The opinion of historians about the Russian-Japanese War. What have we learned? Excellence comes in different forms

(1904-1905) - a war between Russia and Japan, which was fought for control of Manchuria, Korea and the ports of Port Arthur and Dalny.

The most important object of the struggle for the final division of the world at the end of the 19th century was economically backward and militarily weak China. It was to the Far East that the center of gravity of the foreign policy activity of Russian diplomacy was shifted from the mid-1890s. The close interest of the tsarist government in the affairs of this region was largely due to the appearance here by the end of the 19th century of a strong and very aggressive neighbor in the person of Japan, which had embarked on the path of expansion.

After, as a result of victory in the war with China in 1894-1895, Japan acquired the Liaodong Peninsula under a peace treaty, Russia, acting as a united front with France and Germany, forced Japan to abandon this part of Chinese territory. In 1896, a Russian-Chinese treaty was concluded on a defensive alliance against Japan. China granted Russia a concession to build a railway from Chita to Vladivostok through Manchuria (northeast China). The railway, known as the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER), began construction in 1897.

Japan, which had established its influence in Korea after the war with China, was forced in 1896 to agree to the establishment of a joint Russian-Japanese protectorate over Korea with the actual predominance of Russia.

In 1898, Russia received from China a long-term lease (for 25 years) of the southern part of the Liaodong Peninsula, the so-called Kwantung Region, with the city of Lushun, which also had a European name - Port Arthur. This ice-free port became the base for the Pacific squadron of the Russian fleet in March 1898, which led to a new escalation of contradictions between Japan and Russia.

The tsarist government decided to aggravate relations with its Far Eastern neighbor because it did not see Japan as a serious enemy and hoped to overcome the impending internal crisis that threatened revolution with a small but victorious war.

Japan, for its part, was actively preparing for an armed conflict with Russia. True, in the summer of 1903, Russian-Japanese negotiations on Manchuria and Korea began, but the Japanese war machine, which had received direct support from the United States and England, was already launched. On February 6 (January 24, O.S.), 1904, the Japanese ambassador handed Russian Foreign Minister Vladimir Lamzdorf a note about the severance of diplomatic relations, and on the evening of February 8 (January 26, O.S.), 1904, the Japanese fleet attacked the port without declaring war. - Arthur squadron. The battleships Retvizan and Tsesarevich and the cruiser Pallada were seriously damaged.

Military operations began. At the beginning of March, the Russian squadron in Port Arthur was led by an experienced naval commander, Vice Admiral Stepan Makarov, but already on April 13 (March 31, old style), 1904, he died when the flagship battleship Petropavlovsk hit a mine and sank. Command of the squadron passed to Rear Admiral Wilhelm Vitgeft.

In March 1904, the Japanese army landed in Korea, and in April - in southern Manchuria. Russian troops under the command of General Mikhail Zasulich could not withstand the onslaught of superior enemy forces and were forced to abandon the Jinzhou position in May. Port Arthur was thus cut off from the Russian Manchurian army.

By decision of the Japanese commander-in-chief, Marshal Iwao Oyama, Maresuke Nogi's army began the siege of Port Arthur, while the 1st, 2nd and 4th armies that landed at Dagushan moved towards Liaoyang from the southeast, south and southwest. In mid-June, Kuroki's army occupied the passes southeast of the city, and in July repelled an attempted Russian counter-offensive. Yasukata Oku's army, after the battle of Dashichao in July, captured the port of Yingkou, cutting off the Manchurian army's connection with Port Arthur by sea. In the second half of July, three Japanese armies united near Liaoyang; their total number was more than 120 thousand against 152 thousand Russians. In the battle of Liaoyang on August 24 - September 3, 1904 (August 11-21, O.S.), both sides suffered huge losses: the Russians lost more than 16 thousand killed, and the Japanese - 24 thousand. The Japanese were unable to encircle the army of Alexei Kuropatkin, which retreated in good order to Mukden, but they captured Liaoyang and the Yantai coal mines.

The retreat to Mukden meant for the defenders of Port Arthur the collapse of hopes for any effective assistance from the ground forces. The Japanese 3rd Army captured the Wolf Mountains and began intensive bombardment of the city and the interior roadstead. Despite this, several assaults she launched in August were repulsed by the garrison under the command of Major General Roman Kondratenko; the besiegers lost 16 thousand killed. At the same time, the Japanese were successful at sea. An attempt to break through the Pacific Fleet to Vladivostok at the end of July failed, Rear Admiral Vitgeft was killed. In August, the squadron of Vice Admiral Hikonojo Kamimura managed to overtake and defeat the cruiser detachment of Rear Admiral Jessen.

By the beginning of October 1904, thanks to reinforcements, the number of the Manchurian army reached 210 thousand, and the Japanese troops near Liaoyang - 170 thousand.

Fearing that in the event of the fall of Port Arthur, the Japanese forces would increase significantly due to the liberated 3rd Army, Kuropatkin launched an offensive to the south at the end of September, but was defeated in the battle on the Shahe River, losing 46 thousand killed (the enemy - only 16 thousand) , and went on the defensive. The four-month “Shahei Sitting” began.

In September-November, the defenders of Port Arthur repelled three Japanese assaults, but the 3rd Japanese Army managed to capture Mount Vysokaya, which dominates Port Arthur. On January 2, 1905 (December 20, 1904, O.S.), the head of the Kwantung fortified area, Lieutenant General Anatoly Stessel, having not exhausted all possibilities for resistance, surrendered Port Arthur (in the spring of 1908, a military court sentenced him to death, commuted to ten years imprisonment).

The fall of Port Arthur sharply worsened the strategic position of the Russian troops and the command tried to turn the situation around. However, the successfully launched offensive of the 2nd Manchu Army towards the village of Sandepu was not supported by other armies. After joining the main forces of the Japanese 3rd Army

Their numbers were equal to the number of Russian troops. In February, Tamemoto Kuroki's army attacked the 1st Manchurian Army southeast of Mukden, and Nogi's army began to encircle the Russian right flank. Kuroki's army broke through the front of Nikolai Linevich's army. On March 10 (February 25, O.S.), 1905, the Japanese occupied Mukden. Having lost more than 90 thousand killed and captured, Russian troops retreated north to Telin in disarray. The major defeat at Mukden meant the Russian command lost the campaign in Manchuria, although it managed to retain a significant part of the army.

Trying to achieve a turning point in the war, the Russian government sent the 2nd Pacific Squadron of Admiral Zinovy ​​Rozhestvensky, created from part of the Baltic Fleet, to the Far East, but on May 27-28 (May 14-15, O.S.) in the Battle of Tsushima, the Japanese fleet destroyed the Russian squadron . Only one cruiser and two destroyers reached Vladivostok. At the beginning of summer, the Japanese completely ousted Russian troops from North Korea, and by July 8 (June 25, O.S.) they captured Sakhalin.

Despite the victories, Japan's forces were exhausted, and at the end of May, through the mediation of US President Theodore Roosevelt, it invited Russia to enter into peace negotiations. Russia, finding itself in a difficult internal political situation, agreed. On August 7 (July 25, O.S.), a diplomatic conference opened in Portsmouth (New Hampshire, USA), which ended on September 5 (August 23, O.S.), 1905, with the signing of the Portsmouth Peace. According to its terms, Russia ceded to Japan the southern part of Sakhalin, the rights to lease Port Arthur and the southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula and the southern branch of the Chinese Eastern Railway from Changchun station to Port Arthur, allowed its fishing fleet to fish off the coast of the Japanese, Okhotsk and Bering Seas, recognized Korea became a zone of Japanese influence and renounced its political, military and trade advantages in Manchuria. At the same time, Russia was exempt from paying any indemnities.

Japan, which as a result of the victory took a leading place among the powers of the Far East, until the end of World War II celebrated the day of the victory at Mukden as Ground Forces Day, and the date of the victory at Tsushima as Navy Day.

The Russo-Japanese War was the first major war of the 20th century. Russia lost about 270 thousand people (including over 50 thousand killed), Japan - 270 thousand people (including over 86 thousand killed).

In the Russo-Japanese War, for the first time, machine guns, rapid-fire artillery, mortars, hand grenades, radio telegraphs, searchlights, barbed wire, including high-voltage wire, sea mines and torpedoes, etc. were used on a large scale.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources

0 The Russo-Japanese War began on February 8, old style, or January 26, new style, 1904. The Japanese unexpectedly, without declaring war on us, attacked warships that were located on the outer roadstead of Port Arthur. Due to the unexpected attack and the bungling of our intelligence, most of the ships were destroyed and sunk. Official declaration of war happened 2 days later, namely February 10, old style.

Before you continue, I would like to recommend you a couple more educational news on the topics of Education and Science. For example, the Abolition of serfdom; Decembrist revolt ; what is Melancholy, how to understand the word Deja Vu.
So let's continue Russian-Japanese War briefly.

Today, historians are confident that one of the reasons for the Japanese attack on Russia was its active expansion of zones of influence in the east. Another important reason is the so-called triple intervention(April 23, 1895 Russia, Germany and France simultaneously appealed to the Japanese government demanding that they abandon the annexation Liaodong peninsula, which was later carried out by the Japanese). It was this event that caused the increased militarization of Japan and provoked serious military reform.

Of course, Russian society reacted extremely negatively to the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War. But Western countries welcomed the Japanese aggression, and the USA and England began openly to provide military assistance to the Land of the Rising Sun.
Moreover, France, which at that time was supposedly an ally of Russia, took a cowardly neutrality, especially since it desperately needed an alliance with the Russian Empire in order to restrain Germany, which was growing stronger every year. However, on the initiative of the British, an agreement was concluded between them and France agreement, which immediately caused a noticeable cooling in Russian-French relations. In Germany, they decided to simply observe the development of the situation, so they formed friendly neutrality towards the Russian Empire.

