14 June 1917. Alfred Knox

Non-fiction

Project 1917 is a series of events that took place a hundred years ago as described by those involved. It is composed only of diaries, letters, memoirs, newspapers and other documents

Alfred Knox

Kremenets

On the road from Tarnopol there were everywhere signs of disorganisation. The artillery of the Guard was seen halted in one village. The guns and horses were distributed without system, just where they happened to be unbuckled. There was no sentry over the guns. I can imagine how the unfortunate officers’ sense of order must suffer. In several places we passed transport wagons, the horses unhitched and tied up without food, while the men slept under a tree.

After supper I asked the officer in charge of the Intelligence Section who would do the leading in the coming offensive, the officers or the committees. He said that of course the officers would, and added that the position of the regimental officer is now so desperate that he does not care whether he is killed or not.

The other day, when fraternisation was in progress at the front, some German officers came over, and there was an informal discussion regarding the causes of the war. The Russian and German officers naturally disagreed, and a Russian soldier said he preferred the word of a German officer to that of a Russian. In taking leave, the German officers told the Russians that they “”were “ really’ sorry ” for them, for their “ position was dreadful."

I blame the whole of the Higher Command for the martyrdom the oflicers are now suffering—Guchkov, Alexyeev and all the others. They should have insisted at once on a firm line being drawn to protect the army. There are whole units on this front which only read the Pravda, printed and distributed with German money, and what can one expect from ignorant men poisoned by such stuff ? Other units receive hundreds of copies daily of the Russian paper published by the German General Staff, which makes a speciality of attacks on England.

What can the Russian soldier know of “ Peace without annexations and without contributions ”—the formula produced in Berlin for his special misleading ? Many of them think that “ Anneksiya ” and “ Contributsiya " are two towns, and one of them, when asked if he understood the motto, said that he did not know where “ Anneksiya " was, but that “ Contributsiya ” was “ somewhere in Turkey ! ” He thought of Constantinople!

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