Russian admirals missed the only opportunity to win the decisive battle Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905, failing to take advantage of the fact that our minelayer "Amur" destroyed two enemy battleships. What would happen if the fleet was commanded not by the failed preacher Wilhelm Vitgeft, but by the energetic and decisive Vice Admiral Stepan Makarov, who died at the beginning of the war?
The first three months of the Russo-Japanese War became an endless series of disasters for the 1st Pacific Squadron, stationed in the Port Arthur fortress captured from China. Of the seven battleships that made up its main force, the Tsesarevich and Retvizan were disabled by a sudden torpedo attack by enemy destroyers, the Pobeda was patched up after being blown up by a mine, and the Sevastopol lost one of its propellers after a collision with the Peresvet. The Petropavlovsk, which was blown up by a minefield and sank to the bottom, could not be repaired, just like the cruiser Boyarin, which shared its fate.
The Russian fleet failed to sink a single enemy ship. The report of the commander of the cruiser Varyag, which died in the Korean port of Chemulpo (“the cruiser Takachiho sank at sea. The destroyer sank during the battle”) was not confirmed. All the Japanese destroyers that took part in the battle successfully served until the end of the war, and the Takachiho died ten years later, on October 17, 1914, during the siege of the German fortress of Qingdao.
A special loss was the death on Petropavlovsk of the energetic and decisive squadron commander, Vice Admiral Stepan Makarov, who took up this post shortly after the start of the war. “Wilhelm Karlovich Vitgeft was an honest and well-intentioned man, a tireless worker, but, unfortunately, his work was always stupid,” Admiral Essen, who commanded the battleship Sevastopol in Port Arthur, described his successor, “and always all his orders led to any kind of misunderstandings and even misfortunes. As a child, as he himself said, his father intended him for missionary activity, and, perhaps, he would have been more capable of this than naval service.”
It's hard to disagree with Essen. A meeting held in Port Arthur on January 26, 1904, on security measures in view of the threat of a Japanese attack, Rear Admiral Vitgeft, then head of the headquarters of the commander-in-chief of the fleet, concluded with the words: “Gentlemen, there will be no war.” Less than an hour later, a torpedo hit the Retvizan, and two months later, the failed missionary and unlucky prophet headed the 1st Pacific Squadron and began his command with a proposal to disarm his own ships, transferring part of the artillery to defend the fortress from land.
Artist E.I. Capital “Vice Admiral S.O. Makarov and battle painter V.V. Vereshchagin in the cabin of the battleship "Petropavlovsk" in 1904"
Image: Central Naval Museum, St. Petersburg
At the same time, Vitgeft categorically refused to attack Japanese transports landing troops intended for the siege of Port Arthur. This was done because “even if we were successful in sinking 1-2 cruisers and several transports, we would have lost many destroyers” (A.A. Kilichenkov, “The Admiral Who Destroyed the Squadron”).
It is not surprising that the commander of the Japanese fleet, Admiral Heihachiro Togo, considered that there was no point in keeping all his six battleships and eight armored cruisers at Port Arthur - three ships, periodically replacing each other, would be enough. The rest were engaged in combat training, resting and hunting for the armored cruisers Rurik, Rossiya and Gromoboy based in Vladivostok. Unlike the Port Arthur squadron, the Vladivostok detachment drank a fair amount of samurai blood, sinking 18 Japanese ships and among them the Hitachi-Maru transport with 1095 imperial guards and 18 heavy siege weapons. However, as it turned out, it was too early to relax.
Death from the Mist
The commander of the minelayer "Amur", Captain II Rank Fyodor Ivanov, noticed that, while maneuvering in front of Port Arthur, Japanese ships each time followed the same route 10 miles from the coast outside the firing range of Russian coastal batteries. Having checked his observations again, he suggested that Vitgeft put a barrier there. If Makarov had commanded the fleet, he would not only have given the go-ahead, but would have immediately prepared all ships capable of fighting to attack the enemy who had been blown up. There was quite enough strength: the battleships Peresvet and Poltava were fully combat-ready, the Sevastopol with one propeller could only produce 10 knots instead of 16, but had fully serviceable artillery, and almost two dozen destroyers, covered by six cruisers, had every opportunity to finish off enemy torpedoes.
But Vitgeft was not Makarov and gave a completely crazy order: in order not to expose the Amur to excessive risk, lay mines 7-8 miles from the coast, where Japanese battleships obviously would not go. Ivanov listened to the order with discipline and acted in his own way - on May 1, 1904, at 14:25, taking advantage of the thick fog, the Amur moved to a pre-calculated place, not far from which Japanese cruisers were on duty.
“On one side is Amur, laying mines, then a strip thick fog, and on the other side of it is the entire Japanese squadron,” wrote Peresvet artillery officer Vasily Cherkasov, who observed the installation of the barrier from the shore. “I saw the danger that “Cupid” was in, but I absolutely could not let him know about it. Then, having written a telephone message on a piece of paper about the existing danger, I sent a sailor to the nearest telephone exchange to the lighthouse, so that from the Golden Mountain they would inform the Amur about the danger threatening him via wireless telegraph, but along the steep rocky path he could not soon reach the telephone, and I could only observe the events. If the fog clears, then not only will the significance of the expedition disappear, but the Amur, with its 12-knot speed and huge stock of mines, will have a very bad time. "Amur", however, did not bother with the mines for long. Probably, the awareness of the danger of the enterprise encouraged the miners, and the expedition managed to enter the harbor before the fog cleared.”
Outraged by the violation of his order, Vitgeft, according to the memoirs of the lieutenant of the cruiser “Novik” Andrei Shter, “summoned the guilty commander, told him a lot of trouble, even threatening him with removal from command,” and most importantly, did not bring the ships into combat readiness. And, it seems, the admiral was not concerned with maintaining secrecy - since the morning of May 2, thousands of soldiers, sailors, civilian residents of Port Arthur and even foreign military attaches crowded on the shore to see: will it work or not?
It is unknown how many of them were Japanese spies disguised as Chinese workers and traders, but, unlike Cherkasov, they observed the exit of the Amur from the low bank and were unable to accurately convey the location of the barrier. At 9:55 a.m., the first mine exploded, spinning the steering compartment of the lead and fastest battleship in Japan, the three-tube Hatsuse, and two minutes later water poured into the punctured starboard side of the Yashima at the rear. The Japanese tried to tow the blown-up battleships with the cruisers that came to the rescue, but at 11:33 a.m. the third mine exploded. The Hatsuse's aft turret's ammunition detonated, the rear funnel and mainmast, which had been demolished by the explosion, flew overboard, and a few minutes later the ship was already under water, taking with it the lives of 493 sailors.
“People climbed the shrouds, the masts, trying to rise as high as possible, hoping to see something with their own eyes in the gaps between the Golden, Mayachnaya and Tiger Mountains. The senior artilleryman, forgetting his rheumatism, fled to Mars, the midshipman was piled up right under his boots, wrote the senior officer of the cruiser Diana, Vladimir Semenov. - Suddenly, on the Golden Mountain, on the surrounding elevated batteries, “hurray” flared up with renewed vigor!
Second! Second!.. Drowned! - those holed up under the masts roared.
- On the raid! On the raid! Roll out the rest! - they shouted and raged all around.
As I believed then, so I believe now: they would have been rolled out! But how was it possible to go out on a raid without any steam? A brilliant moment, the only one in the entire campaign, was missed.”
Indeed, the half-submerged Yashima, towed at a speed of 4 knots, and the battleship Shikishima, which accompanied it at the same speed, had little chance against three Russian battleships, and six Japanese cruisers were not enough to repel the attack of the more powerful Russians and two detachments of destroyers.
Image: World History Archive/Global Look
Alas, there was no one to attack. Only at one o'clock in the afternoon several destroyers and the Novik went to sea, but without the support of the artillery of large ships they achieved nothing. However, this did not help “Yashima” - on the way home she sank. Two days later, the Akatsuki destroyer was killed by Amur mines, and it later turned out that the explosion of destroyer No. 48 on April 30 was also the merit of its crew.
Ivanov and all the officers were presented with orders, and 20 St. George crosses were supposed to be allocated for the sailors. However, the imperial governor of the Far East, Admiral Alekseev, decided that 12 “Georges” would be enough for the lower ranks, and declared Vitgeft the main winner, petitioning Nicholas II to promote him to vice admiral.
There was no nail - the horseshoe was gone
Decisive battle between the 1st Pacific Squadron and the main forces of the Japanese fleet took place on July 28. Six battleships set out to break through from Port Arthur to Vladivostok. This harbor was not threatened by a Japanese siege, and it was possible to wait there for the ships of the Baltic Fleet preparing to leave Kronstadt.
Admiral Togo blocked the squadron's path with eight battleships and armored cruisers. Four more armored cruisers of Vice Admiral Kamimura were hunting for the Vladivostok detachment, but if necessary they could join the main forces.
Image: World History Archive/Global Look
In the sixth hour of the battle (according to some sources, by a shot from the Sikishima that was missed on May 2), Vitgeft was killed, and the squadron, deprived of command, fell apart. The main forces returned to Port Arthur, several ships went to neutral ports and disarmed, and the crew of the heavily damaged cruiser Novik sank their ship off the coast of Sakhalin.
Could the battle have ended differently? After analyzing documents on damage to both fleets, Russian naval historian, captain 1st rank Vladimir Gribovsky, calculated that the Russian battleships were hit by 135 shells with a caliber of 152 to 305 millimeters, and in response the Japanese received four times fewer of them. If the battle lasted longer, the number of hits could turn into quality, as later happened in the Battle of Tsushima.
Without the Shikishima, which carried a quarter of the enemy fleet's most powerful guns, the picture changed somewhat. Japanese fire weakened significantly, and Russian guns fired at fewer targets. For the battleship Mikasa, the flagship of Admiral Togo, the battle at the head of a weakened squadron could be the last. Even in reality, out of 32 successful shots from Russian ships, it accounted for 22, both main caliber gun turrets were out of action, and there was an underwater hole in the hull. Over 100 officers and sailors were killed and wounded, but Togo himself survived miraculously, and any successful hit could have left the Japanese fleet without his leadership. If this had happened, the 1st Pacific Squadron would probably have broken through to Vladivostok.
