Rudolf Viest

File:Arm.gen. Rudolf Viest low.jpg

Rudolf Viest

Rudolf Viest (24 September 1890, Revúca, Gömör és Kis-Hont County, Kingdom of Hungary, - 1945 ?, Flossenbürg concentration camp ?, Germany), was a Slovak military leader, member of the Czechoslovak government in exile, member of the Slovak National Council and the commander of the 1st Czechoslovak army during the Slovak National Uprising. He was the Slovak with the highest military function and the only Slovak general during the interwar period in the first Czechoslovak Republic.

Family

His father Gustáv Viest was a craftsman, later he was an employee of the town office. His mother Jana (born Grnáčová) came from a family of tailors. He has two brothers (Ivan and Dušan) and two sisters (Oľga and Anna). He studied at local elementary Lutheran school and later at high school in Revúca. His older brother Ivan studied in Budapest. The whole family moved to Budapest in 1905 after the death of their father. Their household became a place where several nationally conscious people met in time of their studies. He studied building construction and worked briefly for a construction company in Budapest. In October 1911, he joined the army as a volunteer in the 7th infantry regiment in Graz. He finished his military service and became a cadet on September 1, 1912.

First World War

He joined the army again during the general mobilization on August 1, 1914. He started as a squad commander and continued as a company commander from November 1914. He was captured during the Russian offensive near Krakow on November 24, 1914. Because of his strong Slavic feeling, he joined the Serbian army on August 1, 1915, then he fought with Serbian volunteers regiment against Bulgarians. He was injured but after healing he returned to Serbian units. In February 1917, he requested to be assigned to Belgorod to form Czechoslovak legions. From June 1917, he served as a second lieutenant and organized the recruitment of volunteers. In 1919, he became commander of the Czechoslovak camp for Slovaks in Irkutsk. The new soviet government did not allow legionaries to return home by the shortest way and Viest with others had to fight his way home cross Siberia. He returned home through Japan, USA and Canada in 1920.

Czechoslovakia

When he returned to Czechoslovakia, he entered the general staff course and started his professional career as a major. He graduated from the Military Academy in Prague. In the interwar period, he worked on several military and diplomatic positions (military attaché in Hungary and Poland) and intelligence services. In 1933 he was promoted to the position of brigadier general and in 1938 to division general. He was the first and the only Slovak who reached the position of general in the interwar Czechoslovak Army.

After the Munich Agreement in 1938, he disagreed with the radicalization of the political scene in Slovakia and with negative events like the formation of the Hlinka Guard and seditious anti-Czech propaganda. As a Slovak with the highest position in the army, he was delegated by central government for negotiations with Hungary in Komárno led by the new prime minister of autonomous Slovakia Jozef Tiso. Viest warned him about the negative impacts of radicalization to the security of the state. According to Viest's memoir, general Lev Prchala offered him to perform military cataclysm and take power in November 1938, but Viest considered it too dangerous because formation of borders was not finished yet.

Slovak Republic

Rudolf Viest belonged to a group of anti-Fascist officers and was against the break-up of Czechoslovakia into Slovakia and the protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. In March 14, 1939, he signed a memorandum against the creation of the Slovak republic delivered to The Slovak Assembly shortly after the declaration of independence. The new regime did not persecute him, but offered him the function of inspector-general of the Slovak Army. He accepted the function after the promise of the minister of defense Ferdinad Čatloš that he would not be in contact with Germans. He was keeping contact with the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in London and he was a member of the resistance movement "Obrana národa" (Defense of Nation). At the same time he contributed a large sum for the economic development of the First Slovak Republic.

Hungary which was not satisfied with the gains from the First Vienna Award attacked Slovakia on March 23, 1939. Viest became a member of the common Slovak-Hungarian commission which was responsible for establishing a new border. According to his memoirs, he finally decided to emigrate during escalation of German-Polish conflict in August 1939. He used for this purpose the official meeting of the commission in Budapest (August 28, 1939 - September 2, 1939). He got a visa from the Romanian embassy in Budapest and moved to Bucharest where he obtained a false French passport from the French embassy with the help of his Czechoslovak contact. Due to his function of general inspector he had access to all secret materials, however investigation did not prove that he took any of them. Viest was sentenced to death, degradation to the lowest army position and loss of state citizenship on March 28, 1942.

