(Redirected from Russo-Turkish War, 1877–1878)
The 'Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878' had its origins in the
Russian goal of gaining access to the
Mediterranean Sea and capturing the Balkan Peninsula from the
Ottoman Empire. The
Bulgarians and
Serbians, who were no longer under Turkish rule by the end of the war, regard this war as the second beginning of their nationhood.
The war also provided an opportunity to gain full independence for the Kingdom of
Romania. Although unlike the rest of the Balkan countries it had never been part of the Ottoman Empire, it was still officially under Ottoman
suzerainty. Hence, in Romanian historic works, the war is known as the
Romanian War of Independence.
War beginnings
Balkan sources and Russian maneuvering
An anti-Ottoman uprising occurred in
Bosnia and Herzegovina in the summer of 1875. The main reason for this revolt was the heavy tax burden imposed by financially defunct
Ottoman administration. Despite some relaxation of taxes, the uprising continued well over the end of 1875 and eventually triggered the
Bulgarian April uprising of 1876. Tension in Bosnia and
Russian support encouraged the principalities of
Serbia and
Montenegro's declaration of war against their nominal Ottoman overlord early in July. The war raised imperial appetites of the Great Powers, Russia (
Prince Gorchakov) and
Austria-Hungary (
Count Andrássy), who made the secret
Reichstadt Agreement in
July 8, on partitioning the Balkan peninsula depending on the outcome.
The ''Taking of
Izmail in 1877'' by Aleksey Kivshenko.
In August 1876, Serb forces, supported by Bulgarian and Russian volunteers, were defeated by the Ottoman army, which was the worst-case scenario for Russians and Austrians as they couldn't claim any Ottoman possessions. However the atrocities committed against the civilian Slav population during the war and during the
Bulgarian April uprising had a wide-spread response throughout
Europe. As a result the
Constantinople Conference was held in December 1876 in Constantinople (now
Istanbul). At this conference, at which the Ottomans were not represented, the Great Powers discussed the boundaries of one or more future autonomous Bulgarian provinces within the
Ottoman Empire.
The Conference was interrupted by the Ottoman foreign minister, who informed the delegates that Ottoman empire had approved a new
constitution, which guaranteed rights and freedoms of all ethnic minorities and Bulgarians would enjoy equal rights with all Ottoman citizens. Despite that, Russia remained hostile towards the Ottoman Empire, postulating that the constitution was only a partial solution. Through diplomatic negotiations Russians ensured the inaction of Austria-Hungary in future military operations. In Britain, the political signals were mixed. Despite strong civil support for the idea of Bulgarian liberation, fostered in Britain by the writings and speeches of former Prime Minister
William Gladstone, the contemporary leader,
Benjamin Disraeli was much more pessimistic of Russian intentions. He positioned Britain as the defender of the Ottoman Empire, as they had done in the
Crimean War twenty years earlier.
[1] This lack of a uniform policy is evident in the negotiations of the Conference. The British delegate,
Lord Salisbury, got on well with his Russian counterpart,
Count Nicholas Ignatiev, and was able to reach a compromise agreement. Bulgaria would be divided into an eastern and western province, Bosnia-Herzegovina united into one province, and each of these three provinces would have a considerable degree of
autonomy, including a provincial assembly and a local police force. Also, Serbia was not forced to give up any territory and Montenegro was permitted to keep the areas she had overrun in Herzegovina and northern Albania.
Prosecution: the one-eyed and the blind
Russian army storming a mountain pass.
declared war on
the Ottomans on
24 April,
1877. Some described this war as "a war between the one-eyed and the blind", so many errors of strategy and judgment were committed on both sides. This, however, was all too common a problem for contemporaneous warfare, from the
Crimean War to the
Boer Wars.
In the beginning of the war the outcome was far from obvious. The Russians could raise a larger army; an army of about 200,000 was within their reach. The Ottomans had about 40,000 troops on the Balkan peninsula. The Ottomans had the advantage of being fortified, and they also had a complete command of the Black Sea, and had patrol boats along the
Danube river.
In reality, however, most of the time the Ottomans used only about 25% of their military capacity. In addition to that, the Ottomans had no idea of Russian plans and made little attempt to predict their actions and to counter them. They preferred to stay within their fortifications and wait until the enemy knocked on their doors.
The Ottoman military command in
Constantinople made poor assumptions of Russian intentions. They decided that Russians would be too lazy to march along the Danube and cross it away from the delta, and would prefer the short way along the
Black Sea coast, thus ignoring the fact that this area had the strongest, well supplied and garrisoned Turkish fortresses; there was only one well manned fortress along the inner part of the river Danube. This was
Vidin, and it was garrisoned simply because the troops, led by Osman Pasha, had just taken part in crushing the Serbs in their recent war against Ottoman Empire.
