Outbreak of World War I
The first information of the war reached Kalisz when the nearby border with the German Empire was closed at Nowe Skalmierzyce and train movement across the border to Germany was stopped. Russian officials started evacuating the city alongside military personnel. On August 2, 1914, at dawn, the Russian military retreated from the city without fighting, after setting fire to military warehouses near the railway station. The railway station was set afire as well as the trains and transport wagons. A civic committee was established by the citizens of the town which started administrating the city. Additionally, the Civil Guard was established to keep order in the city, while railway workers tried to put down the fire at the railway station.
Read more about this topic: Destruction Of Kalisz
Famous quotes containing the words war i, world and/or war:
“Today we know that World War II began not in 1939 or 1941 but in the 1920s and 1930s when those who should have known better persuaded themselves that they were not their brothers keeper.”
—Hubert H. Humphrey (19111978)
“It is said that the world is in a state of bankruptcy, that the world owes the world more than the world can pay.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
“Havent you heard, though,
About the ships where war has found them out
At sea, about the towns where war has come
Through opening clouds at night with droning speed
Further oerhead than all but stars and angels
And children in the ships and in the towns?”
—Robert Frost (18741963)