The Russo-Japanese War in the early 20th century ended in a great failure for imperial Russia. In subsequent, many Russians tried to probe the beginning and development of the War, that laid the foundation for in-depth research of the conflict. While these attempts focused on the Russian military incompetency, various political factions claimed that the backwardness of the Tsarism was responsible for the Russian defeat. Since the October Revolution, Lenin's interpretation of the War became the cornerstone of all the research, which would be drastically dogmatized to serve for the Stalinist commitment in the mid-1930s. The Stalinist formula putting an emphasis on the imperialist aspect of the War, was sustained until the Perestroika era, though it underwent partial revisions from time to time. The dogmatic formula began to elapse under the banner of the Perestroika and the textbooks' narrative of the War became increasingly diversified. The new narrative tends to find a major cause of the War in the expansionist drive of the Japanese militarism. It seems that the diverse approaches in recent textbooks reflect diverse visions for the future directions as well as discrepant interpretations for the past.

The Russo-Japanese War in the early 20th century ended in a great failure for imperial Russia. In subsequent, many Russians tried to probe the beginning and development of the War, that laid the foundation for in-depth research of the conflict. While these attempts focused on the Russian military incompetency, various political factions claimed that the backwardness of the Tsarism was responsible for the Russian defeat. Since the October Revolution, Lenin's interpretation of the War became the cornerstone of all the research, which would be drastically dogmatized to serve for the Stalinist commitment in the mid-1930s. The Stalinist formula putting an emphasis on the imperialist aspect of the War, was sustained until the Perestroika era, though it underwent partial revisions from time to time. The dogmatic formula began to elapse under the banner of the Perestroika and the textbooks' narrative of the War became increasingly diversified. The new narrative tends to find a major cause of the War in the expansionist drive of the Japanese militarism. It seems that the diverse approaches in recent textbooks reflect diverse visions for the future directions as well as discrepant interpretations for the past.

the Russo-Japanese War, history textbooks, Feudal Tsarism, imperialist war, Japanese militarism.