News Conferences of General Staff on Siege-Works around Russian Fortresses in 1915

Section: History of Journalism

The article deals with the history of news conferences in Russian General Staff Department during the First World War. On the basis of shorthand records, keeping in Russian archive RGVIA, the author traces the development of views on a siege- works around the line of concrete fortifications, obstacles and weapons installations that Russia constructed just before the border with Germany. There were fortresses Osowiec, Ivangorod, Novogeorgievsk, Kaunas, Grodno, Brest-Litovsk, defended for several month by Russian garrisons against German attacks, until the Russian army abandoned them in August 1915.