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ammunition, which was becoming more and more felt on
the Russian side, ended by shattering our resistance.
Gradually Poland and Eastern Galicia were evacuated,
Warsaw was occupied by the Germans, and towards
October, 1915, the Russian retreat abandoned to the
enemy Volhynia, Lithuania as far as Baranovitchi
(former G.H.Q. of the Grand-Duke Commander-in-Chief),
and the whole of Courland as far as the Dvina and the
outskirts of Riga. The inconceivable exodus of millions
of the inhabitants of the invaded provinces plunged
these poor wretches into awful suffering and unheard-of
calamities, and their miserable appearance and terrible
tales increased, in the towns of Central Russia, the
complaints and criticism evoked by our reverses, by
the munition crisis, and by the reactionary policy of
exalted Government circles. In October we knew or
we understood that the Russian army in Lithuania had
been on the brink of a disaster, that the Guard and some
army corps had been almost annihilated, and that only
the skill of Alexeieff and the splendid spirit still
prevailing in the ranks had averted the catastrophe, and to
a certain extent re-established the balance of power.
Of course all these events encouraged the Swedish
Activists, and gave weight to their propaganda: German
ardour had in no way been damped by the reverses of
1914; Germany more than ever appeared invincible;
henceforth would it not be to Sweden’s interests to side
definitely with the German “brothers”? The agitation
mainly seized the Swedish military circles, who naturally
were enthusiastic about the great deeds of the war.
Sweden’s neutrality seemed to be in question again. But
mercifully it only seemed to be so.
In the first place, in the country itself, beginning with
the King and M. Wallenberg and ending with the good
and sturdy agricultural populations of the interior of
Sweden, the same aversion to the risks, horrors, and
devastation of war was apparent. And then the German
military command itself, although celebrating and
proclaiming its victories aloud, was inwardly aiming at one
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