The Russians in Transylvania

* Cologne, 26 February. Ten thousand Russians are in Transylvania.
No. 232, 27 February 1849
Neue Rheinische Zeitung.

There is no more denying it, all hushing up and covering over have become impossible; the fact is there, the Viennese *Official Gazette* itself admits it.

These, then, were the mighty victories of the imperial mercenaries, this is the result of all the pompous Welden’s, Windischgrätz’s, Schlick’s, Puchner’s bulletins: that the whole of great and mighty Austria, in order to finish with the four and a half million Magyars, must call in the Russians for help!

Let us, at this new turn in Hungarian affairs, survey once more the state of the war as depicted by the latest news.

The territory occupied at this moment by the Magyars under Kossuth forms a large quadrilateral 70–90 miles long and 30–40 miles wide, bounded in the north and west by the Theiss, in the east by the Carpathians, in the south by the Maros. On an area of 2,500 square miles it embraces the plains of Central Hungary and the mountainous regions of Transylvania. In addition, Komorn on the upper Danube is still in the hands of the Hungarians.

In the south, where the Magyars have always been weakest, the Austrians, Slavonians and Austrian Serbs, with the help of Turkish Serbs and disguised Russians, have succeeded in pressing the Magyars back beyond the Maros. Here an engagement took place near Arad, during which the Austrians advanced to the northern (right) bank of the Maros, according to their own account gained a victory, captured 15 pieces of siege artillery mounted against Arad, but likewise, according to their own statement, recrossed the Maros. So far as we have yet learned, they have not succeeded in breaking through the line of the Maros,

and as long as this does not happen, there can be no question of the great expedition that Rukawina is supposed to make against Grosswardein and Transylvania.

In the west and north-west the Theiss, with its overflowing waters and boundless swamps, forms a covering line for the Magyars that is almost unassailable. Hitherto, as long as the Russians took no part in the struggle, this was the decisive centre of the theatre of war. Once Windischgrätz was in Debreczin, the war was dissolved into mere guerrilla warfare. The Magyars knew this, and for that reason their main army offered no serious resistance anywhere as far as the Theiss. For them it was only a question of holding out until the frost, which allowed the imperial troops to cross all rivers and swamps as on firm ground and which delivered Pesth and Ofen almost without the possibility of resistance into their hands, was over. While the main army thus slowly fell back, the two wings, thrust forward in the north into the Slovak counties and in the south between the Drave and the Danube, held out as long as they could, forced the enemy army to divide, and finally retreated, the one through the Carpathians towards the Theiss, the other across the Danube upon the Banat army.

Only the crass ignorance of German news-scribblers sold to Austria, who have never had a map in their hands or followed a strategic operation, could see in this masterly plan, based on precise knowledge and survey of the terrain, nothing but—cowardice, pure cowardice on the part of the Magyars. People with some intelligence and knowledge would at least have lied and boasted a little less absurdly than the mass of German daily liars grown grey under censorship, corruption and gross ignorance.

Success has shown how skilfully the Magyars operated. Six weeks passed before the first imperial soldier of the main army caught sight of the Theiss, and if the river was still frozen at that time, the battles of Szolnok, of Czegled, of Tarczal and Tokaj showed the Austrians how the Hungarians fight when they offer serious resistance. Ottinger hurled back as far as Czegled, Schlick as far as Boldogkö-Varalya, and a general lament, on the part of all the court-martial organs so far intoxicated with victory, over the sudden, unexpected resistance of the Magyars—those were the first fruits of the “victorious” advance of the Austrians to the Theiss.

Then came the thaw, the Magyars fell back across the Theiss, and the drift of ice prevented the imperial forces from following them. The drift of ice ceased, but not the flooding and swamping

of both banks for a distance of many miles. The imperial forces stood helpless before the swamps and the raging torrent, and none dared cross, although Windischgrätz dispatched reinforcement after reinforcement from Pesth. But the Magyars ventured across, for we recently hear all at once that Miskolcz, four miles this side of the Theiss, is again in their hands, and as we shall see later, the k.k. official reports have done more than confirm this.

