The Russian aggressive met with great success. It is true that it never approached the defenses of Czernowitz, but Brussilov, on the north, had been able to make great gains of ground, and the very fact that such a powerful movement could be made so soon after the Russian retreat was an encouragement to every friend of the Allied cause. This offensive continued till up to the fourth week of January when it came to an abrupt stop. A despatch from Petrograd explained the movement as follows: “The recent Russian offensive in Bessarabia and Galicia was carried out in accordance with the plan prepared by the Entente Allies’ War Council to relieve the pressure on the Entente forces while they were fortifying Saloniki and during the evacuation of the Gallipoli Peninsula.” Russia had sacrificed more than seventy thousand soldiers for her Allies. During the year 1916 the Russian armies seemed to have had a new birth. At last they were supplied with guns and munitions. They waited until they were ready. In March a series of battles was fought in the neighborhood of Lake Narotch, and eight successive attacks were made against the German army, intrenched between Lake Narotch and Lake Vischenebski. The Germans at first were driven back and badly defeated. Later on, however, the Russian artillery was sent to another section, and the Germans were able to recover their position. During June the Russians attacked all along the southern part of their line. In three weeks they had regained a whole province. Lutsk and Dubno had been retaken; two hundred thousand men and hundreds of guns, had been captured, and the Austrian line had been pierced and shattered. Further south the German army had been compelled to retreat, and the Russian armies were in Bukovina and Galicia. On the 10th of August Stanislau fell. By this time two Austrian armies had been shattered, over three hundred and fifty thousand prisoners taken, and nearly a million men put out of action. Germany, however, was sending reinforcements as fast as possible, and putting up a desperate defense. Nevertheless everything was encouraging for Russia and she entered upon the winter in a very different condition from her condition in the previous year. Then she had just ended her great retreat. Now she had behind her a series of successes. But a new difficulty had arisen in the loss of the political harmony at home which had marked the first years of the war. Dark days were ahead. CHAPTER VI HOW THE BALKANS DECIDED