The authentic history of the war between Russia and Japan

Front matter

FREDERIC WILLIAM UNGER

Formerly War Correspondent, of the " London Times" and also of the " Daily Express' in South Africa, and the author of " With Bobs and Kruger."

THE AUTHENTIC HISTORY

CHAPTER I. Peter the Great, the Founder of Modern Russia

Russia and the Golden Horde — Ivan the Great and Ivan the Terrible — A. Realm of Barbarians — A Colossal Figure — Peter Wins the Throne — His Love for Ships — The Capture of Azov — Peter as a Ship Carpenter in Holland and England— His Great Reforms— The Civilizing of Russia— The Mighty Conflict with Charles XII — Defeat at Narva and Victory at Poltava — Russia Becomes one of the Great Powers of Europe — The Conquest of Finland — Campaigns in Asia — Death and Character of Peter the Great.

RUSSIA, at the time of Henry HI in England, some four centuries before the first settlers landed from the Mayflower in the United States, was in a state of great disorder, split up into a number of petty principalities, and devastated by Mongolian invasions which lasted until the end of the fourteenth century. The Russian princes were mere taxgatherers, actually forced to pay homage to the Khans of the Golden Horde — a name given, on account, it is said, of the splendor of their tents and appointments, to those Mongols who had settled on the banks of the Volo^a. Obligfed to submit their disputes to the decision of the Khan, the Russian princes could not even ascend their thrones without first receivingr "Jarlikh," or letters patent, from their Mongol suzerain.

By degrees, however, the Mongol power waned while that of Moscow increased, until, in the reign of Ivan III, who succeeded his father, Vassili the Blind, in 1463, the Muscovites were able to throw off all semblance of obedience to the Horde. In 1478 Ivan refused to pay tribute, trampled on the image of the Khan, and put his envoys to death.

Ivan the Great had a grandson whose cruelties won for him the ominous title of Ivan the Terrible, but whose vigorous hand widened the empire of Russia and added greatly 10

3 ^ 17 i8 THE FOUNDER OF MODERN RUSSIA

its power and influence. Not long after his death the ancient dynasty of Rurik died out, and a new dynasty, the Romanoff, came to the throne.

As yet Russia was a realm of barbarism, ruled by force and terror, the axe, the knout, the rope, and various implements of torture forming much of its governing machinery. It lay largely isolated from Western Europe, divorced from the growing civilization of that region, and pushing its course alone or under Asiatic influences; its methods and state of culture being much more in accord with those of the Golden Horde of the Tartar steppes than those of the rapidly advancing nations of the West. But it was laying the foundation of a civilization still to come.

" Suddenly there sprang upon the field of action a colossal figure — one of the few men able to break the thraldom which custom and superstition impose; to overcome the prejudices of his time ; to gather for himself the stores of modern civilization, and to scatter them among his people. It was an extraordinary circumstance that such a man, by the accident of birth, should hold in his single hand the destiny of the whole Russian State. Without him, the reforms with which he filled a lifetime might have required centuries for their accomplishment. He was one of the few great men in history to whom the power was given to turn with his single arm the whole current of a nation's life. He tore Russia by main force from her ancient moorings, and sent her forward upon the swift stream of modern civilization.

" Peter the Great was born a barbarian ; he passed much of his turbulent youth upon the streets of Moscow, associating with everybody, acquiring knowledge from every source. To his last day he preserved the eager curiosity of childhood, an unquenchable thirst for information, violent passions, but an earnest purpose, never to be shaken, of making Russia a great state and the Russian people a great and civilized people.

Throwing aside all pomp and pageantry, he went everywhere incogiiito, He was disguised as a subordinate in the embassy which left Russia to visit the nations of Europe. He learned navigation from a skipper- on the White Sea, and ship-building in the g^arb of a workman at Saardam and Amsterdam. Russia should know these things ; nobody else should teach her, so he must learn himself.*

Peter, born on June 1 1, 1672, was but four years of age on the death of his father, Alexis, and had two brothers, who preceded him in succession to the throne. Also his sister Sophia, a woman with some of his own energy and genius for affairs, made vigorous efforts to gain possession of the power of the State and hold her brothers in vassalage. This served well with the weak and sickly Feodor and Ivan, the older brothers, but soon came to an end when Peter reached his seventeenth year of age. A revolt in his favor broke out, he put himself at its head, and the matter was soon settled by his ambitious sister being consigned to a convent and he seating himself on the throne.

