The Russo-Japanese War showed Russia's failure not only in foreign policy, but also in the military sphere. A series of defeats caused irreparable damage to the authority of the authorities. Japan did not achieve a complete victory, having exhausted its resources, it was content with small concessions.

Epigraph: Russian soldiers showed heroism both on land and at sea, but the commanders could not lead them to victory over Japan.

In previous articles “The Causes of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905”, “The Feat of the Varyag and the Korean in 1904”, “The Beginning of the Russo-Japanese War” we touched on some issues. In this article, we will consider the general course and results of the war.

Causes of the war

Russia's desire to gain a foothold on the "non-freezing seas" of China and Korea.

The desire of the leading powers to prevent the strengthening of Russia in the Far East. US and UK support for Japan.

The desire of Japan to oust the Russian army from China and capture Korea.

Arms race in Japan. Increasing taxes for the sake of military production.

Japan's plans were to seize Russian territory from Primorsky Krai to the Urals.

The course of the war

January 27, 1904- near Port Arthur 3 Russian ships were pierced by Japanese torpedoes, which did not sink due to the heroism of the crews. The feat of Russian ships Varangian" and " Korean» near the port of Chemulpo (Incheon).

March 31, 1904- the death of an armadillo " Petropavlovsk"With the headquarters of Admiral Makarov and a crew of more than 630 people. The Pacific Fleet was beheaded.

May - December 1904- the heroic defense of the fortress of Port Arthur. The 50 thousandth Russian garrison, having 646 guns and 62 machine guns, repelled the attacks of the 200 thousandth army of the enemy. After the surrender of the fortress, about 32 thousand Russian soldiers were captured by the Japanese. The Japanese lost over 110,000 (according to other sources 91 thousand) soldiers and officers, 15 warships sank and 16 were destroyed.

August 1904- battle under Liaoyang. The Japanese lost more than 23 thousand soldiers, the Russians - more than 16 thousand. Uncertain outcome of the battle. General Kuropatkin gave the order to retreat, fearing encirclement.

September 1904- battle at Shahe river. The Japanese lost more than 30 thousand soldiers, the Russians - more than 40 thousand. Uncertain outcome of the battle. After that, a positional war was waged in Manchuria. In January 1905, a revolution raged in Russia, which made it difficult to wage a war to victory.

February 1905 - Battle of Mukden stretched for 100 km along the front and lasted 3 weeks. The Japanese launched an offensive earlier and confused the plans of the Russian command. Russian troops retreated, avoiding encirclement and losing more than 90 thousand. The Japanese lost over 72,000.

The Japanese command recognized the underestimation of the strength of the enemy. Soldiers with weapons and provisions continued to arrive from Russia by rail. The war again took on a positional character.

May 1905- the tragedy of the Russian fleet off the Tsushima Islands. Admiral's ships Rozhdestvensky (30 combat, 6 transport and 2 hospital) traveled about 33 thousand km and immediately entered the battle. Nobody in the world could not defeat 121 enemy ships on 38 ships! Only the cruiser "Almaz", the destroyers "Brave" and "Grozny" broke through to Vladivostok (according to other sources, 4 ships were saved), the crews of the rest died as heroes or were captured. The Japanese were badly damaged 10 and 3 ships sank.

Until now, Russians, passing by the Tsushima Islands, lay wreaths on the water in memory of 5,000 dead Russian sailors.

The war was ending. The Russian army in Manchuria was growing and could continue the war for a long time. Japan's human and financial resources were depleted (old people and children have already been drafted into the army). Russia signed from a position of strength Treaty of Portsmouth in August 1905.

The results of the war

Russia withdrew troops from Manchuria, handed over to Japan the Liaodong Peninsula, the southern part of Sakhalin Island and money for the maintenance of prisoners. This failure of Japanese diplomacy caused riots in Tokyo.

After the war, Japan's external public debt grew 4 times, Russia's by 1/3.

Japan lost more than 85 thousand killed, Russia more than 50 thousand.

More than 38 thousand soldiers died from wounds in Japan, more than 17 thousand in Russia.

Yet Russia lost this war. The reasons were economic and military backwardness, weakness of intelligence and command, the great remoteness and stretching of the theater of operations, poor supply, and weak interaction between the army and navy. In addition, the Russian people did not understand why it was necessary to fight in distant Manchuria. The revolution of 1905-1907 further weakened Russia.

Will the right conclusions be drawn? To be continued.

Russo-Japanese war 1904-1905.

On January 26, 1904, the Russo-Japanese War began in the Far East. It did not bring Russia a single victory and gave rise to the revolution of 1905, it was spoken of as "fatal" and "unfortunate." Since that time, it is customary to count the end of the Romanov dynasty and the decline of imperial Russia. With the exception of the Anglo-Boer War, which took place at the turn of the century, the Russo-Japanese War was the first war of the 20th century. Asia, dressed in a European uniform, made it clear to the West what place it expected to occupy in international relations.

In the shadow of the union

The pages of the history of the Russo-Japanese War are filled not only with facts of mass heroism of fallen soldiers and officers. These pages contain a mute reproach to the Russian absolutism of the 19th century and to that condescendingly dismissive idea of ​​the subjects, which was shown by popular prints made to raise the military spirit.

Nicholas II

For Russia, this was the last sacrifice of a humble people, brought not in the name of some understandable and great goal, although in a century this goal seems to be visible, but so, by promise. On the contrary, for Japan, inspired by the economic successes of the post-revolutionary "Meiji period", this war turned out to be a prelude to glory and international recognition. As the statesman of the Land of the Rising Sun wrote, "having won, the Japanese nation unexpectedly acquired the status of a great power and thus successfully carried out the plans that it had set for itself." The unequal treaties imposed on Japan by the United States and European powers back in the 1950s forcibly included it in world trade. Very soon, the countries of the West saw in the state, which they themselves called into modern life, a serious and dangerous competitor. But in the political sense, Japan continued to be unequal, although it tried with all its might to dominate the Far East, unleashing a war with China in 1894.

The first step in the direction of the Russo-Japanese conflict was the mediation mission of the Russian government at the conclusion of the Japanese-Chinese Shimonoseki Peace Treaty of 1895, as a result of which Japan lost a number of major acquisitions in China. The second was the idea to build the Trans-Siberian railway not through the territory of Russia, but through Northern Manchuria, which reduced the communication between Chita and Vladivostok by almost three times. The railway line, known as the Chinese Eastern Railway, began to be built under an agreement with China in 1897 from the Manchuria station through Harbin to Suifenghe (Border). The subsequent occupation of Port Arthur was the result of the construction of the CER. By not allowing Japan to seize the Liaodong Peninsula from China in 1895, two and a half years later, Russia itself won the right to lease from China what, following the results of the Sino-Japanese war, should have belonged to Japan.

The powers that are commonly called great, closely followed both the weakening of the Middle Empire and the successes of Russia and Japan, and did not want to stay away from the struggle for influence in the eastern seas. In 1897, Germany captured the port of Qingdao, and the following year, forced the Chinese government to lease it for 99 years. “The looming question of the fate of the Chinese Empire,” as stated in one document of those years, was on the agenda of Russian politics: under a convention with China, Russia acquired Liaodong on lease for 25 years with the town of Lushun, which also had a European name - Port Arthur.

Since March 1898, this ice-free port has become the base for the Pacific squadron of the Russian fleet, which naturally led to the construction of the southern branch of the CER - the South China Railway from Harbin to Port Arthur. The British and French, jealous of their interests in China, also hastened to get their "leases", and as a result, a significant part of the Qin empire was divided into spheres of influence of the great powers and Japan, which fell to Korea and the province of Fujian located opposite Taiwan.

The Chinese people responded to this with the Yihetuan uprising, also known in history under the name of the "Boxing". This name was given by foreigners, since the uprising was initiated by the religious society "I-he-quan", which means "Fist in the name of justice and harmony." In early June 1900, the rebels entered Beijing and laid siege to the European missions, which served as a pretext for open intervention, in which the troops of Great Britain, Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Italy, the United States, Japan and Russia took part. The “fist in the name of justice” also hit the cheekbones of the Russian state: the Yihetuani damaged certain sections of the CER and even threatened Blagoveshchensk, so in September Russian troops occupied Manchuria, the Russian flag was raised in Harbin and Russian administration was introduced. The British immediately protested, while Japan made it clear that if Russia established itself in Manchuria, it would establish its dominance in Korea.

In the autumn of 1901, the well-known statesman of Japan, Marquis Ito, arrived in St. Petersburg. In the Russian capital, he conducted semi-official negotiations, was received by the tsar, met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs V.N. Lamzdorf and Minister of Finance S.Yu. Witte. Ito argued that the only point of contention between the two empires was Korea. On his own behalf, he proposed a draft agreement on Korea, which, according to Lamzdorf, provided this country "at the complete disposal of Japan, turning its independence into an empty phrase." For Ito, the negative result became obvious already in the course of the explanations with Lamzdorf and Witte. It was no coincidence that he left Russia for Paris without waiting for a written response, and the Russian counterdraft, which did not recognize Japan's freedom of action in Korea "politically", was sent after him. It also required Tokyo to recognize Russia's pre-emptive rights in all regions of China adjacent to the Russian border. It was hoped in St. Petersburg that Foreign Minister Delcasset would continue the Russo-Japanese settlement in France, but Ito did not wait for the minister, who was absent from Paris just at that time, and instead went to London.

In March 1902, a proposal from Russia to conclude a convention on the delimitation of spheres of interest in the Far East followed from Tokyo. The wording itself made it clear that Japan did not intend to limit its claims to Korea alone. Having entered into an alliance that allowed avoiding the intervention of third countries in the event of a war with Russia, and enlisting the moral and economic support of the United States, Japan rapidly created an army and navy. The pages of Japanese newspapers were flooded with cartoons on the most topical political topics. Russia in these cartoons was depicted as a strong and aggressive beast, a bear or a tiger, while Japan was presented as a small defenseless animal or a fragile soldier.

On July 30, 1903, the Government Bulletin announced the establishment of a separate vicegerency in the Far East with headquarters in Port Arthur. The viceroy reported directly to the tsar, and in order to coordinate his actions with the Committee of Ministers, he had a Special Committee for the Far East in St. Petersburg, which was headed by Bezobrazov's friend, Rear Admiral A.M. Abaza. The champion of peace in the Far East S.Yu. Witte was removed from the post of Minister of Finance, dissatisfied A.N. Kuropatkin, who held the post of Minister of War, submitted his resignation.

On the day of the establishment of the governorship in the Far East, negotiations between Russia and Japan on the division of spheres of influence in Korea and Manchuria resumed. Russia demanded from Japan a resolute statement that "Manchuria is outside the limits of Japanese interests." Negotiations went through the viceroy in the Far East, E.I. Alekseev and Russian Ambassador to Tokyo R.R. Rosen.

The Mikado government insisted on the inclusion of a special clause on Manchuria in the agreement, especially since on October 8 (N.S.) 1903, according to the Russian agreement with China, the deadline for the evacuation of Russian troops from there expired. However, in the end, under the influence of the "bezobrazovtsy", Nikolai decided to leave the troops in Manchuria for another three years, and if they were withdrawn, then not to the territory of Russia, but to the right-of-way of the CER. Warships of the Russian fleet were sent from Port Arthur to the Korean port of Chemulpo, or otherwise Incheon, with the task of protecting the Russian consulate located there, and at the same time the embassy in Seoul. Alekseev even offered to attack the Japanese fleet in the event of a landing of Mikado troops in Korea, but Nikolai did not agree to this.

"Don't start on your own"

In the late autumn of 1903, Russia and Japan were still exchanging notes, but the latter considered that the negotiations no longer made sense. Viceroy E.I. Alekseev reported to St. Petersburg about the creation of the Headquarters in Japan and other measures to prepare an attack on Russia. On December 15, the tsar convened a meeting to discuss the proposal of Alekseev, who proposed to interrupt the negotiations due to the intransigence of the Japanese. And this time, Kuropatkin and Lamzdorf managed to defend the course of continuing the search for a compromise.

On January 21, at the insistence of Alekseev, the Pacific squadron left Port Arthur on a training trip under the flag of Vice Admiral O.V. Stark.

