Soviet-Japanese conflict as a naval test

The historical Soviet-Japanese fighting already influenced wider strategy by discouraging Japan from adding Britain to its enemies and by encouraging Moscow to settle in the east before acting in Poland. A treaty-built Pacific Fleet could add a naval dimension to that conflict. Japanese attacks on Soviet warships would generate evidence that British and American observers could study even if public reporting dismissed the losses as Soviet weakness. The balance would still favor Japan because its naval strength could be concentrated in the Pacific while many Soviet capital ships remained in western waters. Transferring them around the world would risk repeating the strategic geography that doomed Russia's Second and Third Pacific Squadrons at Tsushima.