Postcard of Kaiser Wilhelm II and Kaiser Franz Joseph, in the Secessionist style. Kaiser Wilhelm is wearing the uniform and shako of the Death's Head Hussars.
Völkerkrieg (people's war)1914; In Treue FestPeople's WarFirm in Loyalty
". . . the tide of battle has ebbed and flowed and ebbed again, and at the time of writing the Russian forces are slowly retiring temporarily, overweighted by superior numbers, so that once more the land is being overrun by the Austro-German hordes. The country through which the armies have passed and fought is absolutely desolate. Large towns have been practically destroyed; hundreds of villages and every hayrick in the country have gone up in flames. The Germans have carried off everything portable with them — the crops, food, fuel, oil, candles, soap, salt, warm clothes, boots, medicines. Churches have been robbed of money and jewelry. Livestock, of course, has disappeared; even the books and musical instruments have suffered the common fate . . . the first necessities of life are lacking, and it is no exaggeration to say that millions of people are starving and homeless."
Excerpt by Princess Bariatinsky, Russian writer and philantropist, on the devastating effects of the war on Russian Poland, where many of the 1914 battles of the German, Austro-Hungarian, and Russian armies were fought. A Central Power advance in September and October was repulsed by a Russian advance with far superior numbers. A Russian plan to invade Silesia in southeast Germany was derailed by a German counterblow that drove the Russians back. On November 20, the Battle of Lodz in Russian Poland had begun, extending over hundreds of square miles southwest of Warsaw. The Princess further reports on the 'Petrograd to Poland' Committee, which was delivering warm clothing and other necessities to Warsaw, and food to other distribution points in Poland.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. II, 1914, p. 414, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
1914-11-20, 1914, November
