Word: tannenberg
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...armies into East Prussia. Both were ill-equipped, underfed and hampered from headquarters by more than the usual complement of careerist nitwits, blockheaded aristocrats and plain cowards familiar in the literature of military debacle. In the resulting battle, the Russian Second Army, lumbering westward in the vicinity of Tannenberg, was enveloped by the Germans. More than 90,000 prisoners were taken. In a few days, despite great courage shown by many Russian regiments and officers, the Second Army ceased to exist. Its brave but confused commander, General Alexander Samsonov, committed suicide. The Russian General Staff quickly covered its own criminal...
...takes place on the night of Aug. 29, 1914, after the rout of the Russians at Tannenberg. The Russian commander, General Alexander Samsonov (an actual historical figure), walks through the dense Prussian forests with the remnants of his staff. "He had only wanted what was good," writes Solzhenitsyn, "but it all turned out extremely badly." This is one of the novelist's principal themes?that good intentions are not enough to make the world a better place...
...part of a trilogy on a subject that has haunted Solzhenitsyn all his life: Russia's role in the war against Germany in 1914. The work is intended as a memorial to his father, an artillery officer in the Czarist army who participated in the disastrous battle of Tannenberg in East Prussia in August 1914. As an artillery captain in World War II, Solzhenitsyn passed through Tannenberg, but he was not around to savor the eventual Russian victory. In February 1945, Solzhenitsyn was arrested for writing barely veiled criticism of Stalin in letters to a friend, and sentenced...
...point out that in your Feb. 9 review of Historian Barbara Tuchman's new book, The Guns of August, an inaccurate statement is made: "General Erich Ludendorff routed the Russians at Tannenberg before his reinforcements arrived." For some years, I have been teaching my classes that it was General Paul von Hindenburg who fulfilled the dream of his life in leading an army against an enemy in East Prussia, an area he knew as well as his own estate. With Ludendorff as his chief of staff, Hindenburg proceeded to set the trap for the advancing Russian army...
...Historian Tuchman argues that as the commander of the forces that routed the Russians at Tannenberg, Hindenburg became the hero of the nation, lauded all out of proportion to his real role in the battle. It was actually his chief of staff, Ludendorff, who personally directed and deployed the troops. Hindenburg fully approved of Ludendorff's strategies. The two worked closely together throughout World War I. When Hindenburg was made a field marshal he was nicknamed "Marshal Was-sagst-du" because whenever he was asked an opinion, he would turn to Ludendorff and query, "Was sagst du?" (What...