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.