While Windischgrätz, Jellachich and Schlick were thus glad enough to be able to hold their positions, Nugent in the south was battling with Damjanich and Götz, and Simunich and Csorich in the north with Görgei. In the south, where the Hungarian Banat army had already been pressed back, the Austrians succeeded in dissolving the cut-off corps of Damjanich into guerrillas, which still keep a considerable body of troops in check between the Drave, the Danube and the Bakony Forest. In the north, on the other hand, Görgei, one of the most audacious and rapid of partisan leaders, maintained himself in the Slovak counties with a bold guerrilla war on a grand scale and through a series of brilliant actions against three whole army corps for two full months. While the k.k. bulletins annihilated him countless times, he always reappeared in the field, hurled back one Austrian general after another, prevented their junction by rapid marches and ever-repeated attacks, and only the fall of Leopoldstadt decided his retreat before a force three to four times his superior. He fell back into the High Carpathians, struck such terror into the imperial troops that all Galicia was placed under arms, threw himself into the Zips, and from there towards Eperies and Kaschau. Here he stood in the rear of Schlick. The latter, cut off from Windischgrätz by the Magyar corps pushed forward to Miskolcz and now in danger of being completely surrounded from three sides, hastily fell back in a north-westerly direction, with the intention of uniting at Leutschau with Götz and his associates. Suddenly “strong enemy detachments” advance across the Theiss at Polgar and Tisza-Füred, join the Miskolcz column and advance upon Rima-Szombath, i.e. between Windischgrätz and Schlick. Thereby the latter is forced to change his whole plan, to abandon Götz to his fate in the Carpathians, and to forestall the Magyars’ main column at Rima-Szombath by a forced march in a south-westerly direction.

Through this masterfully combined manoeuvre of the Magyars, Schlick is thrown back into Slovakia, Götz isolated in the High Carpathians, the junction of Görgei with the Magyar main army assured, and the entire north-eastern part of Hungary freed from the imperial troops.

All these events, which took place from 10–14 Februar, are admitted in the Viennese *Official Gazette* itself. In the other howling organs of the Austrian and German press, too, a remarkable lowering of tone has set in of late. Not to speak of the mourning of our immediate neighbours, the *A.A.Z.* is compelled to admit today: “The struggle may drag on for some time yet; the country is too large and the insurgents have good leaders in the Poles.”

And now even the *Constitutionelles Blatt aus Böhmen*: “The news from Hungary which has arrived here up to today bears the most varied character. That from the south is decidedly favourable to our arms, that from the north decidedly unfavourable.”

And in another article: “If we survey the latest facts in Hungary in the various journals of decidedly conservative colouring, it seems to us that a slight rising and falling surge has set in in the successes of the imperial army.”

“The capture of Kaschau by Görgey is likewise not calculated to make us believe in the dissolution of the Magyar army, in its annihilation and dispersal, and in the end of the war which at the beginning of this year was described as imminent.”

It “remains ever difficult to explain how, given well-ordered combinations and geographically correct manoeuvres such as we are entitled to expect of so superbly organised and led an army, it is possible for isolated Magyar bodies of troops to move with not inconsiderable forces in the line of operations, indeed behind it, and to concentrate again upon points from which we believed them driven for the whole duration of the campaign.”

Thus the matter stands in the north-west. It is no longer a question of defending the Theiss line against the Austrians; it is a question for the Austrians of not letting themselves be thrown back into Slovakia and beyond the Danube. For a week now, not the Austrians but the Hungarians have been the attackers.

And finally, in the south-east, in Transylvania? Here the bulletins had Bem beaten once and again by Puchner; here the “rebels” appeared to be completely ruined. All at once the Viennese *Gazette* brings the following official lament:

“Since the bloody victory which the commanding general, Freiherr v. Puchner, gained over a three times stronger enemy near Hermannstadt on 21 January, the troops held fast there for the defence of this city have unfortunately been unable to prevent their communication with the

Banat and Carlsburg were cut off by the enemy, who raged like Vandals throughout the entire surrounding area, seizing all supplies of foodstuffs and slaughter livestock and, together with the other objects he plundered, having them conveyed to the assembly point at Klausenburg.

