Libava Castle - the top secret of Nicholas II
ROYAL AVANTURE
I bet that in the past and future television debates devoted to the centenary of the Russian revolution, not one of the participants had heard of the construction of the Libava fortress and the Port of Emperor Alexander III. Meanwhile, this adventure largely predetermined the defeat of Russia in the war with Japan and all three subsequent revolutions.
Немного stories. In the 80s of the XIX century, the Maritime Department decided to build an ice-free port in the Baltic. Two factors influenced the construction of the new port: on the one hand, intensive construction of the German fleet and the digging of the Kiel Canal, and on the other - the impossibility of winter withdrawal of cruisers from the ports of the Gulf of Finland in the event of a war with England. So, in the spring of 1885, the so-called Afghan crisis began. England brought its fleet into full combat readiness, and the Russian admirals could not withdraw their ships from frozen ports until the end of May.
However, building a port and a large sea fortress in Libau, or, say, in Windau, was deliberate nonsense. Indeed, in the course of any military conflict, that with England, that with Germany, the enemy fleet inevitably blocks the Danish straits, and not a single Russian ship will break into the ocean under any circumstances.
It seemed that nature itself had excluded the creation of a large naval base there - a low sandy beach, shallow depths, moving sands, the absence of anchorage closed to the winds. There was no conditions there and to create a land fortress.
To avoid accusations of bias against the Russian generals and admirals of the time of Nicholas II, I will quote the official publication - “Military Encyclopedia” of 1911 – 1915 publication: “Then the question was raised that Libava fortress by its proximity to the border is ahead the landborne her gorge, commanding the heights of the Grobinsky and Kapsidinsky, does not give the fleet cover from land. There were thoughts about the need to engage in these heights. But at the same time it turned out that the military port, which communicates with the open sea with long and narrow underwater channels, does not at all correspond to the task of an active naval base. ”
The funny thing is that all this turned out only in the 1908 year, and only then "the question was excited ...". And why these questions were not raised in 1893 – 1894? Did not know, sir?
The German border was only 30 versts from Libau. The German fleet had several convenient anchorage sites nearby, and by the 1892 the Russian fleet had the nearest large naval base for many hundreds of miles in Kronstadt.
On the one hand, the construction of the port and fortress was a brazen challenge to Germany, since the use of Libau would be advisable only in the course of offensive operations on land and at sea. On the other hand, it was a trap for the Russian fleet, which could easily be blocked even by the weakest adversary (which Germany was not).
VIEW NORTH
The most far-sighted military and dignitaries proposed to build an ice-free port in the north near present-day Murmansk instead of Libau. Admiral Stepan Osipovich Makarov and Minister of Finance Sergey Yulievich Vitte actively supported this project.
In the summer of 1894, the Minister of Finance arranged a study tour of the coastal areas of the Arkhangelsk province in order to determine the place to lay the port. Having received a farewell from Alexander III “to find an ice-free harbor there, where a large military fleet could be built, a harbor that would serve as our main sea base”, Witte, accompanied by a large retinue of government officials, journalists, major industrialists and provincial workers. the administration traveled all over Murman and chose Ekaterininskaya harbor, which lay at the very entrance to the Kola Bay: “I have never seen such a grandiose harbor in my life; it makes an even more impressive impression than the port of Vladivostok and the port of Vladivostok. ”
According to the results of this trip S.Yu. Witte presented a detailed report to Alexander III, in which he pointed out that Ekaterininskaya Harbor "never freezes, is very extensive, can easily be protected ... from there our fleet will have direct access to the ocean." The report also reflected the specificity of the North - for the period of long polar nights Witte suggested “arranging very strong electric lighting” of the area, and to maintain regular communication with the center - to conduct a telegraph and connect the harbor with a “double-track railway with St. Petersburg”.
The port in the north was of great strategic importance. In the case of a coalition war with France against Germany, communication with France could only be provided through the northern seas. In the event of a conflict with England in the Catherine Harbor could be based Russian cruisers operating on British communications in the Atlantic.
