[5][6] In August 1914, Russian armies moved against both German East Prussia and one of Austria-Hungary's largest provinces, Galicia, straddling the present-day border between Poland and Ukraine.

General Nikolai Ivanov overwhelmed the Austro-Hungarian forces under Conrad von Hötzendorf[citation needed] during the Battle of Galicia, and the whole Austrian front fell back over 160 kilometres (100 mi) to the Carpathian Mountains.

Austrians, Poles, Jews and Ruthenians (Ukrainians) were together in the besieged town, that was hit constantly with artillery fire, and as the toll of the dead, sick and wounded rose, and starvation threatened, so did mutual distrust and ethnic tension.

[7] On 24 September, General Radko Dimitriev, commander of the Russian Third Army began the siege of the fortress with six divisions.

Months of fighting resulted in great losses, largely from frostbite and disease but relieving forces failed to reach the garrison at Przemyśl.

On March 19 Kusmanek ordered an attempt to break out but his sallies were repulsed and he was forced to retreat back into the city.

The poor girls and women feel so flattered when they get chatted up by one of these pestilent pigs in their spotless uniforms, with their shiny boots and buttons."

Other accounts reveal the pervasive presence of starvation and disease, including cholera, and the diary of Helena Jablonska, a middle-aged, quite wealthy Polish woman, reveals class and antisemitic and racial tensions in the town; " The Jewish women in basements rip you off the worst", and on March 18, 1915 – "The Jews are taking their shop signs down in a hurry, so that no one can tell who owns what.

Following a forced landing, mail from one flight was confiscated by the Russians and sent to Saint Petersburg for postal censorship and onward transmission.

A further blow to Austria-Hungary was the fact that Przemyśl was only supposed to be garrisoned by 50,000, yet over 110,000 Austro-Hungarians surrendered with the fortress, a much more significant loss.

The Austro-Hungarian army never recovered from its losses in the winter of 1914–1915 and the Habsburgs would rely henceforth on German assistance both in their sector of the Eastern Front and in the Balkans.

Russian casualties were nearly as high, but easier to replace, and balanced out more by the surrender of 117,000 Austro-Hungarian troops at the end of the siege.

[16] All told, the siege and the attempts to relieve it cost the Austro-Hungarian army over a million casualties and inflicted on it significant damage from which it would never recover.