Twentieth Century Chronicle

Page 133

Of course, the naiveté of the Labor Party gave the Beiyang government an opportunity to rise. After using the Wuhan Incident to overthrow the power of the Empress Dowager and the Manchus in the central government, the Beiyang government gradually formed an independent military and political group. The Empress Dowager and the Emperor no longer had much influence in the Beiyang government, which had now truly become Yuan Shikai's wings.

However, the Workers' Party's occasional erratic behavior was like stepping on a landmine for Yuan Shikai, who wanted to quit while he was ahead. After consulting with his close confidants, Yuan Shikai relayed the Northern Army Group's movements to the Japanese. Oyama Iwao and Kodama Gentaro received the news on the evening of June 22nd. Oyama Iwao was somewhat skeptical of the intelligence Yuan Shikai provided.

He looked at Kodama with surprise and said, "Do the Chinese really have the guts to attack the Trans-Siberian Railway from Outer Mongolia? If the Russians fight back, then the losses Wuhan has made in Outer Mongolia will be considerable."

Kodama pulled up the battle reports from the front lines over the past week and finally replied to Oyama Iwao with some uncertainty: "Judging from the combined reports from various locations on the front lines, the Russian counterattacks have indeed decreased considerably. Perhaps we should further give Akiyama Yoshifuru and Tatekawa Yoshitsugu more freedom to maneuver, letting them advance further north of Fengtian..."

Oyama Iwao accepted Kodama's suggestion and allowed the cavalry led by Akiyama Yoshifuru and Tatekawa Yoshitsugu to continue maneuvering north of Fengtian, putting pressure on the Russian army's supply lines and scouting the supply situation of the Russian army's logistics lines.

Commander Ōyama's orders to the cavalry immediately excited Akiyama Yoshifuru and Kenkawa Yoshitsugu. Ōyama's plans for the Battle of Mukden did not actually deviate from the Napoleonic model: to defeat the enemy's main force through a large-scale battle, thereby gaining the initiative on the battlefield.

However, cavalry commanders Yoshifuru Akiyama and Yoshitsugu Tatekawa believed that with advancements in weaponry, cavalry, which had been a decisive striking force during the Napoleonic Wars, was no longer as important as it had been then. They argued that cavalry should utilize their high mobility to advance into the enemy's rear, using mule-mounted machine guns and cavalry cannons to sweep through enemy supply lines and disrupt their formation.

However, Oyama Iwao and Kodama Gentaro did not agree with this risky tactic. They believed that Japan had always maintained an advantage in land battles against the Russian army in the Far East. Therefore, the Japanese army should continuously turn its advantages in manpower and transportation into a winning position in the battle, thereby wearing down the Russian army in a war of attrition and winning a decisive battle similar to the Battle of Sedan.

Although Akiyama Yoshifuru's use of machine guns to block the Russian cavalry at Heigoutai and the advance of Tatekawa Yoshitsugu's cavalry behind Russian lines caused considerable trouble for the Russians, they did not shake the resolve of Oyama Iwao and Kodama Gentaro. However, this time, the Chinese army's advance through Outer Mongolia towards the Trans-Siberian Railway finally moved the two.

If the Chinese army has indeed achieved this strategic objective, then the war is almost over, because the Russian army will face the most terrible pursuit from both China and Japan during its retreat. If the Russian army cannot stop and block the pursuit from both China and Japan, then the Russian South Manchurian Group will be wiped out.

While Akiyama Yoshifuru and Tatekawa Yoshitsugu's cavalry were still advancing into the rear of the Russian army in Fengtian, an urgent telegram arrived from Beijing in the early morning of June 26th, stating that Cai E's Northern Army Group had captured Tulentayevo, completing the strategic objective of cutting off the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Kodama initially refused to believe the news, sending several telegrams to Beijing requesting confirmation and even contacting Wuhan. It wasn't until noon on June 26th that Kodama received confirmation and relayed the information to Oyama Iwao. That evening, Akiyama Yoshifuru sent a messenger back confirming that the Russian troops in Fengtian had indeed begun their retreat towards Tieling.

Kodama and Oyama then made their decision, ordering all units at the front to attack the Russian positions in front of them. They also notified Feng Guozhang and Fu Cixiang in Jinzhou, requesting them to act together with the Japanese army and to make sure to leave as many Russian troops as possible behind, thus laying a good foundation for the next stage of the operation.

However, after Kodama Gentaro gave the order, looking at the starlit night view outside, he couldn't help but say to Oyama Iwao with concern: "The fact that Cai E's Northern Army Group has been able to achieve such great feats will probably pose a great threat to our country's efforts to seize Russian interests in Manchuria after the war."

