When during the night of the 8th of February 1904 the relatively small Japan launched a
surprise attack against the behemoth Russia and its neutral fleet at Port Arthur, it marked
the beginning of the Russo-Japanese war.
The outcome of the war was considered to be predictable, considering the size of both
countries.
Contrary to expectations, it became a disastrous and deadly war, with modern era battles of
unprecedented scale in history.
And to give a small spoiler… it didn’t really go the way the Russians had planned…
at all.
-intro-
Historical and Geopolitical Background
When the German Kaiser Wilhelm II sent a telegram to the Russian Tsar, Nicholas II, after attending
Russian fleet maneuvers, he wrote: “The admiral of the Atlantic Fleet sends his greetings
to the admiral of the Pacific.”
This message can be seen as an attempt to encourage Russia to expand eastward, though
Russia didn’t really need encouragement.
The Balkans were a hotbed and Russia had its eyes mainly on new territory in the East.
Ever since Nikolai Muravyov was appointed Governor-general of Eastern Siberia and the
main agent of Russian expansion in the region, the goal was to expand Russia towards the
Pacific.
Two treaties during the eighteen-fifties that China agreed to from a position of extreme
weakness, the Aigun and Beijing treaties, secured the entire Amur basin and territory
between the Ussuri and the pacific.
When in eighteen-sixty Vladivostok was established it became the base of Russia’s pacific fleet.
The country had opened up its proverbial window to Asia.
Russia wasn’t the only one attempting to expand at the expense of China, Manchuria
and Korea.
Next to the traditional European powers, that resulted, among other conflicts, in the Great
Game between Russia and the British Empire over the Middle East, there was Japan.
And nobody had yet realized the full potential of Japan as an Asian great power.
The country had embarked on a radical project of modernization and building up the army
and navy ever since the Meiji restoration in eighteen-sixty-eight.
It sought to become the hegemon within its own sphere of influence, and as the island
had shortages of minerals and raw materials, high ranking officers and politicians figured:
why not emulate the European powers and seize an empire for itself?
Japan's imperialist tendencies over Korea had already led to a victory over the Chinese
in the First Sino-Japanese War of eighteen-ninety-four.
One of the spoils of this war was the strategically located Lüshunkou, perhaps better known as
Port Arthur.
They wouldn’t be able to keep it for long though, as Russia had its own eyes on the
Port.
Russia persuaded Germany and France to apply diplomatic pressure on Japan in order to relinquish
Port Arthur.
Japan felt cheated and the basis was laid for revenge, somewhere and somehow.
Russia, on the other hand, had coined itself the protector of China and used this new role
to get concessions; it didn’t take long for China to allow Russia to construct the
Trans Siberian railroad through Manchurian territory.
Within three years Russia started to threaten China, demanded Port Arthur and sent military
personnel along the Trans Siberian railroad to protect its construction.
Using the Kiaochow crisis of eighteen-ninety-seven they managed to obtain a lease on Port Arthur,
it provided the Russians with a much sought after ice-free base for the Pacific fleet.
Between eighteen-ninety-nine and nineteen-o-one the Boxer Rebellion swept through Northern
Chinese territories, another reason for Russia and other Western powers to send troops towards
China, and Russia had set its eyes on Manchuria.
After the suppression of the rebellion, Russia simply refused to withdraw its troops.
Sergei Witte urged that Russia should pull out, as it was a provocation towards the other
Great Powers.
Other advisors of Nicholas II went as far as to recommend establishing a new port on
the Korean peninsula.
The Japanese wouldn’t have objected when an agreement could have been reached of bringing
Korea under Japanese control, and leaving Manchuria under Russian control.
They even sent a letter to the Tsar in an attempt to stabilize relations, although they
never received a reply.
Nicholas went on to establish the Viceroyalty of the Far East under Admiral Yevgeny Ivanov
Alexeyev.
Witte was subsequently dismissed and an expansionist policy was the new way forward for Russia.
As a precaution, the Japanese established the Anglo-Japanese alliance, as they started
to realize the Russians weren’t going to budge.
To Tokyo this treaty meant that in case of a Russo-Japanese war, the British Empire would
come to the aid of Japan if another European power would come to the aid of the Russians,
and as such, a potential war would most likely be fought between just Japan and Russia.
It is interesting for another reason, as this was confirmation Great Britain saw Japan as
a country worth forging an alliance with.
A year later the Japanese realized there wouldn’t be any concessions from Russia’s side and
as such they broke diplomatic ties in February nineteen-o-four, withdrawing the Japanese
delegation from Saint Petersburg.