O.V. stark

Upon learning of this, the Japanese chose not to risk it and attack first. On January 22, at a secret meeting of the imperial council (Genro), it was decided to entrust the solution of controversial issues to the vicissitudes of war. Diplomatic relations were severed on January 24, but even then in St. Petersburg almost no one believed in the possibility of an armed clash. The Russian side continued to wait for a response to the proposals it had made three days ago. However, the telegraph department in Nagasaki kept the dispatch for almost a day and handed it to the Russian ambassador in Tokyo, R.R. Rosen only 25 January. This was not an accident, because already on January 24, the high command of the Japanese armed forces was ordered to land troops in the Korean port of Chemulpo and attack Port Arthur.

Report of the chief commander of the Kronstadt port, Vice Admiral S.O. Makarov, which contained a warning about the danger of keeping the Pacific squadron in the outer roadstead of Port Arthur, was ignored and sent to the archive. On the morning of the 26th, at Nikolai's, the top leaders of the army, navy, and the Committee for Far East Affairs discussed the situation and decided "not to start on our own."

Late in the evening of the same day (the difference in astronomical time between Port Arthur and St. Petersburg is about 6 hours in favor of Arthur), returning from the theater (they gave Dargomyzhsky's "Mermaid"), the emperor was stunned by Alekseev's telegram about the Japanese night mine attack and undermining battleships "Tsesarevich", "Retvizan" and the cruiser "Pallada".

The day before, the tsar held in his hands a telegram from Alekseev of a completely different content: "The fleet is in full combat readiness and will boldly repel any attempt from a daring enemy." Nikolai's confidence in the impossibility of war, which, of course, Alekseev was well aware of, prevented him from taking a consistent position, and meanwhile he was one of the few in the country's leadership who clearly saw and heard the impending thunderstorm. When Vice Admiral O.V. Stark, who was afraid that the Japanese might suddenly clog the only way out of the harbor, suggested that the governor lower the mine nets on the battleships, he replied: “We have never been so far from the war as we are today,” and on Stark’s report he wrote in green pencil: “Untimely and not political!

The first mine on the Russian ships stationed in the outer roadstead of Arthur was fired by the Japanese on January 26 at 23:35. With the onset of the day, the city itself was bombarded. “By some strange coincidence,” writes a witness to this, “one of the first Japanese shells hit the building of the famous timber company on the Yalu River, which undoubtedly played an outstanding role in aggravating our relations with Japan.”

On the same date, the Japanese fleet managed to intercept the Varyag cruiser and the Korean gunboat in the Korean port of Chemulpo.

The death of the Varyag

When in 1891 the heir to the Russian throne, Nikolai Alexandrovich, made a trip to the Far East, among the escort ships was the gunboat "Koreets", which entered service in 1887 and was assigned to the ships of the Siberian flotilla. By the time of the Russo-Japanese War, the “Koreets” had already served science enough - a bay on the island of Lichangshan and a strait near this island in the Yellow Sea were named in his honor - and for its direct military purpose: the boat participated in the transportation of the Russian landing corps from Port Arthur in Dagu during the suppression of the Ihetuan uprising in Northern China in 1900. The Varyag, built in the USA in 1899, appeared in the Far East much later and immediately became the pride of the Pacific squadron. When Russo-Japanese negotiations resumed on July 29, 1903 regarding the division of spheres of influence in Korea and Manchuria, the light cruiser Varyag was stationed in Port Arthur.

On December 29, 1903 (January 11, 1904 according to New Style), the Varyag arrived in Chemulpo, having on board a special detachment to guard the Russian embassy in Seoul. A week later, the seaworthy gunboat "Koreets" joined him. These ships replaced the light cruiser "Boyarin" and the gunboat "Gilyak", which were stationed there, and themselves remained on duty in this capacity.

Chemulpo was considered a neutral port, since on January 3 the Korean government announced that it would remain neutral in a possible Russo-Japanese conflict. In addition to Russian warships and the Sungari steamship belonging to the CER, there were cruisers from third countries in the port: the British cruiser Talbot, the French cruiser Pascal, the Italian Elba and the American advice note Vicksburg.

The task of attacking the Russian ships was entrusted by the Japanese command to Rear Admiral Uriu.

Shitokichi Uriu

While the main forces of the Japanese United Fleet, under the leadership of Vice Admiral Togo, rushed to Port Arthur, the Uriu detachment went to Chemulpo. A landing party was landed from its transports, which captured Seoul on the same day, and the ships of Uriu went to sea to wait for the Varyag and the Korean. Early on the morning of January 27, the Japanese Consul in Korea delivered an ultimatum to the Russian Vice-Consul Zinoviy Mikhailovich Polyanovsky, which contained a notice of the start of hostilities and a demand to leave the port road before noon, otherwise both Russian ships would be attacked at 16.00 at the anchorage. At the same time, Uriu warned the commanders of ships belonging to third countries of this intention, recommending that they leave the port before the specified time of attack. Having received the demand of the Japanese at about half past nine in the morning, the commander of the Varyag V.F. Rudnev drew the attention of Lewis Bailey, senior on the raid, to the violation by the Japanese of international law. Bailey convened a meeting of the commanders of the warships located in Chemulpo, at which Rudnev was asked to leave the raid before 14.00. Otherwise, foreign sailors reserved the right to withdraw their ships from the raid so as not to suffer themselves. “Varangian” and “Korean” had only one thing to do - to go through the line of Japanese ships without escort, because Rudnev’s proposal to escort the Russians to the border of Korean neutral waters in protest against the violation of international law, the Englishman, and under his influence the rest, refused.

Squadron S. Uriu in battle with the "Varangian"

Two Russian ships in this legendary battle were opposed by six Japanese cruisers and eight destroyers. Naval battle, perhaps the most famous in the history of the Russian fleet, has been repeatedly described in the literature. So, Yu.V. The treble in the book "Port Arthur" gives the following details: "At 11.20, to the sounds of the orchestra, accompanied by loud greetings from the French, English, Italian and American sailors gathered on the decks of their ships (on the cruisers Pascal and Elba, the orchestras performed the Russian anthem) , both Russian ships went to the open sea ... Uriu, noticing the outgoing Russian ships, on the yards of the flagship "Naniva" raised a signal: "I propose to surrender without a fight." However, Rudnev refused and at 11.45, when the distance between the detachments decreased to 8,300 meters, the first shots rang out from the Japanese side. Seven minutes later, the Varyag entered the battle, walking 180 meters ahead of the Korean, and it was on him that the Japanese detachment brought down the full force of their fire. After 55 minutes, Japanese artillery shells seriously damaged the Varyag; about half of all the guns placed on the deck without armored cover were disabled, the cruiser lost its foremast and third pipe, and fires started on it. By the end of the battle, the crew counted 22 killed and 108 wounded, of whom 11 subsequently died.

Battle of the cruiser "Varangian"

The damage received by the Varyag, especially the holes below the waterline, which created a strong roll to the port side, made the continuation of the battle unpromising, and the cruiser, driven by cars, turned back to the port. Now the “Korean” covered him, because he approached the Japanese up to twenty-two cables (1 cables = 185.2 meters), and at this distance two of his eight-inch guns (203 mm) were already able to operate. The Russian ships did not inflict any noticeable damage on the Japanese, although the Japanese still (!) keep secret information about the number of hits on their ships from the Varyag and Koreyets and the nature of the damage caused by these hits. At the same time, they refer to the loss of control documents - watch logs and repair sheets.

The Russian sailors faced a difficult choice: either by moving the heavy guns of the "Korean" to the "Varyag", to repair themselves and try to break through to Port Arthur again, or to flood the ship and go ashore either unarmed, meaning the neutrality of Korea, or with weapons , because at that moment there were already Japanese military units numbering about 3,000 people in Chemulpo. Inspection of the cruiser revealed the unsuitability of the cruiser for combat, and Rudnev decided to blow it up right there in the roadstead, but Bailey asked to choose some other method, since an explosion in the relatively cramped space of the roadstead could damage foreign ships. At the same time, he stated that foreign ships would leave him before 16.00, because at that time Admiral Uriu threatened to resume the battle already in the roadstead itself. The crews of the "Varyag", "Korean" and the ship "Sungari" were decided to be transferred to foreign ships, as to neutral territory. The council of officers of the "Korean" agreed with the decision of the commander of the "Varyag". The crew of the "Korean" was transferred to the French cruiser "Pascal", the crew of the "Varyag" - to the English "Talbot" and the Italian "Elba". The Chemulpo Settlement formed a Red Cross flying detachment to provide first aid to the wounded of the warring powers. A steam boat under the flag of this detachment delivered the crew of the Russian steamer Sungari to the Elba, and brought 24 seriously wounded from the Varyag to Chemulpo, where two of them died from their wounds. The Japanese agreed to regard these wounded as shipwrecked and placed them in their Red Cross hospital.

The death of "Varangian" and "Korean"

"Korean" was blown up at 16.05. Kingstons were opened on the Varyag, and at 18.00 he plunged into the water with a raised flag and guis. Rear Admiral Uriu demanded that the commanders of the neutral cruisers hand over the Russian sailors as prisoners of war, but all of them, not without pressure from the teams that sympathized with our compatriots, decisively refused him. The Japanese had no choice but to inform the world that both ships were sunk in battle along with the crews. Nevertheless, it is known that on behalf of Admiral Uriu, the flagship doctor of the Japanese squadron Yamamoto Yei visited the Russian wounded in the Japanese hospital and even gave them gifts. The Japanese agreed to release the Varyag and Koreyets crews from Chemulpo, on the condition that all servicemen give a subscription where they undertake not to take any more part in hostilities against Japan. Russian sailors could give such a subscription only with the highest permission, which was received from Emperor Nicholas. Only the senior officer of the Varyag cruiser V.V. Stepanov refused to give such a subscription.

It was not until January 28 that Japan officially declared war. “Faithful to their Eastern customs,” Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich recalled, “the Japanese first struck, and then declared war on us.”

Admiral Makarov

After the attack of the Japanese fleet on Port Arthur on the night of January 26-27, 1904, which would later be called the rehearsal of Pearl Harbor, a threatening situation developed for the Pacific squadron in Port Arthur. During the first three weeks of the war, the squadron suffered irreparable losses: the Varyag cruiser and the Koreets gunboat were destroyed in Chemulpo Bay. The gunboats "Manchurian" and "Sivuch" were disarmed, the first - in Shanghai, the second - in Nyuchwang, where it was subsequently blown up. The light cruiser "Boyarin" and the mine transport "Yenisei" died in the waters of Arthur, having run into their own mines. In Pigeon Bay, the Japanese destroyer "Impressive" was sunk.

destroyer "Guarding"

the death of the "Guardian"

Public opinion demanded that a popular and energetic naval commander be appointed to command the fleet. The choice fell on Vice Admiral Stepan Makarov.

Together with him, the famous artist Vasily Vereshchagin, a former graduate of the Naval Cadet Corps, went to the Far East. His friendship with Makarov, as well as the latter's all-Russian fame, began during the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878.

Makarov's popularity increased already in peacetime thanks to outstanding oceanographic research. In collaboration with D.I. Mendeleev Makarov carried out a project to create the world's first linear icebreaker for the Arctic. In March 1899, the Ermak icebreaker, built in New Castle by Armstrong, arrived in Kronstadt. In 1901, Makarov made an expedition on it to Novaya Zemlya and Franz Josef Land.

In January 1904, Makarov served as chief commander of the Kronstadt port. Makarov's requests to the Main Naval Headquarters, supported by the governor E.I. Alekseev, about strengthening the Tikhookanskaya squadron with material resources, were not satisfied. Nor was his request for a reprint of his Discourses on Naval Tactics to be reprinted. After the scandal, during which the admiral even asked to be dismissed, they decided to print the Discourses, but they never made it to Port Arthur. In Japan, Makarov's book was published already in 1898, and the commander of the Japanese United Fleet, Vice Admiral Heihachiro Togo, was one of the first to read it. It is said that during the war with Russia, Togo had this book with him and even left critical remarks on its margins. Nevertheless, it was Makarov who he preferred over other Russian admirals, calling this his main rival "a venerable crane among skinny roosters." On the same train with the famous admiral, the first ten midshipmen of the early "royal" release, as well as the artisans and engineers of the Baltic Shipyard, went to the Far East, who were supposed to repair the ships damaged by the enemy - the Tsesarevich, Retvizan and Pallada.