After a long silence, Oyama Iwao finally said, "China is ultimately a great power. Even after suffering two consecutive wars—the Sino-Japanese War and the invasion of the Eight-Nation Alliance—how long has it been? The Chinese have already begun to recover. The Chinese and Russians have been locked in a struggle for a year before we entered the fray, but now, only twelve months later, Japan's national strength is almost completely depleted."

If conflict continues between Japan and China, then what we lose will likely not only be the interests in Manchuria and the Primorsky Krai, but even the Korean Peninsula will be plunged into crisis. And it's really hard to say which side Russia will take then.”

Even Kodama Gentaro, a staunch supporter of the continental policy within the Choshu faction, fell silent upon hearing Oyama Iwao's views. He knew the man was telling the truth: before the war, the army high command believed the cost of this major war would not exceed three times the military expenditure of the Sino-Japanese War, or 550 million yen. However, starting in March 2007, the Japanese army's monthly war expenditure had already exceeded 100 million yen.

After entering June, almost all of Japan's reserve young men were mobilized, and by the end of the month, Japan's war expenditures would be close to or possibly exceed 900 million yen. Japan's current operations are now entirely dependent on overseas loans. The cost of this war is far beyond what the army's leadership had anticipated.

Although the army optimistically told the Ministry of Finance and the Imperial Household Agency that as long as they won this battle, Japan could recoup all its war losses from Russia, thus deceiving the increasingly wavering political elite at home, such words could only fool the common people. Politicians, military leaders, and the Imperial Household Agency all knew that this was an unlikely vision.

Let's put ourselves in their shoes. If the Russian army occupied the Korean Peninsula and then demanded reparations from Japan, what would Japan do? Japan would rather let Russia occupy the Korean Peninsula and then guard the Korea Strait than pay Russia any reparations.

So why does everyone pretend to believe that the Russians will pay reparations and cede territory after the war? Because no one has the courage to tell the people the truth. If the people knew that they borrowed money to fight such a major war, only to receive little reparations in the end, and that the people would have to bear the responsibility of repaying the war debts after the war, then whoever spoke the truth would become an enemy of the people.

Therefore, everyone just went through the motions to bring the war to a close, then made impossible demands of Russia. After Russia rejected the demands, the people's resentment could then be directed at the Russians. It wasn't that they didn't want reparations, but that the Russians refused to pay.

However, before the war, the army only considered its strategy towards Russia, completely neglecting to consider what role China would play in the war, let alone the possibility that China would reclaim its interests in Manchuria and other regions after the war. This caused the army considerable headaches. If the war continued, Japan might lose all the benefits it had gained from it. After all, Japan did not have the strength to launch two consecutive world wars.

It's probably positive.

I had a fever last night, my body felt like a furnace, I think I might have contracted HBV. I'm going to the hospital to get checked out now. I don't even know if I'll update today. Everyone, please take care of yourselves and don't get HBV. I'm still dizzy and sweating profusely, but my throat doesn't hurt, just feels like there's phlegm stuck in it. I guess it will feel even worse tomorrow or the day after.

Chapter 474 The Manchurian War Comes to an End

Although the Japanese army was cautious, they eventually caught the Russian army in retreat. The stalemate south of Fengtian quickly changed, with the Japanese army boldly advancing deeper into the Russian positions, while the Russian army on the Fengtian positions went from retreating to being routed.

The Russian army was in such a state of panic that Captain Hoffmann, an official German military observer, believed that the Russian army had lost the courage to continue fighting, and that the war was essentially over. If the war was not over, it was not because the Russian army in Manchuria still wanted to fight, but because St. Petersburg refused to admit its defeat.

Captain Hoffman was able to draw this conclusion because, following General Gripenberger's open challenge to Kuropatkin's authority, General von Lenningkamp and General Samsonov actually fought in front of everyone at the Fengtian Railway Station, which quickly spread throughout the Russian army in Fengtian and further damaged the morale of the Russian troops.

The reason these two generals were so disrespectful to their subordinates was that when the latter were attacked and in danger by the Japanese army, the former did not move an inch. When General Samsonov saw the other at the station, he couldn't help but slap him. So the two of them started fighting like two street thugs in front of their subordinates.

Captain Hoffman believed that the behavior of these two generals demonstrated that the discipline of the Russian army in Manchuria had completely disappeared. Even the generals had forgotten what military discipline was, so how could the soldiers still obey orders? An army without discipline would find it very difficult to obey orders and sacrifice themselves on the battlefield.

In addition, Captain Hoffman believed that the Russian army had two fundamental flaws. The first was insufficient logistical support. Even if the Chinese army did not cut off the Trans-Siberian Railway, the Russian army was already in short supply of materials. Therefore, it had to requisition materials locally, which aroused the anger of the Manchurian residents. However, after using such methods, the Russian army often went hungry.

