21 July 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

The late Minister of War, M. Guchkov, had joined the Caucasian Native Division in the 8th Army. On his return on leave to Petrograd he was interviewed by the Press. He said : " The things that were done in Kalusz baffle description. I arrived there on the eve of the evacuation. It was enough to see the terrified faces of the inhabitants as they peeped from cellars. . Eyewitnesses related that forty to fifty men in turn outraged old women of seventy and young girls. The drunken soldiery robbed without pity, and murdered if the inhabitants refused to give them money. They snatched her child from the breast of a Polish mother and threatened to hurl it from the window if she did not hand over her valuables.”

A correspondent in the 8th Army afterwards sent a more detailed account to a Petrograd paper. The town had been captured by storm battalions with a firing-line composed of officers. As these passed on, two regiments were brought up to consolidate the position. The men found wine and gave way to an orgy of drunkenness. The officers did their best to restore order and many were killed by their own men. “ The retiring Germans bombarded the town, but the noise of the bombardment was literally drowned by the cries of women, as soldiers outraged them or cut off their arms or their breasts. No mercy was shown either to old women or to eight-year-old girls.”

Some of the unfortunate inhabitants placed their last savings in little bags and hid them on the persons of their children. “But this did not help. Soldiers stripped little girls naked, ripped open the bags, and one after another, there on the street, violated the children and then cut them to pieces.

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