ABSTRACT

The Red Army was fully twice as strong as the combined White forces. If men were thrown back, the Reds in Riga would doubtless indulge in gruesome reprisals which would put all their previous atrocities in the shade; the consequence might probably be something like a general massacre of the whole bourgeois population of the town. The storming of the town must be carried out in such a way that the Reds would have no time for reprisals. The Volunteer Corps would not have to fear the danger of being cut off by Red flank attacks, or of falling into a trap when they reached the town. The Volunteers pursued the fleeing Reds hard; they were always at their heels. This was no monotonous trench warfare, but a real man-to-man struggle. The common soldiers of the Red Army, among whom were half-wild sons of the steppes, hardly knew why they were fighting. They were not inspired by the slightest enthusiasm.