Of course, she could also lose by drowning “Mikasa.” The battered battleships were threatened by a night torpedo attack by 49 enemy destroyers. Faster Japanese ships could catch up with Vitgeft the next day, bringing Kamimura's detachment to the rescue. Nevertheless, the destruction of Shikishima gave at least some hope of success. If the ships reached Vladivostok, they could very well help the Baltic squadrons heading to the Pacific Ocean next year. The Tsushima battle would have taken place with a completely different balance of forces, and the morale of the Japanese would have been completely different. It's no joke: first, lose three of the most powerful ships out of six, and then the fourth, along with the commander-in-chief!
Russian admirals missed this chance. The battleships and cruisers that returned to Port Arthur were sunk by fire from land, and after the surrender of Port Arthur they were raised and served in the Japanese fleet. Only Sevastopol managed to avoid a sad fate. Essen took it to the White Wolf Bay, inaccessible to siege artillery, until the last days of the defense of the fortress it fought off Japanese destroyers and fired at the army besieging the fortress, and then sank the ship at a depth that prevented the ship from rising.
In total, taking into account the defeat at Tsushima, where on May 14-15, 1905, Admiral Togo destroyed the main forces of the Baltic Fleet, 17 battleships, 11 cruisers and 26 destroyers with a displacement of about 300 thousand tons remained on the seabed or fell to the Japanese. Having lost more than half of its ships, Russia ceased to be a great maritime power for decades.
Image: World History Archive/Global Look
Things were no better on land. Suffering one defeat after another and demoralized after the defeat at Mukden, the army in March 1905 retreated from this city 200 kilometers to the north, where it stood for the last six months of the war. In vain, Nicholas II, in a letter on August 7, implored her command “to go on a decisive offensive, without asking for My approval and consent.” Almost 800 thousand soldiers never budged, but the Japanese, having occupied all the Russian possessions they liked in China, were able to allocate an entire division to capture Sakhalin.
Inverse Proportion of Fame
There is a famous army joke: a seasoned sergeant asks new recruits what their military duty is? Hearing “to give your life for your Motherland!”, he replies: “Dumb! Your military duty is to ensure that the enemy gives his life for his homeland!” This also applies to the fleet, and therefore, leaving aside alternative history, let us compare the achievements of the Amur with the results of Russian sailors over the past century and a half, when sailing ships were replaced by steam and armored ships.
During the entire Russo-Japanese War, Admiral Togo lost two battleships, two cruisers and eight destroyers with a total displacement of 40 thousand tons. Of these, Amur has two battleships and two destroyers with a displacement of more than 28 thousand tons. This is twice as many as died from the actions of the rest of the Russian fleet and random rams of their comrades.
The Amur has few competitors in subsequent wars - the second best result in the Russian fleet was shown by the special semi-division of destroyers created and trained by Essen. At their barrage, on November 17, 1914, the 9,875-ton German armored cruiser Friedrich Karl was blown up and sank. As for naval battles, alas, our sailors did not have warships larger than the German destroyer T-31 (1,754 tons, sunk on June 20, 1944 near Nerva Island by torpedo boats TK-37 and TK-60).
But here’s a paradox: the most effective Russian military sailor of the 20th century is at the same time the most forgotten. After his retirement on January 19, 1915, nothing at all is known about his fate. Did Fyodor Nikolayevich perish in the meat grinder of the Civil War, did he die from what was rampant in the ruins? Russian Empire typhus or emigrated? Where is the grave? Did he contribute to the development of mine warfare, which was developed by the commander of the Baltic Fleet, Nikolai Essen, and the head of the operational department of his headquarters, also a participant in the defense of Port Arthur, Alexander Kolchak?
Nobody knows about this, and even the past 100th anniversary of the Russo-Japanese and First World Wars did not force the naval authorities, historians and filmmakers to show interest in the man who dealt a severe blow to the enemy despite the resistance of his own command. The last battles of “Sevastopol” in White Wolf Bay with the sinking of two Japanese destroyers and damage to another 13 (some could not be repaired until the end of the war) are also of no interest to anyone. The destruction of transport with siege artillery by Vladivostok cruisers, which delayed the fall of Port Arthur, is even more so.
Image: World History Archive/Global Look
The death of the Friedrich Karl was nevertheless shown in the soap opera Admiral, but, according to its creators, the cruiser was sunk solely with the help of higher powers. A special prayer service was held on the deck of a Russian destroyer stuck in the middle of its own minefield; the heavens clouded the mind of the commander of the German cruiser: instead of shooting the enemy from afar, he began to chase him through the mines and exploded.
The symbol of the Russo-Japanese War still remains the Varyag, which, like many other Russian ships, sank after a heroic battle with superior enemy forces, but, unlike them, never hit the Japanese. It is obvious that the people responsible for our military-patriotic propaganda believe that soldiers must first of all die for their Motherland, and the destruction of the enemy is a secondary issue. If so, then the image of a man who, with the help of precise calculation and deliberate risk, sank two of the strongest ships of the enemy fleet without suffering a loss, truly lacks spirituality. Ivanov’s violation of the order makes him a dangerous troublemaker, capable of instilling dubious thoughts in the younger generation even after death.
At the beginning of the First World War, the navy of Tsarist Russia represented a very formidable force, but was never able to record more or less significant victories or even defeats. Most of the ships did not participate in combat operations or even stood at the wall awaiting orders. And after Russia left the war, the former power of the imperial fleet was completely forgotten, especially against the backdrop of the adventures of crowds of revolutionary sailors who came ashore. Although initially everything turned out more than optimistically for the Russian Navy: by the beginning of the First World War, the fleet, which had suffered huge losses during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, was largely restored and continued to be modernized.
Sea vs land
Immediately after the Russo-Japanese War and the accompanying first Russian revolution of 1905, the tsarist government was deprived of the opportunity to begin restoring the Baltic and Pacific fleets, which were practically destroyed. But by 1909, when Russia's financial situation was stabilized, the government of Nicholas II began to allocate significant sums for the rearmament of the fleet. As a result, in terms of total financial investments, the naval component of the Russian Empire came in third place in the world after Great Britain and Germany.
At the same time, the traditional disunity of interests and actions of the army and navy, traditional for the Russian Empire, significantly hampered the effective rearmament of the fleet. During 1906-1914. The government of Nicholas II actually did not have a single program for the development of the armed forces, agreed upon between the army and naval departments. The State Defense Council (SDC), created on May 5, 1905 by a special rescript of Nicholas II, was supposed to help bridge the gap between the interests of the army and navy departments. The CDF was headed by the Inspector General of Cavalry, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich. However, despite the presence of a supreme conciliation body, the geopolitical tasks that the Russian Empire was going to solve were not properly coordinated with specific plans for the development of ground and naval forces.
The difference in views on the rearmament strategy of the land and naval departments was clearly demonstrated at a meeting of the National Defense Council on April 9, 1907, where a heated dispute broke out. Chief of the Russian General Staff F.F. Palitsyn and Minister of War A.F. Roediger insisted on limiting the tasks of the navy, and they were consistently opposed by the head of the Naval Ministry, Admiral I.M. Dikov. The proposals of the “land forces” boiled down to limiting the tasks of the fleet to the Baltic region, which naturally caused a decrease in funding for shipbuilding programs in favor of strengthening the power of the army.
Admiral I.M. Dikov saw the main tasks of the fleet not so much in helping the army in a local conflict in the European theater, but in geopolitical opposition to the leading powers of the world. “Russia needs a strong fleet as a great power,” the admiral said at the meeting, “and it must have it and be able to send it wherever its state interests require.” The head of the Naval Ministry was categorically supported by the influential Minister of Foreign Affairs A.P. Izvolsky: “The fleet must be free, not bound by the private task of defending this or that sea and bay, it must be where politics indicates.”
Taking into account the experience of the First World War, it is now obvious that the “ground forces” at the meeting on April 9, 1907 were absolutely right. Enormous investments in the ocean component of the Russian fleet, primarily in the construction of battleships, which devastated Russia's military budget, yielded ephemeral, almost zero results. The fleet seemed to have been built, but it stood near the wall for almost the entire war, and the many-thousand-strong contingent of military sailors overwhelmed by idleness in the Baltic became one of the main forces of the new revolution, which crushed the monarchy, and after it national Russia.
But then the CDF meeting ended in victory for the sailors. After a short pause, on the initiative of Nicholas II, another meeting was convened, which not only did not reduce, but, on the contrary, increased funding for the Navy. It was decided to build not one, but two full squadrons: separately for the Baltic and Black Seas. In the final approved version, the “Small Program” of shipbuilding provided for the construction of four battleships(Sevastopol type), three submarines and a floating base for naval aviation. In addition, it was planned to build 14 destroyers and three submarines in the Black Sea. They expected to spend no more than 126.7 million rubles on the implementation of the “Small Program,” but due to the need for a radical technological reconstruction of shipbuilding plants, the total costs increased to 870 million rubles.
The Empire is rushing to sea
Appetite, as they say, comes with eating. And after the ocean-going battleships Gangut and Poltava were laid down at the Admiralty Shipyard on June 30, 1909, and the Petropavlovsk and Sevastopol at the Baltic Shipyard, the Naval Ministry presented the Emperor with a report justifying the expansion of the shipbuilding program.
It was proposed to build for the Baltic Fleet another eight battleships, four battleships (heavily armored) cruisers, 9 light cruisers, 20 submarines, 36 destroyers, 36 skerry (small) destroyers. It was proposed to strengthen the Black Sea Fleet with three battle cruisers, three light cruisers, 18 destroyers, and 6 submarines. The Pacific Fleet, according to this program, was to receive three cruisers, 18 squadron and 9 skerry destroyers, 12 submarines, 6 minelayers, 4 gunboats. To implement such an ambitious plan, including expanding ports, modernizing ship repair yards and replenishing ammunition at fleet bases, 1,125.4 million rubles were requested.
This program, if implemented, would immediately bring the Russian navy to the level of the British fleet. However, the plan of the Naval Ministry was incompatible not only with the military, but also with the entire state budget of the Russian Empire. Nevertheless, Tsar Nicholas II ordered the convening of a Special Meeting to discuss it.
