Chapter III (1)

RUSSIA, TURKEY, AND THE MINOR STATES OF SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE.

I. RUSSIA.

Whatever may be the verdict of history as to the Power responsible for plunging Europe into war, it would not have taken place if Russia had not supported Serbia, for Serbia would have accepted the whole of Austria-Hungary's demands if she had not been assured of Russian active intervention in her behalf. Russia, with the magnanimity of a great people, was not prepared to stand idly by and witness the wanton attack of Austria upon a weaker state, which had already offered ample reparation for any offence for which she could be held responsible. The attack made on Serbia by Austria-Hungary was, however, regarded by the party under the Grand Duke Nicholas as an imperative call to action, even though the Army was not quite ready; but the Government made every effort to arrive at a pacific solution, and it was not until the equivocal attitude of Germany made the situation menacing that the Tsar, wavering between his love of peace and internal reform on the one hand, and the just outcry of the Nationalists and the "Orthodox" Church on the other, was at length persuaded to take the side which was sure to be the most popular, at least so long as success should crown the Russian arms. It was not, strictly speaking, a war "between Slav and Teuton," for many of the Slavs outside the Russian Empire declared themselves against Russia, and fought on the side of her enemies. The enemies of "the Teuton" among the Slavs, apart from Serbia and Montenegro, were only the Russians; the Poles, the Czechs, the Croats, and even the Slovaks and Slovenes, were on the side of Austria-Hungary. There were some mutinies of Czech and Croat regiments, which were due to the racial hostility of the Czechs to the Germans and the Croats to the Hungarians (A.R., 1912, p. 337; 1913, p. 328). The "Orthodox" clergy in Russia regarded the war as a sort of crusade against Catholicism; but their agitation met with little success among the Austrian Slavs except in some districts of Galicia and Hungary inhabited by Ruthenians of the United Greek Church (p. 327), many of whom were shot during the war for having given the Russians information of the movements of the Austro-Hungarian Army. The Ruthenians of the "Orthodox" Church, on the other hand, who inhabit the province of the Ukraine in Russia, had started a separatist movement at Kieff in March in favour of union with Austria.

The most important event of the earlier part of the year was the retirement on February 11 from the post of Premier and Minister of Finance of M. Kokovtsoff, under whose administration Russia had attained to unprecedented welfare and a greater political stability than it had enjoyed for many years. His retirement was believed to have been brought about by the intrigues and disloyalty of his colleagues--a frequent cause of the fall of Ministers and other high functionaries in the Empire, and also by his having insisted, in opposition to the Ministry of Agriculture, M. Krivoshein, on the maintenance of the brandy monopoly as the safest and most productive source of the Imperial revenue. The new Premier was M. Goremykin, a reactionary bureaucrat who held the same post at the time of the first Duma (A.R., 1906, p. 319), and M. Bark, an eminent banker and a personal friend of M. Krivoshein, was appointed Minister of Finance. In a rescript addressed to the new Minister the Tsar directed him to carry out a policy of "radical reforms in the financial administration of the State and the economic life of the country," as "it is inadmissible to permit the favourable financial position of the State to depend on the destruction" (owing to the national vice of drunkenness) "of the moral and economic strength of the great multitude of Russian citizens, and it is therefore urgent that financial policy should be conducted on the principle of obtaining revenue, not from the sale of spirituous liquors, but from the produce of the inexhaustible wealth of the country and of the labour of the people." The Council of the Empire at the same time adopted a series of extremely drastic provisions in favour of temperance contained in a bill passed by the Duma, at the instigation of the peasant deputies, giving powers of local option to all communes, townships, and villages by a simple majority, with the right either of completely prohibiting the sale of liquor or restricting it to specified shops to be opened on certain days or at certain hours; women being allowed to vote on these matters. Count Witte, who with M. Kokovtsoff, had been the founder of the brandy monopoly, now joined the opposition to it, declaring that he had made "a mistake which was leading Russia to her ruin." According to his estimate, the total revenue derived from the monopoly was about 100,000,000_l._ and had been increasing every year since it was established. The first step towards temperance reform was taken on March 26, when an order was issued to suspend the sale of spirits at all railway stations; it was also announced that the penalties on illicit trading in spirits would be increased, that the people would be taught the advantages of temperance in the churches and schools, and that the plea of extenuating circumstances would not be admitted in the case of crimes committed under the influence of drink. The outbreak of the war in August gave the movement a new impetus; the Government shops for the sale of spirits were nearly all closed, and it was announced by the Tsar in October that they would not be opened again. The result of this measure was not only an enormous increase of the efficiency of the troops, but of the wealth of the peasantry, which instead of being dissipated in drink was employed in agricultural improvements and a great increase of their investments in savings banks. A further result of the interest taken by the Tsar in the moral and physical welfare of his people was the creation of a "Department of Physical Culture," for the promotion of outdoor sports, and during the war the sale of spirits was strictly forbidden in all the Galician towns occupied by the Russians; the keeper of a restaurant at Lemberg was fined 2,000 crowns (83_l._ 6_s._ 8_d._) for having sold a customer a glass of cognac. The chief difficulty in the adoption of the proposed reforms was that which had hampered the Tsar's intentions since the issue of the October manifesto of 1905 (A.R., 1905, p. 319), namely the want of harmonious co-operation between the Ministry and the Legislature on the one hand, and the members themselves of the Ministry on the other. The new Premier, M. Goremykin, was appointed by the Tsar without a Ministerial portfolio, apparently with the object of placing him above departmental rivalries, and he was directed by an Imperial Rescript on March 20 "to work in harmony with the Legislature." Cooperation with the Duma was attempted by conferences between the Premier and its leading members, the intention being, if it should prove impossible to secure a majority for the proposed reforms, to hold a general election. The first of these conferences held in the Duma did not relate to internal reforms, however, but to a proposal made by the Government to increase the peace effectives of the Army by 460,000 men, bringing up the total to 1,700,000, at an extra cost of 50,000,000_l._ spread over three years. This was the Russian answer to the increase of the German Army in 1913 (A.R., 1913, p. 307), and to an anti-Russian campaign in the German and Austro-Hungarian Press, and all the Russian party leaders, except the Socialists, sanctioned the proposal. It was further determined, with the consent of the Duma, that the service of time-expired men should be prolonged for three months after the legal limit, which brought up the peace effective at once to almost the number fixed above.

