Germany, however, was sending reinforcements as fast as
possible, and putting up a desperate defense. Nevertheless everything
was encouraging for Russia and she entered upon the winter in a very
different condition from her condition in the previous year. Then she
had just ended her great retreat. Now she had behind her a series of
successes. But a new difficulty had arisen in the loss of the political
harmony at home which had marked the first years of the war. Dark days
were ahead.
CHAPTER XXII
HOW THE BALKANS DECIDED
For more than half a century the Balkans have presented a problem which
disturbed the minds of the statesmen of Europe. Again and again, during
that period, it seemed that in the Balkan mountains might be kindled a
blaze which might set the world afire. Balkan politics is a labyrinth
in which one might easily be lost. The inhabitants of the Balkans
represent many races, each with its own ambition, and, for the most
part, military. There were Serbs, and Bulgarians, and Turks, and
Roumanians, and Greeks, and their territorial divisions did not
correspond to their nationalities. The land was largely mountainous,
with great gaps that make it, in a sense, the highway of the world.
From 1466 to 1878 the Balkans was in the dominion of the Turks. In the
early days while the Turks were warring against Hungary, their armies
marched through the Balkan hills.
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