An important event took place in South Korea related to the military history of Russia. During the November visit to this country of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, the flag of the legendary Russian cruiser Varyag was handed over to him in a solemn atmosphere. The ceremony took place in Seoul at the Russian embassy. The flag from the Varyag was handed over to Dmitry Medvedev by the mayor of Incheon, where some relics from the cruiser were kept in the local museum. The cruiser became a legend after an unequal battle with a Japanese squadron near Incheon during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 - seriously damaged, she was sunk by his crew, but did not surrender to the enemy.
The presentation of the Varyag flag to the Russian president gives rise to a return to the feat of Russian sailors, to its well-known and little-known pages. Moreover, the waves of time blur the details of this feat and not everyone today has a clear idea of it, especially the youth. Even some news agencies, reporting the transfer of the relic, claimed that the cruiser had died then. But is it?
Vladivostok railway station, the terminal point of the world's longest Trans-Siberian railway, is just a stone's throw from the central street - Svetlanovskaya. The heroes of Valentin Pikul's wonderful novel “The Cruiser”, dedicated to the Russo-Japanese War, once walked along it. Her battles raged on land and sea exactly one hundred years ago. Here, in Vladivostok, the Far Eastern outpost of Russia, there are many memorable places associated with the history of the development and protection of the borders of the distant, but Nashenskiy region. Although the city of sailors, fishermen and border guards is quite young by historical standards. It was founded by Russian servicemen in 1860, when the Russian-Chinese border in the Far East was secured by the Beijing Supplementary Treaty.
In the international treaty terms, this document completed the territorial demarcation in the Ussuri Territory and in Primorye, confirming the main provisions of the Aigun Treaty, concluded two years earlier. But Japan, which was gaining strength, did not like the peaceful consolidation of Russia on the Pacific borders. After the so-called Meiji revolution (1868), the Land of the Rising Sun came out of isolation and began to develop rapidly along the capitalist path, while simultaneously claiming more and more hegemony in the region.
RETURN
So, if from one of the symbols of the city - a monument to the fighters for the liberation of Primorye, which is next to the high-rise building of the regional administration, you turn north, towards the university, then along Okeansky Prospect and then by bus you can get to the most interesting sight associated with the Russian Japanese War. Or rather, with the events of that distant war, in which, by the will of fate, the sailors of the cruiser Varyag and the gunboat Koreets were involved.
We are talking about the Marine Cemetery, where the remains of 14 sailors from the Varyag are buried. Their ashes were transported to Vladivostok in December 1911 from the port of Chemulpo (now Incheon, South Korea). A gray granite obelisk is installed on the heroes' grave. The surnames and names of sailors who died in an unequal battle are carved on its edges in Slavic script. The inscription leaves no one indifferent: "Centuries will pass, and new generations of Russian sailors will proudly carry in their hearts the bright memory of those who did not bow their heads in front of the enemy in the terrible hour for the Fatherland."
In general, much is known about the feat of the Varyag crew, although the general public is far from everything. And although the feat is more than a hundred years old, new facts have been revealed in recent years. One way or another, if it makes sense to remind our readers of this. For example, that very Svetlanovskaya Street and the shores of the picturesque Golden Horn Bay on March 21, 1916 witnessed how thousands of townspeople came here to welcome the legendary cruiser Varyag and three more ships returning from Japan. How they got there will be discussed below. When the cruiser docked at the pier, the heavy gloom of the sky suddenly seemed to evaporate, and a bright sun shone over the picturesque bay. And pigeons flew to the port, nesting at the Sea Cemetery. Old-timers say that it was a sign …
The 1st class cruiser "Varyag" was one of the best in the Russian fleet. The ship entered its structure in 1901. Not everyone knows that the Varyag was built by the order of the Russian government a year earlier in America, at a shipyard in Philadelphia. Why?
