RUSSIAN GENERALS.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 December 1915, Page 6

RUSSIAN GENERALS.

OPINIONS HELD IN GERMANY. Writing to the Berliner Tageblatt on the subject of the change in the Russian command, Major (Moraht commented, by no means ungenerously, upon the reputation of the generals now conducting operations along the Russian front. The Czar, he wrote, is not the supreme commander in the sense in which the term was applied to the deposed Grand Duke. He is only the decorative head of a body of men on whom "Russia has pinned its faith." Whether the army does the same is not yet certain. General Russky enjoys a good reputation in Russian army. He became famous in" this war for his success at the beginning against the Austro-Hungarian army in the battle of Lemberg. . . and when General Rennerkampf failed against Hiudenburg, he was called to Poland to save the situation there. He succeeded in holding the Russian front west of the Vistula and north of the Narew, and provided us with serious occupation for many months. He received his military education at Kiev, and lias been described by a London paper as a striking type of the soldier professor. It is of Importance to lis that he is acknowledged to be an expert theorist, and that he is obviously inspired with a strict sense of duty. . . The circumstances that he was an outspoken opponent of the Grand Ducal system is also of interest. He strongly and openly disapproved of the sacrifice of many hundreds ®f thousands of men during 1 the storming of the Carpathians. As we have already pointed out, the success of our break-through in West Galicia was based, among other things, upon the extraordinary military weakness of Russia, which was due to the strategy adopted by the Grand Duke. If General Russky scored no decisive success against Field-Marshal von Hindenburg, it nevertheless appears that, as far as the conduct of military operations i 3 concerned, he takes a higher place than his former chief. '

General Evert, the commandant of the Russian centre, the German critic stated, was reported to enjoy great confidence in the army, and was not yet known abroad. The most important command hitherto entrusted to General Ivanoff, now in command on the southwest front, was the Russian west front from Warsaw to the Bug, where, it must be admitted, Major Moraht potntea out, he had repeatedly endeavoured to hold up the superior German forces, and had rendered possible the retreat of his army over the line of the Bug by giving battle at every possible opportunity. A London paper, Major Moraht noted, had likened General Ivanoff to Roon, and had compared his influence with that exercised by the German leader in the campaign of 1870-71.