Russian officer

“ It may not here be improper to observe, that, in the Russian army, the inferior class of officers enjoy a degree of pre-eminence above the private men, with which we, in our service, are in a great measure unacquainted. It was no small astonishment to us, to see a serjeant keep up all the state, and exact all the respect, from all beneath him, belonging to a field-officer. It may be farther remarked, that there are many more gradations of rank amongst them, than are to be met with in other countries. Between a serjeant and a private man, there are not less than four intermediate steps ”

“ But little has been said about the steadiness of Russian mobilization. The Russian officer, almost always a noble, and belonging to what is probably the most polished and most cultured class in Europe, an aristocrat to his finger tips, possesses the power of commanding men, and understands his Slav soldiers. He knows that no army in the world can begin to compare with the Russian for enduring hardship, and that no troops in the world can sustain so large a proportion of loss and still advance. Forced marches that would kill English troops can be handled by a Russian army without great fatigue. ”

“ He spoke with great respect of the Russian soldier, but maintained that they lacked proper leaders. "It takes more than ten years to reform the morale of an officers' corps. From what I have learned, the morale of the Russian officer is to this day much the same as it was in the Russo-Japanese war. We will show you one of their ambulance trains captured near Kirbaty. It is the last word in luxury. ”

“ Along the top in pale blue with a sullen sky of winter dawn above, a number of scattered soldiers, big and clumsy and heavily clothed, are running forward over a rough, flat field, with the lumbering run of a Russian porter at a railway station, their bayonets lowered and all with set faces; from a copse in the distance come puffs of smoke; and in front of the men, close behind his chief, who has already fallen, an officer has his hand thrown up in the air as a bullet carries him over. ”

“ Nobody knows who is a spy, and nobody knows who is not. Consequently it is an excellent rule in Russia never to say anything in the hearing of any one else than ourselves that can be called in question. Mind, I don't know of my own knowledge that there is such a thing as a secret police, nor that such a person as a police spy exists in Russia. Having never said or done anything to which the Emperor or his most zealous officer could object, I have no fear of being interfered with. ”

“ In front of Cracow a Russian officer under fire came on a whole number of Bohemians, who were singing the "Sokol" songs and shouted a greeting as they came into the Russian lines.
These wholesale surrenders have, I think, an extremely interesting political significance. When governments turned the whole people into an army, it was clear that the army was also being turned into the people; but it was not clear how the people could express itself when under army discipline. ”

“ When we were deprived of power and authority, when the term ‘Commanding Officer’ was sterilised, we have once again been insulted by a telegram from the Stavka to the effect that: ‘Commanding Officers who will now hesitate to apply armed force will be dismissed and tried.’ No, gentlemen, you will not intimidate those who are ready to lose their lives in the service of their country. ”

“ It is to the credit of correspondents with the Russians, many of whom were necessarily inexperienced in the discernment of what might probably be published as against what ought to be withheld, that the responsibility of self-restraint was so generally recognized. The Russian officer has the splendid valor of his nationality; he is no braggart, but does his fighting as a matter of course, and as part of the day's work, when he is bidden to do it. ”

“ Every other man you meet on the street wears a uniform; almost every guest at the hotel is a general or a colonel, and every first-class passenger on the railway trains is an officer of rank. They are a fine-looking lot of men, and their uniforms are very conspicuous, being of a light bluish gray, with an abundance of gold braid. A Russian officer is never out of uniform and never parts from his sword. In the railway trains, in the restaurants, even at church, he is heavily armed, and every officer seems to wear his winter overcoat in this hot weather which is117 difficult to understand. ”

“ Promotion is almost entirely by favoritism, and it would need a very considerable amount of courage and independence to give a verdict in the teeth of their commanding officer. In the next place, for I have heard them talking it over among themselves, there is a sort of feeling that, for the honor of the Russian army, it is almost necessary that you should be found guilty, since it would throw discredit upon the whole service were it published to the world that two unarmed young English officers had been attacked with a sword by a Russian officer of rank. ”

“ These frequent references to officers going off to hospital without mention of any wound or illness would be difficult to parallel on the Russian side. One Russian officer's principle was "You may be killed, but you mayn't be ill."
[15] Gorlice is the point from which later the Austro-German advance began.
[16] The Russian soldiers cannot get any stimulants and Russian officers very seldom. The Staff of our Army was teetotal throughout.
[17] The universal desire of all our Austrian prisoners, also of most of the Germans. ”

“ Another, when he is brought in for operation, is only taken up with the thought that he meets in the operating room an Austrian officer to whom he has attached himself as guide and friend. Anything else that is human comes before any thought of self. I am quite certain that one of the greatest things that this war is doing is its revelation to Europe of the simple goodness of the Russian peasant in the person of the Russian soldier. He is more than the unconscious hero of the moment. ”

“ He is bound to feed the terrible conscription of the army, year by year, with an aliquot part of his own peasants. The rule of the Russian army is twenty-five years’ duty. The power of drafting off particular men into the army amounts to an absolute control over their existence. The body of the serf is equally subject to every caprice of the master, and the use of the whip is universal. The virtue [253] of the female serf is in his power, and it is considered an honor among the Russian peasantry to reckon the adulterous offspring of their master amongst their own. ”

“ One objection to the Russian public police is that in the cities and large towns the policemen are nearly all soldiers who have served their time in the army, and receive police appointments as rewards. Their long service in the army imbues them with the greatest deference to the uniform of an officer, no matter what its wearer may be. The result is the policemen salute every officer that passes, and thus their attention is drawn from their duties; furthermore, an officer can misbehave himself as much as he pleases, and run very little risk of being arrested like an ordinary offender. ”

