The Presidential Library’s collection illustrates Russo-Japanese War

A series of trials in the 20th century began for our country in the Far East, when Japan blocked Port Arthur - the main Russian naval base in the Pacific Ocean, and the military failures of the Russian army and navy, the largest of which were the Mukden battle and the Tsushima naval battle, became one of the reasons for the revolution of 1905-1907.

Exactly 115 years ago, on February 9, 1904, the Russo-Japanese War began. The Presidential Library’s portal provides access to the collection of archival materials, memoirs, periodicals and postcards telling about these events.

The materials are divided into narrower topics. The section “Military Operations” features the first work in the national naval literature devoted to four Russian cruisers based during the war in Vladivostok: “Rossiya”, “Gromoboy”, “Rurik” and “Bogatyr”.

According to the author of the book by V. Y. Yegoryev, later the experience of Russian cruising operations in the Far East was actively adopted by foreign sailors. In turn, the Japanese military, preparing for war with Russia, traveled to Bulgaria to explore the experience of our land army in the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878...

In Essay on Maritime Operations during the Russo-Japanese War (1906) N. L. Klado notes that in 1895 the position of the Russian fleet "was incomparably more advantageous than that of our future adversary". But Japan strenuously built new ships. If in 1894 the entire marine budget of this country was about 10 million rubles, in 1897, 61 million was spent on shipbuilding alone.

The Collection of Military Historical Examples from the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905 (1910) says that by the beginning of the war the Russian armed forces in the Far East and Siberia "could have put 110,000 people in the field during mobilization". At the same time, they "were scattered on the front up to 8000 miles", in these parts there was only one line of the railway, which allowed no more than three trains per day, and some military units had to walk about 600 miles on foot (one mile equal to 1066 meters).

The national fleet in the Far East consisted of 72 warships, while Japan had 130 warships and 262 transport ships. In addition, during the mobilization, the Japanese ground forces could immediately set up 480,000 people, not counting 1.5 million militiamen and other reserves.

The longest battle of the Russo-Japanese War was the heroic defence of Port Arthur. For almost the entire 1904, the garrison defended the only Russian ice-free port in the Pacific, the soldiers showed incredible heroism, but this was not enough.

In the Case of the surrender of the fortress of Port Arthur to the Japanese troops in 1904, there is a telegram of the commandant of the fortress A. M. Stessel addressed to Nicholas II: “Great Sovereign, forgive us. We have done everything that was in the powers of men. Judge us, but judge mercifully".

The Battle of Tsushima is mentioned in the unique edition of 1910 "Ten years from the life of a Russian sailor who died in the Battle of Tsushima". It is about Lieutenant Peter Vyrubov, who described almost every day in his letters to his father. “Now we are on the verge of the most interesting events. When this letter reaches you, the fate of many of us is already decided ... " - he reported two weeks before the battle, during which he died valiantly on the battleship "Prince Suvorov".

The famous cruiser Varyag was scuttled, but did not surrender to the enemy during the battle in the port of Chemulpo. By the way, after the war, the Japanese government created a museum of the memory of the Varyag heroes in Seoul and awarded the captain of Vsevolod Rudnev ship.

Of particular attention are the activities of the Japanese fighters of invisible front. According to K. M. Adaridi in the book of 1907 “Intelligence during the Russo-Japanese War”, “spying was not used in any of the recent wars in such a wide scale as in the latter”. At the same time, “it is noteworthy that spies were recruited from among citizens of third countries” (Korea and China). Secret reports were delivered in braids, soles and seams of the dress.

The book of P. M. Kaufman “The Red Cross in the rear of the army in the Japanese campaign of 1904-1905” tells about the incredible difficulties that the doctors had to face. The Red Cross in Russia was prepared in case of war in the west, but in the east, then Samara, there were practically no stores, no hospitals, no sisters of mercy. However, soon there were already 12 Red Cross hospitals, seven flying units, six patrol hospitals, two sanitary trains ...

A separate collection of materials on the Presidential Library’s portal is devoted to the outcome of the war. There is the report of the secretary of the peace conference in Portsmouth among them. Negotiations could take place in Paris, London, The Hague or Washington. The Japanese side chose to meet in the United States, but in the US capital that summer it was too hot to receive diplomats, and another city of this country was chosen - Portsmouth.

The results of the war were not too encouraging for Russia. However, the heroism of Russian soldiers was not questioned either inside our country or abroad.