In the World WarCzernin von und zu Chudenitz, Ottokar Theobald Otto Maria, Graf
History
In the World War
Czernin von und zu Chudenitz, Ottokar Theobald Otto Maria, Graf
Austria -- Politics and government -- 1867-1918; World War, 1914-1918
While, then, people at home are seriously divided on the question
of an offensive, the men at the front appear but little inclined
to undertake any offensive. This is stated by all parties in the
Russian Press, the symptoms being regarded either with
satisfaction or with regret. The infantry in particular are
against the offensive; the only enthusiasm is to be found among
the officers, in the cavalry or a part of it, and the artillery.
It is characteristic also that the Cossacks are in favour of war.
These, at any rate, have an ulterior motive, in that they hope by
success at the front to be able ultimately to overthrow the
revolutionary regime. For there is this to be borne in mind: that
while most of the Russian peasants have no landed property
exceeding five deshatin, and three millions have no land at all,
every Cossack owns forty deshatin, an unfair distinction which is
constantly being referred to in all discussion of the land
question. This is a sufficient ground for the isolated position of
the Cossacks in the Revolution, and it was for this reason also
that they were formerly always among the most loyal supporters of
the Tsar.
Extremely characteristic of the feeling at the front are the
following details:
At the sitting on May 30 of the Pan-Russian Congress, Officers'
Delegates, a representative of the officers of the 3rd
Elizabethengrad Hussars is stated, according to the _Retch_ of May
1, to have given, in a speech for the offensive, the following
characteristic statement: "You all know to what extremes the
disorder at the front has reached. The infantry cut the wires
connecting them with their batteries and declare that the soldiers
will not remain _more than one month_ at the front, but will go
home."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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