In the period 1908-14, he trained young Polish students as future officers in " Riflemen's Associations," a type of ROTC organization in Austrian Poland (Galicia), tolerated by the Austrian government in return for military intelligence on the Russian army. According to one account, Pilsudski foresaw not only the coming of World War I, but also its outcome. According to the memoirs of S.R. leader Victor Chernov, Pilsudski told him in early 1914, that in the coming world war the Central Powers would first defeat Russia, and then be defeated themselves by France, Great Britain and probably the United States. ( V.Chernorv, Pered Burei, Before the Storm, NewYork, 1953, pp.