Synopsis on the history of Russia

The nature of war: imperialistic, unjust on both sides. The forces of the parties: Russia - 1 million 135 thousand people (total), actually 100 thousand people, Japan - 143 thousand people + navy + reserve (about 200 thousand). Japan's quantitative and qualitative superiority at sea (80:63).

Side Plans:
Japan- an offensive strategy, the purpose of which is dominance at sea, the capture of Korea, the possession of Port Arthur, the defeat of the Russian group.
Russia- there was no general war plan that would ensure the interaction of the army and navy. defensive strategy.

Dates. Developments. Notes

January 27, 1904 - A surprise attack by a Japanese squadron of Russian ships off Port Arthur. Heroic battle between Varangian and Korean. Attack repulsed. Russian losses: Varyag is flooded. Korean is blown up. Japan ensured superiority at sea.
January 28 - Re-bombardment of the city and Port Arthur. Attack repulsed.
February 24 - Arrival in Port Arthur of the commander of the Pacific Fleet, Vice Admiral S.O. Makarov. Makarov's active actions in preparation for the general battle with Japan at sea (offensive tactics).
March 31 - The death of Makarov. The inaction of the fleet, the rejection of offensive tactics.
April 1904 - Landing of the Japanese armies in Korea, forcing the river. Yaly and entry into Manchuria. The initiative in actions on land belongs to the Japanese.
May 1904 - The Japanese began to lay siege to Port Arthur. Port Arthur was cut off from the Russian army. An attempt to release it in June 1904 was unsuccessful.
August 13-21 - Battle of Liaoyang. The forces are approximately equal (160 thousand each). Japanese attacks were repulsed. Kuropatkin's indecisiveness prevented him from building on his success. On August 24, Russian troops retreated to the Shahe River.
October 5 - The battle on the Shahe River began. Fog and mountainous terrain interfered, as well as Kuropatkin's lack of initiative (he acted only with part of the forces he had).
December 2 - The death of General Kondratenko. R.I. Kondratenko led the defense of the fortress.
July 28 - December 20, 1904 - The besieged Port Arthur heroically defended itself. December 20 Stesil gives the order to surrender the fortress. The defenders withstood 6 assaults on the fortress. The fall of Port Arthur was a turning point in the Russo-Japanese War.
February 1905 - Battle of Mukden. 550 thousand people participated from both sides. Kuropatkin's passivity. Losses: Russians -90 thousand, Japanese - 70 thousand. The battle was lost by the Russians.
May 14-15, 1905 - Naval battle at about. Tsushima in the Sea of ​​Japan.
Tactical mistakes of Admiral Rozhdestvensky. Our losses - 19 ships sunk, 5,000 killed, 5,000 captured. The defeat of the Russian fleet
August 5, 1905 – Peace of Portsmouth
By the summer of 1905, Japan began to clearly feel the lack of material and human resources and turned to the United States, Germany, and France for help. The US stands for peace. Peace was signed in Portsmouth, our delegation was headed by S.Yu. Witte.

Peace terms: Korea is Japan's sphere of interest, both sides withdraw their troops from Manchuria, Russia cedes to Japan Liaodong and Port Arthur, half of Sakhalin and railways. This treaty lost its force after the surrender of Japan in 1914.

Reasons for the defeat: the technical, economic and military superiority of Japan, the military-political and diplomatic isolation of Russia, the operational-tactical and strategic unpreparedness of the Russian army to conduct combat operations in difficult conditions, the mediocrity and betrayal of the tsarist generals, the unpopularity of the war among all segments of the population.

| Russo-Japanese War(1904-1905)

Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905)

The Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 was fought for control of Manchuria, Korea, and the ports of Port Arthur and Dalniy. On the night of February 9, the Japanese fleet, without declaring war, attacked the Russian squadron on the outer roadstead of Port Arthur, a naval base leased by Russia from China. The battleships "Retvizan" and "Tsesarevich" and the cruiser "Pallada" were seriously damaged.

Hostilities began, marking the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War. In early March, the Russian squadron in Port Arthur was led by an experienced naval commander, Vice Admiral Makarov, but on April 13 he died when the flagship battleship Petropavlovsk hit a mine and sank. The command of the squadron passed to Rear Admiral V.K. Vitgeft.

