Jaroslav Hašek first came to Russia in 1915 as a prisoner of war. The Czech patriot did not want to fight in the Austro-Hungarian army and surrendered to Russian troops. Hašek dedicated himself to the struggle for the freedom of his historical homeland. He joined the Jan Hus volunteer regiment, engaged in anti-Austrian propaganda among prisoners of war, and wrote satirical stories about the Viennese court. In July 1917, the writer participated in the Battle of Zborov. The Czechoslovak Rifle Brigade of the Russian army decisively defeated two Austrian infantry divisions, and Jaroslav was awarded the St. George's Cross of the 4th degree. Hašek supported the Bolsheviks' rise to power in Russia, while most of his compatriots sided with the opponents of the revolution. They nearly killed him in the summer of 1918 in Samara — the writer saved himself from the patrols of the White Czechs by pretending to be the "crazy son of a German colonist from Turkestan." In December of the same year, "Comrade Hašek" joined the political department of the 5th Army of the Eastern Front, and in 1919, being highly trusted, he was appointed commissar. He was involved in propaganda, publishing propaganda newspapers, and forming military units from foreigners. When a political crisis erupted in Czechoslovakia in mid-1920, and workers in the city of Kladno proclaimed the Soviet republic, the party sent Hašek to his homeland. However, by the time he arrived, order had already been restored. The "Bolshevik commissar" was received coolly in Prague. However, Jaroslav, having become an outcast, did not return to Soviet Russia — he decided that he would be considered a coward there and that the Czechoslovak authorities would not let him leave the country. Hašek withdrew from political activity and focused on writing the novel about the brave soldier Švejk, but due to his sudden death from a heart attack in 1923, he never finished it.