuria, and was instrumental in protecting the Trans-Siberian Railway necessary for the Allied support to the White forces. [1]
With the Russian withdrawal from the war in 1918, German and Austro-Hungarian prisoners were allowed to return home as a result of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Many of the Austro-Hungarian prisoners were of various nationalities reflecting the multi-ethnic composition of the empire.
A number of these prisoners were of Italian ethnicity, primarily from Trentino, Istria and Dalmatia (Italian nationalists considered these areas part of the Italia irredenta). The Italian government decided to form units from these prisoners (many of them said they were Italian irredentists). They were allowed to fight for Italy and swore an oath to the King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel III of Italy. [2]
They were placed in a special new military unit called "Legione Redenta": this name was related to the word "redenta" (Italian for "redeemed") as a reference to the fact that the soldiers were "redeemed" from Austrian control and now were Italian legionaries.
As a result, the "Legione Redenta" was created in the summer of 1918 in China and attached to the "Corpo di Spedizione Italiano in Estremo Oriente" (Italian Expedition in the Far East). Initially they were stationed in the Italian Concession in Tientsin. [3] They were trained in Tientsin by Major Cosma Manera (it), an official of the Italian Carabinieri who chose the name "Redenta" for the unit.
The Italian legionaries played a small but important role during parts of Siberian Intervention, fighting alongside the Czechoslovak Legion. [4]
The main areas of operations were Irkutsk, Harbin and Vladivostok. [5]
The Legione Redenta fought until November 1919 when as part of the general Allied withdrawal from Russia, it returned to Italy, where it was welcomed with military honors. [6]
The Italian legionaries were divided in 2 groups, one with black collar patches the other with red collar patches.
Those with the red collar patches were recruited initially by Andrea Compatangelo in an irregular Brigata Savoia and after heavy fighting, occupied the important railway hub of Krasnoyarsk for nearly two months before reaching Tientsin in summer 1918.
They fought alongside the Czechoslovak Legion and by using special armoured trains, reached the Italian concession in Tiensin, where they were officially made part of the Corpo di Spedizione Italiano. [7]
| Subdivisions |
|  | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Settlers and Irredentism |
| |||||||||||||
| Architecture |
| |||||||||||||
| Infrastructure | ||||||||||||||
| Political concepts | ||||||||||||||
| Police and military |
| |||||||||||||
| Currencies and Stamps | ||||||||||||||
The Czechoslovak Legion were volunteer armed forces composed predominantly of Czechs and Slovaks fighting on the side of the Entente powers during World War I. Their goal was to win the support of the Allied Powers for the independence of Bohemia and Moravia from the Austrian Empire and of Slovak territories from the Kingdom of Hungary, which were then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. With the help of émigré intellectuals and politicians such as the Czech Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and the Slovak Milan Rastislav Štefánik, they grew into a force of over 100,000 strong.
Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War consisted of a series of multi-national military expeditions which began in 1918. The Allies first had the goal of helping the Czechoslovak Legion in securing supplies of munitions and armaments in Russian ports. At times between 1918 and 1920 the Czechoslovak Legion controlled the entire Trans-Siberian Railway and several major cities in Siberia. By 1919 the goal was to help the White forces in the Russian Civil War. When the Whites collapsed the forces were withdrawn by 1920. The Soviet government until its collapse in 1991 made the episode a feature of its anti-Western propaganda.
The foreign concessions in Tianjin were concession territories ceded by Qing China to a number of European countries, the United States and Japan within the city of Tianjin. There were altogether nine foreign concessions in old Tianjin on the eve of World War II. These concessions also contributed to the rapid development of Tianjin from the early to mid-20th century. The first foreign concessions in Tianjin were granted in 1860. By 1943, all the foreign concessions, save the Japanese concession, had ceased to exist de facto.
Battaglione Azad Hindoustan was a foreign legion unit formed in Fascist Italy under the Raggruppamento Centri Militari in July 1942. The unit, raised initially as Centro I, was headed by Mohammad Iqbal Shedai – a long term Indian resident of Rome – and was formed of Indian ex-prisoners-of-war from British India.
The Siberian intervention or Siberian expedition of 1918–1922 was the dispatch of troops of the Entente powers to the Russian Maritime Provinces as part of a larger effort by the western powers, Japan and China to support White Russian forces and the Czechoslovak Legion against Soviet Russia and its allies during the Russian Civil War. The Imperial Japanese Army continued to occupy Siberia even after other Allied forces withdrew in 1920.
The Italian Army in Russia was an army-sized unit of the Royal Italian Army which fought on the Eastern Front during World War II. The ARMIR was also known as the 8th Italian Army and initially had 235,000 soldiers.
