"A Dashing Skirmish of Our Cossacks with German Cavalry", January 1915 color print from a Moscow lithographer illustrates a fight that took place only two weeks earlier! Medium size: measures 17 ¼ " x 23 ½ .
Medium size: measures 17 ¼ " x 23 ½ ." Marked with the logo of the Moscow based Mashistov lithography firm in blue in the margin and "Cleared by Military Censorship, 14 January 1915." [Note that this date is according to the old Julian calendar still used in Russia at the time; it is January 27th according to the new Gregorian calendar that had been adopted by most of the rest of the world.]
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Medium size: measures 17 ¼ " x 23 ½ ." Marked with the logo of the Moscow based Mashistov lithography firm in blue in the margin and "Cleared by Military Censorship, 14 January 1915." [Note that this date is according to the old Julian calendar still used in Russia at the time; it is January 27th according to the new Gregorian calendar that had been adopted by most of the rest of the world.]
A particularly dramatic battle scene of German hussars fleeing for their lives from fearsome and heroic Cossacks: The caption at the bottom reads: "In the last days of December, German troops attempting to cross the Bzura, sent a cavalry unit to find a suitable ford. Our braves despite their small numbers (the Cossacks never pay heed to that) with a war cry charged at the enemy. They cut down a large part, while some of the luckier of the foe managed to escape with their lives by fleeing in disorder. Our heroes kept on pursuing them." The World War was only a few months old but already Moscow's artists had moved from primarily emphasizing Russian heroism to illustrating the particularly evil nature of the German invaders; in this image, even though it is subtly rendered, a close inspection will reveal that even one of the German horses has a demonstrably evil look!
The print is in good overall condition. The colors are still quite fresh. The outer edges show the considerable fraying typical of posters and prints that have been stored rolled for decades. While not actually visible from the image side, a look at the back of the print seems to indicate that the paper may have had some flaws before it was fed into the printing press; that's probably not surprising since we've read anecdotes about how hard it was to source decent paper in both World Wars. There are a few places on the outer edges were a small amount of sticky tape was once applied; the matting process should probably render them invisible.
For the collector who is a student of everything "Cossack,"
this image would be a perfect complement to an already
framed poster, photograph or print of the great First World
War Cossack Hero, Kuzma Firsovich Kriuchkov!
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