The Russian Foreign Minister, M. Sazonoff, made a remarkable statement on the subject to a representative of the Hungarian Journal _Az Est_. He said that he could not understand the reason of the excitement in Germany and Austria-Hungary with regard to Russia; tension certainly did exist between the monarchy and Russia in the previous year, but the relations between the two countries were now "excellent." The increase of armaments, he continued, was initiated by Germany, whose initiative had reacted on France, and led to an increase of the peace strength of Austria-Hungary; it was therefore natural that Russia should have taken steps in the same direction. With a birth rate of 2,500,000 she could allow herself "the luxury" of an increase in the peace footing of her Army. A "test mobilisation" of about 500,000 reservists was begun on April 15, and in June the Duma approved of an extraordinary credit of 10,000,000_l._ for the construction of warships for the Black Sea Fleet, to be spent on one 27,000-ton Dreadnought, two 7,500-ton cruisers, eight torpedo boats and six submarines, all to be built at Nikolaieff and commissioned not later than the spring of 1917. The Minister of Finance at the same time stated that Russia would have to spend 752,000,000_l._ in the next five years for the Army and Navy.

On April 2 the Imperial assent was given to a bill providing that married women, separated from their husbands, should enjoy full liberty of movement and enjoyment of property, even if minors, and that the courts shall have no power to order restitution of conjugal rights; cruelty to the children, rudeness, violence, dishonesty, immorality, or dangerous or loathsome illness to be sufficient cause for separation, and the husband to provide alimony, the care of the children being awarded to the injured party.

The report of the Budget Committee of the Duma on the Budget for 1914 was issued on April 6. It fixed the expenditure at 358,032,609_l._, or nearly 33,000,000_l._ more than in 1913, and the revenue at 361,265,916_l._, or 36,200,000_l._ more than in 1913, and proposed that the surplus of 3,233,109_l._ should be devoted to the building of ways of communication, also that as the temperance campaign was likely to diminish the revenue, fresh taxes should be introduced. The Opposition groups took advantage of the debate on the Budget to protest against the intended prosecution of one of their leaders, M. Tcheidze, for propagating Republican ideas. Hereupon, on the proposal of the President, the Duma voted the suspension for a fortnight of fifteen Socialists, including M. Tcheidze, who were removed by the Serjeant-at-Arms and the guard. Notwithstanding the efforts of M. Gozemykin to establish more friendly relations between the Government and the Duma, there was no alleviation of the discontent manifested by all classes in the previous year (A.R., 1913, p. 336). On May 17, after voting a reduction in the Home Office Estimates as a protest against its policy, the Duma, by 186 votes against 95, censured M. Maklakoff, the Home Minister, for his persistent disregard of the representative institutions of the Empire, thereby "undermining the welfare and safety of the State." In June there was a serious crisis on the Stock Exchange at St. Petersburg, ascribed chiefly to the reactionary and repressive policy of the Home Minister, who discouraged foreign capital by the vexatious restrictions imposed upon joint stock companies with regard to the participation of Jews in their management. He was also held responsible for the enormous increase in so-called political strikes (A.R., 1913, p. 336), the work of a clandestine organisation which threatened to paralyse trade and industry. In the May-day strike 130,000 men took part in St. Petersburg alone, and such widespread drunkenness had never before been observed among the working-men. The strikes continued through the months of June and July; on July 23 there was fighting in different parts of the capital until midnight, the strikers having raised barricades against the police, upon which they were charged by the Cossacks, many being killed and wounded. On the following day 110,000 workmen were still out on strike, and the _Novoe Vremya_, the most influential of the Russian papers, declared that the existing system of police repression had proved a failure, and "unorganised masses had been thrown defenceless under the yoke of revolutionary agitators," adding that both the Government and public opinion were responsible for the abominable excesses which had disgraced Russia. The strikes ceased, however, on July 26 without further recourse to violence, and they were not renewed in view of the greater issues confronting the Empire.

On July 13 Gregory Rasputin, the peasant "fakir" whose influence with the Empress and the ladies of the Russian Court had given rise to much scandal in the society of the capital, was stabbed in his house near Tobolsk by a woman, a follower of his rivals the monk Heliodorus and Bishop Hermogen, who had sought to obtain his banishment. A report presented by the Holy Synod to the Tsar stated that defections from the "Orthodox" faith were growing more and more numerous, and that the Socialists and others, dreaming of a new revolution, were sapping the foundations of the Church. The seceders were mostly Baptists, Stundists, Old Believers, Flagellators, and Atheists.

