Sir Antony Beevor

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363 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jun 2026 last heard 6 Jun

Sir Antony Beevor’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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TRIGGERnometry · The Russian Mindset and Where it Comes From - Historian Sir Antony Beevor · 6 Jun 2026 podcast

This is the period when Germany and Russia were interested in seizing parts of the Chinese territory.

One has to remember, you know, the...

way that the great Chinese resentment against the West is very much the unequal treaties which were forced on China when it was at its weakest in the 19th century.

And the Russians even imposed a railway, which they built to accelerate the Trans-Siberian Railway, right across Mongolia.

So the Chinese had a lot to resent, but the Japanese also were in this period of expanding population and wanting to colonize their near abroad, which basically meant Manchuria.

And therefore, there was a...

an imbalance, if you like, certainly in power in that particular region.

And the Tsar had been persuaded by a forerunner of Rasputin, another mystic conman, basically called Philippe, a Frenchman, saying that you should be the emperor of the East.

And actually, the Kaiser, Wilhelm II, was saying, sent a signal at sea to the Tsar, saying, from the Emperor of the Atlantic to the Emperor of the Pacific.

Now, Nicholas at that particular moment thought, oh, well, that's ridiculous.

But then he was encouraged by one of his ministers, particularly by Plewa,

that, you know, a war against the Japanese would be a huge advantage because it would be a quick, easy war.

They're just Orientals, you know, they can't take on a modern Russian army.

Well, modern is a doubtful phrase.

And others were much more skeptical, but the Tsar rather liked the idea.

And so on the ambassadorial reception in 1904 in January, the New Year reception, he was pretty insulting to the Japanese ambassador, who bowed and said nothing, not realizing, in fact, that the Japanese were about to send huge numbers of troops across the sea to the Korean peninsula.

And suddenly they were in a position where they were starting to attack at Port Hartha, which was the great Russian port in the Far East.

And from there, of course, they assembled a vast army where the Trans-Siberian Railway was not ready sufficiently to equip them and to supply them.

And then, as I mentioned, you know, there was the utter disaster of sending the Baltic fleet, really, all the way around the world.

And they were destroyed in the Battle of Tsushima, one of the greatest naval victories, which the Japanese won easily.

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