Permanen Defensive Constructions on the Chinese Eastern Railway during World War I: Armament Issues

Based on previously unknown data revealed in the documents of the RGVIA, the article examines the problem of arming permanent defense constructions built on the Chinese Eastern Railway during the First World War of 1914. For the first time in Russian historiography, an analysis of the principles of artillery and machine-gun armament of blockhouses on the CER was carried out. Based on materials of the implementation of a specific military engineering project, the discussion of the Main Directorate of the General Staff, the Main Military Technical Directorate, the Main Artillery Directorate and the Command of the Irkutsk Military District on the supply of embedded parts for artillery systems and the 3-inch quick-fire gun M1900 on the caponier carriage of the system of Lieutenant General Durlacher, as well as machine guns, was studied. Special attention is paid to the role of the military confusion that prevailed in the Main Directorates of the War Ministry in the capital during the war years, as well as the general underestimation by the staff of these Directorates of the importance of the CER as the only strategic railway connecting the European and Asian parts of the Russian Empire and the non-stop supply of military goods coming through Vladivostok from the allies in the Entente.