Holy

Russia's military isn't nearly as tough as previously thought. Russia suffers a major blow to its international prestige. Ripped from today's headlines?

Nicholas II was a proud man and did not want to lose standing in the eyes of his European rivals. Russia was exposed as a decaying relic from a dying era. To many observers, the conflict had a certain David versus Goliath quality. Japan had its own military plans in the region, and they didn’t include the czar’s battleships prowling around. The defeat also unleashed social forces inside Russia that sparked the Revolution of 1905, a forerunner of 1917’s Russian Revolution and the eventual creation of the Soviet Union. At his insistence, the war dragged on. As the 20th century dawned, generations of wars and incursions had made Imperial Russia a global colossus. But the czar’s diplomats said, “No dice,” believing they had the upper hand and didn’t need to negotiate anything. So, Russia leaned hard on Imperial China and forced it to lease the warm-water Port Arthur for its warships. With that, the Russo-Japanese War was on. Japan set off down the long road toward becoming the undisputed Big Dog in Asia. At the same time, Russia also had expansionist aims there. There’s a long backstory, but it essentially boiled down to this: Russia’s Pacific fleet was based at Vladivostok, which froze during winter.