In March 1904, the Japanese army landed in Korea, and in April - in the south of Manchuria. Russian troops under the command of General M.I. Zasulich could not withstand the onslaught of superior enemy forces and in May were forced to leave the Jinzhou position. Port Arthur, thus, was cut off from the Russian Manchurian army. For the siege of the city, the 3rd Japanese army of General M. Nogi was allocated. The 1st and 2nd Japanese armies began to quickly move north and in the battle of Vafangou on June 14-15 forced the Russian army, commanded by the Minister of War, General A.N. Kuropatkin, to retreat.

In early August, the Japanese landed on the Liaodong Peninsula and approached the outer defensive perimeter of the fortress. The garrison of Port Arthur consisted of 50.5 thousand soldiers and officers with 646 guns and 62 machine guns. Subsequently, due to the use of naval artillery on land, the number of guns increased to 652. The Russian fleet in Port Arthur Bay consisted of 6 battleships, 6 cruisers, 2 mine cruisers, 4 gunboats, 19 destroyers and 2 mine transports. The number of crews of ships and coastal services of the fleet was 8 thousand people, who later, after the death of the fleet, were thrown to reinforce the ground units. Volunteer squads with a total number of 1.5 thousand people were formed from the local population. The combatants delivered ammunition and food to the positions, evacuated the wounded and maintained communication between the headquarters and various defense sectors.

On August 10, 1904, the Russian squadron tried to escape from Port Arthur. The attempt was almost a success, and the Japanese fleet was about to retreat when a high-explosive shell exploded on the captain's bridge of the flagship battleship Tsesarevich. As a result, the commander of the squadron, Admiral Witgeft, and his entire staff were killed. The control of the Russian ships was disrupted, they tried to break through to Vladivostok one by one, but everyone who managed to escape from the harbor of Port Arthur was interned in neutral ports. Only the Novik cruiser managed to reach the Korsakov post in Kamchatka, where it died in an unequal battle with Japanese cruisers.

The defense of Port Arthur was led by the commandant of the fortress, General A.M. Stessel, but the squadron did not obey him, being under the command of the fleet commander, and he could not influence the actions of the ships locked in Port Arthur.

The Japanese 3rd Army besieging the city numbered more than 50 thousand people and over 400 guns. On August 19, she tried to take Port Arthur by storm, but five days later, with heavy losses, she was thrown back to her original positions. The Japanese began to build lines of trenches and field fortifications around the fortress. In early September, they were able to capture strategically important height Long. Another height - High - the defenders of the cities managed to defend. In mid-October, food shortages began to become acute in Port Arthur. This, as well as the beginning of the cold, caused the spread of diseases among the besieged. In mid-November, more than 7,000 wounded and sick with scurvy, typhoid and dysentery were in Port Arthur hospitals. The Chinese population of the city, numbering 15 thousand people during the siege, was in an even more difficult situation and really starved.

On October 30, after three days of artillery preparation, the Japanese launched a third assault on Port Arthur, which lasted three days and ended in vain. On November 26, the fourth assault began. On December 5, Japanese troops captured Vysokaya Hill and were able to install 11-inch howitzers to bombard the harbor. This immediately increased the accuracy of artillery fire. On the same day, Japanese batteries sank the battleship Poltava, on December 6, the battleship Retvizan, on December 7, the battleships Peresvet and Pobeda, as well as the cruiser Pallada. The cruiser "Bayan" received heavy damage.

On December 15, the commander of the land defense of the fortress, General R.I. Kondratenko, was killed. The defenders of Port Arthur had run out of food, although there was still a supply of shells. On January 2, 1905, commandant Stessel, believing that there were no chances for assistance from the Manchurian army in the foreseeable future, capitulated. Subsequently, he was convicted by a military court for cowardice, but pardoned by the king. From today's point of view, Stessel's decision does not deserve condemnation. Under conditions of a complete blockade, when all Russian positions were under aimed artillery fire, and the garrison did not have food supplies, Port Arthur would not have lasted more than two or three weeks, which could not affect the course of hostilities in any way.

In Port Arthur, 26 thousand people surrendered. Russian losses killed and wounded during the siege amounted to 31 thousand people. The Japanese lost 59,000 killed and wounded and 34,000 sick.

