250 years ago, on November 18, 1768, the Russian Empress Catherine II declared war on the Ottoman Empire. The Russian army and navy defeated the enemy and ensured the return of Russia to the shores of the Russian (Black) Sea.
The struggle for the Russian (Black) Sea, for Constantinople-Constantinople and the straits has been going on for over 1000 years. Since ancient times, the Rus had strong positions on the Black Sea. Russia fought for the Black Sea region with the East Roman Empire (Byzantium). Russian princes Oleg, Igor, Svyatoslav and Vladimir led their squads here. The Russian Tmutarakan principality was located in the Black Sea region.
The Horde invasion threw Russia away from the Black Sea region. Russia went on the defensive. For centuries, Russia fought off the raids of the predatory Crimean Khanate. The powerful Ottoman Empire supported the Crimean horde, claimed Astrakhan, Kazan, Little Russia and the Commonwealth. The vital necessity and loss of access to the southern seas forced Russia, as the empire was restored, to launch a counteroffensive. Already Princess Sophia herself opened hostilities against the Turks and Crimean Tatars. The centuries-old strategic offensive of Russia in the south began - the confrontation between Moscow and Istanbul in the rivalry to be the Third Rome. From 1687 to 1917 Sophia, Peter I, Anna Ioannovna, Catherine the Great, Alexander I, Nicholas I, Alexander II and Nicholas II fought with the Ottoman Empire.
The campaigns of Prince Vasily Golitsyn in 1687 and 1689 against the Crimean Khanate ended in failure. Tsar Peter organized two campaigns against Azov, the campaign of 1696 ended in victory. Peter was able to build a fairly large fleet (almost 500 ships and vessels of various classes), but it was blocked by the Turks in the Sea of Azov. The unsuccessful Prut campaign of 1711, when Peter's army was almost completely destroyed by the Turks and Tatars, and the need to concentrate all forces and resources on a difficult war with Sweden, forced the Russian sovereign to sign a humiliating peace with Porte. The Azov had to be returned to Turkey, the Azov fleet had to be broken, burned and dismantled.
The next two Russian-Turkish wars began from the claims of the Port to the lands of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which, due to the policies of its elite, was at the stage of complete decomposition and lost its former combat power. During the election of a new king, now almost always civil war began, waged by Polish magnates and nobles. And the Swedish, Saxon, Prussian, Austrian and Russian armies began to "participate" in the elections of the king in Poland. In 1733, Empress Anna ordered a "limited contingent" of the Russian army to be sent to Poland to support the Russian-Saxon candidate for the throne of Augustus. The French also sent troops to support their candidate Stanislav. The French lost and capitulated in Danzig to General B. Munnich. Porta, dissatisfied with Russia's actions in Poland, and as an ally of France, began to threaten Russia with war.
The war began in 1735. The Russian army won a number of victories, smashed the enemy in the Crimea, took Ochakov in 1737, and Yassy and Khotin in 1739. However, the successes of the Russian army were in vain. Austria, Russia's ally in the war against Turkey, signed a separate peace with the Turks. In the north, Sweden was actively preparing for war with Russia, dreaming of revenge. The Swedes began to supply weapons to Turkey. Negotiations began between Constantinople and Stockholm and an alliance against Russia. In addition, Empress Anna was seriously ill. The dignitaries, nobles of the empire and the guard officers were more concerned with the fate of the throne than with the situation in the south of the empire. In September 1739, the Belgrade Peace Treaty was concluded. Under the agreement, Russia retained Azov, but undertook to tear down all the fortifications located in it. In addition, she was forbidden to have a fleet in the Black Sea,and for trade on it Turkish ships were to be used.
Thus, the problem of reaching the Black Sea was not solved. Russia gained almost nothing from a difficult war, spending huge sums and losing more than 100 thousand people. Russia still did not have a fleet in the Azov and Black Seas, where the Turkish naval forces dominated. The Black Sea, Azov and Crimea were vassal territories of the Ottoman Empire and were strategic footholds for the attack on the southern regions of Russia. To solve the problem of security in the southern strategic direction, Russia had to occupy the Northern Black Sea region and the Crimea. In addition, the lack of access to the southern seas hampered the economic development of Russia.
In 1740 - 1768 the Crimean Tatars continued their predatory raids on the southern regions of Russia. It is worth remembering that this was the way of existence of the Crimean Khanate - a predatory, parasitic state formation. The elimination of this "tumor" was the age-old task of the Russian state. These raids with the aim of capturing people for selling them into slavery continued until the liquidation of the khanate. So, during the war between Russia and Prussia, taking advantage of the small number of Russian barriers in the south, Krym-Girey Khan (nicknamed “Delhi Khan” - “Shalny Khan”) made several large raids on Russian lands and took many thousands of people to Crimea. The Turkish government, on the one hand, distanced itself from the Crimean robberies and even stated that it would not interfere if the Russians punished the robbers. On the other hand, as soon as it came to the point, the Porta began to threaten Russia. Istanbul even forbade the Russians to build border fortresses on their territory.
