Siege of Przemysl (1914-1915): The Fall of a Habsburg Fortress

The siege of Przemyśl was the Russian investment of the great Austro-Hungarian fortress of Przemyśl in Galicia during the First World War. After a first siege in autumn 1914 was lifted, the Russians surrounded the fortress again in November 1914, and on 22 March 1915 its starving garrison of around 117,000 men surrendered. The fall of Przemyśl was a heavy blow to Austria-Hungary and one of the largest surrenders of the war.

Background: the fortress on the San

Przemyśl stood on the River San in Galicia, the north-eastern province of the Habsburg Empire. From the 1870s Austria-Hungary turned it into one of Europe’s largest fortresses to guard the passes of the Carpathian Mountains against Russia. By 1914 a ring of forts with a perimeter of roughly 45 kilometres surrounded the town, although many of the works were already outdated.

When war broke out in August 1914, the Austro-Hungarian chief of staff Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf launched offensives into Russian Poland. They went badly. In the Battle of Galicia in late August and September the Russians defeated the Habsburg armies, captured the provincial capital of Lemberg (Lviv) and forced a long retreat to the west. Przemyśl was left behind the Russian advance.

The first siege

Russian forces surrounded the fortress in late September 1914. The commander of Przemyśl, General Hermann Kusmanek von Burgneustädten, had a large garrison drawn from many of the empire’s nationalities, including many older reservists.

Between 5 and 8 October the Russian Third Army under Radko Dimitriev attempted to storm the forts. The assault failed with heavy Russian losses. Days later an Austro-Hungarian counter-offensive reached the town, and on 11 October the siege was lifted. The relief was short-lived: the front soon moved west again, and the fortress was not fully restocked.

The second siege

On 9 November 1914 the Russians closed the ring again. This time they chose to starve the fortress rather than storm it. The besieging force was later commanded by General Andrei Selivanov.

Inside Przemyśl conditions became increasingly grim through the winter. The garrison of over 120,000 soldiers shared the town with a large civilian population. Rations were cut repeatedly, and thousands of horses were slaughtered for food. Disease, cold and hunger weakened the men, and morale suffered. Reports from the fortress were carried out by aircraft and balloons, which also carried mail.

The garrison reflected the diversity of the Habsburg Empire. Hungarian Honvéd troops served alongside Austrian German, Polish, Ukrainian, Czech and other units, and orders had to work across several languages. Officers often distrusted soldiers from some nationalities, especially Ukrainians suspected of sympathy for Russia, and these tensions grew as hunger and boredom wore down discipline.

Conrad saw the relief of Przemyśl as a matter of prestige. From January to March 1915 he launched offensives through the snow-covered Carpathians. Fought in extreme cold, they failed to break through and cost Austria-Hungary an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 casualties, including many lost to frostbite and sickness. Those losses were far greater than the size of the garrison they were meant to save.

Surrender

With food almost gone, Kusmanek ordered a breakout attempt on 19 March 1915. It was quickly repulsed. In the early hours of 22 March the defenders blew up their forts, guns, bridges and ammunition stores so that the Russians could not use them. Later that day the fortress surrendered.

Around 117,000 men, including nine generals, went into captivity. Many would spend years in prison camps across Russia, and a large number never returned. Tsar Nicholas II visited the captured fortress in April 1915.

Consequences

For Russia, the capture of Przemyśl was the greatest success of the war so far, celebrated with church bells and newspaper headlines. For Austria-Hungary it was a humiliation that damaged the empire’s prestige and weakened confidence in its army. It also helped persuade Italy that the Habsburg monarchy was vulnerable; Italy entered the war against Austria-Hungary in May 1915.

The Russian success did not last. On 2 May 1915 German and Austro-Hungarian forces broke through at Gorlice-Tarnów, and the Russian armies were driven out of Galicia. Przemyśl was retaken on 3 June 1915.

The siege also had a darker side. Historians such as Alexander Watson have shown how suspicion of disloyalty, fear and ethnic hatred during the siege fed violence against civilians, including Jews and Ukrainians, foreshadowing the brutality of later decades in the region.

Timeline

• 1914, late September: Russian forces first surround Przemyśl.
• 1914, 5-8 October: A Russian assault on the forts fails.
• 1914, 11 October: Austro-Hungarian troops lift the first siege.
• 1914, 9 November: The second siege begins.
• 1915, January-March: Austro-Hungarian relief offensives in the Carpathians fail.
• 1915, 19 March: A breakout attempt by the garrison is repulsed.
• 1915, 22 March: The defenders destroy their works and surrender.
• 1915, 3 June: Central Powers forces retake Przemyśl.

Why it matters

Przemyśl showed the limits of 19th-century fortresses in an industrial war and exposed the weakness of Austria-Hungary’s army on the Eastern Front. The disastrous winter campaign to save it, like the later Brusilov Offensive, drained the Habsburg Empire’s strength. Its story of a starving, surrounded garrison would be repeated in other theatres, such as the British siege of Kut in Mesopotamia.