The Defense of Port Arthur (from July 17, 1904 (July 30, 1904) to December 23, 1904 (January 5, 1905)) is the longest battle in the Russo-Japanese War. During the siege of the fortress, new types of weapons were used, such as an 11-inch mortar, rapid-fire howitzers, barbed wire barriers, and hand grenades.
The value of Port Arthur
Fortress Port Arthur was located at the extreme southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula. This area was leased by Russia from China in 1898, after which the construction of an ice-free military port in the Pacific Ocean, which is badly needed by the Russians, began. (Vladivostok froze in winter).
Japanese movement towards Port Arthur
Literally on the first day of the Russo-Japanese War, the Japanese unexpectedly attacked the Port Arthur squadron, which inflicted heavy damage on it. 1904, April 21-22 - The Second Japanese Army of General Oku landed in the north of Liaodong, which went to Port Arthur to attack it from land. On May 13, Oku, having lost about 5,000 soldiers, was able to take the strategically important Jinzhou Heights in the center of the peninsula.
Commander-in-chief of the Russians, Kuropatkin tried to prevent the siege of Port Arthur by clashes at Wafangou and Dashichao, but was unable to achieve success. Before the inevitable encirclement of the fortress, the Port Arthur squadron tried to break through from it to Vladivostok. But the Japanese squadron of Admiral Togo blocked her path and after the battle in the Yellow Sea on July 28 forced her to return.
After Jinzhou was taken, the Japanese ground army accumulated forces and did not disturb the Russians for a long time, who took up positions on the Green Mountains (20 kilometers from Port Arthur). The delay in the Japanese offensive was partly due to the fact that the Russian Vladivostok detachment of cruisers sank a large Japanese transport, which was delivering 11-inch guns to the army intended for the siege. In the end, having received reinforcements, the Third Japanese Army of the Noga launched a powerful assault on the Green Mountains on July 13, 1904. The Russians were thrown back from their positions and on July 17 they retreated to the area of the fortress. Then the defense of Port Arthur began.
Siege of Port Arthur. The first assault
Port Arthur was not only a naval port, but also a powerful land fortress. It had three lines of defense, even with concrete structures. The city was surrounded by a line of forts, and a network of redoubts, defensive ditches, and batteries. These structures relied on the mountainous terrain favorable for defense. But not all of the fortifications were completed. The garrison of the fortress at the beginning of the defense numbered about 50 thousand. The defense of Port Arthur was headed by the chief of the Kwantung fortified region, General Stoessel.
On August 6, the first assault on the fortress was undertaken. It took place mainly at night, but for the first time, searchlights and missiles used to repel night attacks helped the besieged to destroy the attackers. After 5 days of violent attacks, the Japanese managed to break through into the depths of the Russian defense on the night of August 11, but they were thrown back by a swift counterattack. During the first assault, the last sailing of the ships of the Russian Pacific Squadron took place. The battleship Sevastopol, accompanied by two torpedo boats, left the port under the command of Captain 1st Rank Nikolai Essen. He supported the Russian defenders with fire from the side of the bay. But, on the way back, the Russian ships ran into mines, and both destroyers sank from the explosions. The first assault ended unsuccessfully for the Japanese side. They lost about 15,000 soldiers in the process. Russian losses amounted to 6,000.
Second assault
Unable to capture Port Arthur on the move, Nogi began a systematic siege. Only a month later, on September 6, 1904, having received reinforcements and after carrying out serious engineering and sapper work, the Japanese launched a second assault on the fortress. For 3 days of fighting, they were able to capture two redoubts (Vodoprovodny and Kumirnensky) on the Eastern "front", and capture the Long Mountain on the Northern "front". However, the attempts of the Japanese troops to seize the key object of defense - the Vysokaya mountain dominating the city - were smashed by the fortitude of the besieged.
Reflecting the attacks, the Russians used new means of struggle, including mortars invented by midshipman S. Vlasyev. During the second assault (September 6-9), the Japanese side lost 7,500 soldiers. (5,000 of them during the assault on Vysokaya). The losses of the defenders of Port Arthur amounted to 1,500 people. Great assistance in the defense of Port Arthur was provided by the ships of the Pacific Squadron, which from the inner raid supported the besieged with fire. Part of the naval artillery (284 guns) was transferred directly to the position.
Third assault
On September 18, the Japanese side began shelling the fortress with 11-inch guns. Their shells destroyed fortifications that were not designed for this caliber. But the besieged, fighting on the ruins, were able to repulse the third assault (October 17-18), during which 12,000 Japanese soldiers were killed.
The position of the besieged fortress became more and more difficult. Food supplies were running out, the number of killed, wounded and sick grew all the time. Scurvy and typhus began to appear, raging harder than the weapons of the Japanese. By the beginning of November, there were 7,000 wounded and sick (scurvy, dysentery, typhus) in hospitals. 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.
Fourth assault. Capture of the High Mountain
On these key defenses, Port Arthur Nogi concentrated the main attacks during the fourth assault (November 13-22, 1904). 50,000 Japanese soldiers took part in it. The main blow fell on Mount Vysokaya, which was defended by 2,200 thousand soldiers, under the command of the hero of the battles for Jinzhou - Colonel Nikolai Tretyakov. For ten days, the assault units of the Japanese, regardless of losses, climbed wave after wave to attack the High. During this time, they twice managed to capture the height strewn with corpses, but both times Russian counterattacks brought it back. In the end, on November 22, after another attack, the Japanese managed to capture the mountain. Almost all of its garrison was killed. The last night Russian counterattack on Vysokaya was repelled. During the period of 10 days of fighting, the Japanese lost 11,000 soldiers.