The cordiality of the reception on June 24 of the officers of the British First Battle Cruiser Squadron at Tsarskoe Selo was somewhat marred by the unfavourable impression produced at St. Petersburg by the acquisition by the British Government of a preponderant interest in the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (p. 123), which Russian politicians regarded as tantamount to the establishment of British preponderance in the neutral zone in which the Anglo-Russia Convention of 1907 had stipulated equality of opportunity. In the Duma on May 24 M. Sazonoff, the Foreign Minister, had declared that the foreign policy of Russia "continued to be based on the unshakeable alliance with France and friendship with Great Britain; the establishment of a sound friendship between France and Great Britain, and also between Great Britain and Russia, had brought Great Britain within the sphere of political communion previously existing between Russia and France which had helped to maintain peace." Although there was not a formal alliance between Russia and Great Britain, there was a "political combination imposed by unity of aims," and therefore "friendly co-operation is assured irrespective of the form and the scope of the written word." The Triple _Entente_ was "responsible for the equilibrium of Europe, and ever ready to co-operate with the Triple Alliance in the general interests of peace." Russia "continued to seek the maintenance of the old friendly relations with Germany," but unfortunately the endeavours of the two Governments in this direction "did not always meet with due support from the Press of their countries." As to Austria-Hungary the Minister merely re-echoed the friendly sentiments of Count Berchtold with regard to neighbourly relations, and in the Balkans, he said, Russia's task was pacification. "She would impartially assist all the Balkan States, asking in return only neutral sincerity and confidence." Her relations with Turkey had improved since the Balkan crisis, and she was disposed to assist Turkey in the internal reform of her Asiatic possessions, as "only the peaceful development of Turkey would assure the freedom of the navigation of the Straits"; and the conciliatory spirit of the Turkish Government was shown by its attitude towards Armenian reforms, in which matter "Germany had co-operated with Russia." Finally, M. Sazonoff said that a "comparative lull" had been noticeable of late in Persia, "thanks to the continued friendly co-operation of Russia and Great Britain and the efforts of the Russian legation and the Persian Cossack brigade in quelling disturbances in the Western districts." The majority of the Russian troops at Kazvin had consequently been recalled, but in the northern provinces order was still dependent on the presence of the Russian troops. Russian policy towards Persia, the Minister concluded, remained unchanged and was devoid of aggressive intentions. "Our object is, as hitherto, to contribute to the establishment in this bordering country, so closely joined to us by important economic interests, of that stable order so necessary for the further development of our mutual commercial relations and the progress of Persia herself."

The visit of President Poincaré to Russia (July 20) elicited an enthusiastic welcome on the part of the people, and on July 23 the Tsar, in proposing the toast of the President and France, said that France and Russia had for nearly a quarter of a century been bound by close ties in order the better to pursue the same end, "which consists in safeguarding their interests by collaborating in the equilibrium and the peace of Europe," adding that he was convinced that "the two countries will continue to enjoy the benefit of peace," remarkable words, considering that they were spoken only a few days before Europe was plunged into war.

On July 26 the Tsar left St. Petersburg on a trip to the Finnish Skerries, after having authorised, in consequence of the Austrian ultimatum to Serbia (p. 330), the issue of orders for a mobilisation of fourteen Army Corps on the Austrian frontier, and of the rest of the Russian Army immediately upon mobilisation in Germany.

Russia and Germany had never since the partition of Poland been in antagonism until now. Austria had given the Poles liberty and self-government, and they were naturally ready and willing to fight for her. But Russia had alienated them by her incessant persecution of their language and national institutions, and by her fruitless attempts to crush their national existence and turn them into Russians, while Germany, acting by more subtle means with a similar object, was feared as well as detested. Both, now that Poland was to be the battlefield, appealed to the Poles for their support, making golden promises to them of which the motives were only too evident, and which a tragic experience had taught them were not to be depended upon. By the side of Germany, as Russia's most formidable enemy, they were ready though reluctant to fight. But of the many thousands in the Russian Army who surrendered to the Austrians many were Poles, and thousands more escaped from Russian Poland to join the Polish legions which were formed under Austrian auspices. The feeling of the other Slavs in Austria-Hungary and elsewhere with regard to Russia was equally hostile. The Czech _Glas Naroda_, commenting on one of the appeals of the Grand Duke Nicholas to the Poles, saying the war "is a war of liberation for the Slavs," and promising "to unite all the parts of Poland now under the rule of Austria-Hungary and Germany, give them self-government, and restore Poland under his sceptre," asked: "From what are the Slavs to be liberated? From the freedom and self-government which they enjoy under Austria-Hungary? They will hardly be tempted to exchange these benefits for the despotic rule of a corrupt bureaucracy. As for the Czechs, they often oppose the Government, but are always warmly attached to the State with whose existence their own is inseparately bound. Austria-Hungary gives equal rights to all the nationalities in the Empire and enables them freely to develop themselves. Russia does not tolerate any other nationality in her dominions, not even a Slavonic one." Shortly after the bombardment by the Turkish fleet of the Russian towns on the Black Sea a deputation of Ruthenians from the Ukraine came to Constantinople and issued an address to the Ottoman nation, saying that Russia had always been the enemy of Turkey, that the treatment of the Mohammedans in Russia was a crime against humanity, and that thirty millions of people in the Ukraine hoped to be rescued from such sufferings by Turkey, the old ally of the Cossacks of the Ukraine. In Bulgaria, too, the _Rabotniczewski_, an organ of the Labour party, described Russia's claim to pose as the liberator of the smaller European States as a "shameless piece of cynicism," as 180,000,000 people, Russians, Poles, and Finns, were suffering under her despotic rule. While in France, Belgium, Germany, and Austria-Hungary the Socialists joined with the other parties in supporting the Government, in Russia they declared in a letter to M. Vandervelde, the eminent Belgian Socialist and ex-Minister, who had urged them to join in the war against Germany, that they would continue their struggle against Tsardom with more energy than ever, and take every opportunity of reversing it: "The Russian as well as the German Government is the enemy of democracy; even now that it is at war it persecutes the working-men and the non-Russian nationalities, and should it be victorious it would be the propagator of political reaction in all Europe."

