“Upstairs, comrades, everything is in place,
The last parade is coming
Our proud Varangian does not surrender to the enemy,
No one wants mercy. ”
This poem was written by an Austrian writer and poet Rudolf Greinz, impressed by the heroism of the Russian sailors who entered the battle with superior enemy forces on January 27, 1904 in the bay of the Korean port of Chemulpo. In April 1904, translations into Russian were made, and only then these words were put to music. So there was a song that the sailors fell in love with, and with them the whole people. After this lyrical digression we will pass directly to the history of the cruiser "Varangian".
History reference
"Armored cruiser 1st rank" Varyag "launched in 1899; laid in 1898 in Philadelphia at the shipyard of the American company "Ulyam Kramp and Sons." "Varangian" was accepted into the Russian imperial fleet in 1901.
Displacement - 6500 tons.
Maximum speed - 23 knots.
Armament:
12 six-inch guns;
22 small-caliber guns;
5 mine vehicles.
The crew is 580 people. ”
In September 1901, the cruiser Varyag "became part of the first Pacific squadron, which at that time was based in Port Arthur.
At the end of the 19th century, the center of Russian interests in the Asia-Pacific region moved to Manchuria and Korea. The main strongholds of Russia in China are the Sino-Eastern Railway (CER), built as part of the Trans-Siberian Railway. The Chinese Eastern Railway passed through the territory of Manchuria and connected Chita with Vladivostok and Port Arthur. Then the city of Harbin was founded. According to the 1898 convention, the Chinese side leased Russia to Port Arthur for a period of 25 years. In 1903, the Far Eastern governorate was formed, which included: the Kwantung Peninsula and the Amur Governor General. Admiral Alekseev was appointed viceroy. Evil tongues called him the illegitimate son of Alexander II, therefore, he was the brother of Alexander III. If so, then Alekseev accounted to Emperor Nicholas II uncle. But back to Port Arthur, located in the south of the Liaodong Peninsula. Port Arthur - an ice-free port, was of considerable value in the Far Eastern policy of the tsarist government. Port Arthur was considered the main base of the Pacific Fleet. Here was based the first Pacific squadron, which included the cruiser "Varyag".
The interests of tsarism were not confined to Manchuria. They were facing Korea. After the war with China in 1894 - 1895, Korea was effectively under the protectorate of Japan. But the tsarist government was not averse to expelling the Japanese from the Korean Peninsula, and subsequently to establish their protectorate over Korea. In Korea, Anglo-American interests also merged. The British Empire and the United States, which were actively pushing Japan to war with Russia, hoped that both sides would weaken in the upcoming war, and this would not hinder establishing their dominance in Korea and the Asia-Pacific region. All this subtle political game was played in the Korean capital Seoul. It was such a policy that caused the warships of England, the USA, Japan, France, Italy and Russia to be simultaneously located in the small Korean port of Chemulpo. Russia was represented by the Varyag cruiser under the command of captain of the first rank, personnel officer of the guards crew Vsevolod Fedorovich Rudnev, and gunboat Koreyets - commander of the second rank captain Grigory Pavlovich Belyaev.
to be continued..