Tsushima incident

The creation of the First Independent Squadron of the Pacific Ocean required new basing places in non-freezing ports located on the routes of access to the ocean from the ports of Russia, Japan, Korea and China. One of these places was chosen the island of Tsushima . At the same time, the Russian government wanted to conduct business on the construction of a base point bypassing the central authorities of Japan so as not to attract much attention from world diplomatic circles.

On June 17, 1860, the Posadnik corvette, under the command of the adjutant outfit N. A. Birilev, arrived at the inner raid of Nagasaki, the final sailing point, where he replenished the squadron of the Chinese Sea (First Independent Pacific Squadron) under the command of Captain 1st Rank I. F. Likhachev, thereby completing the semicircular voyage from Kronstadt.

The first negotiations with the governor of Inasa Okaba Suruga-no-kami about leasing land in the village of Inasa - the place where the Askold frigate was repaired in 1858 and where there remained: a barracks, a boat and rigging warehouse and a forge - took place in Nagasaki on November 2, 1860. There were 20 officers from the Russian side, including Lieutenant A. A. Kornilov (commander of the Dzhigit clipper, flag captain Musin-Pushkin and the adjutant wing N. A. Birilev (commander of the Posadnik corvette). All negotiations were conducted through two translators. After the negotiations, Russian officers were invited on November 4 to the annual Minuri festival - the founding day of Nagasaki. After the conclusion of the contract, N. A. Birilev set about arranging the territory - ordered the construction of a small cracker plant, a house for officers and a bathhouse for everyone. But the creation of the station under Nagasaki not was the ultimate goal, and N. A. Birilev asked Governor Inasa to make a patronage before the Tsushima governor So Tsushima-no-kami, so that he would temporarily allow the Posadnik corvette to be on the island of Tsu-Shima (Tsushima) in Tatamura Bay on the Imosaki Peninsula. and I.F. Likhachev met with Okab Governor Suruga-no-kami and convinced him that the construction of the Tsushima station by the Russians was good for Japan, as a counterweight to the English squadron would appear. After the meeting, I.F. Likhachev sent a letter to Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich stating that he had received verbal consent to arrange warehouses for our ships on the Tsushima Islands. The creation of a naval station on Tsushima was not supported by the consul of the Russian Empire in Japan, I. A. Goshkevich , as it did not have official approval from A. M. Gorchakov. And he also believed that the construction of such a station runs counter to the agreement signed in Edo in 1858 by Count E. V. Putyatin with the Japanese government ^{[2] [3]} .

Despite the confrontation of I. A. Goshkevich, the “Posadnik” sailed from Hakodate to Tsushima on February 20 and March 1, 1861, anchored in the western part of Tatamura Bay (now Aso Bay) near the village of Osaki. Acting highly diplomatically, N. A. Birilev managed to obtain permission from Governor So Tsushima-no-kami Mune Yoshiyori to inspect Imosaki Bay (Imoskaka) and obtained agreement to create a marine station for the Russian fleet in the same bay. On April 2, Posadnik moved to this bay. On April 3, the Russian flag was hoisted on the shore, a tent was erected and a place was chosen for the construction of a warehouse and a hospital room, and a spot was also determined for the current repair of the corvette. The senior navigator officer, Lieutenant L. Churkin, organized the described party and set about measuring the depths and compiling a detailed map of the Tsushima ridge islands (maps compiled by the Posadnik officers were subsequently published by the Hydrographic Department of the Ministry of the Sea). The signal post was exhibited on the island of Wuxi, which is located at the western entrance to the bay of Tatamura. Local authorities gave 15 carpenters to help Russian sailors. Part of the team set up a garden and started farming. On March 27, on the clipper “ Oprichnik ”, I. F. Likhachev came to the bay already in the knowledge of rear admiral. When erecting structures, Japanese carpenters indicated the best trees for cutting and helped to lower them to the construction site. In early April, joint efforts began to build an outbuilding for the head of the station, a hospital, a bathhouse, a warehouse for coal and a boat shed. A 6-meter wide marina was also laid. By order of N. A. Birilev, a school was organized to teach Japanese boys the Russian language, and five guns with ammunition were donated to the local ruler Mune Yoshiyori from the corvette. On April 16, Rear Admiral I.F. Likhachev again visited the construction site on the frigate " Svetlana " ^{[2] [4]} .

In May, the construction site visited the Oguri Tadamas bakufu . He spent 13 days and handed over to N. A. Birilev a document authorizing a meeting with the head of the principality. Further, N. A. Birilev managed to agree with the chief adviser to Prince Muraok Oomi and the governor of the island of Nii Mogotiyiro. They prepared a document saying: “Prince Tsu-Simsky is quite willing to accept the patronage of Russia in all respects, in pursuance of which, if the Russian Government deems it necessary to keep ships here, we willingly agree to this, and the place from Hirowa to Imosaki inclusive and as indicated to give the line to the disposal of the Russian courts and under their protection the whole bay of Tatamur, that is, from Usishima to Obunokoshi. We will not have anything to do with other nations. We ask the Russian Government to supply us with the latest firearms as much as possible, and we also ask the Russians to train our young officers in the latest military affairs ... we ask the Russians not to violate our ancient customs and not try to speed up their faith ... But we can only do all this if there will be no obstacles on the part of our Government in Edo ” ^[2] .

