The rigours of an early winter have fallen on the Russian front, and our Petrograd Correspondent in a visit to General Ruszky’s Headquarters discusses some of the effects of the important factor of the climate on the campaign. The Germans state today that they have evacuated part of the district west of Riga owing to the conditions there, the ground having become a mere swamp. The victory of General Ivanov on the Styr proves to be of greater importance than was at first announced, and the number of prisoners captured has increased to 3,500.
From our Petrograd correspondent, Headquarters, Russian Northern Armies, Nov. 10.
The winter has set in with varying degrees of intensity for General Ruszky’s armies. The northern sector is firmly in the grip of ice and snow, while at Dvinsk and Riga frost alternates with thaw. From his windows the Commander-in-Chief beholds a typical Russian scene, with the white-clad battlements and cupolas of the ancient city. The premature advent of winter has not, I learn, affected Russian plans, inasmuch as the rivers and the ground are unfrozen in the Dvina Valley. The cutting of the Riga-Dvinsk railway has not interfered with the work of supply, which is all being effected from the rear. We have pressed back the German flank south of Riga, where the enemy had arrayed some new but very inferior troops, and we are driving a wedge in the centre of superior formations which had been threatening our line west of Dvinsk.
Better things remain in store. I am told that the railway service in the rear of the northern group is working satisfactorily. From personal observation I can say that the main junctions are fairly free, and even ordinary passenger trains do not suffer much delay. The refugees who recently encumbered the whole of this region have, happily for them in this rigorous weather, disappeared, and this circumstance has greatly relieved the pressure on the railway service.
The outlook, therefore, is favourable for a copious supply of ammunition reaching Dvinsk and Riga. Military opinion here spontaneously echoed the view I heard at Main Headquarters on the necessity of co-ordinating the work of the Allied Armies. Had this unity existed from the beginning of the war we should not have had to deplore the Carpathian adventure and the temporary eclipse of Russia’s military power, which is largely responsible for the present complications in the Balkans.