22 Russko-iaponskaiavoina: 1904-1905gg, 4 vols. (St Petersburg: 1912), vol. I, pp. 150-5.
23 V Iu. Griboevskii, 'Rossiiskii flot', Briz 6 (2001): 9-11. N. Kallistov, 'Petrovskaia, Men- shikovskaia i tsenzovaia ideia v voprose o proiskhozhdenii sluzhby ofitserov flota', Morskoi sbornik, 369, 3 (1912): 105-18. This issue is usefully seen within the context of the long debate that raged in the Delianov and Peretts special commissions in the 1880s and 1890s on promotions and appointments, the chin, and other aspects ofRussian civil and military service. The papers are in RGIA, Fond 1200, op. i6ii, ed. khr. 1 and 2. For a discussion of this debate and of the regulations in English, see D. Lieven, Russia's Rulers under the Old Regime (London: Yale University Press, 1989), chapter 4.
At the top of the naval hierarchy stood the emperor Nicholas II, who was far from being a mere figurehead where naval matters were concerned. Like his peers, King George V of Britain, Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany and Archduke Francis Ferdinand of Austria, the Russian monarch took a close personal interest in the fleet. This was after all the era of Mahan, when navies were seen as crucial to the struggle for global influence and an essential mark of a great power able to survive in an era of Darwinian imperialist competition. Nicholas II's support was vital for the expansion of the fleet before 1904 and even more crucial in overriding opposition from the army and from civilian ministers to the re-creation of a large high-seas fleet after 1906.
The emperor bore a heavy personal responsibility for Russia's involvement in the war with Japan. Only he could weigh the risks, costs and benefits of Russia's Far Eastern policy in 1895-1904 against the empire's overall needs: this he failed to do. He also failed to co-ordinate Russia's military, naval, diplomatic and financial policy in East Asia, or indeed to ensure co-ordination between the Far Eastern viceroy and the government in Petersburg. Like many of his senior naval advisors, he also overestimated Russian naval power in the theatre and underestimated Japanese strength and determination. Of course, all these failures are more easily revealed in retrospect than at the time. Nor was the emperor mostly responsible for the fleet's sometimes poor performance in the war. Where senior appointments and overall naval preparation for war were concerned, the emperor relied heavily on the advice of his uncle, Grand Duke Alexei, who bears great responsibility for the navy's inadequate performance in 1904-5. So too to a lesser extent did the naval minister until 1903, P. P. Tyrtov, who played the key role in deciding what ships were to be built and where Russian naval forces should be deployed. Though Admiral Alekseev, the Far Eastern viceroy, was subsequently widely blamed for Russia's defeat, he was at least a fine seaman and before the war had stressed the need to strike first rather than leave initiative and surprise to the Japanese.
As regards the actual fleet commanders during the war, many showed inadequate enterprise and offensive spirit.[209] Among them the two outstanding personalities were Admiral S. O. Makarov and Admiral Z. P. Rozhestvenskii. The former commanded the Pacific fleet for only a few weeks from early February 1904 until his death in late March when his flagship hit a mine.
Makarov was Russia's most brilliant admiral, who had climbed the promotion ladder rapidly and solely on merit. As a young officer in the 1877-8 war with Turkey, he had organised and led torpedo attacks on Ottoman ships, showing great courage and skill. Subsequently he had acquired a worldwide reputation as an expert on strategy, tactics and oceanography. His arrival at Port Arthur to take over command of the Pacific squadron after the surprise Japanese attack galvanised his subordinates. Makarov's death at a moment when he was preparing the fleet for offensive action was a huge loss which possibly had a decisive influence on the outcome of the war. By contrast, Rozhestvenskii was a more equivocal figure. As commander of the Second Pacific Squadron he showed great organisational skill in bringing his ships round the world but at the Battle of Tsushima his passivity contributed to the destruction of his fleet. His rigidly authoritarian and centralised system of command also discouraged his subordinates from showing initiative.
There are very few examples in naval history of defeat more total than that experienced by Russia in the war against Japan. Sixty-nine ships were lost, including almost the entire Pacific fleet and most of the Baltic fleet as well. In October 1908 the Naval General Staff reported to Nicholas II as regards the Baltic fleet that 'our battleships are not a serious force in terms of either their individual quality or their organisation'.[210]
The reasons for Russia's defeat were many. Most basically, having adopted an aggressive policy in the Far East which risked war with Japan, she proved unwilling and unable to deploy the necessary naval and military forces to secure victory. Russian resources were badly overstretched by her Far Eastern policy: this included not just financial resources but also the navy's ability to take on major new strategic commitments and manage the big increase in ships and personnel this required. In addition, never previously had Russia engaged in a war where naval rather than military power was the key to victory. In building and then deploying its naval forces the Russian government failed fully to understand the implications of this fact. Moreover, ships were built in a number of construction programmes with contradictory roles and different enemies in mind. Slow construction times and delays in adopting the latest technology played a role too in an era when naval technology was developing at bewildering and unprecedented speed. Lacking any recent wartime experience, the navy also often failed to appreciate the operational and tactical implications of this new technology.
Despite the shattering defeat by Japan and the mutinies which followed, the Russian navy was rebuilt after i906. Four years after Tsushima the first Russian Dreadnoughts were launched in St Petersburg. The naval minister, Admiral I. M. Dikov wrote that 'as a Great Power Russia needs a fleet and must be able to send her ships wherever state interests demand'.26 The foreign minister, A. P. Izvol'skii, was equally committed to the re-creation of an imposing high-seas fleet, capable of operating across the globe and not tied to the role as a mere coastal defence force.
The need to regain international prestige and credibility was an important factor in the fleet's rebirth. This was by no means an illegitimate consideration in an era of Darwinian international competition when not just governments but also European public opinion attached huge significance to naval power and when any sign of weakness might well attract the attention of potential bullies and predators. There were also, however, clear strategic reasons to rebuild the fleet. For example, the Ottoman-Italian War of i9ii and the Balkan wars of i9i2-i3 seemed clear evidence that the long- predicted demise of the Ottoman Empire was nigh. Modernising the Black Sea fleet while sending Baltic fleet squadrons into the Mediterranean in order to deploy maximum Russian power at the Straits seemed vital in these circumstances.
The Naval Ministry achieved a great deal between i906 and i9i4. Many excellent and sometimes genuinely innovative new ships were built or planned. The Russian shipbuilding industry was transformed. A Naval General Staff was created and became the core of a large group of able, younger officers determined to expunge the humiliation of defeat by Japan. The Naval Ministry worked in intelligent co-operation with the Duma (Parliament) and public opinion by i9i4, showing political sensitivity and openness to new political currents. Nevertheless, many of the old doubts about Russian naval power remained relevant. The very ambitious plans of the navy's leadership were hugely expensive. The twenty-year construction plan devised by the Naval General Staff was to cost 2.2 billion roubles, more than total state revenue in that year.27 In the last year of peace Russia spent more on the navy than Germany. Was this the best use of Russia's limited resources? Even these vast sums might not be able to compensate for the poor hand that geography had dealt Russia: for example, even if by some miracle Russia acquired the Straits would it not then simply graduate to the position of Italy, whose admirals
209
Much the best English-language work on the war remains J. S. Corbett,