In 1894 – 1895, talented Russian engineers created technical projects for the Belomor-Balt canal and the railroad that ran through Karelia and the Murmansk Peninsula. In particular, engineer Boris Alexandrovich Rippas conducted a survey of the area for the construction of a road to Ekaterininskaya harbor.
It turns out that the Bolsheviks were only plagiarists of the ideas of Russian engineers? Alas, Napoleon loved to repeat that he won the battle not the one who proposed the battle plan, but the one who took the responsibility and brought the battle to the end. The Bolsheviks built Belomor-Balt in record time. 22 June 1933 of the year Stalin arrived in the Ekaterininsky harbor on the Burevestnik steamer. Unlike Witte, he did not make speeches, but on August 6 a detachment of ships from the Baltic arrived there. After that, thousands of fishing vessels were blown away by the wind, which annually poached off the coast of Murman and in the White Sea under the cover of warships of the British and Norwegian fleets. And Ekaterininskaya Harbor became the main base of the Northern Polar Fleet.
But back to the Witte report. There was no one to read it. Alexander III was in agony, and the heir was very busy: swimming in the sea with cousin Sandro, with another cousin - the Greek prince Nikolai - throwing bumps on the roof, wrote gentle letters to Alice of Hesse.
Therefore, Witte had to wait for the death of Alexander III and the arrival of the new emperor in Petersburg.
Finally, Witte got Nicholas II to deign to read the report. A week later, accepting Witte, the emperor said that “the project of grandiose devices in Libava should not be carried out, since Libava is a port that cannot bring Russia any benefit, because this port is in such a position that in the event of war our squadron will be blocked there. In general, the emperor spoke out against this project ... Emperor Nicholas II wanted to immediately declare by decree that the main military port should be located on Murman, in Ekaterininskaya harbor, and Ekaterininskaya harbor should be connected by rail with one of the nearest stations adjacent to St. Petersburg, - Witte pointed out in his memories. - Two or three months passed, and suddenly I read in the “Government Gazette” a decree of Emperor Nicholas II that he considers it necessary to make Libava as our main sea point of support, and implement all these plans that exist on this subject, and call this port of Emperor Alexander III. "
But the memoirs of Major-General retinue of His Majesty Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich:
“Russian people have long been thinking about the harbors of Murman as non-freezing, and therefore convenient for a military port. The Marine Ministry, neglecting the irreplaceable qualities of the Murmansk harbors, is building a port in Libava, losing sight of the fact that the Baltic Sea can be locked up at any time by our enemies, and Russian military vessels will be doomed to inaction.
Kazi, long standing behind Murman, persuaded Witte to go there. And now the minister told me that the Sovereign (Alexander III. - A.Sh.) ordered him to compile a report on the benefits of Murman. Perhaps this report is destined to put an end to the Libavan useless undertakings. Niki is a big supporter of Murman. He told me that the Sovereign was increasingly dissatisfied with Chikhachov and, maybe, not long enough for him to remain the head of the Marine Ministry. ”
So what happened? I found the answer in the diary of Emperor Nicholas II: “December 19 [1894]. Monday. After coffee we walked; during the night it snowed, so the sledge path improved. He took the report of D. Alexei and Chikhachev - it was just the matter of the facilities in Libau. He and George (dezh.) Had breakfast with us. Riding in Pavlovsk in a sleigh. We went upstairs to our children's rooms to watch Alix’s belongings from Darmstadt. Was reading. We had dinner together with George; sat in the office of the Pope and looked at his 1877 g. war albums. ”
I deliberately gave all the entries for 19 December, in order to show how this fateful decision was made in passing. The tsar was pressed by the grand dukes Alexey Alexandrovich and Mikhail Nikolayevich. They controlled the fleet and land artillery uncontrollably.
