Thomas Garrigue Masaryk, Czechoslovakia (1850-1937)
Born in Hodonin, Czech Republic. Founder and President of the Czechoslovakian Republic (1918-35). He supported Czech national causes in parliament in Vienna (1891-3, 1907-14), and exposed as forgeries documents intended by the Habsburg authorities to discredit the political leaders of the Slav minorities. He became recognised as the spokesman of all the Slav minorities in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
In 1914 he escaped to London, where he became chairman of the Czech National Council and organised the Czech independence movement. He organised a Czech National Council in Paris (1916) and in May 1917, went to Russia to build up a Czech Legion. In 1918 the governments of Great Britain, France and the USA recognised Czechoslovakia as an independent ally with Masaryk as provisional head. In December 1918, with the Austro-Hungarian regime collapsing around him, Masaryk returned triumphantly as the President and liberator of the new state of Czechoslovakia.
He was re-elected President on three occasions, before retiring in his mid-80s.