“ I don't suppose there is a single officer in the English army, with the exception of myself, who knows a word of Russian, and in the future it might secure you the position of military attaché to our embassy there. At any rate it will render it easy for me to secure you an appointment on my mission when it comes off, and in that case you will be a witness of one of the most stupendous struggles that has ever taken place. You think you can really stick to it, Frank? You will have, no doubt, to put up with a good deal of chaff from your comrades on your studious tastes. ”

“ The infantry on both sides advanced to support their comrades. The resolution and vigor of the combatants were equal. Squadron to squadron, company to company, man to man, fought with invincible firmness. At length, however, the stern obstinacy of the Russian yielded to the enthusiastic valor of the French. The cavalry and infantry of the guard gave way, and after losing their artillery and standards, were driven back in confusion almost to the walls of Austerlitz, while from a neighboring eminence the Emperors of Russia and Germany beheld the irretrievable rout of the flower of their army. ”

“ Halfway up, we took an "easy" in the mud hut of a superior officer. We sat together in the straw with our toes to the stove, and, as is often the case, the talk was not about the war at all, but about the human things that most interest the Russian mind: about the characters in Russian literature and the future of Russia. Naturally there is also a good deal now to be said about England; and nowhere more than in the trenches does one notice how every one wishes to give us the best word, just as the guest receives the best of the fare. ”

“ He is not so well versed in the history and theory of his profession as the German officer, and not a patch on his British comrade, who, after all is said and done, is the finest officer in the world. ”

“ The artillery, now so splendid, was then only remarkable for its cumbrous carriages and the obstinate valor of its men. Inured to hardship from infancy, the Russian soldier is better able to bear [9] the fatigues of war than any in Europe; he knows no duty so sacred as obedience to his officers. Submissive to his discipline as to his religion, no privation or fatigue makes him forget his obligations. The whole of the energies of the Empire are turned to the army. Commerce, the law, and civil employment are held in no esteem. ”

“ The Russian Officers behaved like true soldiers. They ever were in front of their less adventurous rank and file, urging them on with voice and uplifted sword; nay, they rushed freely on certain death, with the view of inflaming the sluggish spirit of their followers.... And now half the Brigade—a grandiose title for 1300 men—strewed the ground; some slain outright, others bleeding to death, others vainly imploring to be carried off the field. ”

“ On receiving the warning the Prince had drawn out his pistol and fired at the French officer. The ball struck him, and he fell. His friend, who had just reached him, and who had also heard the Russian General's name, drew his men to the right where the enemy was strongest, exclaiming, in desperation: "Follow me! Follow me!"
The Russian soldiers rushed at the young officer, who had fallen, and would have killed him, but, waving them off, he said he must speak with their General before he died. ”

“ They are a proud race and would never serve under officers save those of their own kind. I asked a young Cossack at the front where his officers got their training. He had spent some ten years in Chicago and spoke English like one of our own men. “We train them in the field,” he said with a smile. “Every one of us is a potential officer, and when our highest commander drops in battle, there is always a man to take his place.” ”

“ These officers felt that their more or less veteran units would do better in the field, even if weak in numbers, than if filled up just before a fight with these men. Such a request was made to me by the officer commanding the 1st Army Corps and many others.
The shortage of officers was also a bad feature of our arrangements. In spite of the stream sent out to replace casualties, many units went short of their proper complement of officers all through the war. Both the troops actually in the Far East and the reinforcements sent out were at their peace strength when hostilities commenced. ”

“ It may seem a paradox; but the Russians are simply the most democratic people in Europe, and for a Russian to be borné would be a contradiction in terms. Every officer was the correspondent’s comrade. Prince Schahofskoy, the ill-conditioned general who made such a mess of the July Plevna attack, was the only exception I ever knew. If the samovar was in service, the officer shared his tea with the correspondent; in the middle of a battle, if the officer had a couple of sandwiches he would offer one of them to the correspondent. ”

“ It must be admitted that Russian officers are second to those of no other nation, in thirst for distinction, and in honourable ambition, to awaken and stimulate which, innumerable means are employed. In no other army are the rewards for those officers who distinguish themselves in the field of so many kinds, and so lavishly dealt out. There are all manner of medals and marks for good service—crosses and stars of Saints George, Stanislaus, Vladimir, Andrew, Anna, and other holy personages ”

“ I have mentioned as a peculiarity of the Russian forces the number of women found in their ranks and welcomed there. The great peculiarities of the German Army, apart from its fiendish brutality, are the prevalence of suicide and insanity in it. Some months later than the time I am writing of, a captured German officer, a Lieutenant, I believe, of a Landwehr regiment, told me that down to the end of February, 1915, at least a thousand men had destroyed themselves; and he mentioned it as a curious fact that hardly any of these miserable creatures belonged to the artillery branch of the service. ”

“ In the Higher Committees one met honest and sensible soldiers more often than officers, because a man wearing a soldier’s tunic was in a position to address the mob in a manner in which the officer could never dare to indulge. The Russian Army was henceforward administered by Committees formed of elements foreign to the Army and representing rather Socialist Party organs. ”

“ In the whole course of my experiences I encountered only two boorish and discourteous Russian officers. There can be no greater mistake than that the Russians are a suspicious race. The frank simplicity of the army amounted to a serious military error; spies might have swarmed unchallenged, and I have no doubt were in truth plentiful. Newspaper correspondents, once received, were accorded a freedom of movement, and were unchecked for a boldness of comment, with a liberal toleration, and often indeed a frank encouragement, unprecedented in the annals of war. ”