Of course, the starving Russian troops were almost all on the front lines; those near Fengtian would not go hungry. Those Russian soldiers who fled back from the front quickly discovered that the warehouses near the Fengtian railway station were full. In their anger, they broke into these warehouses themselves, resulting in a large amount of supplies being wasted and discarded along both sides of the railway line. Many Russian soldiers, drunk on the vodka supplied to their officers, completely forgot they were still on the battlefield.

The second shortcoming was the discipline of the Russian army. As a German soldier, Captain Hoffmann found it hard to believe that even in the 20th century, Russian soldiers still prioritized courage over organization and discipline. The Cossacks, in particular, whom the Russians regarded as brave warriors, behaved in no way differently from the Tatars in terms of discipline, except that the Cossacks were equipped with more advanced weapons.

Through this war that broke out in the Far East, the Germans realized that although Russia had the largest army in Europe, its actual combat effectiveness was questionable. Defeating Russia's active-duty army before the Russians could fully mobilize would be the key to Germany's victory over Russia.

For the Russians, this retreat in front of the enemy was practically no different from a rout, as both Chinese and Japanese armies seized the opportunity to launch attacks. The Russians, who originally intended to retreat to Tieling to reorganize their defenses, quickly discovered that they could no longer hold Tieling, as the Chinese were moving along the Liao River towards Siping.

Although Russian military assessments of the Chinese army's combat capabilities vary—in defensive warfare, the Chinese were roughly comparable to European armies—their performance in offensive tactics became polarized.

Some Chinese troops displayed remarkable resolve in their attacks, even posing a significant challenge to the main Russian forces. However, others were not much stronger than the Eastern armies the Russians remembered; once they managed to withstand the first attack, these Chinese troops began to hesitate and panic.

Therefore, although the Russian army lost Jinzhou, it rebuilt its defenses at Xinminfu, thus tying down the Chinese army, whose fighting spirit was low. However, although the Russian army did not take the overall performance of the Chinese army seriously, it was still a Chinese army capable of being deployed in the field. When the Russian army began to fall into disarray, such an army, wherever it appeared, would deliver the final blow to the Russian army that had lost its will to fight.

Therefore, Kuropatkin's original plan for an orderly retreat quickly turned into a self-retreat by each unit. If Kuropatkin had not shown his last bit of courage at this point, personally leading the Fengtian direct troops to cover the rear of the various units, thus allowing some units to regain some morale, then the Russian army's retreat would have truly turned into a major rout.

Not only did China and Japan launch a counterattack against the Russian army in Fengtian, but large-scale attacks on Russian military strongholds also occurred along the railway line from Tieling north to Harbin, as well as in Jilin and the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River.

These large-scale attacks on Russian railway outposts were not merely due to the Russian army's disadvantage in the war, which provoked opportunistic attacks from various factions in Manchuria. Rather, it was because the Russian army had plundered Manchuria's resources and oppressed its people for years, and when they suffered defeat, various factions in Manchuria began to retaliate.

Especially after the war began, the Russian army, due to a shortage of supplies, resorted to requisitioning cattle, sheep and grain directly. For those civilians who resisted, they were often stabbed or shot. Even the Red Beards of Manchuria regarded the Russian army as real robbers and devils.

However, although the various forces in Manchuria deeply resented the actions of the Russian army, they lacked organization and weaponry, so they could only attack isolated Russian troops. Even the railway outposts guarded by dozens of Russian soldiers were not something that hundreds or thousands of Redbeard soldiers could capture.

However, as Wuhan and Beiyang began to organize the military and civilians in Manchuria and sent officers and provided weapons and ammunition to various parts of Manchuria to guide their combat, the combat effectiveness of the local militias and self-defense forces in various parts of Manchuria began to rise rapidly.

For example, a Russian regiment stationed in Jilin had lost control of the area outside the shipyard due to the siege by the Jilin military and civilians. When these Russian troops received news of the retreat from Fengtian, they finally realized that they could no longer receive support from the rear. The Harbin authorities gave the Russian troops in Jilin an ambiguous order, letting them decide for themselves whether to retreat.

This order essentially told the Russian troops in Jilin that they had become an isolated force without support. The reason the Russian army wanted to occupy Jilin was because Jilin is located on the upper reaches of the Second Songhua River. Occupying this place meant that the Russian army controlled Jilin's transportation hub. Coupled with the South Manchurian Railway, central Manchuria would no longer have a central city capable of confronting the Russian army.

In other words, the Russian army's entry into Jilin served the strategic goal of occupying all of Manchuria. However, the Russian army has now lost southern Manchuria, and it is even uncertain whether it can hold northern Manchuria. Therefore, it naturally cannot afford to support the Russian army in Jilin, because the grand strategy of occupying all of Manchuria has failed.

