frontier.

In the preceding chapters, however, we have seen that up to the
beginning of October, 1914, neither the Germans nor the Austrians had
accomplished this object. The former had to satisfy themselves with
having cleared their own soil in East Prussia of the Russian invaders
and with keeping it free from further invasions, while the latter were
being pressed harder and harder every day and had to figure with a
possible invasion of Hungary. It was then that the Central Powers
decided to invade Poland from the west, and thus gradually drove out the
Russians. Why they persisted in their efforts to gain possession of
Russian Poland is clear enough. For in addition to the above-mentioned
advantage of shortening and straightening their front, they would also
deprive Russia of one of its most important and populous centers of
industry, in which the czar's domain was not overrich, and it would
remove forever this dangerous indentation in the back of the German
Empire.

Before we consider in detail the first German drive for Warsaw, it is
also necessary to consider briefly political conditions in Russian
Poland.

Ever since the partition of the old Kingdom of Poland among Germany,
Austria, and Russia, the Polish provinces created thereby for these
three empires had been a continuous source of trouble and worry to each.
The Poles are well known for their intense patriotism, which perhaps is
only a particular manifestation of one of their general racial
characteristics--temperament. At any rate the true Pole has never
forgotten the splendid past of his race, nor has he ever given up hope
for a reestablishment of its unity and independence. It is a rather
difficult question to answer whether Russia, Germany, or Austria have
sinned most against their Polish subjects. The fact remains, however,
that all three most ruthlessly suppressed all Polish attempts to realize
their national ideals. It is equally true that Russia went further along
that line than either Germany or Austria, and on the other hand did less
for its Polish subjects than the other two countries. Both in Germany
and Austria there existed therefore a more or less well-defined idea
that the Russian Poles would welcome German and Austrian troops with
open arms as their saviors from the Russian yoke. In Russia a certain
amount of anxiety existed about what the Poles would do. The latter, in
a way, at the beginning of the war found themselves facing a most
diff