Alexander B. Arbekov

PhD in History, Researcher

Tula State Arms Museum

(Tula, Russia)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22405/2712-8407-2022-4-32-45

Abstract. This article discusses the episode of the information warfare between Great Britain and Russia against the background of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 – 1905, during which the British press published the secret plan of invasion in India by General Alexei Nikolaevich Kuropatkin. The publication of this document received a wide public response. The basis for this study was a wide range of historical sources: 1) materials from British periodicals for July 1904, both central and provincial publishers; 2) records of the Military Statistical Department of the Office of the Second Quartermaster General of the Russian General Staff, which supervised the activities of Russian military agents abroad, from the funds of the Russian State Archive of Military History (RGVIA); 3) reports and analytical notes of the War Office and the General Staff of Great Britain, Viceroy of India George Nathaniel Curzon from the digitized collections of the National Archives of Great Britain (The National Archives, Kew), the British Library (British Library) and the National Archives of India (National Archive of India) . In the course of this study, the military-political situation that developed on the eve and during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904 – 1905 was studied, during which the provocative publication of the plan of invasion in India by General A. N. Kuropatkin on the pages of British periodicals. As a result, a direct relationship was established between this publication and the planned large-scale military reforms in India. This allows us to make a reasonable assumption that the reproduction of the plan of invasion in India pursued specific military-political goals and served as a powerful tool for promoting Lord Kitchener's military reforms.
Keywords: The Great Game, Russian Empire, British Empire, military intelligence, military-strategic planning, the Russo-Japanese War, General Staff, war games, information warfare.

Full text of the article (PDF)

For citation: : Arbekov, AB 2022, ‘Publication of the plan of invasion in India by A.N. Kuropatkin as a tool for promoting Lord Kitchener's military reforms at the beginning of the XX century', Tula Scientific Bulletin. History. Linguistics, issue 4 (12), pp. 32–45, http://doi.org/10.22405/2712-8407-2022-4-32-45 (in Russ.)

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