As a result of long discussions and sobering criticism from army circles, the expansion of ship construction was at least somehow reconciled with the real state of affairs in the Russian Empire. In the “Program for Enhanced Shipbuilding 1912-1916” approved by the Council of Ministers in 1912. It was planned, in addition to the four battleships already under construction, to build four armored and four light cruisers, 36 destroyers and 12 submarines for the Baltic Fleet. In addition, it was planned to build two light cruisers for the Black Sea and 6 submarines for the Pacific Ocean. The estimated allocations were limited to 421 million rubles.
Failed relocation to Tunisia
In July 1912, Russia and France, in order to strengthen their military-strategic partnership, concluded a special maritime convention. It provided for joint actions of the Russian and French fleets against potential opponents, which could only be the countries of the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy) and Turkey. The convention was focused primarily on the coordination of allied naval forces in the basin Mediterranean Sea.
Russia viewed with alarm Turkey's plans to strengthen its fleet in the Black and Mediterranean Seas. Although the Turkish fleet, which in 1912 included four old battleships, two cruisers, 29 destroyers and 17 gunboats, did not seem to pose too great a threat, nevertheless, the trends in strengthening Turkish naval power looked alarming. By this period, Turkey had twice completely closed the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits to the passage of Russian ships - in the fall of 1911 and in the spring of 1912. The closure of the straits by the Turks, in addition to certain economic damage, caused a significant negative resonance in Russian public opinion, since the ability of the Russian monarchy was called into question effectively defend national interests.
All this brought to life the plans of the Maritime Ministry to establish a special base for the Russian fleet in French Bizerte (Tunisia). This idea was actively defended by the new Minister of Maritime I.K. Griego Rovich, who proposed to relocate a significant part of the Baltic Fleet to Bizerte. Russian ships in the Mediterranean could then, according to the minister, solve strategic problems with much greater efficiency.
The outbreak of the First World War immediately curtailed all work on preparing the relocation of the fleet. Since the overall potential of the Russian fleet could not even be remotely compared with the potential of the German High Seas Fleet, then with the very first shots fired at the border, another task became significantly more urgent: physically preserving the existing ships, especially the Baltic Fleet, from being sunk by the enemy.
Baltic Fleet
The program to strengthen the Baltic Fleet was only partially completed by the beginning of the war, primarily in terms of the construction of four battleships. The new battleships “Sevastopol”, “Poltava”, “Gangut”, “Petropavlovsk” were of the dreadnought type. Their engines included a turbine mechanism, which allowed them to reach a high speed for ships of this class - 23 knots. A technical innovation was the three-gun turrets of the main 305 mm caliber, used for the first time in the Russian fleet. The linear arrangement of the towers ensured the possibility of firing all the main caliber artillery from one side. The double-layer side reservation system and the triple bottom of the ships guaranteed high survivability.
The classes of lighter warships of the Baltic Fleet consisted of four armored cruisers, 7 light cruisers, 57 destroyers of mostly obsolete types and 10 submarines. During the war, four additional battlecruisers, 18 destroyers and 12 submarines entered service.
The destroyer Novik, a ship of a unique engineering design, stood out for its particularly valuable combat and operational characteristics. According to its tactical and technical characteristics, this ship was close to the class of armorless cruisers, referred to in the Russian fleet as cruisers of the 2nd rank. On August 21, 1913, at a measured mile near Eringsdorf, the Novik during tests reached a speed of 37.3 knots, which became an absolute speed record for military ships of that time. The ship was armed with four triple torpedo tubes and 102-mm naval guns, which had a flat trajectory and a high rate of fire.
It is important to note that, despite the obvious successes in preparing for war, the Navy Ministry was too late to attend to providing the advancing component of the Baltic Fleet. In addition, the main fleet base in Kronstadt was very inconvenient for the operational combat use of ships. There was no time to create a new base in Reval (now Tallinn) by August 1914. In general, during the war, the Russian Baltic Fleet was stronger than the German squadron in the Baltic, which consisted of only 9 cruisers and 4 submarines. However, if the Germans transferred at least part of their newest battleships and heavy cruisers from the High Seas Fleet to the Baltic, the chances of Russian ships to resist the German armada became illusory.
Black Sea Fleet
The Maritime Ministry, for objective reasons, began to strengthen the Black Sea Fleet even more late. Only in 1911, in connection with the threat of strengthening the Turkish fleet with two new battleships ordered from England, each of which, according to the Naval General Staff, would be superior in artillery strength to “our entire Black Sea Fleet,” was it decided to build three battleships on the Black Sea , 9 destroyers and 6 submarines with a completion date of 1915-1917.
The Italo-Turkish War of 1911-1912, the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913, and most importantly, the appointment of General Otto von Sanders as head of the German military mission in the Ottoman Empire heated the situation in the region of the Balkans and the Black Sea Straits to the limit. Under these conditions, on the proposal of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, an additional program for the development of the Black Sea Fleet was urgently adopted, which provided for the construction of another battleship and several light ships. Approved a month before the outbreak of the First World War, it was to be completed in 1917-1918.
By the beginning of the war, the previously adopted programs for strengthening the Black Sea Fleet had not been implemented: the percentage of readiness of the three battleships ranged from 33 to 65%, and the two cruisers, which the fleet desperately needed, were only 14%. However, the Black Sea Fleet was stronger than the Turkish fleet in its theater of operations. The fleet consisted of 6 squadron battleships, 2 cruisers, 20 destroyers and 4 submarines.
At the very beginning of the war, two modern German cruisers “Goeben” and “Breslau” entered the Black Sea, which greatly strengthened the naval component of the Ottoman Empire. However, even the combined forces of the German-Turkish squadron could not directly challenge the Black Sea Fleet, which included such powerful, albeit somewhat outdated, battleships as Rostislav, Panteleimon, and Three Saints.
Northern flotilla
With the outbreak of the First World War, a significant delay was discovered in the development of the Russian defense industry, which was aggravated by its technological backwardness. Russia was in dire need of components, some strategic materials, as well as small arms and artillery weapons. To supply such cargo, it became necessary to ensure communication with the allies through the White and Barents Seas. Ship convoys could only be protected and escorted by special naval forces.
Russia was deprived of any opportunity to transfer ships from the Baltic or Black Seas to the North. Therefore, it was decided to transfer some ships of the Pacific squadron from the Far East, as well as to purchase from Japan raised and repaired Russian ships that the Japanese received as trophies during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905.
As a result of negotiations and the generous price offered, it was possible to buy from Japan the squadron battleship Chesma (formerly Poltava), as well as the cruisers Varyag and Peresvet. In addition, two minesweepers were jointly ordered in England and the United States, a submarine in Italy, and icebreakers in Canada.
The order to form the Northern Flotilla was issued in July 1916, but the real result followed only by the end of 1916. At the beginning of 1917, the Arctic Ocean flotilla included the battleship "Chesma", the cruisers "Varyag" and "Askold", 4 destroyers, 2 light destroyers, 4 submarines, a minelayer, 40 minesweepers and minesweepers, icebreakers, other auxiliary vessels. From these ships, a detachment of cruisers, a trawling division, defense detachments of the Kola Bay and protection of the Arkhangelsk port area, observation and communications groups were formed. The ships of the Northern Flotilla were based in Murmansk and Arkhangelsk.
The programs for the development of naval forces adopted in the Russian Empire were about 3-4 years behind the start of the First World War, and a significant part of them turned out to be unfulfilled. Some positions (for example, the construction of four battleships at once for the Baltic Fleet) look clearly redundant, while others that showed high combat effectiveness during the war (destroyers, underwater minelayers and submarines) were chronically underfunded.
At the same time, it should be recognized that the Russian naval forces very carefully studied the sad experience of the Russo-Japanese War, and mostly drew the right conclusions. The combat training of Russian sailors, in comparison with the period 1901-1903, was improved by an order of magnitude. The Naval General Staff carried out a major reform of fleet management, dismissing a significant number of “armchair” admirals, abolished the qualification system for serving, approved new standards for artillery firing, and developed new regulations. With the forces, means and combat experience that the Russian navy had at its disposal, one could, with a certain degree of optimism, expect the final victory of the Russian Empire in the First World War.
On December 31, 1900, the publisher Suvorin himself in his newspaper “Novoe Vremya” described the coming twentieth century: “Crime will sharply decrease and disappear completely, no later than 1997; a cannon flight to the Moon will become as commonplace as a trip in a city omnibus ; “would Cain have raised his hand against his brother if he had had a cozy home with a warm water closet and the opportunity to come into contact with the phonographic miracle.”
But Suvorin enters into a correspondence polemic with French artist and the science fiction writer Robida, who saw the twentieth century as a century of wars, needs, disasters and deprivations.
How the coming twentieth century was seen in 1900 was described in the book "The Old Petersburg. The Century of Modernity" (published by " Pushkin Foundation", 2001).
“The onset of the 20th century forced many to think about the future. Science fiction writers made gloomy forecasts. One of them, the now thoroughly forgotten Frenchman Albert Robida, published novels with his own illustrations at the end of the century: “The Twentieth Century”, “Electric Life”, “Wars in the 20th Century” century", which were translated into Russian and published in the form of one book in St. Petersburg, in the printing house of the Panteleev brothers, in 1894. In a parodic vein, Robida predicted many future great discoveries and ominous cataclysms. He quite accurately guessed the date of the Russian revolution and the Second World War. war (which the Chinese are starting with him), predicted forms of government of this kind, when the state receives “the right to dispose of the lives of citizens at its discretion and litter the ground with their corpses,” predicted overpopulation and pollution of the globe, grandiose electrical disasters when “free current” escapes from reservoir and powerful electrical storms are raging over Europe - something reminiscent of Chernobyl.
Another visionary, writer Jack London, in his novel The Iron Heel, depicted the monstrous dictatorship of a technocratic oligarchy in the United States of the 20th century, a dictatorship that flooded the country with blood, turning most of the workers and farmers into powerless slaves. In the USA, fortunately, this did not happen, but we know firsthand about the dominance of the “iron heel”.
The newspapers wrote about the incredible growth of cities in the near future, that in European capitals, in London, for example, the number of carriages and horses would increase so much that the cities would be littered with manure.
