Page - 298 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

298 The First Winter of the War General Hermann Kusmanek fought, starved and increasingly froze. Approximately 30,000 residents of Przemyśl shared the fate of the garrison. After the fortress had been relieved in October 1914, high spirits initially abounded. At the time, the circumval- lation of General Brusilov’s 8th Army had been broken. Now the Russian 11th Army under General Selivanov had surrounded the fortress compound. Whoever was present at the strangulation for a second time was acquainted with a certain ritual : on 3 November the order was issued to write farewell letters, since the next day the last postal delivery was despatched. Then the instruction came to besiege the telegraph operator, since messages from the Imperial and Royal north-eastern front only arrived via him. And on 6 November Przemyśl was once again surrounded by the Russians. Since the withdrawal of the Austro-Hungarian troops continued, however, the fortress was soon located far to the rear of the Russian front. Therefore, the Russians could approach the siege very differently to the first time around, namely slower and more systematically. They showed no signs of haste, and prisoners taken by the Austri- ans said that the intention was to starve out the fortress. But, for the time being, no- one could take such an intention seriously. Or could they ? The Army High Command was not all that confident and the caustic comment of one staff officer did not seem so far-fetched : ‘[…] the Austrians have not changed since Marengo [in 1800]. Victory, a celebratory mood, and then they get a beating and they have the blues’.707 Like in October, however, Kusmanek did everything to demonstrate the threat posed by the fortress. If it made any sense at all to allow Przemyśl to be surrounded with such a large garrison, then only if as many Russians as possible were tied down by the for- tress and could not be used elsewhere. At the beginning of December, the fortress noted that meat was becoming scarce. Rations were reduced and the first horses were slaughtered. As yet, there was no cause for concern. On the contrary : after the advance of the Szurmay Group to Nowy Sącz (Neu Sandez) and the attack of the Imperial and Royal 3rd Army against the Russians in mid-December, it now seemed only a matter of days before Przemyśl would be re- lieved for a second time. Yet the Austro-Hungarian troops were stuck in the Carpathi- ans, and the approximately 50 kilometres that separated the besieged from the Imperial and Royal 3rd Army were ultimately still too much to be overcome. In the meantime, the winter had arrived with a vengeance. The hope of relief receded after a breakout attempt on 18 December also failed. The fortress remained surrounded. One week later there stood in front of the VI Defence District, near the main base of the defensive belt at Salis-Soglio, a plaque made by the Russians on which was clumsily written : ‘[We] wholeheartedly wish you, valiant defenders of the fortress, a calm, merry Christmas. Peace, peace on Earth and good will to all people. May God fulfil all your desires  – this is the sincere wish of the officers and the personnel of Battery No. 5 of the X Artillery Brigade.’ The Imperial and Royal solders deposited cigarettes and schnapps in no-man’s