TNT History Archives: Russian Overreach and Japan-Turkey Asiatic Bonding (1905)

//Ed. Note: A well-informed Dr. Şerefeddin Mağmumi,
writing in exile in Cairo in 1905, took the opportunity to 
lambast the Russians for their disastrous Far East 
expansionism and to heap praise on the Japanese.//

Japan's "Asia Alliance" Quest click here for the first
part of a recent 7-part TNT series on this subject.



The sinking of the "Petropavlovsk" in Port Arthur
harbor in April 1904, with Admiral Makarov one of 
the victims.

They say that “a little greed causes great loss”.  But what about big 

greed?  This is what has befallen Russia, which like the Italians and 

the Germans, is not content with its own land to feed its populace and 

feels the need to extend its reach outwardly .  Yet, Russia has its own 

vast expanse of land available, relative to its population, from the 

Arctic Ocean to the Black Sea and from Poland to Siberia, but this is 

not enough to quench Moscow’s desire to occupy other lands!   

So Russia has marched to the other end of Asia, where its greed again 

balooned.  In the last war with China the Russians occupied Port Arthur 

in 1897 -with what right and authority remains unknown - only to lose it 

to the Japanese at a great cost of lives.  Moscow spent millions to fortify 

Port Arthur and essentially occupied Manchuria, which is bigger than 

Italy, on the pretext of protecting the 1.5-meter guage railway it built 

through there, leasing the province from China for 99 years without 

firing a shot.  

//Ed. Note: fun fact about Port Arthur: 

Surrounded by ocean on three sides, this strategic seaport was 

originally known to the Chinese as Lüshun. It took its English 

name, Port Arthur, from a British Royal Navy Lieutenant 

named William C.Arthur who surveyed the harbor in the 

gunboat HMS Algerine in August 1860, during the Second 

Opium War.//

Well fine, but one cannot necessarily digest everything one swallows 

and, in fact, may start to regurgitate it.  This is the situation our friend 

Moscow finds itself in right now.   The Japanese, suddenly awakening 

from the dark horizon of the Far East, have over four centuries become 

“Asia’s English” and have had the boldness and the courage to take on 

the insatiable, tireless “Bear of the North”,  beating this terrible monster 

into submission in their first encounter. 

 Death of Admiral Makarov click here for info on Makarov

and his demise at this first encounter of the Russo-Japanese
War at Port Arthur.

From the start, the order and sobriety in Japan, not seen even in Europe 

and America, has prevailed.  On the other hand, mayhem is the rule in 

Russia, with inauspicious activity occurring all over the country.  The 

admirals, marshalls and generals are going to St. Petersburg, where 

they kiss the Czar’s hand and the priests’ skirts.  Then they stop off in 

Moscow to visit monasteries and ask for assistance from the various 

saints.  Until they reach the distant battlefield, they present each other 

with bejeweled portriats of “The Trinity”.  Yet, despite these pompous 

shows of religious fanaticism, it wasn’t these holy zealots who had the 

last laugh but, rather, the pagans.

Admiral Makarov went to the front with more than 150  holy pictures 

stuffed into crates and set out to face the Japanese fleet at Port Arthur 

harbor with 8 armored ships, with disastrous results.  On the banks of 

the Yalu River a Russian regiment was surrounded by the Japanese and 

a Russian priest out front clutching a crucifix took an infidel Japanese 

bullet as the battle began.  Russian Army Commander Alexei 

Kuropatkin declared that he would sign a peace treaty in Tokyo but 

instead, he avoided capture and fled first to Mukden and then to Harbin.  

So much for being a peacemaker!! And what of the distinguished Czar 

and Czarina!  They say that “one has to bear the consequences of his 

own acts”. 

Russian Navy click here for  background on Russia's 
Second Fleet's laborious voyage to the Far East in a futile
effort to redress the defeat at Port Arthur.

battle of yalu river click here for the details and mention
of Kuropatkin.  The Russians' loss at Yalu opened the way
for the Japanese to take Manchuria from them.



An anti-Russian satirical map produced by a Japanese student at 
Keio University during the Russo–Japanese War. It follows the 
design used for a similar map first published in 1877.

I will never forget the press congress I participated in recently during 

the Paris exhibition.  There were two Japanese journalists there.  Our 

French hosts arranged for visits to places of natural and historical 

interest in various provinces and cities.  

During these excursions a young Japanese journalist who worked as 

the American correspondant for a Tokyo newspaper, the name of which 

I cannot remember, enlightened us on some subjects.  We we’re at our 

last stop, staying at the Imperial Hotel in the town of Chamonix, 

considered the “watchman” of  Mount Blanc.  Before parting, this 

young Japanese said to us “even though the Turks have been Europeans 

for a few centuries, they are essentially Asians.  Our old neighbor, our 

old friend.  We’re almost relatives and we have the same common enemy 

that separates us.  You are the moon and we are the sun.  We will march 

from the east and you from the west and we will meet and embrace at 

the Ural Mountains.”  

As we parted, I listened to this as if it were a pleasant dream.  Today, 

though, I see that yesterday’s dream is nearly becoming today’s reality.  

Those little giants are expelling the Russians from Manchuria and 

they’re takıng the road toward the Urals.  Who knows? Is this the world 

now?   If one looks at history one can see many states going to war to 

conquer the world, only to eventually contract and fail.  Only their 

names remain.  Perhaps Russia’s end is the same.  Perhaps the “Gog 

and Magog” revealed in the holy books are these Japanese!  They’ve 

seized Manchuria and maybe after civilizing the people of Korea and 

Manchuria they’ll take the next step forward to Lake Baykal.    

There is one more thing to consider:  if one day the Japanese Army 

reaches the Ural Mountains, I wonder whether they will find and 

embrace the Turks there?

//Ed. Note: Gog and Magog, in the Hebrew Bible, the 

prophesied invader of Israel and the land from which he comes, 

respectively; or, in the Christian Scriptures (New Testament), 

evil forces opposed to the people of God. Although biblical 

references to Gog and Magog are relatively few, they assumed 

an important place in apocalyptic literature and medieval legend. 

They are also discussed in the Qurʾān (see also Yājūj and Mājūj).

Map shows the Ural Mountains, left center, with Turkey,
extreme left, and Japan, extreme right.