At the beginning of the war the Russian troops were removed from the frontier districts to the great fortresses of Ivangorod and Brzesc Litewski, where they were formed into three Armies, one to advance through East Prussia and Silesia towards Berlin, another to break through the Carpathians into Hungary, and the third and strongest to march upon Galicia. The advance into Prussia was to be a powerful diversion with the object of weakening Germany's invasion of France by forcing her to send troops from there to the East to defend her own territory, while the object of the advance to Hungary was to help the Serbians against the Austrian invasion. To strengthen these Armies the whole of Finland, nearly the whole of Russian Poland and large districts in Central and Northern Russia, as far as Siberia, were left without troops. The Grand Duke Nicholas, the nephew of Alexander II. and husband of the Princess Anastasia of Montenegro, was appointed Commander-in-Chief, and General Sukhomlinoff, Minister of War, Chief of the General Staff. As not only the troops, but the gendarmes and the Customs officials, were removed from the frontier districts, and the Custom houses were closed in anticipation of an Austrian advance before the Russian mobilisation was completed, people could pass into Austria without examination at the frontier, and many Poles took the opportunity of thus escaping enlistment into the Russian Army and joining the Polish legions which were being formed at their own expense by the Poles in Galicia for service with the Austrian Army. On marching with his troops into Russian Poland the Grand Duke Nicholas issued the following address to the Poles: "Poles, the hour has struck when the sacred dreams of your fathers and ancestors can be realised. A century and a half ago the living body of Poland was torn to pieces, but its soul did not die. She lived in the hope that the hour of resurrection would come for the Polish nation and its fraternal reconciliation with Great Russia. The Russian troops bring you the solemn news of that reconciliation. May the Poles of Russia unite under the sceptre of the Russian Tsar, under that sceptre Poland will be born again, free in her religion, her language, and her autonomy. Russia only asks that you should respect the rights of the nationalities to which history has allied you" (_i.e._ the Ruthenians). "With open heart and hands fraternally held out, Great Russia comes to meet you. The sword which struck down the enemy at Grünwald (an allusion to the battle in which the Polish King, Ladislaus Yagiello, defeated the German crusaders and made them his vassals) has not yet rusted. The Russian Armies march from the shores of the Pacific to the North Sea. The dawn of a new life begins for you. May the sign of the Cross, the symbol of the suffering and the resurrection of the nations, glitter in that dawn." A reply to this address, signed by some Poles in Warsaw, expressed their loyalty to the Tsar and their wish for the success of the Russian arms, but among many of the Poles the Grand Duke's promises were regarded as merely a device for keeping them quiet. The address produced more impression among the Russians than among the Poles; at Moscow and Kieff large sums were subscribed for the relief of the Poles who were suffering from the total devastation of their country caused by the war, and there was a revulsion of feeling in favour of the Polish nation.

While the Russians were massing their armies in the "Trilateral" (Ivangorod, Novo Georgievsk and Brzesc Litewski), Austrian troops crossed the frontier and occupied Kielce and other towns in Russian Poland, and were at first well received by the people, but when subsequently their place was taken by German troops, who imposed contributions, took hostages, and bombarded churches and villages, the feeling for their new rulers naturally changed. There were 1,300,000 Polish soldiers in the Russian, German and Austrian Armies, military service in all three States being obligatory, and their country, seven times as large as Belgium, was even more devastated by the constant marchings to and fro of millions of troops, which destroyed everything that could be of advantage to their enemies; and often, notably the Cossacks, the Honveds and some of the Germans--as in Belgium--burnt villages and plundered country houses.

Directly after the declaration of war, on August 2, a strong Russian column, with guns, crossed the Prussian frontier near Biala, and marched to Johannisburg. The Germans, on the other hand, occupied Bendzin, Kalisch, and Czenstochowa in the Kingdom of Poland. On August 1 the Russians occupied Stallupönen, east of Insterburg, and Lyck, after five days' skirmishing with the Germans at Eydtkuhnen and Wirballen. These, however, were merely reconnaissances in force; the general advance of the Russian Armies did not begin until August 18, when they sent two Armies into East Prussia and invaded Galicia from the north and east, converging upon Lemberg. On crossing the frontier the Grand Duke Nicholas published an appeal to the Ruthenians in Galicia, addressing them as brothers "who had languished for centuries under a foreign yoke" and calling upon them "to raise the banner of united Russia."