The death of "Petropavlovsk"

Makarov reached Port Arthur on 24 February. “The arrival of Admiral Makarov instills confidence in everyone that our fleet will finally come out of its stubborn inactivity and show more active activity,” wrote one of the participants in the defense of the fortress. “How feverishly all the work suddenly began to boil,” Lieutenant V.I. noted in his diary. Lepko. Makarov's very first order contained the fatal words: "I will try to avoid accidents if I do not get carried away with business along with my entire fleet." However, an accident lay in wait for the admiral already 36 days after he took office, and on the 66th day of the war.

On March 17, a parade took place in Port Arthur on the occasion of the sixth anniversary of its occupation by Russian troops. Since that time, the headquarters of the squadron has increased by one more person - Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, the cousin of the tsar, who became the head of the operational naval department. There was no special closeness between him and Makarov, but this appointment gave hope that a relative of the emperor would help him promote some projects, bypassing the Naval Ministry.

On the morning of March 31, Russian ships that went out to sea at night to make contact with the enemy approached Port Arthur in two columns. At 3 miles from the Golden Mountain, the battleship Petropavlovsk, heading one of them, touched the bow of a Japanese mine set at night.

Battleship Petropavlovsk

On the same day, March 31, 1904, Rear Admiral I.K. Grigorovich sent a telegram to Nikolai in St. Petersburg, where he reported preliminary data on the tragedy. A few days later, the loss figures became more accurate: 662 people died, only 79 were saved. The Port Arthur newspaper Novy Krai gave the following details of the death of Petropavlovsk: "stumbled upon a group of mines scattered by the enemy. According to another version, a Whitehead mine from a submarine was fired at him. According to the survivors officers and sailors, separate episodes of the death of this floating fortress are established. At 10:20, on the right, at the bow of the Petropavlovsk, a huge column of water appeared. The people standing at the stern turret of the 12-inch guns threw themselves on their side, but did not have time to run back a few steps - as a second terrible explosion is heard, a huge column of yellowish-brown smoke rises and the entire steel mass is engulfed in flames; the deck of the "Petropavlovsk" instantly took a vertical position, the stern rose up; the propellers whirled helplessly in the air, the bow rapidly sinking. Who could, rushed to escape, the last moments of "Petropavlovsk" came, the giant was dying in the sight of the fortress, in front of the entire squadron. A strong northwest blew, people helplessly struggled with the elements of water, and explosions continued on the rapidly sinking battleship - it is assumed that pyroxylin was detonated in bomb and mine cellars. During the first explosion, the late commander of the fleet, Vice-Admiral Makarov, who was standing on the command bridge, fell down by the terrible force of the explosion, apparently mortally wounded. Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, thrown into the sea by the pressure of air, received two blows to the head on the fly, and when he found himself on the surface of the water, he received another blow and, exhausted, barely raked out. These were all moments. From the approaching destroyers, from the whaleboats hurrying to the rescue, from the batteries of the forts, from the ships of the squadron, they saw from everywhere how people threw themselves into the water and died. Those who were escaping with terrible efforts rowed out in the high billowing high waves, and the resulting whirlpool pulled them back, into the depth of 18 sazhens, into the abyss of the sea, where the Petropavlovsk quickly sank. Stronger voices were heard, they asked: where was the commander, they saw his coat, but the commander was not there - Admiral Makarov was killed. The destroyer "Silent" approached and picked up the Grand Duke, stiff from the cold. Minutes after the explosion, only a cloudy spot on the water and a mass of debris remained from the Petropavlovsk, on which people fought between life and death in the icy water of the sea surf.

It seemed to the witnesses that even after the armadillo went into the water, the sea was still throwing out flames. A thorough search at the site of the death of Petropavlovsk ended only with the fact that Makarov’s cloak was found from the Gaydamak torpedo cruiser, while the vice-admiral himself, according to the surviving signalman, died already at the moment of the mine explosion. Vasily Vereshchagin died with him. Among the few who survived was the Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich - the same member of the dynasty, whose descendants today claim to be the head of the Romanov dynasty. On April 2, at 8 o'clock in the morning, the governor-adjutant general Alekseev arrived in Port Arthur and raised his flag on the battleship Sevastopol.

Thus began a war that no one in Russia sympathized with, which the masses of the people did not understand at all, and even less, the military themselves said, did the army understand this war. Russian public opinion was little interested in the Far East, and the only stimulus that aroused a feeling of patriotism and offended national pride was the treacherous attack on Port Arthur. “The awakening of Russia from the Hague frenzy was sad,” wrote the historian of the Russian army A.A. Kersnovsky. — Waking up from pacifist utopias, we looked around in confusion at the hostile world. Our few friends were embarrassedly silent. And numerous enemies no longer concealed their hatred and gloating.”

After a successful "attack" on the Russian squadron at Port Arthur, the "Japanese" landed at Dalny and surrounded Port Arthur.

Japanese bombardment of Port Arthur Bay

After the explosion of the squadron battleship Petropavlovsk and the death of Admiral Makarov, a new stage began in the course of the Russo-Japanese War. The aim of the Japanese military plan was to lock up or destroy the Russian fleet based in Port Arthur, occupy Korea, and drive the Russian troops out of Manchuria.

The death of Admiral Makarov became the prologue to the defeat of the Russian fleet in the Russo-Japanese War. Many people are still convinced that if Admiral Makarov had remained alive, the war would have taken on a completely different character. Be that as it may, the "active defense" advocated by the admiral was now over. Vice Admiral N.I. was appointed to replace him. Skrydlov, but he met only with a small part of his fleet, located in Vladivostok. “Our fleet was to play the main role in the war with Japan,” wrote General A.N. Kuropatkin. “If our fleet were successful over the Japanese, then military operations on the mainland would become redundant.” But this did not happen, and the initiative in Kwantung waters passed to the Japanese. After that, the Japanese command decided to start implementing its land war plan, its eyes turned to the kaoliang fields of the Liaodong Peninsula and the hills of Manchuria. Kuropatkin noted that, feeling like a mistress on the seas, Japan was able to quickly deliver all the necessary supplies by sea to the armies. Transportation of even huge loads, carried out in the tsarist army on a weak railway for months, was carried out by the Japanese in a few days. But no less important, Japan, with its dominance at sea and, in general, the inactivity of the Russian fleet, freely received arsenals ordered in Europe and America in its ports: weapons, military, food supplies, horses and cattle. As for the cruising war unleashed by Rear Admiral Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich in February 1904 in the Red Sea, it ended, as soon as it began, with an international scandal. Four steamships, urgently acquired in Hamburg, and ships of the Volunteer Fleet that joined them, captured 12 ships with military supplies for Japan in this sea. However, the British Foreign Office protested strongly, and Kaiser Wilhelm went even further and spoke of the actions of the Russian ships as "an unprecedented act of piracy that could cause international complications." On the recommendation of diplomats and Vice Admiral Z.P. Rozhdestvensky, who was to lead a squadron of Baltic ships to Port Arthur, operations on the sea and ocean communications of Japan were curtailed so as not to aggravate relations with neutral powers during the transition of this squadron. A separate detachment of ships under the command of Rear Admiral A.A. was supposed to replenish the Pacific squadron. Virenius. It consisted of the battleship "Oslyabya", the cruisers "Dmitry Donskoy", "Aurora" and "Almaz", 11 destroyers and transport ships. To accomplish this task, he left Kronstadt back in August 1903, and on the third day of the war, due to numerous breakdowns, he only reached

Djibouti in French Somalia. And on February 15, he received an order to return to Russia. In all these events, the Russian memoirist wrote, “the only good thing was that at the end of the war, no one doubted so far that it had taken place somewhere far away, with some funny “Japs”. The Japanese were still called macaques in print and lazily waited for victories. When, in the presence of Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich - the future Commander-in-Chief of the Russian armies in the World War - someone expressed the wish that he lead the troops, the prince replied dismissively that he had no desire to fight "with these Japs." And only the insightful General M.I. Dragomirov, who was also predicted for this post, remarked: "Japanese macaques, but we are somehow."

M.I. Dragomilov

The pun of the hero of the Balkans came true literally in the very first days of the war. The main defect of the Russian strategy in the war with Japan lay in some kind of pathological passivity and indecisiveness of actions. And how could one explain the fact that, having a regular army of a million people, Russia assigned the main role in this war to people called up from the reserve? The highest military department made a sad decision to replenish the existing units and form new ones - older spares. “The participants in the war,” writes one of them, “of course, remember the crowds of elderly bearded men dressed in military uniforms, dejectedly wandering along the Manchurian roads. In their hands, the weapon seemed so pathetic and unnecessary.

Russian soldiers

Some time after the start of the war, A.N. was appointed commander of the Manchurian army. Kuropatkin, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces in the theater of war was the Viceroy of the Emperor in the Far East, Admiral E.I. Alekseev.

E.I. Alekseev

Thus, a duality of power arose, not to mention the fact that the governor Alekseev had no idea about the land war. A good administrator and a brave officer, Kuropatkin was by no means a commander, and he was aware of this. Departing for Manchuria, he told Emperor Nicholas II: "Only poverty in people made Your Majesty choose me." According to the remark of General N.A. Yepanchin, Kuropatkin thoroughly prepared for the campaign, his journey was like a triumphal procession with seeing off in St. Petersburg, with solemn meetings in Moscow and all the way. The general was blessed with many icons, with one of them he moved Baikal, placing it next to him in a sleigh. There were so many images that the wits made up a pun: "Kuropatkin received so many images that he does not know how to defeat the Japanese."

Key to Arthur

Due to the low capacity of the Great Siberian Route, the corps assigned to reinforcements from European Russia reached the Far East only 3 months after the start of hostilities. During this time, the Japanese managed a lot: they landed three armies on the Liaodong Peninsula and Kwantung, redeployed Kuroka's first army to South Manchuria. According to the apt expression of an English military observer, the Russian army "as if hung at the end of a single-track railway a thousand miles long, like a soap bubble." On April 18, in the case on the Yalu River, the bubble burst, and the Japanese armies rushed into Manchuria, step by step pushing the Russian troops north. The very first clashes showed the Russian generals that it was not a "punitive campaign" in the Asian country, but a war with a first-rate power. Kuropatkin, as many military theorists believed, gave strategic operations the tactical character of Turkestan campaigns, which constituted his main combat experience.

On April 30, the railway connection between Mukden and Port Arthur was interrupted. And 2 weeks later, the Japanese finally cut off the fortress. For 2 months, Russian troops held the enemy at the intermediate lines of the Jinzhou Isthmus, where the entire 2nd Oku Army was opposed by the 5th East Siberian Rifle Regiment, which almost completely fell in position: 28 officers and 1,215 lower ranks. During the assault on May 13, the Japanese lost 133 officers and 4,071 soldiers here. The isthmus was called the gateway to Port Arthur. Perfectly understanding its significance, Kuropatkin decided to retreat and ordered the head of the Kwantung Fortified Region A.M. Stessel to attach the retreating troops to the garrison of the fortress, subsequently explaining this by the lack of available troops.

“If General Fok had sent reinforcements to the 5th East Siberian Regiment at the decisive moment,” wrote Captain M.I. Lilie, then the Jinzhou position, this “key” to Arthur, would, of course, remain in our hands, and then the whole course of further events in Port Arthur and in the northern army would have changed greatly. Due to the retreat of the detachment of General Fock to Port Arthur, the city of Dalny had to be given to the Japanese without a fight. “All the inhabitants,” wrote a participant in the defense of the fortress, “struck by the unexpected fall of the Jinzhou position, leaving almost all their property, hastily fled to Arthur.”

There was a rumor that even before the arrival of the Japanese, the Honghuzi attacked Dalniy and plundered it. The Japanese got a power plant, a loading port, about a hundred port warehouses, a dry dock, railway workshops, 400 wagons and large reserves of coal. Although all the large ships moved to Port Arthur, about 50 small ships for various purposes remained in Dalny. The command of the Kwantung fortified area made such an expensive “gift” to the enemy, because the order to destroy the port followed only after leaving the Jinzhou position. As a result, Dalniy, renamed Dairen, almost immediately became a Japanese loading port and base for Japanese destroyers. The defeat of the Russians near Jinzhou coincided with the announcement by the Japanese of a complete naval blockade of Kwantung: the ships of neutral states, if they entered the fortress, were threatened by Togo with the most “severe consequences”. An attempt to unblock the fortress ended in failure: after the battle of Vafangou (June 1-2), Stackelberg's 1st Siberian Corps retreated north to join Kuropatkin.

The feat of the commander of the 4th battery, lieutenant Lesevitsky

in the battle of Wafangou

The siege of Port Arthur began, which attracted the attention of the whole world for six months.

