The Revolt of the Czechoslovak Legion occurred from May 1918 to September 1920 during the Russian Civil War, when the Czechoslovak Legion seized control of much of Siberia after clashes with the Red Army while en route to leave for France to fight in World War I.
After the 1917 February Revolution, the Bolshevik government in Petrograd granted permission for the 60,000-strong Czechoslovak Legion to embark on a lengthy rail journey from Ukraine to Vladivostok after lengthy negotiations; the legion would then embark on ships bound for France in order to fight the German Empire on the Western Front of World War I. On 25 March 1918, the Legion agreed to surrender all but personal guard weapons in exchange for rail passage to Vladivostok, but the League feared the intentions of the Bolsheviks due to their recent signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the Central Powers, and the Bolsheviks believed that the Czechoslovaks could serve as an anti-communist fifth column in the Russian interior in the case of an Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. The legion's evacuation along the Trans-Siberian Railway was slowed down by transportation shortages, as the Bolsheviks prioritized returning German, Austrian, and Hungarian prisoners-of-war to their home countries. On 14 May 1918, a clash between trainloads of Czechoslovak legionaries and Hungarian prisoners-of-war led to the Bolsheviks arresting several legionaries, leading to the Legion attacking the railway station and freeing their men from the Bolsheviks. The Czechoslovaks proceeded to take over Chelyabinsk and cut the Bolshevik rail link to Siberia in the process, and the Bolshevik regime responded by demanding that the legion be disarmed. The Czechoslovaks went on to occupy the Trans-Siberian Railway cities of Petropavl, Kurgan, Novonikolaevsk, Mariinsk, Nizhneudinsk, and Kansk while seeking a safe exit from Russia, but the Czechoslovaks' defiance inspired White Russian resistance. In June, the Czechoslovaks allied with the Whites to seize Samara and establish the Komuch government, the first anti-Bolshevik local government in Siberia. On 13 June 1918, Czechoslovak general Stanislav Cecek announced that the legion's only goal would be to rebuilt an anti-Germany front in Russia and bring Russia back into the war on the Allied side, even if it meant overthrowing the Bolsheviks.
In August 1918, Allied troops - most of them Japanese - landed at Vladivostok to aid the Czechoslovaks. In autumn, the Red Army counterattacked and defeated the Whites in western Siberia. In October 1918, Czechoslovakia became an independent country, and the end of World War I in November 1918 intensified the Czechoslovak Legionaries' desire to exit Russia and fight for Czechoslovakia as it struggled with its new neighbors. In early 1919, the Legion began to withdraw along the Trans-Siberian Railway. In early 1920, in exchange for safe transit for their trains, the Czechoslovaks handed over the White Russian leader Alexander Kolchak to the Bolsheviks for execution, causing the Whites to accuse the Czechoslovaks of treason. On 17 November 1919, Radola Gajda rebelled against the White Russians in Vladivostok, and, from December 1919 to September 1920, the Czechoslovak Legion was evacuated by sea from Vladivostok, ending their intervention in Russian affairs.