In something Nicholas II can be understood. He is only 26 years old. He became emperor only two months ago, after the death of his father. Prior to that, state affairs, including the construction of fortresses and ports, was not engaged. The sovereign was in love with Alice of Hesse and 14 November entered into marriage with her. As a result, he relied on the experience of his uncles and subordinates.
The construction of the port under the office of General Admiral Alexei and the fortress under the office of General Armed Forces Michael artillery became for them a genuine Klondike. Contractors paid bribes of at least 2 million rubles.
But an opinion about the state of Libavskoy fortress of Major General Fyodor Petrovich Rerberg, the chief of its headquarters in 1902 – 1904:
“The higher authorities found that Libava was in“ order, ”and for seven years in a row gene. Lazarev reported annually on command about the complete well-being of the fitness of the fortress entrusted to him. Libava was then in vogue, and several times the Minister of War himself - Gen. Kuropatkin, and neither Kuropatkin, nor Lazarev noticed that Libava was not a fortress, but only a pitiful breed of fortress ...; and Libava was considered a fortress that defended both from sea and from land, the newly built huge military port named after Alexander III. <…>
Libava was really not a fortress, but some strange misunderstanding. Having decided in Libava, in three crossings from the German land border, to build a port - the base of a part of our Baltic fleet and in the absence of islands ahead of the coast, and the inability to carry batteries into the sea, it was necessary to go deeper into the mainland with port facilities so that the batteries , indeed, their fire could cover the internal pools, docks and other structures from the sea side. From the side of the mainland, the fortress had to be strengthened so that the enemy, coming unhindered in the three transitions from Polangen, could not take it openly on the fourth day of mobilization. The reinforcement of Libava from the south made such an impression that our higher authorities were convinced that it was enough for the Russian generals halfway between the border and Libava to put a sign on the road: "It is forbidden for German troops to" come to us. "
OVER TIME IN PORT ARTUR ...
Meanwhile, a new argument arose against the construction of the Port of Libavia and the coastal fortress. The Russians occupied Port Arthur. At 8 in the morning hours of 16 in March 1898, while landing was taking place, Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich raised the flag of St. Andrew’s flag next to the Chinese yellow flag on the mast of Golden Mountain (peaks dominating Port Arthur). The squadron salute rang out - Port Arthur officially became a Russian naval base.
In my opinion, the decision on the occupation of Port Arthur was correct. Otherwise, it would not have passed a year, as Arthur would have become a British or Japanese base. From that time, Manchuria began to gradually turn into the dominion of the empire, and they began to jokingly call it Zheltorossiya.
But in order to gain a foothold in the Far East and finally incorporate Manchuria and the Liaodong Peninsula into the empire, huge financial costs were required, the construction of the two-way Transsib and the CER, the resettlement of hundreds of thousands of Russian peasants to the Far East and Zheltorssiya. It required not only the construction of powerful coastal fortresses in Port Arthur and Dalny, but also the transformation of the entire Liaodong Peninsula into a large fortified area. In addition, to achieve equality in power, the Russian fleet in the Far East had to surpass the Japanese at least twice, both because of the unsuccessful location of the Russian naval bases, and because of the incompetence of our admirals.
All these measures were by the forces of Russia, even without a special “tightening of the belts”. But in this case it was necessary to forget about the rivalry on the Baltic with Germany and to postpone the plans for the “Bosporus operation” for a long time. Accordingly, it was necessary to stop the construction of the Libavskoy fortress and freeze the construction of ships on the Black Sea. And the instruments of the Libavskoy fortress, the new Black Sea battleships and cruisers, as well as from the “special reserve” intended for the Bosporus expedition, should be sent to the Far East.
Alas, Nicholas II, deceived by dignitaries, dreamed of expanding in the Baltic and seizing the straits, and at the same time angered Japan, not wanting to compromise in Korea and China.