On May 27, a French steamer slipped to Port Arthur, the captain of which brought a letter to General Stessel from the Russian military mission in Beijing. Stessel was informed that the 3rd Japanese Army and 2 more divisions were operating against the fortress, of which one took Arthur by storm during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. Then in the ranks of this infantry division was Major Nogi Maresuke. Now he was already a general, and it was to him that the forces directed against Port Arthur were subordinated.

Russian ships in Port Arthur

The blockade from the side of the land, which was advancing on Port Arthur, put the ships of the Pacific squadron between two fires. Immediately after it became known about the retreat of Shtakelberg units from Vafangou, Viceroy Alekseev ordered Rear Admiral V.K. Vitgeft to withdraw the Pacific squadron from the fortress and send it to Vladivostok.

VK. Witgeft

On June 9, the guns taken ashore were returned to the ships, and the next day, for the first time after the death of Admiral Makarov, the squadron went to sea, but, having met Japanese ships, turned back to Port Arthur without a fight. “When the squadron was already anchored at the foot of the Golden Mountain,” an eyewitness wrote, “the Japanese again launched a dashing, desperate mine attack. I personally saw how two attacking destroyers developed such a speed that the coal did not have time to burn out in the furnaces and was thrown out in a luminous sheaf from their pipes. It was possible to observe how these two luminous points, far visible in the sea, quickly approached our squadron, which literally roared from its accelerated firing from large and small guns. This roar at sea was joined by the rumble of coastal batteries. The cannonade was incredible, and the quiet summer southern night, as it were, strengthened it with its silence. When anchoring on the port side of the battleship Sevastopol, a minefield exploded, and the battleship, listing to its port side, was brought into the harbor with the help of port ships. The sailors explained the reason for their return by the fact that near Kwantung they unexpectedly met a Japanese squadron, which greatly outnumbered the Pacific one. Witgeft explained the indecision of the sailors with "insufficient practice of collective going out to sea and poor combat training of the teams."

It must be said that the reproaches repeatedly made to the fleet were not always fair. In total, during the struggle near Port Arthur (both under Makarov and without it), as a result of the actions of the formations of the 1st Pacific squadron, 19 Japanese combat ships were destroyed, including 2 battleships, 2 cruisers, 7 gunboats, 2 destroyers, 4 destroyers, fireships and auxiliary vessels, and at least 25 enemy ships were damaged. “Although enemy ships, starting with Petropavlovsk, were often in danger from mine explosions, the losses of our ships from enemy shells and other causes were considerable,” admitted Admiral Togo.

By July 13 (26), General Nogi waited for reinforcements and ordered an offensive along the entire line.

Marasuke Legs

Fights began first for the Green Mountains, and then for the Volchi Mountains, located 7-8 km from Port Arthur. As a result of these battles, the Russian troops retreated to the line of fortifications to the music and singing "God save the Tsar", which surprised the Japanese a lot.

On July 25, the first shelling of the inner basin of the fortress from the land took place. All subsequent shells of the Japanese fell into the port, one of them hit the conning tower of the flagship "Tsesarevich", one radiotelegraph sailor was killed, several people were injured, among them Rear Admiral Witgeft himself.

On the same day, a dispatch was delivered to Witgeft from the governor with a categorical demand to leave Port Arthur under the threat of not only criminal liability, but also "a stain of shame that will fall on the St. Andrew's flag if the squadron is flooded in the port." The Japanese, on the other hand, understood that the Russian ships in Port Arthur, after the repair was completed, would again be capable of combat. The proof of this was the exit of the Russian squadron on June 10 (23). They also guessed that the Russians would try to leave Port Arthur to connect with the Vladivostok detachment in order to wait for the arrival of the Baltic squadron there, or to save the ships they would go to neutral ports. In order to prevent the concentration of Russian forces in the Far East, superior to the Japanese fleet, Admiral Togo ordered Admiral Kamimura to strengthen surveillance in the Korea Strait of Vladivostok cruisers and gave new instructions to ships blocking the exit from Arthur harbor. But the departure of the squadron, scheduled for 6.00 am on July 28, nevertheless took place. Admiral Vitgeft raised the signal: "The fleet is informed that the Sovereign Emperor ordered to go to Vladivostok." The first shots of the battle were fired when the squadron was 40 km from Port Arthur, outside the range of their coastal batteries. Admiral Witgeft was killed on the bridge of his flagship battleship Tsesarevich.

battleship "Tsesarevich"

The Japanese flagship "Mikaza" received 20 hits by Russian shells only in the main parts, but fate kept Admiral Togo.

Squadron battleship "Mikaza"

Command over the Russian ships was taken by the next in seniority, Rear Admiral P.P. Ukhtomsky, but he abandoned his intention to break through to the south and decided to return to Port Arthur. In the confusion of the battle, which lasted after dark, the "Tsesarevich" fought off the main forces of the squadron and was interned in the Chinese port of Qingdao (Kiao-Chao), which was leased from Germany. Another 9 Russian ships broke through the Japanese orders, but for various reasons they did not reach Vladivostok. The internment of part of the squadron's forces in neutral ports weakened it so much that the Russian command, which had not shown any initiative before, completely abandoned the struggle to establish dominance at sea. A detachment of Vladivostok cruisers came out to meet Vitgeft late and was also met by the Japanese in the Korean Strait. A battle ensued, as a result of which the Rurik was destroyed.

After that, the cruiser detachment returned to Vladivostok.

On July 29, in the morning, the portturists saw a sad picture: the Russian squadron, in complete disarray, not observing the formation, was quietly approaching Arthur. All returning ships entered the harbor around 12 noon. According to an eyewitness, the battleship Peresvet was especially badly damaged from the ships.

Battle of Liaoyang

Liaoyang battles began on August 11 and lasted 10 days. On August 21, unexpectedly for everyone, Kuropatkin gave the order to retreat. “Subsequently,” wrote General B.A. Gerua, - when the Japanese cards were opened, it became known that no less great on that August day was the amazement of our enemy, who began to consider himself defeated. After Liaoyang, it became clear to the Russian command that from now on Port Arthur could only rely on its own forces. On August 16, a Japanese envoy arrived at the fortress, and on the 17th, General Stessel gave the following order to the garrison: “Glorious defenders of Arthur! Today, a daring enemy, through a truce, Major Mooka, sent a letter with a proposal to surrender the fortress. You, of course, know how the Russian admirals and generals, to whom a part of Russia was entrusted, could answer; offer rejected."

Inside the fortress

On September 15, correspondents from American and French newspapers arrived in the fortress from Chifu on a boat and brought the news of the defeat of the Russian army near Liaoyang. This victory forced General Headquarters in Tokyo to rush General Nogi to take Port Arthur. Its capture was valuable for the Japanese not only in itself, but also deprived the operational base of the Baltic squadron, which was expected to help Port Arthur.

In addition, the Japanese considered the capture of the fortress, which they had already “taken on board”, a matter of their national honor. During one of the assaults (September 11), the defenders of the fortress noticed that many Japanese were dressed in medieval armor. From the captured Japanese doctor, we learned that they were representatives of the best samurai families, who too loudly and openly expressed their dissatisfaction with the slowness of the actions of the Japanese army besieging Port Arthur. And then Admiral Mikado suggested that they themselves take an "active" part in the siege.

On August 24, a junk broke through to Port Arthur from Chifu, which delivered Alekseev's order to remove Ukhtomsky and appoint the commander of the Bayan cruiser, Captain 1st Rank R.Ya. Virena with the production of it in the next rank. However, Viren also did not live up to the expectations of the governor. In the submitted report, he reported that if his ships defended the fortress, then it would stand. In addition, the presence of his detachment in Port Arthur forces Togo to keep significant forces here, which “facilitates the operations of the Vladivostok detachment of cruisers. Among the sailors who were gradually heading to replenish the melting garrison, a pun was born: "The Japanese have Togo, but we have no one."

On September 24, an order was issued to the ground defense forces of the fortress signed by Major General Kondratenko, which, in particular, stated that stubborn defense to the last drop of blood, “without even thinking about the possibility of surrender, is caused by the fact that the Japanese, preferring the very death of surrender, without a doubt, will produce, if successful, a general extermination, not paying the slightest attention to either the Red Cross, or wounds, or sex and age, as they did in 1895 when Arthur was captured.

Already by the beginning of October, a severe lack of food was felt in the fortress. Meat lunch was given to soldiers only 3 times a week. Everyone then received borscht with greens and a third of a can of canned meat. On other days they gave the so-called "lean borscht", consisting of water, a small amount of dried vegetables and butter. “The entire garrison still lives only in the hope of rescue, although some of them are already beginning to have doubts about its implementation ... There was anguish in their hearts and at the same time stupid anger at Petersburg careerists, at Korean timber merchants, at all those who life was sweet away from these places, where Russian people's blood now flowed in streams because of them, ”wrote a participant in the siege.

While Nogi was preparing for the third assault on Port Arthur, in Manchuria from September 22 to October 4, there were battles near the Shahe River, which, according to some, decided the fate of the fortress.

Battle for Shahe station

The political and strategic situation required the Russians to go on a decisive offensive. Kuropatkin understood that the retreat from Mukden was the final refusal of any help to the besieged, but the goal of the offensive was not to defeat the enemy, but to “push him back beyond the river. Taizihe". The offensive ended in vain, the troops suffered severe losses and retreated to the valley of the Shahe River. In total, in the battle, the army lost 1,021 officers and 43,000 lower ranks killed and wounded, 500 people were captured. Active operations in Manchuria ceased until January 1905 (“sitting at the Shahe”), and in October the only, perhaps, supporter of helping Port Arthur, Vice Admiral E.I. Alekseev. He transferred the duties of viceroy and commander-in-chief of the Russian troops in the Far East to General Kuropatkin. On the night of October 24-25, not far from the Russian trenches, the Japanese left a stick with a note in which the besieged were informed about another Russian failure in Manchuria.

On November 4 (17), the Chief of Staff of the United Fleet, Admiral Simamura, received information from the Naval Department of the Headquarters about the movement to the east of the Baltic Squadron. The report said that Rozhdestvensky's ships were undoubtedly heading for the Pacific Ocean and could approach the Strait of Formosa as early as early January 1905. Therefore, Admiral Togo sent his flag officer to the headquarters of General Nogi, who was instructed to point out the need for the speedy destruction of the Russian squadron in Port Arthur. In addition, Togo requested that the army first of all try to capture Mount Nireisan, or, as the Russians called it, the High Mountain.

Mount High, towering 203 meters above sea level, was 3,000 meters northwest of Port Arthur. Although its two peaks offered the best view of the New City and the Western basin of the port, temporary fortifications were erected on it only in May, after the start of the war. At first, this hill did not occupy any special place in the plans of the Japanese, but from now on, all their efforts were directed to capturing this key point.

Major General Kostenko wrote the following about the November battles: “The position of the fortress became dangerous, people were exhausted to the extreme by constant battles, since there was no change and the same units had to fight incessantly; the reserves were all exhausted and people from one point of the position ran to another to help their comrades, and the field guns moved at a large trot.

On the night of November 23, after 15 days of almost continuous assaults, "Arthur's Golgotha", as the defenders called the mountain, was occupied by the Japanese. “The last assault was so swift,” Kostenko admitted, “that to resist it meant to subject our soldiers to a useless massacre. With this battle and the occupation of High, the Japanese narrowed the line of defense, locking us in a tight ring. The high cost the Japanese 6,000 men killed and wounded. Among the dead was the son of General Nogi, already the second in this war. It is said that after receiving this news, Nogi wanted to commit suicide, but he was stopped by the intervention of the Japanese emperor. During the assault on the right flank, one of the Japanese princes of the blood, who took a personal part in the siege, was killed. The Japanese asked permission to find his body, but the body could not be found: they found only a sword with an ancient samurai blade, which was returned to the Japanese. In gratitude for this, the Japanese delivered two gigs loaded with bales of Russian mail to the fortress.

The city and the squadron stationed in the port, from the High Mountain, now represented an excellent target for Japanese artillery. The Japanese officers stated that with the capture of High Mountain, one could expect, counting on the fingers, the fate of the enemy squadron to be decided. “No matter what means the enemy took, he could no longer escape.” Rear Admiral Viren did not dare to take the last battle with the Japanese Combined Fleet. The Japanese systematically bombarded the port basins from the Vysokaya, and the squadron was already suffering irreparable losses. The flagship battleship Viren "Retvizan" sank, followed by "Peresvet", "Victory", the cruisers "Pallada" and "Bayan".