Course of the war
''Battlefield near Shipka Pass''
.jpg)
Russian, Romanian and Turkish troop movements at Pleven.
At the start of the war, Russia destroyed all vessels along the Danube and
mined the river, thus ensuring it could cross the Danube at any point it wanted. This didn't mean anything to the Turkish command. In June a small Russian unit passed the Danube close to the delta, at
Galaţi and marched towards
Ruse. This made the Ottoman even more confident that the big Russian force would come right through the middle of the Ottoman stronghold.
Then in July the Russians, unobstructed, constructed a bridge across the
Danube at
Svishtov, and began crossing. There were no significant Ottoman troops in the area. The command in
Constantinople ordered Osman Pasha to march in that direction and fortify the nearby fortress of
Nikopol. On his way to Nikopol, Osman Pasha learned that the Russians had already secured it, and so moved to Plevna, now
Pleven.
Less than 24-hours after Osman Pasha fortified Plevna, numerous Russian forces under the charismatic "White General"
Mikhail Skobelev attacked the city. Osman Pasha organized a brilliant defence and repelled two Russian attacks with huge casualties on the Russian side. At that point the sides were almost equal in numbers and the Russian Army was very discouraged. Most analysts agree that a counter-attack would have allowed the Turks to gain control and destroy the passing bridge. However,
Osman Pasha had orders to stay fortified in Pleven, and so did not leave that fortress.
Russia had no more troops to throw against Plevna, so they be
sieged it, and subsequently asked the Romanians to provide extra troops. Soon afterwards, Romanian forces crossed the Danube and joined the siege. On August 16th, at Gorni-Studen, the armies around Pleven — renamed the West Armies — were placed under the command of the Romanian Prince
Carol, aided by the Russian general Pavel Dmitrievich Zotov and the Romanian general Alexandru Cernat.
The Romanians fought bravely to capture the Grivitza redoubts around Pleven, and kept them under their control until the very end of the siege. The
siege of Pleven (July–December 1877) turned to victory only after Russian and Romanian forces cut off all supply routes to the fortified Turks, starving them and thus forcing their surrender. By the end of November, the Ottoman forces tried to cut through the encirclement in the direction of Opanets, in the sector defended by Romanian troops. The attempt failed and, on November 28th, the wounded commander Osman Pasha was captured and surrendered his sword to the Romanian colonel Mihail Christodulo Cerchez.
Russians under
Field Marshal Joseph Vladimirovich Gourko succeeded in capturing the passes at the
Stara Planina mountain which were crucial for maneuvering. Next, both sides fought a series of
battles for Shipka Pass. Gourko made several attacks on the
Pass and eventually secured it. Ottoman troops spent much effort to recapture this important route, to use it to reinforce Osman Pasha in Pleven, but failed. Eventually Gourko led a final offensive which crushed the Ottomans around Shipka Pass. The Ottoman offensive against Shipka Pass is considered one of the major mistakes of the war, as other passes were virtually unguarded. At this time a huge number of Turkish troops stayed fortified along the Black Sea coast and engaged in very few operations.
Besides the
Romanian
Army, a strong
Finnish contingent and more than 12,000 volunteer Bulgarian army (''Opalchenie'') from the local
Bulgarian population as well as many ''
hajduk'' detachments fought in the war on the side of the Russians. To express his gratitude to the Finnish battalion, the Tsar elevated the regiment on their return home to the name ''
Old Guard Battalion'', which they still hold.
The Caucasus
Stationed in the
Caucasus in
Georgia and
Armenia was a Russian force composed of approximately 75,000 men under the command of
Count Mikhail Nikolayevich; his force stood against a Turkish army of 20.000 men led by General
Ahmed Muhtar Pasha.
[2] While the Russian force was better prepared for the fighting in the region, it lagged behind technologically in certain areas such as
heavy artillery and was bested by Mukhtar Pasha's army which possessed modern
British artillery.
Many of the commanders under Nikolayevich were of
Armenian descent including generals
Beybut Shelkovnikov,
Mikhail Loris-Melikov,
Ivan Lazarev and Arshak Ter-Ghukasov. It was the forces under
Lieutenant-general Ter-Ghukasov, stationed in
Yerevan, who began the first assault into Ottoman territory by capturing the town of
Bayazid on
April 27,
1877.
Capitalizing on Ter-Ghukasov's victory in Bayazid, Russian forces advanced further, capturing the region of
Ardahan on
May 17; Russian units also besieged the region of
Kars in the final week of May although Turkish forces lifted the siege and repulsed them.
