Surviving senior officers received death sentences that were later commuted, and Rozhestvensky tried to accept responsibility for the disaster. Courts-martial seek culpable individuals, while inquiries can identify institutional causes. The scale of the loss included roughly 5,000 dead, 803 wounded, prisoners taken, six battleships sunk, and further capital ships captured. Debate about fire control, wireless communications, ammunition, and surrender decisions could not change the basic fact that Russia sent a fleet it lacked the infrastructure to sustain. Blaming the officers shielded Nicholas II and made battlefield conduct appear to be the root cause instead of the regime's strategic choices. Capable personnel could not make the institution learn while public punishment replaced systemic investigation.
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Russia punished officers instead of examining the system
Courts-martial personalized the catastrophe and protected the regime from confronting the strategic and logistical system that had sent the fleet to destruction.