The plan of the Russian general staff consisted of the invasion of East Prussia by a right group (I. and II. Armies), while a left group (IV., V., III. and VIII. Armies) operated against the Austrians in Galicia, and a centre group (IX. and X. Armies) assembled at Warsaw to advance on Posen. It was owing to the decision of the grand duke that this centre group was broken up, the X. Army being sent north to fill the gap left by the failure in East Prussia, and the IX. Army sent south to overwhelm the Austrians in southern Poland.
When the Germans came to the rescue of their discomfited ally by advancing in Oct. 1914 to the outskirts of Warsaw, the transfer of the Rtgsian armies from left to right in rear of the Vistula, and the concentration of superior forces on the enemy's left or northern flank which compelled his retreat, were masterly movements. If the next German advance, culminating in the operation of Lodz owing to mistakes by Russian army com manders, definitely removed all possibility of an invasion of Posen, the Russians held on through the winter of 1914-15 to the line of the Narev-Vistula-San-Carpathians, and were only compelled by lack of munitions in the spring and summer of 1915 to retreat to a line that they held substantially through 1916-17.
There was no demand from the fighting men at the front for the change at G.H.Q. which occurred on Aug. 21, 1915, when the emperor announced that he would assume the supreme command. It is said that Rasputin had prophesied that the Russian armies would continue to be defeated till the emperor placed himself at their head. Certainly the impostor had no reason to love the Grand Duke Nicholas. A story repeated among the soldiers re lates that he had applied to the commander-in-chief for per mission to come to the front "to bless the troops," and the latter had telegraphed in reply two Russian words which being trans lated run—"Come, I shall hang you."
The grand duke was appointed viceroy and commander-in chief in the Caucasus. Up to that time the brunt of the fighting against Turkey had been borne by the British in Gallipoli, the Sinai Peninsula and Mesopotamia. The advent of the new com mander put new life into the Russian forces. He pushed forward an expeditionary force under General Baratov through Enzeli and Hamadan to screen Persia from further German penetration, and to establish touch with the British troops in Mesopotamia. He collected guns and stores, and raised and trained efficient troops, and, in spite of immense difficulties in supply, ably assisted by Generals Yudenich and Prjvalski, occupied in three successful offensives all Armenia, including the fortress of Erzerum, the port of Trebizond and the town of Erzinjan.
The revolution of March 12, 1917, found the grand duke still in the Caucasus. The emperor's last official act was to nominate him to be once more supreme commander-in-chief. His journey from the Caucasian headquarters at Tiflis to the headquarters at Mogilev was in the nature of a triumphal procession, patriotic demonstrations and crowds of people greeting him at every station on the way. Twenty-four hours of ter his arrival at Mogilev he received a telegram from Prince Lvov, the chief of the pro visional Government, cancelling his appointment. The next two years the grand duke spent in the Crimea, taking no part in politics. At last, in March 1919, he left Russian soil on the British cruiser "Marlborough," and lived quietly near Paris. He died in Jan. 1929. (A. W. F. K.)