The Austro-German forces occupied the valley of the stream Lososzyna, and the fighting front extended from near Wieliczka southeastward to the Dunajec, about fifty miles in length. The Russian attack was successful, the losses inflicted upon the enemy, especially the German Twenty-fourth Corps, being very heavy. Several German heavy guns were knocked out, five field batteries were reduced to silence, guns and prisoners taken, and the Russians continued their attack.
In the next few days in December, 1914, events favored the Austrians. In West Galicia the south wing of the Russian army was defeated at Limanovo and compelled to retreat. The Austrians engaged in hot pursuit and took many prisoners. Austrian forces took Neu Sandec and again entered Grybow, Gorlice, and Zmigrod. The Austrians reported that the Russians had completely evacuated the Zemplin country.
A third incursion of Germans into Galicia was arrested by Russians on the very border of the province. Some maneuvering on the part of General Dmitrieff's corps sufficed to check the invading columns, although they crossed the Carpathians on a wide front extending between Wieliczka and the headwaters of the San River.
During the same week, the garrison of Przemysl made a series of attempts at sorties, but each time were driven back with heavy loss. The Russians captured several hundred prisoners and ten Maxims. It was learned later that increasing scarcity of provisions complicated by sickness was responsible for these tentative efforts to lift the siege. An unsuccessful attempt also was made by a force from the garrison to open the railway in the direction of Biercza, on the southwest.
It was asserted at Austrian headquarters that the total number of Russians captured by the Austro-Hungarians in Galicia within three days in the middle of December, 1914, was 33,000. After a battle at Limanowa, it was said, 26,000 were captured. The number of Russians killed was very large, according to report, 1,200 dead being found at Limanowa alone.
The problem of caring for prisoners had by this time become acute both for Austria and for Russia. According to the Russian Department of the Interior, which had charge of the maintenance of prisoners, there were then in Russia, exclusive of the Germans reported captured in operations under way in North Poland, 350,000 Austrian and German prisoners of war. Of this number only 100,000 were Germans, the rest being Austrians captured during the campaign in Galicia.
At Semipalatinek, on the Irtish River, near the borders of Western Mongolia, one small escort of Russian soldiers was serving as guard for 100,000 Austrian and German prisoners, whose prison walls consisted of four thousand miles of frozen steppes, separating them from the borders of their own countries.
The prisoners were brought by rail to Omsk, where they were embarked on steamboats for the thousand mile trip down the Irtish River to Semipalatinek. Here quarters were found for them in the big barracks erected for the mobilization of the Russian army and unoccupied since its departure for the front.
Every morning at eight o'clock the prisoners were released from the barracks and permitted to wander about at will. When they departed in the morning, they were told that unless they reported at the barracks by nightfall they would be locked out. At that time of the year, in such a bleak country, this would mean death, as there was practically no place where they could obtain shelter. The freedom of the prisoners during the day was absolute, even to the extent of accepting employment from local mining companies.
In the thick of its fighting in Galicia, Russia had another problem to deal with, which was the Russianization of the country. In the middle of December, 1914, arrangements were made under the auspices of a member of the Duma charged with national education in Galicia, for a large number of elementary school teachers in the native schools of Galicia, to attend at certain centers a series of lectures on Russian language and literature. Lember, Sambor, Tarnopol, Stanislavoff, and Chernovtsi were the first towns chosen for the opening of these courses. Besides this measure, Russia, in the following month, opened ten model elementary schools where all teaching was given in the Russian language. These were in small towns and villages.[Back to Contents]