Russian foreign policy at the beginning of the XX-th century (based on the materials of the Russo-Japanese war)

This article is devoted to the historical significance and results of the Russian-Japanese war of 1904-1905. The works of foreign and Russian authors are analyzed. The main focus is on the modern historiography of this issue. At the beginning of the XX century, the Russian Empire was the largest territorial state in the world. Some developing industrial regions were singled out: Moscow, Ural, St. Petersburg, and South Russia. Intensive settlement of Siberia and the Far East began, with Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk, and Vladivostok becoming the centers. Huge spaces were poorly connected to each other by transport routes. Russias industrial and market modernization was intended to accelerate political modernization as well. The successful implementation of political and economic reforms at the same time, while equalizing the rights of all subjects of the state, regardless of their status and nationality, created certain dangers for the country, but at the same time provided considerable opportunities for preserving the evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, type of development. In this scenario, the Russian Empire would have reached the forefront of the category of the largest developed powers. But that didnt happen. Since the mid 90-ies of the XIX century, the spearhead of Russian foreign policy was directed to the far East, since the end of the century the object of England, USA, Japan be Korea and Manchuria areas directly bordering with Russia. The Russian position in the far East was strengthened by the completion of the TRANS-Siberian railway in the first decade of the XX century. The Sino-Japanese war intensified the struggle of the imperialist powers for spheres of influence in China. On may 22, 1896, the Russian-Chinese Treaty on a defensive Alliance against Japan and on the construction of the Chinese Eastern railway was signed.