Cruisers and other large ships sank and sank one after another, and only the only battleship Sevastopol still capable of sailing, as Admiral Togo put it, "did not follow in the footsteps of its comrades." Its commander is captain of the 2nd rank N.O. Essen twice turned to Viren with a request to be allowed to go on a raid and in the end received the following answer: “Do what you want” (subsequently, during the First World War, Essen commanded the Baltic Fleet).

At dawn on November 26, Sevastopol, unexpectedly for the Japanese, went to sea and anchored at Mount White Wolf. For six nights, the Sevastopol, together with the gunboat Brave, fought off more than 30 Japanese destroyers, sank 2 of them, and inflicted heavy damage on five. The fate of "Sevastopol" was decided by two torpedoes that hit the stern of the battleship. The ship sank to the bottom in shallow coastal waters and, in fact, turned into a floating battery.

This was the last battle of the 1st Pacific Squadron. Its remains were sunk in the Kwantung bays. Several small ships, mainly destroyers, broke through the Japanese blockade and went into neutral waters. From June 1905 to April 1906, the Japanese raised 9 Russian combat ships, 10 auxiliary ships and a hospital ship. After the repair, all of them, including the legendary Retvizan, Varyag and Novik, became part of the Japanese fleet. “Thus,” the historian notes with grim irony, “the 1st Pacific Squadron was partially revived under the flag of the Land of the Rising Sun.”

On November 28, by some miracle, an English steamer with the symbolic name “King Arthur” with a large load of flour broke through the Japanese blockade into the fortress, but this could no longer correct the plight of the defenders. Meanwhile, the garrison was already eating horsemeat. All vodka from the shops of the city was taken to the commissariat and issued from there by special permission. In view of the extreme shortage of officers, Major General Kondratenko asked Rear Admiral Viren to invite naval officers to join the ground units.

R.I. Kondratenko

Now even crews of sunken commercial vessels took part in repulsing the assaults. In the fortress, scurvy began, from which many of the wounded opened old, healing wounds. Hospitals no longer accommodated all those in need of assistance. In addition to all the misfortunes, the Japanese began to shell medical facilities. “We are already accustomed,” Kostenko said, “that after failures, the Japanese poured out their anger and fury by bombing the city.” On November 28, the Dalninskaya hospital came under fire. On November 30, Japanese artillery fired on a reserve hospital on the Tigris Peninsula and the Red Cross ship Mongolia.

At one of the meetings of the Defense Council, the chief of staff of the fortified area, Colonel V.A. The flight raised the question of "the limit of the resistance of the fortress." The "subtle question" of Colonel Reis was well interpreted by everyone, although he himself later assured that he was "misunderstood". All participants rebelled against the discussion, and especially its commandant, Lieutenant General K.K. Smirnov and the head of the land defense, Major General R.I. Kondratenko. But on the morning of December 3, the terrible news spread throughout the fortress: in the casemate of the 3rd fort, the “bravest defenders of the fortress” were killed by a lyddite bomb that accidentally fell there: Major General Kondratenko and the officers who were with him, including military engineer Lieutenant Colonel Rashevsky. With the appointment of General Fock to the post of chief of land defense, some hesitation and uncertainty became noticeable in all orders, which were noted by subordinates. On his orders, Russian troops on the night of December 19-20 left the first line of defense without a fight. A number of fortifications fell, namely: the Zaredutnaya, Volchya and Kurgan batteries, the 3rd temporary fortification, the Small Eagle's Nest and the entire Chinese wall. The transfer of all these points into the hands of the Japanese was to be most fatally reflected in the further defense of the fortress.

Japanese officers on the hill of Port Arthur

Japanese in Port Arthur

The mood in the garrison was extremely depressed. Now voices were openly heard about the complete impossibility of further defense. Late in the evening of December 19, a telephone message was received on the batteries: "Do not open fire yourself and thereby irritate the Japanese." “Everyone was tormented by some kind of vague premonition that something terrible, something fatal was about to happen on this quiet dark night,” recalled one of the besieged. Their premonition did not deceive them. As early as 4 p.m. on December 19, General Stessel sent his envoy to the front line of the Japanese with a proposal to the Japanese command to enter into negotiations on the surrender of the fortress. “Judging by the general situation in the area of ​​military operations,” Stessel wrote, “I believe that further resistance is useless,” and urged “to avoid further useless loss of life.” General Nogi, in whose hands Stessel's letter ended up at about 9 pm, immediately handed over its contents to the Headquarters. Having received the consent of Tokyo, early in the morning of the next day he sent his truce envoy to Stessel, who indicated the village of Syuishuni as the meeting place for both sides and set the time - after noon on December 20 (January 2, 1905). In his last telegram to the Tsar, Stessel wrote: “Your Majesty, forgive us. We have done everything in human power. Judge us, but judge mercifully, as almost eleven months of continuous fighting have exhausted our strength.

Surprise Surrender

The representatives met at one o'clock in the afternoon at the indicated place in the premises of the Japanese sanitary detachment. The Japanese were represented by Major General Idzichi and the officer of the headquarters of the 1st squadron of the United Fleet, Captain 2nd Rank Iwamura. Colonel Reis and the commander of the sunken Retvizan, Captain 1st Rank Shchensnovich, were present from the Russian side.

Japanese generals after the capture of Port Arthur

The only benefit that could be negotiated with the Japanese was the possibility of leaving for Russia for all officers who would sign an obligation "not to participate in the future in this war." Emperor Nicholas II, by his telegram, allowed willing officers to return to Russia, and offered the rest to "share the plight of their soldiers in Japanese captivity." General Stessel, Colonel Reis, Rear Admiral Ukhtomsky and 441 other officers of the army and navy went home, who signed the commitment. General Smirnov, along with Rear Admiral Viren and the rest of the surrendered garrison, were transported by rail to Dairen, and from there by ship to Japan.

Only in 1910 was it allowed to distribute the medal to the participants in the defense of Port Arthur, but "without the right to wear it."

Trial of those who surrendered the fortress

On March 13, 1905, on the Imperial order, the Minister of War, General Sakharov, formed a commission of inquiry, which included 12 generals and admirals, to consider the case on the surrender of the fortress. It sat for more than a year and in its conclusion of July 14, 1906, came to the conclusion that the surrender of Port Arthur could not be justified either by the then situation of the "attacked fronts", or by the insufficient size of the garrison and the state of health and spirit of the people, or by the lack of military and food supplies. stocks. The commission called the conditions for the surrender of the fortress to the Japanese "extremely painful and insulting to the honor of the army and the dignity of Russia." The case was transferred to the chief military prosecutor, who brought as defendants the chief of the Kwantung Fortified Region, Adjutant General Stessel, the commandant of the fortress, Lieutenant General Smirnov, the chief of the land defense of the fortress, Lieutenant General Fock, the chief of staff of the Kwantung Fortified Region, Major General Reis, Vice Admiral Stark and Rear Admirals Loschinsky, Grigorovich, Viren and Shchensnovich. The commission of inquiry worked until January of the following year and sent its conclusion to the private presence of the Military Council, which agreed with the conclusions of the commission and additionally noted that "the surrender of the fortress came as a surprise to almost the entire garrison of Arthur." Naval ranks, as well as Lieutenant General Smirnov, were found liable only for "inaction of the authorities", and Vice Admiral Stark, as having nothing to do with the surrender, was left out of responsibility. Stessel, Smirnov, Fok and Reis were betrayed to the military court, which held the first meeting in St. Petersburg in the premises of the Assembly of the Army and Navy on November 27, 1907. The court called General Stessel guilty of surrendering the fortress without using all the means to further defend it, and sentenced him to death by shooting. Emperor Nicholas II took into account the obvious merits of Stessel indicated by the court, namely, “a long and stubborn defense, repelling several assaults with huge losses for the enemy and impeccable former service”, and replaced the execution with imprisonment in a fortress for 10 years, with deprivation of ranks and exclusion from service. General Fok escaped with a reprimand, while Smirnov and Reis were acquitted by the court. At the same time, the Supreme Order for the Army and Navy was published, which stated that "the Supreme Court, punishing the culprit of the surrender, at the same time restored the unforgettable deeds of the brave garrison in full grandeur of truth ..." In March, Stessel was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress, from which he was released a year later by royal mercy. Generals Smirnov, Fok and Reis were dismissed from service "due to domestic circumstances" without a uniform, but with a pension. In 1908, the Russian Starina magazine opened a subscription to the verbatim report of the Port Arthur process.

But all this happened after the war. In the meantime, the Russian armies under the command of A.N. Kuropatkin concentrated in Manchuria near the city of Mukden; Baltic ships, called the 2nd Pacific Squadron and hurrying to the aid of Port Arthur, had already rounded the Cape of Good Hope and were approaching Madagascar. The darkest pages of the Russo-Japanese War were unfolding.

Novelties and improvisations of the Russian-Japanese war according to the "engineering department"

The experience of the defense of Port Arthur clearly demonstrated the weakness of its fortifications and only confirmed the former assessments of specialists, many of whom called these fortifications not even long-term, but “semi-long-term”. The "cost savings" made it necessary to design a line of forts at a distance of only 4 km from the city. In addition, in 1904, no more than a third of the required amount was allocated for the fortress and a little more than half of the work was carried out, and mainly at the seaside position. On the land front, only fort No. 4, fortifications No. 4 and No. 5, letter batteries A, B and C and 2 cellars for ammunition were completed. The thickness of the concrete vaults was made no more than 0.9 m instead of the 1.5-2.4 m already adopted by the end of the 19th century.

Major General R.I., who led the land defense. Kondratenko tried to compensate for the proximity of the forts to the fortress by equipping temporary positions on the Green and Wolf Mountains, but Fock's division did not hold them for long. This allowed the Japanese to almost immediately bombard both the city itself and the ships in the port from land. Nevertheless, in a short time, Kondratenko did a lot to strengthen the fortress - as often happened, what was not done on time had to be completed urgently and with heroic efforts.

In the underground mine war, they had to improvise - the Kwantung sapper company lacked specialists, demolition equipment and trenching tools. If half a century before that, the Russians laid 6,783 m of underground galleries in Sevastopol, then in Port Arthur - only 153 m, although the explosion of several underground countermines (camouflages) was very successful. The Japanese, on the other hand, worked underground quite actively - they had to put up specially trained dogs that warned by barking that the enemy was digging. The Russians, on the other hand, were very strong in actions “on the surface”, using land mines and mines on the outskirts of the fortifications. By that time, home-made anti-personnel mines were already described in the manuals, and factory samples appeared, such as the fragmentation “Sushchinsky field mine”. Sappers and sailors in Port Arthur showed a lot of ingenuity. Staff Captain Karasev developed a “shrapnel landmine” that jumped out of the ground and exploded in the air (only during the Second World War this idea would be appreciated). It would seem that an ancient technique is rolling stones and logs onto the enemy, only now their place has been taken by sea mines with strong explosive charges and iron crowbar to increase the fragmentation effect. On September 4, 1904, Lieutenant Podgursky and miner Butorin rolled a ball mine from the Kumirnensky redoubt, which caused great destruction in Japanese positions. Sea mines of 6, 8, 12 and 16 pounds have become, although not very well-aimed, but an effective means of struggle. The Russo-Japanese War intensified the construction of fortifications. But only a few experts (and perhaps the first were the Germans) then saw that artillery and transport were evolving faster than long-term fortification - in 10 years the fortresses would be almost useless.

Intense fire forced them to take up armored shields not only for guns and machine guns, but also for shooters. The Japanese near Port Arthur used 20-kilogram steel shields of English production worn on the arm. The Russian experience was poorer. The troops ordered by General Linevich 2,000 "armours of the system of engineer Chemerzin" were declared unsuitable. More successful models of shields were delayed in production - strikes had already begun at the factories. A contract concluded in February 1905 with the French firm Simonet, Gesluen and Co. for 100,000 shells ended in litigation and the need to accept unusable goods. And as a result of the order in Denmark, it was not possible to either get “bullet-proof cuirasses” or return the advance. Many innovations were given by electrical engineering. Barbed wire was not new—smooth and barbed wire have been used to protect forts since the 1880s. But Russian sappers in Port Arthur strengthened the barriers in a new way - from the battery of the letters "A" to Fort No. 4, they arranged a wire fence under a voltage of 3,000 volts. When the Japanese switched to night attacks, the Russians deployed a system of searchlights on the land front taken from ships in port.