Having placed long-range artillery on Vysokaya (11-inch guns fired at a distance of 10 km), the Japanese side began to shell the city and port. From that time on, the fate of Port Arthur and the fleet was decided. The remnants of the 1st Pacific Squadron in the roadstead were killed under Japanese fire. To protect against fire, only the battleship "Sevastopol" under the command of the courageous Essen decided to go to the outer raid. On November 26, he stood in the White Wolf Bay, where for six nights heroically repelled the attacks of Japanese destroyers, while destroying 2 of them. After receiving serious damage, the battleship was sunk by her team. In December, a fierce battle unfolded for the 2nd and 3rd forts on the Eastern Front. On December 2, the chief of the ground defense, General Roman Kondratenko, was killed. By December 15, the line of forts on the Eastern Front had collapsed.
Surrender of Port Arthur
December 19, evening - after desperate battles, the besieged retreated to the third, last line of defense. Stoessel considered further resistance pointless and on December 20 he signed a surrender. There were good reasons for this decision. The continuation of the defense of 10-12,000 soldiers after the loss of the main positions became meaningless. Port Arthur was already lost as a home base for the fleet.
The fortress could no longer draw off significant forces of the Japanese army from Kuropatkin's army. For its blockade, now one division would be enough. The defenders of the fortress soon faced starvation (food remained for 4-6 weeks). But upon arriving in Russia, Stoessel was put on trial and sentenced to death, which was commuted to ten years in prison. Such a harsh sentence most likely became a tribute to public opinion, excited by military failures.
The importance of the defense of Port Arthur
After the surrender of the fortress, about 25,000 people were captured (of which more than 10,000 were sick and wounded). Fighting in a complete blockade, the Port Arthur garrison was able to draw off about 200,000 Japanese soldiers. Their losses during the 239-day siege amounted to 110,000. In addition, during the naval blockade, the Japanese lost 15 ships of different classes, including 2 battleship squadron blown up by mines. For the participants in the defense of Port Arthur, a special award cross "Port Arthur" was issued.
With the capture of Port Arthur and the destruction of the 1st Pacific Squadron, the Japanese side decided the main goals that it set in the war. For Russia, the fall of Port Arthur meant the loss of access to the ice-free Yellow Sea, the deterioration of the strategic situation in Manchuria. Its consequence was the further intensification of the revolutionary events that began in Russia.
A distant piece of land at the edge of the world, abundantly watered with the blood of Russian soldiers. Eleven centuries ago, the eyes of the whole world were riveted to this place. It was here that the main events of the Russian-Japanese war unfolded. Great feats were accomplished here and fatal and sometimes contradictory decisions were made. The defense of Port Arthur is a vivid example of the military valor of Russian soldiers.
Port Arthur, which served as the main base of the Russian fleet in the region, was strategically advantageous. From this bridgehead, the Russian squadron could strike in the direction of the Korean and Pechili bays. Thus, threatening the most important lines of operations of the Japanese army. But for all its strategically advantageous position, Port Arthur was not well equipped to serve as a reliable and safe naval base. The inner harbor, where the main forces of the fleet were located, was too cramped and shallow. With only one very narrow exit, in the military-tactical aspect it was a real mousetrap.
The external raid was not much preferable in this regard. Fully open, it posed an outright danger as an anchorage for warships. In addition, the fortress did not have adequate protection from either a naval attack or a land one. In general, on the eve of the war, it was difficult to call this fortress an impregnable stronghold. Port Arthur was not able to withstand the massive blow of the Japanese army and navy. And he could not provide the Pacific squadron with a safe base. These are the basic prerequisites for the tragedy of this war.
By the time the heavy siege of Port Arthur began, of the 552 guns of the fortress, only 116 were in combat readiness. The garrison was made up of the incomplete fourth and seventh East Siberian rifle divisions. As for the fleet, the Port Arthur raid was the location of the first Pacific squadron and the Siberian flotilla.
The war, and, accordingly, the defense of Port Arthur, began on the night of January 27, 1904. The beginning of hostilities was laid by the attack of 10 Japanese destroyers on the squadron stationed in the roadstead of Port Arthur. Immediately, Japanese torpedoes damaged two squadron battleships and one cruiser. These were the first losses of this dramatic and bloody war ...
In the morning, the main forces of the Japanese squadron, led by Admiral Heihachiro Togo, approached. From that moment, the defense of Port Arthur from the Japanese armada, which had a fourfold superiority, began directly. The day's battle, which did not bring success to the squadron of Admiral H. Togo, was crowned with a complete blockade of the fortress. In order not to allow Russian ships to leave the harbor and disrupt the transportation of Japanese troops to
The valiant defense of Port Arthur lasted 329 days, but the fall of Port Arthur was inevitable. On the 329th day of heroic and fierce resistance, the fortress nevertheless fell. The protracted and exhausting defense of Port Arthur thwarted the plans of the Japanese command regarding the lightning-fast defeat of the Russian troops on the territory of Manchuria. The cost of 27 thousand Russian lives - this is the result of the defense of Port Arthur. The damage of the attackers was so great (112 thousand dead and wounded, fifteen sunk and sixteen damaged ships) that the commander-in-chief of the Japanese M. Nogi, who suffered for such monstrous and unjustified losses, was going to perform the hara-kiri rite. But the emperor of the Land of the Rising Sun forbade him this act. And only after the death of the monarch, the general realized his intention ...
