Председатель Союза чехословацких обществ на Руси д-р Вацлав Вондрак (1916–1917 гг.)

Abstract

Václav Vondrák was one of the leading organisers of Czech cultural and political life in Russia and a supporter of the Constitutional Democratic Party (formally the Party of People's Freedom). After the Russian Revolution of 1905, he began issuing the weekly publication The Russian Czech in Kiev devoted to Czech interests in Russia. In 1911, he was elected Member of the Volhynia District and Provincial Assembly (Zemstvo) and Chairman of its Education Committee. The climax of Vondrák's political career came in the years 1914–1917. After the First World War broke out, his Hotel Praha in Kiev become the place where the Czech circle began to organise. As Chairman of the Military Committee of the Association of Czechoslovak Clubs in Russia, Vondrák began recruiting Czech captives from the Austro-Hungarian army to work in defence industry factories. Vondrák was unanimously elected Chairman at the 2nd Assembly of the Association which took place in Kiev at Easter 1916.