The fact is that it was American steel that was considered one of the best in the world at that time. And during the construction of the ship, many technological innovations were used. Suffice it to say that for the first time in world practice, all the furniture on it was made of metal, however, it was painted like a tree. The performance data of the 1st class cruiser "Varyag" are as follows: the longest length is 129.56 m; width (without casing) 15, 9 m; design displacement 6500 t; cruising range at 10-knot speed with a full supply of coal about 6100 miles; full speed 24, 59 knots. The tsar liked the Varyag so much that he included it in the convoy of the imperial yacht Shtandart.
TWO AGAINST FIFTEEN
On January 8, 1904 (new style), the war with Japan began. It began with an insidious attack by a Japanese squadron on Russian ships stationed in the roadstead of Port Arthur. At this time, the gunboat "Koreets" (commander, captain 2nd rank Belyaev) and the cruiser "Varyag" (commander captain 1st rank Vsevolod Fedorovich Rudnev) were in the Korean port of Chemulpo (now Incheon). They received an order to urgently connect with their own forces. But at the exit from the port, the path was blocked by 15 Japanese ships. The squadron commander Rear Admiral Sotokiti Uriu gave an ultimatum to the Varyag:
“To the commander of the cruiser Varyag of the Imperial Russian Navy.
Sir! In view of the outbreak of hostilities between Japan and Russia, I have the honor to respectfully ask you to leave the port of Chemulpo with all ships under your command before noon on January 27, 1904. Otherwise, I will attack you at the port. I have the honor to be your most respectful servant.
Sotokichi Uriu, Rear Admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy and Commander of the Japanese Squadron in the Chemulpo raid.
One of the reasons that Uriu demanded to leave the neutral port was the presence of warships of other countries in it. The commanders of the French cruiser Pascal, the British Talbot, the Italian Elba and the American gunboat Vicksburg received a notification from the Japanese Rear Admiral Uriu about the upcoming attack by his squadron on Russian ships.
At the council of war, it was decided to fight their way out of the port. By the way, in principle, there were chances for a breakthrough, given the combat and speed characteristics of the Varyag. In addition, the commander of the cruiser, Captain 1st Rank Rudnev, was a brilliant naval officer. But he could not abandon the slow-moving "Korean" in trouble. The concept of honor among naval officers has been highly respected since the time of Peter the Great. Surrender was out of the question - this is not in the tradition of Russian naval sailors. "There can be no questions about surrender - we will not surrender the cruiser, nor ourselves, and we will fight to the last opportunity and to the last drop of blood." With these words, Rudnev addressed the crew. The sailors greeted these words with an explosion of enthusiasm. As Vsevolod Fedorovich himself later recalled, "it was gratifying to see the manifestation of such ardent love for his Fatherland."
On January 9, 1904, at 11:20 a.m. the Varyag and Koreets headed towards the exit from the raid. Sailors from foreign ships saluted our ships, and the Italians played the Russian anthem. "We saluted these heroes, who marched so proudly to certain death!" - wrote later the commander of the French cruiser "Pascal" Captain 1st Rank Senes.
The Japanese were waiting for "Varyag" and "Koreyets" in the skerries. The enemy opposed the Russian armored cruiser and the outdated gunboat with fifteen combat units: the armored cruiser Asama, armored cruisers Naniwa, Takachio, Chiyoda, Akashi, Niitaka, the messenger ship Chikhaya and eight destroyers. Against the Russians, two 203-mm and thirteen 152-mm guns and seven torpedo tubes were preparing to fire four 203-mm, thirty-eight 152-mm guns and forty-three torpedo tubes. This was more than a triple superiority!
A battle ensued with the superior forces of the Japanese. At 11.45 "Asama" opened fire from a distance of 7-8 km. Two minutes later, the guns of the Varyag thundered and a merciless artillery battle began to boil, which, according to some sources, lasted exactly an hour, according to others - 45 minutes. Of the twelve 152-mm guns on the Varyag, only two remained, and of the twelve 75-mm guns, five, all 47-mm guns were disabled.
