History 2024, November

The author warns right away: the article offered to the reader's attention is not historical. It is more of a geopolitical nature and is designed to answer a seemingly simple question: why did the Russian Empire get involved in the First World War? And really: why? Someone sees in this

Before proceeding to the final article on the Varyag, it remains for us to clarify only some of the features of its lifting and exploitation by the Japanese. It must be said that the Japanese began lifting work immediately - on January 27 (February 9 according to the new style), 1904, a battle took place, and already on 30

The "Varyag" saga is drawing to a close - we just have to consider the decisions and actions of the Russian commanders after the battle, and … I must say that the author of this series of articles honestly tried to summarize the facts known to him and build an internally consistent version of events. However, some data

A lot of talk is going on around some "agreements" between the officers of the Varyag and the Koreyets (where, to a heap, they also managed to add the commanders of the French and Italian cruisers) in order to embellish the circumstances and results of the battle on January 27, 1904. Let's try to deal with this on

We left "Askold" when the latter, bypassing the Russian battleships and cutting through the line of destroyers between the 1st and 2nd squads, turned south. "Novik" followed him, but the opinions of the destroyer commanders about whether to follow N.K. Reitenstein, were divided. The head of the 1st destroyer detachment, who was marching on

So, after as many as 15 articles, not counting off-cycle ones, we have finally come close to the point that, in the author's opinion, is able to explain to us the vast majority of the ambiguities of the battle between the Varyag and the Koreyets on January 27, 1904. occurring in less than a quarter of an hour, in

We finished the previous article on the first shots of the Asama, fired at 12.20, about a couple of minutes before the Russian ships left the territorial Korean waters. However, absolute accuracy is hardly possible here, but nevertheless our compatriots believed that they had gone beyond

Some time ago we began a small series of articles about the breakthrough of the cruisers Askold and Novik during the battle on July 28, 1904, which took place in the Yellow Sea (battle at Shantung). Let us remind ourselves of the main conclusions of the previous article: 1. "Askold" at the beginning of the breakthrough, most likely, kept everything

Sadly, but in this article we will have to distract ourselves from the description of the battle between Varyag and Koreyets on January 27, 1904 and move a little forward in time, and specifically to the reports of Vsevolod Fedorovich Rudnev, written by him after the battle. This must be done, since not paying attention to

Having devoted so much time to describing the problems of the Varyag's power plant, it would be a mistake not to say at least a few words about the technical condition of the ships of the Sotokichi Uriu squadron. Domestic sources often sin by the fact that, while mentioning the problems of domestic ships, they report at the same time

Everyone who is interested in the history of the Russian navy will remember the breakthrough of the cruisers Askold and Novik through the detachments of the Japanese fleet that blocked the squadron of V.K. Vitgefta way to Vladivostok on the evening of July 28, 1904. Let us briefly recall this episode of combat, taking advantage of … yes

The battle of the Varyag itself is described in sufficient detail in the literature, but nevertheless we will try to detail the events that took place in time as much as possible, including the description of the damage received by the Varyag as it was received. We will use Japanese time, which differs from Russian in Chemulpo by 35

The night before the battle passed relatively calmly, at least for the Russian ships - they were prepared for battle and to repel a mine attack, the crews slept at the guns, without undressing, which made it possible to open fire almost immediately on order. But in general, the teams were quite rested: why nothing

Without a doubt, when analyzing a particular battle or battle, the assessment of the effectiveness of the artillery fire of the parties involved in it should end the description, but not start it. But in the case of the Varyag battle, this classic scheme does not work: without understanding the quality of fire

So, on January 29, 1903, the Varyag arrived in Chemulpo (Incheon). Less than a month is left before the battle, which took place on January 27 next year - what happened in those 29 days? Arriving at the place of duty, V.F. Rudnev quickly discovered and reported that the Japanese were preparing to occupy Korea. In materials

In the previous articles, we examined the reasons why the Russian stationaries, the cruiser Varyag and the gunboat Koreets had no right, and physically they could not effectively prevent the Japanese landing in Chemulpo by force. Consider now the option around which it was broken

So, in December 1903, about a month before the outbreak of hostilities, the Varyag was sent from Port Arthur to Chemulpo (Incheon). More precisely, the "Varyag" went there twice: the first time he went to Chemulpo on December 16, returning back six days later

So, on February 25, 1902, the Varyag arrived in Port Arthur. Failures in attempts to develop full speed (breakdowns followed already at 20 knots) and examination of the cruiser's power plant by the available specialists showed that the ship needed extensive repairs. Two weeks (until March 15) on the Varyag

In this article, we systematize information about the breakdowns of the Varyag cruiser power plant from the moment the cruiser left the Crump plant and until its appearance in Port Arthur. Let's start with tests. For the first time, the cruiser sailed them on May 16, 1900, still unfinished, the first day they went at a speed of 16-17 knots and

In the last article, we considered issues related to the installation of Nikloss boilers on the Varyag - these are the units that the bulk of the Internet battles around the cruiser's power plant are devoted to. But it is strange that, attaching such great importance to the boilers, the overwhelming majority of those interested

