War correspondents of German-language periodicals about the Russian land forces in the Russo-Japanese war 1904-1905: visual aspect

The aim of the submitted article is to analyze how the outward appearances of Russian land forces were perceived by war correspondents of German-language periodicals in Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905. The main sources for the research were published memoirs, diaries and letters from representatives of German and Austro-Hungarian press: primarily retired being a colonel and correspondent of the daily “Berliner Tageblatt” Richard Gaedke, retired lieutenant, war correspondent of the “Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger” Oscar von Schwartz and retired captain of the cavalry from the newspaper “Pester Lloyd” Alexander Spaits. In the first post-war years, these witnesses of the Russian participation in the Russian-Japanese war of 1904-1905 in Manchuria had published the materials collected about it. The range of the topics covered by these correspondents was wide and various, but the appearance of the Russian soldiers and officers is described in great detail. The reason for this is that very often representatives of the press focused on the social environment, which was unusual for them. In this regard, the visual aspect of perception is in the focus of attention - information about physical abilities of the combatants, their health and household habits, characteristics of external behavioral manifestations and other problematic issues that have been considered and analyzed in the present article. Comparison of the data from these sources shows similarity between the described characteristics of the Russian forces in Manchuria and a difference between their interpretations. War correspondents of German-language periodicals R. Gaedke, O. von Schwartz and A. Spaits saw the Russian soldiers and officers as slow, sluggish men with a robust constitution and impressive physical force. Their addiction to alcohol, calmness, unpretentiousness and the boundless patience shown in the most adverse conditions were noted. Authors have refuted the information about unsatisfactory food security and the physical condition of the Russian land forces on the pages of their works and have stressed big independence of enlisted men in many everyday and organizational issues. In order to prove it, the authors have cited examples from the life on the Russian positions in Manchuria during the war between Russia and Japan. Determination of the specifics of the sources on which the research was based and research of conditions of their creation has shown interrelation between author's estimates of the state of the Russian army and personal sympathies of authors, their mood, motives, incentive for a travel to Manchuria. This set of factors led to the shift of emphases on details of outward appearance of Russian soldiers and officers in Manchuria during the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905.

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