Many predictions now seem naive and ridiculous; many, alas, have come true. In December 1900, the owner of the St. Petersburg newspaper “Novoe Vremya” Alexey Suvorin published his own article with caustic thoughts about the new and the old, about decadence: “Is there a difference between the new century and the old? An eleven-year-old girl, having argued with the governess, told her: “You don’t understand me, because you are from the 19th century, and I am from the 20th.” Her grandfather told her that she had no idea about either the 19th or the 20th. “One hundred years difference,” she quickly told him and ran away.
It is human nature to hope, and the expectation of change for the better is imbued with the article “New Time” entitled “1900”, published in the newspaper on December 31, 1900:
“Like a traveler laboriously climbing a steep and high mountain, we climbed to the top of the 19th century today, 13 days late, to say goodbye to him.” The author considers the 19th century to be the century of wars - there were 80 of them in the century that began on Tuesday - the day of Mars. It’s sad to read these lines today - from the height of the omniscience of people at the end of the 20th century who survived monstrous wars.
"An excerpt from a New Year's article in the St. Petersburg newspaper "Novoye Vremya" edited by A. Suvorin.
The best minds in Europe are making optimistic forecasts about the benefits of progress and the softening of the morals of mankind. Already now we can say with confidence that humanity in the twentieth century will completely abandon wars and internecine claims, debilitating diseases will be defeated by the forces of science, and perhaps death itself, human rights and citizens of the Russian Empire will be guaranteed by the wise Monarch, and will disappear from the vocabulary of our grandchildren disgusting words "hunger", "prostitution", "revolution", "violence".
Crime in any of its ugly faces will sharply decrease and disappear altogether, no later than 1997, and there will no longer be “blank spots” and undeveloped areas on the world map.
All the whims of the great dreamer Jules Verne will become possible - flying from a cannon to the moon will become as commonplace as a trip in a city omnibus. Judge for yourself, dear readers, would Cain have raised his hand against his brother if he had had a cozy home with a warm water closet and the opportunity to come into contact with the phonographic miracle.
Our ancestors can only envy us from the canopy of the grave - they were unhappy because they were hungry, but did not taste the sweets of the new century - a century without wars and sorrows, we will proudly tell our grandchildren, sitting in front of an electric fireplace in 1950 - “We lived with source great era prosperity!"
The French skeptic writer Albert Robida, at his own expense in the Paris publishing house Société, published a trilogy with his own illustrations, “The Twentieth Century,” “Electrical Life,” “Wars in the 20th Century,” which created a stir in “belles lettres” circles. last work The reader had the pleasure of meeting the Parisian alarmist in the supplement to Niva, for January 1899.
In each of the three novels, Monsieur Robina paints a picture of future horrors with impasto colors, one stroke more absurd than the other, to the delight of destructive decadent talkers. Here you can see:
A war in which all civilized states take part,
Cramped, fuzzy cities, where people are flattened, like pressed caviar in a barrel, where even meters of living space do not belong to you,
Monstrous octopuses - states where the right of secret offices reigns to dispose of the lives of citizens at their discretion and to litter the ground with their corpses,
London in 1965, where the number of carriages and horses has reached such a level that the population is suffocating from a miasma of manure,
The coming decline of morals, when maiden honor is considered a mental illness,
Unbridled cynicism and general corruption of all segments of the population,
An orgy of vulgarity and self-interest,
Motherhood and virginity put up for auction
Diseases never seen before
Soil erosion, drying up of seas,
Surrogates of music and literature for one-dimensional souls swollen with mental fat,
And poisonous gases - which is completely impossible - after all, any gas sprayed over the army or civilian population will immediately evaporate into the air.
But we hope that in the twentieth century even firearms will serve only hunters and collectors. Let us laugh at the mourning fantasy and say:
"Monsieur Robina, leave your terrible Christmas tales to the old nannies. The Great Twentieth Century is coming and new wine is not poured into old wineskins. Let the deadly shots of the 19th century forever sink into oblivion under the cheerful feast shouts and the bloodless cannonade of corks from bottles of sparkling wines!"
In the 90s XIX century The Russian Empire began building an ocean-going armored fleet. The country's military leadership still considered England and Germany to be their main opponents, but they were already beginning to take a close look at the rapid growth of the Japanese fleet. During this period, the progress of naval technology and weapons was impressive - the firepower of artillery grew, armor was constantly improved and, accordingly, the displacement and size of squadron battleships grew. Under these conditions, it was necessary to decide what ships the Russian Imperial Navy needed to protect the interests of the country, what they would be armed with and how they would be protected.
NEW GENERATION BATTLESHIPS
After building a number of “low-cost” battleships, the Navy Ministry decided to build a truly powerful armored ship. Design began in January 1888. The design of the Emperor Alexander II was taken as its basis, but later the designers, when creating the ship, began to focus on the German battleship Wörth. The design was completed in April 1889, but the manager of the Maritime Ministry I.A. Shestakov continued to make changes to the project. Now the English Trafalgar was considered the ideal. In July 1889, its construction began on Galerny Island. The official laying took place on May 19, 1890. The new ship was named Navarin.
The launch took place on October 8, 1891. But even during construction, “edits” of the project continued. As a result, it was equipped with four 35-caliber 305-mm guns, which had proven themselves well on Black Sea battleships. It was decided to abandon the foremast. The designers placed as many as four chimneys on Na-Varina. Completion dragged on for four years due to delays in the supply of weapons, armor, ship systems and mechanisms. Work was interfered with in winter very coldy. Only in October 1893 was he transferred to Kronstadt to complete the work. On November 10, 1895, although without the main caliber turrets, the Navarin went to sea for testing. They were accompanied by improvements, elimination of defects and installation of weapons. The fifth Baltic battleship entered service in June 1896. It was sent to the Mediterranean Sea, and then to the Far East. On March 16, 1898, she arrived in Port Arthur and became the flagship of the Pacific squadron.
Squadron battleship Navarin in Victorian livery. Four chimneys and the absence of a foremast gave the ship a rather unusual appearance.
Squadron battleship "Sisoy the Great" in white "Mediterranean" color. These two ships became the basis for further work on the design of Russian battleships
The Emperor Alexander II was also initially taken as the basis for the design of the sixth Baltic battleship, but its size quickly grew. When designing, we again looked back at Trafalgar. As a result, a new generation battleship was designed. This work began in 1890, and continued until January 1891. Construction began in July 1891 at the New Admiralty boathouse. The official laying took place on May 7, 1892 in the presence of Emperor Alexander III. The ship was named "Sisoy the Great". But alterations and improvements to the project continued. This was reflected in the pace of construction, which caused many difficulties. But she was the first of the Russian battleships to receive a 40-caliber 305-mm gun. On May 20, 1894, it was launched in the presence of Alexander III. The completion of Sisoy the Great dragged on for another two years; only in October 1896 did it begin official testing. Having not completed them, in November 1896 the battleship was sent to the Mediterranean Sea. The international situation required the presence of significant forces of the Russian fleet.
The first voyage of the Sisoy revealed numerous deficiencies and defects. On March 15, 1897, training artillery firing took place near the island of Crete, and when the left rear 305-mm gun was fired, an explosion occurred in the turret. The roof of the tower was thrown onto the bow bridge by the force of the explosion. 16 people were killed, 6 were mortally wounded, 9 were injured. Repairs, repairs of damage and elimination of defects were carried out in Toulon. The work lasted until December 1897. After that, “Sisoy the Great” was hastily sent to the Far East, where the situation worsened. On March 16, 1898, he arrived in Port Arthur along with the Navarino.
The presence of two newest Russian battleships made it possible to protect the interests of our country in the Pacific Ocean without a fight. Thanks to “battleship diplomacy”, the Russian Empire received the right to lease the Port Arthur fortress. Both battleships took an active part in suppressing the Boxer uprising in China in 1900. They were in the roadstead of the Taku fortress, and their landing companies fought on the shore. The military command decided to repair and modernize the battleships. In the Far East, the Russian fleet had several bases, but none of them could provide full repairs and modernization of ships.
Then in St. Petersburg they decided to carry out work in the Baltic. On December 12, 1901, "Navarin" and "Sisoy the Great", together with "Emperor Nicholas I", the cruisers "Vladimir Monomakh", "Dmitry Donskoy", "Admiral Nakhimov" and "Admiral Kornilov" left Port Arthur. These veteran ships formed the backbone of the Pacific squadron, their crews were the most experienced. The combat potential of the squadron had to be restored practically from scratch. This significantly weakened our naval forces in the Far East.
"Sevastopol", "Poltava" and "Petropavlovsk" in the Eastern basin of Port Arthur, 1902. These three battleships of the same type formed the core of the Pacific squadron
MAIN CALIBER OF RUSSIAN BATTLESHIERS
In October 1891, the Obukhov plant began designing a new 40-caliber 305-mm gun. This was a new generation weapon; it was created for smokeless powder charges, had no trunnions, and for the first time a piston breech was used on it. They provided a high initial projectile speed, a longer firing range and better armor penetration. They had a higher rate of fire. Barrel length 12.2 m, gun weight with bolt 42.8 tons. First gun of this type passed tests in March 1895. Serial construction was carried out by the Obukhov plant. From 1895 to 1906, it was these guns that became the main weapon of Russian squadron battleships; they were installed on ships such as Poltava and Borodino, Retvizan, Tsesarevich, and Black Sea battleships. This weapon made them one of the strongest ships in the world. On Navarina, four 305 mm guns complemented the 8x152 mm, 4x75 mm and 14x37 mm guns. Sisoy the Great was equipped with 6x152mm, 4x75mm, 12x47mm and 14x37mm guns. On the Poltava-class battleships, designers for the first time for medium caliber (8x152 mm) provided two-gun turrets; they were supplemented by 4x152 mm, 12x47 mm and 28x37 mm guns. Retvizan, in addition to 4x305 mm, received 12x152 mm, 20x75 mm, 24x47 mm and 6x37 mm guns. On the Tsesarevich, a medium caliber (12x152 mm) was placed in the turrets, complemented by 20x75 mm, 20x47 mm and 8x37 mm guns. On Borodino-class battleships, medium caliber (12x152 mm) was also placed in the turrets. The armament was also supplemented by 20x75 mm, 20x47 mm, 2x37 mm guns and 8 machine guns.