Thanks to the courage of the Russian soldiers, the Japanese were unable to break the resistance of the defenders of Port Arthur and capture this fortress at the beginning of the war. The next attack they launched on August 6 was carried out very poorly. To storm the fortress, the Japanese gathered an army of 45,000, commanded by Oyama Iwao(Japanese military leader, Marshal of Japan (1898), he played a significant role in the creation of the modern Japanese army). The invaders met strong resistance, and having lost almost half of the soldiers, they were forced to retreat (August 11).
Unfortunately, after his death Roman Isidorovich Kondratenko On December 2 (15), 1904, Russian soldiers were left without a commander, and the fortress was surrendered. Although in fact, this fortified bastion could quite successfully repel Japanese attacks for at least two more months. As a result, a shameful act of surrender of the fortress was signed by the commandant of Port Arthur, Baron Anatoly Mikhailovich Stessel and Reis Viktor Alexandrovich (Major General). After this, 32 thousand Russian soldiers were captured, and the entire fleet was destroyed.

A slight retreat, on April 7, 1907, a report was presented in which it was argued that the main those responsible for the surrender of Port Arthur are generals Reis, Fock and Stoessel. By the way, please note, not a single Russian surname. These are the types of leaders we had in the army: as soon as they go straight into the bushes, they’ll take them out like crazy.

The main events of the Russian-Japanese War of 1905 are considered:

Battle of Mukden(February 19, 1905) - Russian soldiers killed 8,705 people, Japanese losses amounted to about 15,892 people killed. This battle is considered the bloodiest in the entire history of mankind, before the outbreak of the First World War. Shocked by such losses, the Japanese were never able to recover until the end of the war, and stopped taking any active actions, especially since there was simply no one to replenish the losses.

Battle of Tsushima(May 14 (27) - May 15 (28), 1905) - this naval battle took place near the island of Tsushima, and was the final battle during which the Russian Baltic squadron was completely destroyed by the enemy fleet 6 times larger in number.

And although Japan won the war on all fronts, its economy was clearly not ready for such a development of events. There was a noticeable economic decline, and this forced Japan to enter into peace negotiations. A peace conference was organized ( Treaty of Portsmouth), which was signed on August 23 (September 5), 1905 in the city of Portsmouth. At the same time, Russian diplomats led by Witte rose to the occasion, squeezing out maximum concessions from Japan.

Although the consequences of the Russian-Japanese War were very painful. After all, almost the entire Russian Pacific Fleet was flooded, killing more than 100 thousand soldiers who fought to the death defending their land. At the same time, the expansion of the sphere of influence of the Russian Empire in the east was stopped. In addition, it became clear to the whole world that the Russian army was very poorly prepared and armed with outdated weapons, which significantly reduced its authority on the world stage. The revolutionaries noticeably intensified their agitation, which resulted in revolution of 1905 - 1907.

Reasons for Russia's defeat in the Russo-Japanese War:

obsolete weapons and Japanese superiority in technology;

Unpreparedness of Russian soldiers for war in difficult climatic conditions;

Diplomatic isolation of Russia;

The mediocrity and outright betrayal of the interests of the Motherland by most high-ranking generals.

The confrontation between Russia and Japan for control of Manchuria, Korea, and the ports of Port Arthur and Dalny was the main reason for the outbreak of the tragic war for Russia.

The fighting began with an attack by the Japanese fleet, which on the night of February 9, 1904, without declaring war, launched a surprise attack on the Russian squadron near the Port Arthur naval base.

In March 1904, the Japanese army landed in Korea, and in April - in southern Manchuria. Under the blows of superior enemy forces, Russian troops abandoned the Jinzhou position in May and blocked Port Arthur 3 by the Japanese army. In the battle of June 14-15 at Wafangou, the Russian army retreated.

In early August, the Japanese landed on the Liaodong Peninsula and besieged the Port Arthur fortress. On August 10, 1904, the Russian squadron made an unsuccessful attempt to break out from Port Arthur; as a result, individual ships that escaped were interned in neutral ports, and the cruiser Novik near Kamchatka was lost in an unequal battle.

The siege of Port Arthur lasted from May 1904 and fell on January 2, 1905. Japan's main goal was achieved. The battles in Northern Manchuria were of an auxiliary nature, because the Japanese did not have the strength and means to occupy it and the entire Russian Far East.

The first major land battle near Liaoyang (August 24 - September 3, 1904) led to the retreat of Russian troops to Mukden. The oncoming battle on October 5-17 on the Shahe River and the attempt of Russian troops to advance on January 24, 1905 in the Sandepu area were unsuccessful.

After the largest Battle of Mukden (February 19 - March 10, 1905), Russian troops retreated to Telin, and then to Sypingai positions 175 km north of Mukden. Here they met the end of the war.

Formed after the death of the Russian fleet in Port Arthur, 2 Pacific made a six-month transition to the Far East. However, in the many-hour battle at Fr. Tsushima (May 27, 1905) it was fragmented and destroyed by superior enemy forces.

Russian military losses, according to official data, amounted to 31,630 killed, 5,514 died from wounds and 1,643 died in captivity. Russian sources estimated Japanese losses to be more significant: 47,387 people were killed, 173,425 were wounded, 11,425 died from wounds and 27,192 from disease.

According to foreign sources, the losses in killed, wounded and sick in Japan and Russia are comparable, and there were several times more Russian prisoners than Japanese prisoners.

Results of the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-1905.

For Russia . She ceded the Liaodong Peninsula to Japan along with a branch of the South Manchurian Railway and the southern half of the island. Sakhalin. Russian troops were withdrawn from Manchuria, and Korea was recognized as Japan's sphere of influence.

Russia's positions in China and throughout the Far East were undermined. The country lost its position as one of the largest maritime powers, abandoned the “oceanic” strategy and returned to the “continental” strategy. Russia has reduced international trade and tightened domestic policies.

The main reason for Russia's defeat in this war is the weakness of the fleet and poor logistics support.

Defeat in the war led to military reforms and a noticeable improvement in combat training. The troops, especially the command staff, gained combat experience, which later showed itself in the First World War.

Losing the war became the catalyst for the first Russian revolution. Despite its suppression by 1907, the Russian empire did not recover from this blow and ceased to exist.

For Japan . Psychologically and politically, Japan's victory demonstrated to Asia that it was possible to defeat the Europeans. Japan has become a great power at the European level of development. It became dominant in Korea and coastal China, began active naval construction, and by the end of the First World War had become the third naval power in the world.

Geopolitical. All of Russia's positions in the Pacific region were practically lost; it abandoned the eastern (southeastern) direction of expansion and turned its attention to Europe, the Middle East and the Straits area.

Relations with England improved and an agreement was signed on the delimitation of spheres of influence in Afghanistan. The Anglo-Franco-Russian alliance “Entente” finally took shape. The balance of power in Europe temporarily shifted in favor of the Central Powers.

Anatoly Sokolov

The largest armed conflict of the late 19th - early 20th centuries. It was the result of the struggle of the great powers - the Russian Empire, Great Britain, Germany, France and Japan, which aspired to the role of the dominant regional power, for the colonial division of China and Korea.

Causes of the war

The reason for the Russo-Japanese War should be recognized as a clash of interests between Russia, which pursued an expansionist policy in the Far East, and Japan, which attempted to assert its influence in Asia. The Japanese Empire, which modernized the social system and armed forces during the Meiji Revolution, sought to turn economically backward Korea into its colony and take part in the division of China. As a result of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. The Chinese army and navy were quickly defeated, Japan occupied the island of Taiwan (Formosa) and part of Southern Manchuria. Under the Peace Treaty of Shimonoseki, Japan acquired the islands of Taiwan, Penghuledao (Pescadores) and the Liaodong Peninsula.

In response to Japan's aggressive actions in China, the Russian government, led by Emperor Nicholas II, who ascended the throne in 1894 and a supporter of expansion in this part of Asia, intensified its own Far Eastern policy. In May 1895, Russia forced Japan to reconsider the terms of the Shimonoseki Peace Treaty and abandon the acquisition of the Liaodong Peninsula. From that moment on, an armed confrontation between the Russian Empire and Japan became inevitable: the latter began to systematically prepare for a new war on the continent, adopting in 1896 a 7-year program for the reorganization of the ground army. With the participation of Great Britain, a modern navy began to be created. In 1902, Great Britain and Japan entered into a treaty of alliance.

With the goal of economic penetration into Manchuria, the Russian-Chinese Bank was established in 1895, and the following year construction began on the Chinese Eastern Railway, laid through the Chinese province of Heilongjiang and designed to connect Chita with Vladivostok along the shortest route. These measures were carried out to the detriment of the development of the poorly populated and economically developed Russian Amur region. In 1898, Russia received a 25-year lease from China for the southern part of the Liaodong Peninsula with Port Arthur, where it was decided to create a naval base and fortress. In 1900, under the pretext of suppressing the “Yihetuan uprising,” Russian troops occupied all of Manchuria.

Far Eastern policy of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century

Since the beginning of the twentieth century. The Far Eastern policy of the Russian Empire began to be determined by an adventuristic court group led by State Secretary A.M. Bezobrazov. She sought to expand Russian influence in Korea, using a logging concession on the Yalu River, and to prevent Japanese economic and political penetration into Manchuria. In the summer of 1903, a governorship headed by Admiral E.I. was established in the Far East. Alekseev. Negotiations held in the same year between Russia and Japan on delimiting spheres of interest in the region did not produce results. On January 24 (February 5), 1904, the Japanese side announced the termination of negotiations and broke off diplomatic relations with the Russian Empire, setting a course for starting a war.

