[Illustration:  THE RUSSIAN PLAN OF CAMPAIGN In the above view the German lines of defense are shown black, the Austrian lines of defense are indicated by crossed lines, and the Russian advances are shown by arrows.]

We can now understand the main Russian plan a little better.  In the north the army was to advance from Koenigsberg and endeavor to cut off Danzig and break the line of defenses between that place and Thorn, thus leaving this fortress in the rear.  In the south the Austrians, already heavily punished, would be driven back on the Carpathian passes to the south, and westward also toward Cracow, which is the key to the situation.  If Cracow fell Russia would have a good route into Germany, and the move would be supported by advances from Warsaw, thus threatening Breslau from two sides.

GERMAN TROOPS HURRIED EAST

Early in September, however, the danger of the Russian advance into Germany, which apparently had given the German general staff but little concern at first, was fully realized and large bodies of German troops were detached from the western theater of war and hurried to the eastern frontier.  Germany had evidently reckoned on Austria being able to hold its ground better, and was badly prepared for a flanking move on Breslau so early in the campaign.  But the Servian and Russian defeats of Austria left Germany to bear the full force of the terrific Russian onslaught, and her forces proved equal to the occasion.  Under General von Hindenberg the German army of the east soon repelled the Russian invaders and forced them to retire from East Prussia across their own border, where they were followed by the Germans.  A series of engagements on Russian soil followed, in which the advantage lay as a rule with the Germans.  The losses on both sides were heavy, but the Germans captured many thousands of Russian prisoners and considerable quantities of arms and munitions of war.  The immense resources of the Russian empire in men and material made the problem of Russian invasion a very serious one for Germany.  This was fully realized by the Kaiser, who about October 1, at the end of the second month of the war, proceeded in person to his eastern frontier to direct the defensive operations against Russia.

CZAR NICHOLAS AT THE FRONT

About the same time the Czar, Nicholas II, also took the field in person, arriving at the front on October 5, accompanied by General Soukhomlinoff, the Russian minister of war.

“I am resolved to go to Berlin itself, even if it causes me to lose my last moujik (peasant),” the Czar is reported as saying in September.  The spirit and temper of the Russian government may be judged by the fact that before the war was many days old the name of the Russian capital was officially changed from “St. Petersburg,” which was considered to have a German flavor, to “Petrograd,” a purely Russian or Slavic form of nomenclature.