The article examines the activities of American journalist Stanley Washburn on the fronts of the Russo-Japanese War, as well as his memories and impressions of work during the 1905 revolution in Russia. Washburn began his journalism career at the Minneapolis Times and the Minneapolis Journal as a police correspondent. In 1903, being sure of the inevitability of a military clash between Russia and Japan, he persuaded his father to let him go to the Far East to cover the approaching war. Arriving in 1904 to Japan, he became a correspondent for the Chicago Daily News newspaper and initially covered the naval theater of the war, hiring a boat and crew for this and trying to get closer to naval battles. In July 1904, Washburn moved to the land theater of war and was seconded to the third Japanese army of General Nogi. He witnessed the siege and capture of Port Arthur. Under conditions of military censorship and close supervision, Washburn managed to cover in detail the everyday life of soldiers and officers, interview commanders, including Generals Nogi and Oyama. Realizing the importance of journalists for the representation of the army at home and abroad, the Japanese command did not interfere, but on the contrary, helped Washburn's work in every possible way, allowing him to write, including about the unsightly aspects of everyday life, as well as take photos. During the two years of the war, Washburn visited Russia twice, where the editors sent him to cover the outbreak of the revolution. Washburn visited Odessa, Sevastopol, and Batum, interviewed the highest dignitaries of the empire and reported in detail about public sentiment, the course of the revolution, economic and political processes in Russia. The experience gained in 1905– 1906 helped Washburn when he worked as a correspondent for the London Times on the fronts of the First World War.
Stanley Washburn; Russo-Japanese War; Port Arthur; revolution of 1905; military censorship; correspondent; Nogi Maresuke; V.P. Meshchersky; D.F. Trepov.