Polish Rifle Division. The other Polish divisions at that time were 1st, 2nd and 3rd fighting with the Blue Army formed by general Józef Haller de Hallenburg in France and the Polish 4th Rifle Division of general Lucjan Żeligowski fighting in Kuban River region in southern Russia. Civil War in Russia The newly formed division joined the ranks of the White Guard of admiral Alexander Kolchak. Together with the White Russians, and elements of the Czechoslovak Legion, the unit defended Siberia against the Red Army. In defence of the Trans-Siberian Railway that was vital to counter-revolutionist supply, the division fought numerous battles against the Red forces. The unit of Major Walerian Czuma also had to fight with the harsh winter and logistic problems. Matériel and food transports were scarce, but the Poles made up lack of supplies with ingenuity, constructing three armoured trains. Also, several vessels were turned into patrol boats and artillery monitors to defend the Ob River crossings. These were the first ships flying the banner of the Polish Navy since 1863 and the first Polish warships since 1792. The division was first formed in Samara. After the Czechs and Slovaks had taken Ufa, the headquarters was moved there. Finally, the division finished its training in Buguruslan. Since the volunteers for the division were mostly uneducated (Polish language and Polish history were banned from schools in all Russian Empire), Major Czuma ordered organisation of public schools, libraries and theatres for the recruits. There were also Scouting groups organised for the children of the local Polish diaspora. On August 15, 1918, the first regiment was named after Tadeusz Kościuszko and the following day was moved to the front. The other regiments joined soon afterwards. The offensive of Admiral Kolchak ended with a failure in the summer of 1919. When the Red Army seized Petropavlovsk at the beginning of November 1919, the front was broken open and the Siberian Army began to disintegrate. Kolchak's government hastily ordered the evacuation of Omsk 6 November 1919, but this quickly turned into a disorderly rout along the Trans-Siberian Railway. The Entente had determined the order of the withdrawal, with the echelons of the Allied Forces first—Czechs, Serbs Romanians and Poles, and then the masses of Russian refugees and remaining White Armies. However the trains soon crawled to a halt in icy conditions of a terrible Siberian winter and began to break down. As