The paper deals with Czech countrymen, soldiers-legionaries and
prisoners of war during World War I in the Russian Empire and their life conditions at the time when significant number of Czechs
became citizens of an enemy state (Austria-Hungary) with which Russia was at war. The position of Czechs in Russia differed based on their military status (legionaries and prisoners of war) and citizenship as only a part of Czechs had a status of Russian serfs (mostly those who immigrated between 1860s and 1880s).
During the war Czech countrymen associations who had hitherto focused on maintaining awareness of the Czech nationality, language, folk culture, etc. acquired, along with newly established Czech-Slovak associations, further significance and competence. The associations made life easier for their members, protect-ed them from expulsion from their homes, from confiscation of their property, raised funds and organised in-kind support, and the like. The Alliance of Czech-Slovak associations in Russia, which allied individual associations, also provided vital information, namely by means of its newspaper titled Čechoslovák (Czechoslovakian) which was published in Saint Petersburg (1915-1917).