Before we enter upon these campaigns in the East it is well to
survey the countries to be invaded, to review the battle lines and
travel in these pages over the fighting ground.
The eastern theatre in the first six months of the war, from August
4, 1914, to February 1, 1915, includes the scenes of the fighting
in the historic Balkans and in the Caucasus. But the eastern front
proper is really that region where the Teutonic allies and the
Russians opposed each other, forming a fighting line almost a thousand
miles long. It stretches from rugged old Riga on the shores of the
Baltic Sea in the far north, down through Poland to the Carpathian
Mountains, touching the warm, sunlit hills on the Rumanian frontier.
When the total losses of the Great War are finally counted it will
probably be found that here the heaviest fighting has occurred.
This is the longest battle line in the world's history. Partly on
account of its great length, and partly because of the nature of
the country, we see the two gigantic forces in this region locked
together in their deadly struggle, swaying back and forth, first
one giving way, then the other. This was especially the case in
the northern section, along the German-Russian frontier.
[Illustration: THE WAR IN THE EAST--THE RELATION OF THE EASTERN
COUNTRIES TO GERMANY]
As we view the armies marshaling along this upper section, along
the Baltic shore, southward, including part of East Prussia as well
as Baltic Russia, we look upon the ancient abode of the Lithuanians,
supposed to be the first of the Slavic tribes to appear in Europe.
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