Will's Cigarettes card of General Aleksei Brusilov (Brusiloff).
Will's CigarettesGeneral BrusiloffReverse:No. 41 of the series Allied Army Leaders, a series of 50 from Will's CigarettesPassed for publication by the Press Bureau, 28.12.16.General Brusiloff.Gen. Alexey Alexeyevitch Brusiloff, the brilliant Russian leader in Galicia, is about 64 years of age, and first saw active service in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877. Before the present war he was widely known as a daring cavalry officer of exceptional ability. In 1915 he led the Russian dash over the Carpathians, and in 1916 commanded the four Armies of the Russian left-wing which broke through the Austrian front and reconquered Galicia, inflicting very great losses on the Austro-Germans.W.D. & H.O. WillsBristol & LondonIssued by the Imperial Tobacco Co. (of Great Britain & Ireland) Ltd.
". . . the Offensive, under our intrepid General Brusilov, might, so far, be regarded as highly successful. It had taken place along a 50 — or more — verst line and the many divisions concentrated on that part of the Galician Front had had little difficulty in ousting the Austrians from their trenches and driving them far back into their hinterland. The Russians had better guns, more men, and enormous supplies of ammunition. Everything was in our favour; if only the morale of the soldiers endured, Russia might soon see the complete collapse of the Austrian Army."
Excerpt from the entry for Sunday, July 8, 1917 (June 23 Old Style) from the diary of Florence Farmborough, an English nurse serving with the Russian Red Cross, her unit then attached to the Russian 7th Army, and writing of the Kerensky Offensive launched on July 1, Russia's last offensive of World War I. Alexsei Brusilov was Russia's most successful commander during the war, and he had attacked along a front of about 33 miles in Galicia, Austria-Hungary. (A verst is roughly two-thirds of a mile.) Throughout the war the Russians were frequently successful fighting Austro-Hungarian troops, less so against the Germans. Russian industrial output had increased dramatically during the war, and it was less reliant on imports form the United States and Japan than it had been in previous years.
Nurse at the Russian Front, a Diary 1914-18 by Florence Farmborough, page 280, copyright © 1974 by Florence Farmborough, publisher: Constable and Company Limited, publication date: 1974
1917-07-08, 1917, July, Kerensky Offensive, Alexsei Brusiloff, Brusiloff, Alexsei Brusilov, Brusilov, General Aleksei Brusilov, Galicia, Will's Cigarettes Alexsei Brusilov
