4. The Russian Occupation of Galicia, August-September 1914.—Lemberg is the most important city in Galicia, the administra tive capital of the province and a populous commercial centre. Ft boasted of three famous cathedrals, a university and a library which contained unique treasures of Polish history and literature. For many centuries it was a strongly walled city, but of its old defenses nothing remained in 1914 but the citadel, an obsolete fortress without military value. Lemberg fell, the Austrian government, seek ing to minimize its loss, explained that the city had been abandoned in order to save its his torical monuments from destruction. As a tnatter of fact Lemberg was not in serious (ranger; the operations of Russky and Brus silov which led to its fall took place many miles from the city; and, in any case, the Rus sian generals took care to spare the Galician cities from unnecessary damage, since it was to their interest to appear as the deliverers, not the enemies, of the Polish and Ruthenian popu lations. Lemberg's greatest value, however, lay in the fact that it was the strategic key to the railway system of eastern Galicia. Autienberg, therefore, when he saw himself threatened by the Russians under Russky and Brussilov, drew back from the frontier and undertook to entrench himself well in front of, and protect ing, Lemberg. His position was a strong one: his front was protected by the Gnila Lipa, a river which flows southwesterly through diffi cult wooded hills into the Dniester at Halicz; his right rested on the Dniester at Halicz; and his left stretched north toward Rawa Russka. His army was not a good one; it was com posed in large part of Slays and Rumanians who had long been oppressed by the Hapsburg monarchy arid fought with no enthusiasm for their oppressors. ln fact, for them an Aus trian defeat might 'mean political liberty. Most of their officers were Austrian Germans, or Magyars, who gave orders in a language the soldiers could not understand.
The fight for Lemberg began at the end of August 1914 •and lasted a week. Brussiloy, after two days of fierce fighting, threw his left wing across to the south bank of the Dniester and occupied Halicz. He was then able to wheel northward toward Lemberg attd drive in on Auffenberg's exposed right flank. On 1 September the rest of Brussilov's army, under Radko-Dmitriev, carried the line of the Gnila Lipa, while Russky, farther north, drove back the Austrian left wing. By so doing, Russky was able to interpose his Russian troops be tween Auffenberg's cominunications, and was beginning to encircle Lemberg from the north. With both wings driven back in a curve about Lemberg, Auffenberg's position became peril ous. It began to be like that of Samsonov at Tannenberg. But unlike Samsonov, the Aus trian saw his danger in time. Early on Thurs day morning, 3 September, he decided to aban don Lemberg. He retreated to Grodek, a more defensible position 16 miles to the west, on the railway from Lemberg to Przemysl; but he was hard pressed by the Cossacks. His machine-guns, abandoned tvith their ammunition, were turned against the fleeing Austrians by the pursuers. His demoralized men threw away equipment which could not be easily replaced. Soldiers of Slavic or Rumanian speech, who had no love for their Austrian and Hungarian officers, took the opportunity to desert by thou sands to the Russian side. By his retreat from
Lemberg Auffenberg lost 100,000 in prisoners alone, a great number of guns, vast stores of munitions, and the control of the great oil wells in eastern Galicia near Kolomea and Stryj.
At Grodek a chain of lakes and hills run ning north and south gave the Austrians a strong position in which to make a stand and recover themselves— provided their flanks were without any natural or artificial defenses. It was a serious Tap in the Russian defensive line, and it is significant that it was through this gap east of the Vistula that Hindenburg penetrated successfully in 1915 after he had failed in three attacks on Warsaw from the west side of the Vistula. Advancing through this gap at the end of August 1914, Dankl was threatening to cut the Kovel-Lemberg Railway and then attack Brest-Litovsk. The Grand Dulce Nicholas, however, though handicapped by Russia's slower mobilization and inadequate railways, had been able to push forward Gen eral Evart's army in time to check the Austrians before they reached Lublin or Cholm or the connecting railway. After Auffenberg's retreat from Lemberg, Danld in turn fotmd himself safe. Russlcy quickly saw that a direct frontal attack on the Grodek position would be costly in men and time. Instead of a direct attack he could better accomplish his purpose — the cap ture or forced retreat of Auffenberg's army — by a wide sweeping movement around Grodek to the north, which would bring him in on Auf fenberg's rear between Grodek and Przemysl. This flanldng movement, however, brought him into conflict with the Austrian army under Dankl, and led to the fierce fighting commonly known as the battle of Rawa Russlca 6-10 Sept. 1914.
This Austrian army under Dankl, at the out break of the war, had crossed the San and ad vanced northeastward between the Vistula and the Bug rivers in a fiat country which was in a perilous position. His right flank and his communications to the San River were seri ously threatened by Russlcy who was advanc ing through Rawa Russka. Dankl might have sought to save himself in either of two ways. The more prudent would have been to fall back on. the San and secure sure touch with Auffenberg well to the west of Lemberg. A bolder course, however, was to attack at once the army of Evart in front of him before it could be reinforced, disperse it and take Russky in the flank. He chose the bolder way. On 4 September he attacIced toward Cholm. But the Russians were unexpectedly strong and the at tack broke down. Thereupon the initiative passed to the Russians. Ivanov, who had come up from ICiev with more troops to strengthen Evart's extreme right, struck heavily toward Krasnik and rolled back Dankl's left wing. Assisted by Radko-Dmitriev, Russky then completed Dankl's discomfiture by driving a terrific blow through Rawa Russlca which dis persed in confusion the remnants of Auffen berg's left wing, and compelled Dankl's iso lated troops to retreat in haste across the San toward the protecting fortresses of Przemysl and Cracow. Such was the battle of Rawa Russka which completed the Russian success at Leinberg and opened all Galicia to Russian invasion.