The Russian-Chinese Convention of 1898 leased Port Arthur to Russia for 25 years with the right to extend this period. The Russians, finding themselves on the Liaodong Peninsula, began to remake everything in their own way: this is how a small Chinese village in a few years turned into the main base of the Russian navy in the Pacific Ocean. In Port Arthur, by 1904, the Russian-Chinese Bank was working, the buildings of the engineering department and the headquarters of the military administration were towering, and numerous soldiers' barracks stretched around. By that time, more than 50 thousand people lived in the city.
Port Arthur before the war. (Pinterest)
On the eve, not all Russian military leaders saw the danger of the siege of Port Arthur. So, for example, the commander-in-chief of the Russian troops in Manchuria, Yevgeny Alekseev, in his plan of military operations pointed out that "the offensive of the Japanese army to Port Arthur is unthinkable, why only a garrison with small additions can be appointed for its defense." At the same time, the Daily Mail war correspondent Benjamin Norrigaard, noting the poor training of the troops, wrote: "The Russians, however, were not aware of the modern development of the art of fortification and most of their fortifications were of the same type that was used in half of the last century." Major General Kostenko speaks even more pessimistically about the defense of the fortress: “Arthur not only had neither the right nor the reason to be considered a" stronghold ", but then did not really bore the character of a fortified camp. In his original form, Arthur was positively hopeless in terms of protection and vulnerable at every point. The remark of one of our most popular generals that the "macaques" start a war with "some" was also fully justified on Arthur. "
Be that as it may, on the eve of the summer of 1904, Port Arthur was cut off by land from the Manchurian army, after a while the sea traffic was blocked, finally, on July 30, 1904, the siege of the fortress by Japanese troops actually began.
2nd platoon of the 3rd foot hunting team of the 16th rifle regiment. (Pinterest)
In early August, the Japanese attacked the forward fortifications of the fortress: as a result of stubborn battles at the cost of serious losses, the Japanese were able to capture the Dagushan and Xiaogushan redoubts. The first successes gave the Japanese leadership confidence - the troops of General Noga immediately began to prepare for the assault.
“It was necessary to recruit such chiefs in Port Arthur,” admiral von Essen complains in his diary. Describing the confusion during the first assault, he says: “The boat“ Thundering ”was commanded by Captain 2nd Rank Nikolayev, already a very old man sent to the east to serve the qualification. This commander fell ill immediately, as soon as his boat was presented with the prospect of taking part in hostilities. "Gilyak" was commanded by Stronsky - a young officer, but not possessing either the energy or courage so necessary for a commander. "
Medics in the fortress of Port Arthur. (Pinterest)
An employee of the Port Arthur newspaper Novy Kray, Larenko, in his memoirs, describes the storming of the fortress by the Japanese in the following way: “This morning, our batteries are in hell, the Japanese are bombarding our northeastern front, concentrating fire on one or the other battery, our batteries fire just as hard. The mountains are covered with smoke from bursting Japanese shells and from the shots of our guns, and above this black smoke and dust, shrapnel bursts in the air with white haze, like scraps of cotton wool, showering the positions with a rain of bullets. The rumble and rumble merge so that it is impossible to make out who is shooting from where and where the shells are bursting. "
“Until nightfall, continuous volleys of guns thundered, and in the fortress, in the area where the 10th regiment was located, music thundered and repeated explosions were heard. , battle and death, but here are funny clicks and not at all the warlike sounds of the regimental orchestra, ”Colonel Rashevsky recalls this day in his diary.
Burial of the victims in Port Arthur. (Pinterest)
For four days, Japanese general Nogi unsuccessfully tried to seize the fortress: as a result, according to historians, he lost almost half of his soldiers - about 20 thousand killed. The losses of the Russians amounted to about 3 thousand people. Despite this, the inhabitants of the fortress were indignant. For example, engineer Mikhail Lilye writes: “There was longing in my soul and at the same time stupid resentment at the Petersburg careerists, at the Korean timber merchants, at all those who had such a sweet life far from these places, where because of them the folk Russian blood ".
The unsuccessful assault forced the Japanese commanders to go over to a long siege: they were waiting for reinforcements and building siege structures. Already in the first months of the naval and land blockade, the Russians began to experience food problems. Journalist Larenko mentions: “While everywhere, in the city and in the positions, life has come from hand to mouth, we learn that General Stoessel has a hundred more pigs and many other edible animals. He stocked himself thoroughly with everything. At his address, maliciously ironic remarks are heard, by the way, the question is asked - if General Stoessel has 100 pigs, so how many pigs are there in total? The answers don't agree. "
Defensive line of the fortress. (Pinterest)
With all this, the Japanese also did not have to relax. The English journalist Norrigaard, who lived in a Japanese military camp, says in his materials: “The shootout did not stop day or night, sometimes shrapnel and shells fell into the trenches, so the soldiers could never be calm and had to be constantly on their guard throughout the week which they spent in these trenches. If they forgot even for a minute and stuck their heads out of the trench, then they were subjected to shelling and were often killed on the spot, since the Russians appointed their best shooters for this.
The second assault was carried out by the Japanese in early September. “The main focus of the Japanese is on the High Mountain. There all the time, without ceasing, there is a strong gunfight, which at times is joined by the rumble of guns, sending whole clouds of liddite shells. From the outside it seems completely incomprehensible how one can remain safe and sound in this hell and continue to repulse the desperate attacks of the enemy, "- recalled the first day of the assault, engineer of the Russian army Mikhail Lilye. Indeed, a fierce and stubborn battle went over the High Mountain, which the Japanese did not manage to take. Particular heroism, according to eyewitnesses of that battle, was shown by Lieutenant Podgursky, who, with three hunters, knocked out three companies of the Japanese who had occupied the fortifications with sabers. Another attack was repulsed, as a result of which the Japanese lost four times more soldiers (about 6,000) than the Russians.
