Brussilov's business
was to seize the deep passes in the Carpathians and to threaten Hungary.
Dmitrieff's duty was to press the Austrian retreat, and capture the main
fortresses of central Galicia.

There are two great fortresses on the River San, Jaroslav and Przemysl,
both of them controlling important railroad routes. Jaroslav on the main
line from Lemberg to Cracow, Przemysl with a line which skirts the
Carpathians, and connects with lines going south to Hungary. Jaroslav
was fortified by a strong circle of intrenchments and was looked to by
Austria for stout resistance. The Austrians were disappointed, for
Ivanov captured it in three days, on the 23d of September. Dmitrieff
found Przemysl a harder nut to crack. It held out for many months, while
operations of greater importance were being carried on by the Russian
armies. The plans of the Russian generals in some respects were not
unlike the plan previously suggested as that of the German High Command.
At the beginning of the war they had no desire to carry on a powerful
offensive against Germany. The expedition into East Prussia was
conducted more for political than for military purposes. The real
offensive at the start was to be against Austria. The Russian movements
were cautious at first, but the easy capture of Lemberg, the fall of
Jaroslav, and the demoralization of the Austrian armies, encouraged more
daring strategy. With the Germans stopped on the north, little aid to
the Austrians could come from that source. The Grand Duke Nicholas was
eager to strike a great blow before the winter struck in, so his armies
swept to the great Polish city of Cracow. The campaign against Austria
also had a political side.

Russia had determined upon a new attitude toward Poland. On August 15th
the Grand Duke Nicholas, on behalf of the Czar, had issued a
proclamation offering self-government to Russian Poland. Home rule for
Poland had long been a favorite plan with the Czar. Now he promised, not
only to give Russian Poland home rule, but to add to it the Polish
peoples in Austria and Germany. This meant that Austria and Germany
would have to give up Galicia on the one hand, and Prussian Poland on
the other, if they should lose the war. In the old days Poland had been
one of the greatest kingdoms in Europe, with a proud nobility and high
civilization. She was one of the first of the great Slav peoples to
penetrate the west. Later she had protected Europe against Tartar
inv