20-04-2022, 09:55 PM
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/159...-historian
Historian Jeremy Black has given a withering diagnosis of Putin’s invasion, finding multiple parallels between it and Russia’s war with Japan in 1904-5. The historic war did not end well for Russia - and neither will today’s, warns Mr Black. The first key similarity is the sinking of Russia’s flagship vessel, the Moskva.
The lengths Putin appears to be going to to downplay the victory for Ukraine that the ship’s sinking represents perhaps indicates how devastating a loss it is for Russia - and for Mr Black, it rings very familiar.
Writing for the Telegraph, he said: “The last time the Russian Navy suffered a comparable blow was at the battle of Tsushima, in the final stages of the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-5.
![[Image: https-www-express-co-uk-news-world-15974...0442074568]](https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/78/590x/secondary/https-www-express-co-uk-news-world-1597450-vladimir-Putin-flagship-boat-moskva-sinking-pictures-russia-ukraine-latest-4028917.webp?r=1650442074568)
Tsar Nicholas II similarly led a misguided war (Image: Getty)
“Across the two days of the battle, two thirds of the Russian fleet was sunk and a number of surviving ships captured.
“It was a disastrous defeat, and it is not the only striking parallel between then and now.”
Another key way in which history is repeating itself is in Russia’s humiliation at the hands of a foe who was presumed to be inferior.
Speaking of the Russo-Japanese war, Mr Black wrote: “the result was a calamity for the Russian regime.
“It was the first time in the modern era that a European power was defeated by an Asian nation, and not just any Asian nation but one that had been an isolationist feudal state a few decades earlier.
“The sense of national humiliation was acute for Russia – as it ought to be again today, as the world witnesses the supposed cream of the Russian military being ground to a halt by a nation that, so Putin’s logic goes, is not even a real country.”
Historian Jeremy Black has given a withering diagnosis of Putin’s invasion, finding multiple parallels between it and Russia’s war with Japan in 1904-5. The historic war did not end well for Russia - and neither will today’s, warns Mr Black. The first key similarity is the sinking of Russia’s flagship vessel, the Moskva.
The lengths Putin appears to be going to to downplay the victory for Ukraine that the ship’s sinking represents perhaps indicates how devastating a loss it is for Russia - and for Mr Black, it rings very familiar.
Writing for the Telegraph, he said: “The last time the Russian Navy suffered a comparable blow was at the battle of Tsushima, in the final stages of the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-5.
Tsar Nicholas II similarly led a misguided war (Image: Getty)“Across the two days of the battle, two thirds of the Russian fleet was sunk and a number of surviving ships captured.
“It was a disastrous defeat, and it is not the only striking parallel between then and now.”
Another key way in which history is repeating itself is in Russia’s humiliation at the hands of a foe who was presumed to be inferior.
Speaking of the Russo-Japanese war, Mr Black wrote: “the result was a calamity for the Russian regime.
“It was the first time in the modern era that a European power was defeated by an Asian nation, and not just any Asian nation but one that had been an isolationist feudal state a few decades earlier.
“The sense of national humiliation was acute for Russia – as it ought to be again today, as the world witnesses the supposed cream of the Russian military being ground to a halt by a nation that, so Putin’s logic goes, is not even a real country.”