Listen to the recording. Find out what Trans‑Siberian Railway and Russo‑Japanese war have in common. What about tsar Nicolas II and the invention of colour photographs?

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Ilustracja przedstawiająca znaczek pocztowy. Widać na nim most na rzece i lokomotywę wyjeżdzającą z tunelu.

One of the ideas of Tsar Nicolas II to reinforce Russian position in the Far East was to build the Trans‑Siberian Railway, which was supposed to cut through ManchuriaManchuriaManchuria (the north‑eastern region of China) and reach Vladivostok. The works started in the 90s of the 19th century, and their big scale perfectly reflected the Russian megalomania. Those who were close to the Russian tsar believed that it was his destiny to conquer the whole of Asia. They highlighted that the Russians had both Mongolian and Finnish blood, but the greatness and the strength of the country came not from their Slavic origins, but the Asian ones. Their politics followed the footsteps of that propaganda. In the early 20th century, the Russian army entered ManchuriaManchuriaManchuria, where they created their own area of influence. Meanwhile, they managed to get permission from China to build a railway up to Port Arthur by the Yellow Sea. The port was situated on Liaodong PeninsulaLiaodong PeninsulaLiaodong Peninsula, which was leased from China to Russia to be used as a base for the Russian navy.

The presence of Russia in the Far East, especially the stationing of their troops in ManchuriaManchuriaManchuria met the resistance of European superpowers. Because of these pressures, the Russians started holding conversations with China about retreating their troops, at the same time trying to convince China to grant them the political monopoly. They asked China to promise that after the retreat of the Russian army, China will not grant the concession to other countries... without the consent from Russia. But the tsar did not really want to give ManchuriaManchuriaManchuria away. The Russians realised how big their military and demographic power was and they were going to confront Japan. The Japanese, on the other hand, were planning to get their hands on their neighbour - Korea, which bothered the tsar and his people. The confrontation was inevitable.

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Fotografia barwna przedstawiająca most na rzece Kama. Z rzeki wystają ceglane podpory, łączone przez metalowe przęsło.

The picture that you can see while listening to the recording is the bridge on Kama river, on the route of the Trans‑Siberian Railway. Note that the picture is in colour, even though it comes from the early 20th century. It was taken by the photographer Sergey Mikhaylovich Prokudin‑Gorsky. He was born in Vladimir Governorate in 1863, the year when January uprising broke out. He died in Paris in 1944, when Warsaw uprising was coming to an end. He was a chemist and one of the pioneers of colour photography. He devoted nearly half of his life to the art of photography and improving it. Around 1905 he decided to make a documentation of the Russian Empire with his photographs. Even tsar Nicolas II supported the idea. That allowed him to get a special compartment with a darkroom and the special permissions to travel and move around Russia freely, staying on good terms with tsar's administration officials.

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Fotografia barwna przedstawiająca postać Sergieja Prokudina-Gorskiego. Mężczyzna w garniturze i kapeluszu siedzi na kamieniu w pobliżu rzeki.

However, he did not set off on his photo tour until the political situation calmed down and the revolutionary riots triggered by the Russian defeat in the war with Japan stopped. During the period from 1909 to 1915, he took hundreds of pictures and fortunately kept most of them. The photographs depict the past world of Tsarist Russia, including things such as Orthodox churches, factories, and ordinary people's houses. He also liked taking portraits of ordinary people. Towards the very end of the WWI, Prokudin‑Gorsky set off on a journey to Norway and England. He never went back to Russia – where, in the meantime, the Bolsheviks came into power. He eventually settled down in Paris, where he lived until the end of his life. His glass negatives were bought from his heirs by the Library of Congress of the United States in 1948.

Read the passage from the memoirs of the Russian Minister of Finance, Sergei Witte, about the circumstances of the occupation of the southern part of Liaodong PeninsulaLiaodong PeninsulaLiaodong Peninsula in 1898.

Who, according to him, took the lead in the imperial activities? How does he explain the reasons for the Russian imperial politics in the Far East? Indicate corresponding passages in the text.

Analyse the data in the table. Compare the pace of the development of the Russian and Japanese army in the late 19th and early 20th century. Then do the exercise.