The chief tutor of the young prince had been a man from Geneva, named Lefort, who had great influence over the boy. He told him striking stories of the countries he had visited, and made him understand the importance of ships. This led to the building of miniature vessels with masts, sails and guns on the Pereislavski lake near Moscow, and it was wdth these that the future ruler of Russia diverted himself. Under his direction several sham fights took place, in which he commanded as captain. Thus a love of the sea was early developed in Peter, although we are told that at first he had a dread of salt water.

The first great purpose which the new Czar manifested may well have been a result of Lefort's instruction, that of obtaining an outlet to the sea. As yet, Russia was completely

• William Dudley Foulke, " Slav or Saxon,"

an interior country, walled in from the Baltic and the Black Seas by foreign lands, and the gaining of an open door to the ocean was of absolute necessity to the future progress of the empire. In accordance with this purpose, General Gordon — an able Scotch soldier who had been Peter's chief aid in gaining the throne — was directed in 1695 to march upon Azov, a Turkish port on the Black Sea. The place was taken after a two years' siege, and with its acquisition may be said to date the active interference of the Russians in the affairs of Turkey, which has gone on until the present day.

For years preceding Peter had been maturing a plan for visiting Western Europe, seeing with his own eyes the features of its arts and progress, and especially for fitting himself to aid his country in the purpose which he so warmly entertained, that of making Russia a power upon the sea. In 1697 he set out upon this interesting journey. He traveled ^practically incognito, under the name of Peter Mikhailov, and in the capacity of one of the suite of the three ambassadors, Lefort, Golovin and Voznitsin. Such a step was, indeed, a great breaking with the past ; for among the earlier Russians to evince any desire for travel was to commit a crime. The party proceeded through Riga to Mitau ; at Konigsberg Peter had an interview with the Elector of Prussia. He passed, however, rapidly through Berlin, and by degrees he reached Saardam, in Holland, being probably attracted to that country by its celebrity as a maritime power. In Holland, Peter worked as a common shipwright at the dockyard, under the name of Peter Bass, or Master Peter. He learned sufficient of the art to build a boat with his own hand, while fraternizing with his fellow workmen as if he were one of themselves, though his secret was not well kept, and it was well known who Master Peter really was. Peter, being a man of magnetic power, had the facility of assimilating all the good material round him. Everywhere he displayed an insatiable curiosity. The

THE FOUNDER OF MODERN RUSSIA ii

certificate of efficiency in various handicrafts which he received from the head of the dockyard, Gerrit Claesz Pool, is still preserved. He next visited England, being, it is said, induced to do so by one John Fessing, an Englishman, whom he met. The young Czar crossed the Channel in 1698, and worked for a time at the Navy Yard at Deptford, living in the house of the famous John Evelyn, which the Government rented for him. It is said that the rude and barbarian ways of the Muscovite tenants left the house in such a state that Evelyn brought in a bill of damages for ^350, in order to fit the place for civilized habitation again.

William III arranged a sham sea-fight at Spithead for the benefit of his visitor, and finally Peter departed from England, taking with him many persons who were to enter the Russian service — engineers, mechanics, mathematicians, soldiers and -sailors — many Englishmen and more Scots. The latter, in many instances, were destined to bequeath their names, in forms more or less changed, to Russian descendants.

France was not visited by the Czar, but he journeyed to Austria, where he was well received, and from there proposed to go to Venice and study some new kinds of ship-building. He was prevented from this by receiving news of a great outbreak of the Streltsi, which might have ended in his losing the throne but for the energy of General Gordon, who had succeeded in subduing them and punishing many of the leaders before Peter reached Moscow on his hasty return. Thus ended one of the most interesting and dramatic events in history, that of a great emperor working as a common laborer in foreign lands that he might teach new and useful arts to his people.

