Madmen and Geniuses

Facts proved that the tactics best suited to oneself were the best tactics.

Marshal Ivanov's use of troops was utterly conventional: build strong fortifications and fight plodding battles, with scarcely a single highlight to be found. He would rather sit by and watch opportunities slip away than undertake military risks.

Faced with such a conservative enemy, even Moltke, hailed as Prussia's "God of War," was powerless.

The situation at the front did not unfold according to the planned script, and pressure on the Berlin Government mounted sharply as all manner of criticism kept surfacing.

Some old-school generals even publicly attacked Moltke's command ability, demanding that he take responsibility for the defeat at the Battle of Smolensk, as if replacing the commander would allow the Prussian Army to turn the tide.

Fortunately, William I was not someone easily swayed by gossip. He firmly supported Marshal Moltke; otherwise, the Prussian Army would already have replaced its commander.

From a purely tactical standpoint, the Prussian Army had won far more than it lost, and its record was exceptionally impressive.

Unfortunately, behind those victories came grievous casualties. The war potential of Prussia and Russia was completely different. The Tsarist Government could withstand troop losses three times greater than the Berlin Government.

The Prusso-Polish Federation appeared to have a population of more than thirty million, but its true fighting strength still lay in the army formed from the people of Prussia's core regions.

Although the people of Poland also supported the war, the region's ethnic makeup was exceedingly complicated, with numerous minorities. Its internal contradictions were not necessarily any smaller than its external ones.

A dual monarchy was not so easily integrated. The Prusso-Polish Federation had existed for too short a time; the Berlin Government had not even had time to sort out its internal