THE RUSSIAN COMMANDER.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 86, 10 December 1914, Page 2

THE RUSSIAN COMMANDER.

IDOL OF THE ARMY. According to the latest English files the commander of the Russian army which took Lemberg and is now operating against Cracow is General Ruzsky. In the London Observer Mr. Francis McCullagh gives the following sketch of the general: When returning once from the front outside Mukden to the telegraph office in that city I met a general who happened to be riding the same way. Had he belonged to any other nation [ he would have been too much wrapt 'up in his sense of self-importance to take any notice of me, but, being a Russian, he began talking. He invited me to visit him at the headquarters of the second army on my way back from Mukden, and I did so. He was chief of staff of the second army. 1 found him to be quite a special type of Russian officer, simple in his tastes clear as crystal in his thoughts, methodical, hardworking, scientific, an iron disciplinarian, and at the same time a revered and trusted chief. In his thoroughness he resembled a German; in his passion for neatness, order, and the open air he was like an English country gentleman. He did not drink or smoke, and his spectacles gave him the look of a professor. The little Chinese house which my host occupied in Manchuria was scrupulously clean, and I noticed wtih surprise that it contained quite a little library of books —pocket editions of several Russian classics, but mostly very recent and very technical scientific books on the art of war in German and French. The orderlies about the house had the contented appearance which the Russian soldier usually has when his. master is just as well as ' strong, knows his own mind and maintains always the same equable temper. The name of the general whom I thus met in Manchuria was Ruzsky, the soldier who has now distinguished himself by the capture of Lemberg. When first I met him he was nearly 50 years of age. Now. he is sixty. His hair and his moustache have turned grey, but are still abundant; and, with his wrinkled brow and his slight stoop he looks more than ever the lecturer on strategy, the Stonewall Jackson of the present war. WORSHIPPED BY THE MEN General Ruzsky is a curious combination of the Skobelieff and the Moltke types. He has the science, experience and infinite patience of the latter together with the popular appeal of the former. He has certainly gained the hearts of the Russian soldiers as no general has ever done since Plevna. Russian soldiers are irresistible when they follow a leader whom they worship; and the Russian army in Galicia is now following such a chief When the Public began to learn more of General Ruzsky’s record and manner of life, iits admiration for him increased enormously. It was found for instance, that, in peace time he occupied a small flat in Kiev, where he was in garrison. He lived there with his wife and three daughter The eldest daughter is now a Rr 1 Cross nurse with the troops in C .licia. The second daughter is at- ; ending a hospital in Kiev in order to qualify as a Red Cross nurse at the front. The third daughter and the mother are connected with the War Distress Fund, and are indefatiguable in helping soldiers’ wives and children in Kiev, as well as in visiting the

THE RUSSIAN SPIRIT. The num'f-jous deputations that have called on the (general's wife have; been much struck by the air of cheerful simplicity and order which pervades General Ruzsky’s home. The reception room i s small, and on the wail hangs a map whereon the position of the combatants in Galicia is Indicated by pins. An examination of them pins shows that in sticking them into the map Madame Ruzsky has to depend entirely On the news which appears in the papers, and gets no assistance whatever from he*’ husband, firs letters rrorn the seat of the war give no indication, even to his family, of what he is doing or intends to do F!e speaks a good deal, however, of the sr- end id s porm of the soldiery. r ! hey a ,- e not the •nine men,’’ lie says ‘ Mom I knew in Manchuria. 'lhoio they had no great en.-ausiasm for fighting and no great hatred for the Japanese, whom they had never heard of before. He.'* they know and hate the Gorman whether he be Austrian or Prussian, and desire nothing better than to be led against him.” A DISTINGUISHED FAMILY. Nearly all General Ruzsky’s relatives are people of high education and scientific standing. One of ins nephews, Dimitrius law sky, was the director of the Kiev P lytechnical Institute; but, being a man of liberal views and of determined character, he resigned his post with the other professors as a protest against a curtailment of the ■institute’s autonomy. Another nephew, Alexander Ruzsky, is a professor in the Kiev Polytechnic. A third, Nicholas Ruzsky, is a distinguished financier. The general’s elder brother is one of the best lawyers in the ’South of Russia. The atmosphere in which the general has lived is an atmosphere of culture, science, education, hard work and self control. One of the general’s admirers describes the hero himself to me as “a man of very keen intelligence; a disciplinarian with rather a contempt, however, for red tape; a worker who brings to his work a living spirit, a piercing eye and a powerful initiative. In practical military work he is no less brilliant than in theoretical work. In matters which concern war his judgment is always sound and his response always ready. Unlike some great theoretical strategists, he is a man of quick, but sure decisions. When confronted with an unexpected situation he does not need time and discussion to make up his mind. He decides in a flash. This union of good judgment, vast technical skill, practical ability, and hypnotic attraction over his soldiers makes him undoubtedly one of the best generals in the Russian Army. Before the war ends he may be recognised as the very best.”