The young Czar was not long at home before the results of his visit abroad beean to be seen. Russia was far behind the western nations in the essentials of civilization, and had preserved many barbarian customs which he, in his ardent way, proposed to get rid of at once. The reforms he instituted

M^QT& of SO radical a nature as to stir the social life of the state almost as if it had been shaken by an earthquake of newopinions.

To a large extent the old nobility was supplanted by the so-called nobility of merit, the nobility of office-holders, established by Peter, whose appointments and promotion depended upon service to the State. Peter decreed that land should go to the oldest by birth. The seclusion of women was abolished,^ for this was contrary to the customs of Europe, and was not necessary to the support of his power. Women were no longer compelled to marry against their will. The corruptions of office-holders had been frightful, men soliciting offices of the Czar that they "might feed themselves" by plundering the people. These things were mercilessly punished. A state inquisition was established for "crimes against the majesty of the Czar." Apothecaries' shops were, for the first time, established in Moscow, and the Russians were forbidden to carry knives, the use of which often led to quarrels and outrages in the streets. But the punishments inflicted by the Russian courts continued to be cruel for some time afterwards ; men were broken on the wheel or hung up to die with a hook round one of their ribs. Women were buried alive for the murder of a husband. The penalty of banishment to Siberia was in full force — it may be said to have begun at the close of the sixteenth century, but it reached its height in the reigns of Anne and Elizabeth.

Peter's method of enforcing his reforms is of interest for its barbarous simplicity. All towns had to send shoemakers to learn the trade at Moscow ; the great beards of the Russians were taxed out of existence ; the long caftan, a cloak which descends to the heels, and is characteristic of Oriental peoples, was exchanged for a coat in the French style ; no Russian could become a monk until thirty years of age, in order that population might not be diminished. The Czar determined to establish a new capital by the sea ; he would tear the Russians away from their old associations around Moscow, and give his land an open gate to the western ocean. St. Petersburg was built by edicts. It was decreed that there should be no stone house erected except at the new capital, and all stone-masons flocked thither at once. Every owner of five hundred peasants was required to build a house in the city. The capital of Russia remains a durable monument to the energy of the great Czar.

Such were some of the triumphs of peace in the life of the energetic Czar. Those of war were no less notable. The famous warlike chapter in his reign was his struggle with Charles XII, of Sweden, one of the greatest soldiers and most remarkable figures in history, and a man who, if he had not been opposed by a monarch of such genius and energy as Peter the Great, might have conquered Russia, as the Tartars had done centuries before.

Peter now more fully than ever realized the need of an. outlet to the sea. He had partly succeeded at Azov, but now had his eyes firmly fixed, on the Baltic, which at that time was practically a Swedish lake, since Sweden held its bordering provinces. In his efforts to carry out this scheme he had Charles XII, who came to the throne of Sweden in 1697, at the age of fifteen, to deal with.

We cannot tell all the events of the famous war which succeeded, but it may be said that Peter was soon taught the great deficiencies of his army, as compared with the thoroughly trained troops of Sweden. A Russian force 60,000 strong, while besieging Narva, in 1700, was attacked by Charles, at the head of 6,000 Swedes, and so thoroughly beaten that their losses exceeded the whole army of the Swedes. It was the most complete rout ever experienced in Russian history, and Peter was for the first time taught that he needed a modern army as well as a navy.