Nevertheless, in 1891-1892. development of a new 45-caliber 254-mm gun began. It was conceived as a single design for ships, coastal batteries and ground forces. This unification led to numerous shortcomings of the new weapon. The length of the gun was 11.4 m, the piston lock weighed 400 kg. The weight of the gun with the lock ranged from 22.5 tons to 27.6 tons. The construction of the guns was carried out by the Obukhov plant. Despite its shortcomings, they decided to install it on Peresvet-class battleships and coastal defense battleships. This decision weakened the Russian fleet. Confusion began again in the artillery systems of the battleships, which complicated the supply of ammunition to the fleet.
SERIAL CONSTRUCTION AT ST. PETERSBURG SHIPYARDS
In 1890, a new shipbuilding program was adopted. The designers used the Emperor Nicholas I project as a prototype for new armored ships. But the management again made significant changes to the project, which took into account the latest achievements of technological progress. The ship grew in size; for the first time, main and medium caliber guns were placed in turrets. A number of ideas were borrowed from the design of “Sisoy the Great” (armor, etc.). It was decided to lay down a series of three ships in the fall of 1891. Work began on their construction at two St. Petersburg factories. The official laying took place on May 7, 1892. The Poltava was laid down at the “New Admiralty”, and the battleships “Petropavlovsk” and “Sevastopol” were laid at the “Galern Island”. The Poltava was launched on October 25, 1894, and the Petropavlovsk was launched three days later. “Sevastopol” launched on May 20, 1895. The completion of the ships dragged on for several years due to various reasons. Petropavlovsk was the first to go into testing (October 1897), Poltava was second (September 1898), Sevastopol was third in October 1898. At this time, the situation in the Far East sharply worsened again and the naval leadership tried to send battleships to the Pacific Ocean as soon as possible. Petropavlovsk was the first to arrive in Port Arthur (March 1900). It was followed by "Poltava" and "Sevastopol" (March 1901). It was these battleships that formed the basis of the Pacific squadron.
“Peresvet” in Toulon, November 1901. The battleships of this project were an unsuccessful compromise: they differed from squadron battleships in their weak armament and armor, and for cruisers they had too low a speed
In 1894, the leadership of the Naval Ministry decided to build a series of “lightweight battleships.” It was decided to weaken their armament and armor, but thereby increase speed and cruising range, and improve seaworthiness. It was planned that they would operate both on enemy communications and together with the squadron. In documents they were often called “battleship cruisers.” It was decided to build two battleships, one at the Baltic Shipyard (Peresvet) and one at the New Admiralty (Oslyabya). Their construction began in the fall of 1895. The issue of replacing the 254-mm guns with 305-mm guns was discussed several times, but in this case the ships’ readiness deadlines were missed. The official laying of the battleships took place on November 9, 1895. On May 7, 1898, the Peresvet was launched, and on October 27, the Oslyabya. The completion, equipping and arming of the ships began, but the work deadlines were still missed. Peresvet entered testing in October 1899. At the same time, the military leadership decided to build the third ship of this type, Pobeda. The question of even a fourth battleship was considered, but no decision was made. Construction of the Pobeda began in May 1898 at the Baltic Shipyard. Its official laying took place on February 9, 1899. On May 17, 1900, the ship was launched, and already in October 1901, Pobeda entered testing. “Oslyabya” took the longest to complete and entered testing only in 1902, but even then various corrections and improvements continued on it. The rest of the battleships had already arrived in the Far East, but Oslyabya had not yet left the Mark’s Pool. "Peresvet" arrived in Port Arthur in April 1902. "Victory" took part in the celebrations of the coronation of the English King Edward VII in May 1902. In July 1902, she took part in the parade at the Revel roadstead in honor of the visit of the German squadron. She came to the Pacific Ocean only in June 1903. And “Oslyabya” was still in the Baltic. Only in July 1903 did he leave for the Far East along with the cruiser Bayan. But in Gibraltar, the battleship hit an underwater rock and damaged the hull. She was docked in La Spezia for repairs. After repairing the damage, the long-suffering ship became part of the detachment of Rear Admiral A.A. Virenius, who slowly followed to the Far East.
305-mm and 152-mm guns on Borodino-class battleships were placed in two-gun turrets
The shortcomings of the “battleship-cruisers” caused a lot of criticism. They were eliminated on the third series of Baltic battleships. It became the largest in the history of the Russian Imperial Navy - it was planned to build five ships. The project “Tsesarevich” was taken as a basis. It was redesigned by shipbuilding engineer D.V. Skvortsov. It was planned to build the series at three St. Petersburg factories. In May 1899, work began on the construction of the first ship of the series at the New Admiralty. Its official laying took place on May 11, 1900 in the presence of Emperor Nicholas II. The ship was named Borodino. On August 26, 1901, the lead ship launched into the water. In October 1899, on the “Galern Island” they took up the second ship, which received the name “Eagle”. It was launched on July 6, 1902. The construction of the battleships proceeded rhythmically, all issues that arose were resolved quite quickly. The completion of ships has begun - the most difficult stage for domestic factories. It lasted for several years and by the beginning of 1904 this work was still ongoing. Only the beginning of the war with Japan accelerated completion. At the Baltic plant, as the largest and most modern Russian enterprise, it was decided to build three ships in the series. The first of these was the “Emperor Alexander III,” the official laying of which took place on May 11, 1900. On July 21, 1901, it was launched in the presence of Emperor Nicholas II. In October 1903, the battleship entered the Gulf of Finland for testing. The assembly of the second ship began immediately after the launch of the previous one. This organization of work made it possible to reduce the slipway period to 14 months. The official laying of the “Prince Suvorov” took place on August 26, 1901, and already on September 12, 1902 it was launched. In terms of the pace of completion, it overtook both Borodino and Orel. After the launch of the second ship, work immediately began on the construction of the third - “Glory”. Officially, it was laid down on October 19, 1902, and its launch took place on August 16, 1903. But after the start of the war, construction was frozen, and it entered service only in 1905. The construction of a series of Borodino-class battleships showed that domestic shipbuilding the factories are able to independently build squadron battleships, but time has already been lost.
Squadron battleship "Borodino" after entering service. The battleships of this project formed the basis of the second Pacific squadron
The squadron battleship "Emperor Alexander III" is the only ship of the "Borodino" type that has passed the full test program
ABROAD WILL HELP US
Having made sure that domestic shipyards are not always able to build such huge and complex warships as squadron battleships with high quality and within the time limits specified in contracts, the military leadership decided to place some of the orders abroad. The military leadership believed that this would allow the program to be completed on time and achieve superiority over the Japanese fleet. Meanwhile, the country's military leadership adopted a program “for the needs of the Far East.” Behind short term it was planned to build a large number of battleships, cruisers and destroyers. Foreign factories were supposed to help the Russian Empire maintain parity. Unfortunately, these expectations were met only in one case out of two. One of the first orders was an order placed at the American shipyard of Charles Henry Crump in Philadelphia. The overseas industrialist received a contract for the construction of a cruiser and a squadron battleship worth a total of $6.5 million. The design of the battleship "Retvizan" was developed based on the drawings of "Peresvet" and "Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky". Work on the construction of the ship began in the fall of 1898. The official laying took place on July 17, 1899. Advanced American technologies significantly reduced the pace of construction. Already on October 10, 1899, the Retvizan was launched. The battleship entered testing in August 1901. On April 30, 1902, it left America and crossed Atlantic Ocean. In the Baltic, he managed to take part in the parade at the Revel roadstead in honor of the visit of the German squadron. The newest battleship arrived in Port Arthur in April 1903. Retvizan was considered the best battleship of the Pacific squadron.
The second order for the construction of a squadron battleship was received by the French shipyard Forges and Chantiers in Toulon. The contract amount for its construction exceeded 30 million francs. The project was based on the French battleship Jaureguibery, which designer Antoine-Jean Ambal Lagan “adjusted” to the customer’s requirements. The official laying of the “Tsesarevich” took place on July 26, 1899. At first, construction proceeded at a fairly fast pace, but work was often interrupted due to urgent matters on other orders. The hull was launched on February 10, 1901. But during completion, problems arose numerous problems and it, like in Russian shipyards, lasted for several years. Only in November 1903 did the Tsarevich arrive in Port Arthur. This experience has shown that ordering warships from foreign shipyards is not always justified, and domestic factories could cope with their construction much faster.
"Retvizan" is the strongest battleship of the first Pacific squadron. Philadelphia, 1901
BATTLESHIPS IN THE FIRE OF THE “LITTLE VICTORIOUS WAR”
At the end of 1903 and beginning of 1904, the Russian military leadership, which incorrectly assessed the current situation in the Far East, did not take emergency measures to urgently strengthen the Pacific squadron. It hoped that our naval forces were sufficient to ensure supremacy at sea and Japan would not risk a conflict. But negotiations on controversial issues were interrupted, and the Japanese leadership decided to resolve them by force. At this time, a detachment under the command of Rear Admiral A.A. was on its way to the Far East. Virenius. It consisted of the battleship Oslyabya, 3 cruisers, 7 destroyers and 4 destroyers. With their arrival in Port Arthur, our forces would have received a complete look: 8 battleships, 11 1st-rank cruisers, 7 2nd-rank cruisers, 7 gunboats, 2 minelayers, 2 minecruisers, 29 destroyers, 14 destroyers. They were based in Port Arthur and Vladivostok. But with the outbreak of hostilities in St. Petersburg, they decided to return the ships of Virenius’ detachment to the Baltic, rather than attempt a breakthrough to Port Arthur or Vladivostok. The Japanese, in turn, were able to successfully transfer two new armored cruisers from the Mediterranean to the Far East, which significantly strengthened their fleet. In January-March, the Russian leadership did not take any real measures to speed up the completion of the Borodino-class battleships. Everything changed only after the death of Petropavlovsk. But time was lost.
