Content note: Repeats First World War atrocity stories, including invented ones, and their wording. This object is shown as it was published. Why
No obsession was more widespread through the war than the belief in the last months of 1914 that Russian troops were passing through Great Britain to the Western Front. Nothing illustrates better the credulity of the public mind in war-time and what favourable soil it becomes for the cultivation of falsehood.
How the rumour actually originated it is difficult to say. There were subsequently several more or less humorous suggestions made : of a telegram announcing the arrival of a large number of Russian eggs, referred to as “ Russians ” ; of the tall, bearded individual who declared from the window of a train that he came from “ Ross-shire ” ; and of the excited French officer with imperfect English pronunciation who went about near the front, exclaiming, “ Where are de rations.” But General Sukhomlinoff, in his memoirs, states that Sir George Buchanan, the British Ambassador in Russia, actually requested the dispatch of “ a complete Russian army corps ” to England, and English ships were to be brought to Archangel for the transport of these troops. The Russian General Staff, he adds, came to the conclusion that “ Buchanan had lost his reason.”
Whatever the origin may have been, the rumour spread like wild-fire, and testimony came from every part of the country from people who had seen the Russians. They were in trains with the blinds down, on platforms stamping the snow off their boots; they called hoarsely for “ vodka ” at Carlisle and Berwickon-Tweed, and they jammed the penny-in-the-slot machine with a rouble at Durham. The number of troops varied according to the imaginative powers of the witness.
As the rumour had undoubted military value, the authorities took no steps to deny it. A telegram from Rome appeared giving “ the official news of the concentration of 250,000 Russian troops in France.” With regard to this telegram the official Press Bureau stated : “ That there was no confirmation of the statements contained in it, but that there was no objection to them being published.” As there was a strict censorship of news, the release of this telegram served to confirm the rumour and kept the false witnesses busy.
On September 9, 1914, the following appeared in the DatVy News:
The official sanction to the publication of the above (the telegram from Rome) removes the newspaper reserve with regard to the rumours which for the last fortnight have coursed with such astonishing persistency through the length and breadth of England. Whatever be the unvarnished truth about the Russian forces in the West, so extraordinary has been the ubiquity of the rumours in question, that they are almost more amazing if they are false than if they are true. Either a baseless rumour has obtained a currency and a credence perhaps unprecedented in history, or, incredible as it may appear, it is a fact that Russian troops, whatever the number may be, have been disembarked and passed through this country, while not one man in ten thousand was able to say with certainty whether their very existence was not a myth.
The Press on the whole, was reserved, fearing a trap, and the Daily Mail suggested that the Russian Consul-General’s statement that “ about 3,000 Russian reservists have permission to serve the Allies ” might be at the bottom of the rumour. Like a popular book, the rumour spread more from verbal personal communications than on account of Press notices.
On September 14, 1914, the Daily News again returned to the subject:
As will be seen from the long dispatch of Mr. P. J. Philip, out special correspondent, Russian troops arc now cooperating with the Belgians. This information proves the correctness of the general impression that Russian troops have been moved through England.
“ Daily News,” September 14, 1914.
{Dispatch.)
To-night, in an evening paper, I find the statement “ de bonne source ” that the German Army in Belgium has been cut ... by the Belgian Army reinforced by Russian troops. The last phrase unseis my pen. For two days I have been on a long trek looking for the Russians, and now I have found them—where and how it would not be discreet to tell, but the published statement that they are here is sufficient, and of my own knowledge 1 can answer for their presence.
An official War Office denial of the rumour was noted by the Daily News on September 16, 1914.
The Daily Mail, September 9, 1914, contained a facetious article on the Russian rumour, concluding :
But now we are told from Rome that the Russians are in France. How are we all going to apologiae to the Bernets, Brocklers, and Pendles—if they were right, after all ?
Mr. King asked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether he can state, without injury to the military interests E of the Allies, whether any Russian troops have been conveyed through Great Britain to the Western area of the European War ?
The Under-Secretary of State for War (Mr. Tennant): I am uncertain whether it will gratify or displease my hon. friend to learn that no Russian troops have been conveyed through Great Britain to the Western area of the European War.
House of Commons, November i8, 1914.
Falsehood in War-Time, Arthur Ponsonby. Published in the United Kingdom in 1928, more than 95 years ago, so in the public domain in the United States. Ponsonby died in 1946, so the text is also in the public domain in countries that count the author's life plus 70 years. Provenance and rights.