Army Corps, led by General Vladimir Slyusarenko, resisted desperately, as did Rennenkampf himself, who transferred all the cavalrymen, reserves, and troops from the right to left flank of the 20th Army Corps in order to avoid encirclement by Hindenburg. By 15 September, he skillfully withdrew his men from encirclement and withdrew behind the Neman, saving all the remaining troops he had. After this failure, despite his best efforts to blame Rennenkampf for the defeat, Zhilinsky was dismissed and was replaced by the General Nikolai Ruzsky. In mid-November at Łódź, due to the indecisiveness and mistakes made by Ruzsky, the 1st Army was unable to prevent the XXV Reserve Corps of General Reinhard von Scheffer-Boyadel from escaping out of the encircling movement, causing the front to retreat. A sharp conflict then broke out between the two men. After the incident, Rennenkampf was relieved from his position. His acts during the battle became the subject of a special commission under General Peter von Baranoff; he was even considered being tried for treason, due to his ethnic background. He was then dismissed in early October 1915 "for domestic reasons with a uniform and pension". After that, he stayed in Petrograd, living in retirement with his wife Vera until the Bolshevik coup. However, his retirement was extremely unsettling, as he was falsely accused of being a traitor, and all across Russia, on streets and in public places, people insulted him for his actions. Even Baltic Germans accused him, as Vera recalled, as being a "terrible Russophile". All these events plunged Rennenkampf into deep moral suffering. Army chief of staff General Nikolai Yanushkevich wrote the following about the issue of German Generals in the Russian Army to the Minister of War, General Sukhomlinov: In a further investigation, it was revealed that it was Ruzsky's strategic mistakes that had let Scheffer-Boyadel and his troops escape from the encirclement. This, however, did not bring Rennenkampf back to service. February Revolution Rennenkampf was arrested shortly after the February Revolution, as many of the revolutionaries remembered his role in the suppression of the Chita Republic back in 1905. He was then questioned by the Extraordinary Investigative Commission of the Russian Republic, although he was not charged with any crimes. October Revolution and death Rennenkampf was arrested again after the October Revolution and, like many other tsarist officials, was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. He was released shortly