RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR 



5127 



RUSSO-TURKISH WARS 



armies, one in Korea and one on the Liao-tung 

 peninsula. While one force, under Kuroki, en- 

 gaged Kuropatkin's troops in the north, the 

 other army, with Oku in command, prepared to 

 attack Port Arthur. 



The first land battle was fought along the 

 Yalu, the river which divides Korea and Man- 

 churia. It lasted for five days and resulted in 

 a decisive victory for the Japanese. During the 

 four-months' campaign which followed, the Rus- 

 sians knew only one victory, the repulse of the 

 Japanese at Tashichiao, in the west. Under its 

 supreme commander, Marshal Oyama, the Japa- 

 nese army moved north in a great semicircle, 

 forcing the Russians back and hemming them 

 in until at Liao-yang the campaign culminated 

 in a furious battle in which the Russians were 

 forced to retreat to Mukden. 



The Siege of Port Arthur. The first move 

 of the southern army was to occupy Nanshan 

 Hill on the narrowest part of the Liao-tung pen- 

 insula, a position of enormous strength. This 

 brilliant victory cut Port Arthur off from any 

 chance of reinforcements from the north. The 

 siege of Port Arthur, which followed the capture 

 of Nanshan, is one of the remarkable military 

 achievements of modern times. The Russians, 

 by intrenching themselves among the rocks and 

 on the steep hillsides, held out for two months 

 before they were forced to withdraw inside the 

 ring of forts surrounding the city. The Japa- 

 nese, under Nogi, first attempted to take these 

 fortifications by storm, but after seven days of 

 fighting and bombarding, in which they lost 

 25,000 men, they realized the futility of this 

 method of attack. In the five months following 

 they literally tunneled their way into the very 

 heart of the fortress, advancing by means of 

 trenches, by undermining outposts, and by blow- 

 ing up fortifications. These engineering opera- 

 tions served merely as a means of approach to 

 tin- onemy and had to be followed up, in every 

 case, by the fiercest kind of close fighting. On 

 tli.- .second of January, 1905, Stoessel, the Rus- 

 sian commander, surrendered the city. 



The Last Battles. In the meantime the sec- 

 ond Japanese army, in the greatest land ma : 

 of modern times prior to the War of the 

 ions, forced the retreat of the Russian army 

 under Kuroputkin towards the north. The Bat- 

 tl< of Mukden in March, 1905, for which Japan 

 li i.l to put forth a supreme effort, resulted in 

 tin- complete rout of the Russian army. The 

 Japanese navy, under Admiral Torro, was also 

 proving its supremacy. In the Battle of the 

 of Japan, the Russian Port Arthur squadron 



was destroyed and the Vladivostok squadron 

 met with the same fate shortly afterwards. On 

 the 27th of May the Baltic fleet was intercepted 

 near Tsushima, on its way to Vladivostok, and 

 practically every ship was captured and sunk. 



The Treaty of Portsmouth. The war drifted 

 on in a desultory fashion during the late spring 

 and early summer, but both countries had had 

 enough. Russia could import men at the rate 

 of 30,000 a month over the Trans-Siberian Rail- 

 way and reorganize its army, but its soldiers 

 had no heart for further fighting. Japan was 

 exhausted, having paid a terrific price both in 

 men and money for its victory. So when Theo- 

 dore Roosevelt, the President of the United 

 States and an ardent advocate of international 

 peace, proposed peace negotiations, both coun- 

 tries were ready to listen. By the terms of the 

 treaty, which was signed at Portsmouth, N. H., 

 on September 5, 1905, Russia ceded to Japan 

 the southern half of Sakhalin, surrendered its 

 lease of Port Arthur and adjacent territory, 

 agreed to withdraw its troops from Manchuria, 

 and to recognize Japan's sphere of influence in 

 Korea. B.M.W. 



Consult Baring's With the Russians in Man- 

 churia; Kuropatkin's The Russian Army and the 

 Japanese War. 



RUS'SO-TURK'ISH WARS. The many 

 wars between Russia and Turkey cover a period 

 of more than 200 years, from the beginning 

 of the eighteenth century down to the War of 

 the Nations, in which Turkey allied itself with 

 Germany and Austria against Russia, England, 

 France, Belgium and Italy (see WAR OF THE 

 NATIONS). The main cause for this period of 

 struggle has been Turkey's opposition to the 

 eastward expansion of Russia into its territory. 

 The antagonism inevitable between people of 

 different religions Christian Russians and Mo- 

 hammedan Turks has been a contributory 

 cause, and the border uprisings of the half- 

 (ivilized, warlike tribes on the boundaries of 

 both countries have always furnished an 

 cuse for invasion. 



Wars of the Eighteenth Century. Peter the 

 Great, inspired by the thought of waging war 

 against the infidels for the cause of Christi- 

 anity, and further actuated by his ambition to 

 make Russia a great naval power, attacked and 

 captured Azov, a Turkish port that had access 

 to the Black Sea. The wars of his reign lasted 

 from 1606 to 1711 and marked the beginning 

 cf the long enmity between the two countries. 

 From that time on Russia and Turkey regarded 

 i other as foes, for the interests of each were 