With the fall of Port Arthur, which represented the main point of the Russo-Japanese War, the main Japanese goal was achieved. The battles in Manchuria, despite the fact that many times more ground troops participated there on both sides, were of an auxiliary character. The Japanese did not have the forces and means to occupy Northern Manchuria, not to mention the Russian Far East. Kuropatkin pursued a strategy of attrition, believing that a protracted war would exhaust Japan's human and material resources and force Japan to stop the war and clear the occupied territories. However, in practice it turned out that the prolongation of the war was disastrous for Russia, since a revolution had already begun there in January 1905. The overall numerical superiority of the Russian army was largely offset by the fact that the European part of the empire was connected with the Far East by only one Trans-Siberian Railway.

In peacetime, the Russian army numbered 1.1 million people, and after the start of the war, another 3.5 million reservists could be added to it. However, by the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, there were only 100,000 soldiers and 192 guns in Manchuria. The Japanese army in peacetime was 150 thousand people. An additional 1.5 million men were called up during the war, with over half of all Japanese forces operating in Manchuria. By the end of the war, the Russian army in the Far East had a one and a half times numerical superiority over the enemy, but could not use it.

First major battle ground forces of Russia and Japan took place near Liaoyang in the period from August 24 to September 3, 1904. The 125,000th Japanese army of Marshal Oyama was opposed by the 158,000th Russian army of General Kuropatkin. The Japanese forces launched two concentric attacks in an attempt to encircle the enemy, but their attacks on the advanced Russian positions on the Liaoyang Heights were repulsed. Then the Russian troops retreated in an organized manner to the main position, which consisted of three lines of forts, redoubts and trenches and for 15 km went around Liaoyang from the west and south, resting on the Taizihe River. On August 31, three brigades of the 1st Japanese Army crossed Taijihe and captured the bridgehead. After failing to liquidate this bridgehead, Kuropatkin, despite the fact that the Japanese attacks were repulsed in the center and on the right western flank, fearing a flank bypass, ordered a retreat. The Japanese lost 23,000 killed and wounded, and the Russians 19,000.

After the Liaoyang battle, Russian troops withdrew to Mukden and took up positions on the Hunhe River. The Japanese remained north of Taijihe. On October 5-17, a counter battle took place on the Shahe River. At the beginning of the battle, the Russians managed to knock the enemy down from the advanced positions, but on October 10, the Japanese launched a counteroffensive and on October 14 broke through the front of the 10th Army Corps. At the end of the battle, both sides switched to positional defense along a 60-kilometer front. The Russian army in this battle numbered 200 thousand people with 758 guns and 32 machine guns and lost 40 thousand people killed and wounded. The losses of the Japanese, who had 170 thousand soldiers, 648 guns and 18 machine guns, were half as much - 20 thousand.

The parties remained in positions within range of rifle fire until January 1905. During this period, telephone communications improved significantly in both armies. The devices appeared not only in the headquarters of the armies, but also in the headquarters of corps, divisions, brigades, regiments, and even on artillery batteries. On January 24, 1905, the Russian army tried to advance in the Sandepu area, but by January 28, the enemy pushed them back to their original positions. Kuropatkin at that moment had 300,000 soldiers and 1,080 guns, while Oyama had 220,000 men and 666 guns. The Russians lost 12,000 men and the Japanese 9,000.

From February 19 to March 10, 1905, the largest battle of the Russo-Japanese War took place - Mukden. The Russian army at its beginning consisted of 330 thousand people with 1475 guns and 56 machine guns. The Japanese, taking into account the 3rd Noga Army that approached from Port Arthur and the new 5th Army that arrived from Japan, had 270 thousand people, 1062 guns and 200 machine guns. Kuropatkin was preparing to go on the offensive against the left flank of the enemy on February 25, but Oyama, who sought to envelop the Russian army from both flanks, forestalled him. The 2nd Russian Army was engulfed from the west by the 3rd Japanese Army and attacked from the front by the 2nd Army. The 1st Japanese Army of General Kuroka broke through the positions of the 1st Russian Army and threatened to cut the Mandarin Road in the rear of the main Russian forces. Fearing encirclement and already actually in a sack, Kuropatkin was able, however, to withdraw the army in order to Telin, and then to Sypingai positions 175 km north of Mukden.

After Mukden Kuropatkin, General Nikolai Linevich, who previously commanded the 3rd Army, replaced him as commander-in-chief. The opposing armies met the end of the war on the Sipingai positions, without undertaking any active military operations in Manchuria after the Battle of Mukden.