But the worst thing was that almost half of the crew on the upper deck dropped out. “I will never forget the stunning sight that presented itself to me, - recalled the captain of the 1st rank Senes, who boarded the Varyag immediately after the battle, - the deck was flooded with blood, corpses and body parts were scattered everywhere.”
More than half of the guns on the Varyag were disabled, and the steering was seriously damaged. The ship received a roll to the port side, which prevented the firing of serviceable guns. Rudnev ordered to place the wounded and the crew on foreign ships, and destroy the "Varyag" and "Koreyets" …
The battle of the Varyag is full of not only dramatic episodes, but also examples of the unparalleled courage of Russian sailors. Wounded in the back, the helmsman Snegirev, bleeding, continued to stand at the helm until the end of the battle. The orderly of the cruiser commander Chibisov, wounded in both arms, did not go to the infirmary, saying that while he was alive, he would not leave his commander for a minute. The driver Krylov, who received several wounds, was feeding shells from a powder magazine until he lost consciousness. Of the 570 crew members of the cruiser, 30 sailors and one officer were killed.
The Japanese, despite their huge numerical superiority over the Russian ships, failed to either sink them, much less capture them. Captain 1st rank Rudnev had every reason to later report to the command that the ships of the detachment entrusted to him "with dignity upheld the honor of the Russian flag, exhausted all means for a breakthrough, did not allow the Japanese to win, inflicted many losses on the enemy and saved the remaining team."
On January 27, 1904 at 16.30 the gunboat "Koreets" was blown up. Then, with tears in their eyes, the Varyag heroes left their ship. The cruiser commander was the last to get off him, carefully carrying in his hands the ship's flag cut by shrapnel. At 18.10 the crew sank their undefeated cruiser. The sailors switched to French and Italian cruisers (only the Americans refused naval solidarity). The sunset was burning down over the Incheon Bay …
Admiral Uriu and other Japanese senior officers were amazed at the courage of the Russian sailors. Uriu gave the order to help the wounded in the Chemulpo hospital on a par with the Japanese and ordered not to consider them prisoners. Later the crew was delivered to Russia by sea. All the way through their native country - from Odessa to the capital - the heroes were solemnly honored by compatriots …
Admiral Uriu then victoriously reported that he had no losses. Until now, the Japanese do not officially report anything about them. But in fact, the enemy suffered significant damage. The Russian cruiser fired 1105 shells during this truly historic hour, inflicting, according to our information, serious damage to the Asame and Takachio. Later it became known that after the battle, five Japanese ships had to be sent for repairs. It is not surprising that Uriu did not like to remember that fight very much.
HISTORY WHEEL TURNS
Researchers have calculated that almost fifty songs have been composed about the feat of Russian sailors. The most famous one begins with the words: "Upward, you comrades, everyone is in their places." It is considered popular, but it has authors. Moreover, it is striking that the author of the poetic text is by no means Russian, but German - Rudolf Greinz. This song, like the feat of "Varyag", is more than 100 years old.
Greinz wrote it under the impression of detailed reports of German newspapers about the battle between the Russian cruiser and the gunboat with the superior forces of the Japanese. Indeed, at that time, at the beginning of the last century, there were good relations between Germany and Russia. The translation was made by the Russian poetess Elena Studentskaya, and the music was written by the musician of the 12th Astrakhan Grenadier Regiment Turischev. For the first time, the song was performed at a gala reception in honor of the hero sailors, which was organized by Tsar Nicholas II in April 1904.
But back to the fate of the cruiser. In 1905, the Varyag was raised by the Japanese. It is noteworthy that he came to the Land of the Rising Sun on his own! For almost 10 years, the ship served in the Japanese fleet under the name "Soya". The Japanese placed the steering wheel from the Varyag on a memorial ship - the battleship Mikasa, dug into the ground on the territory of the Maritime Museum in Yokosuka. Japanese cadets, future officers of the Imperial Navy, were taught on the example of the Varyag how to fulfill their military duty. As a sign of respect for the courage of the crew of the Russian cruiser, the naval command even left on its stern the original Russian name - "Varyag".
