Official and personal estimations of the field army morale during the Russo-Japanese War

In this article the author analyzes the morale of the Russian army in Manchuria during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. The study of archival documents revealed certain differences between official documents and memoirs of the war participants. As a whole the morale of the Russian army was high enough. But frequently the troops operated without belief in success, out of the call of duty and patriotism only. Personal valour of the Russian army and heroism of soldiers and officers could not have changed the general course of the campaign.