by Dmitry Gubin
[REGNUM] September 18 marks 285 years since the signing of the Belgrade Peace Treaty. It ended the fifth Russo-Turkish War, the campaign of 1735–1739. This war, fought during the time of Empress Anna Ioannovna, which could have been one of the most striking episodes of Russia's advance to the south – as striking as the later campaigns of Rumyantsev, Potemkin and Suvorov – has now fallen out of current historical memory.
Yes, a trace of that war remained in the book, although not a domestic one, although popular in Russia. The events of the chapter "The Adventures of Munchausen", in which the baron flies on a cannonball and rides half a horse, take place precisely during the Turkish campaign.
Such a Brunswick officer - Karl Friedrich Hieronymus von Munchausen - was indeed in Russian service, and his heroism during the storming of the Bendery fortress is documented. But they, of course, cannot be compared with the fantasies of the author of "Adventures" Rudolf Erich Raspe.
But the victorious campaigns of our ancestors under the command of Russified foreigners - Field Marshals Burkhard Munnich and Peter Lassi - are remembered much less often than they deserve.
But Ochakov, and Bender, and Khotin, and the capital of the Crimean khans, Bakhchisarai, were first taken by the Russians precisely then, under Anna Ioannovna.
Our ancestors entered the capital of the Moldavian Principality - Iasi and won a brilliant victory over the Turks and Tatars in the battle of Stavuchany, where the Russian troops were commanded by Minikh, and the enemy troops by Ilyas Kolchak Pasha, a distant ancestor of the famous admiral.
In what way was this "lost" war unsuccessful for Russia? In that the Petersburg diplomats turned out to be much weaker than the military.
WHY DID THE WAR START?
Peter I's niece Anna Ioannovna, or rather her court, had an ambitious task - to continue the work of the great sovereign in advancing the Russian borders from the outskirts of the Wild Field to the Black Sea coast.
The reason for the war with the Ottomans and their vassal, the Crimean Khanate, was the increasing raids of the Tatars on the lands of Little Russia and Slobozhanshchina.
In addition, the Turkish Sultan Mahmud, who had recently taken power, declared himself the protector of the Muslims of the North Caucasus. In practice, this meant that the Kabardian, Chechen and Dagestani lands could come under the rule of the Crimean Khan.
Khan Kaplan-Girey himself, with his army, “marched” across the Caucasus from Kabarda to Dagestan in 1735, brazenly violating the 1724 treaty on the delimitation of spheres of influence in the region between the Russian and Ottoman empires.
The Turkish-Tatar raid also affected the possessions of the Persian Shah, who was our ally at the time. War became inevitable, especially since Austria and Persia promised support.
According to contemporaries and historians, the Turks were incited against Russia by the then hegemon of Europe – France, where Louis XV the Beloved ruled. The great European War of the Polish Succession had just ended in 1735 – and in it the coalition for which France “played” lost to the alliance of which Russia was a member.
Ironically, the same Versailles court would later reconcile Turkey and Russia in Belgrade.
THREE CONQUESTS OF CRIMEA
At the beginning of the war, in the autumn of 1735, the Russian army under the command of a relative of the royal family, General-in-Chief Mikhail Leontiev, set out on a Crimean campaign.
But they did not reach their goal then - mud and ice prevented them. The sad fate of the campaign of Prince Vasily Golitsyn, the favorite of Tsarevna Sophia in 1687-89, was repeated - as then, the exhaustion of a large army even before the military actions proved fatal.
The following year, 1736, Field Marshal Burchard Christoph Munnich, a brilliant military engineer and intelligent strategist, took up the matter and carried out careful preparations for the offensive.
According to memoirist Christoph Heinrich von Manstein (from that same military dynasty), “Münnich’s army never set out on a campaign without being accompanied by a convoy of 90,000 wagons.” And it worked.
In May 1736, Minikh's Dnieper army broke down the gates to Crimea - the fortifications of Perekop. Unlike the commanders of later eras, General-in-Chief Vasily Dolgorukov-Krymsky and Army Commander Mikhail Frunze, Minikh needed only a few cannon shots to scare off the enemy.
Then Gözlev (Evpatoria) was taken, and in June the capital of the treacherous Kaplan-Girey, Bakhchisarai, was burned.
Then, in June 1736, Azov (which, let us recall, was taken under Peter, but had to be ceded to the Turks) and the Ottoman fortress at the mouth of the Dnieper - Kinburn - were captured. But the army that participated in the Crimean campaign was exhausted by heat and disease. Field Marshal Minich decided to continue the war the following year.
In the spring of 1737, Pyotr Lassi led his Don Army to Crimea, and Minikh to Ochakov. In July, the latter was captured, and the Don Army, having crossed the Sivash, defeated Kaplan's successor, Khan Fethi-Girey, on the Salgir River.
Against the backdrop of Russian successes, Austria entered the war, whose troops entered Turkish Serbia.
VICTORIES DURING THE PLAGUE
But difficulties also emerged. Even during Minikh's first campaign, the Tatars used the scorched earth tactic - they destroyed food and forage supplies, poisoned wells, and drove away the population.