Countries' readiness for war

By the start of hostilities, Japan had largely completed its armed forces modernization program. After mobilization, the Japanese army consisted of 13 infantry divisions and 13 reserve brigades (323 battalions, 99 squadrons, over 375 thousand people and 1140 field guns). The Japanese United Fleet consisted of 6 new and 1 old squadron battleship, 8 armored cruisers (two of them, acquired from Argentina, entered service after the start of the war), 12 light cruisers, 27 squadron and 19 small destroyers. Japan's war plan included a struggle for supremacy at sea, the landing of troops in Korea and Southern Manchuria, the capture of Port Arthur and the defeat of the main forces of the Russian army in the Liaoyang area. The general leadership of the Japanese troops was carried out by the Chief of the General Staff, later the Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces, Marshal I. Oyama. The United Fleet was commanded by Admiral H. Togo.

At the beginning of the twentieth century. The Russian Empire had the largest land army in the world, but in the Far East, as part of the Amur Military District and the troops of the Kwantung Region, it had extremely insignificant forces scattered over a vast territory. They consisted of the I and II Siberian Army Corps, 8 East Siberian Rifle Brigades, deployed into divisions at the beginning of the war, 68 infantry battalions, 35 squadrons and hundreds of cavalry, a total of about 98 thousand people, 148 field guns. Russia was not ready for war with Japan. The low capacity of the Siberian and East China Railways (as of February 1904 - 5 and 4 pairs of military trains, respectively) did not allow us to count on a quick reinforcement of troops in Manchuria with reinforcements from European Russia. The Russian Navy in the Far East had 7 squadron battleships, 4 armored cruisers, 7 light cruisers, 2 mine cruisers, 37 destroyers. The main forces were the Pacific squadron and were based in Port Arthur, 4 cruisers and 10 destroyers were in Vladivostok.

War plan

The Russian war plan was prepared at the temporary headquarters of His Imperial Majesty's governor in the Far East, Admiral E.I. Alekseev in September-October 1903 on the basis of plans developed independently of each other at the headquarters of the Amur Military District and at the headquarters of the Kwantung Region, and approved by Nicholas II on January 14 (27), 1904. It assumed the concentration of the main forces of Russian troops on the Mukden line -Liaoyang-Haichen and the defense of Port Arthur. With the beginning of mobilization, it was planned to send large reinforcements from European Russia to help the armed forces in the Far East - the X and XVII army corps and four reserve infantry divisions. Until reinforcements arrived, Russian troops had to adhere to a defensive course of action and only after creating numerical superiority could they go on the offensive. The fleet was required to fight for supremacy at sea and prevent the landing of Japanese troops. At the beginning of the war, the command of the armed forces in the Far East was entrusted to the viceroy, Admiral E.I. Alekseeva. Subordinate to him was the commander of the Manchurian Army, who became the Minister of War, Infantry General A.N. Kuropatkin (appointed on February 8 (21), 1904), and the commander of the Pacific squadron, Vice Admiral S.O. Makarov, who replaced the uninitiative Vice Admiral O.V. on February 24 (March 8). Stark.

The beginning of the war. Military operations at sea

Military operations opened on January 27 (February 9), 1904, with a sudden attack by Japanese destroyers on the Russian Pacific squadron, which was stationed without proper security measures on the outer roadstead of Port Arthur. As a result of the attack, two squadron battleships and one cruiser were disabled. On the same day, the Japanese detachment of Rear Admiral S. Uriu (6 cruisers and 8 destroyers) attacked the Russian cruiser “Varyag” and the gunboat “Koreets”, which were stationed in the Korean port of Chemulpo. The Varyag, which received heavy damage, was scuttled by the crew, and the Koreets was blown up. January 28 (February 10) Japan declared war on Russia.

After the attack by Japanese destroyers, the weakened Pacific squadron limited itself to defensive actions. Arriving in Port Arthur, Vice Admiral S.O. Makarov began to prepare the squadron for active operations, but on March 31 (April 13) he died on the squadron battleship Petropavlovsk, which was blown up by mines. Rear Admiral V.K., who took command of the naval forces. Vitgeft abandoned the struggle for supremacy at sea, focusing on the defense of Port Arthur and supporting ground forces. During the fighting near Port Arthur, the Japanese also suffered significant losses: on May 2 (15), the squadron battleships Hatsuse and Yashima were killed by mines.

Military operations on land

In February-March 1904, the 1st Japanese Army of General T. Kuroki landed in Korea (about 35 thousand bayonets and sabers, 128 guns), which by mid-April approached the border with China on the Yalu River. By early March, the Russian Manchurian Army had completed its deployment. It consisted of two vanguards - Southern (18 infantry battalions, 6 squadrons and 54 guns, Yingkou-Gaizhou-Senyuchen area) and Eastern (8 battalions, 38 guns, Yalu River) and a general reserve (28.5 infantry battalions, 10 hundreds, 60 guns, Liaoyang-Mukden area). A cavalry detachment operated in North Korea under the command of Major General P.I. Mishchenko (22 hundreds) with the task of conducting reconnaissance beyond the Yalu River. On February 28 (March 12), based on the Eastern Vanguard, reinforced by the 6th East Siberian Rifle Division, the Eastern Detachment was formed, led by Lieutenant General M.I. Zasulich. He was faced with the task of making it difficult for the enemy to cross the Yala, but under no circumstances engaging in a decisive clash with the Japanese.

On April 18 (May 1), in the battle of Tyurencheng, the 1st Japanese Army defeated the Eastern Detachment, drove it back from Yalu and, having advanced to Fenghuangcheng, reached the flank of the Russian Manchurian Army. Thanks to the success at Tyurenchen, the enemy seized the strategic initiative and on April 22 (May 5) was able to begin the landing of the 2nd Army of General Y. Oku (about 35 thousand bayonets and sabers, 216 guns) on the Liaodong Peninsula near Bizivo. The southern branch of the Chinese Eastern Railway, leading from Liaoyang to Port Arthur, was cut off by the enemy. Following the 2nd Army, the 3rd Army of General M. Nogi was supposed to land, intended for the siege of Port Arthur. From the north, its deployment was ensured by the 2nd Army. In the Dagushan area, preparations were made for the landing of the 4th Army of General M. Nozu. It had the task, together with the 1st and 2nd armies, to act against the main forces of the Manchurian Army and ensure the success of the 3rd Army in the fight for Port Arthur.

On May 12 (25), 1904, the Oku army reached the positions of the Russian 5th East Siberian Rifle Regiment on the isthmus in the Jinzhou region, which covered the distant approaches to Port Arthur. The next day, at the cost of huge losses, the Japanese managed to push back the Russian troops from their positions, after which the path to the fortress was open. On May 14 (27), the enemy occupied the port of Dalniy without a fight, which became the base for further actions of the Japanese army and navy against Port Arthur. The landing of units of the 3rd Army immediately began in Dalny. The 4th Army began to land at the port of Takushan. Two divisions of the 2nd Army, which completed the assigned task, were sent north against the main forces of the Manchurian Army.

On May 23 (June 5), impressed by the results of the unsuccessful Jinzhou battle, E.I. Alekseev ordered A.N. Kuropatkin to send a detachment of at least four divisions to the rescue of Port Arthur. The commander of the Manchurian Army, who considered the transition to the offensive premature, sent only one reinforced I Siberian Army Corps, Lieutenant General G.K., against the Oku army (48 battalions, 216 guns). von Stackelberg (32 battalions, 98 guns). On June 1-2 (14-15), 1904, in the battle of Wafangou, von Stackelberg’s troops were defeated and were forced to retreat north. After failures at Jinzhou and Wafangou, Port Arthur found itself cut off.

By May 17 (30), the Japanese broke the resistance of Russian troops occupying intermediate positions on the distant approaches to Port Arthur, and approached the walls of the fortress, beginning its siege. Before the start of the war, the fortress was only 50% complete. As of mid-July 1904, the land front of the fortress consisted of 5 forts, 3 fortifications and 5 separate batteries. In the intervals between long-term fortifications, the defenders of the fortress equipped rifle trenches. There were 22 long-term batteries on the coastal front. The garrison of the fortress numbered 42 thousand people with 646 guns (514 of them on the land front) and 62 machine guns (47 of them on the land front). The general management of the defense of Port Arthur was carried out by the head of the Kwantung fortified area, Lieutenant General A.M. Stessel. The ground defense of the fortress was headed by the head of the 7th East Siberian Rifle Division, Major General R.I. Kondratenko. The 3rd Japanese Army consisted of 80 thousand people, 474 guns, 72 machine guns.

In connection with the beginning of the siege of Port Arthur, the Russian command decided to save the Pacific squadron and take it to Vladivostok, but in the battle in the Yellow Sea on July 28 (August 10), the Russian fleet failed and was forced to return. In this battle, the commander of the squadron, Rear Admiral V.K., was killed. Vitgeft. On August 6-11 (19-24), the Japanese carried out an assault on Port Arthur, which was repulsed with heavy losses for the attackers. An important role in the beginning of the defense of the fortress was played by the Vladivostok detachment of cruisers, which operated on the enemy’s sea communications and destroyed 15 steamships, including 4 military transports.

At this time, the Russian Manchurian Army (149 thousand people, 673 guns), reinforced by troops of the X and XVII Army Corps, took up defensive positions on the distant approaches to Liaoyang in early August 1904. In the Battle of Liaoyang on August 13-21 (August 26 - September 3), the Russian command was unable to use its numerical superiority over the 1st, 2nd and 4th Japanese armies (109 thousand people, 484 guns) and, despite the fact that all enemy attacks were repulsed with heavy losses, he ordered the troops to be withdrawn to the north.

The fate of Port Arthur

On September 6-9 (19-22), the enemy made another attempt to capture Port Arthur, which again failed. In mid-September, in order to help the besieged fortress A.N. Kuropatkin decided to go on the offensive. From September 22 (October 5) to October 4 (17), 1904, the Manchurian Army (213 thousand people, 758 guns and 32 machine guns) carried out an operation against the Japanese armies (according to Russian intelligence - over 150 thousand people, 648 guns) on the Shahe River, which ended in vain. In October, instead of one Manchu Army, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Manchu armies were deployed. A.N. became the new commander-in-chief in the Far East. Kuropatkin, who replaced E.I. Alekseeva.