The first great battle of the war between the Russians and Germans took place on August 20 between Pilkallen and Stallupönen, on the road to Tilsit; it lasted fourteen hours, and the four German Army corps which took part in it were driven by the Russians towards Gumbinnen with a loss of 3,000 men and thirty guns, and followed to Insterburg, which the Russians captured on August 23 without resistance. Then came a Russian attack on Kielce and Tomaszow, in the Kingdom of Poland, which had been occupied by the Austrians; the Russians were driven back with great loss, and the Austrians then occupied Sandomierz. Meanwhile the Germans brought up three Army corps of 160,000 men near Gumbinnen, and endeavoured to turn the Russian left, but without success, and the Russians then occupied Soldau, which commands the railway to Dantzig, and took possession of nearly one-half of the territory of East Prussia. Their attempts to enter Galicia were less fortunate. They were beaten at Sokal on the road to Lemberg with the loss of a whole brigade and two generals, one of whom was killed and the other taken prisoner. At Pavosielica, on the frontier of Bukovina and Bessarabia, 20,000 of the Russian cavalry were driven back by the Austrians; on August 24 an Austrian Army under General Dankl, engaged the Russians in a three days' battle on a line of fifty miles at Krasnik, on the road to Lublin, and on September 2 another Austrian Army, under General Auffenberg, attacked 280,000 Russians in eight days' fighting on a front of 200 miles at Zamosc and Komarow. A fresh Russian Army, however, under General Russky, coming up from the south-east between the two Austrian Armies, which had lost 20,000 killed and wounded, with 76,000 prisoners and 300 guns in the previous battles, inflicting on the Russians a loss of 19,000 prisoners and 200 guns, forced them to retire, and occupied on September 3 Lemberg (which they renamed by the Polish name Lwow), the capital of Galicia, which remained in the hands of Russia till the end of the year, with a Russian administration, Russian clergy (the Ruthenian Archbishop having been banished to Russia) and obligatory teaching of Russian, instead of Ruthenian, in the schools. Meanwhile the Russians, who had completed the mobilisation of 8,000,000 men, divided into four Armies, to be sent into the field one after the other, marched two of them into East Prussia, and were so confident of victory that they expected to reach Berlin within three weeks. One, under General Rennenkampf, occupied Tilsit and marched on Königsberg; the other, under General Samsonoff, started for Thorn and Posen, but on reaching Tannenberg, near Ortelsburg, it was confronted on August 28 by the Germans under General Hindenburg, who, using a similar manoeuvre to that of Hannibal at Cannæ, drew on the Russians with apparently inferior forces into the swampy region of the Mazurian lakes, and then, attacking them on both flanks and in the rear, compelled them to surrender with a loss of 50,000 killed and wounded, including three of their best generals and several staff officers, 90,000 prisoners and 516 guns. The second Army under General Rennenkampf, which had come too late to prevent the disaster, was also routed by General Hindenburg on September 10, and for the time being the Russian offensive in East Prussia was abandoned. The remnants of the Russian Army were again defeated on September 15 at Elk, and were pursued by the Germans into Russian territory as far as Augustowo, near the fortress of Ossowiec, which they invested on September 30.

Although the capture of Lemberg was a great blow to Austrian prestige, the Austrian armies, together with some German corps which had been brought up to their assistance after the Russian defeat at Tannenberg, pursued their attacks upon the Russians at Rawa Russka, after a battle which lasted from September 7 to September 11, with terrible loss on both sides. The Russians had still 2,000,000 men in the field on the Austrian and Prussian frontiers, and their attempt to break through the Germans in the direction of Königsberg and Thorn having failed, they now made the fortresses of Przemysl and Cracow their objective, as if these were taken the road would be clear to Berlin and to Vienna. After seventeen days' fighting they advanced towards Przemysl, and attacked the Austrian Army while it was crossing the river San, capturing the whole of its rearguard, amounting to 30,000 men. The Austrians fought well, but the Russians, as regards fighting efficiency were more than equal to their opponents. Nearly the whole of Eastern Galicia and Czernowitz, the capital of Bukovina, were now in their hands; on September 18 they occupied Sandomierz, on the 22nd Jaroslaw, on the railway between Lemberg and Cracow, and on the 28th they began the siege of Przemysl, while other Russian forces advanced to the passes of Uszok and Dukla, in the Carpathians, for a raid into Hungary, which, however, was beaten back by the Hungarians and the Polish legionaries on September 30. When the Russians arrived at Medyka, near Przemysl, they were also attacked by the Austrians, who inflicted on them a loss of 5,000 killed, 40,000 wounded, and 10,000 prisoners. This, combined with their losses in attempting to take Przemysl by storm, when whole regiments perished under the deadly fire of the Austrian artillery, and the menace of the Germans in Northern Poland, led to a retreat of the Russians from Western and South-Eastern Galicia, though not from Lemberg and the adjoining territory. The Austro-German Allies were at the beginning of October again strongly posted along the Vistula and the San, and in possession of the whole of Western Galicia, the Bukovina, and the passes of the Carpathians, besides one-half of the Kingdom of Poland. The Russian attempt to invade Prussia and to destroy the Austro-Hungarian Army had, therefore, so far failed. But new Russian forces were brought up from Warsaw and the adjoining fortresses which caused the Germans to retreat towards the frontier, while the Austro-Hungarians took the offensive in Galicia on the line from Sambor to Stanislawow. The main Armies of Austria-Hungary and Germany and Russia were now in close touch over a front of 270 miles, and on October 14 the whole of Poland west of the Vistula, including the important town of Lodz, "the Polish Manchester," which was captured after severe fighting on October 8, was in the possession of the Austrians and Germans, who, with the Polish legions, penetrated to within half-a-day's march of Warsaw, and caused much indignation among the people by their aviators throwing bombs on the town and killing or wounding many civilians, but they were attacked both on the front and on the flanks by four Russian Armies of 200,000 men each, who after seven days' fighting forced them to retire on October 20. The Polish legions, furious at the order to retreat being given when they were within sight of Warsaw, made a rush forward and had to be surrounded by the Germans to prevent their being annihilated. The German line was then pushed back to Skierniewice, fifty miles west of Warsaw, and on October 27 the Russians reoccupied Lodz, but the battle continued to rage on both fronts with unprecedented tenacity, the Russians fighting with intense energy and spirit. On November 3 they took Kielce, having captured Radom on the previous day, and on November 4 they entered Sandomierz, on the Vistula. On November 8 they resumed the invasion of East Prussia, advancing to Stallupönen, Soldau, and Pleschen, in the German province of Posen. In Galicia, however, the Austrians still held to the left bank of the San, notwithstanding the vigorous attacks of the Russians, who inflicted upon them a loss of 100,000 men besides those who suffered on the other lines of retreat. Meanwhile the Germans, who had brought up fresh troops from the West, resumed the offensive in Russian Poland on November 18, and broke through the Russian lines at Kutno, between the Vistula and the Wartha, compelling the Russians to retire several miles in the direction of Lowicz. In this battle the Russians were stated to have lost 45,000 men, including the Governor of Warsaw, who drove inadvertently into the German lines. After their victory at Kutno the Germans again advanced towards Warsaw, driving the Russians before them, and on the 22nd they were within forty miles of the Polish capital. In East Prussia, too, they drove the Russians from their fortified positions and captured 23,000 prisoners at Wloclawek, on the road to Thorn. The Russian Armies, on their western frontier, now numbered 3,500,000 men, while the Austro-Hungarian and German Armies combined did not exceed 2,000,000. Another great battle took place before Lodz, which, after a fortnight's desperate fighting, with immense loss on both sides, was recaptured by the Germans on December 8, who after being almost enveloped by the Russians broke the ring which was being drawn round them and put back the Russian front before Warsaw. This check was attributed to dissensions among the Russian generals, and General Rennenkampf, who arrived too late to relieve the Russian centre, was, with seven other generals, arrested and brought before a court martial. General Hindenburg, on the other hand, was made a Field-Marshal for what was described by the German General Staff as "one of the finest deeds of arms in the whole campaign," having captured 60,000 unwounded prisoners and 100 guns. The Germans were not able, however, to pursue their advantage; the powerful attacks of the Russians prevented their getting any nearer to Warsaw than Sochaczew, about thirty miles to the west of that city. They strove hard up to the end of the year to push through to Warsaw, but were unable to get any farther than the Rivers Bzura and Rawka, where they entrenched themselves and made a series of fruitless attacks on the Russian positions on the other side of those rivers, Farther north, however, Mlawa, near the Prussian frontier, was retaken by the Germans on December 26. The German main line at the end of the Ysar ran from Mlawa to Ilow Lowicz, and Tomaszow, all of which towns were in their hands, but the Russians remained in occupation of about 8,000 square kilometres of Prussian soil.

