Our proud Varyag will not surrender to the enemy

“Our proud Varyag will not surrender to the enemy“ At the beginning of the 20th century, Russian-Japanese relations became very complicated. Tokyo was ready in exchange for recognizing Japan's dominance over the Korean Peninsula. But St. Petersburg did not take this proposal seriously, which served as a pretext for war. A month before it began, the cruiser Varyag under and the gunboat Koreets under the command of Grigory Belyaev arrived at the neutral Korean port of Chemulpo to protect the Russian mission in Seoul. There were also English, French, Italian, and American ships in Chemulpo. On the morning of January 27, 1904, the commander of the Varyag received an ultimatum from the Japanese: the Russian ships must leave the port before noon and surrender, otherwise the cruiser would be attacked right at the roadstead. Having no connection with Port Arthur, Rudnev decided to try to break through the Japanese blockade and go out to the open sea. At 11:20 the ships weighed anchor and und... Source: Lord Of War