However, the Russian troops stationed in Jilin were simply incapable of withdrawing to Changchun and Harbin on their own, as both land routes and the Second Songhua River waterway were controlled by the Chinese. A forced retreat would likely result in the loss of more than half of their troops en route, because they were no longer facing a disorganized group of local militias in Jilin, but rather the Jilin Self-Defense Army Alliance under a unified organization.

Under the command of this alliance, the previously independent militias and Red Beard militias were now incorporated into a unified strategy. The militias, who had previously been afraid of sacrifice, were now capable of fighting defensive battles under the unified command of the alliance. When the Russian troops stationed in Jilin realized that they would have little chance of returning home alive, the soldiers' morale nearly collapsed.

In this situation, An Zhonggen, the chief of staff of the Jilin Self-Defense Army Alliance, made a suggestion to the Russian officers stationed in Jilin: if the Russian army surrendered all its weapons and ammunition, they would allow the Russian army to return to Harbin. The Jilin Russian army hesitated, but after a Russian unit stationed in a nearby village was fiercely attacked and annihilated by the Self-Defense Army Alliance, and the Alliance showed its intention to attack Jilin City, the Jilin Russian army accepted the Alliance's suggestion and surrendered Jilin City and its weapons on June 29th, then boarded wooden boats and sailed down the river.

Three days earlier, Khabarovsk had also surrendered to the Japanese army, handing over control of the city. After failing to capture Harbin, Chief of Staff Tamura believed that Khabarovsk should be taken, and then the navy should be combined to advance up the Heilongjiang River to attack Harbin's flank, or simply continue north to attack Hailanpao, capturing key points in the middle and upper reaches of the Heilongjiang River one by one, and bringing the Russian Heilongjiang Province under Japanese control.

Tamura's plan was successful. Although Khabarovsk was an important Russian stronghold on the lower reaches of the Amur River, and Khabarovsk even had an Amur-Ussuri Cossack fleet with two steamships, one patrol boat and two barges, the ships were not armed and were only used to transport the army for bandit suppression.

Such a fleet was certainly sufficient to deal with the Red Beards and civilians along the Amur and Ussuri Rivers, but it was clearly insufficient against the Japanese river gunboats transported to the Amur River. Faced with the Japanese combined land and sea attack, the Russian forces in Khabarovsk held out for about 20 days before finally abandoning Khabarovsk.

For Tamura, a new route to Harbin had finally appeared. Although it would require naval power, there were no Russian defenses along the river, meaning they had finally found an opportunity to break through Harbin's defenses. However, news arrived at this time that the Chinese had cut off the Trans-Siberian Railway, a major blow to Tamura that made his victory seem insignificant once again.

Chapter 475 The Russians Who Are Caught Between One Thing and Another

However, for the Russian troops in Harbin, the fall of Khabarovsk and the entry of Japanese inland gunboats into the middle reaches of the Heilongjiang River were absolutely terrible news.

After all, apart from the Transbaikal region, the Amur and Primorsky Krai regions in the Far East had been under Russian control for less than 50 years, both of which were ceded during the Treaty of Beijing between China and Russia. However, the treaty stipulated that Russia could not occupy any places inhabited by Chinese or any fishing or hunting grounds occupied by Chinese, and that Chinese people were still permitted to continue fishing and hunting as usual.

Because the population along the Amur River was relatively dense, there was fierce resistance to Russia's occupation of the region. As a result, Russia ultimately developed the Primorsky Krai region, centered around Vladivostok and Khabarovsk, first. Before the outbreak of this war, Russia had more than 30 immigrants in the Primorsky Krai, but only about 10 immigrants on the left bank of the Amur River.

After the completion of the Chinese Eastern Railway, Russia perpetrated the Hailanpao and the Sixty-Four Villages East of the Heilongjiang River massacres. Its purpose was to clear out the Chinese people in this area, thereby establishing an immigrant area dominated by Slavic people on the left bank of the Heilongjiang River, and incidentally forming an encirclement of the right bank of the Heilongjiang River, in preparation for the future annexation of the area between the Chinese Eastern Railway and the Heilongjiang River.

However, Russia's policy of gradual encroachment was disrupted by the rapidly changing situation in the Far East. The Boxer Rebellion gave Russia the opportunity to annex the entire Manchurian region, which meant that the previous piecemeal approach was no longer keeping up with the times. More radical Russian adventurers attempted to directly incorporate Manchuria and the Korean Peninsula into Russia's territory, thereby establishing Yellow Russia.

Compared to the harsh climate on the left bank of the Heilongjiang River, the natural conditions naturally improved as one moved further south. Moreover, with the completion of the South Manchurian Railway, one could travel directly from Europe to Lushun by train. Naturally, Russian immigrants preferred the Kwantung Leased Territory, which had been developed by the Chinese for thousands of years, to the cold Siberian region.

