Читать книгу Kelly Miller's History of the World War for Human Rights - Kelly Miller - Страница 55

In spite of the great reverse at Tannenberg, Russia was not defeated. Her armies in Galicia (Northeastern Hungary) were winning important battles. A determined effort was made in 1915 by Germany to crush Russia and thus retire her from the war. For days at a time, on the railroads of East Germany, double headed trains were passing every fifteen minutes, loaded with troops and munitions withdrawn from the western front which accounts for the comparative quiet in that section, which in turn gave Great Britain time to prepare in earnest. And so it was that during a large part of 1915 Russia had to withstand the shock of war. Russian soldiers were brave; her generals able, but the whole official life was more or less corrupt.

The poison of German propaganda was at work. Her ammunition was totally insufficient. Immense supplies made in France according to specifications furnished by high officials in Russia did not fit the guns they were intended to serve. There were already signs of the approaching utter collapse of Russia as a world power, then more than a year distant in time. In spite of these drawbacks we read of brilliant but futile efforts of her poorly equipped army to stem the tide of Teutonic success that soon began.

Before the close of the year Poland was entirely overrun by German forces. It seemed for a time as if Petrograd itself must fall. In short, it was thought that Russia was crushed. Then it was that the Kaiser wrote to his sister, the Queen of Greece, "having crushed Russia, the rest of Europe will soon tremble before me." But when 1915 ended a line of trenches from Riga on the north to Czernowitz on the south still guarded the frontiers of Russia.