Campaign of Second Pacific Squadron and the Battle of Tsushima in 1905 in Publications of “Kuban Regional Vedomosti”

Abstract

The fragments of essays of the newspaper "Kuban Regional Vedomosti", which was published in Yekaterinodar at the beginning of the 20th century are provided in the article. It is noted that during this period, printed periodicals were the only source of information about the events of the Russan-Japanese War (1904-1905), accessible to wide strata of society living in various regions of the Russian Empire. The presented results of the analysis of articles, essays and notes about the Battle of Tsushima and the activities of Admiral Z. P. Rozhestvensky allow us to judge what information was disseminated in Russian society through the periodical press. The author of this article, based on the publications of the newspaper “Kuban Regional Vedomosti”, explores the opinions of Russian and foreign military experts on the strategies and tactics of the Russian military command. The main attention is paid to the analysis of articles that describe the movements of the Russian naval squadron from the Baltic Sea to Vladivostok and the largest naval battle of the beginning of the 20th century near Tsushima Island. The relevance of the problems is due to the fact that in historical science there is no consensus on the causes of military defeat, as well as on the role of Z. P. Rozhestvensky. The degree of information content of the publications of the newspaper “Kuban Regional Vedomosti” about the events of the Russan-Japanese War is estimated, the pro-government ideological orientation of this periodical is illustrated with concrete examples.