Thus, although the Chinese Eastern Railway brought great convenience to immigrants in the European and Russian regions, taking at least three months to reach the Far East by land in the past, it now takes less than three weeks, the number of Russian immigrants on the left bank of the Heilongjiang River did not increase significantly. On the contrary, the number of Russian immigrants in the towns along the Chinese Eastern Railway increased greatly.

This means that Russia has no way to defend the banks of the Amur River. After losing its ability to transport goods along the river, the towns built along the Amur River have become isolated islands. The Japanese army can attack these towns along the river with almost no real resistance.

The Russian army was forced to deploy along the Songhua River to prevent Japanese gunboats from attacking the river basin and establishing a foothold there. This meant that the Russian troops in Harbin, who were originally supposed to be transferred to Chita to assist in opening up the railway line, had to prioritize ensuring the safety of Harbin due to the Japanese presence.

On July 2, the Northern Army Group under Cai E captured several important towns between Novoselenginsk and Verkhovdinsk, and in particular, captured the Petrovsky Factory, causing Verkhovdinsk to lose an important weapons repair center and thousands of good soldiers, thus officially severing the connection between the two places and effectively controlling the valley plain on the left bank of the lower Selenga River.

In the past week, the Chinese garrison at Tuluntayevo has increased to one and a half regiments, with another regiment stationed upstream on the opposite bank to contain Russian forces from the Irkutsk direction.

Nearly 7,000 Chinese troops firmly held Tuluntayevo, since the Selenga River turns westward through the mountains here before rushing out of the pass to form a river delta. To be honest, this terrain is not conducive to the deployment of large troops. In fact, if the Selenga River delta were suitable for human habitation, a large city would have been built here long ago.

Even though the Trans-Siberian Railway connected the Selenga River estuary, the Russians didn't develop the area on a large scale because the delta region was riddled with swamps and teeming with mosquitoes, making it unsuitable for agriculture and habitation. The high command of the Irkutsk Governorate understood this disadvantage, and despite repeated warnings from St. Petersburg, they only launched two or three attacks before giving up, because they didn't see sending a ragtag group to attack an enemy equipped with machine guns and artillery as a good idea.

This is the frontier, not the inland areas with their strict social organization. Many people here are convicts and political prisoners who have been exiled here. If the army suffers too many losses, who knows if there will be people inciting soldiers to mutiny? This is not just the wild imagination of the Irkutsk gentry. This May Day, a massive workers' strike and demonstration took place in the European-Russian region, with more than 20 participants.

In late May, 5 workers in Ivanovo-Voznesensk, under the leadership of the Bolsheviks, launched a massive strike. During the struggle, the workers established the first Soviets of Workers' Deputies. The establishment of these Soviets marked the political evolution of the workers' movement from peaceful petitions to the establishment of a proletarian regime.

As Russia embarked on the path of capitalism and the serfdom system disintegrated, Russian intellectuals began to gain a voice between the Tsarist government and the general public. These Russian intellectuals were eager to reform Russia's outdated feudal autocracy and bring Russia up to the pace of progress in Europe. Liberalism and socialism became the prevailing trends in Russian intellectual circles at the end of the 19th century.

However, it wasn't until after 1903 that Russian intellectuals truly humbled themselves and connected with the people. As Lenin stated, "Bolshevism as a political ideology and as a political party began in 1903."

Of course, in Russia at this time, no "Western-style" political group was allowed to exist. The small groups and discussion meetings organized by Russian intellectuals in secret societies were almost all independent of each other, and the members were frequently changing (arrested and exiled by the secret police), so "these small groups were always swaying back and forth endlessly, leaning to one side today and to the other tomorrow."

It was Lenin who, in order to change the political wavering of Russian intellectuals, united 20 Marxist workers' groups in 1895 to establish the St. Petersburg Working Class Emancipation Struggle Association, thus laying the foundation for the Russian proletarian revolutionary party.

From its inception, the Struggle Association implemented a strict centralized system, with an organizational structure divided into three levels: central, district, and factory. It actively led workers' strike movements, transforming Russian socialism from a cultural salon for intellectuals into a theoretical weapon guiding the struggle of the working class. It was precisely because of the Struggle Association's outstanding performance that the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party was established; the expansion of the workers' movement necessitated a unified national organization to lead it.

At the Second Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1903, Lenin steadfastly promoted the experience of guiding the workers' movement since the establishment of the Struggle Association, put forward the theory that the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat based on democratic centralism was the prerequisite for the realization of socialism, and believed that only a group of professional revolutionaries who took the revolution as their own cause could achieve this goal.