A war seemed inevitable and Japan had decided the war had to be short and devastating, it
had to be over before Russia could move its full force of millions of troops towards the
Far East.
The Trans Siberian railroad wasn’t yet finished which meant controlling the seas was of vital
importance for a Japanese victory.
Japan initiates the war
Japan initiated the war with the surprise attack on Port Arthur in february 1904, and
it makes sense that they attacked at this time.
First of all, the capacity of the Trans Siberian railroad wasn’t optimal, if even relevant
at this point.
The railroad around the Baikal lake wasn’t finished yet, and the Russian fleet in the
East would only reach its peak in nineteen-o-five.
As the war commenced, the Russian fleet had a numerical advantage over the Japanese fleet,
namely seven to six battleships, while the Russians were predicted to have at least twelve
battle ships a year later.
Japan’s primary objective was to obstruct sea routes and hinder Russian ships, whether
it was an army fleet or cargo ships, arriving via the Pacific to join the Russian fleet.
A passage of the Russian Black Sea fleet through the Dardanelles was blocked with a treaty,
and as such the Russians had no efficient way of reaching the Far East anyway.
After Tokyo had withdrawn its diplomatic delegation in February, the Japanese admiral Togo Heihachiro
issued a meeting with the captains of his fleet.
It was decided the main fleet would be sent to Port Arthur and a small detachment was
sent to the Chemulpo bay, in order to get rid of a Russian protected cruiser and gunboat
anchored there.
This small battle makes for an interesting tale as the Japanese commander, Uryu Sotokichi
sent a most polite letter to the Russian commander, Vsevolod Rudnev, and neutral vessels, notifying
them of his intention to wage a naval battle, before destroying the Russian ships.
After the ships were destroyed, the Japanese were able to easily put their troops onto
land.
A few hours earlier, at Port Arthur, the Japanese main fleet had launched its attack on Port
Arthur.
This surprise attack in the middle of the night marked the beginning of the Russo-Japanese
war.
The Attack on Port Arthur
On the eighth of February at eleven PM nine Japanese armored cruisers snuck past the Russian
mine defences.
The legendary British spy Sidney Reilly is rumoured to have played a part in passing
the mine defence system of the harbor to the Japanese.
Now, the anchored Russian fleet wasn’t illuminated, nor was it alarmed, and it was the perfect
target for the Japanese torpedoes.
Before the attack the Japanese were spotted by a squadron of patrolling Russian destroyers
- this resulted in a collision of two Japanese ships, and eight ships continued.
These eight ships managed to really shake up the harbor: of the sixteen torpedoes they
shot, only three hit their targets, but these hits were a sign of the misfortune that would
befall the Russians during this war.
Two of Russia’s best battle ships were hit, rendering them useless for weeks.
The Russo-Finnish admiral, Oskar Ludvig Stark, ended up locked in the harbor by Togo’s
ships, and because of this Japan was able to put more troops on land in Korea.
The day after the Port Arthur attack, Japan officially declared war on Russia.
The Russian homefront, however, was still convinced that it would be a quick and easy
win for them.
The Japanese homefront harbored the same sentiment.
Oskar Stark wouldn’t command an army, though.
He was fired on the twenty-fourth of February for his failure at Port Arthur and replaced
by Vice Admiral Stepan Yevgeni Alekseyev until the arrival of Stepan Makarov.
Well, the Russians had around one-hundred-thousand men in the Far East, but only one tenth were
professional soldiers.
The Japanese had around 330.000, including reserves, now this was already out matching
the Russians, but the Japanese had modelled their fleet after the British model and their
standing army after the German one.
In other words: disciplined, well-trained, and efficient both on water and land.
The average Japanese soldier thought it an honor to die for the Emperor, Emperor Meiji
at the time.
Though, contradictory to some sources, the Russians had decent equipment and a decent
army, and the lack of competent officers was a problem.
The devastating effect of modern firepower hadn’t yet made its way to the high command,
the troops were travelling and moving in large groups, rendering them vulnerable to artillery
and guns, and it seemed impossible to properly coordinate battle tactics between officers
as the communication lines simply were not up to the task.
The Russian COmmand The Russian command requires a few more words
as there was confusion among them.
General Aleksey Kuropatkin was a skilled officer and the commander in chief in the Far East,
but ran into conflict with Vice Admiral Alekseyev.
The latter would ignore orders Kuropatkin issued, and the men would have serious disagreements
until Alekseyev was dismissed following a defeat at the battle of Shaho, but we’ll
get to that in a second.
