Russian troops fleeing a solitary German soldier. The Russian First Army invaded Germany in August 1914, and defeated the Germans in the Battle of Gumbinnen on the 20th. In September the Germans drove them out of Russia in the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes. In September and October, a joint German, Austro-Hungarian offensive drove the Russians back almost to Warsaw. Illustration by E. H. Nunes.

Die Russen haben große Hoffnungen auf den Krieg gesetzt, - es ist aber auch eine Kehrseite dabei.



The Russians have set high hopes for the war - but there is also a downside to that.



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Kriegs-Postkarte der Meggendorfer-Blätter, München. Nr. 25



War postcard of the Meggendorfer Blätter, Munich. # 25

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Tuesday, October 31, 1916

"For the last two days all the factories in Petrograd have been on strike. The workmen left the shops without giving any reason, and simply on an order issued by some mysterious committee.

'. . . a party of strikers from the Baranovsky works besieged our establishment, shouting: "Down with the French! No more war!" Our engineers and foremen wanted to parley with them. They were received with stones and revolver shots. One French engineer and three French foremen were seriously wounded. The police had already arrived and soon realized that they could not cope with the situation. A squad of gendarmes then succeeded in forcing a way through the crowd, and went to fetch two infantry regiments which are in barracks quite near. The two regiments appeared a few minutes later, but instead of raising the siege of our factory, they fired on the police.'"

Quotation Context

Excerpts from the entry for October 31, 1916 from the memoirs of Maurice Paléologue, French Ambassador to Russia in the Russian capital Petrograd. That evening he attended a dinner in honor of the Japanese Ambassador, Viscount Motono, departing Russia after being appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs. The speaker in the second paragraph is one of two representatives from the Louis Renault motor works in Petrograd. The two infantry regiments that turned on the police were in turn driven back to their barracks by four regiments of Cossack cavalry.

Source

An Ambassador's Memoirs Vol. III by Maurice Paléologue, pp. 73, 74, publisher: George H. Doran Company

Tags

1916-10-31, 1916, October, strike, striker, Petrograd, Russian Army, flag, uniform, Russia, army, Army, armies, European War 1914, 1914