Here, for the first time, the importance of means of communication was manifested. During the war, 489 telegraph nodes, 188 telegraph devices for cavalry units, 331 central telegraph devices, 6,459 telephones were sent to Russian troops, 3,721 fathoms of air and 1,540 fathoms of underground telegraph and 9,798 fathoms of telephone cable were used. Nevertheless, the Japanese used the field telephone more widely than the Russian command. Radio communications (“wireless”, or “spark”, telegraph - radio stations were still spark) was mainly used by the fleet, which had both powerful radio stations and a sufficient number of specialists. 90 large stations and 29 field stations of the "spark telegraph" were sent to the army, but radio communications turned out to be so new to the command of the land theater that the capabilities of even a few stations were far from being used. 3 powerful radio stations purchased in France for communication with Port Arthur arrived in the Far East when the fortress was already besieged, and lay unloaded until the end of the war. In the same period, the directions of "electronic warfare" were outlined. The Japanese, for example, at the beginning of the war practiced the interception of telegraph messages from Port Arthur, and were the first to put into practice the scheme for remote pickup of acoustic information "microphone - cable - receiver". The Russian command, despite the objections of specialists, considered the wire telegraph absolutely reliable for transmitting even unencrypted telegrams, until the telegraph connection with Port Arthur was interrupted altogether. Even before that, 45 carrier pigeons were taken out of Port Arthur to communicate with the fortress in this old way, but they forgot to evacuate the pigeons, retreating from the city of Liaoyang - this was how communications were treated. Russian sailors used radio interference for the first time - on April 15, 1904, during the shelling of the internal raid and PortArthur itself by the Japanese squadron, the radio station of the Russian battleship Pobeda and the Zolotaya Gora coast station seriously hampered the transmission of telegrams from enemy ships with a "big spark" (that is, powerful non-directional interference) - spotters. And this is only a part of the "engineering" novelties of that war.

In mid-December 1904, when the 2nd Pacific Squadron under the command of Admiral Rozhdestvensky was slowly advancing towards the Far Eastern waters, and the Japanese fleet was undergoing repairs after the completion of the Port Arthur campaign, a plan for further action was approved in Tokyo at a meeting of Admirals Togo, Ito and Yamamoto . As if anticipating the route of the Russian squadron, most of the Japanese ships were to concentrate in the Korea Strait. On January 20, 1905, Admiral Togo again raised the flag on the Mikasa.

A little earlier on land, having learned about the fall of Port Arthur, General Kuropatkin decided to go on the offensive before the liberated Nogi army approached the main Japanese forces. O.K. stood at the head of the newly formed 2nd Army. Grippenberg.

On January 12, 1905, the 1st Siberian Corps occupied Heigoutai, the main stronghold of the Oku army, without firing a shot. On January 16, Grippenberg appointed a general assault on Sandepa, but instead of the reinforcements requested from Kuropatkin, he was ordered to retreat, and the commander of the 1st Siberian Corps, General Stackelberg, was removed from his post. Having previously telegraphed the tsar and resigned his command, Grippenberg left for St. Petersburg. As a result, the operation Sandepu-Heigoutai, called "useless bloodletting", became a prelude to the Mukden disaster.

The fighting near Mukden fell on February 6-25 and unfolded on a 140-kilometer front line. On each side, 550 thousand people participated in the battle. Japanese troops under the leadership of Marshal I. Oyama were reinforced by the 3rd Army, redeployed from Port Arthur.

Iwao Oyama

As a result, their forces amounted to 271 thousand bayonets and sabers, 1,062 guns, and 200 machine guns. Three Russian Manchurian armies had 293 thousand bayonets and sabers, 1,475 guns, 56 machine guns. The strategic goals of the Japanese command were as follows: by the offensive of the 5th and 1st armies on the right wing of the front (east of Mukden), divert the reserves of Russian troops and deliver a powerful blow southwest of Mukden with the forces of the 3rd army. After that, cover the right flank of the Russian troops.

On February 11 (24), the 1st Japanese Army of General Kuroka, which went on the offensive, until February 18 (March 3) was unable to break through the defenses of the 1st Russian Army of General N.P. Linevich. Kuropatkin, believing that it was here that the Japanese were delivering the main blow, by February 12 (25) sent almost all the reserves to support the 1st Army.

Battle of Mukden

On February 13 (26), the 3rd Japanese Army of General M. Nogi launched an offensive. But Kuropatkin sent only one brigade to the area of ​​northwestern Mukden. And only three days later, when the threat of bypassing the right wing of the Russian front became obvious, he ordered the 1st Army to return the reinforcements sent to it to cover Mukden from the western direction.

On February 17 (March 2), the columns of the 3rd Japanese Army turned to Mukden, but here they met stubborn resistance from Topornin's troops. Then Oyama moved the 3rd Army further north, reinforcing it with reserves. Kuropatkin, in turn, to reduce the front on February 22 (March 7) gave the order for the armies to retreat to the river. Hunhe.

On February 24 (March 9), the Japanese broke through the front of the 1st Russian Army, and the threat of encirclement loomed over the Russian troops. “At Mukden,” an eyewitness writes, “Russian troops found themselves, as it were, in a bottle, the narrow neck of which was narrowing to the north.”

On the night of February 25 (March 10), the troops began a general withdrawal to Telin, and then to Sypingai positions 160 miles from the battlefield.

Mukden battle

In general, in the battle of Mukden, the Russians lost 89 thousand people, including about 30 thousand prisoners. The losses of the Japanese were also great - 71 thousand people. According to many historians, one of the main reasonsmet in a real way only in the Tsushima Strait.

S.Yu. Witte, whom the sad circumstances of the war again pushed to the forefront of politics, had a hard time with the Tsushima rout. A few days after the battle, he telegraphed A.N. Kuropatkin: “He was silent under the yoke of darkness and misfortune. My heart is with you. God help you!" But after the Mukden disaster, there were rearrangements in the command staff of the Russian army. Kuropatkin "beat with his forehead, asking to be left in the army in any position." He received the 1st Army, from which he was replaced by N.P. Linevich is an elderly general whose pinnacle of military leadership was the dispersal of discordant crowds of Chinese during the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion.

N.P. Linevich

Throughout the spring, the Russian armies in Manchuria were constantly strengthened, and by the summer of 1905 the superiority in forces became tangible. Against the 20 Japanese, Russia already had 38 divisions concentrated on the Sypingai positions. There were already about 450,000 fighters in the active army, of which 40,000 were volunteers. They set up a wireless telegraph, field railways, with the completion of the construction of the Circum-Baikal Railway, they were now connected with Russia not by five pairs of trains a day, of which there were actually three military trains, but by twenty. At the same time, the quality of the Japanese troops declined markedly. The officers with whom the Japanese imperial army entered the war with Russia were mostly exterminated, the replenishment arrived untrained. The Japanese began to willingly surrender, which had previously happened extremely rarely. Mobilized old people and teenagers have already been captured. Six months after Mukden, the Japanese did not dare to launch a new offensive. Their army was exhausted by the war, and its reserves were coming to an end. Many thought that Kuropatkin still outplayed Oyama strategically, but it was not surprising to do this, having behind him a huge, almost untouched regular army. After all, in the battles near Liaoyang, on Shahe and near Mukden, only a small part of the Russian army fought against all the ground forces of Japan. “A future historian,” wrote Kuropatkin himself, “when summing up the results of the Russo-Japanese War, he will calmly decide that our ground army in this war, although it suffered setbacks in the first campaign, but, growing in number and experience, has finally reached such strength that victory could be provided for, and that therefore peace was concluded at a time when our land army had not yet been defeated by the Japanese either materially or morally. As for the statistical data of the correlation of forces, then, for example, in the report of the same A.N. Kuropatkin (when he was minister of war) literally says the following: in wartime, Japan can develop its armed forces to 300,080 people, about half of these forces can take part in landing operations. But in the greatest readiness in Japan there are 126,000 bayonets plus 55,000 checkers and 494 guns. In other words, 181,000 Japanese soldiers and officers opposed 1,135,000 Russians. But in reality, as noted above, it was not the regular army that fought the Japanese, but the storerooms. This, according to Kuropatkin, was the main flaw of the Russian strategy.

Perhaps, in fact, the Sypingai battle was supposed to bring victory to Russia, but it was never destined to take place. According to the writer-historian A.A. Kersnovsky, a victory at Sypingai would open the eyes of the whole world to the power of Russia and the strength of its army, and the prestige of Russia as a great power would rise high - and in July 1914 the German emperor would not dare to send her an arrogant ultimatum. If Linevich had gone on the offensive from Sypingai, Russia might not have known the disasters of 1905, the explosion of 1914 and the catastrophe of 1917.

Portsmouth Peace

Mukden and Tsushima made the revolutionary processes in Russia irreversible. Radical female students and high school students sent congratulatory telegrams to the Mikado and kissed the first captured Japanese officers when they were brought to the Volga. Agrarian unrest began, Soviets of workers' deputies were created in the cities - forerunners of the Soviets of 1917. American observers believed that Russia's continuation of this war "could lead to the loss of all Russian East Asian possessions, not even excluding Vladivostok." Voices in favor of continuing the war were still heard, Kuropatkin and Linevich urged the government not to make peace in any case, but Nikolai himself already doubted the abilities of his strategists. “Our generals declared,” Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich wrote, “that if they had more time, they could win the war. I thought that they should have been given twenty years to reflect on their criminal negligence. Not a single nation has won or could win a war by fighting an enemy who was at a distance of seven thousand miles, while inside the country the revolution plunged a knife into the back of the army. S.Yu. Witte echoed him, believing that it was necessary to make peace before the battle of Mukden, then the peace conditions were worse than before the fall of Port Arthur. Or, it was necessary to make peace when Rozhdestvensky appeared with a squadron in the China Sea. Then the conditions would be almost the same as after the Mukden battle. And, finally, peace should have been concluded before a new battle with Linevich's army: “... Of course, the conditions will be very difficult, but I am sure of one thing that after the battle with Linevich they will be even harder. After the capture of Sakhalin and Vladivostok, they will be even harder.” For the Tsushima pogrom, the august uncle of the tsar, General Admiral Alexei Alexandrovich and the Minister of the Navy, Admiral F.K., paid with their posts. Avelan, devoted to royal oblivion. Admirals Rozhdestvensky and Nebogatov, who had surrendered the remnants of the defeated squadron to the Japanese, were brought before a naval court upon their return from captivity.

Signing of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty of 1905

At the end of June, peace negotiations began in Portsmouth, initiated by the American President Theodore Roosevelt. Peace was necessary for Russia in order to "prevent internal unrest", which, in the opinion of the president, would otherwise have turned into a catastrophe. But even in bloodless Japan there was a fanatical "war party". Trying to provoke the continuation of the war, its representatives staged a series of arson attacks on the so-called "shelters" where Russian prisoners were kept.

Roosevelt's proposal was preceded by an appeal to him by the Japanese government with a request for mediation. It seemed that the Japanese themselves were afraid of their victories. There is evidence that as early as the summer of 1904, the Japanese envoy to London, Gayashi, through intermediaries, expressed a desire to meet with Witte in order to exchange views on the possibility of ending the strife and concluding an honorable peace. Gayashi's initiative was approved by Tokyo. But the then retired Minister S.Yu. Witte was sadly convinced that at court his news of the possibility of concluding a "non-humiliating peace" was interpreted as "the opinion of a fool and almost a traitor." At the same time, the role of the switchman went to him. In an interview with the Daily Telegraph correspondent, Witte said that, despite the fullness of the powers given to him, his role was to find out under what conditions the Mikado government would agree to make peace. And before this meeting, Witte talked about the prospects for war with the head of the Naval Ministry, Admiral A.A. Birilev. He bluntly told him that “the issue with the fleet is over. Japan is the master of the waters of the Far East.”

On July 23, aboard the presidential yacht May Flower, the Russian and Japanese peace delegations were introduced to each other, and on the third day, Witte was privately received by Roosevelt at the presidential dacha near New York. Witte developed before Roosevelt the idea that Russia does not consider itself defeated, and therefore cannot accept any conditions dictated by a defeated enemy, especially indemnity. He said that great Russia would never agree to any terms that hurt honor for reasons not only of a military nature, but mainly of national self-consciousness. The internal situation, for all its seriousness, is not what it appears abroad, and cannot induce Russia to "renounce itself."

