The issue of Czechoslovaks returning from abroad after the Great War has received little attention to date in the Czech historiography. A clarification of this issue is, however, essential to understanding the migratory processes of this period in their entirety. It is practically impossible to separate the re-emigration of Czechs and Slovaks who had settled abroad before the war from the repatriation of persons forced across the borders during the course of the war (e.g. prisoners of war from the Austro-Hungarian army), since both occurred at the same period of time in the years 1918–1923 and the two groups of returnees frequently returned together.