In the battle of Mukden, for the first time, there were cases when soldiers shot officers who tried to stop the fleeing with fire from revolvers. Nearly four decades later, during the Great Patriotic War, soviet soldiers were no longer so conscious and resignedly allowed the officers to shoot themselves. Near Mukden, the Russians lost 59,000 killed and wounded and 31,000 prisoners. Japanese losses reached 70 thousand killed and wounded.

After the death of the Russian squadron in Port Arthur on August 10, 1904, together with its commander, Admiral Vitgeft, the 2nd Pacific Squadron was formed from the Baltic Fleet under the command of Admiral Z.P. Rozhestvensky, chief of the Main Naval Staff. She made a six-month transition to the Far East, where she died in the battle in the Tsushima Strait on May 27, 1905. The Rozhdestvensky squadron consisted of 8 squadron battleships, 3 coastal defense battleships, one armored cruiser, 8 cruisers, 5 auxiliary cruisers and 9 destroyers. The Japanese fleet under the command of Admiral Togo had 4 squadron battleships, 6 coastal defense battleships, 8 armored cruisers, 16 cruisers, 24 auxiliary cruisers and 63 destroyers. On the side of the Japanese was a qualitative superiority in artillery. Japanese guns had almost three times the rate of fire, and in terms of power, Japanese shells were more powerful than Russian shells of the same caliber.

By the time Rozhdestvensky's squadron arrived in the Far East, Japanese armored ships were concentrated in the Korean port of Mozampo, and cruisers and destroyers were concentrated off Tsushima Island. South of Mosampo, between the islands of Goto and Quelpart, a patrol of cruisers was deployed, which was supposed to detect the approach of Russian forces. The Japanese commander was sure that the enemy would try to break through to Vladivostok by the shortest route - through the Korea Strait, and he was not mistaken.

On the night of May 27, Rozhdestvensky's squadron approached the Korea Strait in a marching order. Two light cruisers moved ahead, followed by armadillos in two wake columns, and the rest of the ships behind them. Rozhdestvensky did not carry out long-range reconnaissance and did not carry out blackouts on all of his ships. At 2:28 am, the Japanese auxiliary cruiser Shinano-Maru discovered the enemy and reported to the commander. Togo led the fleet from Mosampo.

On the morning of May 27, Rozhdestvensky rebuilt all the ships of the squadron into two wake columns, leaving behind transport ships under the protection of cruisers. Drawn into the Korea Strait, at half past two the Russian ships discovered the main forces of the Japanese fleet, which were advancing to the right of the bow to cut across Rozhdestvensky's squadron. Rozhdestvensky, believing that the Japanese intended to attack the left column of his squadron, where obsolete ships predominated, rebuilt the squadron into one column. Meanwhile, two detachments of armored ships of the Japanese fleet, having gone to the port side, began to make a turn of 16 points, being only 38 cables from the lead ship of the Russian squadron. This risky turn lasted a quarter of an hour, but

Rozhdestvensky did not take advantage of the favorable moment for shelling the enemy fleet. However, taking into account the real accuracy of the then naval artillery at this distance and the level of training of Russian gunners, it is unlikely that in a quarter of an hour Rozhdestvensky's squadron would have managed to sink at least one large enemy ship.

Russian ships opened fire only at 13:49, when Togo was already completing the turn of the ships. The Russian gunners were very ill-prepared for firing at long distances and were unable to inflict any significant damage on the Japanese. In addition, the quality of Russian ammunition was low. Many of them did not explode. Due to poor fire control, Russian ships were unable to concentrate fire on individual enemy ships. The Japanese, on the other hand, concentrated the artillery fire of their battleships on the Russian flagships Suvorov and Oslyabya.

At 14:23, the battleship Oslyabya, having received heavy damage, left the battle and soon sank. Seven minutes later, the Suvorov was put out of action. This battleship stayed afloat until the seventh hour in the evening, when it was sunk by Japanese destroyers.

After the failure of the flagships, the order of battle of the Russian squadron was upset, and she lost her unified command. The first was the battleship "Alexander III", and after its failure, the column was headed by the battleship "Borodino". At 15:05, fog thickened over the Tsushima Strait, and the opponents lost sight of each other. But 35 minutes later, the Japanese again discovered Rozhdestvensky's squadron and forced it to change course from northeast to south. Then Togo again lost contact with the enemy and was forced to abandon his main forces in search of the Russians. Only at about 6 pm did the Japanese battleships overtake the Russian squadron, which at that moment was firing at the Japanese cruisers.