The men disagreed over the type of war that should be fought: Kuropatkin was convinced
the Russians should wait until the Trans Siberian railroad was finished in order to be properly
supplied and have troops transported to them.
Until then, the most sensible strategy was a tactical retreat, with as goal to slow down
the Japanese advance as much as possible, without engaging in much open combat.
It would take several months for the railway to be completed and until then the soldiers
had to wait it out, as the Russian army in the East wasn’t at the level the Japanese
army was.
Alekseyev and several other officers refused to retreat without a fight, a… case of honor
in their opinion, and they refused to carry out Kuropatkin’s orders.
Russian troops would often stand their ground until they suffered heavy casualties… and
then retreat.
This was the case at the battle of the Yalu river, when the Russian rearguard retreated...
in the wrong direction.
Battle of the Yalu River (May 1904)
The battle of the Yalu River in May was the first important land battle of the war.
Major General Kuroki Tamemoto was advancing northwards via Korea towards the Russian troops
under Lieutenant generals Mikhail Zasulich and Nikolai Kashtalinsky.
Between fifty and sixty thousand Japanese faced between twenty and twenty-five thousand
Russians.
While the Russians were outnumbered nearly three to one, the defeat of the Russians made
headlines all over the world.
It was the first time a Western power was defeated by an Asian one.
The Japanese received a morale boost and in Russia, the first signs of an uprising that
would reach its boiling point in nineteen-o-five, started to become apparent.
All the while, Admiral Togo was attempting to defeat the Russian fleet near the Pacific.
He attempted, multiple times, to sink ships that were anchored in the Port Arthur harbor
or tried to lure the Russians out of the harbor.
Now, Alekseyev had been replaced by Vice Admiral Stepan Makarov, a very skilled admiral to
say the least.
Makarov issued a strategy where, if possible, the Russians sailed out to sea to “practice”
fights with the Japanese.
It was an attempt to bolster the morale of the Russian sailors that had been stuck in
the harbor for weeks.
Both sides were very adamant about placing sea mines, though, neither side was aware
the quality of these mines were abhorrent - the cables they were fastened with could
easily break and a rogue mine in the sea was lethal.
One day, Togo’s ships were laying mines outside of Port Arthur to prevent the Russian
fleet from breaking out of the harbor, and used a few ships to lure out the Russians.
Makarov, probably thinking he was going to practice his aim on the Japanese, sailed out
on the Petropavlovsk, with a few other ships and, much to the disappointment of the Japanese,
evaded the Japanese mines.
The Japanese withdrew under fire by Makarov’s fleet, who decided to not pursue them and
return to the harbor.
On the way back, however, Makarov’s ship sailed onto a mine, triggering multiple explosions,
and the Petropavlovsk, together with Admiral Stepan Makarov, sank to the bottom of the
ocean.
It was another great loss for the Russian navy.
He was replaced with Admiral Wilhelm Withöft, who was plagued by interference from Russian
officers, lack of proper coordination and lack of a vision and orders as to what the
Russian fleet should do.
That’ll be important later on.
After this, in May, the twentieth Japanese Army under General Oku Yasukata landed north
of the Liaodong peninsula.
It took a week for all Japanese troops to land, but, fortunately for the Japanese, the
Russian fleet didn’t interfere.
The Russian defences on land tried to curb the Japanese, but when these kept advancing
they retreated.
From now on, Port Arthur would remain an isolated stronghold, under siege by the Japanese from
both the land and sea.
To make up the balance: at this point Japan had secured Korea and locked sixty-thousand
Russian troops inside Port Arthur.
General Oku now moved northward, leaving behind two divisions to siege Port Arthur.
General Kuroki’s troops were already advancing northward through Korea, pursuing general
Kuropatkin who was forced to a halt at Liaoyang.
Here, the Russians attempted to fend off the Japanese, with around one-hundred-and-fifty-thousand
Russian troops against one-hundred-and-twenty-thousand Japanese.
Eventually, the Russians had to retreat to Mukden, but not after inflicting over twenty-thousand
casualties on the Japanese, suffering only a little less themselves.
Next week we’ll delve into the continuation of this war, where the Battle of Mukden was
unprecedented in scale, the largest modern-era battle until the First World War would break
out, and the absolute tragic journey of the Russian Baltic Fleet, marked by such incompetent
command that it’s honestly nearly Monty Python-esque.
Anyway, I hope you found this video interesting and next week we’ll see how this war will
end for the Japanese and the Russians, and what happened in the run up.
If that sounds interesting, consider subscribing to my channel and checking back next week.
See you next time.