In September 1914, less than a month into the First World War, the military destiny of the Habsburg Empire hung in the balance. Only weeks after Vienna had declared war on Russia on Aug. 23, the Austro-Hungarian army suffered a catastrophic setback when the Russian army repelled an early Habsburg offensive. With the Russian troops now advancing toward the Habsburg province of Galicia, all that stood between them and near-certain victory was Przemysl, a fortress city in the eastern marches of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Although virtually unknown in the West today, Przemysl was Vienna’s most important bulwark against a Russian invasion of Central Europe. Located in the southeastern borderlands of today’s Poland, the heavily fortified city was home to some 46,000 Polish, Ukrainian, and Jewish citizens of the Habsburg empire, the third most populous state in Europe on the eve of the war. Przemysl also had a large garrison of about 130,000 soldiers from across the empire who manned the two enormous concentric rings of armored fortifications built around the city.
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