Russo-Turkish Wars

I

Introduction

Russo-Turkish Wars, series of conflicts between the Russian and Ottoman Turkish empires during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, in the course of which Russia gained control of the northern shore of the Black Sea and extended its influence into the Balkans.

The first direct confrontation came in the war of 1677-1681, in which Russia acquired control over the Ukraine east of the Dnepr River. Tsar Peter the Great, who assumed power in 1689, soon resumed the struggle against the Ottomans, and in two campaigns (1695-1696) he captured the fortress of Azov. In 1710, Peter again went to war with Turkey as a result of the latter's support of Sweden during the Great Northern War (1700-1721), but a Russian campaign in Moldavia ended in disaster, and the Turks recovered Azov in the Treaty of the Pruth (1711). Russia fought another war against Turkey between 1736 and 1739 in alliance with Austria. In the Treaty of Belgrade (1739), Azov was ceded to Russia along with a section of the Black Sea steppe between the Donets and Bug rivers, but the Russians had to raze the fortifications at Azov and were not permitted to have any ships on the Black Sea.

II

Russian Gains, 1768-1812

Russia made dramatic gains during the reign of Catherine the Great. In the first war (1768-1774), Russian armies won major victories in Moldavia, Walachia, and the Crimea, and a Russian fleet sailed from the Baltic to the Mediterranean, where it destroyed the Ottoman fleet at Chesme in June 1770. The Treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji (1774) gave Russia additional portions of the Black Sea steppe and the right to free navigation on the Black Sea, and Turkey guaranteed the rights of its Christian subjects. In 1783 Catherine annexed the Crimea. Turkey declared war in 1787 but was again defeated and forced, in the Treaty of Jassy (1792), to cede Ochakov and the Black Sea coast between the Bug and the Dnestr. Another war in 1806-1812 resulted in Russian annexation of Bessarabia. With that, Russia controlled the entire northern coast of the Black Sea between the Prut and Kuban rivers.

III

The Intervention of the European Powers

In the ensuing period, the Russians sought political influence in the Balkans and control of the straits (between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean). Their gains were limited, however, by increasing opposition on the part of other European powers, notably Great Britain and Austria.

The crisis engendered by the Greek struggle for independence ultimately drew Russia into war with Turkey (1828-1829). After a slow start, Russian forces crossed the Balkan Mountains in 1829, captured Adrianople (now Edirne), and were advancing on Constantinople, when the Turks sued for peace. The Treaty of Adrianople (1829) granted Russia territory at the mouth of the Danube and in the Caucasus, and a virtual protectorate over an autonomous Moldavia and Walachia; autonomy for Greece and to a lesser extent Serbia was also guaranteed. Three years later, a Russian force occupied the Dardanelles strait to protect the Ottoman sultan against the forces of Muhammad Ali of Egypt. The resulting Treaty of Unkiar-Skelessi (1833) was an important step towards establishing a Russian protectorate over the Ottoman Empire as a whole. The European powers managed to substitute a general European guarantee in the Straits Convention of 1841, but by 1852 Tsar Nicholas I felt strong enough to attempt a further extension of Russian influence. His miscalculation led to the Crimean War (1853-1856), pitting Russia against a coalition of Britain, France, Sardinia, and Turkey and resulting in a major setback for Russia's expansion to the West. By the Treaty of Paris, it lost the mouth of the Danube and its protectorate over Moldavia and Walachia and was forbidden to maintain a navy on the Black Sea. In 1870, however, Russia unilaterally revoked the demilitarization clause.

IV

The War of 1877-1878

In 1875-1876 a general uprising of Balkan peoples against the Ottoman Turkish empire aroused widespread sympathy in Russia. Tsar Alexander II at first resisted involvement, fearing unfavourable European reaction, but he declared war on Turkey in January 1877 after diplomatic efforts to end the crisis failed. The campaign in the Caucasus advanced smoothly, while that in the Balkans proved unexpectedly bloody and difficult, but by January 1878 Russian forces were advancing on Constantinople. The Treaty of San Stefano (1878) granted Russia considerable territory in the Caucasus, Dobruja (or Dobrogea), and the Danube delta; decreed the independence of Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro; and established a large autonomous Bulgarian principality. Britain and Austria-Hungary were opposed to this expansion of Russian influence, and a congress of the European powers meeting in Berlin in June 1878 revised the San Stefano agreement, primarily by reducing the Bulgarian principality and by limiting the Russian role there.

Russia fought no more wars with Turkey until 1914, presumably sensing that it was too weak to gain control of the straits in the face of European opposition. In World War I it won the approval of Britain and France for the ultimate annexation of Constantinople and the straits after the war, but military defeat and revolution rendered these hopes vain.