Tablica pamięci poległych ochotników - członków Czeskiej Drużyny

The formation of the Czech Team is a little-known fragment of the history of the First World War in Poland. Shortly after its outbreak, the Czechs living in Russia appealed to the tsarist authorities with the idea of ​​forming a separate military unit. They did not want the Russian subjects of Czech origin to be mobilized into various military units, but to create their own unit. On August 12, 1914, the Russian government adopted a resolution on the basis of which the establishment of such a branch composed of Czechs and Slovaks was commenced. The Czech Team was formed on August 28 in Kiev. Initially, it consisted of about 740 Czech and Slovak volunteers and about 130 Russian soldiers, divided into two companies. The team was part of the 3rd Army, commanded by a Bulgarian in the Russian service of General Radko Dimitriev. At the end of 1914, he was joined by a further 200 Czech volunteers. In the initial phase, the Czech Team in Russia did not play a major role because the Russian command had a negative attitude towards the appointment of prisoners of war from the Austro-Hungarian army and the soldiers of the Team served mainly as intelligence agents, saboteurs and interpreters, mainly in the areas of today's Slovakia, where the Russians managed to move the front at the turn of 1914 and 1915 behind the Carpathians. It was also there that the greatest propaganda success of the Czech Team took place, when on the section of the front north of Zborów they managed to persuade an entire infantry regiment consisting mainly of Czechs, the so-called "Prague Children". In a short time, the Czech Fellowship was supplemented with the first Austro-Hungarian prisoners of Czech origin who volunteered to join it. On January 31, 1915, 300 of them swore an oath of battle in front of the Tarnów school building. In February 1916, the Czechs received permission from the tsarist authorities to recruit prisoners of Czech origin from the Austro-Hungarian army, thus the Team was transformed into the Czech Rifle Brigade. During the fighting on the front, the Team lost 48 soldiers. From November 18, 1914, the staff of the Czech Team was based in Tarnów in the barracks of the regiment of territorial defense forces.