In consequence of the resulting shortages on our side, the lamentations and entreaties of the flourishing capitals of the loyal Saxon land, Kronstadt and Hermannstadt, became ever louder and more urgent. Already earlier, these towns, threatened by the rapacious and faithless Szekler hordes, had in their distress approached the Russian General von Lüders, commanding in Wallachia, with a request for possible assistance. Now, when every prospect of the early arrival of reinforcements vanished through the interruption of all communications with the imperial main army operating in Hungary, when the enemy daily attracted new rebel bands and when, by his deceptive pretences, he had succeeded in once more inciting the whole Szekler people to breach of faith and armed uprising, Feldmarschall-Lieutenant von Puchner was besieged on all sides with entreaties to call in Russian support, so that the most prosperous part of the loyal Saxon land should not also be delivered over to ruin and the blind destructive fury of bloodthirsty robber hordes.

Penetrated by the necessity of attacking the rebel chief Bem before he became too powerful through the rebel bands joining him from several sides, and on the other hand rendered unable, with his weak forces, to at once confront the enemy and protect the Saxon land from the devastations of the Szeklers, Feldmarschall-Lieutenant von Puchner believed that he must heed the voice of humanity and take into consideration the joint petition of the Wallachian and Saxon nations for the calling in of Russian help, although he was not authorised to do so by the imperial government. To this end he assembled a council of war at Hermannstadt on 1 February. Right at the close of this conference, a courier from Kronstadt brought the official news that the armed Szekler hordes, 15,000 strong, had crossed the frontiers of their country, and that consequently the greatest danger was imminent for the rich commercial emporium of Kronstadt, directly threatened with certain destruction by these bands."

There is much that might be said about this k. k. miserere. But it is not necessary; from every line there peers forth the battered consciousness, the shame of being unable to continue lying and of having to renounce all previous boastings.

This, then, was the gist of the official bulletins and the Magyar ‘swagger’! The Magyars attacking and advancing on the Theiss, the Austrians checked on the Maros, Transylvania irretrievably lost to the imperial cause unless the Russians intervene!

And there exists a literary lumpenproletariat, cowardly, day-by-day lying fireside souls in Germany, who dare to vilify these Magyars as cowards—this people of heroes, a couple of millions strong, which drives the whole great Austria, the entire proud ‘total monarchy’, so utterly to the wall that Austria is lost without the Russians!

“This circumstance,” the shamefaced official report continues, “this circumstance had a decisive effect on the resolution of the council of war, which resulted in the calling in of Russian assistance for the protection of Hermannstadt and Kronstadt. In consequence of the request accordingly made by Feldmarschall-Lieutenant von Puchner, 6,000 men of imperial Russian troops entered Kronstadt on 1 February, and on 4 February a further 4,000 men entered Hermannstadt for the duration of the threatening danger.”

And as to how many Russians are taking part in the struggle against the Magyars, we shall await the next ‘Magyar swagger’ on that point. The further successes of Puchner that are reported, insignificant as they are, would, judging from everything that has gone before, never have been achieved without Russian auxiliary troops.

Let the reader hear—and let him not forget that the 24th Bulletin, issued the evening before, presents these advantages gained on the 4th–7th as having been won solely by the imperial troops, and is completely silent about the entry of the Russians!

As is known, Bem was at Stolzenburg. From here Puchner drove him on the 4th to Mühlenbach (where he claims to have captured 16 cannon), on the 6th to Szászváros, on the 7th to Déva. Bem is still standing here.

Assuming this is correct, Puchner could never have succeeded in driving back a commander like Bem—who crossed Transylvania from one end to the other several times with the greatest speed and was far superior to him, the perpetually defeated Austrian—by 12 miles in four days, unless it were through the most crushing superiority of numbers, through Russian auxiliary troops and Russian staff officers, who in any case are worth more than these old-fashioned Austrians.