This meeting led to the emergence of Bolsheviks (the majority) and Mensheviks (the minority). Superficially, the former supported Lenin, while the latter supported Martov. However, in terms of sheer numbers, the latter actually outnumbered the former. So why were the latter considered the minority? Because "Menshevik" was a general term encompassing all party members who opposed Bolshevik doctrines, but in reality, there was no such thing as Menshevikism.

In fact, viewing the Mensheviks as a minority alliance is more accurate. For example, Martov's principles for party building essentially amounted to turning the party into a club, maintaining the independence of small local groups, and refusing to establish a so-called central leadership. The Mensheviks supported Martov not because they saw him as their leader, but because his proposed party-building plan catered to their needs.

Just as Lenin only recognized the Bolsheviks as a real political party after the Second Congress of the Social Democratic Party in 1903, before that the Social Democratic Party could only be described as a loose association of political groups across the country studying socialism, with many people studying socialism but not intending to put it into practice.

For most Russian intellectuals, socialism was not revolutionism. Many supported Bernsteinism of the Second International: opposing violent revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat, believing that as long as they opposed violent revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat, and as long as they adhered to the strategy of gradual and peaceful reform, capitalism could peacefully transition into socialism. They also put forward the proposition that "the initial purpose is insignificant, the movement is everything."

At this time, the true revolutionary party in Russia was the People's Will Party. The People's Will Party believed in the idealist view of history that heroes create history, and advocated that the masses were "the mob" and that the will of a few "heroes" could determine the direction of historical development. They believed that terrorist activities were a means of political change. Therefore, the party regarded the assassination of certain figures in the Tsarist government, especially the assassination of the Tsar, as its main method of struggle.

In 1881, its member Grinevitsky assassinated Alexander II on a street in St. Petersburg. Therefore, the Tsarist government did not simply exile members of the People's Will; they were hanged. Lenin's brother, a member of the People's Will, was arrested and sentenced to death by hanging.

Therefore, when the Bolsheviks attempted to transform the Social Democratic Labour Party into a genuine party leading the proletarian revolution, it naturally provoked discontent among party members who advocated remaining at the stage of legal struggle. It was only in 1903, with the Bolsheviks' victory at their Second Party Congress, that the Social Democratic Labour Party was truly led onto the path of revolutionary struggle.

The defeat in the Far East further exacerbated social contradictions within Tsarist Russia, leading to the growing influence of the Social Democratic Labour Party throughout the country. Although the mass movement initially erupted in major cities in Europe and Russia, the real threat came from the border regions of Siberia and Central Asia, where there were too many exiled anti-government elements.

Before the Chinese army's invasion of the Upper Udinsk region, urban workers along the Trans-Siberian Railway had already joined forces with railway workers to launch a series of strikes demanding an eight-hour workday and higher wages. Some activists among the Russian workers even openly argued that the war was an immoral war of aggression and that the Russian proletariat should not support it.

However, after the Chinese army entered Verkhovna Udinsk Oblast, the working class in the region became confused due to fear of retaliation for the war. Some workers turned to the position of national protection, believing that after the Chinese army entered Russian territory, national interests should be put first and class struggle should give way to patriotism. As a result, the workers' movement in the Far East experienced a temporary pause.

However, the patriotic sentiments of the Russian proletariat did not sway the Russian bureaucrats. In their view, given the choice between the invasion of their homeland and the workers' struggle, they would rather choose the former. After all, if the Chinese invaded Verkhovna Udinsk, they would at most cede a few pieces of land, but if the workers' movement were to develop, they would lose their heads.

The Russian bureaucrats, traditionally known for their stubbornness and foolishness, suddenly became as flexible and adaptable as the French. Just as the French ceded Alsace and Lorraine to Germany to suppress the Paris Commune, the Russian bureaucrats in the Far East preferred to let the Chinese occupy the Upper Udinsk region rather than allow the workers to establish Soviets of Workers' Deputies to defend their homeland.

Chapter 476 A Bolshevik

Because officials in Irkutsk and Chita continued to suppress the political activities of local workers while fighting the Chinese, and continued to requisition labor and livestock from the countryside, the patriotism that had been stirred up among the local people by the news of the Chinese invasion of Verkhovna Udinsk quickly subsided.

Because people realized that the men were far more hateful than the Chinese who hadn't even reached their doorstep. The Far Eastern section of the Trans-Siberian Railway was built with the help of the Chinese, so Russian immigrants along the railway had all had contact with these Chinese laborers. In fact, few Russian immigrants believed the official propaganda about the so-called atrocities committed by the Chinese.

For decades, all they had seen and heard was good news about the Tsarist army's invasion of Chinese territory, Cossacks boasting about how they treated unarmed Chinese civilians, and the harsh exploitation of Chinese laborers by Russian capitalists and foremen. They had never seen or heard of any Chinese committing atrocities against Russian civilians.

