[5] Svoboda worked at his father's estate before launching his military career in the Czechoslovak Army as a member of the 3rd (Jan Žižka) infantry regiment in Kroměříž in 1921.

After the German occupation and the establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia Lieutenant Colonel Svoboda became a member of a secret underground organization Obrana národa ("Defence of the Nation").

[6] The Polish president allowed the Czechoslovaks a military unit designated the "Legion of Czechs and Slovaks" only on 3 September 1939, the third day after the German invasion of Poland, so Svoboda had little opportunity to intervene in the fighting.

In order not to disperse as civilian emigrants to the Soviet Union, which at that time had a mutual non-aggression agreement with Germany (within the so-called Ribbentrop–Molotov Pact), the soldiers were isolated from the public in internment camps, where they lived according to Czechoslovak Republic army regulations.

Eastern military groups" moved successively to Kamenec Podolský, Olchovce, Jarmolince, Oranky and the Spaso-Jevfimij Monastery in Suzdal.

[7] At that time the Czechoslovak government in exile, led by President Edvard Beneš, was not yet recognized by Czechoslovakia's pre-Munich allies—that is, France and Great Britain.

Czechoslovak airmen had to serve in the French Foreign Legion in France until it was invaded by Germany, but their military ranks were reduced or not recognized.

Lt. Col. Svoboda was significantly involved in the preparation of this military agreement and also in negotiating the conditions for the cooperation of the Soviet and Czechoslovak intelligence services.

At the turn of May and June 1941, Svoboda and intelligence officer Hieke-Stoj contacted L. Krna, the deputy ambassador of the Slovak Republic (a client state of Nazi Germany) in Moscow.

[7] According to the speculative considerations of some historians, at that time Svoboda "committed to cooperation with the Soviet secret service, in which he remained until the end of his life".

"[7] In the spring of 1942, attaché Josef Berounský sailed from Murmansk back to Great Britain on the cruiser HMS Edinburgh.

Svoboda blamed the Soviets for delaying the implementation of the agreement and had sharp disputes with Ambassador Zdeněk Fierlinger, the representative of the Czech government in exile, on the subject.

Colonel Svoboda commanded a battalion that distinguished itself at Sokolovo (in the fight against the retaliatory operation of the German army for Stalingrad and Kharkiv).

[20] Jan Bystrický quotes the assessment of the MS. Ministry of National Defense in London, which recognized the reasons for Koněv's decision.

The artillerymen of the army corps took part in a massive artillery training in the Jaslo operation, aimed at the liberation of Kraków and eastern Poland.

General Svoboda originally wanted to entrust Major František Sedláček with command of the counterintelligence service, but Gen. Mechlis advocated for First Lieutenant Bedřich Reicin and prevailed.

Svoboda was appointed as a non-partisan Minister of National Defense and entrusted General Klapálek with the command of the army corps.

The Soviet Union enjoyed great popularity among the population, and in the elections of 1946 the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia won 38% of the vote nationwide.

In the purges which followed, Svoboda was imprisoned and "recommended" to save his image by committing suicide, but eventually released and stripped of all offices.

His return to public life took place upon a personal wish of Khrushchev, whom Svoboda had met during the war, and he subsequently headed the Klement Gottwald Military Academy.

He was an acceptable candidate for both Czechs and Slovaks, and as a war hero and a victim of the purges of the early 1950s, he enjoyed a very high esteem among the population.

[24] Horrified at his experiences in two world wars, he signed an order preventing the Czechoslovak Army from getting involved with the invading Warsaw Pact troops.

However, when Svoboda arrived, Leonid Brezhnev demanded that he appoint a "peasant-workers' government" in order to give credence to the planned official line—that hardliners in the KSČ (Czechoslovak Communist Party) had themselves requested the invasion.

[25] These were kept secret and permitted what an October parliamentary session would euphemistically call a "temporary stay" for Warsaw Pact armies in Czechoslovakia.

President Svoboda survived the removal of reformist Communists in Czechoslovakia in the aftermath of the Prague Spring, while passively witnessing the purges and the suffocation of the civil liberties that had briefly been restored.

To the day he died, he believed and maintained that his submissive conduct before Brezhnev helped save thousands of lives from "immense consequences"; and he defended this policy by invoking his own memories of the horrors of war.

This act stated that if the incumbent president was unable to carry out his duties for a year or more, the Federal Assembly had the right to elect a permanent successor.

Despite being misused by politicians for their goals several times, Svoboda still enjoys some credibility among Czechs and Slovaks, probably due to his bravery during crucial moments of Czechoslovak history.