Russo-Japanese war

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PHJ № 3 (47) 2025 — V. B. Aksenov. WAR AND BLASPHEMY: CRIMINAL CASES OF INSULTS TO THE IMPERIAL FAMILY DURING THE RUSSO-JAPANESE AND WORLD WAR I AS A HISTORICAL SOURCE

Cases of insults against members of the imperial family are a valuable source for studying public sentiments and the images of power formed in them; they allow reconstructing the portrait of an average insulter, as well as demonstrating the paradoxes of state practices of counteracting obscene statements. The sources show that the obscene political discourse of the Russo-Japanese War period, despite a comparable number of cases to that of World War I, is less diverse and emotional, with less prevalent infernal characterizations of members of the royal family and less pronounced eschatological sentiments and political rumors. The author believes that the state’s struggle against insults to power cannot be considered successful — in a number
of cases legislation and judicial practice contributed to the spread of insulting political discourse, creating relevant precedents and thus intensifying socio-political conflicts of the war era.

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PHJ № 3 (47) 2025 — A. Yu. Fomin. WAR AND THE “SMUTA”: THE MILITARY DEPARTMENT’S STRUGGLE TO PRESERVE THE ARMY’S LOYALTY IN 1905–1907

The unsuccessful war with Japan and the onset of revolution placed the Russian military authorities and officer corps in a challenging position. The challenge of the era was to combat the spread of revolutionary propaganda among the troops. For the government, the army was its last bulwark in the fight against the revolution after its humiliation in Manchuria, but there was a real threat of revolutionary unrest spreading to the army itself. These circumstances led the military authorities to realise the necessity of fighting the revolutionaries using their own methods — namely, printed counter-propaganda and oral patriotic agitation. Since 1906, a special subdivision of the military department — the Committee for the Education of Troops under the Military Council — had been examining printed matter intended for the troops and selecting publications that were useful from the authorities’ point of view. Dozens of books and brochures, as well as military newspapers and magazines with a patriotic slant, were approved by the Committee for the Education of Troops. The committee believed that official government publications would not be able to compete with the revolutionary and opposition press and therefore relied on private publications for support. Enterprising publishers were eager to offer the government their help in combating revolutionary propaganda in the hope of making a profit. However, the Ministry of War ultimately recognised the ineffectiveness of this approach. Soldiers were far more interested in anti-government propaganda that largely reflected their own sentiments than in conservative publications.

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PHJ № 3 (47) 2025 — S. G. Serebryakova. JAPANESE PRISONERS OF WAR IN THE RUSSIAN CAPTIVITY DURING THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR (1904–1905)

The Russo-Japanese War has been attracting the attention of researchers studying the military, political, economic and diplomatic aspects of the war for more than a century. However, social issues are less often addressed by scientists. The problems of the Japanese in Russian captivity at that time became the object of research only recently. The main purpose of the article is to reveal the specifics of the organization of captivity, taking into account the specifics of Japanese prisoners of war. A brief historiographical overview of the study of the problem of Japanese prisoners of war in Russia is given, and the general conditions of detention of Japanese prisoners of war are outlined. The main issues considered in the work are the norms of international humanitarian law and the status of prisoners of war during the Russo-Japanese War, as well as the real conditions of detention of Japanese prisoners of war in Russia. The problems of organizing captivity with the involvement of new historical sources are outlined. The complaints of Japanese prisoners of war are analyzed, the reasons for these complaints are presented by the Japanese, and the reaction of the Russian administration. The conclusions are drawn that the Russian Empire sought to comply with the norms of international law but could not always do so largely for objective reasons. Russian archival documents and information from Japanese historiography were used to write the article.

PHJ № 1 (37) 2023 – Choi Deokkyoo, I. O. Ermachenko. The Russo-Japanese War, Japanese occupation of Korea and the secret activities of L.V. von Goyer in the Far East (1904–1910)

The article is devoted to the activities of Lev Viktorovich von Goyer (1875-1939), one of the prominent employees of the so-called “Shanghai agents”, an intelligence service established in April 1904 and operating in close contact with the Russo-Chinese Bank. All aspects of his covert work during the Russo-Japanese War and in the coming years after its end are comprehensively characterized.

PHJ № 1 (37) 2023 – B. B. Pak. On the issue of diplomatic negotiations on the eve of the Russo-Japanese war of 1904–1905

This article highlights the course of Russian-Japanese negotiations in 1903–1904, analyzes the positions of the parties, examines the reasons for the intransigence of the Japanese side in the negotiations on the conclusion of a new agreement, studied the reaction in the ruling spheres of Russia to the amendments of the Japanese government to the Russian text of the agreement, the nature of Russian-Korean relations on the eve of the Russian-Japanese war. The author focuses on Japan’s responsibility for starting the war, showing Japan’s aggressive policy in Korea.