There are in existence in the secret archives of the government,
Kuropatkin's work discloses, documents containing the definite program
of Russia, fixed by headquarters years ago, for its future growth and
aggrandizement. Results of campaigns and diplomacy are checked up
according to this great program, and decade after decade Russia is
working secretly and quietly to carry it out. The Japanese War
constituted a great mistake in the development of this national plan.
During the twentieth century, says Kuropatkin, Russia will lose no
fewer than two million men in war, and will place in the field not
fewer than five million. No matter how peaceful and purely defensive
her attitude may be, she will be forced into war along her endless
borders by the conflict with other national interests and the age-long
unsatisfied necessity of her population to reach the sea.
Russia will furnish in this century the advance guard of an inevitable
conflict between the white and yellow races. For within a hundred
years there must be a great struggle in Asia between the Christian and
non-Christian nations. To prepare for this, an understanding between
Russia and England is essential for humanity. Kuropatkin deals with
this necessity at length; and the future relations of Russia with
Japan and China are treated with an impressive grasp.
His exposition of the sensitive and dangerous situation on the
Empire's western border contains matters of consequence to the whole
world. The relations he discloses, between Russia, on the one hand,
and Austria and Germany on the other, are important in the extreme.
Within a fortnight these two latter countries could throw two million
men across the Russian frontier, and a war would result much more
colossal than that just finished with Japan.