RUSSIAN INVASION.— SERBS.— 
PROSPECTS FOR THE AUSTRIANS.— 
FROM THE THEATRE OF WAR 

There is absolutely no fresh news from the war theatre. But from 
all quarters reports are arriving which confirm our report of 
yesterday about the bad situation in which the imperial troops find 
themselves everywhere, except in Transylvania freed with the help 
of the Russians.* As proof we are reproducing below a dispatch from 
the Pressburg correspondent of the Breslauer Zeitung and the 
concluding paragraphs of the “Reports of a Hungarian” from the 
Allgemeine Oder-Zeitung. 

The Austrians have without any doubt only reluctantly decided to 
appeal to the Russians. It is crystal-clear that the Russian invasion is 
bound to give a new impetus to the pan-Slavist movements of the 
Czechs and the Southern Slavs. These nationalities who have for a 
long time been used to look to the Tsar as their natural patron and 
ultimate liberator, are now receiving striking proof that Austria has 
neither the power nor the will to ensure their national development. 
And now for the first time the Russian Tsar? enters upon the stage, 
acts for them at the decisive moment and confirms with deeds the 
hopes which they place in him. Thus the Tsar now appears before 
the Austrian Serbs, Croats, Czechs etc. as the supreme protector of 
the Slav nationality as he did previously before the Turkish Serbs. 
And that the Slav national aspirations can be as menacing for the 
Austrian “united monarchy” as the armed resistance of the Magyars 
we have seen repeatedly. 

With the Russian invasion of Transylvania the Tsar has taken a 
new step towards the realisation of pan-Slavism. He has proclaimed 

* See this volume, pp. 432 and 453-55.— Ed. 
» Nicholas I.—Ed. 

Russian Invasion.— Serbs.— Prospects for the Austrians 441 

the alliance of the Russians and the Austrian Slavs and made himself 
the de facto sovereign of the Austrian Slavs. The others are of course 
already under his sway. The Poles are his servants, the Turkish Slavs 
his vassals, and now he poses as the protector of the Austrian Slavs 
too. Only one more step and Austria falls completely under his 
suzerainty just like Turkey. At this price the “united monarchy” 
saves itself for a few months from destruction at the hands of the 
revolution! 

At a people’s assembly at Mitrowitz in the Banat the Serbs 
proclaimed the Patriarch* supreme ruler of their nation and 
Stratimirovich a rebel, declaring martial law against all enemies of 
the Emperor. The Patriarch who in Temesvar directs the affairs of 
the Voivodina, together with Todorovich and the Serbian deputies, 
is said to confirm these resolutions. At the battle of Arad the very 
popular Serbian Major Jovanovich fell into the hands of the 
Magyars. The following shows that the Magyars were in any case not 
defeated as decisively in this battle as the bulletins alleged. The 
Patriarch offered to the Magyar General Damjanich (who thus, as we 
incidentally learn, was fortunate enough to reach the Banat army 
across the Danube and the Theiss) to exchange Jovanovich against 
200 Magyars. Damjanich replied that as far as he knew the Serbs 
did not have 200 Magyar prisoners in their hands! The Serbs, by the 
way, are arming on some scale in Serbia as within the Banat. In the 
Serbian principality a national convention” has been summoned and 
is discussing the mobilisation of 1,000 auxiliary troops in each of the 
country’s 18 districts. 

So that one should see what a small and nationally mixed country 
the new Serbian Voivodina is and how absurd the pretensions of the 
pan-Slavists are to create small Slav states in all corners of Hungary, 
we give the following statistical notes from the Belgrade Serbske 
Noviny: 

“The Voivodina comprises territorially the following: 1. the Sirmische comitat‘, 2. 
the Peterwardein regiment, 3. the comitat of Bacs, 4. the battalion of the Tchaikists,°°° 
5. the comitat of Torontal, 6. the former German Banat regiment (now named 
Pancsova regiment), 7. the former Illyrian Banat regiment (now called Weisskirchen 
regiment) and the comitat of Temesvar. The area totals 719 square miles, with 75 
towns and market centres, 706 villages, 221,182 houses and 1,605,808 inhabitants. 
The inhabitants can be divided according to their national origin into 917,916 Serbs, 

26,200 Slovaks, 13,000 Bulgarians, 283,000 Wallachians, 278,400 Germans, 6,160 
French and 81,132 Magyars. Of the inhabitants 877,620 are Greek Orthodox, 627,994 

* Rajachich.— Ed. 

> Skupstina.— Ed. 

© This comitat, like the Peterwardein regimental district, was part of the Military 
Border Area.— Ed. 

Roman Catholics, 12,494 United Catholics, 46,311 Lutherans, 30,642 Calvinists, 17 
Arians °°” and 10,730 Jews. The Catholic Southern Slavs are included among the 
917,916 Serbs. The former border regiment of the Wallachian Banat remains outside 

the territory of the Voivodina, and will be incorporated into Transylvanian Rumania 
(Wallachia).” 

This small so-called national Serbian country thus contains 
700,000 Germans, Wallachians, Magyars etc. compared with 900,000 
Serbs. And the 900,000 Serbs are not even all Serbs but include also 
the “Catholic Southern Slavs”, that is the Shokazians*** of Syrmien 
and of the comitat of Bacs, who are not Serbs at all. And this is 
supposed to be a nation with national needs and above all the need to 
be separate from Hungary! 

