Rapid industrialization in the decades just before the Great War brought urban unrest, prompting the Russian and Austro-Hungarian Empires to deploy “outsiders” to the big cities. Cossacks and Bosniaken served as their respective regimes’ enforcers of order, and at the far-left flank of the Austrian encirclement attempt they clashed as the Austrians continued to try to surround the Russians.

The Bosnians, without artillery support, made only limited gains against the determined Cossack defense. The plastuns (“crawlers”) preferred not to fight dismounted, but held onto their positions for the most part. The Cossack defense had been badly stretched when the Bosnians pulled back to await reinforcements; meanwhile fresh troops were on their way to help the defense as well.