The Tsar's Last Armada

On May 14, 1905, modern Eurocentric world died. For the first time, an Asian nation defeated a European power. Russia's total defeat at Tsushima, the deciding battle of the Russo-Japanese war, confirmed Japan as a rising superpower and would-be ruler of the East. In a single day the Russian fleet was annihilated, its ships sunk, scattered, or captured. The Japanese lost only three destroyers, while the Russians kept only three of thirty-eight ships and lost thousands of sailors. It was the first modern naval battle, employing all the new technology of destruction. The old imperial navy was woefully unprepared.The Battle of Tsushima is among the top five naval battles in history, equal in scope and drama to those of Lepanto, Trafalgar, Jutland, and Midway. Yet despite its importance and its drama, the history of this battle has long been neglected in the West. In The Tsars' Last Armada this story of adventure, perseverance and tragedy is finally told. With a novelist's eye and a historian's authority, Pleshakov tells of the Russian squadron's long difficult journey and fast, horrible defeat.