The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1920-08-12
TROTzkY'S IN
COMMAND OF
RED OFFENSE
Supreme Red Commander In
Front of Warsaw Every
Available Man Rushed To
Defend Capital.
COMMUNISM SPREADS
BULLETIN!
,By Associated Press)

LONDON, Aug. IL RuSSion cav
airy has reached Pragua, suburb of
Warsaw, according to a wireless dis
patch received here from Berlin today.
The Poles have begun a counter
offensive with bayonets in the region
of Pultusk, 81 miles ncrth of Warsaw,
where the Russians have been striv-
ing to break the Polish defensive line.
WARSAW. Aug. 11.-Leon Trotzky,
Russian Bolshevik minister of war.
has arrived at Bialystok just behind
the Soviet front and has set up head
quarters there, according to news
from the other side of the battle
line.
Speaking in Wilma, the capital of
Lithuania, recently, he announced
Soviet Russia had been officially recog-
| nized by the western powers, and that
Nm. krassin and Kameneff, heads of
the Bolshevik commercial mission to
Great Britain, had been received at
London, with the ceremonial usually
accorded foreign ambassadors.
He asserted Bolshevism was more
powerful than ever and would soon
spread to- other countries
In year." he continued, "all Eu-
rope will be Bolsheviki.''
Soldiers Look to PiIIage.
Warsaw newspapers publish inter.
views with soldiers, who declare the
Bolsheviki advancing upon this city
claim they have come to exterminate
the bourgeoisie and distribute the
land among peasants.
1t is asserted they impartially pill
lage mansions, farms and cottages and
either forcibly enlist the men in the
country or send them to the rear.
In the Bialystok district the Boil
sheviki took a number of hostages,
threatening to shoot them If food sup
plies are not delivered to the soviet
army within specified time. =
/ 1t is said the country behind the
Bolshevik lines is suffering from
famine, as all grain has been requisi-
toned and sent eastward by the
Bolshevik authorities.
Prepares Line for Defeat.
Bolshevik prisoners say that the
| high command OF the soviet armies
| fears a reverse before Warsaw and is
hastily preparing positions on the line
| of Grodno, Slonim, and Sarny. to
which it can withdraw in case of de-
| feat.
| Hundreds of conveyances Of all de-
scriptions, loaded with barbed wire
and driven by boys and old men, are
! streaming through the Polish capital
! toward the battle front. Mingled with
| them along the roads are endless
| trains of supply wagons which are
guarded by elderly civilians armed
| with rifles.
All able-bodied men are being reliev-
! ed from other duties so that they may
be made available in the fight for the
defense of Warsaw.
WASHINGTON. Aug. II. - Polish
| forces defending Warsaw are outnum-
| bered about two and a half to one.
| Comprehensive details as to the Boil
sheviki military organization received
today In official circles here, place the
| ration strength of the soviet army on
the Polish front at $4,000 men. The
strength of the Poles has been esti
mated at 100000.
| The details as to the Bolsheviki
strength, which confirm in a large
part information already In the posses
sion of American military authorities
estimate that in rifle and saber
strength alone the soviet forces COM
! posing the northern army or that
north of the Pripet river consist of
$4,000 men. Bolshevist rifle and saber
strength south of the Pripet river in
the southern army is placed at $4,000
men.
Have Many Divisions In Line.
Soviet infantry divisions to the num-
ber of 26, the official details assert.
have been identified as facing the Pol
ish army in the front line with 13
divisions in reserve. In addition 10
cavalry divisions have been noted in
active operations at the front with
two such divisions in reserve.
Besides the 80 infantry divisions re-
ported on the Polish front, the Boil
sheviki are estimated to have scatter
ed in other parts of Russia 25 others,
as we'll as two cavalry divisions.
Contrary to previous reports, Gen
eral Sergius Kameneff and not Gen
eral Brusiloff, commands the entire
soviet forces on the Polish front In
an intercepted wireless dispatch sent
recently from Moscow by the soviet
government the report that General
Brusiloff, former commander of the
Russian Imperial armies against Ger
many, was in command of the soviet
army was characterized as 'the mis-
taken, Intentionally perverted idea
Continued on Page Twelve)