page_title: Roman Kondratenko
section_title: Russo-Japanese War
hierarchical_section_title: Roman Kondratenko / Biography / Russo-Japanese War
caption_attribution_description: the cenotaph of Russian General Roman Kondratenko, killed by a Japanese shell at Port Arthur in 1905
context_page_description: Roman Isidorovich Kondratenko was a general in the Imperial Russian Army famous for his devout defense of Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905.
context_section_description: After Kondratenko's arrival at Port Arthur in 1903, he reorganized and improved on its already massive fortifications over a period of several months, anticipating the coming conflict with the Empire of Japan. After the start of the Siege of Port Arthur, he was the soul of the Russian defenses, personally directing efforts of the defending troops in the most difficult and dangerous areas, and overseeing repairs of the fortifications due to battle damage. Kondratenko successfully repulsed four Japanese assaults, making skillful use of both army and Imperial Russian Navy forces, and effectively functioned as third in command of Port Arthur, after General Anatoly Stoessel and Lieutenant General Konstantin Smirnov.
  However, on December 2, 1904 he was mortally wounded when the armory of the fort he was defending took a direct hit from Japanese howitzer fire. Only eighteen days after his death, generals Stoessel and Alexander Fok surrendered Port Arthur to the Japanese.
  After the war, the body of General Kondratenko was transported to St. Peterburg and buried in Alexander Nevsky Lavra. In the memory of Kondratenko's courage, the Japanese erected a granite cenotaph on the spot of his death.
caption: General Kondratenko's cenotaph
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