On May 20, when the construction of the site was in full swing, a detachment of English ships visited the Imosaki Bay (frigate "Actaeon" ( English HMS Actaeon (1831) ) and two gunboats). N. A. Birilev received the British officers and generously shared his supplies with them. A few days after the departure of these ships, the English ambassador Alcock arrived at Goshkevich for explanations. On June 2, the island was visited by commissioners from Edo - Ogura Bungo-no-kami and Mizoguchi Yasagurov. At the same time, a protest by the British consul in Nagasaki Harris followed. At that time, the English squadron of Vice Admiral J. Hope came to Japan with the flagship Encaunter corvette . Under pressure from Alcock, Harris, Hope and not wanting exacerbations with the British, the Japanese government changed its attitude towards the Russian station at Tsushima, and revoked the building permit. In August, Vice Admiral Hope, the head of the English squadron, arrived on the island, after which he went to the southern harbors of Primorye to meet with I.F. Likhachev, but without meeting him, left a letter about the long stay of the Russian ship on Tsushima Island. A little later a formal protest was sent from Edo to be handed over to our consul, but Mune Yoshiyori returned him back to Edo. Some time later, a duplicate of this protest reached St. Petersburg without changes, according to I.F. Likhachev, this was done through the British. N. A. Birilev delayed his departure from the island as best he could, and only after a personal order of I.F. Likhachev began to intend to go to sea. The Posadnik left the island on September 7, leaving the Oprichnik clipper in his place, and after a while the Abrek clipper joined it. In late September, both clippers left the island. All the buildings erected by the Russian sailors were handed over to the Princely Governor of the island, who sent a written certificate that all buildings and supplies left in Imosaki will be preserved intact. The final settlement of the issue was entrusted to N.P. Ignatiev. In December, LF Balluzek, the resident minister at the Beijing court , explained to the English envoy to China, Bruce, that the Posadnik corvette’s parking on the Tsushima Islands was due to a private transaction and that the Russian government has nothing to do with it, and all responsibility lies on the squadron commander I.F. Lekhachev, who by that time had already been removed from the post of squadron commander ^{[3] [4]} .

On this incident was exhausted.

The Tsushima incident made Russia understand that in the conditions of weak population and development of the regions of Siberia and the Far East, its military and political capabilities in the Pacific were very limited. Therefore, the emperor postponed the decision on the issue of an ice-free port. But despite its seeming futility, the Russian Empire still managed to extract some benefit from the Tsushima incident: having encountered opposition in the northwestern sector of the Pacific Ocean, Great Britain refused to further develop it and reoriented itself to other points ^{[5] [6]} .

Subsequently, I.F. Likhachev wrote: “Perhaps we only achieved one thing: we did not allow England to seize this island” ^[6] .

In 1862, an English merchant Charles Lennox Richardson was killed during an incident in Namamugi , to which the British envoy to the Japanese court, Rutherford Alcock, presented the Japanese government with a bill of 110 thousand pounds, and to demonstrate power, Hope squadron bombarded the city of Kagoshima . A. A. Popov , the new chief of the First Independent Squadron in the Pacific , noted that if Japan had our naval stations, then the British would not have carried out these actions.

Later, Russia returned to the issue of creating naval stations in ice-free ports, and Port Arthur was later built, and also gradually increased its presence in Manchuria and Korea. However, without Russian control over Tsushima, Port Arthur was always extremely vulnerable, so Japan itself benefited the most from the incident. In which the Meiji restoration began, leading to the beginning of rapid economic and military development of the country, and turning Japan into an important maritime power, claiming to be in China and Korea, crowding out European countries from there.

Books

• Bolgurtsev B.N. Russian fleet in the Far East (1860-1861): The Beijing Treaty and the Tsushima incident. - Vldv. : Dalnauka, 1996 .-- 133 p. - ISBN 5-7442-0694-9 .
• Kutakov L.N. Russia and Japan. - M .: Nauka, 1988 .-- 384 p. - 3500 copies.
• Nakamura S. Tsushima incident // Japanese and Russians. From contact history / General edition of Dr. ist. Sciences B. G. Sapozhnikova. - M .: Progress, 1983. - S. 198-202. - 304 p. - 50,000 copies.
• Feinberg E. Ya. Further development of Sakhalin by the Russians and negotiations of N. N. Muravyov in Edo (1856-1860). Tsushima incident (1861) // Russian-Japanese relations in 1697-1875. - M .: Publishing house of oriental literature, 1960. - S. 186—197. - 312 p. - 1,500 copies
• Cherevko K.E. Russia at the borders of Japan, China and the USA (2nd half of the 17th - early 21st centuries) / Ed. ed. O.A. Platonov. - M .: Institute of Russian Civilization, 2010. - 688 p. - ISBN 978-5-902725-52-7 .
• Chronicle of the Russian fleet. From the inception of navigation in the ancient Russian state to the beginning of the 21st century in 3 volumes. 860 - 1900 years. - SPb. : Science, 2012 .-- T. I. - 656 p.
• Khevrolina V.M. Nikolay Pavlovich Ignatiev. Russian diplomat. - M .: Institute of Russian History, Quadriga, 2009. - 480 p. - (Biography). - ISBN 9785457958609 .
• Shigin V. Heroes of the Russian Armored Fleet. - SPb. : Veche, 2012 .-- 336 p. - (Maritime Chronicle). - 2500 copies. - ISBN 9785444400593 .

Articles

• Belomor A.E. Tsu-Simsky episode // Russian Herald. - SPb. , 1897. - No. 4 . - S. 230-250 .
• Belomor A.E. Tsu-Simsky episode // Russian Herald. - SPb. , 1897. - No. 5 . - S. 50–86 .
• Bolgurtsev B.N. Strategic mistake of Prince Gorchakov // Gangut. - SPb. : Gangut, 1993. - Issue. 5 . - S. 76-79 .
• Patlay D. B. Tsushima incident of 1861. Political causes and consequences // East Archive. - M .: Institute of Oriental Studies, RAS, 2007. - No. 16 . - S. 16-19 . - ISSN 2072-5795 .