In recent years, with the establishment of the status of strategic cooperative partners between China and Russia, the armed forces of the two countries have continuously carried out joint exercises and exchanged visits. The famous Russian diver Odor told the Russian media that he would go to the sea off Lushunkou in China with Chinese Navy divers to explore the wreckage of the Russian Navy battleship Peter Pavlovsk that sank during the Russo-Japanese War more than a hundred years ago. O'Dor revealed that the expedition was of a memorial nature, and he would also try his best to salvage the remains of the Russian naval officers and men who died in the ship and bring it back to Russia for burial. Among the officers and men of these fallen Russian troops, there was a talented Russian admiral who was the world's top Russian admiral, and he was Stepan. Vice Admiral Makarov.
Japanese ukiyo-e depictions of Makarov's death
An important factor in the fiasco of Tsarist Russia in the Russo-Japanese War was the extreme corruption and incompetence of its top generals. However, General Makarov, known as a scholarly general, was one of the rarest, and from a family of junior officers, he joined the Navy as a trainee sailor at the age of 14 and was later promoted to a full-time officer. As early as his youth, he embodied a talent for naval tactics, ship and armament design inventions, hydrographic geography, and wargame drills. In the Russo-Turkish War of 1881, Makarov had become the captain of a torpedo boat mothership, sinking an enemy ship with a torpedo in a naval battle, the first actual battle record of torpedoes in the history of naval warfare. After the war, Makarov was promoted to captain of the cruiser Warrior, and in 1886 he commanded the ship to embark on a three-year circumnavigation of the globe, a move that won numerous applause to Tsarist Russia, who was weakly aware of the sea, and Makarov himself was hailed as a top oceanographer.
Makarov, who was only 55 years old at the time of his death, was a scholarly general who was greatly admired by officers and soldiers
In the late 19th century, the great powers began to explore the North and South Poles, and Tsarist Russia was adjacent to the North Pole, and naturally did not want to be left behind. Beginning in 1897, Makarov commanded the research ship twice in a few years, conducted large-scale investigations, during the expedition he commanded the research ship was trapped by the ice floes several times, and the expedition team also faced the situation of running out of ammunition many times, but Makarov finally overcame the difficulties of the ice sea with his rich experience in marine exploration and excellent command ability. The results of his Arctic expeditions have provided valuable support to the scientific expedition community to this day. What is even more valuable is that at the same time as his expedition, he also published a world-class naval masterpiece: "On naval tactics", which comprehensively expounded and summarized the combat fleet, weapon technology and various tactics derived from it. As a result, Makarov's name sensationalized the world's naval circles, even the number one maritime hegemon at that time, Britain, admired it, and its number one opponent in the Russo-Japanese War, the commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, Togo Heihachiro, was also an iron fan of Makarov, and makarov's various works were read many times, after all, when Makarov became famous, Togo was just an ordinary cruiser captain.
Makarov believed that the fleet must be able to fight alone without shore artillery protection
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said that what we really need to fear is fear itself. Whether or not you can improve your own morale and quality in a headwind situation is the key to measuring the level of generals. Yue Fei once led the Yue family army to study the advantages and disadvantages of the enemy and ourselves and repeatedly trained, and finally defeated the opponent's elite heavy cavalry, breaking the rumor that the Jin people were invincible. Makarov and Yue Fei had a very similar side, he took over as Commander of the Pacific Fleet in early March 1904, when the Russian Fleet had just been severely damaged by the undeclared Japanese tactics of torpedo boats at night, and the Japanese army continued to launch blocking operations at night, so the morale of the Russian army was extremely low, and the fleet could not leave the port gate. There are terrible legends about the Japanese army circulating in the Russian army, and many people, when they heard that they were going to fight, secretly cut off their fingers or toes with knives to deceive the opportunity to be hospitalized! After Makarov's investigation, he decided that the biggest problem was not hardware, but software. He believes that the fleet has never dared to leave the port protected by shore artillery to go to sea to meet the enemy, because of the sense of fear from top to bottom. The source of this sense of fear is that the Russian army's shooting technology at that time was very poor, so that the capital ship often had difficulty effectively hitting a fixed target hundreds of meters away! In this way, if you face a high-speed moving target at a distance of tens of thousands of meters in the open sea, judging by the shooting gap between the two sides, the Russian army basically only has to send death.
Scenes of Makarov issuing orders for the benefit of Chinese are recreated in the documentary
Soon Makarov refuted the negative officers with iron blood: if you do not raise the level of shelling, you will never be able to fight the enemy in the far seas, you will always live in the shadows, such an army is like a timid hunter, torn apart by a beast and not worthy of sympathy. Makarov soon ordered the mobilization of a large number of coal and ammunition needed by the fleet, and continuous large-scale training, which greatly improved the level of Russian fire in less than two weeks. In addition, Makarov believed that the Japanese had a unique move in addition to precision shelling and night raids, and Makarov ordered the strengthening of the number of searchlights and shore guns on the way to and from the port at night, and increased the number of light patrol ships. Soon, Makarov personally led the fleet to sea and encountered the Japanese fleet, the Russian army with a new look to make the opponent suffer one after another, and the Japanese army's carefully planned raid also broke in the face of the Russian army's iron wall-like defense. Some Russian sailors wrote in their diaries that we callEduel Makarov Little Daddy, expressing our admiration and love for him, because Little Daddy proved that the enemy is by no means invincible, and he will really let us people live to see victory, and our lives have a new meaning, no longer a cold number that can be sacrificed at any time.
