As early as the period of Tsarist Russia, the Russians were already eyeing the Liaodong Peninsula on the mainland, but they were too far away, so they couldn't find a chance for a while.
In 1895, after the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, the black-hearted Japan demanded that the Qing court cede the Liaodong Peninsula to them. If this place is going to be ceded, then Gyeonggi will be in danger. For this reason, the Qing court has been hesitant.
At the critical moment, Tsarist Russia shouted to Germany and France, and at the same time put pressure on Japan, demanding that they could only collect 30 million taels of ransom and not cede the Liaodong Peninsula.
Japan had just finished fighting the First Sino-Japanese War at that time, and it had no strength to continue to compete with these masters, and their pockets were indeed empty, so it would be good if they could collect more money, so they had to admit it.
At that time, both Japan and the Qing Dynasty probably thought that Tsarist Russia wanted to get more preferential treatment from trade, and did not think about it at all on the Liaodong Peninsula. After all, the distance between the Liaodong Peninsula and their territory is too far, who would have thought of what would happen later?
1. In December 1897, Tsarist Russia occupied the Liaodong Peninsula
One thing to say, Tsarist Russia was really good to the Qing court during that time, not only helped the Qing court to return to the Liaodong Peninsula, but also promised to lend the Qing court 1 tael of silver at low interest to repay the debt.
Cixi's mouth was crooked, and the Russian lord descended from heaven to help him tide over the difficulties. Li Hongzhang even became a staunch pro-Russian faction because of this. The pro-Russian faction dominated the court, and for a time no one dared to say that Russia was bad, and even the 1.51 million square kilometers of land that had been cut off had been completely forgotten.
As a result, in 1896, Tsarist Russia showed its fox tail.
In 1896, Nicholas II took the opportunity of the coronation to invite Li Hongzhang to Tsarist Russia as a guest. During this period, Nicholas II and Li Hongzhang signed the Sino-Russian Secret Treaty.
It was a secret treaty, that is, a promise to allow Tsarist Russia to build a railway in northeast China. Build a straight railway from the interior of the Northeast to connect their Chita and Vladivostok provinces.
Obviously, this was a treaty that betrayed sovereignty, and whose land would be lent to others to build the railway? But Lao Li was very close to Russia at that time, and he agreed to this matter.
This is the first step for Tsarist Russia to enter the Northeast, and with this step, it will be much easier to take the Liaodong Peninsula.
In 1897, Nicholas II approached his cousin, Kaiser Wilhelm II, to discuss the seizure of the Liaodong Peninsula. Why did you consult with him? It turned out that Wilhelm II had always wanted to get Shandong.
Therefore, Nicholas II agreed with him, you go to seize Shandong, and I will pretend to occupy the Liaodong Peninsula in order to deal with you, and we will each take our own share and not interfere with each other.
The two hit it off, hehe, and they laughed, and they did it. In November 1897, the Germans occupied Jiaozhou Bay, and in December, Tsarist Russia immediately dispatched its navy in Vladivostok to occupy the Liaodong Peninsula.
The Qing court must have sent someone to ask what was going on, and the Tsarist Russia had already thought of a rhetoric: Isn't it Germany occupying your Jiaozhou Bay, we occupy the Liaodong Peninsula, and we will help you take precautions, just like Japan. When the Germans left, we withdrew.
In March 1898, Tsarist Russia forced the Qing court to sign the "Luda Land Lease Treaty" and forcibly leased Luda away. When the Japanese got the news, they almost ruined their jobs.
Second, only by holding the Northeast can we ensure that the brigade is safe
The transfer of the base of the Russian navy from Vladivostok to the port of Arthur was an important move. After all, there is a natural ice-free port, and the climate is much better than that of Vladivostok.
And occupying this place, you can threaten the Qing Dynasty's Gyeonggi land at any time, which is equivalent to controlling the lifeblood of the Qing Dynasty, and you can ask for any territory when the time comes. To this end, Tsarist Russia began to focus on building the Port Arthur naval base.
But one of the big problems facing Tsarist Russia is that in order to really control the Lushunkou naval base, it is necessary to find a way to link it with the Russian mainland, at least to get unimpeded contact, which is not so easy.
First, the waterways are not very smooth
Taking the waterway is nothing more than passing through the Tsushima Strait between Japan and the peninsula, but Japan already controlled the peninsula at that time, so the navy of Tsarist Russia is equivalent to going from the upper part of Japan's sphere of influence, which is too dangerous.
If you don't take this route, you will have to find a way to go around the Pacific Ocean on the outskirts of Japan and back from the East China Sea, which will be too much of a toss-up. Therefore, the waterway between Tsarist Russia and Arthur was not smooth.
Second, there is no land route
This is a very realistic thing, Tsarist Russia did not occupy the northeast at that time, and the southernmost part of their eastern territory is next to Hunchun in Jilin, which is far from Lushun.
For this reason, Tsarist Russia has thought of a lot of methods, and they have implemented them all.
First of all, touch the peninsula
Tsarist Russia felt that it should start from the two lines of the northeast and the peninsula at the same time. Although the Qing court gave up its suzerainty over the peninsula, Tsarist Russia still wanted to fight.
