Page - 981 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

Front and Hinterland 981 an immense degree of embitterment. When the reasons for this were investigated, it emerged that they could no longer understand why the requisitions were being con- ducted unfairly, why their relatives were so miserably provided for, and why a terrible protectionist economy had spread. The soldiers were particularly furious about the large number of discharged men who had ‘done nicely’ for themselves and were now making fun of those who were again leaving for the front. ‘Only the fools carry on fighting, and the clever ones stay at home’, they said.2401 They also probably had the feeling that they would miss something. The atmosphere in Prague was not only dominated by the striking workers, but also by the ‘loafing’ students. The students from four higher education institutions, Germans and Czechs, engaged in mutual provocation. Informal gatherings, beatings and disputes occurred on countless occasions.2402 Since the May days of 1918, cir- cumstances in Prague had been chaotic, and the Czechs were already displaying clear anti-dynastic and revolutionary tendencies. The station commander, Major General Zanantoni, was only too aware of the explosiveness of the situation. ‘Thousands of peo- ple, Sokols [members of the Sokol movement] in their uniforms and ladies in national costume, thronged day and night through the streets of the city, which were decked with thousands of red-and-white flags, no longer sang the national anthem, but only the Czech anthem and the rousing song “Hey, Slavs”, wr[o]te provocative and hateful articles against Emperor and state, and only allowed plays to be performed in the Na- tional Theatre that glorified the Czech state while denigrating the Monarchy.’2403 Then, officers and soldiers were forbidden from visiting the National Theatre, or taking part in street parades and other gatherings. The entire garrison was on high alert day and night in the barracks ; the soldiers’ recreational leave was cancelled. In this atmosphere and with these indelible images imprinted in their minds, the replacement troops marched to the railway stations. As a precaution, the soldiers were not permitted to carry rifle ammunition with them during their transportation to the front. Until they arrived at the detraining stations, the ammunition remained in the safekeeping of the NCOs.2404 The number of desertions again rose sharply. In the spring, around 30,000 men had already gone into hiding as ‘green cadres’ behind the front in a type of no-man’s land. Now, they amounted to several hundreds of thousands of men.2405 In Moravia, their number was estimated at between 40,000 and 70,000 men, in Bohemia 25,000, in Dalmatia 10,000, and so on.2406 In the area of the military command in Graz, around 6,000 soldiers had been arrested in August, most of them deserters.2407 In Budapest at the end of May, the military conducted raids and seized almost 1,000 people, of whom most were deserters. In June, operations to apprehend deserters were extended to a series of Hungarian counties. Then, thousands were again arrested, including increasing numbers of men who had originally been prisoners of war. The Magyar Hirlap, Az Est, Agramer Tagblatt and other newspapers reported on arrests