"Tsesarevich" - the flagship of the first Pacific squadron
War with the Country rising sun began on the night of January 27, 1904, when several detachments of Japanese destroyers attacked Russian ships that were stationed in the outer roadstead of Port Arthur. Their torpedoes hit the strongest ships of the squadron, the battleships Retvizan and Tsesarevich. They were seriously injured, but did not die, thanks to the heroic actions of the rescue parties. They met the morning of January 27 on the coastal shallows at the entrance to the fortress. In this form, the damaged battleships took part in the first battle with the Japanese fleet, which approached Port Arthur. Our weakened squadron was assisted by fire from the coastal batteries of the fortress, and the firefight ended in a draw. During the battle, Petropavlovsk, Pobeda and Poltava received minor damage. After the end of the battle, the squadron gathered in the inner roadstead of the fortress and began to “lick its wounds,” only the “Retvizan” remained on the shallows. It was urgent to repair the damage to the battleships, but Port Arthur did not have a large dock; it was just beginning to be built. Russian engineers found a way to repair ships by using caissons. The Japanese did not sit idly by and on the night of February 11 decided to destroy Retvizan. To do this they used fire ships. But our sailors repelled their attack and sank five ships. The battleship was not damaged; they began to hastily unload it in order to refloat it. This was accomplished only on February 24, the day of the arrival at the fortress of Vice Admiral S.O. Makarov, who was appointed the new commander of the squadron.
Towing one of the caissons of the Tsesarevich, Eastern Basin of Port Arthur, February 1904. The caisson was a wooden rectangle that made it possible to partially drain the underwater part of the ship’s hull and carry out repairs. This “Arthurian improvisation” during the war made it possible to repair the “Tsarevich”, “Retvizan”, “Victory” and “Sevastopol”
Maxim's machine guns from the Tsarevich are being transported to coastal fortifications, May 1905.
Under Makarov, the squadron began active operations. During the 35 days of his command, the squadron went to sea six times, the ships performed evolutions and maneuvers, and coastal reconnaissance began. During the squadron's campaigns, Makarov raises his flag on the Petropavlovsk. The repair of damaged ships was accelerated, and work began on the Retvizan and Tsarevich. On March 8 and 9, the Japanese fleet tried to shell Port Arthur, but was prevented by the fire of Pobeda and Retvizan. On March 13, during maneuvers, Peresvet hit the Sevastopol's stern with its bow and bent its right propeller blade, which had to be repaired using a diving bell. On March 31, on the outer roadstead of Port Arthur, the flagship battleship Petropavlovsk explodes on Japanese mines. The following died on it: the squadron commander, 30 ship and headquarters officers, 652 lower ranks and battle painter V.V. Vereshchagin. It was a real disaster; it demoralized the Russian sailors. The situation was aggravated by the explosion of the Pobeda mine, which took 550 tons of water, but returned safely to the fortress. They began to repair it, for this a caisson was again used. At the same time, work continued on the Tsesarevich and Retvizan, and the damage to Sevastopol was repaired. After the death of Makarov, the squadron again stopped going to sea and settled on barrels in Port Arthur.
The Japanese took advantage of the calm and landed their troops at Biziwo. Thus, they cut off Port Arthur from Manchuria and blocked it. Soon the Japanese units began preparing for the assault. Landing companies of sailors took an active part in repelling the attacks. All machine guns and landing guns were hastily removed from the squadron ships. The battleships said goodbye to part of their artillery, which they began to install in Arthurian positions. By June 1, the ships of the squadron lost: 19x152 mm, 23x75 mm, 7x47 mm, 46x37 mm, all machine guns and 8 searchlights. Then the governor ordered the squadron to be prepared for a breakthrough to Vladivostok, and these guns began to be hastily returned to the squadron ships. By June 9, all repair work on Pobeda, Tsarevich and Retvizan was completed. The ships took on board coal, ammunition, water and food. On the morning of June 10, the squadron in in full force began to leave the fortress. But due to trawling, her exit was delayed. At sea she was met by the Japanese fleet and the squadron commander, Rear Admiral V.K. Vitgeft refused the fight. He decided to abandon the breakthrough and return to Port Arthur. Thus, a real opportunity was missed to go to Vladivostok and begin active actions. On the way back, the Sevastopol hit a mine, but was able to return to the fortress.
"Tsesarevich" in Qingdao, August 1904. The damage to the chimneys is clearly visible. In the foreground is the middle 152 mm turret
Damaged Sevastopol, December 1904
While the damage to the Sevastopol was being repaired with the help of a caisson, the ships of the squadron began to be involved in supporting the Russian troops. The Poltava and Retvizan went to sea several times. The Japanese brought up siege weapons and began daily shelling of Port Arthur on July 25. There were several hits in “Tsesarevich” and “Retvizan”. Rear Admiral V.K. Vitgeft was wounded by a shell fragment. On July 25, work on the Sevastopol ended, and the squadron again began to prepare for a breakthrough. Early in the morning of July 28, the ships left Port Arthur. At 12.15 a general battle began, which was called the Battle of the Yellow Sea. For several hours the opponents fired at each other, there were hits, but not a single ship sank. The outcome of the battle was decided by two hits. At 17.20, a Japanese shell hit the lower part of the Tsesarevich's foremast and showered the battleship's bridge with shrapnel. Vit-geft was killed, and the squadron lost its command. At 18.05 a shell hit the lower bridge, its fragments hit the conning tower. The battleship lost control, broke down, described two circulations and cut through the formation of the Russian squadron. Our ships lost command, broke formation and huddled together. The Japanese covered them with fire. The situation was saved by the commander of the battleship "Retvizan", captain 1st rank E.N. Shchensnovich, who directed his ship towards the Japanese. The enemy concentrated fire on him, the remaining ships of the squadron received a respite, reformed and turned to Port Arthur. In this battle, “Retvizan”, “Sevastopol” and “Poltava” suffered the most. The damaged Tsarevich and a number of other ships went to neutral ports, where they were interned and disarmed.
Returning to the fortress, the battleships began to repair the damage. By the beginning of September they were eliminated, but at a meeting of the flagships they decided not to make new attempts to break through, but to strengthen the defense of the fortress with guns and sailors. On August 10, "Sevastopol" went to Tahe Bay to fire at Japanese positions. On the way back, he was again blown up by a mine, but was able to return to Port Arthur under his own power. This was the last time the battleship of the Arthurian squadron went to sea. On September 19, the Japanese carried out their first bombardment of the fortress with 280 mm siege mortars. Each such weapon weighed 23 tons, it fired a 200 kg projectile at 7 km. These attacks became daily and it was they that destroyed the Russian squadron. The first victim of the “kids from Osaka” was “Poltava”. She was shot on November 22. After a strong fire, the ship sat on the ground in the Western basin of the fortress. On November 23, “Retvizan” died, on November 24, “Pobeda” and “Peresvet”. Only Sevastopol survived and on the evening of November 25 left the fortress for White Wolf Bay. He continued shelling Japanese positions. It was attacked by Japanese destroyers, destroyers and mine boats for several nights in a row, but to no avail. The battleship was protected by anti-torpedo nets and booms. Only on December 3 did they manage to damage the battleship with torpedoes. He had to be planted with his stern on the ground, but he continued to fire. He conducted his last firing with the main caliber on December 19th. On December 20, the Sevastopol was sunk in the outer roadstead of Port Arthur. The fortress was handed over to the Japanese.
The flagship of the second Pacific squadron is the squadron battleship "Prince Suvorov" under the flag of Rear Admiral Z.P. Rozhestvensky
By this time, the second Pacific squadron under the command of Rear Admiral Z.P. was on its way to Port Arthur. Rozhestvensky. The basis of its combat power was the four newest squadron battleships of the Borodino type. For the sake of their hasty completion and speedy commissioning, work on the fifth ship of the series had to be frozen. By mid-summer 1904, all work on them was generally completed. The only thing lagging behind was the readiness of the "Eagle", which on May 8 lay down on the ground in Kronstadt. The battleships began to undergo tests and make their first voyages along the Marquis Puddle. Due to the wartime rush, the testing program for the newest battleships was curtailed. Their crews completed only a short course of combat training and began to prepare for the campaign. On August 1, the squadron commander raised his flag on the flagship battleship Prince Suvorov. It included 7 squadron battleships, 6 cruisers, 8 destroyers and transports. On September 26, an imperial review took place at the Revel roadstead. On October 2, the squadron began an unprecedented campaign in the Far East. They had to travel 18,000 miles, overcome three oceans and six seas without Russian bases and coal stations along the route. The Borodino-class battleships received their baptism of fire in the so-called. Gull incident. On the night of October 9, Russian ships in the North Sea fired at English fishermen, who were mistaken for Japanese destroyers. One trawler was sunk and five were damaged. Five battleships went around Africa, the rest went through the Suez Canal. On December 16, the squadron assembled in Madagascar. During her stay in Nusib, a number of warships joined her. But the morale of the sailors of the squadron was undermined by the news about the death of the squadron, the surrender of Port Arthur and “Bloody Sunday”. On March 3, the squadron left the island and headed for the shores of Indochina. Here, on April 24, she was joined by the ships of the detachment of Rear Admiral N.I. Nebogatova. Now it was a significant force: 8 squadron battleships, 3 coastal defense battleships, 9 cruisers, 5 auxiliary cruisers, 9 destroyers and a large number of transports. But the ships were overloaded and badly worn out by the difficult transition. On the 224th day of the campaign, the second Pacific squadron entered the Korea Strait.
At 2.45 on May 14, 1905, a Japanese auxiliary cruiser discovered a Russian squadron in the Korea Strait and immediately reported this to the command. From that moment on, battle became inevitable. It began at 13.49 with a shot from the “Prince Suvorov”. A fierce firefight began, with both sides concentrating their fire on the flagships. During the cover, the Japanese were out of action, and the Russian ships did not maneuver. Just 10 minutes after the start of the cannonade, Oslyabya received significant damage. Large holes appeared in the bow, there was a strong list to the left side, and fires started. At 14.40 the ship broke down. At 14.50 "Oslyabya" turned over on its left side and sank. Part of his crew was rescued by destroyers. At the same time, the battleship “Prince Suvorov” broke down. The steering gear on it was broken, it was tilted to the left side, and numerous fires were raging on the superstructure. But he continued to fire at the enemy. At 15.20 he was attacked by Japanese destroyers, but they were driven off. Next, the squadron on course NO23 was led by the Emperor Alexander III. The Japanese concentrated all the power of their fire on it, and at 15.30 the burning battleship broke down with a list to the left side. Soon he put out the fires and returned to the column, which was headed by Borodino. Now he experienced the full power of Japanese fire, but soon the battle was interrupted due to fog. At 16.45 "Prince Suvorov" was again attacked by enemy destroyers, one torpedo hit the port side. At 17.30, the destroyer Buiny approached the burning battleship. Despite the strong excitement, he managed to remove the wounded commander and 22 other people. There were still sailors on the huge flaming battleship, but they decided to fulfill their duty to the end.
