“8. Nevertheless, I consider that I myself am the person principally responsible for our defeat, for the following reasons:
“(_a_) I did not sufficiently insist on the concentration of as large a general reserve as possible before the operations commenced.
“(_b_) I weakened myself just before an important battle by a brigade of infantry and a Cossack division (believing General Chichagoff’s reports). If I had not sent one brigade of the 16th Corps for duty on the communications, and had insisted on the 1st Siberians being sent back from the 1st Army at full strength, I should have had two full corps available for operations against Nogi’s turning movement.
“(_c_) I did not take adequate measures to prevent the confusion of units. Indeed, during the battle I was myself compelled to contribute to the disintegration of corps.
“(_d_) I should have made a better appreciation of the respective spirit of both sides, as well as of the characteristics and qualifications of the commanders, and I should have exercised more caution in my decisions. Although the operations of the 2nd Army from March 2 to 7 failed in their object, my firm belief in ultimate victory resulted in my ordering a general retirement later than I ought to have done. I should have abandoned all hope of the 2nd Army defeating the enemy a day sooner than I did; the retirement would then have been effected in complete order.
“(_e_) When convinced of Kaulbars’ inertia and passive tactics, I should have taken command of the troops on the right bank of the Hun personally. On March 9 I should similarly have taken command of Muiloff’s force, and acted as a corps commander.”
In my letters of March 31 and May 13, 1905, to His Majesty the Emperor, I reviewed generally the factors which made the war extraordinarily difficult for us.[104]
Has the army survived its Tsushima? No; it went through nothing nearly so bad as that. We fought hard everywhere, and we inflicted greater losses on the enemy than they on us. We were weaker in numbers than they were, and we retired. Even the Mukden reverse owes its reputation as a decisive Japanese victory to the impressions of our own correspondents, who were with the baggage and in rear. Can one say that the Russian land forces were defeated, when in the first important battles (at Liao-yang and on the Sha Ho) we only put into action a fourteenth part of our armed forces, and at Mukden, at a time when the Japanese had already put forth their greatest efforts, we had less than a sixth of our force? Nor must it be forgotten that we fought against a nation of 50,000,000 martial and ardent souls, who, hand in hand with their Emperor, were able to grasp victory by fearing no sacrifice. To defeat such a foe in such a distant theatre of war, great and continued efforts were required of the whole of our country as well as of the army. In the beginning of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries we waged great wars with such leaders as Charles XII. and Napoleon. In these we also experienced defeat, but in the end we issued absolute victors. In the eighteenth century, between defeat at Narva and victory at Poltava nine years elapsed; in the nineteenth, between defeat at Austerlitz and our entry into Paris there was also nine years’ interval.