Construction of the fortress was halted with the structure about 2/3 complete, due to the disruptive influence of the First World War and the October Revolution.

The facilities, unlike those at Port Arthur, featured many casemated underground structures, the thickness of the concrete provided protection against fire from 280-millimeter (11 in) guns.

According to the agreement, Russia ceded Japan lease rights to the Liaodong (Liaotung) Peninsula, including Port Arthur.

Vladivostok, the end point of the Trans-Siberian railway, was the only Russian naval base on the Pacific Ocean, and the only well-equipped commercial port in the Far East.

Many of them, covering the most important sections of the coast, were temporary, their guns were mounted on wooden bases, and they used outdated aiming systems.

Designers deliberately tried not to copy model projects and placed forts according to the mountainous terrain and kept gun emplacements dispersed over a large area, thus making it difficult for a potential enemy to sight their artillery.

Through underground telegraph and telephone lines, all the forts, batteries, cellar, barracks towns, and other important objects, were connected through the fortress switchboard.

The arches of the buildings exposed to direct enemy artillery (gallery areas located close to the surface, barracks) were given reinforced curved ceiling channels.

The construction of these channel-vaulted gun-cover shelters was in advance thickness of guns allowed for flat coffers and left the channel for placing I-beam reinforcements.

This reflected the global trend to simplify the appearance of fortifications, as outlined in the 1880s, in connection with the transition to a new building material – concrete.

The 1900-1904 concrete casemate construction has elements of civil architecture - cornices, window frames, due to its small size, commensurate with a one-story building.

The absence of a thorough job in this regard—resulting in rough and ugly construction—is characteristic of inattention and a lack of builder's pride in his work, and gives to the outside observer the impression of carelessness.

Caring about the appearance of buildings was not some personal whim of Shoshin because, as he noted in a conversation with the Minister of War in 1914, "The main idea is to strengthen the fortress to indicate that, 'Russian is here to stay forever.'

Initially, the pace of construction is not reduced because the fortress had accumulated large stocks of cement; but from 1915, with the prolongation of the war, the situation began to deteriorate.

All planned road construction, two reference points, five types of long-term coastal batteries, and four 120-mm Vickers guns, 21 coast caponiers, and 8 group tunnel powder magazines were completed.

Among the forts and strongholds, "North Division" was equipped with a 2,641 meters (8,665 ft) of concrete lines of fire, 24 barbettes for withdrawable guns, 21 trunks and caponiers for defense ditches, and barbed wire.

"Southern Division" (Russian Island) had 882 meters (2,894 ft) of concrete lines of fire, 18 barbettes for withdrawable guns, four coffers to flank the ditches (another double-trunk on the fort number 9 was one-half prepared).

Then began the so-called "coal and wood-burning catastrophe", with completely devalued money and constantly changing positions on the part of the authorities.