Squadron battleship "Oslyabya" and battleships of the "Borodino" type. The photo was taken in a parking lot during the transition to the Far East
At 18.20 the battle resumed. The Japanese concentrated their fire on Borodino. At 18.30, the Emperor Alexander III left the convoy, which capsized and sank 20 minutes later. Several dozen sailors remained on the water at the site of the death of the battleship. The cruiser "Emerald" tried to save them, but it was driven off by enemy fire. Not a single person was saved from the crew of the Emperor Alexander III. He became mass grave for 29 officers and 838 lower ranks. The Russian squadron was still led by Borodino. Several fires raged on it, and it lost its mainmast. At 19.12, one of the last salvos from the battleship Fuji hit him and received a fatal hit. A 305-mm shell hit the area of the first medium-caliber turret. The hit caused the detonation of ammunition and the battleship instantly sank. Only 1 person from his crew survived. At Borodino, 34 officers and 831 lower ranks were killed. At this time, Japanese destroyers attacked the Prince Suvorov. The burning flagship fired back from its last 75 mm gun, but was hit by several torpedoes. This is how the flagship of the second Pacific squadron perished. None of the sailors who remained on it survived. 38 officers and 887 lower ranks were killed.
Squadron battleships "Navarin" and "Sisoi the Great" during the imperial review at the Revel roadstead, October 1904. Veteran ships also became part of the Second Pacific Squadron
In the daytime battle, the Russian squadron was defeated; the battleships Oslyabya, Emperor Alexander III, Borodino, Prince Suvorov and the auxiliary cruiser were sunk, and many ships received significant damage. The Japanese did not lose a single ship. Now the Russian squadron had to withstand the attacks of numerous destroyers and destroyers. The squadron continued on course NO23, led by "Emperor Nicholas I". Lagging and damaged ships were the first to fall victim to mine attacks. One of them was “Navarin”. In the daytime battle, he received several hits: the battleship landed on its nose and tilted to the left side, one of the pipes was shot down, and the speed decreased sharply. At about 22.00 a torpedo hit the stern of the Navarina. The roll increased sharply, the speed dropped to 4 knots. At about 2 a.m., several more torpedoes hit the battleship, it capsized and sank. Many sailors remained on the water, but because of the darkness no one rescued them. 27 officers and 673 lower ranks were killed. Only 3 sailors survived. “Sisoy the Great” received significant damage during the day, a large fire broke out on it, there was a significant list to the left side, the speed decreased to 12 knots. He fell behind the squadron and independently repelled the attacks of the destroyers. At about 23.15 a torpedo hit the stern. The ship was no longer under control and there was a strong list to starboard. The sailors placed a plaster under the hole, but the water continued to rise. The commander sent the battleship to the island of Tsushima. Here Japanese ships caught up with him and raised a surrender signal on the Sisoe the Great. The Japanese visited the ship, but it was already listing. At about 10 am the battleship capsized and sank.
At about 10 a.m. on May 15, the remnants of the Russian squadron were surrounded by the main forces of the Japanese fleet. At 10.15 they opened fire on the Russian ships. Under these conditions, Rear Admiral N.I. Nebogatov gave the order to lower St. Andrew's flags. The battleships "Eagle", "Emperor Nicholas I" and two coastal defense battleships surrendered to the Japanese. 2,396 people were captured. It was this episode that became a symbol of the defeat of the Russian fleet at Tsushima.
Fleet during the reign of Alexander I: Second Archipelago Expedition, Russian-Swedish War; fleet during the beginning of the reign of Nicholas I; Crimean War; Russian fleet after Crimean War
FLEET DURING THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I: SECOND ARCHIPELAGO EXPEDITION, RUSSIAN-SWEDISH WAR
Alexander I
Having ascended the throne in 1801, Emperor Alexander I carried out a number of reforms in the public administration system, creating ministries instead of collegiums. So in 1802 the Ministry of Naval Forces was established. The Admiralty Board remained in its previous form, but was subordinate to the minister. He became the educated and capable admiral N.S. Mordvinov, who proved himself in the war with Turkey.
However, three months later Mordvinov was replaced by Rear Admiral P.V. Chichagov. “It’s a disaster if a shoemaker starts baking pies, and a cake maker starts making boots” - these words are from the famous fable by I.A. Krylov were addressed specifically to Chichagov.
This is what another contemporary, the famous navigator and admiral Golovnin, said about Chichagov:
“Blindly imitating the British and introducing absurd novelties, I dreamed that I was laying the main stone to the greatness of the Russian fleet. Having spoiled everything that remained in the fleet, and having bored the supreme power with insolence and waste of the treasury, he retired, instilling contempt for the fleet and a feeling of deep grief in the sailors.”
However, the navy at the beginning of the 19th century continued to be an important instrument of the foreign policy of the Russian Empire and was represented by the Black Sea and Baltic fleets, the Caspian, White Sea and Okhotsk flotillas.
During the war with Persia that began in 1804 (the war was won by Russia in 1813), the Caspian flotilla, founded under Peter I, first showed itself by actively helping Russian ground forces in the fight against the Persians: it brought supplies, reinforcements, food; constrained the actions of the Persian ships; took part in the bombing of fortresses. Also, the ships of the flotilla at the beginning of the 19th century transported Russian expeditions to Central Asia and protected trade in the Caspian basin.
In 1805, Russia joined the anti-French coalition and, fearing an alliance between Turkey and France, as well as the appearance of the French fleet in the Adriatic Sea, decided to send a military squadron to the Ionian Islands. Leaving Kronstadt and arriving in Corfu and uniting with the Russian squadron already there, the united Russian squadron began to consist of 10 battleships, 4 frigates, 6 corvettes, 7 brigs, 2 xebecs, schooners and 12 gunboats.
On February 21, 1806, the Russian squadron, with the support of the local population, occupied the Boca di Cattaro (Bay of Kotor) area without a fight: territory that, after the Battle of Austerlitz, passed from Austria to France. This event meant a lot to Napoleon; France lost the most favorable sea route for replenishing food and ammunition.
Also in 1806, the Russian squadron managed to occupy a number of the Dalmatian Islands.
In December 1806, Türkiye declared war on Russia. England, which acted as an ally of Russia in this war, sent a squadron of its fleet to the Aegean Sea, but refused to act together with the Russian fleet.
On March 10, 1807, Senyavin occupied the island of Tenedos, after which victorious battles followed: the Dardanelles and Athos. Having tried to land troops on Tenedos, the Turks were defeated in the Battle of the Dardanelles Strait and retreated, losing 3 ships. However, the victory was not final: the Russian fleet continued to blockade the Dardanelles until the battle at Cape Athos, which took place a month later.
As a result of the Battle of Athos Ottoman Empire lost its combat-ready fleet for more than a decade and agreed to sign a truce on August 12.
On June 25, 1807, the Peace of Tilsit was concluded, according to which Russia undertook to cede the Ionian Islands to France. The Russian squadron was forced to conclude a formal truce with the Turks and leave the Archipelago, leaving the British to continue the war. Leaving Tenedos, the Russians destroyed all the fortifications there. By August 14, the Russians abandoned the Boca di Cattaro area. The Russian squadron left the Adriatic Sea region.
In the war between Russia and Sweden, which began in 1808, mainly due to the policies of the former allied states after the conclusion of the Peace of Tilsit, the Baltic Fleet throughout the war (until 1809) supported the actions of our ground army, carrying out bombing of Swedish fortifications and landing operations. The war was won by Russia, and as a result, Finland became part of the Russian Empire as a Grand Duchy.
However, despite the military, as well as research (maps of the Pacific and Arctic oceans are full of Russian names and titles) successes of the Russian fleet, its condition until the end of the reign of Alexander I was constantly deteriorating. This was due to the emperor’s indifferent attitude to the fate of the fleet. Thus, in his presence the issue of transferring the entire Russian fleet to England was seriously discussed. By the end of the reign, the state of the fleet was very deplorable: most of the frigates fit for military action were sold abroad - in particular, to Spain; most of the officers and teams fell into poverty (for example, senior officers were sometimes housed with ten people in one room).
THE FLEET DURING THE BEGINNING OF THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I
Nicholas I
At the accession of Nicholas I in 1825, there were only 5 battleships fit for service in the Baltic Fleet (according to the state, it was supposed to have 27 battleships and 26 frigates), and in the Black Sea Fleet - 10 out of 15 ships. The regular number of personnel of the Baltic and Black Sea Fleet was supposed to reach 90 thousand people, but in reality there were 20 thousand people short of the regular number. The fleet's property was stolen.
In the ports, trade in all naval accessories was carried out completely openly. Delivery of stolen goods to shops in large quantities was carried out not only at night, but also during the day. So, for example, adjutant Lazarev, who carried out an investigation into this matter already in 1826, found in 32 shops in Kronstadt alone government items worth 85,875 rubles.
The beginning of the reign of Emperor Nicholas I was marked by the creation in 1826 of a committee for the formation of the fleet. The name could not have been more reflective of the state of affairs - after all, the fleet, in fact, no longer existed!
Emperor Nicholas I, unlike his predecessor and older brother, saw in the naval forces a solid stronghold of the state and, moreover, a means to maintain his historically established necessary influence in the Middle East.
A contemporary of Nicholas I, Vice Admiral Melikov, about the emperor:
“Taking into account that from now on the actions of naval forces will be necessary in every European war, His Imperial Majesty from the very first days of his reign deigned to express his indispensable will to bring the fleet into such a position that it would be a real stronghold of the state and could contribute to any enterprises related to the honor and security of the empire. The Emperor did everything necessary to implement this idea. States were issued for the fleet in sizes corresponding to the greatness of Russia, and the naval authorities were taught all the means to bring our naval forces to the sizes prescribed by the states. The Navy Ministry's budget was more than doubled; educational establishments increased in quantity and brought to a degree of perfection; to provide our admiralties with forest material forever, it was appointed to transfer all the forests of the empire to the naval department; finally, all the assumptions of the naval authorities that could lead to the immediate fulfillment of His Majesty’s will were always taken into account.”