Now the battle of the main forces was conducted on parallel courses. At 7:12 pm it got dark, and Togo stopped the battle. By that time, the Japanese had managed to sink " Alexander III"and" Borodino. "After the cessation of the battle, the main forces of the Japanese fleet withdrew to the island of Ollyndo (Dazhelet). The destroyers had to finish off the Russian squadron by torpedo attacks.

At 8 pm, 60 Japanese destroyers began to cover the main forces of the Russian squadron. At 8.45 pm the Japanese fired their first torpedo salvo. Others followed. In total, 75 torpedoes were fired from a distance of 1 to 3 cables, of which only six reached the target. Aimed launches were hampered by darkness. Reflecting the attacks of the destroyers, the Russian sailors sank two enemy destroyers. Another Japanese destroyer sank and six were damaged when they collided with each other.

On the morning of May 15, Rozhdestvensky's squadron, due to frequent evasions from attacks by Japanese destroyers, was dispersed throughout the Korean Peninsula. Russian ships were destroyed by superior enemy forces one by one. Only the Almaz cruiser and two destroyers managed to break through to Vladivostok. Most of the ships were sunk. Four armored ships and a destroyer, on which the seriously wounded Rozhdestvensky and the junior flagship Rear Admiral N.I. Nebogatov were, were captured.

Regarding the surrender of Nebogatov's squadron Soviet historian Mikhail Pokrovsky wrote: “Under Tsushima, the quick surrender of Nebogatov was explained not only by the technical senselessness of further battle, but also by the fact that the sailors resolutely refused to die in vain; and on the best Nebogatov battleship, the officers had a choice: either lower the flag, or be lowered overboard team". Upon returning to Russia, Nebogatov was made the main culprit Tsushima disaster and sentenced to death penalty for the surrender of the remnants of the fleet to the enemy (the wounded Rozhdestvensky could not be judged). The death penalty was commuted to 10 years of hard labor, and two years later Nebogatov was pardoned and released. Russian losses in Tsushima battle amounted to 5045 killed and 803 wounded, Japanese - 1 thousand people.

In the Russo-Japanese War, Russia's military losses, according to official figures, amounted to 31,630 killed, 5,514 dead from wounds and 1,643 dead in captivity. About 60,000 servicemen were taken prisoner, of which about 16,000 were wounded. There is no reliable data on Japan's losses. Russian sources estimate them as more significant than the losses of Kuropatkin's army. Based on these sources, B.Ts.Urlanis estimated Japanese losses at 47387 killed, 173425 wounded and 11425 dead from wounds. In addition, he estimated that 27,192 Japanese died of disease.

But foreign observers in most battles believe the Japanese losses are less than the Russians, with the exception of the siege of Port Arthur. During this siege, the number of dead and wounded in the Japanese army was 28 thousand more, but at Liaoyang and Shah, the losses of the Japanese were 24 thousand less than those of the Russians. True, under Mukden, Japanese losses in killed and wounded were 11 thousand more than those of the Russians, but in Tsushima and other naval battles the Russians had more killed and wounded by about the same amount. Based on these figures, it can be assumed that in reality the Japanese losses in killed and wounded were approximately equal to the Russians, while the Japanese captured several times more prisoners.

Also, data on more than a twofold excess of mortality from diseases in the Japanese army compared to the Russian army do not inspire confidence. After all, the Russian army outnumbered the Japanese by about one and a half times, and the establishment of sanitary affairs in both armies was approximately on the same level. Rather, it can be assumed that the number of deaths from diseases in both armies was approximately the same. Another thing is that for Japan, whose armed forces and population were significantly smaller, these losses were much more sensitive than for the Russian Empire.

According to the Peace of Portsmouth, concluded on September 5, 1905, with the mediation of the United States, Russia ceded to Japan the lease of the Liaodong Peninsula along with a branch of the South Manchurian Railway, as well as the southern half of Sakhalin Island, where Japanese landings were landed shortly before the end of the war. Russian troops were withdrawn from Manchuria, and Korea was recognized as a sphere of Japanese influence. Russian positions in China and throughout the Far East were undermined, and Japan made a bid to become a great power and dominate North China.

The defeat of Russia was due primarily to the weakness of its fleet, which was unable to resist the Japanese and protect the Far Eastern ports, as well as to establish sea supplies for Russian troops. The weakness of the rear led to the beginning of the revolution soon after the fall of Port Arthur. But even without a revolution, Kuropatkin's strategy of starvation would hardly have led to success.

