The Fortress: The Siege of Przemysl and the Making of Europe's Bloodlands

The Siege of Przemysl and the Making of Europe's Bloodlands by Alexander Watson

In September 1914, just a month into World War I, the Russian army laid siege to the multiethnic fortress city of Przemysl, the Habsburg Empire's most crucial bulwark against invasion. For six months, against storm and starvation, the ragtag garrison bitterly resisted, denying the Russians a quick victory that would have won them the war. Only in March 1915 did the city fall, bringing occupation, persecution, and the first vicious anti-Semitic cleansing to befall twentieth-century East-Central Europe.

In The Fortress, prizewinning historian Alexander Watson tells the story of the pivotal battle for Przemysl, showing how it marked the dawn of total war in Europe and how it laid the roots of the bloody century that followed. This is an unprecedentedly intimate account of the key campaign on the First World War's Eastern Front, in all its horror and human tragedy.

Basic Books, Hardcover, 1st Edition, 1st Printing, 2020