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i9i4 D RUSSIAN ADVANCE IN GALICIA 323
territory and then finally beaten in Galicia. Mikolajow,
Lemberg, all the country as far as the Carpathians fell
into our hands after fierce fighting in which at first our
enemies displayed stubborn resistance. But the hour of
the overthrow of the Austro-Hungarian Army struck at
last, while we were pushing our victorious offensive up
to the immediate environs of Cracow, whole regiments
of Austrians—Jugo-Slavs, Czechs and Slovaks principally
—were beginning to surrender. A telegram was seized
from the Austrian General Headquarters entreating
Berlin to send German troops to Galicia, otherwise the
Austro-Hungarian Army was threatened with complete
disaster. Alas! At that very moment our offensive
had to be stopped. The reason was quite simple : our
railway system was quite inadequate for the conveying
of sufficient numbers of fresh troops, of provisions and
especially of ammunition. The physical strength of the
Russian fighting army was decreasing and supplies were
failing, while German reinforcements were arriving on
the scene in Galicia. The same thing occurred, and for
the same reason, in General Brussiloff’s magnificent
offensive in 1916. All the same the whole of Galicia,
the Bukowina and part of Austrian Poland were occupied
by us, the fortified place Przemysl, which had been
invested, ended by surrendering in 1915 and already
in November, 1914, the Russian troops had begun the
ascent of the Carpathians.
Meantime fierce battles were raging in Poland, where
we succeeded in checking the Prussian advance and in
keeping Warsaw.
The manifesto of the Grand-Duke Nicolas solemnly
promising to the Poles a wide autonomy within the
compass of the real frontiers of their nationality, as well
in Russia as in Austria and Germany, produced the
best effect on us Russians. Very few people criticised
this act; the large majority of Russian intellectuals
greeted it with joy; they were surprised rather that the
manifesto did not come from the Emperor himself, and
y
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