THE GREAT INVESTMENT

The Soviet armies are invested, and the encirclement is on the vastest scale ever known in war. It exceeds in magnitude even the league of the Central Empires, though the armies engaged are far less numerous and formidable. At the present moment seven distinct hosts are in the field against the Bolshevik usurpers, whose seat or government is at Moscow. In the Ukraine General Petlura is in arms against the Poles and loyal Russians, though his relations with Moscow seem equivocal and obscure. At any rate, his army is in possession of the Ukraine between the Dnieper and the Dniester, and it has to be contained by strong rearguards from General Denikin’s forces. Archangel is still covered by loyal Russian troops, who have also gained successes since the withdrawal of the British contingent. Between the great lakes the Finns are guarding their frontier, and are maintaining a certain pressure on the Reds. Petrograd is in imminent jeopardy from the successful advance of General Judenitch’s Western Russians to within sight of the place, while our ships guard the Gulf of Finland. Southwards, again, come the Esthonians, Germans, and Letts, then the Polish front begins, and extends as far as Jitomir, close to which place it links with the extreme left of Denikin’s gigantic line. This line extends in a curve towards the north, from Dnieper to the mouth of the Volga. Denikin’s centre is composed of compact columns marching northwards with the main railway: Kharkor, Kursk, Oral, Tula, Moscow is the axis of the advance. Orel surrendered to the Loyalists on Oct. 13, the population receiving their deliverers with pathetic cries, “Christ is risen.”