Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-06-25

1 u
great Russian advance be-
~ tween the Pripet marshes and
the Rumanian frontier. Since
that time the advance of the SlaV, ma
teriaIly slackened, has still gone Tor
ward At the moment he has taken
Czernowitz and is approaching koVel.
which are at the opposite ends OF the
great southeastern front. In the cen
ter he has reached the frontier at
Brody. but has been held up little
west of Tarnopol.
1t is plain that the situation in the
Galician and Volhynian regions is now
apuroaching a crisis which must in
volve the safety of the whole front of
the central powers from the Gulf OF
Riga to the Rumanian frontier. 1t is
this crisis that ] mean to discuss IN the
, present article. | do not desire 10 De
understood as forecasting that the
things that have now become possible
will happen; what I desire to do is TO
describe what is now possible II the
Russians are not checked. recognizing
fully that the check may come at once
or before many days.
Turning first to the map, II is now
plain what has happened When the
recent attack began the eastern front
| followed the Dwina river from ihe
| outskirts of the city of Riga, speaking
very roughly here. to the city OF
Dvinsk, approximately an east and
| west front; then it turned Sharply
| south and ran pretty nearly straight
through Pinsk, which the Germans
held; through the Pripet marshes.
along the Styr river. east of Lutsk and
| Dubno, which were Austrian; along the
! Sereth river just west Of Iarnopol.
| which was Russian. to the Dnlester
| river and thence to the Pruth river
! lust west of the Russian frontier.
! Russians Drive Westward.
! Now. from the Gulf of Riga to the
| Pripet marshes and to the southern
/ stands. but little south of the
| marshes begins a very wide, deep
! curve which the Russians have driven
westward
This curve amounts to semi-circie
| drawn about Dubno. with a radius OF
| perhaps thirty-five miles, which repre-
| sents the extreme penetration of the
Russian into the Austrian front. Going
south again there is a second semi-cir-
| Gle of perhaps twenty-five miles radius,
| from the point where the Dniester
| northern curve extends toward kovel
| and vladimir Wolynski, the southern
passes southwest of CzernowitZ and is
| approaching kolomea.
| These two semi-circles, to use the
military parlance. are the wedges which
the Russians have driven into the Aus
! trian lines, after having successfully
| broken the trench front which was in
| their immediate front. The war in
these sectors has thus become a war Of
movement as contrasted with the
| trench operation. To use a familiar
| figure. these two circles represent
| breaks in the dixie the central powers
! had erected against the Slavonic flood:
| through these breaks the Russian wa
| terS are now sweeping and extending
| not only westward, but tending to swirl
| round the ends of the dixie and expand
north and south in the fashion of a
| fan.
If the Drive Continues.
| Now if this rush continues long il is
| clear that the center of the Austrians,
still standing relatively firmly before
! Tarnopol and covering the railroad to
/ Lemberg. will have to draw back 10
| avoid being enveloped on both its
| tanks by the Russian hosts pouring
! through the breaks in the dixie to the
| west of Lutsk and to the north of Kol-
| omea.
| Exactly what happens when there is
| break in Mississippi levee is now
| taking place along the eastern front.
| The Germans and Austrians trying
! to build temporary dixie behind the
| breaks and to circum scribe the area of
! inundation. Thus hear of very great
| concentrations of troops taking place
! behind the line that was broken and
! in front of kovel and Vladimir Volyn-
! ski. Similarly. Vienna reports a new
| stand between the Dniester and the
| Pruth west of CZernowitz
| If these temporary bikes can be raised
in time we shall soon see a retirement
OF the Austrian center from the front
of Tarnopol behind the Zlota Lpa or
the emilia Lipa; that is, TO position
half way btween the cities of Tarno-
pol and Lemberg. The new front will
then extend from the Pripet marshes
southward to Kovel and thence to
west of the Gnila Lipa to the Dniester
and thence east of kolomea to the Car
pathians.
May Check Russians.
Granted that this thing takes places.
and it is the thing that the Austrians
and Germans are moving heaven and
earth to bring about, the new front of
the central powers will follow the old
from the Baltic to the Pripet marshes
| thence it will curve markedly inward
toward Kovel; thence it will run
straight again to the Carpathians.
If this takes place we shall then see
the check of the Russian offensive. As
a result of this drive the Russians will
have taken some 100000 prisoners and
an enormous mass of guns and NUM-
ton; they will have cleared the Aus
TRANS out of several thousand square
miles of Russian territory and conquer
ed several more thousands in the Aus
trian provinces of Galicia and the en-
virons of Riga. In other words shaken
the whole of the Austro-German front
in the east and they will not have COM
PEELED any considerable withdrawal on
the part of the Germans between Pinsk
and the environs of Riga. In other
words. the Russians will have won
great local victory. but they will not
have repeated the success of the Ger
mans last summer, when they were
able to turn their victory at the Duna-
jec into an advance for several hun
dreds of miles along the whole eastern
front
The Russian Hope.
So much for the German and Austrian
PLAN which is to limit the Russian in
undation by building a dixie behind the
breaks and holding on at the center be-
tween the two breaks until the new