Soldiers after another assault. (Pinterest)
After another setback, the Japanese concentrated on sapper work: they dug trenches to the forts and fortifications of Port Arthur. During the long siege, the reserves of provisions were completely depleted: the front-line soldiers received horse meat twice a week, the rest of the time they had to be content with bread. In addition, scurvy raged in the fortress, which, no worse than bullets and shells, reduced the number of garrisons.
The third assault at the end of October, the Japanese army again failed: the general attack ended in the defeat of the Japanese. “In general, despite the hellish fire, the Japanese did not take possession of more than one solid fortification: if we still manage to repulse the next assault, then, perhaps, we will sit out altogether” - Colonel Rashevsky left such an entry in his diary on the day of the Japanese attack.
Abandoned artillery pieces. (Pinterest)
Indeed, the next assault was not long in coming: having received reinforcements, General Noga's army launched the largest attack on the fortress of Port Arthur at the end of November. For ten days, the Japanese were not able to break through the Russian front, but they fulfilled an important strategic goal - they occupied Mount Vysokaya, from which the entire Port Arthur harbor was visible. Immediately, the Japanese gunners opened fire from 11-inch howitzers at the city and the ships of the Port Arthur squadron. Russian battleships and cruisers were irretrievably lost. At the same time, the British journalist Norrigaard wrote not about the successes of the Japanese, but about the heroic feat of the Russian soldiers: “Both sides fought madly, especially the Russians, who attacked with unparalleled courage that day. No one could resist their violent attack. General Nakamura was badly wounded, Lieutenant Colonel Okuba was killed and over a thousand soldiers were knocked out. "
“A company of sailors set off in an extended formation towards the High Mountain. People walk briskly, calmly - to an almost certain death. The sound of the explosion made us look back towards the harbor. There, a huge cloud of yellowish-brown smoke rose over the battleship Poltava. Probably, an enemy 11-inch shell hit the vessel's powder magazine. P. came and said that the Japanese were already at the very top of the High Mountain. I can't believe it. I would not like to believe! " - recalls those days of the employee of the newspaper "New Krai" Larenko.
The crippled soldiers of the Port Arthur garrison. (Pinterest)
Less than a month since the end of the last assault, the fortress of Port Arthur held out. Commandant Stoessel, contrary to the decision of the Military Council of the fortress, which advocated the continuation of the defense, surrendered Port Arthur. On January 5, 1905, the garrison, exhausted by the siege, surrendering its weapons, handed over Port Arthur. The officers who promised not to fight again in this war were sent home.
“The history of the siege of Port Arthur is, from start to finish, the tragedy of Japanese weapons. Neither in the field of strategy, nor in the field of military art, nothing outstanding or particularly remarkable was shown by the Japanese. Everything was limited to the fact that thousands of people were stationed as close as possible to the enemy positions and rushed into continuous attacks "- later wrote the English correspondent Ellis Bartlett, who was all this time in the camp of the Japanese troops.
General Nogi, feeling guilty for the death of thousands of soldiers, wanted to perform the seppuku ritual - ritual suicide by ripping open the abdomen. However, the emperor forbade him to do this. The general, together with his wife, carried out his intention after the death of the emperor.
During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 ended heroic defense Russian naval fortress Port Arthur, which lasted from February 9, 1904. Despite the fact that the majority of the members of the military council, which took place on December 29, spoke in favor of continuing the defense, the head of this fortified area located on the Kwantung Peninsula, Lieutenant General Anatoly Stessel, decided to surrender Port Arthur. As a result, about 25 thousand people were captured by the Japanese. The losses of the Japanese troops amounted to over 110 thousand people and 15 warships. During the battles near Port Arthur, defense was further developed using engineering structures and obstacles, mortars and hand grenades were designed and used for the first time, and searchlights were used to repel night assaults.
Port Arthur capitulated
This event is one of the greatest events of the day. These three words, transmitted yesterday by telegraph to all corners of the civilized world, make an overwhelming impression, the impression of an enormous and terrible disaster, a misfortune that is difficult to convey in words. The moral strength of a mighty empire is crumbling, the prestige of the young race, which has not yet had time to properly develop, is tarnishing. A verdict is passed on an entire political system, a long line of claims is cut short, and mighty efforts are crushed. Of course, the fall of Port Arthur had long been foreseen, long ago they got off with words and consoled themselves with ready-made phrases. But a tactile, gross fact breaks down all conventional lies. Now the significance of the crash that has occurred cannot be weakened. For the first time, the old world has been humiliated by the irreparable defeat inflicted on it by the new world, so mysterious and, apparently, adolescent, only yesterday called to civilization ”.