Exactly one month later, on August 23, Witte and the head of the Japanese diplomatic department, Baron Komura Dzyutaro, signed a peace treaty in the building of the Admiralty Palace "Nevy Yard" in Portsmouth (New Hampshire). Russia transferred to Japan the Kwantung region with Port Arthur and Dalny, ceded the southern part of Sakhalin along the 50th parallel, lost part of the Chinese Eastern Railway and recognized the predominance of Japanese interests in Korea and South Manchuria. The harassment of the Japanese indemnity and reimbursement of costs of 3 billion rubles was rejected, and Japan did not insist on them, fearing the resumption of hostilities in unfavorable conditions for itself. On this occasion, the London Times wrote that "a nation hopelessly beaten in every battle, one army which capitulated, another fled, and the fleet buried by the sea, dictated its terms to the victor."

It was after the signing of the treaty that Witte, in addition to the title of count granted by the tsar, acquired the “honorary” prefix “Polu-Sakhalinskiy” to his surname from the wits.

Map of the Treaty of Portsmouth territories

Even during the siege of Port Arthur, the Japanese told the Russians that if they were in an alliance, the whole world would submit to them. And on the way back from Portsmouth, Witte spoke to his personal secretary I.Ya. Korostovets: “Now I have begun rapprochement with Japan, we need to continue it and consolidate it with a trade agreement, and if possible, then with a political one, but not at the expense of China. Of course, first of all, mutual trust should be restored.”

In general, access to the Pacific Ocean and a firm foothold on its Far Eastern shores have been a long-standing problem of Russian policy. Another thing is that at the beginning of the 20th century, Russia's aspirations here acquired an adventurous character in many respects. The idea of ​​access to the Pacific Ocean was not abandoned "even by the Bolsheviks, who at first persistently and systematically sought to break all historical ties with the past Russia," noted B. Shteifon. But they were unable to change this attraction to the seas, and their struggle for the Chinese Eastern Railway proved this.

It is no coincidence that all three monuments of the "aggressive" and "imperialist" war (to Admiral S.O. Makarov in Kronstadt, the destroyer "Guarding" in the Alexander Park of St. Petersburg and the battleship "Alexander III" in the garden near St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral) have been safely preserved to this day, and in 1956, the Soviet authorities immortalized in bronze the memory of the commander of the legendary cruiser Varyag (and the adjutant wing of the retinue of Emperor Nicholas II) Vsevolod Fedorovich Rudnev, decorating the central street of Tula with a bust.

Artillery innovations of the Russo-Japanese war according to the "artillery department"

Japanese artillery grenades and bombs with a strong explosive - "shimoza" became perhaps the main problem of the Russian army in the "artillery department". (“Grenades” then called high-explosive shells weighing up to 1 pood, more than “bombs”.) The Russian press wrote about “shimoza” with almost mystical horror. Meanwhile, intelligence information about it was available as early as the summer of 1903, and at the same time it became clear that "shimose" (more precisely, "shimose", named after the engineer Masashika Shimose, who introduced it in Japan) is the well-known explosive substance melinite (aka picric acid, aka trinitrophenol).

In Russian artillery, there were shells with melinite, but not for the new rapid-fire field artillery, which played a major role. Under the clear influence of the French idea of ​​"unity of caliber and projectile", the generally excellent Russian rapid-fire 3-dm (76-mm) guns mod. 1900 and 1902, which were 1.5 times superior to the Japanese in range and twice in rate of fire, had only a shrapnel projectile in their ammunition load. Deadly against open live targets, shrapnel bullets were powerless in front of even light earthen shelters, adobe fanzas and fences. Japanese 75-mm field and mountain guns mod. 1898 could fire "shimose", and the same shelters that protected the Japanese soldiers from Russian shrapnel could not shelter the Russians from the Japanese "shimose". It is no coincidence that the Japanese suffered only 8.5% of their losses from artillery fire, while the Russians suffered 14%. In the spring of 1905, the Scout magazine published a letter from one officer: “For God's sake, write what is urgently needed right now, without delay ordering 50-100 thousand three-inch grenades, equip them with a highly explosive composition like melinite, supply shock field tubes, and here we are we will have the same "shimoses". Commander-in-Chief Kuropatkin demanded the delivery of high-explosive grenades three times. First, for 3-dm guns, then for the old 3.42-dm ​​guns available at the theater, mod. 1895 (there were such shells for them), then he asked at least to replace the bullets in the shrapnel part with powder charges - they tried to do such improvisations in military laboratories, but they only led to damage to the guns. Through the efforts of the Commission for the Use of Explosives, shells were prepared, but they got into the troops after the end of hostilities. At the beginning of the war, Russian field guns "famously jumped out" to open positions closer to the enemy and immediately suffered heavy losses from his fire. Meanwhile, since 1900, Russian artillery practiced shooting from closed positions at an unobserved target using a goniometer. For the first time in a combat situation, this was used by artillerymen of the 1st and 9th East Siberian artillery brigades in the battle of Dashichao in July 1904. And since August (the end of the Liaoyang operation), the bloody experience made such shooting a rule. The Inspector General of Artillery, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, personally checked the readiness of the rapid-firing batteries sent to Manchuria to fire at the goniometer. Accordingly, after the war, the question arose of a new "optics" for artillery (the Russo-Japanese War confirmed the great use of periscopes and stereotubes) and communications.

In addition, a light, inconspicuous gun with a steep hinged trajectory and a strong high-explosive action of the projectile was also urgently required. In August 1904, the head of the artillery workshops, Captain L.N. Gobyato developed over-caliber "air mines" for firing from a 75-mm cannon with a truncated barrel. But in mid-September midshipman S.N. Vlasyev suggested firing pole mines from 47-mm naval guns. Major General Kondratenko advised him to turn to Gobyato, and together they created a weapon in the serf workshops, called the "mortar" (jokingly it was then called the "frog gun"). The over-caliber pole feathered mine carried a charge of 6.5 kg of wet pyroxylin and an impact fuse from a marine torpedo, was inserted into the barrel from the muzzle and fired with a special shot with a wad projectile. To obtain large elevation angles, the gun was mounted on a "Chinese" wheeled carriage. The firing range was from 50 to 400 m.

In mid-August, the senior mine officer of the Bayan cruiser, Lieutenant N.L. Podgursky suggested using a much heavier gun for firing heavy mines at a distance of up to 200 m - smooth-bore breech-loading mine vehicles. A spindle-shaped mine with a caliber of 254 mm and a length of 2.25 m resembled an extremely simplified torpedo without an engine, carried 31 kg of pyroxylin and an impact fuse. The firing range was regulated by a variable propellant charge. Hastily constructed guns were of great help in this war. After the war, new guns and shells for heavy field and siege artillery were created. But due to the "lack of funds" such guns did not get in the right quantity by the beginning of a new, already "big" war. Germany, focusing on the experience of the Russo-Japanese War, acquired quite a lot of heavy artillery. And when Russia at the beginning of the First World War needed to strengthen its heavy artillery, now allied Japan expressed its readiness to transfer 150-mm cannons and 230-mm howitzers, removing them ... from the fortifications of Port Arthur. In 1904, machine guns (considered as artillery pieces) "suddenly" became popular, but they were in short supply. The shortage was compensated for by various improvisations like the “Shemetello machine gun” - the defense participant, Captain Shemetello, laid 5 “three-rulers” in a row on a wooden frame equipped with wheels, with the help of two levers, the shooter could reload all the rifles at once and fire in one gulp. The consumption of cartridges increased sharply against the expected consumption, and the commander of the armies Kuropatkin later said that "we still did not shoot enough."

Reasons for the war:

Russia's desire to gain a foothold on the "non-freezing seas" of China and Korea.

The desire of the leading powers to prevent the strengthening of Russia in the Far East. US and UK support for Japan.

The desire of Japan to oust the Russian army from China and capture Korea.

Arms race in Japan. Increasing taxes for the sake of military production.

Japan's plans were to seize Russian territory from Primorsky Krai to the Urals.

The course of the war:

January 27, 1904 - near Port Arthur, 3 Russian ships were pierced by Japanese torpedoes, which did not sink due to the heroism of the crews. The feat of the Russian ships "Varyag" and "Koreets" near the port of Chemulpo (Incheon).

March 31, 1904 - the death of the battleship "Petropavlovsk" with the headquarters of Admiral Makarov and a crew of more than 630 people. The Pacific Fleet was beheaded.

May - December 1904 - the heroic defense of the Port Arthur fortress. The 50 thousandth Russian garrison, having 646 guns and 62 machine guns, repelled the attacks of the 200 thousandth army of the enemy. After the surrender of the fortress, about 32 thousand Russian soldiers were captured by the Japanese. The Japanese lost more than 110 thousand (according to other sources 91 thousand) soldiers and officers, 15 warships sank, and 16 were destroyed.

August 1904 - Battle of Liaoyang. The Japanese lost more than 23 thousand soldiers, the Russians - more than 16 thousand. Uncertain outcome of the battle. General Kuropatkin gave the order to retreat, fearing encirclement.

September 1904 - battle near the Shakhe River. The Japanese lost more than 30 thousand soldiers, the Russians - more than 40 thousand. Uncertain outcome of the battle. After that, a positional war was waged in Manchuria. In January 1905, a revolution raged in Russia, which made it difficult to wage a war to victory.

February 1905 - The battle of Mukden stretched for 100 km along the front and lasted 3 weeks. The Japanese launched an offensive earlier and confused the plans of the Russian command. Russian troops retreated, avoiding encirclement and losing more than 90 thousand. The Japanese lost over 72,000.

Russo-Japanese war briefly.

The Japanese command recognized the underestimation of the strength of the enemy. Soldiers with weapons and provisions continued to arrive from Russia by rail. The war again took on a positional character.

May 1905 - the tragedy of the Russian fleet near the Tsushima Islands. The ships of Admiral Rozhdestvensky (30 combat, 6 transport and 2 hospital) traveled about 33 thousand km and immediately entered the battle. No one in the world could defeat 121 enemy ships on 38 ships! Only the cruiser "Almaz", the destroyers "Brave" and "Grozny" broke through to Vladivostok (according to other sources, 4 ships were saved), the crews of the rest died as heroes or were captured. The Japanese were badly damaged 10 and 3 ships sank.

Until now, Russians, passing by the Tsushima Islands, lay wreaths on the water in memory of 5,000 dead Russian sailors.

The war was ending. The Russian army in Manchuria was growing and could continue the war for a long time. The human and financial resources of Japan were depleted (old people and children were already being drafted into the army). Russia, from a position of strength, signed the Treaty of Portsmouth in August 1905.

The results of the war:

Russia withdrew troops from Manchuria, handed over to Japan the Liaodong Peninsula, the southern part of Sakhalin Island and money for the maintenance of prisoners. This failure of Japanese diplomacy caused riots in Tokyo.

After the war, Japan's external public debt grew 4 times, Russia's by 1/3.

Japan lost more than 85 thousand killed, Russia more than 50 thousand.

More than 38 thousand soldiers died from wounds in Japan, more than 17 thousand in Russia.

Yet Russia lost this war. The reasons were economic and military backwardness, weakness of intelligence and command, the great remoteness and stretching of the theater of operations, poor supply, and weak interaction between the army and navy. In addition, the Russian people did not understand why it was necessary to fight in distant Manchuria. The revolution of 1905-1907 further weakened Russia.

In the second half of the 19th century, Russia was actively developing the Far Eastern territories, strengthening its influence in the East Asian region. The main rival in the political and economic expansion of Russia in this region was Japan, which sought, by all means, to stop the growing influence of the Russian Empire on China and Korea. At the end of the 19th century, these two Asian countries were very weak economically, politically and militarily, and completely dependent on the will of other states, which shamelessly divided their territories among themselves. Russia and Japan took the most active part in this "carve-up", seizing the natural resources and lands of Korea and Northern China.

Reasons leading to war

Japan, which began to pursue a policy of active external expansion by the mid-1890s of Korea geographically closer to it, ran into resistance from China and entered into a war with it. As a result of the military conflict known as the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, China suffered a crushing defeat and was forced to completely renounce all rights to Korea, transferring a number of territories to Japan, including the Liaodong Peninsula, located in Manchuria.

This alignment of forces in this region did not suit the major European powers, which had their own interests here. Therefore, Russia, together with Germany and France, under the threat of triple intervention, forced the Japanese to return the Liaodong Peninsula to China. The Chinese peninsula did not last long, after the capture of Jiaozhou Bay by the Germans in 1897, the Chinese government turned to Russia for help, which put forward its own conditions, which the Chinese were forced to accept. As a result, the Russian-Chinese Convention of 1898 was signed, according to which the Liaodong Peninsula was practically in the undivided use of Russia.