Successes in the work of Nicholas I to revive the greatness of the Russian fleet could be observed already in 1827. The Baltic Fleet squadron visited England, where it made an excellent impression. In the same year, part of the squadron entered the Mediterranean Sea and, together with the British and French squadrons, opposed the Turkish fleet. The decisive battle took place on October 20, 1827 in Navarino Bay. The Turkish fleet consisted of 82 ships, while the Allies had only 28. In addition, the Turkish fleet occupied a much more advantageous position.
However, the allied squadrons acted coherently and decisively, disabling one Turkish ship after another with accurate shooting. The Turkish fleet was almost completely destroyed: out of 82 ships, only 27 survived.
Battle of Navarvin
In the Russian-Turkish war that began the following year, the Black Sea Fleet showed itself. He contributed to the offensive of troops in the Balkan and Caucasian theaters of military operations. The brig Mercury, which won a battle with two Turkish battleships, covered itself with unfading glory.
Aivazovsky. The brig Mercury, attacked by two Turkish ships.
The war ended in September 1829 with the complete victory of Russia. Türkiye lost the Black Sea coast from the mouth of the Kuban to Cape St. Nicholas. The islands in the Danube delta went to Russia. She received the right of passage for ships through the Bosporus and Dardanelles. The southern branch of the mouth became the Russian border. Finally, the Peace of Adrianople concluded on September 14 brought freedom to Greece, which was declared independent (only the obligation of an annual payment to the Sultan in the amount of 1.5 million piastres remained). The Greeks could now choose a sovereign from any dynasty reigning in Europe, except the English, French and Russian.
In the war with Persia that began in 1826, the Caspian Flotilla again showed itself, providing serious assistance to ground forces and winning victories at sea. In February 1828, a peace treaty was concluded between Russia and Persia. According to it, Russia retained rights to the lands up to the Astara River and received the Erivan and Nakhichevan khanates. Persia had to pay 20 million rubles in indemnity, and also lost the right to maintain a fleet in the Caspian Sea, which partially repeated the agreement of 1813.
The influence of the Russian Empire on the Ottoman Empire strengthened even more after in 1832, the current Sultan, having suffered defeat from his vassal Pasha of Egypt, being left without money and an army, was forced to turn to the Russian Empire for help. A year later, Rear Admiral Lazarev led the Russian squadron to Constantinople. Her arrival and the fourteen thousandth landing on the Bosphorus put an end to the uprising. Russia, according to the Winkar-Iskelessy Treaty concluded at that time, received an ally in the person of Turkey in the event of military operations against a third country, both on land and at sea. Türkiye pledged not to allow enemy warships to pass through the Dardanelles. The Bosporus, under all conditions, remained open to the Russian fleet.
The Russian fleet during the reign of Nicholas I greatly strengthened, the number of battleships increased greatly, order and discipline in the fleet were again established.
The first Russian steam frigate "Bogatyr". Modern model.
It is also worth noting that, in addition to traditional sailing battleships, military steamships began to be built for the navy: in 1826, the Izhora steamship was built, armed with 8 cannons, and in 1836, the first steam frigate was launched from the slipway of the St. Petersburg Admiralty "Bogatyr", armed with 28 cannons.
As a result, by the beginning of the Crimean War in 1853, the Russian Empire had the Black Sea and Baltic fleets, the Arkhangelsk, Caspian and Siberian flotillas - with a total number of 40 battleships, 15 frigates, 24 corvettes and brigs, 16 steam frigates and other small vessels. Total number The fleet personnel amounted to 91,000 people. Although the Russian fleet by that time was one of the largest in the world, in the field of steamship building Russia was far behind advanced European countries.
CRIMEAN WAR
During the diplomatic conflict with France over control of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Russia, in order to put pressure on Turkey, occupied Moldavia and Wallachia, which were under Russian protectorate under the terms of the Treaty of Adrianople. The refusal of the Russian Emperor Nicholas I to withdraw troops led to Turkey declaring war on Russia on October 4, 1853, then, on March 15, 1854, Great Britain and France joined Turkey. On January 10, 1855, the Sardinian Kingdom (Piedmont) also declared war on the Russian Empire.
Russia was not organizationally and technically ready for war. Technical lag has reached alarming proportions Russian army and the fleet, associated with radical technical re-equipment in the middle of the 19th century. armies of Great Britain and France that carried out the Industrial Revolution. The Allies had a significant advantage in all types of ships, and there were no steam battleships in the Russian fleet at all. At that time, the English fleet was the first in the world in terms of numbers, the French was in second, and the Russian in third place.
Battle of Sinop
However, on November 18, 1853, a Russian sailing squadron under the command of Vice Admiral Pavel Nakhimov defeated the Turkish fleet in the Battle of Sinop. The successful battle in this battle of the sailing frigate "Flora" against three Turkish steam frigates indicated that the importance of the sailing fleet was still great. The result of the battle was the main factor in France and England declaring war on Russia. This battle was also the last major battle of sailing ships.
In August 1854, Russian sailors defended the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatka fortress, repelling the attack of the Anglo-French squadron.
Defense of the Peter and Paul Fortress
The main base of the Black Sea Fleet, Sevastopol, was protected from attack from the sea by strong coastal fortifications. Before the landing of the enemy in Crimea, there were no fortifications to protect Sevastopol from land.
New trials also fell to the Baltic sailors: they had to repel the attack of the Anglo-French fleet, which bombarded the fortifications of Gangut, the fortresses of Kronstadt, Sveaborg and Revel, and sought to break through to the capital of the Russian Empire - St. Petersburg. However, a feature of the naval theater in the Baltic was that, due to the shallow waters of the Gulf of Finland, large enemy ships could not approach St. Petersburg directly.
Upon receiving news of the Battle of Sinop, the English and French squadrons entered the Black Sea in December 1853.
On April 10, 1854, a joint Anglo-French squadron fired at the port and city of Odessa in an attempt to force the surrender. As a result of the shelling, the port and the commercial ships located in it were burned, but the return fire of the Russian coastal batteries prevented the landing. After the shelling, the Allied squadron went to sea.
John Wilson Carmichael "Bombing of Sevastopol"
On September 12, 1854, an Anglo-French army of 62 thousand people with 134 guns landed in the Crimea, near Evpatoria - Sak, and headed towards Sevastopol.
The enemy moved to Sevastopol, bypassed it from the east and occupied convenient bays (the British - Balaklava, the French - Kamyshovaya). The 60,000-strong Allied army began a siege of the city.
The organizers of the defense of Sevastopol were admirals V.A. Kornilov, P.S. Nakhimov, V.I. Istomin.
The enemy did not dare to immediately storm the city and began a siege, during which he subjected the city to multi-day bombardments six times.
Throughout the 349-day siege, there was a particularly intense struggle for the key position of the city's defense - Malakhov Kurgan. Its capture on August 27 by the French army predetermined the abandonment of the southern side of Sevastopol by Russian troops on August 28, 1855. Having blown up all the fortifications, batteries and powder magazines, they organizedly crossed the Sevastopol Bay to the North Side. Sevastopol Bay, the location of the Russian fleet, remained under Russian control.
Although the war was not yet lost and Russian troops managed to inflict a number of defeats on the Turkish army and capture Kars. However, the threat of Austria and Prussia joining the war forced Russia to accept the peace terms imposed by the Allies.
On March 18, 1856, the Treaty of Paris was signed, according to which Russia was prohibited from having a navy in the Black Sea, building fortresses and naval bases.
During the war, the participants in the anti-Russian coalition failed to achieve all their goals, but managed to prevent Russia from strengthening in the Balkans and deprive it of the Black Sea Fleet for a long time.
RUSSIAN FLEET AFTER THE CRIMEA WAR
After the defeat, the Russian fleet, which consisted mainly of sailing ships, began to be massively replenished with first-generation steam warships: battleships, monitors and floating batteries. These ships were equipped with heavy artillery and thick armor, but were unreliable on the open sea, slow and could not make long sea voyages.
Already in the early 1860s, the first Russian armored floating battery “Pervenets” was ordered in Great Britain, on the model of which the armored batteries “Don’t Touch Me” and “Kremlin” were built in Russia in the mid-1860s.
Armadillo "Don't touch me"
In 1861, the first warship with steel armor was launched - the gunboat "Experience". In 1869, the first battleship designed for sailing on the high seas, the Peter the Great, was laid down.
Specialists from the Naval Ministry studied the experience of building in the United States monitors of the system of the Swedish engineer Erickson with a rotating tower. In this regard, in March 1863, the so-called “Monitor Shipbuilding Program” was developed, which provided for the construction of 11 monitors to protect the coast of the Gulf of Finland and operations in the skerries.
During the American Civil War, Russia sent two cruiser squadrons to the Atlantic and Pacific ports of the northerners. This expedition became an illustrative example of how large political successes can be achieved with relatively small forces. The result of the presence of only eleven small warships in areas of busy commercial shipping was that the major European powers (England, France and Austria) abandoned confrontation with Russia, which they had defeated only 7 years earlier.
Russia achieved the lifting of the ban on keeping the navy in the Black Sea under the London Convention of 1871.
Thus began the revival of the Black Sea Fleet, which was able to take part in the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-1878. (On May 26, 1877, the Turkish monitor “Hivzi Rahman” was sunk on the Danube by mine boats of lieutenants Shestakov and Dubasov), and by the beginning of the 20th century it consisted of 7 squadron battleships, 1 cruiser, 3 mine cruisers, 6 gunboats, 22 destroyers, etc. ships.
The construction of warships for the Caspian and Okhotsk flotillas continued.
By the end of the 19th century, the Baltic Fleet had over 250 modern ships of all classes.
Launch of the battleship "Chesma" in Sevastopol
Also in the 1860s-1870s, a reform of the naval forces was carried out, which consisted of both a complete technical re-equipment of the fleet and a change in the conditions of service of officers and lower ranks.
On top of that, testing of submarines began in Russia at the end of the 19th century.
As a result, we can say that during the second half of the 19th century. Russia created an armored fleet that was modern for that time, which in terms of military power again found itself in third place in the world.
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This is an article from the project "History of the Russian Fleet". |