This is what a reputable European bourgeois newspaper wrote under the direct impression of the event. And, it must be confessed, she succeeded not only in expressing in relief the mood of the entire European bourgeoisie. Through the lips of this newspaper speaks the true class instinct of the bourgeoisie of the old world, alarmed by the successes of the new bourgeois world, alarmed by the collapse of the Russian military force, which has long been considered the most reliable bulwark of European reaction. It is not surprising that even the European bourgeoisie, which is not participating in the war, still feels humiliated and depressed. She is so used to equating the moral strength of Russia with the military strength of the European gendarme. For her, the prestige of the young Russian race was inextricably linked with the prestige of the unshakably strong tsarist power firmly protecting the modern "order". It is not surprising that the catastrophe of ruling and commanding Russia seems to the entire European bourgeoisie "terrible": this catastrophe means a gigantic acceleration of world capitalist development, an acceleration of history, and the bourgeoisie knows very well, knows too well, knows from bitter experience that such an acceleration is an acceleration of the social revolution of the proletariat ... The Western European bourgeoisie felt so calm in an atmosphere of long stagnation, under the wing of a "mighty empire", and suddenly some "mysterious, adolescent" force dares to break this stagnation and break these pillars.
Yes, the European bourgeoisie has something to be afraid of. The proletariat has much to rejoice at. The catastrophe of our worst enemy means not only the approach of Russian freedom. It also foreshadows a new revolutionary upsurge of the European proletariat.
But why and to what extent is the fall of Port Arthur a truly historic disaster?
First of all, the significance of this event in the course of the war is striking. The main goal of the war for the Japanese has been achieved. Progressive, advanced Asia dealt an irreparable blow to backward and reactionary Europe. Ten years ago, this reactionary Europe, led by Russia, was worried about the defeat of China by young Japan and united to rob it of the best fruits of victory. Europe protected the established relations and privileges of the old world, its preferred right, the centuries-old consecrated primordial right to exploit the Asian peoples. The return of Port Arthur by Japan is a blow dealt to all reactionary Europe. Russia possessed Port Arthur for six years, spending hundreds and hundreds of millions of rubles on strategic railways, on the creation of ports, on the construction of new cities, on the strengthening of a fortress, which the whole mass of European newspapers bribed by Russia and servile to Russia glorified as impregnable. Military writers say that in terms of its strength, Port Arthur was equal to six Sevastopol. And so, small, until then despised by everyone, Japan seizes this stronghold in eight months, after England and France have been busy for a whole year with the capture of Sevastopol alone. A military strike is irreparable. The question of predominance at sea has been resolved - the main and fundamental question of a real war. The Russian Pacific Fleet, which at first was no less, if not more powerful than the Japanese, was finally destroyed. The very base for the operations of the fleet has been taken away, and Rozhdestvensky's squadron can only shamefully turn back, after the useless expenditure of new millions, after the great victory of the formidable battleships over English fishing boats. It is believed that one material loss of Russia in the fleet alone amounts to three hundred million rubles. But even more important is the loss of tens of thousands of the best naval crew, the loss of an entire land army. Many European newspapers are now trying to weaken the significance of these losses, while being zealous to the point that Kuropatkin is “relieved”, “freed” from worries about Port Arthur! The Russian army was also freed from the whole army. The number of prisoners reaches, according to the latest British data, 48,000 people, and how many thousands more died in the battles of Kinchau and under the fortress itself. The Japanese finally seize the whole of Liaodong, acquire a stronghold of immeasurable importance for influencing Korea, China and Manchuria, freeing a hardened army of 80-100 thousand people to fight Kuropatkin and, moreover, with huge heavy artillery, the delivery of which to the Shahe River will give them an overwhelming advantage over the main Russian forces.
The autocratic government, according to foreign newspapers, decided to continue the war at all costs and send 200,000 troops to Kuropatkin. It may well be that the war will last a long time, but its hopelessness is already obvious, and all delays will only exacerbate the innumerable calamities that the Russian people are suffering because they still endure autocracy around their necks. The Japanese have, to this day, been quicker and more abundant in reinforcing their military forces after each major battle than the Russians. And now, having achieved complete domination at sea and the complete destruction of one of the Russian armies, they will be able to send twice as many reinforcements as the Russians. The Japanese still beat and beat the Russian generals, despite the fact that the whole mass of the best artillery was employed in their serf war. The Japanese have now achieved a complete concentration of their forces, and the Russians have to fear not only for Sakhalin, but also for Vladivostok. The Japanese occupied the best and most populated part of Manchuria, where they can maintain an army at the expense of the conquered country and with the help of China. And the Russians have to increasingly confine themselves to supplies brought from Russia, and a further increase in the army will soon become impossible for Kuropatkin due to the impossibility of bringing in a sufficient amount of supplies.
But the military collapse suffered by the autocracy is acquiring even greater significance as a sign of the collapse of our entire political system. The times when wars were fought by mercenaries or representatives of a caste half-torn from the people have irrevocably sunk into eternity. Wars are now being waged by peoples, - even Kuropatkin, according to the testimony of Nemirovich-Danchenko, now began to understand that this truth is not suitable for just words. Wars are now waged by peoples, and therefore the great property of war is especially vividly emerging at the present time: the exposure in practice, before the eyes of tens of millions of people, of the discrepancy between the people and the government, which hitherto was visible only to a small conscious minority. The criticism of the autocracy on the part of all progressive Russian people, on the part of the Russian Social Democracy, on the part of the Russian proletariat is now confirmed by criticism of the Japanese, confirmed in such a way that the impossibility of living under autocracy is felt more and more even by those who do not know what autocracy means, even by those who, who knows this and with all his heart would like to defend the autocracy. The incompatibility of autocracy with the interests of the entire social development, with the interests of the entire people (except for a handful of officials and aces) came out as soon as the people had to pay for the autocracy with their own blood. By its stupid and criminal colonial adventure, the autocracy has led itself into a dead end, from which only the people themselves can free themselves and only at the cost of destroying tsarism.
