Seite - 331 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

Of Heroes and Cowards 331 on the side of Austria. However, for the Austrian Poles, the contrast to the Ruthenians played a particular and emotional role. For Poles and Ruthenians alike, the war of 1914 and the first half of 1915 had an equalising effect to the extent that it raged in their country. And this had a wide range of different consequences. In terms of quantity, the Ruthenians came out significantly worse. Their homeland was occupied in its entirety, and this applied not only to Galicia, but also to Bukovina. Here, also, the settlement areas of three nationalities merged, with a Romanian population joining that of the Ruthenians and Germans. The south-eastern corner of Bukovina, particularly the area around Kolomyia (Kolomea), was regarded as Russophile. ‘The country was swarming with Russian agents, the concept of the state had not filtered through to the population, the level of intelligence of the Ruthenians and Romanians was extremely low. […] One was in fact “half in Asia”’, claimed Theodor von Zeynek, who consciously avoided mentioning the German Austrian section of the population.773 At the end of the day, the soldiers were a reflection of their country. This naturally also applied to the Romanians and their share of the Imperial and Royal Army. Only a small portion of them originated from Bukovina, while most came from Transylvania. Their reinforcement districts were Oradea (Nagyvárd/Großwardein), Bela Crkva (Fehértemplom/Ungarisch Weißkirchen), Alba Iulia (Gyula Fehérvár/ Karlsburg), Sibiu (Nagyszeben/Hermannstadt) and Cluj-Napoca (Kolosvár/Klausen- burg). The Romanians constituted the majority of the troops of Infantry Regiments No. 31, 43, 50, 51, 63 and 64. They belonged to the VII and the XII Corps. There were no Landwehr regiments with an over-proportionate share of Romanians, although Roma- nians were present in large numbers in the Honvéd Infantry Regiments No. 2, 4, 12, 21, 23 and 32. For the cavalry of the Common Army, only the Imperial and Royal Dragoon Regiment No. 9 had a fifty per cent share of Romanians. The Honvéd Hussar Regiment No. 10 was almost entirely Romanian, as were the Honvéd Field Artillery Regiments No. 2 and in particular, No. 6. The Romanians had already been regarded with a certain degree of suspicion before the war. The Hungarian Prime Minister Tisza had still demanded on 24 May 1914 from the Imperial and Royal War Minister Krobatin that Infantry Regiments No. 31 (‘Nagyszeben’) and 64 (‘Broos’) be replaced by Hungarian or German regiments. Kro- batin had ordered the necessary assessments to be made, but had then replied to Tisza that there was no reason to doubt the reliability of the officers and the men of both regiments. He claimed that only the reserve troops were a problem. In particular, the district school inspector of Rădăuţi (Radautz), Dorimedont Vlad, exerted a negative influence over the people living in his immediate homeland area ; he was the soul of the Romanian movement. However, relocating the regiments was out of the question. The mobilisation and departure of the troops had then also been completed smoothly. Romania, which was in fact allied to the Central Powers, at least remained neutral, and