Eight years later, after remarkable successes in Poland,

Charles invaded Russia, with the purpose of marching to Mos-= cow — a purpose imitated by Napoleon a century and more later. He concealed his purpose, entering the fertile country of the Ukraine, where the Tartar enemies of Russia had accumulated large stores of grain for his army. But he was not to find this expedition as easy a one as that against Narva. In the years that had intervened Peter had been learning the art of war from his foe and training his troops for European warfare, and he was now ready to teach the ambitious Swede a lesson. As soon as the movements of Charles unmasked his plan, Peter was ready for him. He moved up his soldiers, came on the flank of the enemy and marched parallel with him, harassing him- on all sides, and cutting off stragglers, especially at Dobroe. So completely were the neighboring towns and villages burned, that Charles only found uninhabitable ruins awaiting him. The weather was severe, and in his apprehension that his army would perish from hunger, he sent orders to Lewenhaupt, who had come from Livonia with great quantities of provisions and military stores, to join the main army as soon as possible. The Russian generals, having learned this, determined to send some regiments to intercept Lewenhaupt. The guide, a Jew, who had been bribed by the Swedes, conducted them to Smolensk, assuring them that they would meet the enemy there ; while Lewenhaupt, following another route, was already In the neighborhood of Mohilev, a few days' journey from the Swedish army. Fortunately for him, the Czar discovered his mistake in time, and, changing his route, overtook the Swedish general not far from Proprisk, at the village of Liesnoe, on the river Sozh. There he forced him to fight, and, in spite of the superiority of their numbers and the desperate bravery of the Swedes, completely defeated them (Oct. lo, 1708). Lewenhaupt lost more than half his army corps, with all his baggage, and when he appeared in the camp of Charles it was as a fugitive.

The winter of 1708 now came on, and proved to be one of unusual severity ; and here again the fortunes of Charles afford an exact parallel to those of Napoleon. Ustrialov, the Russian historian, goes so far as to say that birds were frozen on the wing. The Swedes suffered severely, but Charles shared the privations of his men. The only chance for him would have been to retreat into Poland, but he was still eager to force his way to Moscow. On the route of Charles lay the town of Poltava, a place which till then had been so obscure that there is considerable difficulty in ascertaining the early spelling of the name. It is situated on the river Vorskla, and was held by a strong garrison under the command of Colonel Kellin. Charles anticipated little difficulty in capturing the town ; but Kellin showed no signs of surrendering, and a siege began which lasted two months, and proved very exhausting to the forces of the Swedish King.

Peter was now hastening to the relief of the town with a far more efficient army than the untrained mob which had been so easily defeated at Narva. The two armies, led by the two sovereigns, met on July 7, 1709 — Charles carried in a litter, as he had been disabled by a wound in the foot. The battle that followed was a veritable duel, the first to fire beinof Charles. Sitting in his litter, and surrounded by his guards, he sent his soldiers straight against the redoubts built in front of the Russian camp. The Swedes rushed up to the very trenches, but were met with such a terrific cannonade that the men fled for shelter into a wood which lay in front of the Russian camp, and with some difficulty re-formed there in something approaching order. In the midst of this panic, the right wing of the Swedish forces became separated from the rest of the army and was cut to pieces by Menshikov. Meanwhile, the Czar brought his main body into action from the trenches and moved them skillfully on the enemy. Visiting the regiments, he told the soldiers that the time had come which was to decide the fate of Russia ; that they were fighting, not for Peter, but for the empire entrusted to Peter ; for their families, their country and the Holy Orthodox Faith ; that they must not allow themselves to be daunted by the supposed invincibility of the enemy. The engagement then began. Peter attacked the army of the invaders on both flanks, and at the end of two hours had gained a complete victory. During the stampede which ensued, Charles fell several times from the litter. Those who succeeded in escaping made for Turkish territory, but prisoners to the number of 2800 were taken, including the principal Swedish officers and Count Piper, the King's minister. The defeat was total. Charles took refuge in the Turkish dominions, and his career was practically at an end. Though eventually he made his way back to Sweden, he never troubled Peter the Great again. Russia had triumphed in its first contest with the soldiers of civilized Europe.

The battle of Poltava has always been reckoned one of the decisive battles of the world. It signified two things : first, the fall of Sweden from her position as the leading power of Northern Europe, which she owed in great measure to the military genius of Gustavus Adolphus ; and secondly, the assumption of that place by Russia. Up to this time Peter had been regarded by the other Europeans with mingled feelings of astonishment and contempt ; now, however, there manifested itself a universal inclination to court him, especially among the petty German potentates. But not only did Peter thus establish his position towards the other European powers ; he also by this brilliant victory, so gratifying to Russian pride, reconciled his own subjects to the many reforms which had been introduced and the high-handed manner in which they had been carried out.

