To the unthinking, Russia has proved somewhat disappointing. Such great things were expected of her by those who knew nothing of the conditions in the eastern theatre of war. At the end of over a month of fighting she had not advanced a mile along the direct road to Berlin. Her army in the north, after an advance which was acclaimed as of tremendous importance, was defeated, driven back and practically forgotten. The south-west of Poland was still overrun by the enemy, and the only real advance that had been made was to penetrate about a hundred miles into Galicia.

Certainly it does not appear at first glance to be a very considerable achievement. It is only when matters are thoroughly investigated that the truth is grasped. Russia has achieved more than any other Power engaged in the war, and far more than could rightly have been expected of her. In the west the Germans advanced to the very gates of Paris, but they won no decisive victory; the allied armies remained intact and unbroken. The Allies then assumed the offensive, and the Germans were pushed back. But again no decisive battle has been fought, at least during the period under review. The German armies are, at the moment of writing, still intact and to all appearances capable of assuming a renewed offensive with vigour. It is only in the eastern theatre of war that victories have been won. Tarnopol, Tomasov, and Lemberg were not merely favourable engagements which resulted in the enemy being forced to retreat a few miles. They were victories which routed as well as defeated the enemy. It must be remembered, too, that these operations in Galicia and Poland are being fought on the same vast scale as those in the west. They extend along a front of no less than 200 miles. In point of numbers engaged, the Galician and Polish operations are again very similar to those in France. In fact, the conditions in the east and west are more or less equal, and therefore Russia’s victories were the only really decisive engagements won by any of the armies.

Official opinion in Russia would have been quite satisfied if, by the beginning of September, the mobilisation was completed, and Warsaw, Vilna and Kiev still in Russian hands. It was certainly expected that at the end of a month’s warfare Russia would be engaged in fiercely defending her own territories and in making desperate efforts to drive the invaders back over the frontier. In short, she was fully expected to be faced with a month or more of sheer defensive fighting before she could hope to advance. The magnitude of her task in this direction will be obvious when it is remembered that, in addition to the inevitable slowness of mobilisation which renders her a comparatively easy prey for invaders, she has a frontier of well over 1,000 miles to defend against Germany and Austria.

Of course, much was made of the fact that Russia could mobilise no less than eight million men. It was assumed that an immense army of at least two million men would march on Berlin. By sheer force of numbers Russia was going to bring both Austria and Germany to their knees. In the first place there is a limit to human organising power, and it is doubtful whether any general can successfully direct the operations of such vast quantities of men. Napoleon himself never fought with a million men, and no modern general has yet proved that he possesses the military genius of the Corsican. Numbers are all very well up to a certain point, but in excess they are only a hindrance and a menace. The larger the army the slower it moves. It is the very unwieldiness of the armies in the west that has caused their lack of success. They have such enormous fighting power that there is no particular reason why either should suffer defeat.

Superfluous men do not add to an army’s efficiency. They only hamper its mobility and throw an extra strain on the commissariat and transport. The ideal army is the one which is large enough to accomplish its object thoroughly and no more. Employing two men to do the work of one is merely a wasteful proceeding.

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.

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