Russo-Japanese War questions

I've recently been in a bit of a debate with another fellow upon the subject of a Japanese war against Russia with a few changes to it.

First of all, what is the absolute largest size in terms of manpower the Russian army could ever grow to? I had an estimate given to me of around 24 million but having 20% of the population of Russia in the army sounds a little heavy.

What was the highest percentage that taxes could reach in that period? The same fellow who I mentioned above also seems to believe 50% is a reasonable tax rate for Russia, Japan meanwhile has 10% taxe

Provided both of these are correct I'm looking at roughly 12 million Russians vs. 800,000 Japanese with much much deeper Russian pockets. How could the Japanese ever win such a war?
 
Problem however is simple. How do you get all 12 million to the front? How do you keep on supplying all 12 Million? The Trans-Siberian Railway by this point wasn't complete and it wasn't the most efficient form of transport. Expanding that to make it more capable takes time and money.

You also have the question of the Japanese Navy, they will control the sea's after the Baltic Fleet is smashed. Which leaves amphibious resupply out of the question (and based on distance was anyway).

Matter of the fact is, Russia was fighting against an Enemy which could easily resupply and get fresh troops to the front while it lacked that ability itself.
 
You have to take into account how crappy the russian officers were too... landed gentry commanding illiterate peasant conscripts is a dangerous combination of ignorance and zero training
 
Yup, war's all about logistics. Numbers, fancy weapons, elan, none of that matters if you can't get the troops and their weapons to where they need to be and keep them maintained and supplied. Though in the Russo-Japanese War, both sides were in a logistical bind. The Russians because everything needs to be shipped over an incomplete, single track railroad, Japan because of the weakness of its industry and finances. If the Russians could have forced a stalemate for a few more months, Japan would likely have gone bankrupt.
 

CalBear

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Logistcally, I not sure that Russia could have FED 12 million people in a 30 square mile area in 1905, much less transport them there, provided them weapons, uniforms, etc. IOTL the Russian Military, TOTAL, was 2,000,000, most of them were partly trained cannon fodder using poor weapons.

Most Russian peasants were poor as the dirt they tilled. If you collect 50% of a nickle from 10 million peasant familes, what do you have? You could have a 100% tax and raise nothing. Mosts peasant paid their taxes in kind (produce, sheep, pigs, etc).
I've recently been in a bit of a debate with another fellow upon the subject of a Japanese war against Russia with a few changes to it.

First of all, what is the absolute largest size in terms of manpower the Russian army could ever grow to? I had an estimate given to me of around 24 million but having 20% of the population of Russia in the army sounds a little heavy.

What was the highest percentage that taxes could reach in that period? The same fellow who I mentioned above also seems to believe 50% is a reasonable tax rate for Russia, Japan meanwhile has 10% taxe

Provided both of these are correct I'm looking at roughly 12 million Russians vs. 800,000 Japanese with much much deeper Russian pockets. How could the Japanese ever win such a war?
 
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