The last photograph of Makarov's flagship, the Petropavlovsk
Wusheng Guan Yu was regarded as a benevolent general because of his compassion for the benevolent deeds of his subordinates. And Makarov is such a benevolent general, but also a wise general. The Russo-Japanese War was a dog-eating war that took place in Chinese territory, when the Russian army and the Chinese people had a bad relationship, which was mainly due to the Russian soldiers' frequent drunkenness and even adultery and plunder, and the Treatment of Chinese handymen conscripted by the Russian army was comparable to that of black slaves, and the cunning Japanese spies took this opportunity to constantly claim that the yellow race would stand together to expel such arrogant and arrogant white colonists as Russia. Makarov knew very well that in Lushun alone, there were many deceived Chinese or Japanese agents pretending to be Chinese who constantly spied on military intelligence, and simple and brutal suppression could not solve the problem at all. At that time, the status of Russian soldiers was even inferior to that of the nobles' pets, not even the right to enter the café and cinema, the pitiful salary was often withheld, and the clothing and food were extremely poor. And they were often cursed and beaten by veterans and commanders, the Russians were known for their stick discipline, and sailors were routinely whipped dozens of whips. In order to make a living and vent their anger, the soldiers can only turn their oppressive eyes to the innocent Chinese people, which is tantamount to helping the Japanese agents.
Due to the suddenness of the incident, Makarov simply did not have time to escape the sunken battleship
During one of the inspections, Makarov found that the Chinese workers were standing unsteadily with yellow muscles, and immediately inspected the canteens and dormitories of the Chinese workers at lunch, and he insisted on eating a portion of the Chinese workers' food, and after seeing him eat, both the Chinese workers and the Russian officers and men were stunned: This is the first russian senior officer who can eat such a poor food! Makarov said bluntly that I also ate sled dog feed during the Arctic expedition. On the same day, Makarov replaced the logistics officer who was originally responsible for the food and accommodation of Chinese workers and low-level officers and soldiers, and ordered that Russian soldiers were strictly prohibited from harassing the Chinese people, and violators of military law were severely punished! At the same time, he ordered that the food and accommodation conditions of Chinese employees be raised to the level of active officers and men of the Russian army, saying that Chinese workers fought side by side with us, and we should treat them as brothers and give them brotherly treatment. In addition, Makarov tried his best to ban many corporal punishments of soldiers, and instead let the wrong soldiers know what the problem was in a way that stimulated the soldiers' sense of honor, the most important thing was that Makarov raised the soldiers' salaries and paid them on time and in quantity, and after rectification, this long-standing multiple contradictions were greatly alleviated. It is true that Makarov's kindness to Chinese was ultimately in the service of the Russian authorities, but this act of kindness was also in stark contrast to many white Russian/Soviet generals with a sense of superiority, and naturally won the respect of Chinese.
Footage of flagship explosions snapped up by other Russian ships at the time of Makarov's death
The law is not expensive, and the army should be even more so. At that time, the phenomenon of nepotism in the Tsarist army was extremely serious, and high-level officers often had imperial backgrounds; under this nepotism, the phenomenon of a person ascending to heaven abounded, and many officers either had no experience or were old and confused and refused to retire. Makarov's predecessor, Stalko, was such a typical case, when the Japanese army raided into the harbor, he actually invited celebrities from all walks of life to hold a ball in the hotel; the commander of the Lushun City Defense enjoyed different Chinese and Western dishes and fine wines every day, without the slightest regard for his subordinates starving in the cold winter wind, and he never went to the front line once! In the Russian fleet, there are not a few such captains with extremely poor professional ability and even corrupt relations, Makarov considers these people to be moths, and after the exercise, Makarov solemnly issued a notice of dismissal of these people and promoted a group of young officers with no aristocratic background but talent. Previously, these people had to spend their military careers in obscurity due to their low seniority and no background, and there is no doubt that Makarov's move is a leap forward in combat machine software. More importantly, Makarov himself abandoned the palatial headquarters in the rear at the beginning of his term of office, directly worked on warships, and took the lead in a small high-speed but defenseless warship when he went to sea to meet the enemy, which greatly boosted the morale of officers and men.
However, Makarov, who had no aristocratic background and was fierce in his work, also became a thorn in the side of the aristocratic officers. In recent years, a source has shown the fundamental factor in his accidental death: the route of each round-trip attack he led was so fixed that he was detected by the Japanese army and specially laid mines here, and the problem of fixed route was said to be detained by a certain bureaucrat. Finally, on the morning of April 13, 1904, Makarov's battleship Peter Pavlovsk suddenly struck a mine, and the explosion site was at the heart of the ship, which not only detonated the ship's ammunition depot, but also caused the boiler to explode at the same time, and three explosions in a few minutes made the ship irreparable. There are surviving sailors' memories: the general shouted at them at the last moment to leave, which is his last impression of the general and will never be forgotten. Tsar Nicholas II even privately claimed that he would rather lose a few ironclad ships than Makarov, and the sailors were even more grieved, believing that although there were many generals, there was no such general as Makarov who could really bring victory, and they said bitterly: Makarov is like gold that sinks into the sea, and the mediocre people who live in the world are like horse dung floating on the sea. The general died in hundreds of battles, and Makarov, who combined the talents of Guan Yu, Yue Fei and other famous generals, was certainly a warrior worthy of admiration by Chinese soldiers.