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A Russian Cossack riding among refugees fleeing before a Central Power advance. The Russians adopted a scorched-earth policy in the months-long retreat before the German-Austro-Hungarian Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive of the spring, summer, and fall 1915, with Cossacks accused of burning homes and crops to deny them to the advancing enemy, and to prevent civilians from remaining behind and providing intelligence to the invader.
A portrait of German General Paul von Hindenburg superimposed on a map of his victories in East Prussia and conquests in Russia. In Prussia (in pink) the Russians took Gumbinnen and Insterburg before being defeated at Allenstein (in the Battle of Tannenburg), and in the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes in the first two months of war in 1914. Before the year had ended, German troops advanced well into Polish Russia before being driven back. In 1915 von Hindenburg was victorious, taking the fortresses and cities of Ivangarod, Grodno, and Warsaw, in his Gorlice-Tarnow offensive. Tarnow in Galicia is at the bottom of the map, Austria-Hungary being show in yellow.
On guard against saboteurs and espionage, troops guard the Boston & Maine Railroad bridge and the Hoosac Tunnel, in Adams, Massachusetts.
Austro-Hungarian trench art pencil drawing on pink paper of a soldier in a ragged, many-times-patched uniform, labeled 'Bilder ohne Worte' (No Comment, or Picture without Words). Kaiser Karl who succeeded Emperor Franz Joseph is on reverse. The printed text on the reverse is in Hungarian and German.
Currency card for the United States, with American coins, currency conversions, and the national flag.
"That night not one of us slept; we were very cold and we were afraid. All around us were drunken, unruly men, drunken with freedom as well as with alcohol. Bands of them were passing through Botushany after dark; shouting, singing, swearing their way past our hiding-place — yes, hiding-place. It had come to that; we had to hide, because we were afraid of our own soldiers. As they passed, we would hold our breath and speak in whispers; a sharp tap from Mamasha now and then would remind us that even a whisper was too loud. And more than once, during that black, dreadful night, we heard a peasant-woman's shrill, desperate cry for help." ((1), more)
"December 27, 1917.—The Russians are in despair, and some of them even talked of withdrawing altogether. They had thought the Germans would renounce all occupied territory without further parley, or hand it over to the Bolsheviks. Long sittings between the Russians, Kühlmann, and myself, part of the time with Hoffman. . . .Afternoon.—Matters still getting worse. Furious wire from Hindenburg about 'renunciation' of everything; Ludendorff telephoning every minute; more furious outbursts, Hoffman very excited, Kühlmann true to his name and 'cool' as ever." ((2), more)
"The national necessity of transporting troops to the cantonments and the seaboard, of moving Army equipment and supplies, of distributing food, fuel and other commodities among the people, made necessary the immediate unification of the American Railroads under one system, co-operated under Government control.In December, 1917, the Interstate Commerce Commission recommended such action, and the President by proclamation took over the railroads on December 28, 1917." ((3), more)
"The Austro-Hungarians had never really recovered from the devastating losses in Galicia and Serbia in the first year of the war. Since the beginning of the war, of the 8,420,000 men enrolled in the services, more than 4,000,000 had been lost, of whom 780,000 were dead, 500,000 were wounded and disabled, and over 1,600,000 were prisoners. In addition, industrial development within the empire had been limited and the economy was still predominantly agrarian. To make matters worse, the blockade enforced by the Western Allies was creating desperate shortages of raw materials and food." ((4), more)
"When interested folksWax eloquentIn their praisesOf your patriotism,And nobility,And self sacrifice,And other virtues,Carefully countThe contentsOf your pay envelope." ((5), more)
(1) Excerpt from the entry for December 16 (December 29, Old Style), 1917, covering the last several days, from the diary of Florence Farmborough, an English nurse serving with the Russian Red Cross. Farmborough's unit had been with the Russian Army in Romania when the Bolshevik Revolution brought Vladimir Lenin to power. He had consistently called for an immediate end to the war, and Russia had agreed an armistice on December 15 with the Central Powers. On December 26, Farmborough's unit received orders to make their way to Moscow as best they could. She traveled first to Odessa on the Black Sea before going on to Moscow, finally reaching it after a journey of 13 days.
Nurse at the Russian Front, a Diary 1914-18 by Florence Farmborough, page 363, copyright © 1974 by Florence Farmborough, publisher: Constable and Company Limited, publication date: 1974
(2) Excerpt from the entry for December 27, 1917 by Count Ottokar Czernin in his In the World War, on the stalemate at the Brest-Litovsk peace conference between Russia and the Central Powers. Baron Richard von Kühlmann was Germany's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from August 6, 1917 to July 9, 1918. Major General Max Hoffman commanded the German Eighth Army on the Russian Front, and took part in the negotiations. Generals Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff shared leadership of the German army, and were virtual dictators while in power.
In the World War by Count Ottokar Czernin, pp. 253, 254, copyright © 1920, by Harper & Brothers, publisher: Harper and Brothers, publication date: 1920
(3) The United States Congress had voted in support of President Woodrow Wilson's request for a declaration of war on Germany on April 6, 1917, but would take a year to build an army and transport it to Europe.
King's Complete History of the World War by W.C. King, page 355, copyright © 1922, by W.C. King, publisher: The History Associates, publication date: 1922
(4) Summary of Austria-Hungary's situation at the end of 1917. Austria-Hungary's three 1914 invasions of Serbia failed at great cost. In four battles against Russia the same year, Austria-Hungary lost its northeastern province of Galicia, much of the Empire's rolling stock, and 350,000 men.
Caporetto and the Isonzo Campaign: The Italian Front 1915–1918 by John MacDonald with Željko Cimprić, page 176, copyright © John MacDonald, 2011, 2015, publisher: Pen and Sword Books, publication date: 2011
(5) Excerpt from 'The Sayings of Patsy' by Bernice Evans, in the New York Call, a Socialist Party newspaper, December 30, 1917. Evans wrote thirteen poems of that name.
World War I and America by A. Scott Berg, page 446, copyright © 2017 by Literary Classics of the United States, publisher: The Library of America, publication date: 2017
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