The Eurasian Triangle. Russia, the Caucasus and Japan, 1904-1945

14 Ë The Russo-Japanese War

Russia’s rapid expansion into Asia disquieted other imperial powers as well, al-

though they, too, joined in the colonization of China. Britain, among other nations,

also feared Russia’s domination over China. Engaged in the so-called Great Game with

Russia over control of Central Asia, Britain found in Japan a counterforce to Russia in

the Far East. In 1902, abandoning its policy of “splendid isolation,” Britain concluded

a treaty of alliance with Japan with Russia in view. Japan in turn made great eorts to

be accepted into the exclusive club of Western powers. In 1890 it had become a consti-

tutional monarchy with a parliament. Compared to Russia’s autocracy with no consti-

tution or parliament, Japan appeared more acceptable to Russia’s rivals. Like Britain,

the United States also feared Russia’s rapid expansion in Asia, where the Americans

had their own imperialist ambitions. Therefore, they, too, courted Japan as a counter-

weight to Russia in the Far East.

2.1 War

It was under these international conditions that Russia and Japan came into mili-

tary conict in 1904. Some historians have called the Russo-Japanese War “World War

Zero,” the rst global, imperial war.²Although this characterization may be somewhat

far-fetched, the war, fought in neutral countries (China and Korea), was an imperial

contest among imperial powers implicitly supporting one camp (France and Germany

for Russia) or the other (Britain and the United States for Japan). Japan’s intelligence

operations thus had to become global. In this context, the Caucasus and Japan met

each other, just as Poland, Finland, and Japan had found common interests against

the Russian Empire.³

It was under the pressure of war that the Russian autocracy cracked for the rst

time in history and was forced to make concessions (the 1905 Revolution). This marked

the beginning of the end of the Russian autocracy in 1917. In this context, the Russo-

Japanese War was a signal event foreshadowing the tumultuous history of Eurasia

in the twentieth century. Japan’s engagements with non-Russian nationalities in the

Russian Empire, including the Caucasians, before, during, and after the war are thus

a matter of special historical signicance.

Like the Habsburg Empire, the Russian Empire was multi-national. In the course

of the nineteenth century, Russia had added to its already impressive size by conquer-

2 John W. Steinberg, Bruce W. Menning, David Schimmelpenninck van der Oye, David Wol, and
Shinji Yokote, eds,The Russo-Japanese War in Global Perspective: World War Zero, 2 vols. (Leiden-
Boston: Brill, 2005-2007).
3 On Poland and Japan, see Hiroaki Kuromiya and Andrzej Pepłoński,Między Warszawą a Tokio:
Polsko-Japońska współpraca wywiadowcza 1904–1944(Toruń: Adam Marszałek, 2009), and on Fin-
land and Japan, seeIznanka revoliutsii. Vooruzhennoe vozstanie v Rossii na iaposnkiia sredstva(1906)
(St. Petersburg: Tip. A.S. Suvorina, n.d.).