Fall of Przemyśl

On 22 March 1915 the fortress of Przemyśl capitulated. After more than four months of the second siege, after the failure of the relief offensive in the Carpathians and a failed attempt to break out of the encirclement, the starving garrison of General Hermann Kusmanek von Burgneustädten destroyed the fortifications and surrendered to the Russians. It was one of the largest capitulations of the war and the most painful defeat of the Habsburg monarchy in the first year of fighting.

Last orders

The fate of the fortress was sealed on 19 March. That day the Hungarian 23rd Honvéd Infantry Division tried to break out eastwards, towards Mościska, and was routed. Food was left for a few days, and there was no rescue from outside. With the consent of the high command Kusmanek decided to surrender the fortress, but not to hand it over to the Russians in a usable state. From 19 March files and money were burned, and stores, weapons and equipment destroyed. On 21 March Kusmanek signed an operational order requiring the forts and guns to be blown up, the rifles broken and everything that could be of use to the enemy destroyed.

On the evening of 21 March and during the night the fortress artillery opened fire with all its guns, getting rid of the last of its ammunition. According to Russian records about 37,000 shells fell on the besiegers’ positions that night. The Russians took it as preparation for another sortie.

Explosions at dawn

Early on 22 March sappers began blowing up the fortifications. Most accounts state that the main explosions came at about 6 a.m. An officer of the garrison, Lieutenant-Colonel Emil Rottenwald, recalled that at six o’clock sharp the forts went up into the air. Some inhabitants wrote in their diaries of explosions as early as the middle of the night. One after another the forts were destroyed, among them those at Siedliska, Optynia, Helicha, Duńkowiczki and Orzechowce, together with guns, ammunition depots and the radio station. According to Russian records all the bridges over the San and the Wiar were blown up except one wooden bridge near Krówniki. In the town window panes fell out, and smoke and the glow of fires hung over the fortress.

White flags

At about 7 a.m. the Russians noticed white flags on the fortifications. Soldiers were leaving their posts with small white flags. Two envoys, Lieutenant-Colonel Hubert and Colonel Martinek, rode out to the headquarters of the Russian commander, General Andrei Selivanov. According to Russian documents an envoy appeared on the Russian lines at about 8 a.m. on the eastern approaches of the fortress, near the village of Pleszowice. Selivanov demanded unconditional surrender and received it. According to some Polish studies the formal act of capitulation was delivered at Russian headquarters only at 6 a.m. the following day.

The first Russian troops, Cossacks, rode into the town on the morning of 22 March, at about 8–9 a.m., from the direction of Fort Helicha. Witnesses remembered the contrast between the well-fed horsemen and the emaciated, pale Austro-Hungarian soldiers. In the evening Russian cavalry and infantry occupied the defence sectors in the north and south of the fortress. Most of the besieging troops marched in over the following days.

Prisoners and spoils

According to the most frequently cited figures, 9 generals, 93 staff officers, about 2,500 other officers and about 117,000 NCOs and men went into captivity. The Russians gave higher figures, reaching 120,000–130,000. According to various estimates, between ten and thirty thousand civilians also remained in the town. Russian soldiers freed about 300 of their own men held prisoner in the fortress. The spoils, by contrast, were modest: most of the roughly thousand guns had been destroyed, and according to Russian figures fewer than fifty remained usable.

Long columns of prisoners set off eastwards. The Russians separated them by nationality and sent them into the interior of the empire, many as far as Turkestan. Kusmanek himself was held captive near Nizhny Novgorod and returned home only in 1918.

Echoes of victory

In Russia the news of the fall of Przemyśl was received with enormous joy. It was the Russian army’s greatest success since the victory in the Battle of Galicia in August and September 1914. That same day Tsar Nicholas II awarded Selivanov the Order of St George, 3rd class. It was an exceptional distinction, because the general had not previously held the 4th class, and the statutes required the classes to be awarded in order. In the Habsburg monarchy the fall of the fortress, which armies had been fighting to relieve in the Carpathians since January, was a blow to the morale of the army and the population.

The Russians did not enjoy their prize for long. At the end of April the tsar visited the fortress, but at the beginning of June 1915 German and Austro-Hungarian troops, having broken through the front at Gorlice, recaptured the ruined Przemyśl.