In 1905 the poet Janko Jesenský opened his own law office in Bánovce, and his Art Nouveau villa in the town is a memorial house today. In 1914 he was called up to the Trenčín regiment; he was then charged with treason over his Slovak politics, sent to the Russian front in 1915, taken prisoner, and joined the Czechoslovak Legions in Russia, editing their papers and becoming vice-chairman of the Russian branch of the Czechoslovak National Council. He was one of thousands of Slovaks who ended the war fighting against the state that had conscripted them, and that is a large part of the answer to why Czechoslovakia existed at all in 1918.Roku 1905 si v Bánovciach otvoril vlastnú advokátsku kanceláriu básnik Janko Jesenský a jeho secesná vila je dnes v meste pamätným domom. Roku 1914 narukoval k trenčianskemu pluku; potom ho pre slovenskú politiku obvinili z vlastizrady, roku 1915 poslali na ruský front, padol do zajatia a pridal sa k československým légiám v Rusku, kde redigoval ich noviny a stal sa podpredsedom ruskej odbočky Československej národnej rady. Bol jedným z tisícok Slovákov, ktorí vojnu končili v boji proti štátu, čo ich odviedol — a to je veľká časť odpovede na otázku, prečo roku 1918 Československo vôbec vzniklo.