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At the end of September 1763, King August III died in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the usual showdown of the elite parties began. The neighboring great powers also intervened. Austria proposed to elect a prince from the house of Saxony as king. Catherine II, together with the Prussian king Frederick II, proposed the candidacy of Stanislav Poniatovsky. In 1764, with the strong support of Catherine II, he was elected king. Stanislav Poniatovsky tried to carry out a series of fundamental reforms, strengthening the royal power and the army, to limit the power of the magnates, but without much success. On February 24, 1768, the Warsaw Pact was signed between the Russian Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which equalized in civil rights with Catholics, the so-called dissidents - Orthodox and Protestants. This aroused the ire of the opposition gentry. Opponents of Russia and Poniatovsky created the Bar Confederation and opposed the king. Another civil war broke out in Poland. France, Austria and Porta stood behind the Confederates. Russia supported Poniatowski and led troops to Poland.
The Polish nobility bribed the Turkish dignitaries so that the Porta opposed Russia. France, taking an openly hostile position to St. Petersburg, openly pushed Turkey to war with Russia. In addition, so Paris wanted to increase its influence in Turkey, and get Egypt. The French persuaded the Confederates to cede Volhynia and Podolia to the Ottoman Empire in the event of a favorable outcome of the war. Porta, for its part, was unhappy with the situation in Poland and the strengthening of Russia's position in the region.
The immediate reason for the start of the war was the Gaidamaks' raid on the border town of Balty. The Gaidamaks pursued a detachment of Confederates and burst after them into the city of Balta, thus invading the territory of the Ottoman Empire. This caused a diplomatic scandal. On this occasion, the grand vizier on September 25 (October 6), 1768 summoned the Russian ambassador Alexei Obreskov and demanded that all Russian troops leave Polish territory, and that Russia cease to defend dissidents (Orthodox and Protestants) there. At the same time, the vizier demanded that Obreskov immediately agree with all Ottoman requirements, or there will be a war. The lies of the Ottomans were obvious: the Haidamaks were Polish subjects and operated from the territory of Poland, which was not controlled by Russian troops. Finally, only Russian troops could bring order to Polish territory. Obreskov said that he had no right to do this, and then he and 11 members of the embassy were arrested. Obreskov was put in the underground of the Yedikule tower (Seven-tower castle). This was the Turkish way of declaring war. On October 29 (November 10), the gathering of the Turkish army for a campaign against Russia was announced.
Russia did not want war with Turkey at that time. Catherine and her entourage with all their might wanted to postpone the war. Russia was seriously bogged down in Polish affairs, it took several years to resolve them, she had no time for the Ottoman Empire. Nevertheless, Ekaterina accepted the challenge and promised "to make a ringing that was not expected from us." With a manifesto dated November 18 (29), 1768, Catherine II declared war on Turkey. A little later, Catherine promised to set fire to the Ottoman Empire from four ends. And the words of the great empress did not differ from the deeds. Russian troops were sent to Moldavia and Wallachia, to the Crimea and the Caucasus. Greece became the fourth corner of Turkey. For the first time in modern history, the Russian fleet set off on a long and unparalleled voyage to the Eastern Mediterranean.
The war was victorious. The Russians smashed the Turks on land and at sea. In 1774, the Turks agreed to peace negotiations, and on July 21, the Kuchuk-Kainardzhi peace treaty was signed. According to the peace treaty, the Crimean Khanate was declared independent from Turkey. Russia received Big and Small Kabarda, Azov, Kerch, Yenikale and Kinburn, with the adjacent steppe between the Dnieper and the Southern Bug. Soon Russia will occupy Crimea, permanently solving the problem with the Crimean Khanate. And the war of 1787 - 1791. will secure the Northern Black Sea region for Russia. Russia will build a combat-ready Black Sea Fleet at a surprisingly fast pace and begin preparations for an operation to seize Constantinople-Constantinople. However, after the death of Catherine the Great, this idea will be forgotten.
At present, this issue is again acute for Russia. The strategic security of Russian civilization in the south has been violated. Enemies occupied Kiev and part of the Northern Black Sea region, including the mouths of the Danube and Dnieper. Georgia and Ukraine are NATO outposts. Turkey is a historical enemy and a NATO member. If desired, she can close the Bosphorus at any time, closing the sea line to the Mediterranean Sea and Syria for us. The ships of the North Atlantic bloc regularly pass through the straits, threatening Russia from the Black Sea. That is, the thousand-year battle for the Russian (Black) Sea and Constantinople-Tsargrad is not over.
Author: Samsonov Alexander