The 3rd Cavalry Division Principe Amedeo Duca d'Aosta was a Cavalry or "Celere" (Fast) Division of the Italian Army during World War II. The division was formed in 1934, and during World War II was mobilized in June 1940. As a cavalry division it took part in the Invasion of Yugoslavia and was part of the Italian Expeditionary Corps in Russia. Almost destroyed during the Red Army's attack in December 1942, the survivors returned to Italy in 1943 when the division was disbanded.
The 9th Infantry Division Pasubio was an auto-transportable binary-type (2-regiments) Infantry Division of the Italian Army during World War II. The division was formed as an infantry division in 1934, reorganized into an infantry division in 1939 and mobilized in August 1940. Its 79th Infantry Regiment and 8th Artillery Regiment were made up of men from Verona, while the ranks of the 80th Regiment were filled with men from Mantua. Its 1st Sabauda CCNN Battalion was made up of volunteers from Turin.
The 52nd Infantry Division Torino was an auto-transportable infantry division of the Italian Army during World War II. The division was formed from the expansion of the Torino Brigade in June 1940. It took part in the Invasion of Yugoslavia and was then sent to the Eastern front as part of the Italian Expeditionary Corps in Russia.
The Persano is a horse breed created during the Kingdom of Naples at the Royal Stud of Persano near Serre in the Italian province of Salerno. It is similar in appearance to an Anglo Arabian and was created by crossing Andalusians, Arabians, Turkomans and Mecklenburgers.
The Revolt of the Czechoslovak Legion comprised the armed actions of the Czechoslovak Legion in the Russian Civil War against Bolshevik authorities, beginning in May 1918 and persisting through evacuation of the Legion from Siberia to Europe in 1920. The revolt, occurring in Volga, Ural, and Siberia regions along the Trans-Siberian Railway, was a reaction to a threat initiated by the Bolsheviks partly as a consequence of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. One major secondary consequence of victories by the Legion over the Bolsheviks was to catalyze anti-Bolshevik activity in Siberia, particularly of the Committee of Members of the Constituent Assembly, and to provide a major boost for the anti-Bolshevik or White forces, likely protracting the Russian Civil War.
The Romanian Volunteer Corps in Russia, or Volunteer Corps of Transylvanians-Bukovinians, was a military formation of World War I, created from ethnic Romanian prisoners of war held by Russia. Officially established in February 1917, it comprised abjurers of the Austro-Hungarian Army, mainly contingents from Transylvania and Bukovina. These had been obliged to fight against Romania, and, once in Russian custody, volunteered for service against the Central Powers. As campaigners for self-determination and union with Romania, they passed political resolutions which, in both tone and scope, announced those adopted on Union Day 1918.
The Italian concession of Tianjin was a small territory (concession) in central Tianjin, China, controlled by the Kingdom of Italy between 1901 and 1943, officially ceded to China in 1947.
The Czechoslovak Italian Legion was a legion of Czechoslovak volunteers formed late in World War I. The first formal Czechoslovak Volunteers Group was formed in Italian prisoner-of-war camps in Santa Maria Capua Vetere, near Naples and matured at Padula near Salerno. In January 1918, the headquarters of the 6th Italian Army finally agreed to form reconnaissance squadrons from Czechoslovak and Southern Slav volunteers. In September 1918, the 39th Regiment of the Czechoslovak Italian Legion was formed from those volunteer reconnaissance squadrons. The following regiments of Czechoslovak Italian Legion were formed in April and May 1918:
The Voluntary Militia for National Security, commonly called the Blackshirts or squadristi, was originally the paramilitary wing of the National Fascist Party, known as the Squadrismo, and after 1923 an all-volunteer militia of the Kingdom of Italy under Fascist rule, similar to the SA. Its members were distinguished by their black uniforms and their loyalty to Benito Mussolini, the Duce (leader) of Fascism, to whom they swore an oath. The founders of the paramilitary groups were nationalist intellectuals, former army officers and young landowners opposing peasants' and country labourers' unions. Their methods became harsher as Mussolini's power grew, and they used violence and intimidation against Mussolini's opponents. In 1943, following the fall of the Fascist regime, the MVSN was integrated into the Royal Italian Army and disbanded.
The Allied Army of the Orient (AAO) was the name of the unified command over the multi-national allied armed forces on the Salonika Front during the First World War.
The Battle of Lake Baikal is a naval battle undertaken by Czechoslovak forces.
The Italian occupation of Adalia, city of Turkey, occurred in the turbulent times that led to the Treaty of Sèvres.
Italian Concessions in China included the commercial and military concessions and fortifications that the Kingdom of Italy had in different Chinese localities until the Second World War.
