e Russians withdrew from the Virava Valley, which they had
entered four days earlier. The first object of the counteroffensive
was to save the Austrians who were holding the frontier south of
Lupkow from being enveloped and cut off. But on April 9, 1915,
the Russians again moved forward, and recovered part of the Virava
Valley. By this day the whole mountain crest from Dukla to Uzsok, a
distance of over seventy miles, had been conquered by the Russians.
By the same night they had repulsed a counterattack near the Rostoki
and captured a battalion of Austrian infantry. The Russian report
sums up thus: "We seized Height 909 (909 meters=3,030 feet) with
the result that the enemy was repulsed along the entire length
of the principal chain of the Carpathians in the region of our
offensive."

For the next three days Brussilov attempted to work his way to the
rear of the Uzsok position with his right wing from the Laborcz
and Ung valleys, while simultaneously continuing his frontal attacks
against Boehm-Ermolli and Von Bojna. Cutting through snow sometimes
more than six feet deep, the Russians approached at several points
within a distance of three miles from the Uzsok Valley. But the
Austrians still held the Opolonek mountain group in force. Severe
fighting then developed northwest of the Uzsok on the slopes between
Bukoviec and Beniova; the Russians captured the village of Wysocko
Nizne to the northeast, which commands the only roads connecting
the Munkacz-Stryj and the Uzsok-Turka lines. Though both sides
claimed local successes, they appear to have fought each other to
a deadlock, for very little fighting occurred in this zone after
April 14, 1915. Henceforth Brussilov directed his main efforts
to the Virava and Cisna-Rostoki sector. From here and Volosate,
where there had been continuous fighting since the early days of
April, the Russians strove desperately for possession of the Uzsok.
They were now only two or three days' march from the Hungarian
plains.

Between April 17 and 20, 1915, a vigorous Austrian counterattack
failed to check the Russian advance. Between Telepovce and Zuella,
two villages south of the Lupkow, the Russians noiselessly approached
the Austrian barbed-wire entanglements, broke through, and after
a brief bayonet encounter gained possession of two heights and
captured the village of Nagy Polena, a little farther to the east.
During the night of April 16-17, 1915, the Russians took prisoners
24 off