In 1916, the Russian government bought the cruiser from Japan. It was then, in March, that he made a call to Vladivostok, where he was enthusiastically greeted by the residents of the city, soldiers, sailors and officers of the local garrison. It was decided to send the Varyag to the Arctic Ocean flotilla, but the ship needed repairs. So he ended up in England. But after the October Revolution of 1917, the new government refused to pay the tsarist debts. "Varyag" and the sailors serving it were left to fend for themselves. The British authorities confiscated the Russian ship and sold it to a German company for scrap. However, during towing to the place of scrapping, the cruiser ran into the rocks and sank off the coast of South Scotland. Until recently, it was believed that in the 1920s the British completely dismantled it right at sea.
On the eve of the 100th anniversary of the Varyag's feat, the Rossiya TV channel, with the support of the command of the Navy, organized a unique expedition to the shores of Scotland, to the place where the remains of the legendary ship lie. It took almost a year to prepare the expedition to the place where the cruiser was killed in the Irish Sea. However, there was little chance of success. No archival documents about the last days of the legendary ship have been preserved either in Russia or in Great Britain. In addition, the members of the expedition learned that a German company engaged in cutting the cruiser for scrap in 1925 blew up its hull in order to facilitate their work.
The explosion literally scattered fragments of the ship over a large area. Scottish fishermen could only roughly indicate the area where the Varyag sank 82 years ago. But with the help of local residents, we managed to find the place where in 1922 the Varyag hit the rocks. It is located 60 miles south of Glasgow and only half a kilometer from the coast.
Finally, on July 3, 2003, at 12.35 local time, one of our scuba divers discovered the first fragment of the Varyag. It was a wooden bow superstructure rail. Some fragments of the cruiser that survived the explosion in 1925 are at a depth of 6–8 meters. No one has ever filmed this place underwater. Now, for the first time, there was an opportunity to see the remains of the legendary cruiser Varyag. Unfortunately, not much has survived. But brass and bronze details have survived. And even steel: under a thin layer of rust, American steel even retained its luster.
The most sensational find of the Russian expedition was the porthole and the brass plate of the American plant that supplied steam pumps and drives to the Varyag. At the site of the destruction of the ship, the grandson of the cruiser commander Nikita Panteleimonovich Rudnev made a dive. He was born in 1945 in France, where the entire Rudnev family was forced to leave after the revolution. Nikita Rudnev specially flew to Scotland from France to see fragments of the Varyag with his own eyes …
In February 2004, the Varyag guards missile cruiser, the Korean small anti-submarine ship, named after the heroic ships of the Pacific Squadron, and the Admiral Tributs BOD left the Golden Horn Bay, where, nine decades earlier, Vladivostok residents enthusiastically greeted the legendary cruiser, and headed for South Korea. The ships visited Incheon, and then the Chinese port city of Lushun, which at the beginning of the last century bore the proud Russian name Port Arthur. The Pacific sailors visited there to pay tribute to the feat of the Russian sailors.
In memory of this, on the shore of the Incheon Bay, our sailors erected a large Orthodox cross brought from Vladivostok. An early red sunset was burning over the bay. As then, in nine hundred and four …
The meeting with the Russian naval sailors attracted the general attention of the local community. Indeed, until now, many residents of Incheon consider the battle of the Russian cruiser with superior enemy forces to be the most important event in the centuries-old history of their city. This event had such a strong emotional impact on the people of Incheon that some of them converted to Christianity.
According to local legislation, cultural property from South Korea can be exported abroad only for exhibitions and for a period of no more than two years. Therefore, the flag from the Varyag was handed over to the Russian side for an indefinite lease. The head of the Russian state expressed gratitude to the South Korean authorities for their decision. In his opinion, it looked especially symbolic during the state visit.
