The Siege of Przemysl (1914–1915) in the Russian Periodical Press; [Осада Перемышля (1914–1915 гг.) в русской периодической печати]

Russian periodical press materials are used to examine the siege of the Austrian fortress of Przemysl (1914–1915). Russian central and regional newspapers of the First World War period were used as materials, namely: “Soldatskii vestnik Petrogradskogo voennogo okruga”, “Voennyi telegraf” and “Voennyi vestnik” daily newspaper. The siege of Przemysl was covered on the pages of these newspapers in the period from December 2, 1914 to March 11, 1915. In conclusion, the authors state that the siege of any fortress is a matter that requires a significant amount of time or a significant amount of human and technical resources. In the first case, it is enough to simply qualitatively block the fortress and wait for surrender, and in the second – to participate in bloody and expensive assaults. In Przemysl, the Russian army, after an unsuccessful first attempt to seize the fortress, decided to act according to the scenario of a long-term siege. Despite the fact that the siege lasted a long time (from the end of October 1914 to the beginning of March 1915), in the media in 1914 very little was written about the siege of Przemysl. The information silence in the Russian periodical press was a consequence of the lack of active hostilities around the fortress, which was broken only when the Austrian garrison made unsuccessful attempts to break through. In January-February 1915, when the situation of the Austrian garrison became more and more doomed, more events began to take place around the fortress, some of which demonstrated defeatist sentiments among the Austrian soldiers. Finally, on March 9, 1915, the Przemysl fortress fell. Copyright © 2024 by Cherkas Global University.