According to the materials of the portal "Great wars in the history of Russia"

At the beginning of the 20th century, Russia was one of the influential world powers, owning significant territories in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, while Japan dominated the eastern part of the Asian continent.

Therefore, the Russo-Japanese War had a significant resonance, long before its end in 1905. There is every reason to believe that the Russo-Japanese War was a harbinger of the First World War, and then, and. Because the causes of the initial conflict between states influenced subsequent events. Some tend to refer to the Russo-Japanese War as "World War Zero" since it took place 10 years before it began.

Causes of the Russo-Japanese War

In 1904, Russia, led by Emperor Nicholas II, was the largest world power with vast territories.

The port of Vladivostok did not have year-round navigation due to difficult climatic conditions. The state needed to have a port in the Pacific Ocean, which would all year round received and sent merchant ships, and was also a fort of the eastern borders of Russia.

He staked on the Korean Peninsula and Liaodong, now located in China. Russia has already entered into a lease agreement with, but the emperor wanted complete sovereignty in this region. The Japanese leadership was not satisfied with the activity of Russia in this region since the Sino-Japanese War of 1895. Russia at that time supported the Qing Dynasty, i.e. was on the side of the conflict.

Initially, the Japanese side offered Russia a deal: Russia gets full control of Manchuria (northeast China), and Japan controls Korea. But Russia was not satisfied with such an outcome of events, it put forward a demand to declare the territory of Korea above the 39th parallel a neutral zone. The negotiations were disrupted by the Japanese side, and she, unilaterally, began military operations against Russia (an attack on the Russian fleet in Port Arthur on February 8, 1904).

Beginning of the Russo-Japanese War

Japan officially declared war on Russia only on the day of the attack on the ships of the Russian Navy in Port Arthur. Prior to this, the Russian leadership had no information about the military intentions of the land of the rising sun.

The Cabinet assured the emperor that even after unsuccessful negotiations, Japan would not dare to attack Russia, but this was an unfortunate assumption. An interesting fact is that, according to the norms of International law, a declaration of war before the outbreak of hostilities was optional at that time. This rule ceased to operate only 2 years after these events, which was enshrined at the second Hague Peace Conference.

The purpose of the attack of the Japanese fleet on Russian ships was the blockade of the Russian fleet. By order of Admiral Togo Heihachiro, the torpedo boats of the Japanese fleet were to disable the three largest cruisers: Tsesarevich, Retvizan and Pallada. The main battle was expected a day later, in Port Arthur.

The Russian fleet in the Far East was well protected in the harbor of Port Arthur, but the exits from it were mined. So on April 12, 1904, the battleships Petropavlovsk and Pobeda were blown up at the exit from the harbor. The first sank, the second returned to the harbor with heavy damage. And, although Russia, in response, damaged 2 Japanese battleships, Japan continued to control and carry out regular bombardments of Port Arthur.

At the end of August, Russian troops, deployed from the center to help the sailors of Port Arthur, were driven back by the Japanese and could not get into the harbor. Having settled in the newly conquered positions, the Japanese military continued shelling the ships in the bay.

In early 1905, the garrison commander, Major General Sessel, decided to leave the harbor, believing that the losses among the naval personnel were significant and meaningless. This decision came as a surprise to both the Japanese and the Russian command. The general was later convicted and sentenced to death, but was pardoned.

The Russian fleet continued to suffer losses in the Yellow Sea, forcing the military leadership of the state to mobilize the Baltic Fleet and send it to the combat area.

Military operations in Manchuria and Korea

Seeing the weakness of the Russians, the Japanese gradually moved to complete control of the Korean Peninsula. Landing in its southern part, they gradually advanced and captured Seoul and the rest of the peninsula.

The plans of the Japanese command was to capture Russian-controlled Manchuria. During the first hostilities on land, they successfully attacked Russian shipping in May 1904, forcing them to withdraw to Port Arthur. Further, in February 1905, the Japanese continued to attack the Russian troops in Mukden. These bloody battles also ended in victory for the Japanese. The Russians, suffering heavy losses, were forced to retreat to northern Mukden. The Japanese side also had tangible losses of soldiers and equipment.

In May 1905, the Russian fleet arrived at the place of deployment, sailing about 20 thousand miles - a fairly serious military campaign for that time.

