ABSTRACT
As stated in the previous chapter, the efforts of Russian MI to recruit Far Eastern nationals, especially the Chinese, to conduct HUMINT collided with the antipathy among the local population of the Qing Empire, which increased with every defeat of the tsarist commanders. However, the Koreans, suffering the atrocities of Japanese occupation, still regarded the armies of the ‘White Suzerain’ as the guarantors of the restoration of sovereignty. To slow the Japanese advance to the Sino-Korean boarder and stir up rebellions in the rear, some Russian intelligence officers suggested to Alekseev, Linevich and Kuropatkin that they initiate the establishment of partisan detachments at an early stage of war. According to Pak Chon Ho, a modern Korean historian of the RussoJapanese War, the first partisan detachment of 1,000 rifles was established by a Korean, Li Bom Yun, as early as in March 1904. On the orders of Admiral Alekseev, the staff of the Priamur military district mustered an independent detachment of 3,000 cavalrymen equipped with light artillery guns to support the partisan movement on the Korean Peninsula. The commander of the detachment, Kim In Su (otherwise known as Victor Kim), liaised with the pro-Russian party at the court of the Korean Emperor, who was actually held by the Japanese as a hostage.2
