The Russian City Dalnii through the Eyes of the Minister of War Aleksei Kuropatkin

Abstract

Using the unpublished documents from The Russian State Military Historical Archive, the article explores the history of visit to Dalian (Russian – Dalnii) city by the minister of war of the Russian Empire Aleksei N. Kuropatkin in 1903. The research is based on the diary written by the minister during the trip, and also on the collection of the documents he compiled. During the trip to the Far East, he visited a new Russian commercial port, which was being built on the Liaotung peninsula. The article describes how he inspected the administrative part of the city and technical facilities, and analyzes his criticism and recommendations. The documents presented to the minister of war by V. V. Sakharov, the chief of city administration in Dalian, provide information on the contemporary situation in the city; on the number of inhabitants and their nationality; on city planning and architecture; on the system of public land auctions, taxes and fees. The significance of Dalian city to the defense of the Russian Far East as a suitable naval base for Japan in the case of the attack on Port-Arthur is considered as well as the necessity of placing a stronger garrison in Dalian. It is noted that minister of war was skeptical of the development of Dalian as a large Russian commercial port in the Pacific. He also paid attention to the imbalance between generous funding of commercial projects of Sergei U. Vitte and inadequately subsidized defense projects.