The fall of Port Arthur brings one of the greatest historical results to those crimes of tsarism, which began to be revealed from the very beginning of the war and which will now be revealed even more widely, even more irresistibly. After us, even a deluge! - every little and big Alekseev reasoned, not thinking about, not believing that the flood would really come. Generals and commanders turned out to be mediocrity and insignificance. The whole history of the 1904 campaign was, according to the authoritative testimony of one English military observer (in the Times "3)," a criminal disregard for the elementary principles of naval and land strategy. " The civil and military bureaucracy turned out to be just as parasitic and corrupt as in the days of serfdom. The officers turned out to be uneducated, undeveloped, unprepared, deprived of close ties with the soldiers and did not enjoy their trust. The darkness, ignorance, illiteracy, and downtroddenness of the peasant masses came out with horrifying frankness in the clash with the progressive people in modern war, which just as necessary requires high-quality human material, as does modern technology. Without a proactive, conscientious soldier and sailor, success in modern warfare is impossible. No endurance, no physical strength, no herd and solidarity of mass struggle can give an advantage in the era of rapid-fire small-caliber rifles, machine guns, complex technical devices on ships, loose formation in land battles. The military might of autocratic Russia turned out to be tinsel. Tsarism turned out to be a hindrance to the modern organization of military affairs, at the height of the newest demands, the organization of military affairs - the very cause to which tsarism devoted itself with all its soul, to which it was most proud of all, to which it brought immeasurable sacrifices, not embarrassed by any popular opposition. A whitewashed coffin - this is what the autocracy turned out to be in the field of external defense, the most dear and closest to him, so to speak, specialty. The events confirmed the correctness of those foreigners who laughed, seeing how tens and hundreds of millions of rubles rushed to buy and build magnificent military ships, and spoke about the uselessness of these costs in the inability to handle modern courts, in the absence of people who are able to competently use the latest improvements military equipment. The navy, the fortress, the field fortifications, and the land army turned out to be backward and useless.
The link between the military organization of a country and its entire economic and cultural system has never been as close as it is today. The military collapse, therefore, could not but turn out to be the beginning of a deep political crisis. The war between an advanced country and a backward one played a great revolutionary role this time, as it has repeatedly in history. And the class-conscious proletariat, being a merciless enemy of war, the inevitable and irreparable companion of all class rule in general, cannot close its eyes to this revolutionary task carried out by the Japanese bourgeoisie, which defeated the autocracy. The proletariat is hostile to every bourgeoisie and to every manifestation of the bourgeois order, but this hostility does not relieve it of the obligation to distinguish between historically progressive and reactionary representatives of the bourgeoisie. It is therefore quite understandable that the most consistent and decisive representatives of the revolutionary international social democracy, Jules Guesde in France and Hyndmann in England, expressed their sympathy for Japan, which is crushing the Russian autocracy, in plain words. In Russia, of course, there were socialists who showed confusion of thought in this matter as well. “Revolutionary Russia” 4 reprimanded Guesde and Hyndman, declaring that a socialist could only be for workers', people's Japan, and not for bourgeois Japan. This reprimand is as absurd as if they began to condemn a socialist for recognizing the progressiveness of the free-trade bourgeoisie in comparison with the protectionist5. Guesde and Hyndman did not defend the Japanese bourgeoisie and Japanese imperialism, but on the issue of the clash between the two bourgeois countries, they correctly noted the historically progressive role of one of them. The confusion of thought of the "socialist-revolutionaries" was, of course, the inevitable result of our radical intelligentsia's misunderstanding of the class point of view and historical materialism. The new Iskra could not but show confusion. At first she uttered a lot of phrases about peace at all costs. It then rushed to "recover" when Jaures clearly showed whose interests, the progressive or reactionary bourgeoisie, should be served by a quasi-socialist campaign for peace in general. She now ended with vulgar arguments about how inappropriate it is to “speculate” (!!?) On the victory of the Japanese bourgeoisie, and that war is a disaster “regardless of” whether it ends in victory or defeat for the autocracy. No. The cause of Russian freedom and the struggle of the Russian (and world) proletariat for socialism depends very much on the military defeats of the autocracy. The case has benefited greatly from the collapse of the war, which is awe-inspiring to all European law enforcement officers. The revolutionary proletariat must tirelessly agitate against war, always keeping in mind that wars are inevitable as long as class domination in general lasts. Trivial phrases about peace a la Jaures will not help the oppressed class, which is not responsible for the bourgeois war between the two bourgeois nations, which does everything to overthrow every bourgeoisie in general, who knows the immensity of national calamities even during “peaceful” capitalist exploitation. But, while fighting against free competition, we cannot forget its progressiveness in comparison with the semi-serf system. Fighting against every war and every bourgeoisie, we must strictly distinguish in our agitation the progressive bourgeoisie from the feudal autocracy, we must always note the great revolutionary role historical war, in which the Russian worker is an involuntary participant.
It was not the Russian people, but the Russian autocracy that started this colonial war, which turned into a war between the old and the new bourgeois world. Not the Russian people, but the autocracy came to a shameful defeat. The Russian people gained from the defeat of the autocracy. The surrender of Port Arthur is the prologue to the surrender of tsarism. The war is far from over, but every step in its continuation expands immensely fermentation and indignation in the Russian people, brings the moment of a new great war, the war of the people against the autocracy, the war of the proletariat for freedom. It is not for nothing that the most calm and sober European bourgeoisie is so worried, which with all its soul would sympathize with the liberal concessions of the Russian autocracy, but which fears the Russian revolution more than fire as the prologue of the European revolution.
