The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-11-29
Dragomirof, Russia $
Military Adviser

TAICHAEL IvANOVITCH DRAG
M OMIROFF, often called the Phil
Sheridan" OF the Russian army,
EEU but more appropriately nick
- named Butcher. has been called
TO the Cars side as military adviser. This
means il there is war. it will be war 10 the
knife and war by the knife, for Dragomiron
does not care the snap of his fingers for
magazine rifles, quick-firing gins, long
distance fighting and other newfangled par
aphernaIia Of war; his motto is brute force,
fanaticism, bayonet, butt-end Of rife, hand
to-hand scuffies and. last resort, teeth
AS instructor of the st. Petersburg war
academy, as writer, lecturer drillmaster'
general. and molder of public opinion. he
has advocated the doctrine OF brute force
versus machine arms with singular per-
sistency. In and about Shipka pass he
fought and bled for it in a series of san
culinary conflicts, TO which the Russian
Turkish war had up to then furnished no
parallel; placed at the head of the army
Of the southwest, destined to smash the
German-Austrian offensive at Warsaw in
the war that is yet 70 come, he was al
lowed to work out his theory to the fullest
extent, and though Dragomiroff has now
left Kief for good, he remains In spirit
commander-in-chief OF the vast number OF
troops elected to measure arms with the
overdrilled forces of western Europe"
Dragomiroff Is certain that he can throw
the 'Pruskis" into vistula by an assault on
their flank; If he succeeds. the triumph Of
national Russian tactics will be complete
and war will be no longer an "art." Stud
ents viii read ssuvoron instead of Moltke
aud smokeless powder will have had its
day, for thereafter an army's safety lies
behind black cloud.
General Dragomiroff defined to me the
national Russian tactics as follows: II
teach my soldiers to begin fighting the
moment the enemy is located, or within
reach. Half a dozen volleys will do. then
onward with the bayonet, onward, onward
newer retreat a step as long a single
enemy Is left standing. The bayonet is an
excellent weapon. If 1t is broken, use the
butt-end Of the rife, say. good soldier
viii smash his rife on the heads and bodies
of the enemy in very short time. Then
he must Immediately grasp the weapons of
his fallen foe
But he may not understand TO handle
them" l suggested.
The general turned savagely in my direc-
ton. You refer to machine rifles" he
roared, and then, with contemptuous
grimace: 1.-THE whip for the fellow who
fools with a plaything like that in battle.
A machine rife has two good points. though.
a bayonet and the butt-end. And these my
men know how to use.
''As l said, they are taught to keep on
fighting at all hazards, not minding the
wounds they may receive, just keep at 1t.
Hurts by Mausers and the like Russians
do not feel anyhow. You remember what
Charles XII said. just previous to the bat
tie of Poltava, when he was struck by a
bullet: Tt Is only in the foot
The general continued: my instructions
are, II all thy weapons are broken, use
your fist, your bread-knife, your feet. and.
as last resort, throw yourself upon the
fool and tear him with your teeth.
Courage and even honor. military honor
! mean, are elementary phenomena that
may be coexistant with savagery. When a
general cannot rely upon intelligence and
integrity, he must seek to stimulate cour-
age-there you have the kernel of my
theory, so-called."
Teaching Of that sort addressed to a race
brutal by nature, could not fail to win
wide popularity In Russia, and the name
OF Dragomiroff Is. household word here;
indeed. the ignorant Mujik pronounces 1t
with as much veneration as that Of the
Gar himself The fact that this military
messiah Of Panslavism'' has now become
military adviser to the Gar Is a circum-
stance European governments will have
20 reckon with.
That the German and Austrian armies,
for whose humiliation the Russian forces
are training. are wonderful lighting ma
chimes, cannot be denied, but il is whispered
IN more than old world Cabinet that
possibly they may have been overdrilled.
Here in Russia the story of Sedan has made
way for that OF jena The Prussians and
Austrians OF the end Of the eighteenth GEN.