We now give the report of the Breslauer Zeitung: 

“Pressburg, February 18. The wet and stormy weather has made the notorious 
roads of our country so bottomless that the large army corps can move forward only 
with untold difficulties, and the heavy artillery and other heavy vehicles are indeed 
getting stuck. Under these circumstances the numerous Hungarian patrol-corps 
are gaining one advantage after the other and the Austrian army is being fooled in a 
variety of ways. The commander-in-chief of the latter* seems indeed to have become 
impatient and would very much like to lead a major attack, for which purpose he has 
dispatched large forces in the direction of Szolnok. As a result the rumour circulates 
that a serious encounter has taken place there and that the Magyars have been thrown 
back beyond the Theiss.— One can, however, entertain a certain suspicion concerning 
these reports because the Hungarians are at present too well led not to make use of the 
golden opportunity to draw the enemy into the marshes of the Theiss and to destroy 
him there without any great difficulty. The many patrol-corps which spring up every- 
where in Lower Hungary will not fail to harass him on all sides if he should advance too 
far,cut off his suppliesandcapture and destroy any troops which move away from 
the main army. In a certain sense the war in lower Hungary can be compared with 
Napoleon’s campaign in Russia, and if the Austrian army should advance too far it could 
meet with fate similar to that of the French at the time.— Under these circumstances 
Windischgratz will be in a difficult position. To act quickly and secure with one decisive 
blow a change of fortune for his cause is virtually impossible, but if he hesitates the 
strength of the Magyars will continue to grow. Capitulation is said to have been 
offered but the Magyars have declined with disdain.— If we cast a glance at the map 
we shall see that the Austrian army, despite its advances and its reported victories, is 
surrounded by large and small formations of the Magyar army as if by a net. From the 
borders of Styria via the Plattensee to Esseg in Croatia the country appears to have 
been conquered but everywhere there are patrol-corps which seriously molest the 
Austrians. 

“On the other side, that is from the Danube to the Carpathians, things are no 
better. One becomes convinced of this when one reads the reports of the Austrians 
being driven hither and thither through constant engagements. Here the Hungarian 
patrol-corps have a particularly suitable terrain, and most of the inhabitants, even 
the majority of the Slovaks, secretly side with them. Only this explains how the Magyars 
can continue to make their sallies far into Galicia almost with impunity. In the east the 

* Windischgratz.— Ed. 
b Lake Balaton.— Ed. 

Russian Invasion.— Serbs.— Prospects for the Austrians 443 

Theiss is the great barrier which protects the Magyars, and wherever the Austrians 
have attempted to push across they have always been thrown back with losses. 

“If it should come to a major battle, and if the Austrians should lose it, as they 
possibly might, then their retreat would be a very dangerous one. For they could well 
fear that the people would rise up everywhere. The commander-in-chief does not 
seem to conceal the precariousness of his situation.” 

The following is the end of the “Reports of a Hungarian” from 
the Allgemeine Oder-Zeitung.* This could also serve as proof how little 
“exaggerated” the Magyar reports are. 

“Thanks to Kossuth’s clever measures all the youth of Pest has gone off to 
Debreczin. People with detailed knowledge of events on the other side of the Theiss 
say that the Hungarian army is 120,000-150,000 strong, commanded by three capable 
Polish generals’ and supported by a considerable contingent of artillery and that in 
case of need it could be augmented by the 100,000-strong Hungarian Landsturm. The 
well-known Rosa with his troops occupies the forest of Bakony. 

“The Austrians put three bridges across the Theiss, one near Szolnok, one near 
Tiszaftired and the third near Zibok, which the Hungarians used to cross the river 
and to defeat the enemy on the 11th inst. 

“Order and the strictest discipline rule throughout the Hungarian army, especially 
since the Polish generals have assumed supreme command. The comitats on the other 
side of the Theiss are resolved to defend themselves to the last man and the majority 
of the young men who fled to Debreczin on the entry of the Austrians into Pest have 
joined the Hungarian army, whose soldiers range from 17 to 40, and even 60 years of 
age, all inspired with love for their country. 

“Kossuth, I hear from reliable sources, recently made in Debreczin a speech, such 
as has never been heard before. 

“The hall was filled with deputies and other persons, the gallery with ladies; he 
made the deputies and all present swear to stand by him in the struggle against 
Austria. All hands rose to take the oath. A long silence followed this taking of the oath, 
then he pronounced in a strong voice just these words: ‘Now the fatherland is 
saved.’ 

“The majority of royal imperial troops who were stationed in Pest and Buda were 
withdrawn in the direction of Erlau and Czegléd and only about 4,000 men 
remained. There was talk of the headquarters of Prince Windischgratz being moved 
to Erlau. In spite of the great victories which the Austrians claimed to have won but 
which in fact the Hungarians won, they did not fail to train the cannon of the fortress 
of Buda on the town of Pest. An order was given to the inhabitants of the fortress to 
lay in provisions for themselves for three months. Those who were unable to do so 
were to leave their homes. 

“Why all these fearful preparations, in absolute contradiction to the absurd news 
according to which the Austrian army operates now near Debreczin, now in 
Transylvania! Even the soldiers are demoralised. Officers and soldiers complain 
loudly that they have been forced to take up arms against the Hungarians, who have 
not done them any harm. The most stupid and at the same time the most cruel are the 
Bohemians. 

“The former Prime Minister, Count Louis Batthyany, was interrogated fourteen 
times and refused fourteen times to answer, saying: ‘I was a Minister and I shall 

* See this volume, pp. 427-28.— Ed. 
 Henryk Dembinski, Jozef Bem and Jézef Wysocki.— Ed. 

only answer when summoned before a tribunal of Hungarian magnates.’ Generals 
Moga and Hrabovsky, two old men whose life was without blemish, were sentenced 
to twenty years confinement in a fortress; Count Lasar, son-in-law of General 
Moga and colonel of the Honvéd,”°? was to be executed but the magnanimous 
Prince Windischgrätz commuted his sentence to 10 years imprisonment in chains, 
loss of his title of nobility and dismissal in disgrace from the army!!”