CHAPTER III
RUSSIAN PREPARATIONS FOR WAR
Not only were the available Russian forces ill prepared for meeting the agile and ready Japanese, not only was their equipment ponderous and unwieldy, their knowledge of the strategic difficulties and advantages of the country in which the fighting was to be done scant and inaccurate, but the big fact which put Russia at a disadvantage during the early months of the war was the immense distance between her military bases and the front. Across the trackless wastes of Siberia the only path was a single-track railroad—a line of communication none too well equipped in times of peace, and open to complete and immediate disablement should the enemy succeed in cutting it at any point along a comparatively vulnerable stretch of many hundreds of miles. By sea—that is to say, by the way of the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal, and the route round the southern coast of Asia—Russian ships and soldiers were over 12,000 miles, or about fifty-one days, away from the seat of hostilities. When to these material difficulties were added the dissensions, jealousies, and shifting policies of St. Petersburg, the effective strength of Russia in these early days of the war could in no way be measured by her vast extent and apparently illimitable power.
In Japan, on the other hand, preparedness was the keynote of the situation. Although nominally at peace, Japan had been practically on a war footing for months, yet so secretly was this preparation made that even after war was declared a casual and incurious visitor in Tokio would have seen little to indicate that he was in one of the great military centres of the world, and that all round and about him was being planned one of the greatest struggles of modern times.
The results of this preparedness were vividly enough shown when the “Variag” and the “Korietz” were sunk in Chemulpo Harbor, before the world was really aware that war was seriously intended and inevitable. They were no less convincingly demonstrated by the perfection of the Japanese field equipment, and by the almost microscopic exactness with which every possible contingency had been foreseen and provided for. Ever since their war with China the Japanese had been perfecting their military organization, as though the coming war with Russia were a certainty. They had military maps of every nook and corner of Korea and Manchuria; they had spies working as coolies on the Russian railroads, and in Russian ports and shipyards; they had their light equipment especially adapted for the heavy Manchurian roads. Their baggage was so arranged and distributed that it made compact cube-shaped bundles which could be packed like so many building blocks, or made into easily carried packs for coolies. The collapsable boats with which a pontoon bridge was thrown across the Yalu were made for that special purpose months before, when the Korean peninsula was yet to be invaded. In fact, the whole early part of the war was an almost grotesque struggle between preparedness and unpreparedness, extreme mobility and clodhopping heaviness, cleverness and stupidity.
[Illustration:
RUSSIAN LADIES SEWING FOR THE RED CROSS IN THE PALACE OF THE GRAND DUKE VLADIMIR ]
Under the auspices of the Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna, a circle of titled ladies met regularly at the Grand Ducal residence to sew for the men at the front. The Grand Duchess herself equipped and sent to the front an entire train fitted out for hospital purposes. At the Winter Palace the Czarina sewed with nearly a thousand ladies and the Dowager Empress presided over another sewing circle
[Illustration:
WITH THE RUSSIAN ARMY ON ITS MARCH TO THE FRONT ]
A division of regular troops mobilizing in Southeastern Russia for transportation northward. The infantry regiments may be seen marching along the main road, while the artillery and transport wagons are moving up in the middle distance. A large body of cavalry, half hidden in dust clouds, is visible near the horizon. These troops were among the first mobilized
[Illustration:
THE CZAR OF RUSSIA AND HIS FAMILY ]
[Illustration:
THE CHRISTENING PROCESSION FOR THE CZAREVITCH ]
[Illustration:
CHILDREN OF THE CZAR AT A MILITARY REVIEW ]
THE AUTOCRAT OF RUSSIA AND THE ROYAL FAMILY
[Illustration:
THE CZAR LEAVING THE WINTER PALACE TO BID FAREWELL TO TROOPS STARTING FOR THE FRONT ]
The most sorrowful figure in the Russian Court at the beginning of the war was the Autocrat from whom all the Muscovite power and splendor radiated. Helpless among the cliques of the bureaucracy, he knew not what course to pursue and was beset with apprehensions not only of the fidelity of those about him, but for the safety of his own life
[Illustration:
DEPARTURE OF RED CROSS NURSES FROM ST. PETERSBURG FOR THE FRONT ]
[Illustration:
THE CZAR REVIEWING AN INFANTRY REGIMENT ON ITS DEPARTURE FOR THE FRONT ]
[Illustration:
PROCESSION IN HONOR OF THE CHEMULPO SAILORS MARCHING TO THE WINTER PALACE ]
The Russian sailors were treated as heroes wherever they went after their return from the disastrous engagement at Chemulpo. There were fêtes and processions in their honor at Odessa, Moscow, and St. Petersburg. A banquet was held at St. Petersburg, the officers received costly mementos and the sailors souvenirs and money rewards. The welcome was like that given to a victorious army
[Illustration:
TWENTY-THIRD ARTILLERY BRIGADE ABOUT TO LEAVE GATCHINA FOR THE FRONT ]
[Illustration:
THE CZAR BIDDING FAREWELL TO COMMANDERS ABOUT TO LEAVE FOR THE FRONT ]
[Illustration:
GRAND DUKE ALEXANDROVITCH LEADING HIS MARINES IN REVIEW BEFORE THE CZAR PREVIOUS TO LEAVING ST. PETERSBURG ]
[Illustration:
CAPTAIN VIEDUSTOIPE OF AUSTRIA AND HIS WIFE SURROUNDED BY RUSSIAN OFFICERS ]
[Illustration:
ASCENT OF RUSSIAN BALLOON WITH GENERAL WARINOWSKY IN THE CAR ]
INTERNATIONAL BALLOON CONTEST AT ST. PETERSBURG
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