Meanwhile in Galicia, the Russians occupied Tarnow on November 13, resuming the siege of Przemysl on the following day, and on December 2 they entered Wieliczka, the centre of the salt mines in Western Galicia, three and a half miles from the outer fortifications of Cracow, which were now invested by them. There was much fighting north, west, and south of Cracow (especially at Limanowa, where the Russians lost 40,000 prisoners), but the city itself escaped damage, none of the shots of the Russian artillery having reached it, and at the end of the year, both Przemysl and Cracow still remained free from the invaders, who temporarily abandoned the advance on them on December 12 after a series of battles in which they suffered heavy losses and were driven eastward for a distance of forty miles. Although Russia had yet made little progress towards Berlin, she had conquered a great part of Galicia, and she had given valuable help to her Allies by compelling Germany to detach large forces from France in order to protect her frontier in Poland.

In November Russia was involved in another war, owing to the attack of the Turkish fleet on the Russian ports in the Black Sea (p. 352). On November 4, Russian troops entered Asia Minor and advanced for seventeen miles along the road to Erzeroum, and on November 8, they successfully resisted an attack by the Turks armed with German heavy artillery, at Kuprikeui in Armenia, from which there are mountain paths in the direction of Erzeroum. Further attacks were made by the Turks during the rest of the month, and, also in December, in the Euphrates Valley without any notable result, until they reached Ardahan and Sarakamysch in an attempt to regain Kars, when in a three days' battle with the Russians at the end of the year they were driven back with enormous losses, the whole of one of their Army corps having surrendered.

Apart from the two wars, there is little to record in the Russian history of the second half of the year. On September 1, an Imperial order was issued directing that the city of St. Petersburg should in future be designated as "Petrograd" (Peter's City). This was an outcome of the hostility in Russia to everything German, as was a decree issued in November, depriving German and Austro-Hungarian subjects of Russia of their rights to immovable property either leasehold or freehold situated in rural districts near the Russian land frontier, the Baltic, the Black Sea, and the Sea of Azoff. In November an income tax was imposed on all incomes exceeding 1,000 roubles (100_l._), at the rate of from 16 roubles (1_l._ 15_s._) up to 15,600 roubles (1,700_l._) for incomes exceeding 190,000 roubles (19,700_l._), together with a tax on men exempt from military service. As regards Finland and Poland there was no alleviation of the methods of Russification previously practised, although the devastation caused in Poland by the war produced a current of more friendly feeling towards the Poles among some sections of the Russian people. At Petrograd a society was formed for a reconciliation between the Russians and the Poles, which struck medals representing a Russian and a Pole shaking hands; but these were promptly confiscated by the Government, and in the Duma but little was said on behalf of the Poles. The Socialists were pursued with the utmost rigour, their members in the Duma were arrested, and when M. Burtzeff, known by the part he took in the exposure of Azeff and other Russian _agents provocateurs_, left Russia in 1907 with a regular passport, not having been prosecuted for any offence, returned to that country in order, as he stated in a letter to _The Times_, to promote "a unity of all nationalities and all parties" in pursuing the war, he was arrested on his arrival in November on a charge of having insulted the Tsar in a Paris newspaper while he was living in France, and sentenced to deportation to Siberia.

