“Japan has interrupted diplomatic relations with Russia. In the port Arthur roadstead, on a dark night, explosions of Japanese mines thundered among the peacefully sleeping warships. In distant Chemulpo, after a titanic struggle with an entire squadron, the lone "Varangian" and "Korean" perished ... The war began.What is this war for? No one knew. For half a year, alien to everyone negotiations on the cleansing of Manchuria by the Russians dragged on, the clouds accumulated more and more thickly, there was a smell of a thunderstorm. Our rulers, with tantalizing slowness, were swinging the scales of war and peace on the scales. And so Japan resolutely cast its lot on the cup of war ... "