Exile

On September 13, he came to Paris. He became a member of the Czechoslovak national committee and commander of the exile Czechoslovak army. From January 1, 1940, he was commander of the Czechoslovak Army Ground Forces, later transformed to the 1st Czechoslovak Division in France. After the Nazi occupation of France in June 1940, he moved to Britain and joined Edvard Beneš on July 10, 1939. On October 10, 1940, he became a member of the Council of State and minister on October 27, 1940. On May 8, 1940, he became deputy of minister of national defense in Czechoslovak government-in-exile.

Slovak National Uprising

On May 8, 1944, Czechoslovak representatives and Soviet Union signed an agreement which guaranteed that Soviet Union would pass the administration of liberated territory to the exiled government in London. Rudolf Viest became deputy of delegate for liberated territory responsible for this task. On August 1944, he flew with the Czechoslovak delegation to the Soviet Union. After raise of Slovak National Uprising, Ján Golian became the commander of the 1st Czechoslovak Army in Slovakia and urged the government-in-exile to send Viest to support the uprising. He came to Slovakia during the night of October 6–7, 1944 and became the official commander of uprising. On October 13, 1944 he became a member of the Slovak National Council. At the time of his arrival, it was already unrealistic to achieve the original goals of the uprising which started in the worst variant. On October 18, 1944, Germans started a general offensive focused on elimination of rebelling territory. Viest issued a final order to switch to guerrilla warfare during the night from 27 to 28 October in Donovaly. This order had only symbolic value. The army as an organized unit already did not exist at that time and the order was not delivered to all troops because of missing communication lines.

Viest tried to escape from German encirclement and get closer to connection to Red Army. On 3 November 1944, he was captured with Golian in Pohronský Bukovec. They were taken to Banská Bystrica and then to Bratislava. On November 10, 1944 they were transported to Vienna on Himmler's order and then taken to Berlin. There were investigated by SS-Reichssicherheitshauptamt in prison on Prinz-Albert-Straße, however the Germans treated them decently and with particular care. During the entire period Viest declared support for restoration of Czechoslovakia and democracy. The last moments of his life are unclear. He probably died with other Slovak Generals (Augustín Malár, Ján Golian and Štefan Jurech) in Flossenbürg concentration camp in 1945. Even if the administration in the camp worked until April 1945, records about the execution of Slovak generals are missing. It is possible that they survived war and died after transfer to Soviet Union.

After his death, he was honored in memoriam with the Order of Slovak national uprising 1st class (1945), Czechoslovak military cross (1945), as well with many other Czechoslovak or foreign medals. In 1945, he was promoted in memoriam to the position of army general.

Honors

Czechoslovak:

• Rad Sokola s mečmi 1918–1920
• Československý vojnový kríž 1918
• Československá medaila víťazstva (1922)
• Svätováclavská medaila
• Rad Slovenského národného povstania I. tr. in memoriam (1945)
• Rad červenej zástavy in memoriam
• Československá revolučná medaila
• Strieborná medaila I. tr. za zásluhy o ČSR
• Československá medaila Za zasluhy I. stupňa (1944)
• Československý vojnový kríž 1939 in memoriam (1945)
• Rad M. R. Štefánika III. tr. in memoriam (1991)
• Pamätný odznak a Medaila Štefánika III. tr.

Slovak:

• Vojenský Rad Ludovíta Štúra I. tr. in memoriam (1995)

Czech:

• Kříž obrany státu ministra obrany České republiky in memoriam (1995)

Polish:

• Order Odrodzenia Polski II. kl (1941)
• Order Odrodzenia Polski II. kl (1943)

Yugoslavian:

• Orden Jugoslovenske krune

Serbian:

• Orden Miloša Velikogo
• Military Cross

French:

• L’Ordre National de la Legion d‘Honneur (1926)
• Croix de Guerre

British:

• Military Cross

References

Sources

External links

• Biography of Rudolf Viest, Museum of the Slovak National Uprising (in Slovak)