In order not to be unfounded, I will compare the coastal artillery of Libau and Port Arthur: 280-mm guns - in Port Arthur not, and in Libau their 19; 254-mm guns - 5 and 10, respectively; 229-mm guns - 12 and 14; Cane 152-mm cannons - 20 and 30; 280 mm mortars - 10 and 20; 229 mm mortars - 32 and 30. I note that according to the project, Port Arthur forts were supposed to withstand a hit of an 6-inch (152-mm) projectile, and Libau forts - of an 11-inch (280-mm) projectile.
For the maintenance of the Pacific squadron did not have enough money. As a result, in autumn and winter, the squadron in Port Arthur became an “armed reserve”, that is, ships without vapors stood in the port.
Over half of the ship shells of the 152 – 305-mm caliber from the economy were made of cast iron, not steel, and on coastal batteries of Port Arthur - by 80%. On the most powerful battery of Port Arthur, “Electric Cliff” consisted of five 254 / 45-mm guns instead of ten. And five more were lost somewhere. In Port Arthur, there were a total of 254 steel armor-piercing shells and 295 cast iron shells for five 495-mm cannons. There were no high-explosive steel shells at all.
Steel armor-piercing shells at that time had satisfactory armor penetration, but a projectile weighing 225 kg contained only 2 kg of black powder, that is, its effect was insignificant, less than that of the 76-mm melinite grenade. Cast iron 254-mm projectiles had the same weight (225 kg), but contained 9,6 kg of black powder. Their action was weaker than that of the 120-mm Japanese howitzer projectile stuffed with shimozy. Worst of all, the cast-iron projectile could not withstand firing at full charge, but collapsed in the bore or, at best, right after taking off at the gun barrel. Therefore, cast iron projectile fired only at half the charge.
In Port Arthur, of all coastal guns, only 9-inch mortars had effective high-explosive shells - 830 pyroxylin bombs, that is, less than 26 shells per barrel.
A long list of disgraces can be continued on several pages.
The most curious thing is that the Japanese in 1904 – 1905 fought according to a pattern, copying the war with the Chinese 1894 – 1895. The fact that the Japanese will act according to the canons of the Chinese war, Nicholas II was repeatedly warned by Admiral Makarov and Captain 1 of the rank of Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich. I myself looked at their reports in the archives and was amazed at the foresight of all the details of the 1904 – 1905 war. The matter ended with the fact that Alexander Mikhailovich, although a relative of the tsar, was dismissed from the fleet at the insistence of Admiral General Grand Prince Alexei Alexandrovich.
As a result, Russia was left without a fleet both in the Pacific and in the Baltic. The port of Alexander III and Libau fortress were unnecessary.
REGULAR FINAL
27 June 1907 of the year issued an imperial decree depriving Libava of its fortress status, and in 1910 a secret “Nineteenth Schedule” was issued, according to which with the start of the war all Libava fortifications and the buildings of Port Alexander III were to be destroyed.
The removal of guns from the fortress began only in the second half of the 1908 year, and ended by the end of the 1911 year. Libau evacuation cost several million rubles. In 1907 – 1914, small ships and three submarines were episodically based on the port of Libava. The Germans could have occupied Libau in the first days of the war, but they were busy with an offensive in France. 17 April 1915, the Russian command ordered the surrender of Libau.
Only with the beginning of the Great War did ministers and generals appreciate the importance of the port on Murman. At the end of 1914, the feverish construction of the Murmansk railway began. During the construction of the line (1915 – 1916) almost 138 thousand people participated in the works. Of these, 80 thousand were delivered to the workplace from the European part of Russia, 7 thousand - from Finland, 10 thousand - from China. The works used and prisoners of war. Great help to the builders was provided by the soldiers of the consolidated battalion consisting of six military workers' companies.
30 November 1916 of the year was the opening of the through traffic on the Murmansk highway with a length of about 1,5 thousand km, built during the First World War for the 20 months.
21 September 1916 of the year in the presence of the Minister of Railways and the Minister of Maritime Administration of the city named Romanov-on-Murman was held (from 1917 of the year - Murmansk).