“The opinion is firmly rooted,” writes one of such sober organs of the German bourgeoisie, “that the explosion of revolution in Russia is an absolutely impossible thing. They defend this opinion with all kinds of arguments. They refer to the immobility of the Russian peasantry, their faith in the tsar, and their dependence on the clergy. It is said that the extreme elements among the disaffected are represented by only a small handful of people who can stage putsches (small outbreaks) and terrorist attempts, but in no way cause a general uprising. The broad mass of the disaffected, we are told, lack organization, weapons, and most importantly, the determination to risk themselves. The Russian intellectual is usually revolutionary only up to about thirty years old, and then he perfectly settles down in a cozy nest of a state-owned town, and most of the hotheads make the transformation into a dozen official. " But now, the newspaper continues, a number of signs are indicative of a major change. Not only revolutionaries are talking about the revolution in Russia, but such completely alien "hobbies", solid pillars of order as Prince Trubetskoy, whose letter to the Minister of Internal Affairs is now being reprinted by the entire foreign press6. “The fear of revolution in Russia has, apparently, factual grounds. True, no one thinks that the Russian peasants will take up the pitchfork and go to fight for the constitution. But are revolutions being made in the villages? Bearers of the revolutionary movement in recent history large cities have long been. And in Russia, it is in the cities that fermentation takes place from south to north and from east to west. No one will undertake to predict how this will end, but that the number of people who consider a revolution in Russia impossible is decreasing every day, this is an undeniable fact. And if a serious revolutionary outburst ensues, then it is more than doubtful that the autocracy, weakened by the war in the Far East, will cope with it. "
Yes. The autocracy is weakened. The most unbelievers begin to believe in the revolution. The universal belief in the revolution is already the beginning of the revolution. The government itself is concerned about its continuation with its military adventure. The Russian proletariat will take care of the support and expansion of the serious revolutionary onslaught.
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Lenin's manuscripts of the preparatory materials for this article are kept in the Central Party Archives of the Institute of Marxism-Leninism: several versions of the plan entitled “Capitulation (Fall) of Port Arthur” were published in Lenin Collection V, 1929, pp. 57-59; numerous extracts from the foreign and Russian press were published in Lenin's collections XVI, 1931, pp. 37-42 and XXVI, 1934, pp. 242-251.
2 This refers to the Belgian bourgeois newspaper "L" Independence Belge ", which in its issue of January 4, 1904, published the editorial" Port Arthur "quoted by Lenin (see Lenin's collection XVI, 1931, p. 37).
3 “The Times” - a daily newspaper founded in 1785 in London; one of the major conservative newspapers of the British bourgeoisie.
4 “Revolutionary Russia” - an illegal newspaper of the Social Revolutionaries; published since the end of 1900 in Russia by the "Union of Socialist-Revolutionaries" (No. 1, marked in 1900, actually came out in January 1901). From January 1902 to December 1905 she went abroad (Geneva) as the official organ of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party.
5 Free trade is the direction of the economic policy of the bourgeoisie, requiring freedom of trade and non-interference of the state in private economic activity. Free trading arose in the second half of the 18th century in England during the industrial revolution; reflected the interest of the industrial bourgeoisie in abolishing high import duties on grain and raw materials, in expanding foreign trade and in using free trade to oust weaker competitors from world markets. The industrialists of Manchester were the mainstay of free trade in England in the 30-40s of the XIX century. Therefore, free traders were also called “Manchesterians”.
The theoretical substantiation of free trading was obtained in the works of A. Smith and D. Ricardo
In Russia, free-trade views spread mainly among that part of the landowners who were interested in the free sale of grain on the world market.
The class essence of free trade was revealed by Karl Marx in Speech on Free Trade (1848) and other works. Without denying the progressive nature of the demand for free trade, since it accelerates the development of capitalism and exacerbates class contradictions, Marx showed that the bourgeoisie uses the slogan of free trade for the purpose of social demagogy and deceiving the masses, covering up its desire for unlimited exploitation of the proletariat, colonial expansion and the economic enslavement of the underdeveloped countries.
For a characterization of free-trading, see the work of V. I. Lenin “On the Characterization of Economic Romanticism. Sismondi and our domestic sismondists ”(Works, 5th ed., Volume 2, pp. 248-262).
Protectionism is a system of economic measures aimed at developing capitalist industry or agriculture in a given country and protecting them from foreign competition. The most important among these measures are high customs duties on foreign goods in order to reduce their imports, quantitative restrictions on imports, currency bans, encouraging the export of domestic goods by lowering export duties, issuing monetary subsidies to individual capitalists, etc.
Protectionism arose during the era of primitive accumulation in England and became widespread during the era of industrial capitalism, especially under imperialism. Under imperialism, the goal of the policy of protectionism is to ensure that the capitalist monopolies sell goods on the domestic market at higher prices and obtain monopoly super-profits by robbing the masses of the people.
6 A letter from the Moscow provincial marshal of the nobility, Prince PN Trubetskoy, to the Minister of Internal Affairs Svyatopolk-Mirsky was written on December 15 (28), 1904 and published in No. 62 "Osvobozhdeniye" dated December 18 (31), 1904. Describing the state of the social movement, Trubetskoy wrote that "what is happening now, n" est pas emeute, mais une revolution (not a rebellion, but a revolution. Ed.); that at the same time the Russian people are being pushed into revolution ...
The heroic defense of Port Arthur collapsed due to the short-sighted decisions of the generals. This defeat of the Russian troops predetermined the outcome of the Russo-Japanese war.