The aggressive designs of Peter were next directed against Finland. He must have perceived that it was too near

V to St. Petersburg to be allowed to remain in foreign hands. The Russians felt this in the reign of Catharine II, when naval battles took place, the cannonades of which shook the city. The skillful Swedish general, Liibecker, was then operating in Finland. In May, 171 5, Peter appeared off Helsingfors, which the Swedes surrendered to him, and he also got possession of Abo. Hereupon the Swedish government removed Lubecker and put Armfeldt in his place. However, on October 18th Armfeldt was defeated by the Russian admirals, Apraksin and Gallitzin. At the same time the Czar (1714) obtained a great naval victory at a point between Helsingfors and Abo, and took prisoner Admiral Ehrenskjold with all his squadron. The conquest of the Aland islands was another result of this victory. Finally when Nyslott, one of the remaining fortresses, was taken, the Swedish troops evacuated the Baltic Provinces, leaving these and half a province of Finland in the hands of the Russians.

These military affairs, we may say, took place in the intervals of the reforms which Peter worked diligently to bring about in the state during his entire career. This he did in the abrupt way in which he had dealt with the long beards and coats of the old Russians, and not without stubborn opposition. But everything fell before the vigorous will of the Czar, and the Russia he left was a very different one in manners and customs — perhaps not so much in the true essentials of civilization —from that to which he had succeeded.

His efforts to extend the dominion of Russia were not confined to Europe, Asia being invaded by his armies. Of this we shall speak briefly in a later chapter, and it must suffice here to say that the chief result of his campaigns in Asia was the acquisition of some territory on the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, over which the Russian flag first waved on the 19th of July, 1722. In his reign the interference of Russia in the affairs of Poland first began ; not to end until that unhappy kingdom was removed from the map of Europe. Throuo-hout his reign his predilection for the water and his desire to make Russia a power upon the sea did not cease. It was, in a way, the cause of his death.

Peter had always been careless of his person. He had fearlessly exposed himself to all climates, and had committed many excesses in eating and drinking. When he was about fifty years of age his robust constitution began to show signs of weakness. He further impaired it by spending much time in the marshes, superintending the works of the Ladoga canal, accompanied by Munich, who was afterwards to play such an important part in Russian history. He also undertook a journey into Finland at a very unseasonable time of the year. He entered the port of Lachta on the 5th of November, 1725, and there witnessed the dangers to which some soldiers and sailors were exposed in a small vessel. Seeing that they were unable to help themselves, he jumped into a skiff, and thence into the sea, and so reached the stranded vessel. He succeeded in rescuing the crew, at the risk of his life, a striking proof that he was a brave, and, on occasion, a humane man. But the same night the chill brought on an old malady. He fell into a violent fever. Ill, however, as he was, his mind was active, and he gave commission to the navigator Behring for his famous voyage of discovery. He suffered a great deal, but was able to dictate to those round him his last orders. He entreated Catharine, his wife, to protect his Academy of Sciences, and to invite learned men to it from other parts of Europe. He then pointed out Ostermann to her, saying: "Russia cannot do without him: he is the only man who knows her real interests." He ther, in a calm manner, fixed the time during which mourning should be worn for him ; and on January 28th, about 4 o'clock in the morning, the end came.

Chapter II

Successors of Peter the Great — The Revolution Against Peter III — Catharine II on the Throne — The Cossack Revolt — Defeat ciiid Death ofPugachev — The Partition of Poland — Kosciuszko Defeated and Warsaw Taken — The Russians and the Turks— Great Victory in the Crimea — The Turkish Navy Annihilated — Gustavus of Sweden Foiled — Reforms of Catlarinc the Great — The Czar Paul is Assassinated — SuvarofF Fights Against France — The Wars with Napoleon — How Napoleon Broke the Peace with Alexander.