It so happened that thanks to the turbulent events of 1904 – 1907 and 1914 – 1920 in Russia, they forgot about the greatest adventure of the early twentieth century - the construction of the Libau Fortress and the port. It was not beneficial for the monarchists to remember this, and the Bolsheviks preferred to use other, much more emotional accusations of tsarism.
The question arises: could a scam such as Libau have happened in England? Such grandiose adventures were not there, and even small frauds were the subject of parliamentary investigations.
In Russia in the late XIX - early XX centuries, the empire management system went into sprawling. The Prime Minister did not play a serious role, since the other ministers did not submit to him, but had the right to a personal report to the king. For example, S.Yu. Witte considered his transfer from the post of Minister of Finance to the post of prime minister as an insulting demotion.
They will object to me: what about Premier Stolypin? Premier Stolypin had as little power as the other premieres. But the tsar was given extraordinary powers to Stolypin, the Minister of the Interior, to suppress the revolution, in violation of the laws of the empire.
I note that Nicholas II 1 January 1910 of the year signed a decree disarming the western fortresses, and then, 26 November 1913 of the year - a decree on arming the fortresses. In both cases, without the consent of the Prime Minister and even the Minister of War.
Two independent dignitaries were responsible for the state of the army in the Russian Empire - the Minister of War and the field master general. And the fleet was also headed by two independent characters - the naval minister and the general admiral.
So, all the dignitaries were independent of each other and submitted only to the emperor. Well, Nicholas II did not even have a secretariat, that is, a technical apparatus that prepared documents, etc. Recall that Catherine the Great had four secretaries, each of which had its own staff of officials who prepared the documents. Nicholas II received reports that, as a rule, lasted no more than 15 – 20 minutes. Sometimes he previewed the text of the report. And then the emperor signed the report, asking a few insignificant questions. Moreover, the emperor, after hearing another dignitary or even an accidental person, of the same Rasputin, could make a decision that fundamentally contradicted the already approved report of the minister.
In imperial Russia, since the time of Paul I, there was a law of succession to the throne, according to which, during the reign of the tsar, the heir to the crown prince must necessarily have been, who after the death of the tsar automatically became emperor. After the death of Alexander III, his son, Tsesarevich Nicholas, became the emperor, and the second oldest son, George, became the heir to the cesarevich. However, in the 1899 year, George died, but Nicholas II broke the law and did not assign the title of heir-crown Prince to his younger brother Michael, which caused great confusion in his subjects.
According to the law of succession, women from the house of the Romanovs could be allowed to govern the country only after the death of all the men of the Romanovs without exception. And by the beginning of the twentieth century there were almost two dozen adult grand dukes of the Romanovs. Nevertheless, when Alexander III became fatally ill, Empress Maria Feodorovna, who took the papers, did all his business, and it is not known who signed the 1894 of the year during October, when the emperor was almost unconscious. And in the autumn of 1900, when Nikolai II got sick with typhus in Livadia, he was for over a month between life and death in the private chambers of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, who took papers, carried them away and endured them signed. Who signed them, our historians have not bothered to learn so far.
During his illness, a number of ministers, including the Minister of War Kuropatkin, conspired — in the event of Nicholas's death, to transfer the rule of his daughter Tatiana, and to make Regent for Alexander Fedorovna. Witte refused to participate in the conspiracy. As a result, in the event of the death of Nicholas II, a civil war could begin as early as 1900. Fortunately, the guard loved Michael, on his side was the widowed empress Maria Feodorovna.
In 1904, Nikolai was born a son Alex, but he was terminally ill with hemophilia. The king ordered to classify the illness of his son, but it became an open secret for all his relatives. As a result, each grand prince began to mentally try on the crown on his head.
In 1915, Nicholas II took command of the army, although he never even commanded a regiment. Instead of it, contrary to the laws of the empire of ministers, Alexandra Feodorovna began to receive in Tsarskoe Selo. She began to replace the emperor, who was at headquarters in Mogilev.
And Russia rushed at full speed to the revolution ...
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