And so the Gotland Cycle has come to an end. We gave a full description of the battle at Gotland (as far as we could) and now it remains only to "summarize what has been said", that is, to bring the conclusions from all the previous articles together. In addition, it will be interesting to consider the conclusions that were made based on the results

The cruiser "Varyag". In the days of the USSR, there would hardly have been a person in our country who had never heard of this ship. For many generations of our compatriots "Varyag" has become a symbol of the heroism and dedication of Russian sailors in battle. However, perestroika, glasnost and the ensuing

The circumstances of the design of the battle cruisers "Derflinger" and "Tiger" are interesting primarily by the fact that before these ships, both the Germans and the British, in fact, created their battle cruisers "with their eyes closed", because neither one nor the other had some reliable information about

So, at 09.12 the "Albatross" threw itself on the stones. By this time, the German ship was "surrounded" on all sides - to the south of it was the armored cruiser "Bayan", to the north and north-east - "Admiral Makarov" and "Bogatyr" with "Oleg", and to the west - the island of Gotland … From this moment until the start of the battle with

This article will be devoted to the issue of the effectiveness of the firing of Russian ships at the ships of I. Karf's detachment - the light cruiser Augsburg, three destroyers, and, of course, the minelayer Albatross. As you know, the shooting of Russian cruisers at the Albatross became the object of criticism of numerous

So, at a meeting with the commander-in-chief V.A. Kanin, after a five-hour debate, on June 17, 1915, a decision was made in principle to raid Memel. Now it was necessary to prepare a plan of operation and do it very quickly, because, according to intelligence, the imperial review in Kiel was to take place on

In the previous article, we showed the main oddities in the descriptions of the outbreak of the battle at Gotland on June 19, 1915, admitted in various domestic and foreign sources. Now let's try to draw up a consistent picture of the actions of the 1st brigade of M.K. Bakhirev and the detachment of Commodore I. Karf (on

So, in the previous article of the series, we examined in detail the deployment of Russian forces before the battle. And what did the Germans have? As we said earlier, on the evening of June 17, when the Russian cruisers were just getting ready to go to the rendezvous point at the Vinkov bank, the armored cruiser Roon left Neyfarwasser

I would like to say right away: starting this article, the author in no case set himself the task of somehow denigrating the Red Army and the Soviet armed forces. But the remark attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte and Montecuccoli is absolutely true (although, most likely, it was nevertheless uttered by Marshal Gian-Jacopo

The Gotland battle in Russian journalism occupies a very little honorable place. At best, the commander of the Russian forces, Mikhail Koronatovich Bakhirev, is mildly criticized for being overly cautious and lacking a pronounced offensive spirit. In the worst case, this operation

The battle on January 27, 1904 is of interest not only as the first battle of armored squadrons in the Russo-Japanese War, but also as the only clash of the main forces of the opponents in which the Russians were not defeated. On the evening of January 26, 1904, Heihachiro Togo, commander of the Japanese United

Long 13 articles of this cycle, we understood the descriptions of the battle of July 28 and the events preceding it, which constitute the historical part of this work. We studied the facts and looked for explanations for them, identified cause-and-effect relationships in an attempt to understand why it happened exactly like this, and in no way

As we said earlier, when the Retvizan and Peresvet turned towards Port Arthur, the commanders and junior flagships of the 1st Pacific Squadron found themselves in a very ambiguous position. According to the letter of the charter, they were supposed to do what the commander of the squadron, the admiral, but he

So, the 1st Pacific squadron was retreating. The Retvizan, whose commander believed that the responsibility of the commander rests on his shoulders, tried to lead the squadron to Port Arthur. The current commander, Rear Admiral Prince P.P. Ukhtomsky, sought to collect the battleships into a single whole, for this purpose he went to

The battle resumed approximately at 16.30, after the end Russian battleship "Poltava" from a distance of 32 cables (or so) gave a sighting shot at the flagship of H. Togo. The position of the squadrons by this time was as follows: the Russian battleships went in a wake column, to the left of them

At 17.40 (tentatively) V.K. Vitgeft was killed by a burst of a Japanese shell, and the command actually passed to the commander of the flagship "Tsarevich" N.M. Ivanov 2nd. But he was given only ten minutes to lead the squadron - as he later reported to the Investigative Commission: “Seeing that

At about 14.50 the distance between the 1st Japanese Combat Squadron and the 1st Pacific Squadron became too great even for large-caliber guns, and soon after the Yakumo, passing under the stern of the Russian squadron, was hit, the firing ceased. The Russian squadron was heading

So, starting somewhere from 13.15-13.20, the battle in the Yellow Sea was briefly interrupted in order to resume soon after 13.30 (most likely, it happened around 13.40), but it is not possible to indicate the exact time, alas. At 13.15 the Russian and Japanese squadrons parted in opposite directions

So the battle began. Usually it is divided into two phases, separated by a long break in the battle, but before proceeding to the description of the battle, the following should be noted. Different sources describe the maneuvering of the Japanese and Russian squadrons in the first phase in different ways, contradicting each other

The flagship's signal, made at 09.00: "The fleet is informed that the emperor ordered to go to Vladivostok" caused undisguised relief in the squadron. Now the crews gained confidence that V.K. Vitgeft will not turn back to Port Arthur in view of the main forces of the enemy, as happened when leaving on June 10. Vl