Even before the massacres at Hailanpao and the Sixty-Four Villages East of the River, Tsarist officials spread rumors to slander the Chinese, thus instigating these two inhumane massacres. Even the Tsarist soldiers who carried out the acts believed that the Chinese hadn't actually done anything wrong; it was simply that their masters wanted to drive them out of their homes.

On the eastern shore of Lake Baikal, mainly north of the railway line, there were numerous gold and silver mines. The Russian workers in these mines suffered oppression from the Tsarist government and capitalists no less than that of the Chinese laborers. After observing the actions of the Chinese army in Verkhovna Udinsk, these miners were among the first to break free from the influence of national protectionism.

These Russian miners accepted the Chinese argument that "this is a war of aggression waged by the Tsar and the bourgeoisie against the peoples of the East, not a war between the Russian people and the peoples of the East. There is only one way to end this war: the Russian people and the peoples of the East must unite, overthrow the Tsar's rule, and fight for the freedom of the Russian people."

Ivan Vasilyevich Babushkin was a member of the Irkutsk Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party and a Bolshevik. He was formerly a member of the "Workers' Struggle for Emancipation" in St. Petersburg and Yekaterinoslav and actively participated in the founding of the newspaper *Iskra*. For his active involvement in the workers' movement, he was arrested and exiled by the Tsarist government. With the help of comrades, he escaped exile and fled abroad. While abroad, he went to London and worked with Lenin before returning to Russia to carry out party organizational work in Irkutsk.

When news of the Chinese army's capture of Kyakhta reached Irkutsk, Babushkin was persuading the Irkutsk Committee of the Social Democratic Labour Party to launch an armed uprising along the Far Eastern Railway to strike against the Tsar's reactionary rule.

However, although the Social Democratic Labour Party had embarked on a true political party path after its Second National Congress, the party committees in various regions still maintained considerable independence, and the armed struggle line advocated by the Bolsheviks did not receive widespread support. In fact, many Bolsheviks, while supporting the armed struggle line, also harbored expectations for legal struggle, believing that armed struggle should only be undertaken after the possibility of legal struggle had been lost.

The local party committees that truly put the armed struggle line into action were primarily located in the border regions inhabited by ethnic minorities. These regions were already experiencing the dual oppression of class and nationality, and the masses there did not believe that the Tsar's rule could be overthrown through peaceful struggle. In the Russian interior, the regional party committees generally advocated peaceful struggle, while those advocating the armed struggle line were either the Central Committee members abroad or the grassroots party groups connected with the workers.

For example, Babushkin proposed launching an armed uprising in the Far East to disrupt the Trans-Siberian Railway, thereby causing the Tsarist government to suffer defeat in this immoral war and thus damaging the Tsar's prestige and reactionary rule. His proposal received the support of the workers, but was opposed by the majority of the committee, who believed that launching an armed uprising at this time, while striking at the Tsarist government, would also be tantamount to betraying Russia's interests.

However, while the two sides were still arguing, the situation in Russia underwent significant changes. The Bolsheviks and the working class united, and the workers' strikes escalated from local to nationwide, making grassroots political movements in Russian society more active. At this time, it was no longer just the Social Democratic Labour Party that wanted to represent the people; the Socialist Revolutionary Party, liberals, and various other political groups became active, attempting to gain a foothold in Russian politics by leveraging the burgeoning mass movement.

It can be said that the spontaneous and large-scale resistance of the Russian masses against the Tsarist autocracy is pushing Russian intellectuals toward political reformism or revolution. Intellectuals who used to only discuss social issues from the comfort of their warm rooms are now forced to verbally express their stance and try to keep up with this social trend due to the extreme dissatisfaction of the masses with the current system.

The Chinese army's invasion of Verkhovna Udinsk accelerated the Far Eastern proletariat's abandonment of the Tsarist government. When the miners and urban workers discovered that even after the Chinese had captured Tuluntayevo, local officials and capitalists still refused to grant them any economic or political requests, these workers realized that Russia belonged to the Tsar, bureaucrats, and the wealthy; they were merely slaves to Russia. What great motherland were they talking about? Apart from whips and unpayable debts, nothing in Russia truly belonged to them.

The awakened Russian working class quickly began to contact and protect their Chinese worker comrades. The railway section on the southern shore of Lake Baikal was the last to be completed. Due to the extremely complex terrain, a large number of laborers were hired from China. Although the railway line on the southern shore was completed, the tens of thousands of Chinese laborers who had been recruited were not sent back. These Chinese laborers stayed and joined the mines, logging camps, farms, and urban construction, greatly alleviating the shortage of local labor.

After the outbreak of the war against China, Russian Far East officials once wanted to repatriate these Chinese laborers, but this was opposed by the locals. After a large number of local Russians were conscripted for the war, these Chinese laborers were maintaining the daily operations of the local area. If they were all sent away, many jobs would not be available.