The fruitless attempts of Russian troops to defeat the Japanese in Southern Manchuria and break through to Port Arthur decided the fate of the fortress. On October 17-20 (October 30 - November 2) and November 13-23 (November 26 - December 6) the third and fourth assaults on Port Arthur took place, again repelled by the defenders. During the last assault, the enemy captured Mount Vysokaya dominating the area, thanks to which he was able to adjust the fire of siege artillery, including 11-inch howitzers, the shells of which accurately hit the ships of the Pacific squadron stationed in the inner roadstead and the defensive structures of Port Arthur. On December 2 (15), the chief of ground defense, Major General R.I., was killed during shelling. Kondratenko. With the fall of forts Nos. II and III, the position of the fortress became critical. December 20, 1904 (January 2, 1905) Lieutenant General A.M. Stessel gave the order to surrender the fortress. By the time Port Arthur surrendered, its garrison included 32 thousand people (of which 6 thousand were wounded and sick), 610 serviceable guns and 9 machine guns.

Despite the fall of Port Arthur, the Russian command continued to try to defeat the enemy. In the battle of Sandepu January 12-15 (25-28), 1905 A.N. Kuropatkin carried out a second offensive with the forces of the 2nd Manchurian Army between the Honghe and Shahe rivers, which again ended in failure.

Battle of Mukden

On February 6 (19) - February 25 (March 10), 1905, the largest battle of the Russian-Japanese War took place, which predetermined the outcome of the struggle on land - Mukden. During its course, the Japanese (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th armies, 270 thousand people, 1062 guns, 200 machine guns) attempted to bypass both flanks of the Russian troops (1st , 2nd and 3rd Manchu armies, 300 thousand people, 1386 guns, 56 machine guns). Despite the fact that the plan of the Japanese command was thwarted, the Russian side suffered a heavy defeat. The Manchu armies retreated to the Sypingai positions (160 km north of Mukden), where they remained until peace was concluded. After the Battle of Mukden A.N. Kuropatkin was removed from the post of commander in chief and replaced by infantry general N.P. Linevich. By the end of the war, the number of Russian troops in the Far East reached 942 thousand people, and Japanese, according to Russian intelligence, 750 thousand. In July 1905, a Japanese landing captured the island of Sakhalin.

Tsushima battle

The last major event of the Russo-Japanese War was the Tsushima naval battle on May 14-15 (27-28), in which the Japanese fleet completely destroyed the united Russian 2nd and 3rd Pacific squadrons under the command of Vice Admiral Z.P. Rozhestvensky, sent from the Baltic Sea to help the Port Arthur squadron.

Treaty of Portsmouth

In the summer of 1905, in North American Portsmouth, through the mediation of US President T. Roosevelt, negotiations began between the Russian Empire and Japan. Both sides were interested in a speedy conclusion of peace: despite military successes, Japan had completely exhausted its financial, material and human resources and could no longer wage further struggle, and the Revolution of 1905-1907 began in Russia. On August 23 (September 5), 1905, the Portsmouth Peace Treaty was signed, ending the Russo-Japanese War. According to its terms, Russia recognized Korea as a sphere of Japanese influence, transferred to Japan Russia's lease rights to the Kwantung region with Port Arthur and the southern branch of the Chinese Eastern Railway, as well as the southern part of Sakhalin.

Results

The Russo-Japanese War cost the participating countries great human and material losses. Russia lost about 52 thousand people killed, died from wounds and diseases, Japan - more than 80 thousand people. The conduct of military operations cost the Russian Empire 6.554 billion rubles, Japan - 1.7 billion yen. The defeat in the Far East undermined Russia's international authority and led to the end of Russian expansion in Asia. The Anglo-Russian agreement of 1907, which established the delimitation of spheres of interest in Persia (Iran), Afghanistan and Tibet, actually meant the defeat of the eastern policy of the government of Nicholas II. Japan, as a result of the war, established itself as the leading regional power in the Far East, strengthening itself in Northern China and annexing Korea in 1910.

The Russo-Japanese War had a great influence on the development of military art. It demonstrated the increased importance of artillery, rifle and machine gun fire. During the fighting, the struggle for fire dominance acquired a dominant role. Actions in close masses and the bayonet strike lost their former significance, and the main battle formation became the rifle chain. During the Russo-Japanese War, new positional forms of struggle arose. Compared to the wars of the 19th century. The duration and scale of battles increased, and they began to break up into separate army operations. Artillery firing from closed positions became widespread. Siege artillery began to be used not only for fighting under fortresses, but also in field battles. At sea during the Russo-Japanese War, torpedoes were widely used, and sea mines were also actively used. For the first time, the Russian command brought in submarines to defend Vladivostok. The experience of the war was actively used by the military-political leadership of the Russian Empire during the military reforms of 1905-1912.

Russo-Swedish War 1808-1809
	Manchuria, Yellow Sea, Sea of ​​Japan, Sakhalin
	The clash of zones of influence of the Japanese and Russian empires in Korea and Manchuria
	Victory of the Japanese Empire
Territorial changes:	Annexation by Japan of the Lushun Peninsula and Southern Sakhalin
Opponents
Commanders
	Emperor Nicholas II
Oyama Iwao	Alexey Nikolaevich Kuropatkin
Maresuke's legs	Anatoly Mikhailovich Stessel
Tamemoto Kuroki	Roman Isidorovich Kondratenko
Togo Heihachiro	Admiral General Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich
Strengths of the parties
300,000 soldiers	500,000 soldiers
Military losses
killed: 47,387; wounded, shell-shocked: 173,425; died from wounds: 11,425; died from disease: 27,192; total deadweight loss: 86,004	killed: 32,904; wounded, shell-shocked: 146,032; died from wounds: 6,614; died from disease: 11,170; captured: 74,369; total deadweight loss: 50,688

(Nichi-ro senso:; February 8, 1904 - August 27, 1905) - war between Russia and Japan for control of Manchuria and Korea. It became - after a break of several decades - the first big war using the latest weapons: long-range artillery, battleships, destroyers.

In the first place in all Russian politics of the first half of the reign of Emperor Nicholas II were the issues of the Far East - the “great Asian program”: during his meeting in Reval with Emperor Wilhelm II, the Russian emperor directly said that he was considering strengthening and increasing Russia’s influence in East Asia as the task of His reign. The main obstacle to Russian dominance in the Far East was Japan, the inevitable clash with which Nicholas II foresaw and prepared for it both diplomatically and militarily (a lot was done: an agreement with Austria and improved relations with Germany ensured the Russian rear; the construction of the Siberian roads and the strengthening of the fleet provided the material possibility of fighting), however, in Russian government circles there was also a strong hope that fear of Russian power would keep Japan from a direct attack.

After the Meiji Restoration in 1868, having carried out a large-scale modernization of the country's economy, Japan by the mid-1890s switched to a policy of external expansion, primarily in geographically close Korea. Encountering resistance from China, Japan inflicted a crushing defeat on China during the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895). The Treaty of Shimonoseki, signed following the war, recorded China's renunciation of all rights to Korea and the transfer of a number of territories to Japan, including the Liaodong Peninsula in Manchuria. These achievements of Japan sharply increased its power and influence, which did not meet the interests of the European powers, so Germany, Russia and France achieved a change in these conditions: the Triple Intervention, undertaken with the participation of Russia, led to Japan's abandonment of the Liaodong Peninsula, and then to its transfer in 1898 year of Russia for rental use. The realization that Russia had actually taken the Liaodong Peninsula, captured during the war, from Japan led to a new wave of militarization of Japan, this time directed against Russia.

In 1903, a dispute over Russian timber concessions in Korea and the ongoing Russian occupation of Manchuria led to a sharp deterioration in Russian-Japanese relations. Despite the weakness of the Russian military presence in the Far East, Nicholas II did not make concessions, since for Russia the situation, in his opinion, was fundamental - the issue of access to ice-free seas, Russian dominance over a vast territory, and almost uninhabited expanses of land were being resolved. Manchuria. Japan strove for its complete dominance in Korea and demanded that Russia clear Manchuria, which Russia could not do for any reason. According to Professor S.S. Oldenburg, a researcher of the reign of Emperor Nicholas II, Russia could avoid the fight with Japan only at the cost of capitulation and its self-elimination from the Far East, and no partial concessions, of which many were made (including the delay in sending reinforcements to Manchuria), failed not only to prevent, but even to delay Japan’s decision to start a war with Russia, in which Japan, both in essence and in form, became the attacking party.

A sudden, without an official declaration of war, attack by the Japanese fleet on the Russian squadron on the outer roadstead of Port Arthur on the night of January 27 (February 9), 1904 led to the disabling of several of the strongest ships of the Russian squadron and ensured the unhindered landing of Japanese troops in Korea in February 1904 of the year. In May 1904, taking advantage of the inaction of the Russian command, the Japanese landed their troops on the Kwantung Peninsula and cut off the railway connection between Port Arthur and Russia. The siege of Port Arthur was begun by Japanese troops by the beginning of August 1904, and on January 2, 1905, the fortress garrison was forced to surrender. The remains of the Russian squadron in Port Arthur were sunk by Japanese siege artillery or blown up by their own crew.

In February 1905, the Japanese forced the Russian army to retreat in the general battle of Mukden, and on May 14 (27) - May 15 (28), 1905, in the Battle of Tsushima they defeated the Russian squadron transferred to the Far East from the Baltic. The reasons for the failures of the Russian armies and navy and their specific defeats were due to many factors, but the main ones were the incompleteness of military-strategic preparation, the colossal distance of the theater of military operations from the main centers of the country and the army, and the extremely limited communication networks. In addition, starting from January 1905, a revolutionary situation arose and developed in Russia.

The war ended with the Treaty of Portsmouth, signed on August 23 (September 5), 1905, which recorded Russia’s cession to Japan of the southern part of Sakhalin and its lease rights to the Liaodong Peninsula and the South Manchurian Railway.

