The Russo-Japanese War, which began back in 1904 ... Who would now say why this war began, to whom and why it was needed, why it all happened so? The question is by no means an idle one, for echoes of events that are now a hundred years old have responded in one way or another to the fate of Russia throughout the course of the 20th century.
At first glance, it all started suddenly and unexpectedly.
"The regimental adjutant approached me and silently handed over a dispatch from the district headquarters:" Tonight, our squadron, standing on the outer Port Arthur raid, was suddenly attacked by Japanese destroyers and suffered heavy losses, "wrote in his book" Fifty Years in Service " Lieutenant General Aleksei Alekseevich Ignatiev. - This official document caused primarily controversy and reasoning about whether the foreign fleet can attack us without a preliminary declaration of war? It seemed so incredible and monstrous that some were inclined to accept what had happened only as a serious incident, which did not mean, however, the outbreak of war. Moreover, I could not believe that some little Japan would dare to seriously engage in a struggle with such a giant as Russia. " The young captain Count Ignatiev at that time commanded a squadron in the Life Guards of the Ulan Regiment, and the Far East, where he was soon destined to fight, seemed infinitely distant from Peterhof. But to people in higher ranks, the war with Japan seemed not only real and even inevitable, but, moreover, they had seen its course in advance!
"Starting in January 1900, the Naval Academy began training in the naval game to test our combat training in the Far East," says Infantry General Nikolai Alekseevich Yepanchin in the book "In the Service of the Three Emperors". - This was done at the special request of the Tsar; Admiral Rozhestvensky was appointed senior mediator (the same one who in May 1905 would lead to Tsushima Second Pacific Squadron), I was appointed mediator on the ground. To participate in these classes, I invited our military attache in Japan, Colonel General Staff Samoilov, who was temporarily in St. Petersburg; he thoroughly studied the Japanese army and was fully aware of Japanese naval affairs. He believes that under the conditions in which our troops and our squadron are in the Far East, with the weak ability of the Siberian Route, the difficulty of concentrating sufficient forces and supplying them, it will be extremely difficult for us to successfully conduct military operations against the Japanese army and Japanese fleet, which he praised as a very serious opponent. He reported this to the War Ministry, but his reports were not given a proper assessment ... The classes were conducted very seriously and carefully. It is remarkable that Admiral Virenius, who commanded the Japanese side, decided to start military operations without declaring war, as the Japanese did in January 1904, exactly four years later ... After a successful "attack" on the Russian squadron, the "Japanese" landed at Port Arthur at Dalniy and overlaid Port Arthur ... "
Is it not surprising how the one played on the cards in 1900 came true in 1904-1905? It turns out that the enemy did exactly as expected! Although there is an option that a detailed report on this game, released under the heading "very secret", fell into the hands of Japanese intelligence and was used by the Japanese command as a scenario for the upcoming war.
However, it is necessary to clarify why this war happened.
The book Siege of Port Arthur, an engineer-colonel A. von Schwartz, published before the First World War as a manual for students of the Nikolaev Engineering Academy, clearly states: "The course of the natural development of the Russian state has long moved it towards the least resistance - east, to the shores Pacific Ocean.