The Washington herald., 1918-02-28
Stubborn Resistance with
Guerrilla Warfare Offered
by the Bolsheviists.
PEACE PARLEYS BEGIN
Petrograd May Prove White
Elephant for Invading
German Forces.

soose-stepping parade toward Pet
rograd. Moscow and kiev has
ceased. The advance continues.
but il is no longer an excursion.
The Russian soldier mobs have
turned guernllas. They are offer
ing stiff resistance all along the
hne and have defeated invading
advance guards in three violent
combats, yielding only when the
German main forces made a fur
ther stand futile by numbers and
organization.
Behind the Russian lines work.
>ers are flocking to the revolution
ary defense by the thousands.
Belgium Repeated. =
The new peace parleys at Brest-
Litovsk are about to begin. But
Germany having refused an armis-
tiee until peace is signed and all
conditions met, the Bolshevist gov
ernment has determined to oppose
to the Kaiser's military machine as
dangerous a mob of home defend
ers as has ever flung itself in the
teeth of invasion.
Belgium is to be repeated on a
Russian scale. Lenine and his con-
ferees defy the Germans to come
and get them and plan to give them
a chase across the vast Muscovite
land, il necessary in to the Ural or
even Siberia, with the invaders
eoThmunioations ever Iengthening
and, according to Lenine's conVic-
ton. the opposition of the German
masses ever growing
In the Reichstag today this oppo-
sition flared up menacingly when
Philip Schiedemann, the majority
Socialist leadey. attacked the new
Eastern campaign. fatty declaring
the governments Russian policy is
not ours" To the BOlshevEd this
came as a message of good cheer
from the German proletariat, upon
their own and Russia's fate.
Incidentally, after asserting a peace
by understanding. not by force. was
one solution in the East. Scheidemann
said his party welcomes Won Hert-
ing's declarations regarding Belgium
and President Wilson's speech.
Tension Relieved.
The tension that set in with yes
terday's news that the Germans were
only eight hours fast rail time from
PetrOgrad after the occupation of
Pskoff, has been considerably relieved
In the last twenty-four hours mainly
by the reports of the stiffening Of
BolsheVist resistance. Still all dis
patches from well-informed COR
respondents in the Russian capital
repeat today that if the Germans
really want to take Petrograd they
can do 50, since the remnants of the
Russian armies, those that are trained
and organized and not amateurs like
most OF the Red Guards, openly refuse
to fight
But the question asked on all sides
Is, Once the Germans have Petro-
grad, what are they going to do with
t? There lies the crux Of Trotzky's
M
very weakness lies our strength" By
taking Petrograd the Germans would
impose upon themselves the necessity
Of so. moving far eastward from their
present positions in the south and uI-
tlmately Of taking Moscow. The guer-
rtlla warfare which, unless peace is
made, they will have to face sooner
or later on tremendous scale, they
would rather meet with short than
with long communications behind
them, IL is argued.
Nor are signs lacking that the Ger
mans well realizing this, mean to
stop short once Esthonia and Livonia
are cleared and the Bolshevist men
ace to the Ukraine Is removed.
The new progress recorded by the
Berlin war office today shows that in
the north no further advance toward
Petrograd has been registered, but
that the Germans are rather engaged
with clearing the Baltic border lands
OF Russians. In this process, in the
region north Of Dorpal, two Russian
regiments were taken prisoners.
Advance Checked.
In the south the invaders occupied
the towns of Berditchefr and Kre-
A@NhCe1s ONA OAlg dllSE NlOlenI COM
oats and temporary reverses. Ber-
sditchoff lies thirty-ffve miles south OF
Zhitomir and Kremenetz Is some thir-
" miles from the Hungarian border.
Probably the sharpest reverse was
inflicted upon them as they approach
ed Vitebsk, 300 miles south Of Petro-
grad. Their advance forces were hurled
back eighteen miles as they were
about to enter Orsha. thirty miles
south OF Vitebsk. Upon the latter city
another German force was moving
from the north, so that the Red
Guards were later forced 10 yield. In
their retreat the Russians blew up a
bridge over the Berzina.
Indications from the latest advices
concerning the German forward nrove-
ment II that their object is to estab-
lish themselves upon ar almost
straight line from the Baltic to the
Black Sea. with these places as the
chief points Of support:
Narva, on the innish gulf, seventy
five miles from Petrograd.
Psko1. on the railroad to Petro-
grad. ls2 miles from the capital.
Polotsk. sixty miles west-northwest
Of vitebsk.
Borisov. thirty-eight miles northeast
Of Mlnsk. or Mohilev. -1s miles due
east OF RIinsk.
Kiev. capital OF Ukrania, 100 miles
southwest of Moscow.