However, as the war became increasingly unfavorable to Russia, Russian officials in the Far East became increasingly uneasy about the Chinese and native inhabitants within their borders, fearing that they might take the opportunity to rebel and disrupt the operation of the Trans-Siberian Railway. As a result, they strengthened their surveillance and management of the Chinese and native inhabitants. For example, before the Chinese army entered Kyakhta, a fire broke out at the Tankhoi dock on the eastern shore of Lake Baikal, and Major General Mazyevsky of Chita was worried that the Chinese were causing sabotage.

The general not only ordered Kharchenko to send people to investigate as soon as possible whether the fire at the dock was caused by sabotage or by the Chinese, but also ordered Kharchenko to observe the Buryat people in Verkhovna Udinsk to see if there were any unusual movements among them.

More than 200 years after the Russians occupied the middle and lower reaches of the Selenga River, and with many Buryat people living Slavic lives, the Russian ruling class was still worried that the natives would rise up against their rule. This shows that the Russian ruling class was well aware of how unpopular their policies were in this land.

However, investigations by the local military and police revealed that both the Chinese laborers and the Buryat people were law-abiding citizens. It was actually the Russian workers who harbored resentment towards the Tsar and rose up in protest. The local military and police, however, dared not report this truthfully; instead, they concealed the Russian workers' resistance movement and shifted much of the blame onto the Chinese laborers.

These military and police officers knew very well that problems with Chinese laborers wouldn't attract attention from the European and Russian public, but if they were too harsh on Russian workers, they would face criticism from European and Russian media. Furthermore, unlike the interior, the Far East's working class was primarily composed of single, young adults, many of whom were exiled convicts. These individuals were experienced in struggle, and the policy of universal conscription in the border regions meant that the relationship between the working class and the military was actually much closer than in the interior.

If the workers in the Far East were to revolt, they would easily gain the sympathy of the soldiers, thus causing even greater trouble. Therefore, unlike local officials who tried to retain Chinese as a labor force, the grassroots military and police preferred to push local problems onto the Chinese and natives rather than the Russians, thereby avoiding direct conflict with the workers.

Of course, this avoidance of conflict refers to keeping the workers' actions within the bounds of legitimate struggle. If the workers attempted to organize strikes or armed struggle, the Russian ruling class would not hesitate to suppress the workers' movement. Therefore, the Russian workers in the Far East quickly discovered that discriminating against Chinese or indigenous people did them no good; it only cost them allies in their fight against the Tsarist military and police.

Therefore, some workers influenced by Bolshevism quickly argued, "Compared to the Tsar's lackeys, the Chinese and Buryat people oppressed by Tsarist autocracy are our true brothers. At least they won't shoot at us under the banner of the Romanov dynasty. So why should we discriminate against the Chinese and Buryat people from the Tsar's and his lackeys' perspective? Isn't this how the Tsar and his lackeys discriminate against us?"

Babushkin was a strong supporter of this proposition. When the Chinese army captured Kyakhta and most of the members of the Social Democratic Labour Party's Irkutsk Committee were swept up in patriotic sentiment, Babushkin believed that they should unite with the Chinese to overthrow the Tsarist rule in the region, break open a corner of the great prison of the Russian Empire in the Far East, and awaken the revolutionary enthusiasm of the people across the country.

After being opposed by other committee members, Babushkin decided to go to the front lines in person to observe the actions of the Chinese army and see if they were, as he claimed, there to overthrow the Tsar's autocratic rule, rather than to fight the Russian people.

When the Chinese stormed Tulentayevo, Babushkin was in Verkhovna Udinsk. To get a closer look at the Chinese army's behavior, Babushkin went to the Petrovsky Factory, where he witnessed the Chinese troops firsthand. He concluded that these Chinese were far more disciplined than the Tsar's army; at least they hadn't committed murder, robbery, or rape in the towns, and they had indeed provided humanitarian treatment to surrendered Russian soldiers. After observing the Chinese army for three days, Babushkin decided to request a meeting with their high command.

Chapter 477 Small Town

In Ivorginsky Klyuch, a town south of Verkhovna Udinsk, located on the road to Novoselenginsk, the Russian residents remained vigilant against the Chinese army. They stayed indoors, observing the actions of the new rulers, and no one was willing to make any proactive contact with the Chinese troops.

In fact, some residents had already had the young women in their homes cut off their beautiful long hair and change into men's clothing, fearing that these Chinese soldiers might break into their homes and commit some atrocities. After all, Russian soldiers often did such things, especially the Cossacks, who wouldn't even spare their own civilians. This fear of the conquered over the conquerors was the main source of the Russian proletariat's acceptance of national protectionism.