In October 1877, Turkish forces launched a massive counteroffensive against Russian forces near
Ajaria. Since
July 19, Muhtar Pasha's forces had taken hold of the mountains heights that dominated the geography of the region.
[3] In the following months, the Russian forces under General Lazarev had attempted to take the region back but had failed to do so. His forces were able to stave off the Turkish offensive in October and advance forward to take the region on
October 15. Turkish casualties in the battle for Ajaria amounted to 5-6,000 dead or injured while over 8,500 became prisoners of war; the number of Russian dead was close to 15,500.
Conclusion
Intervention by the Great Powers
After the
Congress of Berlin, the Russian public felt that thousands of Russian soldiers had died for nothing.
Under pressure from the British and having suffered enormous losses (by some estimates about 200,000 men) Russia accepted the truce offered by Ottoman Empire on
January 31,
1878, but continued to move towards Constantinople.
The
British sent a fleet of battleships to intimidate Russia from entering the city, and Russian forces stopped at
San Stefano. Eventually Russia entered into a settlement under the
Treaty of San Stefano (''Ayastefanos Anlaşması'' in
Turkish) on
March 3, by which the Ottoman Empire would recognize the independence of
Romania,
Serbia,
Montenegro, and autonomy of
Bulgaria.
Alarmed by the extension of Russian power into the Balkans, the
Great Powers later forced modifications of the treaty in the
Congress of Berlin. The main change here was that Bulgaria would be split, according to earlier agreements among the Great Powers that precluded the creation of a large new Slavic state: the northern and eastern parts to become principalities as before (
Principality of Bulgaria and
Eastern Rumelia), though with different governors; and the Macedonian region, originally part of Bulgaria under San Stefano, would return to direct Ottoman administration.
Lasting impact
International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
This war caused a division in the
emblems of the
International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement which continues to this very day. Both Russia and the Ottoman Empire had signed the
First Geneva Convention (1864), which made the
Red Cross, a color reversal of the
flag of neutral
Switzerland, the sole emblem of protection for military medical personnel and facilities. However, during this war the cross instead reminded the Ottomans of the
Crusades; so they elected to replace the cross with the
Red Crescent instead. This ultimately became the symbol of the Movement's national societies in most
Muslim countries, and was ratified as an emblem of protection by later
Geneva Conventions in 1929 and again in 1949 (the current version).
Iran, which neighbors both countries, considered them to be rivals, and probably considered the Red Crescent in particular to be an Ottoman symbol; except for the Red Crescent being centered and without a star, it is a color reversal of the
Ottoman flag (and the modern
Turkish flag). This appears to have led to their national society in the Movement being initially known as the
Red Lion and Sun Society, using a
red version of
The Lion and Sun, a traditional Iranian symbol. After the
Iranian Revolution of 1979, Iran switched to the Red Crescent, but the Geneva Conventions continue to recognize the Red Lion and Sun as an emblem of protection.
The impact of this division later led to the
Magen David Adom controversy, which was resolved partly through the addition of yet another emblem of protection, the
Red Crystal, by
Protocol III.
See also
★
Alexander of Bulgaria
★
History of the Balkans
★
History of Europe
★
Romanian War of Independence
★
Battles of the Russo-Turkish War, 1877–78
★
Congress of Berlin
References
1. The Balkans Since 1453, , L.S., Stavrianos, C. Hurst & Company, 2000, ISBN 1850655510
2. Hambartsumyan, Victor et al. Ռուս-Թուրքական Պատերազմ, 1877-1878 (The Russo-Turkish War, 1877-1878). Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia. vol. x. Yerevan, Armenian SSR, 1984, 93-94
3. Hambartsumyan, Victor et al. Ալաջայի ճակատամարտ (The Battle of Ajaria). Soviet Armenian Encyclopedia. vol. i. Yerevan, Armenian SSR, 1974, 138
Video links
'130 years Liberation of Pleven (Plevna)'
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Speech at 3 March 2007 of Mayor of Pleven – Mr. Najden Zelenogorsky
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Speech at 3 March 2007 of Bulgarian Prime Minister - Sergej Stanishev
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Speech at 3 March 2007 of Mr. Potapov, Ambassador of Russia in Bulgaria
External links
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Online Chapter on the War, from the book "The Balkans Since 1453" by Stavrianos
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Russian website on the war
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The Romanian Army of the Russo-Turkish War 1877-78
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Text of the book ''Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 and the Exploits of Liberators
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Image gallery for the war
.jpg)
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