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Miracle during the First World War
In autumn 1914 not far from the border of Eastern Prussia, in the area of Augustow city, which was a part of the Russian Empire then, an amazing event happened: the soldiers of the Siberian rifle divisions from the Yenisey Province saw Virgin Mary, who foretold the victory of Russian weapon in the battles, happening in those places, in the sky.
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The war, known as the First World War in history, started on the 28th of July 1914. By October the echelons with the Siberian shooters regiments from Krasnoyarsk, Kansk and Achinsk reached the front. By that time, the Germans had won the victory in Eastern Prussia, having beaten the Russian 2nd army and throwing the 1st army to the state border, and ppared to the next attack. So, the arrival of the Siberians to the front turned to be very in time. On the 7th of February the Augustow fighting raged.
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The Germans smashed the Russian positions with artillery, poured lead from machine guns. The Siberians were almost out of ammunition and had to go into a bayonet charge, but our fellow countrymen fought to death. Remembering the appearing of the Holly Virgin, even those ones with weak spirit smashed the enemy restlessly. An East Prussian grenadier later wrote: “There is no way back from this war. In These damn forests the Russians have shown their wolf teeth”:
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The total Russian Army’s casualties in the Augustow operation equaled 56 000 people during 19 days. Maintaining the positions by the Siberians units stopped the Germans and provided the disruption of the German command’s general plan on the deep crawl of the Northwestern Russian front.
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The Emperor Nikolay II was informed about the Holly Virgin’s appearing, he ordered to describe this event in leaflets. A year after the events the first icons with August Virgin appeared.
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Based on the materials by krsk.aif.ru
Photo from the Krasnoyarsk Regional Studies Museum’s archive