About the book: 2011 / Contents: On the break! The Jolly Roger The Big Game The Font of Shantung Why was this done... or the necessary explanation. On November 12, 2010, I could not resist a spiritual impulse, or, if you will, temptation, and sat down to redo everything that later became the second volume in a series of books about the “Varyag” - the winner” by Gleb Doinikov (his first book was “Varyag” "winner" - came out at the beginning of 2009, the second - "Everything is in place! Return of "Varyag" - by the summer of 2011). What came out of this is for you to judge. Why did I start writing "alternative to alternative"? Several people pushed me towards this reasons. Firstly, the great pleasure and joy from the appearance of the first book, which I read avidly several times. This has not happened since “Tsushima” and “Port Arthur”. Secondly, the understanding that soon came that its ending was seriously blurred. Moreover, the impression was that the author crumpled it up, rushing to deliver the “product” on time. This, alas, happens when deadlines in the contract with the publishing house are stuck, but no one was rushing me. Thirdly, after I became a writer. to look for traces of the work and its author on FAI and Samizdat, there he became acquainted with the text of the second part that he was preparing. And in the end he simply fell into prostration. Alas, there are significantly more time discrepancies and factual errors, even in comparison with the ending of the first book! Of course, for people “not sick” of the Russian-Japanese War, who were not interested in naval history from childhood, they were for the most part invisible, but the level of the book for a thoughtful reader was sharply and irreversibly reduced. As well as the author’s “decorative” use of real figures, such as Emperor Nicholas II, admirals Alekseev and Makarov. Fourthly, instead of the defeat of the Japanese fleet in “Alt-Tsushima” of the second book, the author wrote out some huge and indigestible action, ending with a pale, “score” victory for the Russian side. To be honest, I was cruelly and bitterly deceived in my expectations. And finally, fifthly. The author’s second book ends with a friendly “reconciliation” with Japan, and as a result, in the third book, which is now being written by the respected Gleb Borisovich, everything ends with Russia getting into the Entente bloc. For the war with Germany for the interests of the Anglo-Saxon states. And this is all after the experience of the 20th century, when it was the orientation of the Russian political elite of the era of Nicholas II towards an alliance with the Anglo-Saxons that led to a chain reaction in the form of 50 million corpses of our compatriots! Why then did you put so much soul into the first volume? To once again try to convince ourselves and our readers that Russia, we are losers in life?! Or does the author from Toronto know better? The final impetus for starting work was my visit to the Tsushima forums, where, as it turned out, among real enthusiasts and experts on the history of our fleet and that hateful war, there was an active discussion of the book from the first days of work on it. Where whole pieces were added to it. But... only until the moment when Gleb Borisovich refused this discussion, simply ceasing to “visit” the forum. Finding myself in a circle of like-minded people, I decided to take this step. In the end, of course, the matter did not end with just one second book. I had to rewrite more than half of the first one, remove a lot of the author’s “bugs”, inaccuracies and errors. Instead of the expected three months, it took us almost a year. And if it weren’t for the selfless help of colleagues at the Tsushima Forum, this collective work would never have been done.