Jan Jelínek (legionnaire)

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's notability guideline for biographies. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. Find sources: "Jan Jelínek" legionnaire – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article may contain excessive or inappropriate references to self-published sources. Please help improve it by removing references to unreliable sources where they are used inappropriately. (May 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Jan Jelínek" legionnaire – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Jan Jelínek
As president of ČsOL in Boskovice
Born	(1893-04-08)8 April 1893 Vyškov, Czechoslovakia
Died	(1974-07-05)5 July 1974 Boskovice, Czechoslovakia
Nationality	Czechoslovakia
Genre	Sociology, history, politics,
Literary movement	Historiography
Notable works	The veterans from Czechoslovak Legions of the Region Boskovice

Jan Jelínek (8 April 1893 – 5 July 1974) was a Czech legionnaire and author of a book about legionnaires from the Boskovice region. He wrote about legionnaires in Russian, Italian, and French from 1931 to 1938.

On 10 August 1915, during the First World War, Jelínek was enlisted into the Austro-Hungarian 8th field regiment (Moravian). He joined the Czechoslovak Legions at Menzelinsk on 22 August 1917 after being captured by the Imperial Russian Army. He served in the 9th Czechoslovak Rifle Regiment Legion, 3rd troop, and stated that he had been in the 9th company of the 3rd regiment of Karel Havlicek. His legionary service ended on 2 August 1920 with the rank of private.

After the war Jelínek moved to Boskovice, worked as a revenue clerk, and wrote for a newspaper. He also became a leading member of the Czechoslovak legionnaires' syndicate (ČsOL).

His The veterans from Czechoslovak Legions of the Region Boskovice describes the activity of the Czechoslovak Legions from Boskovice in Italy, France, and Russia. Nearly 14,300 people from the area served in the First World War, or approximately 17 percent of the 1914 population. Of these legionnaires, 1,824 were killed, 604 were injured, and 2,600 were captured. Jelínek researched the book by interviewing other former legionnaires, gaining insight into their lives after the war, their experience in the legions, and their motivations for joining.

Jelínek made his last public appearance on 25 October 1968 during a celebration of Czechoslovakia's 50th anniversary.^[1]