FROM the death of Peter the Great, in 1725, to the succession of the great Catharine, in 1762, there were several reigns, but the history of Russia was not made notable by any events of leading importance. The reigns, therefore, of these monarchs may be passed over witli the mere mention of the names of the Empresses Catharine, Anne and Elizabeth, and the Emperors Peter II, Ivan VI and Peter III, and our attention fixed on that of Catharine II, surnamed "the Great." This title is not without warrant, for she was a woman fitted to mate with Elizabeth of England in political ability, and her reign ranks after that of Peter the Great as the second in brilliance in the Russian annals,

Peter III, the nephew and successor of the Empress Elizabeth, took to wife a German princess, Sophia of Anhalt- Zerbst, who was taken into the Greek Church under the name of Catharine. A woman of extraordinary talent and enterprise, and the wife of a weak and puerile prince, who treated her with contempt and brutality, she gradually gathered about her a powerful party, who despised the Czar for his drunkenness and licentiousness, and ridiculed him for his weak-^ess and frivolity. This state of affairs ended in a revolution, in which

Peter was imprisoned and Catharine raised to the throne. A few days later the death of the Czar was announced — of colic, it was said ; of poison, it was believed. But no one mourned him, and Catharine was accepted as the people's choice.

In describing the reign of this remarkable woman, it will be well to begin with a condensed account of the numerous warlike enterprises of her reign, and the great accessions of territory gained, in which she rivalled the exploits of Peter the Great. As we have said of Peter, the Russia she left was a much greater and more powerful realm than the Russia to whose throne she came.

A leading event of her reign was brought about by a great insurrection of the Cossacks, those nomads of Tartar blood, who had long lived under Russian rule, but were as wild and fierce as their brethren of the desert. The Cossacks of the Yaik, among whom the insurrection began, were a branch of the Don Cossacks, and had been subjects of Russia from the time of the Czar Michael. Till the reign of Peter the Great they had lived in all the ordinary license of Cossack

life they elected their own hetman and elder, paid no taxes,

and were liable to no military duties, except a very light service. They were in the habit of committing depredations on the Caspian Sea, where they plundered Persian trading vessels. Now and then they received a severe reprimand from Moscow, but were never efficaciously punished. Their remarkable insurrection broke out in 1773. The leader, Emilian Pugachev, was a Cossack of the Don, who gave himself out to be the Emperor Peter III, having, according to his story, escaped from the clutches of the conspirators. It is said that one day an officer casually remarked to Pugachev, who was serving in the ranks, that he resembled very much the late Czar. The remark took effect in the insurrection under review. At the outbreak of the insurrection his force numbered 3,000 men, which in a short time swelled to 30,000. He made himself master with remarkable rapidity of all the fortified places of the Ural ; had besieged Orenburg and stirred up the Bashkirs, Calmucks and Kirghiz Kazaks.

The sudden death In the field of General Bibikov, an able officer chosen by Catharine to deal with the rebels, added to the strength of the movement. Pugachev's force very rapidly increased, and with a vast body of followers he marched upon Kazan, which he took, plundered and burnt. From this point he designed to move upon Moscow and make himself master of the ancient capital of the land.

The rapid and threatening progress of the rebels was at length arrested by General Michelson, who defeated them and drove them back in the direction of the Volga, following their steps with unceasing activity. Pugachev now abandoned all thought of marching on Moscow, and began to look out for a refuge in Turkey or Persia. He made a rapid retreat, destroying all the villages and towns in his way, including Penza and Saratov. When he had nearly reached Astrakhan, whence he could easily have escaped to the sea, Michelson fell once more upon him below Tsaritsin, and, having completely defeated him, forced him across the Volga into the steppes. Here, behind Lake Elbon, the rebel was surrounded by the soldiers who gathered together from all quarters as Count Panin had skillfully arranged. Finally Suvaroff came upon the scene and pursued him at the head of Michelson's regiment. The confederates of Pugachev now saw no other means of escaping from the trap in which they had fallen than by throwing themselves on the mercy of the Government. They therefore resolved to sacrifice their leader. He was delivered up at Simbirsk and taken in an iron cage to Moscow. There he was kept for about two months fastened by a chain to the wall and subjected to the gaze of the inquisitive public. He seems to have shown none of the courage that might have been expected from his career. On the 22nd of