The document printed below represents variants of a plan for the article "The Fall of Port Arthur," which appeared in No. 2 of "Vpered," dated January 4 (17), 1905 (Collected Works, Vol. VII, pp. 44-50).
1.
CAPITULATION (FALL) *) OF PORT ARTHUR.
[January 1905]
N.B. Criminal ignorance (Times). 1)
Colonial adventure with Manchuria.
Military significance.
[The Tsar's plan: 200,000 for Kuropatkin. 2)
Supplies? Artillery?]
The main task of the Japanese.
Destruction of the Fleet. (300 million rubles).
8,000 prisoners.
Victory in the main thing.
Significance of the military collapse.
Unpreparedness. Bureaucratism. Theft etc. 4).
Superficial aspect.
Low level of officers and soldiers.
Fleet crew.
The danger for Kuropatkin has increased tenfold.
["Wars are waged by peoples." Impossibility of returning Port Arthur **) strategy 5)].
Independance Beige 3)
World-political significance.
*) The word: "Fall" is written above the word: "Capitulation." Ed.
**) The lines in this column are crossed out in pencil, but it is difficult to determine whether this was a deletion or an underlining. Ed.

[Childish consolations: it is easier for Kuropatkin to herd!! 6)
Frankfurter Zeitung (compare Vossische Zeitung)
excerpts.
Center of gravity—the Pacific Ocean.
Asia has defeated Europe. Expansion of the world market etc.
The capitulation of Port Arthur is the first step toward the capitulation of the Parisian government [irreparable undermining of the autocracy].
Wars and their revolutionary significance: weakness of the revolutionary classes. 7)
War and its sentimental condemnation. Class point of view.
"Speculation" 8).
War and class struggle.
Hardships of war.
a. Military significance.
b. Causes of the military collapse.
c. Collapse of the autocracy.
d. World-historical significance.
e. Assessment of the war.
f. Collapse of the autocracy to the end.
/Continuation of the war and insurrection.
a. Immediate military significance.
b. Significance of the military collapse as a collapse of the political system.
c. A progressive force has broken a reactionary stronghold.
d. World-historical significance of the Japanese War.
e. Class assessment of the war.
f. Collapse of the autocracy.
Resolution of the Vossische Zeitung 9).
Expansion of popular agitation = slowing down for deepening.

CAPITULATION (fall) OF PORT ARTHUR
A) Significance in the course of the war.
B) Significance of the military collapse and the causes of it.
C) A progressive historical force has broken a reactionary one.
D) Military collapse and revolution.
Agitation in tens of millions (contra in tens of thousands). 11)
The deeper and truer the collapse.
(War with Russia ("1818").
World-historical significance of the Japanese War. Class assessment of the war.
From the Vossische Zeitung—previously a handful of extremists, the intelligentsia (calms down at 30), but now the cities are seething (Putsche und Attentate) 10). *)
Fears of the Western European bourgeois press.
They previously underestimated the revolution in Russia, now they are even afraid for themselves 12).
*) Criminal ignorance (Times) — criminal ignorance (The Times).
2) Regarding the sending of 200,000 troops to Kuropatkin. See Collected Works, Vol. VII, p. 46.
3) "Independance Beige"—a major bourgeois Brussels newspaper, "Independence of Belgium."
4) etc. — et cetera — and so forth.
5) Criminal ignorance of strategy — criminal ignorance of strategy.
6) The article "The Fall of Port Arthur" states: "Many European newspapers are now trying to downplay the significance of these losses, doing so ridiculously, even going so far as to say that Kuropatkin is 'relieved' 'freed' from the cares of Port Arthur! The Russian army has also been freed from an entire army." (Ibid., pp. 45-45.)
7) In Kautsky's pamphlet "The Social Revolution," on p. 87, it says: "... A revolution resulting from war is a sign of the weakness of the revolutionary class..." (Published 1903, Geneva.)
8) The words of the plan: "War and its sentimental condemnation..." "Speculation" find their explanation in the following paragraph of the article: "The new 'Iskra' could not help but show confusion. At first, it talked a lot about peace at any cost'..." "It has now ended up with banal arguments about how inappropriate it is to 'speculate' ( ! ! ?) on the victory of the Japanese bourgeoisie, and that war is a disaster 'regardless' of whether it ends with victory or defeat of the autocracy." (Collected Works, Vol. VII, pp. 48-49.)
9) Vladimir Ilyich is referring to an editorial in the "Vossische Zeitung" of January 4, 1905, which drew political conclusions from the fact of Russia's defeat. The article was printed under the title "Port-Arthur."
10) Putsche und Attentate — uprisings and assassinations.
11) Contra — against, in contrast to.
12) Lenin is referring to an article by the military correspondent of the Times in NS of January 12, 1905, "The indiscretion of an Admiral."