General Alexey Nicholaevich Kuropatkin as a statesperson and military leader at the threshold and during Russo-Japanese war (1904-1905). Historiography review over the past two decades
This article focuses on the systematization and overview of the Russian historiography of the past twenty years, and on identifying common trends in the interpretation of the personality and work of the Minister of war (1898-1904) Gen. Kuropatkin, a well known military and state leader of the Imperial Russia. New publications have attracted attention to his military and political heritage. There are reasons to revisit some aspects of the historiography and review certain characteristics of his personality and activities that had remained unchanged for decades, passing from research to research, without due analysis. The pivotal point in the related modern Russian historiography and source studies was the publication by the historians Igor Karpeev and Evgeniy Sergeev in 1994-1996 of the previously unpublished «Japanese diaries» written by Gen. Kuropatkin during his visit to Japan in 1903, and several other excerpts from his diaries. An important milestone, that further promoted research of the state and military work of Gen. Kuropatkin, was the publications by Anatoliy Remnev, a well-known historian from the Omsk State University. Based on a newly discovered archive documents, he offered a new vision of the regional administration and management policies of the Imperial Administration, and showed Gen. Kuropatkin as Imperial ideologist and geopolitician from a new perspective. Recent scientific data and objective approach, along with the obvious departure from the traditional views, point out to the importance of a comprehensive study of the life and work of Gen. Kuropatkin, and his military and theoretical heritage.