The beginning of the war
Large-scale hostilities of the Russo-Japanese war began with the attack of Japanese destroyers on the outer roadstead of Port Arthur on the Russian squadron on January 26, 1904. The Japanese torpedoed and temporarily disabled the best Russian battleships "Tsesarevich" and "Retvizan", as well as the cruiser "Pallada". Measures to protect ships in the outer roadstead were clearly insufficient. It should be admitted that none of the Russian ships received fatal damage, and after an artillery battle on the morning of January 27, the Japanese fleet was forced to retreat. The moral factor played a fatal role - the Japanese fleet managed to seize the initiative. Our squadron began to suffer in the following days ridiculous and unjustified losses due to weak interaction and control. So, two days after the start of the war, the minelayer "Yenisei" and the cruiser "Boyarin" were killed on their own mines.
Mine war
During the struggle for Port Arthur, both sides actively used minefields: the Russians to protect the approach to the fortress, and the Japanese to strengthen the blockade measures. Moreover, the losses from mines in ships and personnel for both sides turned out to be much greater than in all the artillery naval battles at Port Arthur combined. As a result of the explosion on Japanese mines, the battleship "Petropavlovsk" sank (Vice-Admiral Stepan Makarov, his headquarters and most of the crew were killed on the ship), the gunboat "Thundering" and four destroyers. During the fighting, Russian ships fielded 1,442 mines on the approaches to the fortress, the victims of which were 12 Japanese ships, including the battleships Hatsuse and Yashima. Thus, the most heavy losses in the war of 1904-1905, the Japanese fleet suffered precisely from the Russian mines near Port Arthur.
Who does time work for
The events at Port Arthur to a large extent determined the general course of hostilities in the Russo-Japanese War. The Russian command had a need to carry out a series of offensive actions in order to unblock the fortress. This forced them to take the offensive. The results of such forced and ill-prepared offensives were failures at Wafangou and at Shahe.
For the Japanese planning to capture Port Arthur outright, the long siege also proved to be a difficult task. She pinned down a third of all Japanese troops on the continent. Attempts to solve the problem with one powerful assault (as on the eve of the Shahe battles) led to colossal losses with minimal military results. The surrender of the fortress on January 5, 1905 allowed the Japanese command to timely transfer the 3rd army from Port Arthur to Manchuria shortly before the major battle of the war at Mukden.
Food
During the struggle for Port Arthur, both the Russian and Japanese armies experienced food shortages. The situation in the fortress was aggravated by General Stoessel's ban on the local Chinese population from fishing, which could be a serious help in the fight against food shortages. And if the stocks of flour, crackers and sugar at the time of delivery of the fortress remained for another month and a half, then there was practically no meat and vegetables. Scurvy began to rage among the garrison.
Japanese troops experienced no less difficulty. Initially, the Japanese food system was not adapted to combat operations on the continent in a more severe climate than on the Japanese islands and the frosty winter of 1904-1905. The huge decline in the Japanese army near Port Arthur (up to 112 thousand people, according to Russian historians) was caused not only by combat, but also by huge sanitary losses.
The death of General Kondratenko
A heavy loss for the defenders of Port Arthur, which hastened the fall of the fortress, was the death of Lieutenant General Roman Kondratenko, chief of ground defense. The name of this man, who became the soul of the defense of Port Arthur, is associated with a number of measures to strengthen the defense of the fortress. Under the leadership of Kondratenko, the defense of Port Arthur was actually built anew. The concentration of large forces on the direction of the enemy's main attacks more than once allowed Kondratenko to repel the onslaught of the superior Japanese forces. Kondratenko paid much attention to the introduction of technical innovations (mortars, barbed wire with an electric current passed through it). Being a fearless defender of Port Arthur, at the same time, Kondratenko advocated an early end to the war with Japan, pointing out the need to sign a peace before the Japanese were able to capture Port Arthur. After the death of Kondratenko on December 2, 1904, Generals Stoessel and Fock began to actively pursue a policy aimed at surrendering the fortress to the Japanese.
High
High (height 203) was one of the key points of defense of Port Arthur. From the Vysokaya one could see the fortress and the inner roadstead, where most of the ships of the 1st Pacific Squadron were located. Japanese troops made repeated attempts to capture this height. The most fierce battles on Vysokaya took place in mid-November 1904, when the Japanese threw two divisions into battle and concentrated fire on heavy 280 mm siege howitzers, from which no protection could save the shells. On November 23, the Japanese finally captured Vysokaya, having the opportunity to adjust siege artillery fire on Russian ships in Port Arthur, which predetermined the death of most of the squadron.
However, heavy losses in the battles for Vysokaya (5 thousand killed and 7 thousand wounded in the November battles alone) forced the Japanese command to abandon further large-scale frontal attacks, focusing on operations against individual Russian fortifications.
Stoessel
Not the last negative role in the defense of Port Arthur was played by Lieutenant General Anatoly Stessel. In literature, he is often called the commandant of the fortress, although this is not so. Stoessel was the head of the Kwantung fortified region, after the abolition of the latter in June 1904, contrary to the order, he remained in Port Arthur. As a military leader, he did not show himself, sending reports with exaggerated data on Russian losses and the number of Japanese troops. Infamous for a number of very shady financial affairs in a besieged fortress. On January 2, 1905, contrary to the opinion of the military council, he began negotiations with the Japanese on the surrender of Port Arthur. After the war, under pressure from public opinion, he was put on trial and sentenced to 10 years in a fortress, but six months later he was released by the decision of the emperor and hastened to go abroad.