As regards foreign affairs, on September 5, Russia joined in the declaration that none of the Governments of the Triple _Entente_ would conclude peace separately; and on October 24 Russia declared to Italy that she would order the liberation of all Austrian prisoners of Italian nationality, provided that the Italian Government would undertake to keep them in Italy during the war, but Italy replied that she could not give such an undertaking, as "every Italian or foreigner arriving on Italian territory, not having been guilty of any crime, was free, and his liberty could not be restrained in any way," upon which Russia withdrew the condition attached to the offer.

II. TURKEY AND THE MINOR STATES OF EASTERN EUROPE.

While war was raging in Central and Western Europe, all the States of the Near East except Serbia and Montenegro, and afterwards Turkey, remained neutral, though they mobilised their forces so as to be ready in case of need.

The most important event in Turkey at the beginning of the year was the appointment as War Minister of Enver Bey, the hero of the Young Turkish Revolution of 1908 (A.R., 1908, pp. 323-7). As a former military _attaché_ at Berlin, he had long been in intimate relations with German military circles, and his influence in strengthening the ties between the German and Turkish Governments soon made itself felt. On January 8 an Imperial Iradeh was issued confirming the appointment of the Inspectors-General of the four Armies and the Commander of the thirteen Army Corps into which the Ottoman Army was to be divided, and among the former was the German General, Liman von Sanders (Liman Pasha), who was also appointed Commander of the First Army Corps. Over 160 superior Army officers were at the same time placed on the retired list. Enver Pasha (he obtained this title on his appointment in the place of that of Bey) was also appointed chief of the General Staff, with a German officer as one of his assistants.

The matters dealt with by the Powers in connexion with the Balkan Wars which had remained unsettled at the end of the previous year (A.R., 1913, pp. 356-7) were the proposed Armenian reforms, the question of the Ægean Islands, and the formation of the new State of Albania. As regards the first of these, the Russian _charge d'affaires_ at Constantinople arrived at a complete agreement in February with the Grand Vizier on the subject. The Armenian community in Turkey was to be represented in the Ottoman Parliament by seventy deputies to be designated by the Armenian Patriarch, and the general inspection and supervision of the judicial and administrative officials in the two sections into which the six Eastern Anatolian vilayets were to be divided was to be confided to two foreign Inspectors-General, to be appointed by the Powers from the subjects of minor European States. Christians and Mohammedans were to be equally represented in the provincial councils of Bitlis and Van, and in proportion to the numbers of each religion in the other councils, but as regards appointments to the public service there were to be as many Christians, if possible, as Mohammedans. The Ægean question, on the other hand, nearly led to a war between Turkey and Greece. In reply to a collective European Note on the subject presented to the Grand Vizier on February 14, the Porte, knowing that the Powers had failed to obtain unanimity for the enforcement of their decisions, stated that it was indispensable for Turkey to possess not only the islands in the neighbourhood of the Dardanelles, but also those which, like Chios and Mytilene, "form an integral part of the Asiatic possessions of the Empire." While accepting, it added, the restitution by Greece of Imbros, Tenedos, and Castellorizzo, the Ottoman Government "will endeavour to secure its just and legitimate demands." Greece, on the other hand, agreed to comply with the decision of the Powers, but demanded a rectification of the proposed Albanian frontier near Argyrokastro (A.R., 1913, p. 357) on ethnological grounds, and offered in exchange a strip of coast line and a grant to Albania of 100,000_l._ Further, as the islands to be retained by Greece were not to be fortified, the Greek Government proposed that guarantees should be required by the Powers of Turkey against her attacking them, expressing its readiness to give similar guarantees on its part, and also to prevent contraband trade between the islands and the Continent, adding that it would protect the Mohammedans in the islands to be ceded to Greece if the Porte would give a similar undertaking as to the Christians in the islands left to Turkey. The Powers of the Triple Alliance then guaranteed equality of religion and speech in the whole of Albania and the proposed rectification of the frontier, except as regards Koritza, which was to remain Albanian, as soon as the Greek troops should evacuate the portion of Epirus which had been assigned to Albania. The period, however, fixed for the evacuation (A.R., 1913, p. 357) was allowed to pass, and a Greek Note to the Powers of the Triple Alliance, who had insisted on such evacuation, suggested in April that it should be postponed pending the acceptance by Turkey of the proposals of the Powers as to the Ægean Islands. To this the Powers replied on April 24, insisting on an immediate evacuation, and on May 14 the Sultan, in opening the Turkish Parliament, referred to the efforts the Porte was making for a pacific solution of the Ægean question "in conformity with the essential interests of the Ottoman Empire."