Background

Expansion of the Russian Empire in the Far East

In the mid-1850s, the Crimean War marked the limits of the Russian Empire's territorial expansion in Europe. By 1890, after reaching the borders of Afghanistan and Persia, the potential for expansion in Central Asia had been exhausted - further advance was fraught with direct conflict with the British Empire. Russia's attention shifted further to the East, where Qing China, weakened in 1840-1860. crushing defeats in the opium wars and the Taiping uprising, could no longer hold the northeastern lands, which in the 17th century, before the Treaty of Nerchinsk, already belonged to Russia (see also Russian Far East). The Aigun Treaty, signed with China in 1858, recorded the transfer to Russia of the modern Primorsky Territory, on the territory of which Vladivostok was founded already in 1860.

The Treaty of Shimoda was concluded with Japan in 1855, according to which the Kuril Islands north of Iturup Island were declared the possessions of Russia, and Sakhalin was declared the joint possession of the two countries. In 1875, the Treaty of St. Petersburg fixed the transfer of Sakhalin to Russia in exchange for the transfer of all 18 Kuril Islands to Japan.

Further strengthening of Russian positions in the Far East was limited by the small size of the Russian population and the distance from the populated parts of the empire - for example, in 1885, Russia had only 18 thousand military contingent beyond Lake Baikal, and, according to calculations of the Amur Military District, the first battalion sent to Transbaikalia from European Russia marching order, could come to the rescue only after 18 months. In order to reduce travel time to 2-3 weeks, in May 1891, construction began on the Trans-Siberian Railway - a railway line between Chelyabinsk and Vladivostok about 7 thousand kilometers long, designed to connect the European part of Russia and the Far East by rail. The Russian government was extremely interested in the agricultural colonization of Primorye, and as a result, in ensuring unhindered trade through the ice-free ports of the Yellow Sea, such as Port Arthur.

Japan's struggle for dominance in Korea

After the Meiji Restoration, which occurred in 1868, the new Japanese government ended its policy of self-isolation and set a course for modernizing the country. Large-scale economic reforms made it possible by the early 1890s to modernize the economy, creating such modern industries as the production of machine tools and electrical equipment, and to begin exporting coal and copper. The army and navy, created and trained according to Western standards, gained strength and allowed Japan to think about external expansion, primarily to Korea and China.

Korea, due to its geographical proximity to Japan, was viewed by the latter as “a knife aimed at the heart of Japan.” Preventing foreign, especially European, control over Korea, and preferably taking it under its own control, was the main goal of Japanese foreign policy. Already in 1876, Korea, under Japanese military pressure, signed an agreement with Japan, ending Korea's self-isolation and opening its ports to Japanese trade. The ensuing struggle with China for control of Korea led to the Sino-Japanese War of 1895.

On March 30, 1895, at a Special Meeting on the Sino-Japanese War, the Chief of the Main Staff, Adjutant General N. N. Obruchev, said:

The Chinese fleet was defeated at the Battle of the Yalu River, and its remnants, sheltered in the heavily fortified Weihai, were destroyed (partially captured) by the Japanese in February 1895, after a 23-day combined land and sea attack. On land, the Japanese army defeated the Chinese in Korea and Manchuria in a series of battles and occupied Taiwan in March 1895.

On April 17, 1895, China was forced to sign the Shimonoseki Treaty, according to which China renounced all rights to Korea, transferred the island of Taiwan, the Pescadores Islands and the Liaodong Peninsula to Japan, and also paid an indemnity of 200 million liang (about 7.4 thousand tons of silver) , which was equivalent to a third of Japan's GDP, or 3 annual budgets of the Japanese government.

Immediate causes of the war

Triple intervention

On April 23, 1895, Russia, France and Germany, concerned about the strengthening of Japan, undertook the Triple Intervention - in the form of an ultimatum they demanded that Japan renounce the annexation of the Liaodong Peninsula. Japan, unable to withstand the combined pressure of the three European powers, yielded.

Russia took advantage of the return of Liaodong to China. On March 15 (27), 1898, a convention was signed between Russia and China, according to which Russia was leased the ice-free ports of the Liaodong Peninsula Port Arthur and Dalniy and was allowed to lay a railway to these ports from one of the points of the Chinese Eastern Railway.

The realization that Russia had actually taken the Liaodong Peninsula from Japan, captured during the war, led to a new wave of militarization of Japan, this time directed against Russia, under the slogan “Gashin-shotan” (“sleeping on a board with nails”), calling on the nation to steadfastly postpone tax increases for the sake of military revenge in the future.

Russian occupation of Manchuria and the conclusion of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance

In October 1900, Russian troops occupied Manchuria as part of the suppression of the Yihetuan uprising in China by the Eight-Nation Coalition.

In May 1901, the relatively moderate cabinet of Hirobumi Ito fell in Japan and the cabinet of Taro Katsura, more confrontational towards Russia, came to power. In September, Ito, on his own initiative, but with the consent of Katsura, went to Russia to discuss an agreement on the division of spheres of influence in Korea and Manchuria. Ito's minimum program (Korea - entirely to Japan, Manchuria - to Russia), however, did not find understanding in St. Petersburg, as a result of which the Japanese government chose to conclude an alternative agreement with Great Britain.

On January 17 (January 30), 1902, an Anglo-Japanese treaty was signed, article 3 of which, in the event of a war between one of the allies and two or more powers, obligated the other side to provide military assistance. The treaty gave Japan the opportunity to begin the fight with Russia, having the confidence that not a single power (for example, France, with which Russia had been in an alliance since 1891) would provide Russia with armed support for fear of war not only with Japan, but also with England. The Japanese ambassador, answering a question from the British about a possible reason for war with Russia, explained that “if the security of Korea is guaranteed, Japan probably will not go to war over Manchuria or Mongolia or other remote parts of China.”

On March 3 (16), 1902, a Franco-Russian declaration was published, which was a diplomatic response to the Anglo-Japanese alliance: in the event of “hostile actions of third powers” ​​or “unrest in China,” Russia and France reserved the right “to take appropriate measures " This declaration was of a non-binding nature - France did not provide significant assistance to its ally Russia in the Far East.

Growing Russian-Japanese confrontation

On March 26 (April 8), 1902, a Russian-Chinese agreement was signed, according to which Russia agreed to withdraw its troops from Manchuria within 18 months (that is, by October 1903). The withdrawal of troops was to be carried out in 3 stages of 6 months each.

In April 1903, the Russian government did not complete the second stage of the withdrawal of its troops from Manchuria. On April 5 (18), a note was sent to the Chinese government, which made the closing of Manchuria to foreign trade a condition for further withdrawal of troops. In response, England, the United States and Japan protested to Russia against the violation of the deadlines for the withdrawal of Russian troops, and advised China not to accept any conditions at all - which the Chinese government did, declaring that it would discuss “any questions about Manchuria” - only “on the evacuation "

In May 1903, about a hundred Russian soldiers, dressed in civilian clothes, were introduced into the village of Yongampo in Korea, located in the concession area on the Yalu River. Under the pretext of building timber warehouses, the construction of military facilities began in the village, which was perceived in Great Britain and Japan as Russia's preparation for creating a permanent military base in northern Korea. The Japanese government was particularly alarmed by the possibility of the situation in Korea developing according to the Port Arthur scenario, when the fortification of Port Arthur was followed by the occupation of all of Manchuria.

On July 1 (14), 1903, traffic along the Trans-Siberian Railway was opened along its entire length. The movement went through Manchuria (along the Chinese Eastern Railway). Under the pretext of checking the capacity of the Trans-Siberian Railway, the transfer of Russian troops to the Far East immediately began. The section around Lake Baikal was not completed (goods were transported across Lake Baikal by ferries), which reduced the capacity of the Trans-Siberian Railway to 3-4 pairs of trains per day.

On July 30, the governorship of the Far East was formed, uniting the Amur Governor-General and the Kwantung Region. The purpose of the formation of the governorship was to unite all bodies of Russian power in the Far East to counter the expected Japanese attack. Admiral E.I. Alekseev was appointed governor, to whom the troops, fleet and administration (including the strip of the Chinese Eastern Road) were placed under command.

On August 12, the Japanese government presented the Russian draft of a bilateral treaty, which provided for the recognition of “the predominant interests of Japan in Korea and the special interests of Russia in railway (only railway!) enterprises in Manchuria.”

On October 5, a response draft was sent to Japan, which provided, with reservations, for Russia to recognize Japan's predominant interests in Korea, in exchange for Japan's recognition of Manchuria as lying outside its sphere of interests.

The Japanese government was categorically not happy with the provision to exclude Manchuria from its zone of interests, but further negotiations did not make significant changes in the positions of the parties.

On October 8, 1903, the deadline established by the agreement of April 8, 1902, for the complete withdrawal of Russian troops from Manchuria, expired. Despite this, the troops were not withdrawn; In response to Japan's demands to comply with the terms of the agreement, the Russian government pointed to China's failure to comply with the evacuation conditions. At the same time, Japan began to protest against Russian events in Korea. According to S.S. Oldenburg, a researcher of the reign of Emperor Nicholas II, Japan was only looking for a reason to start hostilities at a convenient moment.

On February 5, 1904, Japanese Foreign Minister Jutaro Komura cabled the ambassador in St. Petersburg to “stop the present meaningless negotiations,” “in view of delays that remain largely unexplained,” and to break off diplomatic relations with Russia.

The decision to start a war against Russia was made in Japan at a joint meeting of members of the Privy Council and all ministers on January 22 (February 4), 1904, and on the night of January 23 (February 5) an order was given to land in Korea and attack the Russian squadron in Port Arthur. Following this, on January 24 (February 6), 1904, Japan officially announced the severance of diplomatic relations with Russia.

Japan chose the most advantageous moment for itself with high precision: the armored cruisers Nisshin and Kasuga, which it bought from Argentina in Italy, had just passed Singapore and were nowhere and no one could detain them on the way to Japan; The last Russian reinforcements (Oslyabya, cruisers and destroyers) were still in the Red Sea.

