Introduction

Perhaps the single greatest social, economic, and military event during the 20th century was the geopolitical struggle between the United States and Russia commonly known as the “Cold War.” Much of this struggle took place in secret, through the use of confidential negotiations resulting in secret treaties. Although this struggle was labeled the “Cold War” after World War II, this book will show that this secret diplomacy began much earlier—during the 1890s, in fact—and formed an important element of Russia’s later anti-American strategy. This interpretation is based on archival materials in the Lenin Library’s “special archive” collection in Moscow, the Number Two Historical Archives in Nanjing, People’s Republic of China (PRC), the Foreign Ministry archives in Taipei, Taiwan (Republic of China (ROC)), the Foreign Ministry archives in Tokyo, Japan, and from a large number of rare book libraries, archives, and Presidential Libraries in the United States. Few of these formerly secret documents have ever before been fully available to historians or political scientists.