Meanwhile great indignation was expressed at Athens on learning that the Turks were subjecting the Greeks in Thrace and at Smyrna to systematic persecution in order to bring about their emigration. In reply to a Greek Note on the subject the Porte stated on June 18 that the troubles in Asia Minor and elsewhere had been caused by the arrival of 250,000 emigrants from Macedonia, and that the Government was taking steps to restore tranquillity in the disturbed districts, implying that the condition of the Greek subjects of the Sultan is a question of internal politics in which Greece has no right to interfere. Prompt steps were, however, taken to punish excesses committed against the Greek populations; sentences of from three to five years' imprisonment were passed on forty-seven Mohammedans found guilty of pillaging Greek houses, and the whole of the Smyrna district was placed under martial law. The disorders were to a great extent caused by the policy adopted by the Turkish Government of quartering Mohammedan immigrants in Greek villages, apparently with the object of interposing a barrier between the islands and the adjoining districts on the Continent in the shape of a solid mass of Mohammedan inhabitants all along the coast, thereby effectively checking the Pan-Hellenic propaganda which had been going on for many years among the Greeks in Turkey (A.R., 1913, p. 354).

Although Turkey had declared at the beginning of the war that she would be neutral, when Enver Pasha became Minister for War preparations were at once made for her taking military and naval action against the Allies. Liman Pasha was appointed commander-in-chief of the Turkish Army on August 27, the German cruisers _Goeben_ and _Breslau_ (p. 183) were added to the Turkish Navy and entered the Black Sea on October 20, with their German officers and crews, though the Russian and British ambassadors had stated to the Porte that they did not regard the sale of these two vessels as valid, and that the Allies would attack them the next time they came out. Meanwhile, on September 9, the Porte announced to the Powers that the judicial and financial Capitulations, under which each Christian nation was allowed to govern its own subjects within the Ottoman dominions, would be abolished from October 1. The Ambassadors of all the Powers, including Germany, protested against this step, which became practically nugatory when Turkey entered into the war. As regards the measures taken for common action with Germany, the Grand Vizier and most of the other Ministers, though resenting the retention by the British Government of the Ottoman warships building in England,[20] were opposed to them, but had to yield to Enver Pasha, who had the whole Turkish Army at his back, and had adopted the view promulgated by German agents that the only way to save Constantinople and the Turkish Empire from being seized by Russia and her allies would be to enter into an alliance with Germany. Large numbers of German officers, soldiers, and sailors were imported from Germany to serve in the Turkish Fleet, the forts of the Dardanelles, and the Turkish Army, and German merchant vessels served as bases of communication and auxiliaries to the Turkish ships of war. The officers of the German military mission organised military preparations in Syria for an attack on Egypt, and the Syrian towns were full of German officers provided with large sums of money for suborning the local chiefs.

The Ottoman military action began, after a protest against the watch kept by British warships at the mouth of the Dardanelles to prevent the _Goeben_ and _Breslau_ from escaping, and against the British navigation of the Shatt-el-Arab, by an incursion on October 28 into the Sinai Peninsula of an armed body of 2,000 Bedouins whose objective was the Suez Canal; and on the same day the Turkish Fleet bombarded Odessa, Theodosia, and Novorossyisk, Russian unfortified harbours in the Black Sea. No reply having been given to the protest of the ambassadors of the Allies against this outrage, they demanded their passports and left Constantinople on November 1. The Dardanelles forts were bombarded by a combined British and French squadron on November 3, and the fort and troops at Akaba in the Red Sea were shelled by H.M.S. _Minerva_, upon which the town was evacuated and a landing party destroyed the fort, the barracks, the post office, and the stores. On November 5 "a state of war" was declared to exist between Great Britain and Turkey and the former annexed Cyprus (p. 226). On November 13 Turkey responded by a declaration of war against Great Britain, alleging that the bombardment of the Russian ports in the Black Sea had taken place because the Russian Fleet had tried to lay mines outside the Bosphorus and committed other hostile acts against Turkey. A British and Indian force also made its way up the Shatt-el-Arab to Basra (Nov. 8-22; p. 245). On November 18 another naval encounter took place in the Black Sea, in which the Russian Fleet engaged the _Goeben_ and the _Breslau_ off Yalta, compelling them to retire, and inflicting severe injuries on the _Goeben_.

The failure of the Turkish invasion in the Caucasus (p. 348) caused much friction between the Turkish and the German officers, the latter having preferred the plan of an invasion of Egypt. On December 30 the Sultan of Turkey deprived Hussein Kamel, the new Sultan of Egypt, of all his decorations for rebellion against Turkey. The attempt to start a Holy War in Egypt and other Mahommedan countries proved an utter failure, as it was disregarded by the Mohammedans outside the Ottoman Empire.

Among the minor incidents which occurred in Turkey during the year was the death of "Kutchuk" Said Pasha, who was seven times Grand Vizier (_post_, Obit.), and the trial by court-martial in April of Colonel Aziz Ali, a distinguished Egyptian officer who had gained popularity and renown among the Mohammedans by his leadership of the Arab resistance to the Italians in Cyrenaica, on charges of having caused loss of life among his troops in Tripoli, of having provoked the enmity of the Senussi, and of having appropriated public funds to his personal needs, and his condemnation to death in consequence of the pressure put upon the members of the Court by his enemies in the Young Turkish party. The news had caused great perturbation and distress in Egypt, where Aziz Ali was well known and highly esteemed, and he was finally pardoned by the Sultan. Another court-martial, which was not influenced by party motives, showed considerable activity in dealing with offences committed by Mohammedans against public morality and the State religion. It ordered the expulsion from Constantinople of fifty Turkish women found guilty of practising or abetting clandestine prostitution, and steps were also taken against "white slave" traffickers, two Turkish women having been found guilty of selling their daughters to Egyptian houses of ill-fame.