The balance of forces and communications before the war

Armed forces

The Russian Empire, having an almost threefold advantage in population, could field a proportionately larger army. At the same time, the number of Russian armed forces directly in the Far East (beyond Lake Baikal) was no more than 150 thousand people, and, taking into account the fact that most of these troops were involved in guarding the Trans-Siberian Railway/state border/fortresses, it was directly available for active operations about 60 thousand people.

The distribution of Russian troops in the Far East is shown below:

• near Vladivostok - 45 thousand people;
• in Manchuria - 28.1 thousand people;
• garrison of Port Arthur - 22.5 thousand people;
• railway troops (security of the Chinese Eastern Railway) - 35 thousand people;
• serf troops (artillery, engineering units and telegraph) - 7.8 thousand people.

By the beginning of the war, the Trans-Siberian Railway was already operating, but its capacity was only 3-4 pairs of trains per day. The bottlenecks were the ferry crossing across Lake Baikal and the Trans-Baikal section of the Trans-Siberian Railway; the throughput of the remaining sections was 2-3 times higher. The low capacity of the Trans-Siberian Railway meant a low speed of transfer of troops to the Far East: the transfer of one army corps (about 30 thousand people) took about 1 month.

According to military intelligence calculations, Japan at the time of mobilization could field an army of 375 thousand people. The Japanese army after mobilization numbered about 442 thousand people.

Japan's ability to land troops on the mainland depended on control of the Korea Strait and the southern Yellow Sea. Japan had a sufficient transport fleet to simultaneously transport two divisions with all the necessary equipment, and the journey from the ports of Japan to Korea was less than a day. It should also be noted that the Japanese army, actively modernized by the British, had some technological advantage over the Russian one; in particular, by the end of the war it had significantly more machine guns (at the beginning of the war Japan did not have machine guns), and the artillery had mastered indirect fire.

Fleet

The main theater of military operations was the Yellow Sea, in which the Japanese United Fleet under the command of Admiral Heihachiro Togo blocked the Russian squadron in Port Arthur. In the Sea of ​​Japan, the Vladivostok detachment of cruisers was opposed by the 3rd Japanese squadron, whose task was to counter raider attacks by Russian cruisers on Japanese communications.

The balance of forces of the Russian and Japanese fleets in the Yellow and Seas of Japan, by type of ship
Theaters of war	Yellow Sea		Japanese Sea
Ship types	Russian squadron in Port Arthur	Japanese Combined Fleet (1st and 2nd squadrons)	Vladivostok cruiser detachment	Japanese 3rd Squadron
Squadron battleships
Armored cruisers
Large armored cruisers (over 4000 tons)
Small armored cruisers
Mine cruisers (advice and minelayers)
Seaworthy gunboats
Destroyers
Destroyers

The core of the Japanese United Fleet - including 6 squadron battleships and 6 armored cruisers - was built in Great Britain in 1896-1901. These ships were superior to their Russian counterparts in many respects, such as speed, range, armor coefficient, etc. In particular, Japanese naval artillery was superior to Russian in terms of projectile weight (of the same caliber) and technical rate of fire, as a result of which the broadside (total weight fired shells) of the Japanese United Fleet during the battle in the Yellow Sea was about 12,418 kg versus 9,111 kg for the Russian squadron in Port Arthur, that is, it was 1.36 times more.

It is also worth noting the qualitative difference in the shells used by the Russian and Japanese fleets - the content of explosives in Russian shells of the main calibers (12", 8", 6") was 4-6 times lower. At the same time, the melinite used in Japanese shells was The explosion power was approximately 1.2 times higher than the pyroxylin used in Russian ones.

In the very first battle on January 27, 1904, near Port Arthur, the powerful destructive effect of Japanese heavy high-explosive shells on unarmored or lightly armored structures, which did not depend on the firing range, was clearly demonstrated, as well as the significant armor-piercing ability of Russian light armor-piercing shells at short distances (up to 20 cables) . The Japanese made the necessary conclusions and in subsequent battles, having superior speed, tried to maintain a firing position 35-45 cables away from the Russian squadron.

However, the powerful but unstable shimosa collected its “tribute” - the destruction from the explosions of its own shells in the gun barrels when fired caused almost more damage to the Japanese than hits from Russian armor-piercing shells. It is worth mentioning the appearance in Vladivostok by April 1905 of the first 7 submarines, which, although they did not achieve significant military successes, were still an important deterrent that significantly limited the actions of the Japanese fleet in the area of ​​Vladivostok and the Amur Estuary during the war.

At the end of 1903, Russia sent the battleship Tsarevich and the armored cruiser Bayan, which had just been built in Toulon, to the Far East; followed by the battleship Oslyabya and several cruisers and destroyers. Russia’s strong trump card was the ability to equip and transfer from Europe another squadron, approximately equal in number to that which was in the Pacific at the beginning of the war. It should be noted that the beginning of the war caught a fairly large detachment of Admiral A. A. Virenius halfway to the Far East, moving to reinforce the Russian squadron in Port Arthur. This set strict time limits for the Japanese, both for the beginning of the war (before the arrival of Virenius’s detachment) and for the destruction of the Russian squadron in Port Arthur (before the arrival of help from Europe). The ideal option for the Japanese was the blockade of the Russian squadron in Port Arthur with its subsequent death after the capture of Port Arthur by the Japanese troops besieging it.

The Suez Canal was too shallow for the newest Russian battleships of the Borodino type, the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits were closed to the passage of Russian warships from a fairly powerful Black Sea squadron. The only route for meaningful support for the Pacific fleet was from the Baltic around Europe and Africa.

Progress of the war

1904 Campaign

Beginning of the war

The severance of diplomatic relations made war more than likely. The fleet command was one way or another preparing for a possible war. The landing of a large landing force and the latter's active combat operations on land, requiring constant supplies, are not possible without the dominance of the navy. It was logical to assume that without this superiority, Japan would not initiate ground action. The Pacific squadron, according to pre-war estimates, contrary to popular belief, if it was inferior to the Japanese fleet, it was not significant. It was logical to assume that Japan would not start a war before the arrival of Kasuga and Nishina. The only option left was to paralyze the squadron before they arrived, by blocking it in the harbor of Port Arthur with blockships. To prevent these actions, warships were on duty in the outer roadstead. Moreover, to repel a possible attack by the forces of the entire fleet, and not just blockships, the roadstead was not filled with destroyers, but with the most modern battleships and cruisers. S. O. Makarov warned about the dangers of such tactics on the eve of the war, but at least his words did not reach their recipients.

On the night of January 27 (February 9), 1904, before the official declaration of war, 8 Japanese destroyers conducted a torpedo attack on the ships of the Russian fleet stationed on the outer roadstead of Port Arthur. As a result of the attack, two of the best Russian battleships (Tsesarevich and Retvizan) and the armored cruiser Pallada were disabled for several months.

On January 27 (February 9), 1904, a Japanese squadron consisting of 6 cruisers and 8 destroyers forced the armored cruiser "Varyag" and the gunboat "Koreets" located in the Korean port of Chemulpo into battle. After a 50-minute battle, the Varyag, which received heavy damage, was scuttled, and the Koreets was blown up.

After the battle in Chemulpo, the landing of units of the 1st Japanese Army under the command of Baron Kuroki, with a total number of about 42.5 thousand people, continued (began on January 26 (February 8), 1904).

On February 21, 1904, Japanese troops occupied Pyongyang, and by the end of April they reached the Yalu River, along which the Korean-Chinese border ran.

The attitude of the Russian public to the beginning of the war with Japan

The news of the start of the war left few people in Russia indifferent: in the first period of the war, the prevailing mood among the people and the public was that Russia had been attacked and it was necessary to repel the aggressor. In St. Petersburg, as well as other large cities of the empire, unprecedented street patriotic manifestations spontaneously arose. Even the capital’s student youth, known for their revolutionary sentiments, concluded their university gathering with a procession to the Winter Palace singing “God Save the Tsar!”

Opposition circles to the government were taken by surprise by these sentiments. Thus, the Zemstvo constitutionalists who gathered on February 23 (Old Art.) 1904 for a meeting in Moscow made a collective decision to stop any proclamation of constitutional demands and statements in view of the outbreak of war. This decision was motivated by the patriotic upsurge in the country caused by the war.

Reaction of the world community

The attitude of the leading world powers to the outbreak of war between Russia and Japan split them into two camps. England and the USA immediately and definitely took the side of Japan: an illustrated chronicle of the war that began to be published in London even received the name “Japan’s Struggle for Freedom”; and American President Roosevelt openly warned France against its possible action against Japan, saying that in this case he would “immediately take her side and go as far as necessary.” The tone of the American press was so hostile to Russia that it prompted M. O. Menshikov, one of the leading publicists of Russian nationalism, to exclaim in Novoye Vremya:

France, which even on the eve of the war considered it necessary to clarify that its alliance with Russia related only to European affairs, was nevertheless dissatisfied with the actions of Japan, which started the war, because it was interested in Russia as its ally against Germany; With the exception of the extreme left, the rest of the French press maintained a strictly correct allied tone. Already on March 30 (April 12), a “cordial agreement” was signed, which caused well-known bewilderment in Russia, between France, an ally of Russia, and England, an ally of Japan. This agreement marked the beginning of the Entente, but at that time it remained almost without reaction in Russian society, although Novoe Vremya wrote about this: “Almost everyone felt a breath of cold in the atmosphere of Franco-Russian relations.”

On the eve of the events, Germany assured both sides of friendly neutrality. And now, after the outbreak of the war, the German press was divided into two opposing camps: right-wing newspapers were on the side of Russia, left-wing ones on the side of Japan. The personal reaction of the German emperor to the outbreak of war was of significant importance. Wilhelm II noted on the report of the German envoy to Japan:

Siege of Port Arthur

On the morning of February 24, the Japanese attempted to scuttle 5 old transports at the entrance to Port Arthur harbor in order to trap the Russian squadron inside. The plan was foiled by the Retvizan, which was still in the outer roadstead of the harbor.

