Caption: According to the headquarters of the commander in chief, after a seven day battle, our army took advanced and heavily fortified positions near L'viv, 15--20 versts east of the city, and approached the main L'viv forts. After very heavy fighting on August 19, the Austrians fled in disarray, leaving behind light and heavy guns, artillery supplies, and field kitchens. Our avant-garde troops and cavalry pursued the enemy, who suffered huge losses in dead, wounded, or taken prisoner. The Austrian forces dedicated to the L'viv front consisted of 3rd, 11th, and 12th corps and parts of 7th and 14th corps. They appear to be completely destroyed. When retreating from Hnyla Lypa, the enemy was forced to leave behind an additional 31 guns. Our troops found all the roads cluttered with artillery supplies, wagons, and other cargoes. The total number of weapons we captured in the L'viv area is about 150 guns.
I'm pretty sure my grandfather, who came from a tiny village south east of L'viv, fought, on the Austrian side, in this battle. This "Lubok" poster (part of a series, there are LOC copies with originals lodged at the British Museum) conveys something of the ghastliness and confusion of the battle.
And I'm pretty sure my grandmother, from another village not many miles from my grandfather's, was also engaged--as a child hidden, for months, in a barn with her older sister Takla and younger brother for company (neither of her siblings survived the war).
This poster series is titled "ВОЙНА РОССIИ сб НЫМЦАМИ"--Russia's War Against the Germans. But this gives the modern reader little idea of the national identity of those who were actually engaged on the Austro-Hungarian side in this conflict. Many of the soldiers (my grand-father included) were local conscripts.
I don't know a lot about this conflict; it's certainly never going to be a central study piece on my desk. But today I was looking for architectural records of the area. And what I found instead... were images of war.
Caption: After a fierce battle on August 18 and 19 near L'viv, the Austrian army was completely destroyed and forced to retreat. We captured 200 guns, wagons, and a great number of prisoners. On August 21, at 11:00 a.m., our gallant troops, who were pursuing the fleeing enemy, entered the city of L'viv.
First I saw the "German" side. It feels as if, circa 1914, the Germans (Austrians) were ahead of the game when it came to sending photographers to their battlefronts. And then the Russian side's images. My grandfather was a prisoner of war during this period. He was not well-treated. I look at the pictures with the outdated helmets and the dazed prisoners walking through unpaved village streets
And I feel sorry. And I hope, I utterly hope, not to experience this displacement in my own life, in that of my kids or, well really, nobody wants to experience war in their own fields, on their own soil.
Wounded German and Austrian soldiers pass a Galician village on their way to the army hospital train. 1914/15.