In 1900, as a result of the suppression of the so-called "Boxer Rebellion", organized by the Yihetuan secret society, the territory of Manchuria was occupied by Russian troops. After the suppression of the uprising, Russia was in no hurry to withdraw its troops from this territory, and even after the signing of the allied Russian-Chinese agreement in 1902 on the phased withdrawal of Russian troops, they continued to host on the occupied territory.

By that time, the dispute between Japan and Russia had escalated over Russian forest concessions in Korea. In the zone of its Korean concessions, Russia, under the pretext of building warehouses for timber, secretly built and fortified military installations.

Aggravation of the Russo-Japanese confrontation

The situation in Korea and Russia's refusal to withdraw its troops from North China led to an increase in confrontation between Japan and Russia. Japan made an unsuccessful attempt to negotiate with the Russian government, offering him a draft bilateral treaty, which was rejected. In response, Russia proposed its own draft treaty, which fundamentally did not suit the Japanese side. As a result, in early February 1904, Japan severed diplomatic relations with Russia. On February 9, 1904, without an official declaration of war, the Japanese fleet attacked the Russian squadron to ensure the landing of troops in Korea - the Russo-Japanese War began.

By 1890 Russia's attention had shifted to the East. The Aigun Treaty with China in 1858 fixed the transfer of the modern Primorsky Territory to Russia, on the territory of which Vladivostok was founded already in 1860. In 1855, the Shimoda Treaty was concluded with Japan, according to which the Kuril Islands to the north of Iturup Island were declared the possessions of Russia, and Sakhalin - the joint possession of the two countries. The St. Petersburg Treaty of 1875 fixed the transfer of Sakhalin to Russia in exchange for the transfer of all 18 Kuril Islands to Japan. In May 1891, the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway began, 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.

In 1876, Korea signed an agreement with Japan, which opened the ports of Korea to Japanese trade. In 1895, the Sino-Japanese War began, ending with the signing of the Shimonoseki Treaty, according to which China renounced all rights to Korea, transferred the island of Taiwan, the Pescador Islands and the Liaodong Peninsula to Japan, and also paid an indemnity, the amount of which was equivalent to 3 annual budgets of the Japanese government .

Immediate causes of the war

On April 23, 1895, Russia, France, and Germany demanded in an ultimatum that Japan renounce the annexation of the Liaodong Peninsula. Japan gave in. On March 15 (27), 1898, a convention was signed between Russia and China, according to which the ice-free ports of the Liaodong Peninsula Port Arthur and Dalniy were leased to Russia and the laying of a railway to these ports was allowed. This led to a new wave of Japanese militarization, this time directed against Russia.

In October 1900, Russian troops occupied Manchuria.

In May 1901, Japan entered into an alternative agreement with Great Britain.

On January 17 (January 30), 1902, an Anglo-Japanese military assistance treaty was signed. The treaty gave Japan the opportunity to start a fight with Russia.

On March 3 (16), 1902, the Franco-Russian Declaration was adopted (a diplomatic response to the Anglo-Japanese alliance). March 26 (April 8), 1902 - Russian-Chinese agreement, according to which Russia pledged to withdraw its troops from Manchuria by October 1903. On July 1 (14), 1903, traffic was opened along the Trans-Siberian along its entire length. The movement went through Manchuria (along the CER). Under the pretext of testing the capacity of the Trans-Siberian, the transfer of Russian troops to the Far East immediately began. The vicegerency of the Far East was formed, uniting the Amur Governor-General and the Kwantung Region (Admiral E. I. Alekseev was appointed viceroy, to whom the troops and fleet were placed under command).

January 24, 1904 Japan officially announced the severance of diplomatic relations with Russia. January 26, 1904 The Japanese fleet attacked the Port Arthur squadron without declaring war. Thus began the Russo-Japanese War.

The main contradictions that led to the war between Russia and Japan were:

A) economic - construction and operation of the CER and Russian expansion in Manchuria; the lease of the Liaodong Peninsula and Port Arthur by Russia;

B) political - the struggle for spheres of influence in China and Korea; war as a means of distraction from the revolutionary movement in Russia.

The balance of forces in the theaters of military operations was not in favor of Russia, which was due to the difficulties of concentrating troops on the outskirts of the empire, the sluggishness of the military and naval departments, and gross miscalculations in assessing the capabilities of the enemy.

Side Plans:

Japan is an offensive strategy, the goal of which is dominance at sea, the capture of Korea, the possession of Port Arthur, the defeat of the Russian group.

Russia is a defensive strategy, there was no general war plan that would ensure the interaction of the army and navy.

The course of hostilities

I stage. War at sea

The 1st Pacific Squadron and part of the ships of the Siberian Flotilla were based in Port Arthur, other ships of the Siberian Flotilla were based in Vladivostok. In total, the Russian fleet consisted of 64 ships. The Russian naval forces in the Pacific were inferior to the Japanese not only in the number of ships, but also in speed, rate of fire and range, area of ​​armored sides, etc.

- Attack on the Pacific Fleet in Port Arthur (1904). On the night of January 27, 1904, without declaring war, the Japanese fleet under the command of Admiral Togo unexpectedly attacked the Port Arthur squadron under the command of Vice Admiral Stark, standing on the outer roadstead. This attack marked the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War. Japan seized dominance at sea and launched a landing operation.

- Fight "Varangian" and "Korean" in Chemulpo Bay (1904). On the morning of January 27, another Japanese squadron under the command of Rear Admiral Uriu approached the Korean port of Chemulpo. Two Russian ships in a fierce battle - the Varyag (captain V.V. Rudnev) and the gunboat Koreets - received heavy damage in an unequal battle, and the sailors, not wanting to hand over the ships to the Japanese, flooded the Varyag and blew up the Koreets .

- The death of the battleship "Petropavlovsk" (1904). On February 1, 1904, Vice Admiral S. O. Makarov was appointed commander of the 1st Pacific Squadron. However, on March 31, Makarov died on the lead battleship Petropavlovsk, which, after going to sea, was blown up by a mine. The Japanese managed to block the Russian fleet in Port Arthur and began landing the land army on the mainland.

II stage. Struggle in the passes and for the Liaodong Peninsula

- The main Russian forces in Northeast China under the command of General A. Kuropatkin were located in South Manchuria. The general command of the armed forces in the Far East (until October 1904) was carried out by Admiral E. Alekseev.

- Battle of the Yalu River (1904). Success in the battle ensured that the Japanese army seized the strategic initiative.

- The battle for the port of Dalniy. The Japanese army was able to tightly block Port Arthur, eliminate the threat of a double blow from the Russian troops from the Kwantung Peninsula and from Manchuria to launch an offensive deep into the mainland.

- Battle on the passes and near Dashichao (1904). Despite tactical success, the commander of the Manchurian army, General Kuropatkin, ordered a retreat. During this stage, the Japanese troops pushed the Russians from the mountains to the plains, completely captured the coast, occupied the Liaodong Peninsula and blocked Port Arthur.

- Battle in the Yellow Sea (1904). At the end of July, the 1st Pacific Squadron under the command of Rear Admiral Witgeft entered the Yellow Sea, where on July 28, 1904, it was attacked by the Japanese fleet of Admiral Togo. During the battle, Rear Admiral Witgeft was killed and the flagship "Tsesarevich" went out of order, which led the Russian squadron into confusion. The rest of the ships, having received damage, returned to Port Arthur.

- Battle in the Korea Strait (1904). The Japanese fleet gained complete dominance in sea lanes.

III stage. Struggle for South Manchuria and Port Arthur

- Battle of Liaoyang (August 11-21, 1904). Kuropatkin gave the order to leave Liaoyang and retreat to Mukden. The losses of the Russians amounted to about 16 thousand people, the Japanese - 24 thousand people. The results of the Liaoyang battle had an extremely negative impact on the morale of the Russian troops.

- Battle on the Shahe River (1904). Despite the tactically draw result of the battle, the strategic success was on the side of the Japanese, who repelled Kuropatkin's last attempt to save Port Arthur.

- Defense of Port Arthur (January 27 - December 20, 1904). Port Arthur was not only a naval port, but also a powerful land fortress. The defense of Port Arthur was headed by the head of the Kwantung Fortified Region, General Stessel. When repelling attacks, the Russians used new means of struggle, including mortars invented by midshipman S. N. Vlasyev. The main struggle in November unfolded for Mount Vysokaya on the Northern Front, as well as for the 2nd and 3rd forts on the Eastern Front. Having captured Vysokaya and installed long-range artillery on it, the Japanese began shelling the city and port. From that moment on, the fate of the fortress and the fleet was finally decided. On December 2, the head of the land defense, its organizer and inspirer, General R. I. Kondratenko, died. On December 20, 1904, Stessel signed the surrender. For Russia, the fall of Port Arthur meant the loss of access to the non-freezing Yellow Sea, the deterioration of the strategic situation in Manchuria and a significant aggravation of the domestic political situation in the country.

- Battle of Mukden (1905). On February 24, the Japanese 5th Army broke through the left flank of the Russians and, having reached the area northeast of Mukden, created a threat of encirclement of the troops defending the city. On the same day Kuropatkin ordered a general retreat. The Battle of Mukden was the last major military clash on land in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905.

IV stage. Battle of Tsushima and the loss of Sakhalin

To help the Pacific Fleet, the 2nd Pacific Squadron was formed in the Baltic under the command of Vice Admiral Z. Rozhdestvensky and the 3rd Pacific Squadron, led by Rear Admiral N. Nebogatov. On April 26, both squadrons joined on the way and, under the general command of Rozhdestvensky, continued their journey to the Far East. After the fall of Port Arthur and the death of the 1st Pacific squadron, the situation for Rozhdestvensky became much more complicated. From now on, Vladivostok remained the base for his squadron.

- Battle of Tsushima (1905). The Battle of Tsushima is one of the largest naval battles in world history. It was the last battle of the era of armored ships. The death of the Pacific Fleet put an end to the Russian-Japanese confrontation. It deprived Russia's Far Eastern borders of protection from aggression from the sea. The territory of Japan became invulnerable. In the summer of 1905, the Japanese began to carry out the second part of their military program and captured the island of Sakhalin almost without hindrance. The detachment defending him under the command of General Lyapunov surrendered on July 18. The threat of attack also loomed over the poorly defended Russian Primorye.

Portsmouth world. Results of the Russo-Japanese War

Japan was seriously exhausted by the war. Russian forces arrived and accumulated in Manchuria. Russia for the first time in full faced with the problems of the new army, created under the system of universal military service. Under these conditions, such issues as explaining to the people the goals and meaning of a future war, cultivating in society respect for the army, a conscious attitude to military duty, raising the prestige of military service, etc., acquired great importance. None of this before the war of 1904-1905. was not done.

The sharp social inequality also had a depressing effect on the soldiers.

Due to the growing internal instability, the tsarist government after the Tsushima defeat was forced to agree to start negotiations with Japan, which had repeatedly tried through intermediaries (the United States, England and Germany) to persuade Russia to peace.

1) Russia ceded South Sakhalin to Japan, and also transferred to it the lease rights to the Liaodong Peninsula with a railway line connected to it.

2) Russian troops were withdrawn from Manchuria, and Korea became a zone of Japanese influence.

3) Japan received the right to fish along the Russian coast.

Reasons for defeat:

- technical, economic and military superiority of Japan;

— military-political and diplomatic isolation of Russia;

- operational-tactical and strategic unpreparedness of the Russian army to conduct combat operations in difficult conditions;

- mediocrity and betrayal of some of the tsarist generals, the unpopularity of the war among all segments of the population.

The "Manchurian lesson" forced the Russian leadership to improve the state of the armed forces. From 1905 to 1912, important military reforms were carried out in the country: the senior command staff was updated, the training of officers improved, new, modern military regulations were introduced, the service life of soldiers was reduced from 5 to 3 years, but more attention was paid to combat training. The troops are equipped with more advanced weapons, the fleet is being updated - more powerful battleships are replacing the battleships. These reforms strengthened the armed forces on the eve of a more formidable clash with Germany. The defeat from Japan also contributed to the growth of the government's attention to the problems of Siberia and the Far East. The war with Japan revealed the insecurity of the Far Eastern borders of the country.