Making the transition at night, the Russian armada was nevertheless discovered by the Japanese. And Togo Heihachiro blocked their path near the Tsushima Strait at the end of May 1905. Russian losses were enormous: eight battleships and over 5,000 men. Only three ships managed to break into the harbor and complete the task. All the above events forced the Russian side to agree to a truce.

Treaty of Portsmouth

The Russo-Japanese War was fierce and could serve as a bad echo of subsequent events. Both sides lost about 150,000 military men in hostilities, and about 20,000 Chinese civilians died.

The peace agreement was concluded in Portsmouth in 1905, through the mediation of Theodore Roosevelt (US President). Russia was represented by Sergei Witte, the minister of his imperial court, and Japan by Baron Komuro. For his peacekeeping activities during the negotiations, Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Results of the Russo-Japanese War

As a result of the agreement, Russia transferred Port Arthur to Japan, retaining half of Sakhalin Island (the island will completely go to Russia only at the end of World War II. Supported Nicholas II's refusal to pay compensation to the victorious side. Russian troops liberated the territory of Manchuria and recognized the control of the Japanese side over the Korean Peninsula.

The humiliating defeats of the Russian army in the Russo-Japanese War added negative consequences to the political unrest in Russia, which ultimately served as the impetus for the overthrow of the government in 1917.

Russo-Japanese War 1904–1905 - this is an imperialist war for the seizure of colonies, for the assertion of monopoly rights in the Far Eastern market; at the same time, this war was an attempt to resolve the imperialist contradictions between a number of powers seeking to partition China.
The pursuit of superprofits by Russian military-feudal imperialism caused the expansion of Russian capital to the East; however, here the aggressive policy of the autocracy came into conflict with the imperialist interests of Japanese capital. The imperialist aspirations of Russian and Japanese capital to the Far East found their solution in the war.
Your way to war royal Russia and Japan went through a stage of joint participation, with Germany, England, Italy, France, the USA and other countries, in an international punitive expedition that crushed a popular uprising in China. The punitive expedition was undertaken in order to prepare for the further division of China; this once again confirms that at a certain stage in the development of contradictions between the imperialists, the latter can temporarily unite their efforts for joint conquests.
The Russo-Japanese War is an important stage in the development of military art. Such new phenomena as mass armies, smokeless powder, rapid-fire artillery, repeating rifle, new means of communication, have also given rise to new forms of warfare. Mass armies lead to the expansion of the front of struggle. The new weapons make it difficult to attack frontally and cause the desire to bypass and cover, which in turn further expands the combat front. The need to use the power of fire in order to force the enemy to turn around, as well as the need to deploy at a considerable distance from the enemy with an increased width of the front, lead to an increase in the duration of the battle, which was discovered for the first time in the Russo-Japanese War. http://www.hrono.ru/libris/lib_l/levic00.html
The cause of the war was Russian expansion in Manchuria. In May 1896, Russia obtained from China a concession for the construction and operation of the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER) from Harbin to Port Arthur, and in March 1898, the lease of the southern part of the Liaodong Peninsula (Kwantung) and Port Arthur, which soon turned into its main naval base in the Far East. In 1900, taking advantage of the Yihetuan uprising in China, Russian troops occupied Manchuria. However, Russia's attempt to keep its military presence encountered opposition from Japan, Great Britain and the United States, who did not want the strengthening of Russian influence in Northern China. In January 1902, Japan and Great Britain signed an alliance treaty directed against Russia. In this situation, in March 1902, Russia was forced to conclude an agreement with China, undertaking to withdraw its troops from Manchuria within eighteen months, but in every possible way delayed its implementation, which led to a sharp aggravation of its relations with Japan. In March 1903, Russia demanded that China provide guarantees that it would not lease any part of Manchurian territory to another power without its consent; the Chinese government, backed by Japan and Britain, refused. In July 1903, Japan proposed to Russia a plan for the division of spheres of influence in northern China, but subsequent negotiations were unsuccessful. January 23 (February 5), 1904 Japan severed diplomatic relations with Russia. http://www.krugosvet.ru/enc/istoriya/RUSSKO-YAPONSKAYA_VONA.html

The main reasons for the start of the Russo-Japanese War were:
- an attempt to capture foreign markets for the developing domestic economy;
- clash of Russian and Japanese interests in the Far East;
- the desire to enrich the wealth of Korea and China, Russia and Japan;
- Russian imperial expansion to the East;
- the desire of the tsarist government to distract the people from revolutionary uprisings.

