on Hindenburg
was enticed to the Niemen and then driven back to disaster at
Augustovo; while in Galicia, Lemberg and all Eastern Galicia were won,
and in two mighty battles three Austrian Armies were heavily beaten.

The Russian Generals showed that rarest of combinations--an
omnipresent sense of a great strategic objective and a power of
patiently biding their time and of temporarily relinquishing their
objective when prudence demanded. A commander less wise than the Grand
Duke Nicholas would have battled desperately for Cracow, lost a
million men, and at the end of the year have been further from it than
in September. But as it was, the first great advance was promptly
recalled when von Hindenburg threatened Warsaw, and the second was
also abandoned when it was at the very gates of the city.

The first Battle of Warsaw and the Battle of Kazimirjev were
strategically admirable; and the subsequent fighting, from Kozienice
westward, showed the stubborn valour of the Russian soldier. Not less
brilliant was the long retirement from the Warta. There was some
blunder of timing in the fighting between Lodz and Lowicz, for which
Rennenkampf was held responsible; but there was no flaw in the retreat
to the Bzura or the holding of the river line.

The Grand Duke Nicholas proved that he possessed that highest of
military gifts--the power of renunciation, of "cutting losses," of
sacrificing the less essential for the more. We must remember that in
all these first five months of war, the united strength of the
Teutonic League outnumbered the Russians by at least half a million.
Locally, as at the first Battle of Warsaw, the latter may have had the
superiority; but in all the retreat from the Warta to the Bzura the
Russian front was markedly inferior in weight of men to von
Mackensen's forces. When we remember this, we can do justice not only
to the excellence of the generalship, but also to the stamina and
courage of the rank and file. Let it be added that reports are
unanimous as to the behaviour of the Russian troops at that time,
their chivalry towards the foe, their good humour, their kindliness
towards each other and their devotion to their commanders.

In a decade the miracle of miracles had happened. Russia had found
herself, and her Armies had become an expression of the national will.
"There is as much difference," wrote one correspondent, "in
organisation, _morale_, and efficiency between the armies which some
of us