Russia has no intention of putting all her eight million men in the firing line. Her object is to place adequate armies in the field and to maintain those armies at their full strength of first-class fighting men. She has no particular ambition to make herself bankrupt.
In view of the difficulties with which she had to contend and the gigantic nature of her task, Russia may be said to have accomplished a brilliant feat in rendering the ultimate defeat of Austria inevitable and in opening up the most advantageous road to Berlin. The remarkable success of her mobilisation has been followed by equally brilliant achievements in the field. Soukhomlinov’s work has not been in vain. Russia has indeed fulfilled her part and made the issue of the war as sure as it is humanly possible to make it. Much remains to be done, but the tasks of smashing Austria and reducing Germany to her knees will now be taken up with every confidence.
The events in Russia have been as significant as those in the battlefields. Not only has this war proved that Russia as a military power has come into its own at last, but it marks the beginning of a new era in Russian history. The world is witnessing the rebirth of Russia. The nation is united as it has never previously been. The old autocratic institutions are passing away, the Duma is gaining strength, the coming rehabilitation of Poland is a master-stroke of liberalism. A new Russia is emerging. Democracy is coming into its own at last in the empire of the Tzar.
Printed in Great Britain by Wyman & Sons Ltd., London and Reading
Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced quotation marks retained.
Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained.
The illustration following the Table of Contents is a detailed map of Central Europe. If your book reader cannot display it, you can find it among the book materials for "The Russian Advance" at www.gutenberg.org.
Page [17]: “Moreover, sufficient of the earlier stages” was printed that way.