On March 2, Virenius’s detachment received an order to return to the Baltic, despite the protests of S. O. Makarov, who believed that he should continue further to the Far East.

On March 8, 1904, Admiral Makarov and the famous shipbuilder N.E. Kuteynikov arrived in Port Arthur, along with several wagons of spare parts and equipment for repairs. Makarov immediately took energetic measures to restore the combat effectiveness of the Russian squadron, which led to an increase in military spirit in the fleet.

On March 27, the Japanese again tried to block the exit from Port Arthur harbor, this time using 4 old vehicles filled with stones and cement. The transports, however, were sunk too far from the harbor entrance.

On March 31, while going to sea, the battleship Petropavlovsk hit 3 mines and sank within two minutes. 635 sailors and officers were killed. These included Admiral Makarov and the famous battle painter Vereshchagin. The battleship Poltava was blown up and out of action for several weeks.

On May 3, the Japanese made a third and final attempt to block the entrance to Port Arthur harbor, this time using 8 transports. As a result, the Russian fleet was blocked for several days in the harbor of Port Arthur, which cleared the way for the landing of the 2nd Japanese Army in Manchuria.

Of the entire Russian fleet, only the Vladivostok cruiser detachment (“Russia”, “Gromoboy”, “Rurik”) retained freedom of action and during the first 6 months of the war several times went on the offensive against the Japanese fleet, penetrating the Pacific Ocean and being off the Japanese coast, then , leaving again for the Korea Strait. The detachment sank several Japanese transports with troops and guns, including on May 31, Vladivostok cruisers intercepted the Japanese transport Hi-tatsi Maru (6175 brt), on board which were 18,280-mm mortars for the siege of Port Arthur, which made it possible to tighten the siege of Port Arthur for several months.

Japanese offensive in Manchuria and defense of Port Arthur

On April 18 (May 1), the 1st Japanese Army, numbering about 45 thousand people, crossed the Yalu River and in a battle on the Yalu River defeated the eastern detachment of the Russian Manchurian Army under the command of M. I. Zasulich, numbering about 18 thousand people. The Japanese invasion of Manchuria began.

On April 22 (May 5), the 2nd Japanese Army under the command of General Yasukata Oku, numbering about 38.5 thousand people, began landing on the Liaodong Peninsula, about 100 kilometers from Port Arthur. The landing was carried out by 80 Japanese transports and continued until April 30 (May 13). The Russian units, numbering about 17 thousand people, under the command of General Stessel, as well as the Russian squadron in Port Arthur under the command of Vitgeft, did not take active actions to counter the Japanese landing.

On April 27 (May 10), the advancing Japanese units interrupted the railway connection between Port Arthur and Manchuria.

If the 2nd Japanese Army landed without losses, then the Japanese fleet, which supported the landing operation, suffered very significant losses. On May 2 (15), 2 Japanese battleships, the 12,320-ton Yashima and the 15,300-ton Hatsuse, were sunk after hitting a minefield laid by the Russian minelayer Amur. In total, during the period from May 12 to 17, the Japanese fleet lost 7 ships (2 battleships, a light cruiser, a gunboat, a notice, a fighter and a destroyer), and 2 more ships (including the armored cruiser Kasuga) went for repairs in Sasebo.

The 2nd Japanese Army, having completed the landing, began moving south to Port Arthur in order to establish a close blockade of the fortress. The Russian command decided to take the battle to a well-fortified position near the city of Jinzhou, on the isthmus that connected the Kwantung Peninsula with the Liaodong Peninsula.

On May 13 (26), a battle took place near Jinzhou, in which one Russian regiment (3.8 thousand people with 77 guns and 10 machine guns) repelled attacks from three Japanese divisions (35 thousand people with 216 guns and 48 machine guns) for twelve hours. . The defense was broken through only in the evening, after the approaching Japanese gunboats suppressed the Russian left flank. The Japanese losses amounted to 4.3 thousand people, the Russians - about 1.5 thousand people killed and wounded.

As a result of their success during the battle of Jinzhou, the Japanese overcame the main natural barrier on the way to the Port Arthur fortress. On May 29, Japanese troops occupied the Dalniy port without a fight, and its shipyards, docks and railway station fell to the Japanese practically undamaged, which greatly facilitated their supply of the troops besieging Port Arthur.

After the occupation of Dalny, the Japanese forces split: the formation of the Japanese 3rd Army began under the command of General Maresuke Nogi, which was tasked with capturing Port Arthur, while the Japanese 2nd Army began moving north.

On June 10 (23), the Russian squadron in Port Arthur attempted to break through to Vladivostok, but three hours after going to sea, noticing the Japanese fleet on the horizon, Rear Admiral V.K. Vitgeft ordered to turn back, as he considered the situation unfavorable for battle.

On June 1-2 (14-15), in the battle of Wafangou, the 2nd Japanese Army (38 thousand people with 216 guns) defeated the Russian 1st East Siberian Corps of General G. K. Stackelberg (30 thousand people with 98 guns), sent by the commander of the Russian Manchurian Army Kuropatkin to lift the blockade of Port Arthur.

The Russian units retreating to Port Arthur after the defeat at Jinzhou took up a position “on the passes”, approximately halfway between Port Arthur and Dalny, which the Japanese did not attack for quite a long time, waiting for their 3rd Army to be fully equipped.

On July 13 (26), the 3rd Japanese Army (60 thousand people with 180 guns) broke through the Russian defense “at the passes” (16 thousand people with 70 guns), on July 30 occupied the Wolf Mountains - positions on the far approaches to the fortress itself, and already on August 9 reached its original positions along the entire perimeter of the fortress. The defense of Port Arthur began.

In connection with the start of shelling of Port Arthur harbor by Japanese long-range artillery, the fleet command decided to attempt a breakthrough to Vladivostok.

On July 28 (August 10), the Battle of the Yellow Sea took place, during which the Japanese fleet, due to the death of Vitgeft and the loss of control by the Russian squadron, managed to force the Russian squadron to return to Port Arthur.

On July 30 (August 12), not knowing that the attempt to break into Vladivostok had already failed, 3 cruisers of the Vladivostok detachment entered the Korean Strait, with the goal of meeting there the Port Arthur squadron breaking through to Vladivostok. On the morning of August 14, they were discovered by Kamimura’s squadron consisting of 6 cruisers and, unable to evade, took on the battle, as a result of which the Rurik was sunk.

The defense of the fortress continued until January 2, 1905 and became one of the brightest pages of Russian military history.

In the fortress area, cut off from the Russian units, there was no single undisputed leadership; three authorities existed simultaneously: the commander of the troops, General Stessel, the commandant of the fortress, General Smirnov, and the commander of the fleet, Admiral Vitgeft (due to the absence of Admiral Skrydlov). This circumstance, coupled with difficult communication with the outside world, could have had dangerous consequences if General R.I. Kondratenko had not been found among the command staff, who “with rare skill and tact managed to reconcile, in the interests of the common cause, the contradictory views of individual commanders " Kondratenko became the hero of the Port Arthur epic and died at the end of the siege of the fortress. Through his efforts, the defense of the fortress was organized: fortifications were completed and put into combat readiness. The fortress garrison numbered about 53 thousand people, armed with 646 guns and 62 machine guns. The siege of Port Arthur lasted about 5 months and cost the Japanese army about 91 thousand people killed and wounded. Russian losses amounted to about 28 thousand people killed and wounded; Japanese siege artillery sunk the remains of the 1st Pacific Squadron: the battleships Retvizan, Poltava, Peresvet, Pobeda, the armored cruiser Bayan, and the armored cruiser Pallada. The only remaining battleship "Sevastopol" was withdrawn to the White Wolf Bay, accompanied by 5 destroyers ("Angry", "Statny", "Skory", "Smely", "Vlastny"), the port tug "Silach" and the patrol ship "Brave" " As a result of the attack launched by the Japanese under the cover of darkness, the Sevastopol was seriously damaged, and since in the conditions of a bombed port and the possibility of the internal roadstead being shot by Japanese troops, repairing the ship was impossible, it was decided to sink the ship by the crew after preliminary dismantling of the guns and removal of ammunition .

Liaoyang and Shahe

During the summer of 1904, the Japanese slowly moved towards Liaoyang: from the east - the 1st Army under Tamemoto Kuroki, 45 thousand, and from the south - the 2nd Army under Yasukata Oku, 45 thousand and the 4th Army under Mititsura Nozu, 30 thousand people. The Russian army slowly retreated, while at the same time constantly being replenished by reinforcements arriving along the Trans-Siberian Railway.

On August 11 (24), one of the general battles of the Russian-Japanese War began - the Battle of Liaoyang. Three Japanese armies attacked the positions of the Russian army in a semicircle: the army of Oku and Nozu was advancing from the south, and Kuroki was advancing in the east. In the battles that continued until August 22, Japanese troops under the command of Marshal Iwao Oyama (130 thousand with 400 guns) lost about 23 thousand people, Russian troops under the command of Kuropatkin (170 thousand with 644 guns) - 16 thousand (according to other sources 19 thousand . killed and wounded). The Russians successfully repulsed all Japanese attacks south of Liaoyang for three days, after which A.N. Kuropatkin decided, concentrating his forces, to go on the offensive against Kuroki’s army. The operation did not bring the desired results, and the Russian commander, who overestimated the strength of the Japanese, deciding that they could cut the railway from the north of Liaoyang, ordered a withdrawal to Mukden. The Russians retreated in perfect order, leaving not a single gun behind. The overall outcome of the Battle of Liaoyang was uncertain. Nevertheless, the Russian historian Professor S.S. Oldenburg writes that this battle was a heavy moral blow, since everyone was expecting a decisive rebuff to the Japanese in Liaoyang, but in fact, the historian writes, it was another rearguard battle, extremely bloody .