For this reason, Tsarist Russia specially supported its own forces on the peninsula, intending to compete with Japan for control of the peninsula. If the peninsula can be in the hands of Tsarist Russia, then Vladivostok can go directly to Lushun by water. Moreover, the peninsula has more natural harbors, and Tsarist Russia must have been coveting it for a long time.
Secondly, the railway will be repaired all the way to Lushun
This is a plan that Tsarist Russia revealed intentionally or unintentionally when it signed the "Sino-Russian Secret Treaty" with Lao Li in 1896. When they were building the main line of the Eastern Railway, they would also build a branch line to the Liaodong Peninsula.
At that time, there was no shadow of the main line, and Lao Li naturally didn't care about any branch lines. I didn't expect that Tsarist Russia was planning such a big move, just to pass the railway and directly control Lushun.
But to be honest, even if the land and water routes are opened, Tsarist Russia has no bottom in his heart. After all, it is not its own territory, and it does not dare to invest a lot of money! For this reason, Tsarist Russia still hopes to spend a lot of money to invest in Lushun after seizing the northeast.
In 1900, the invasion of China by the Eight-Nation Coalition gave them this opportunity, and Tsarist Russia seized the opportunity and decisively sent 170,000 troops to seize more than 800,000 square kilometers of land in Northeast China. After actually controlling the Northeast, they were down-to-earth.
3. After Tsarist Russia left, the Soviet Union came again
Tsarist Russia occupied the northeast and also touched the peninsula, which has touched Japan's bottom line. For this reason, Japan repeatedly asked Tsarist Russia not to stretch its hand to the peninsula, but Tsarist Russia laughed and did not like Japan at all.
In the eyes of the Russians, their attacks on Asian countries are basically dimensionality reduction strikes. As a result, Japan formed an alliance with Britain in 1902, borrowed a large amount of money from the United States, and launched the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, which ruthlessly cleaned up Tsarist Russia.
After the Russo-Japanese War, Tsarist Russia was directly stunned, lost two-thirds of its naval strength, and withdrew from the Northeast on its own, retaining only the right to operate the main trunk line of the Eastern Railway, which was really a big loss.
Japan took over the naval base at Port Arthur, shattering Russia's northeastern dream.
In 1917, because of its participation in World War I, Tsarist Russia caused extremely acute internal contradictions, and finally fell into the dust of history.
Tsarist Russia is gone, and Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union have risen one after another. They did not dare to provoke Japan at first, and Japan even stationed troops in the Far East for a long time from 1920 to 1922, almost dismantling Russia.
Until World War II entered the white heat, the Soviet Union did not fight Japan. By February 1945, the results of World War II had become clear, and at this time, the Soviet Union put forward several conditions for sending troops to the Northeast to deal with Japan at the Yalta Conference:
- First, Mongolia maintains the status quo, that is, Mongolia becomes self-reliant.
- Second, the Eastern Railway is counted as a Soviet battalion, but the management of the first 30 years is still vested in the Soviet Union.
- Third, Lushun was still leased to the Soviet Union as a naval base, and the Soviet Union had special priority in the port of Dalian.
In this way, the Soviet Union could not only control the Eastern Railway, but also continue to hold the Port of Arthur, which was tantamount to restoring the control of Tsarist Russia in Northeast China before 1900.
Even so, the Soviet Union's dispatch of troops was not so refreshing, and it was not sent until August 9, 1945, when a mushroom from Lao Mei had already been thrown into Japan.
Even so, the USSR sent troops, and in one fell swoop ate hundreds of thousands of Kwantung Army, achieving everything they wanted in the Northeast.
So the question arises, why did the Soviet Union voluntarily return Lushun in 1955
On December 31, 1952, the Soviet Union returned control of the Eastern Railway, and in 1955, the Soviet Union returned the Port of Arthur. It's weird, so why do they give up so much of their interest? I think there are a few reasons:
- First, we have made a show of momentum on the battlefield on the peninsula, and the Soviet Union has also made itself ashamed, because they have played some tricks in this war, and they should have borne the responsibility, but they have pushed us to the front. In order to make up for us, so opt out of Lushun.
- Secondly, at that time we were in a honeymoon period with the USSR, and although this honeymoon period lasted only 11 years, it was precisely the time to return Lushun during this period. If the relationship is good, naturally many things can be discussed.
- Third, Khrushchev still had a good impression of China during that time, and he had just succeeded to the throne and was in urgent need of external support. Being able to have good relations with China and get support is what Khrushchev very much wanted to see.
- Fourth, Stalin promised as early as 1949 that he would return Lushun in 1952. But then there was a war on the peninsula and Stalin died, and the matter dragged on until 1955. Khrushchev's quick resolution of this issue can be regarded as an expression of his sincerity.
- Fifth, and most importantly, the Soviet Union could not gain access to the Northeast, nor did it lose control of the Eastern Railway, and it was not realistic to take the Tsushima Strait, so it could not really make good use of the natural harbor of Lushunkou. Instead of falling out with your neighbors, it's better to be a favor.
In any case, from 1897 to 1955, Lushun, who had been away from the motherland for more than half a century, finally embarked on a tortuous and winding road and returned to the embrace of the motherland.