Sarah Paine

And this is where Count Sergei Vita, their finest minister of the late Tsarist period, he's the one who's trying to do his version of a Meiji Restoration in his purview, which is the finance ministry, financing all these railways.

So there are many more railways.

And this is where Russia's population is.

This is where their historical security threats come from.

And Russians can get on board with protecting European borders.

It's the part through Manchuria.

It's not the one that goes on their side of the boundary.

I don't know the answer, but I know Japanese, I mean, talk about a culture that's about detail, about hard work, about service to the emperor, right?

right?

I've done in your earlier podcast series, a whole series about Bushido, that they're imbued with service to the emperor and that if you go in wars, you win them.

And so that's part of their culture.

Now, Russians also don't like being messed with when people invade them, but this time they're invading other people in an irrelevant part of the empire.

And

And it's at a time when Russia is trying to industrialize itself, but they haven't put enough money into their education system.

So they have a bunch of illiterate troops running around.

And let's face it, how can you read any of the manuals or do anything?

Oh, yeah, and some of their generals.

One of them didn't know what a howitzer was, one of the guys who's planning stuff.

And he can't read maps.

The level of incompetence of having royal favorites in your officer corps, well, they make these decisions.