Russo-Japanese War- This is a war that was fought between the Russian and Japanese empires for control of Manchuria and Korea. After a break of several decades, it became the first big war with the latest weapons : long-range artillery, battleships, destroyers, electric wire obstacles high voltage; as well as using spotlights and a field kitchen.

Reasons for the war:

• Lease by Russia of the Liaodong Peninsula and Port Arthur as a naval base.
• Construction of the CER and Russian economic expansion in Manchuria.
• The struggle for spheres of influence in China and Kopee.
• Means of distraction from the revolutionary movement in Russia ("small victorious war")
• The strengthening of Russia's positions in the Far East threatened the monopolies of England and the USA and the militaristic aspirations of Japan.

The nature of war: unfair on both sides.

In 1902, England entered into a military alliance with Japan and, together with the United States, embarked on the path of its preparation for war with Russia. In a short time, Japan built an armored fleet at the shipyards of England, Italy, and the USA.

The bases of the Russian fleet in the Pacific - Port Arthur and Vladivostok - were separated by 1,100 miles and were poorly equipped. By the beginning of the war, out of 1 million 50 thousand Russian soldiers, about 100 thousand were deployed in the Far East. The Far Eastern army was removed from the main supply centers, the Siberian railway had a low capacity (3 trains per day).

COURSE OF EVENTS

January 27, 1904 Japanese attack on the Russian fleet. The death of the cruiser "Varangian" and the gunboat "Koreets" in Chemulpo Bay off the coast of Korea. Blocked in Chemulpo "Varyag" and "Korean" rejected the offer to surrender. Trying to break through to Port Arthur, two Russian ships under the command of Captain 1st Rank V.F. Rudnev engaged in battle with 14 enemy ships.

January 27 - December 20, 1904. Defense of the naval fortress Port Arthur. During the siege, new types of weapons were used for the first time: quick-firing howitzers, Maxim machine guns, hand grenades, mortars.

Commander of the Pacific Fleet Vice Admiral S. O. Makarov prepared for active operations at sea and the defense of Port Arthur. On March 31, he led his squadron to the outer roadstead in order to engage the enemy and lure his ships under fire from coastal batteries. However, at the very beginning of the battle, his flagship Petropavlovsk hit a mine and sank within 2 minutes. Most of the team died, the entire headquarters of S. O. Makarov. After that, the Russian fleet went on the defensive, as the commander-in-chief of the Far Eastern forces, Admiral E. I. Alekseev, refused active operations at sea.

The ground defense of Port Arthur was headed by the head of the Kwantung Fortified Region, General A. M. Stessel. The main struggle in November unfolded over Mount Vysokaya. On December 2, the head of the land defense, its organizer and inspirer, General R. I. Kondratenko. Stessel December 20, 1904 signed capitulation . The fortress withstood 6 assaults and was surrendered only as a result of the betrayal of the commandant, General A. M. Stessel. 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.

October 1904 The defeat of Russian troops on the Shahe River.

February 25, 1905 The defeat of the Russian army near Mukden (Manchuria). The largest land battle in history before the First World War.

May 14-15, 1905 Battle in the Tsushima Strait. The defeat by the Japanese fleet of the 2nd Pacific squadron under the command of Vice Admiral Z. P. Rozhestvensky, sent to the Far East from the Baltic Sea. In July, the Japanese occupied Sakhalin Island.

REASONS FOR THE DEFEAT OF RUSSIA

• Support for Japan from Britain and the United States.
• Weak preparation of Russia for war. Military-technical superiority of Japan.
• Mistakes and ill-conceived actions of the Russian command.
• The inability to quickly transfer reserves to the Far East.

Russo-Japanese War. RESULTS

• Korea was recognized as a sphere of influence of Japan;
• Japan took possession of South Sakhalin;
• Japan received the right to fish along the Russian coast;
• Russia leased the Liaodong Peninsula and Port Arthur to Japan.

Russian commanders in this war: A.N. Kuropatkin, S.O. Makarov, A.M. Stessel.

Consequences of Russia's defeat in the war:

• weakening of Russia's position in the Far East;
• public dissatisfaction with the autocracy, which lost the war with Japan;
• destabilization of the political situation in Russia, the growth of the revolutionary struggle;
• active reform of the army, a significant increase in its combat capability.