On September 22 (October 5) the battle took place on the Shah River. The battle began with an attack by Russian troops (270 thousand people); On October 10, Japanese troops (170 thousand people) launched a counterattack. The outcome of the battle was uncertain when, on October 17, Kuropatkin gave the order to stop the attacks. The losses of Russian troops amounted to 40 thousand killed and wounded, Japanese - 30 thousand.

After the operation on the Shahe River, a positional lull was established at the front, which lasted until the end of 1904.

1905 Campaign

In January 1905, a revolution began in Russia, which complicated the further conduct of the war.

On January 12 (25), the Battle of Sandepu began, in which Russian troops tried to go on the offensive. After occupying 2 villages, the battle was stopped on January 29 by Kuropatkin’s order. The losses of Russian troops amounted to 12 thousand, Japanese - 9 thousand people killed and wounded.

In February 1905, the Japanese forced the Russian army to retreat in the general battle of Mukden, which took place on a more than 100-kilometer front and lasted three weeks. Before the outbreak of World War I, it was the largest land battle in history. In heavy battles, the Russian army lost 90 thousand people (killed, wounded and captured) out of 350 thousand who took part in the battle; The Japanese army lost 75 thousand people (killed, wounded and prisoners) out of 300 thousand. On March 10, Russian troops left Mukden. After this, the war on land began to subside and took on a positional character.

May 14 (27) - May 15 (28), 1905, in the Battle of Tsushima, the Japanese fleet destroyed the Russian squadron transferred to the Far East from the Baltic under the command of Vice Admiral Z. P. Rozhestvensky.

On July 7, the last major operation of the war began - the Japanese invasion of Sakhalin. The 15th Japanese division, numbering 14 thousand people, was opposed by about 6 thousand Russian people, consisting mainly of exiles and convicts, who joined the troops only to acquire benefits for serving hard labor and exile and were not particularly combat-ready. On July 29, after the main Russian detachment (about 3.2 thousand people) surrendered, resistance on the island was suppressed.

The number of Russian troops in Manchuria continued to increase, and reinforcements arrived. By the time of peace, the Russian armies in Manchuria occupied positions near the village of Sypingai (English) and numbered about 500 thousand soldiers; The troops were not located in a line, as before, but echeloned in depth; the army has strengthened significantly technically - the Russians have howitzer batteries and machine guns, the number of which has increased from 36 to 374; Communication with Russia was no longer maintained by 3 pairs of trains, as at the beginning of the war, but by 12 pairs. Finally, the spirit of the Manchu armies was not broken. However, the Russian command did not take decisive action at the front, which was greatly facilitated by the revolution that had begun in the country, as well as Kuropatkin’s tactics to maximally deplete the Japanese army.

For their part, the Japanese, who suffered huge losses, also did not show activity. The Japanese army facing the Russian numbered about 300 thousand soldiers. The former rise in it was no longer observed. Japan was economically exhausted. Human resources were exhausted; among the prisoners there were old people and children.

Results of the war

In May 1905, a meeting of the military council was held, where Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich reported that, in his opinion, for final victory it was necessary: ​​a billion rubles of expenses, about 200 thousand losses and a year of military operations. After reflection, Nicholas II decided to enter into negotiations with the mediation of American President Roosevelt to conclude peace (which Japan had already proposed twice). S. Yu. Witte was appointed the first authorized Tsar and the very next day he was received by the Emperor and received the appropriate instructions: in no case agree to any form of payment of indemnity, which Russia has never paid in history, and not to give “not an inch Russian land." At the same time, Witte himself was pessimistic (especially in light of the Japanese demands for the alienation of all of Sakhalin, Primorsky Krai, and the transfer of all interned ships): he was sure that “indemnity” and territorial losses were “inevitable.”

On August 9, 1905, peace negotiations began in Portsmouth (USA) through the mediation of Theodore Roosevelt. The peace treaty was signed on August 23 (September 5), 1905. Russia ceded to Japan the southern part of Sakhalin (already occupied by Japanese troops at that time), its lease rights to the Liaodong Peninsula and the South Manchurian Railway, which connected Port Arthur with the Chinese Eastern Railway. Russia also recognized Korea as a Japanese zone of influence. In 1910, despite protests from other countries, Japan formally annexed Korea.

Many in Japan were dissatisfied with the peace treaty: Japan received fewer territories than expected - for example, only part of Sakhalin, and not all of it, and most importantly, did not receive monetary indemnities. During the negotiations, the Japanese delegation put forward a demand for an indemnity of 1.2 billion yen, but the firm and unyielding position of Emperor Nicholas II did not allow Witte to concede on these two fundamental points. He was supported by US President Theodore Roosevelt, telling the Japanese that if they insisted, the American side, which had previously sympathized with the Japanese, would change its position. The Japanese side’s demand for the demilitarization of Vladivostok and a number of other conditions were also rejected. Japanese diplomat Kikujiro Ishii wrote in his memoirs that:

As a result of the peace negotiations, Russia and Japan pledged to withdraw troops from Manchuria, use the railways only for commercial purposes, and not interfere with freedom of trade and navigation. Russian historian A. N. Bokhanov writes that the Portsmouth agreements became an undoubted success of Russian diplomacy: the negotiations were more of an agreement of equal partners, rather than an agreement concluded as a result of an unsuccessful war.

The war cost Japan a huge amount of effort compared to Russia. She had to put 1.8% of the population under arms (Russia - 0.5%), during the war its external public debt increased 4 times (for Russia by a third) and reached 2,400 million yen.

The Japanese army lost killed, according to various sources, from 49 thousand (B. Ts. Urlanis) to 80 thousand (Doctor of Historical Sciences I. Rostunov), while the Russian from 32 thousand (Urlanis) to 50 thousand (Rostunov) or 52,501 people (G. F. Krivosheev). Russian losses in battles on land were half that of the Japanese. In addition, 17,297 Russian and 38,617 Japanese soldiers and officers died from wounds and illnesses (Urlanis). The incidence in both armies was about 25 people. per 1000 per month, however, the mortality rate in Japanese medical institutions was 2.44 times higher than the Russian figure.

According to some representatives of the military elite of that time (for example, Chief of the German General Staff Schlieffen), Russia could well have continued the war if only it had better mobilized the forces of the empire.

In his memoirs, Witte admitted:

Opinions and ratings

General Kuropatkin in his “Results” of the Japanese War wrote about the command staff:

Other facts

The Russo-Japanese War gave rise to several myths about the explosive used by the Japanese, shimose. Shells filled with shimosa exploded upon impact with any obstacle, producing a mushroom-shaped cloud of suffocating smoke and a large number of fragments, that is, they had a pronounced high-explosive effect. Russian shells filled with pyroxylin did not give such an effect, although they had better armor-piercing properties. Such a noticeable superiority of Japanese shells over Russian ones in terms of high explosiveness has given rise to several common myths:

1. The explosion power of shimosa is many times stronger than pyroxylin.
2. The use of shimosa was Japan's technical superiority due to which Russia suffered naval defeats.

Both of these myths are incorrect (discussed in detail in the article on shimoz).

During the transition of the 2nd Pacific Squadron under the command of Z.P. Rozhdestvensky from the Baltic to the Port Arthur area, the so-called Hull incident occurred. Rozhdestvensky received information that Japanese destroyers were waiting for the squadron in the North Sea. On the night of October 22, 1904, the squadron fired at English fishing vessels, mistaking them for Japanese ships. This incident caused a serious Anglo-Russian diplomatic conflict. Subsequently, an arbitration court was created to investigate the circumstances of the incident.

The Russo-Japanese War in art

Painting

On April 13, 1904, the talented Russian battle painter Vasily Vereshchagin died as a result of the explosion of the battleship Petropavlovsk by Japanese mines. Ironically, shortly before the war, Vereshchagin returned from Japan, where he created a number of paintings. In particular, he created one of them, “Japanese Woman,” at the beginning of 1904, that is, just a few months before his death.

Fiction

	Book title	Description
Doroshevich, V. M.	East and war	The main topic is international relations during the war
Novikov-Priboy
Kostenko V. P.	On the "Eagle" in Tsushima	Main topic - Battle of Tsushima
Stepanov A. N.	"Port Arthur" (in 2 parts)	Main topic - Defense of Port Arthur
Pikul V.S.	Cruisers	Operations of the Vladivostok cruiser detachment during the war
Pikul V.S.	Wealth	Defense of the Kamchatka Peninsula
Pikul V.S.		Japanese landing on Sakhalin Island. Defense of Sakhalin.
Pikul V.S.	Three ages of Okini-san	The life story of a naval officer.
Daletsky P. L.	On the hills of Manchuria
Grigoriev S. T.	Stern flag of the Thunderbolt
Boris Akunin	Diamond Chariot (book)	Japanese espionage and sabotage on the Russian railway during the war
M. Bozhatkin	The Crab Goes to Sea (novel)
Allen, Willis Boyd	The north Pacific: a story of the Russo-Japanese war	The Russo-Japanese War through the eyes of US Navy sailors

War in music

• Waltz by Ilya Shatrov “On the Hills of Manchuria” (1907).
• Song by an unknown author “The Sea Spreads Wide” (1900s) about the 2nd Pacific Squadron: L. Utesov, L. Utesov video, E. Dyatlov, DDT
• The song “Up, comrades, everyone is in place” (1904), dedicated to the death of the cruiser “Varyag”: footage from the film “Varyag”, M. Troshin
• The song “Cold Waves Splashing” (1904), also dedicated to the death of the cruiser “Varyag”: Alexandrov Ensemble, 1942, O. Pogudin
• Song based on the verses of Alexander Blok “A girl sang in the church choir” (1905): L. Novoseltseva, A. Kustov and R. Stanskov.
• Oleg Mityaev’s song “Alien War” (1998) from the point of view of a sailor of the 2nd Pacific Squadron - a resident of Tobolsk.