- from 'The War Budget', January 20th, 1916
- 'General Ivanoff'
Famous Soldiers of the Hour
Among the commanders whom the war has revealed as military leaders of high ability a foremost place will be given to General Ivanoff. The fact that he has held high command from the early days of the war is sufficient evidence of the success he has achieved.
The Tsar and his military advisers have shown no hesitation in superseding generals who have been weighed and found wanting.
General Ivanoff's steadily growing reputation in a war that puts to the severest possible test a leader's capacity for conducting operations on a gigantic scale and successfully tackling the new and perplexing problems of modern warfare is a sure indication of outstanding qualities of leadership and the possession of strategical ability quite out of the ordinary.
The Hero of Przemysl
In the titanic struggle on the Eastern front which for nearly a year and a half has swayed backwards and forwards from East to West and from West to East, General Ivanoff has played a brilliant part. In command of Russia's Southern armies for practically the whole of this period, he has demonstrated not once but many times his mastery of the art of war. The Germans know a soldier when they meet him, and they have a wholesome respect for the man who engineered the great advance through Galicia, who conquered Lemberg and Przemysl, and forced the difficult passes of the Carpathians.
It is true that the great advance was followed by the great retreat, but this was a necessity that cannot be charged to Ivanoff's account.
There is no object to be gained by minimising the seriousness of the reverses to the Russian arms which compelled the withdrawal from Galicia, but they were admittedly due rather to lack of munitions than to faulty generalship. Anyhow, Russia is confident that he recoiled pour mieux sauter, and that when the great new armies are adequately equipped and munitioned he will once again, and this time finally, drive back the Austro-German hosts.
To General Ivanoff must be accorded a full share of the glory of the wonderful retreat of the Russian armies. It was a feat the magnitude of which is scarcely realised, but which military historians will rank amongst the greatest of military achievements, and it undoubtedly foiled the main purpose of the enemy — to destroy the Russian armies.
Russian Optimism
The gloomy forebodings that filled the minds of civilians both here and in Russia during those black weeks when Przemysl and Lemberg and Warsaw fell, and when the Germans were carrying all before them were not shared by the Russian military chiefs.
Their view was expressed to a correspondent by one of the generals in Ivanoff's command. "We do not believe," he said, "in holding untenable military positions for mere moral effect. Lemberg is of no great value to us from a military point of view, and owing to the way in which the line developed it was impossible to stay there without great risk. So we left. By-and-by we will go back and take it again."
That is the unconquerable spirit of Russia and of General Ivanoff. He will go back — when he is ready. It may be that the hour has already struck.
A Human Sledge-Hammer
Away down on the borders of Bukovina he has for weeks been hammering at the Austrian positions. He would appear from Austrian reports to be plentifully supplied with guns and ammunition so that his hammering should be to some, purpose. The news as yet is rather meagre, but it seems clear that Ivanoff has scored some considerable success and gained positions dominating Czernowitz, the capital of the province, if the town is not indeed already in his possession. Success here, on the borders of Roumania would have a far-reaching effect on the Balkan situation, and if the Russian advance continues the whole aspect of affairs in the near East may undergo a dramatic change.
Russia's Spring Advance
Further North, highly successful operations have been carried out in the neighbourhood of Czartorysk, the town itself having been definitely occupied by the Russians after determined fighting. A number of Galician villages have been evacuated by the Austrians, and vast stores of material accumulated for a projected spring advance are being hastily removed. The magnitude of the blow struck by General Ivanoff may be gathered from the fact that the enemy losses in the Czernowitz district alone during a fortnight's fighting are estimated at over a hundred thousand. Desperate attempts to recapture the lost frontier have failed and have only resulted in the further disorganisation and demoralisation of the Austro-German forces.
General Ivanoff's big move would seem to have been a complete surprise for the enemy who is said to be hurrying up corps to reinforce his Galician armies from the Italian and Balkan fronts.
Berlin's Broken Illusions
Whether or not General Ivanoff continues his victorious advance, he has given a fatal blow to the illusion (which Berlin has assiduously tried to foster) of a broken and exhausted Russia yearning for peace. A Russian advance in the spring was anticipated, but that Ivanoff has been able to open such an effective winter offensive is evidence of the extraordinary recuperative power of our great Ally. It is as unwelcome and disconcerting for the Central Powers as it is full of promise for their adversaries. This is clear from the reports of — panic at Lemberg and other towns in Galicia which the wealthy classes are said to be leaving for cities more remote from the war zone.
Prussia's Cold Feet
In spite of the steps taken by the authorities to conceal the position . of affairs, news of the insecure position of the Austro-German armies in the South is certain to filter through before long to the Northern front, with disastrous effects on the moral of the German soldiers enduring the terrible arctic conditions of the Riga-Dvinsk front.
An Original Opinion of the Huns
The combined efforts of Ivanoff and the Germans are rapidly turning the new Russian drafts into first-class fighting men. The General is reported to have said, presumably on the principle of giving the devil his due: — "The Germans are the Dest drill masters in the world, and are making soldiers of my young men quicker than I could." Whole battalions of these new recruits are being hurried to the fighting line to gain experience in actual fighting, and are fulfilling the highest expectations.
He has been building for months not only an army of new man, but an army on a new plan, with infantry, cavalry, and artillery scientifically co-ordinated.
Ivanoff's Calm Temperament
A man of about 60 years of age, of modest and kindly temperament, General Ivanoff is worshipped by his soldiers. In describing a visit to him, Mr. Alan Lethbridge summed up the General as "one of those extraordinarily capable and receptive men to whom the minutias of life are comparatively as important as its graver issues. That is why the humble mujik believes in him, why intellectual Russia trusts him, and why the Austro-German forces in the South will be—to use a colloquialism— beaten to a frazzle."
Calm and imperturbable, he is gifted with the quality so essential in a great captain — absolute self-control. He lives for his great task, the embodiment of the indomitable spirit of the unswerving will to triumph which animates the whole Russian nation. He will go about his appointed work unruffled by either victories or defeats, and he has experienced both. Such is the man who holds in his hands the fate of the great armies operating on the Southern section of the Russian front. His record inspires us with the confidence that soon or late he will roll back the Teutonic tide and share in a general victorious advance of the armies of the Tsar.