If Bem really is at Déva, his plan is clear. He has withdrawn from Mühlenbach down to the Maros; he intends for the time being to leave Transylvania to the Austrians, who have enough on their hands with the Szekler guerrilla bands, and to march down the Maros towards Arad, drive the Serbs back into the Banat, and advance on Kossuth’s left wing. That Puchner will pursue him is out of the question for the present. On the other hand, Gläser at Arad and Rukavina at Temesvár will very soon hear from Bem, and before eight days are out we shall probably hear how the indefatigable Pole is operating against Szegedin and Windischgrätz’s right wing. At least, no other conclusions can be drawn from the direction he has taken.

Without the Russians, Puchner would have been annihilated and Transylvania subjugated in a few days. The Szeklers and Magyars of the country itself sufficed to keep the Saxons and Wallachians in check. Bem could have pursued as a victor the direction he is now taking in his retreat, united with Kossuth and Dembinski, and thereby decided the campaign. Victory was certain for their combined forces; Pesth would have been taken in a few days; and—on the fifteenth of March Dembinski would indeed have been in Vienna.

Then the Russians march in and throw the weight of the tsarist empire into the scales on the side of Austria—and that naturally decides the matter.

These, then, are the heroic deeds of these courageous knights of martial law, these Windischgrätzes, Jellachiches, Nugents and Schlicks! With the whole might of Austria to descend upon a small people of four and a half million from eight sides, to call to one’s aid Turkish Croats, Bosnians and Serbs, and yet in the end, as soon as that small people has gathered its forces and driven the traitors from its own camp, to be defeated on every point!

Glorious laurels indeed, which the invincible Windischgrätz conquers with the help of Russian reinforcements! Splendid victories, which the alliance of the entire European barbarism wins over the outermost outpost of European civilisation!

Admittedly, no one could have guessed that the finest point in Windischgrätz’s grandiose campaign plan, the great commander’s last strategic trump card, was—the appeal to the Russians! And yet, one could have known: have the Austrians ever been victorious in any other way?

But the Magyars, the last unshaken fighters of the 1848 Revolution, will perhaps fall like the June heroes of Paris, like the October fighters of Vienna, crushed by the superior forces that now once more surround them on all sides. Whether the war against them ends quickly or slowly will depend upon the greater or lesser participation of the Russians. And if in the meantime we West Europeans persevere in our apathetic calm, if we oppose nothing but passive resistance and impotent sighs to the infamous treachery with which the Russians fall upon our Magyar brothers, then the Magyars are lost and—our turn will come next!

And in truth, the invasion of Transylvania by the Russians is the most infamous treachery, the most base violation of international law that has ever occurred in history. What is the open coalition of the despots in 1792, what is the quiet connivance of the German powers with Russia in the Polish war, what is the partition of Poland itself compared with this cowardly, perfidious, behind-the-back throttling of a small heroic people carried out with truly Russian perfidy; what are all the infamies of English, Russian and Austrian policy hitherto in comparison with this nameless ignominy!

Austria wages a war of suppression against the Magyars, Russia falls upon them from behind, and Prussia stands at the frontier, warrants in its hand, to seize the fugitives and deliver them up to their hangmen. One year after the European revolution, on 21 February 1849, the Holy Alliance stands before us again, complete and ready, in all its infamy of martial-law banditry and police villainy!

Admittedly, this is what we have come to. Such things are dared in the face of all Europe, and all Europe dares not lift a finger. The official French Republic secretly rejoices and likewise wishes, for the better extermination of the anarchists, to border on Russia. Why else did we, in France as in Germany, show so much magnanimity, noble-mindedness, forbearance and good nature after the revolution, if we did not intend that the bourgeoisie should once more raise its head and betray us, that calculated counter-revolution should place its foot upon our necks!

But only have patience! The ‘Hydra of the Revolution’ is not yet stifled—look at Italy—the power of the paid bayonets is not yet the last decisive power of history! Only patience! The day is coming, and coming soon, when a new revolution will make its bloody progress through Europe, a revolution which, instead of prostrating itself in worship before the mere phrase of the republic or haggling over pitiful ‘March achievements’, will not lay down its sword until vengeance has been taken for all the treachery and all the infamy of the last nine months.

Then we shall demand an accounting of all those who have permitted and supported this disgraceful betrayal of our Magyar fellow fighters, and then, despite the Russians, we shall hew Hungary and Poland free nonetheless!