In the campaign of 1738, Lassi's army again managed to take Perekop and invade Crimea. But the Russian troops, cut off from their supply bases, were unable to gain a long-term foothold on the peninsula.
Soldiers and officers did not understand why they were being driven to Crimea for the third year in a row, since it had never been truly conquered. In addition, epidemics began to rage among the troops. And the plague began to penetrate the "frontier" territories, which included, for example, the environs of Kharkov, along with the military trophies.
For example, Colonel Ivan Kvitka of the Izyum Sloboda Cossack Regiment recalled the events of 1738: "In August, the plague became obvious... Through September, the plague continued in Kharkov and other places. Through October, the plague was very strong in Kharkov, and many houses died out to the last soul. The air was stinking."
But from a military point of view, the campaign continued quite successfully.
On August 28, 1739, the above-mentioned battle took place near the Moldavian village of Stavuchany (in the present-day Khotyn district of the Chernivtsi region of Ukraine). In it, Minikh's army routed the army of Veli Pasha and Ilyas Kolchak Pasha, which was superior in size and strength. After this defeat, the Turks surrendered the Khotyn fortress, and about 90 thousand janissaries and soldiers were captured. Kolchak Pasha also surrendered to the Russians.
Even then, Russia could have taken Moldova out of Turkish rule - our troops occupied Iasi. This was a turning point in the war in our favor - and victory was entirely expected.
The young poet and naturalist Mikhail Lomonosov responded to the events with the " Ode on the Capture of Khotin ": "Love for the fatherland strengthens, The spirit and hand of Russian sons; Everyone wants to spill all their blood, The menacing sound invigorates them."
DIRECTED BY VILLENEUVE
But the Austrian allies and, perhaps even more so, domestic diplomats “helped” to nullify the victories of Minich and Lassi.
Due to the inconclusive actions of the army of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI of Habsburg, the Turks recaptured Belgrade and a number of other Danube lands. The most talented Austrian commander, Prince Eugene of Savoy, died in 1736, played a fatal role.
Austria, through France, asked the Turks for negotiations, and on September 1, 1739, separately made peace with them, returning Serbia and part of Wallachia to the Sublime Porte.
Russia was left alone with the Ottomans, but thanks to military victories, we were in a strong position from which we could dictate terms in the negotiations. The Versailles court entrusted the mediation to the French ambassador in Constantinople and namesake of the famous modern director, the Marquis Louis de Villeneuve. The negotiations took place in Belgrade, which had been returned to the Turks.
The problem was that the head of the Foreign Ministry, Count Andrei Ivanovich (Heinrich Johann Friedrich) Osterman, was not the strongest diplomat. At the start of the Belgrade negotiations, Russia could lay claim to Crimea, the south of Novorossiya, Bukovina, Moldova and even part of today's Romania.
But judging by the chronicle of the negotiations, the Russian side was continually giving in. Perhaps Osterman wanted to end the conflict as quickly as possible, fearing complications with the European powers - first and foremost with Sweden, with which another war did indeed soon begin.
Some of the acquisitions were defended. In addition to Azov and Taganrog, lost under Peter I, Zaporizhia returned to Russia, where the New Sich arose on the territory of today's Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporizhia regions. The "Zadneprovskie places" - territories within the borders of today's Kirovograd region of Ukraine - also remained part of the empire.
But the main thing, alas, was that as a result of the Belgrade Peace, the access to the Black Sea was lost for a long time – until the Rumyantsev campaigns – and remained with the Ottomans. There was no talk of control over Crimea – on the contrary, Tatar raids continued for almost another half century. For example, Kharkov landowner Anna Danilevskaya recalled in 1769: “Tatars and Nagays, I tell you, scurried here even during my time.”
THE CAPITAL IS HAVING FUN, THE WINNERS ARE BEING JUDGED
However, in St. Petersburg they hardly thought about the hardships of the border residents - here the big "information occasion" was the court amusements, described in detail a century later by Ivan Lazhechnikov in the novel "The Ice House".
For example, the wedding of the jester Prince Golitsyn and the Kalmyk woman Avdotya Buzheninova that took place in 1740. “ Now is the time for you to have fun, Now the travelers should go wild in every possible way,” wrote the poet Vasily Trediakovsky on this occasion.
In 1740, Anna Ioannovna died, and then, after the accession of her cousin Elizabeth Petrovna, Minikh went into exile to Pelym for two decades, and Osterman to Beryozov. The figures of Anna's reign were tried, however, not for the campaign, but for intrigue at court.
It became unacceptable to remember this campaign for many years. After all, how can you explain to the average person why the army of Rumyantsev and Prince Dolgorukov, and then Potemkin and Suvorov, had to fight where Minikh and Lassi had already been before them?
But - if we ignore diplomatic blunders and take into account only the military component - it became clear: the status quo, which has been in place in the Black Sea steppes (in the future Novorossiya) almost since the Middle Ages, can be completely broken in our favor.
During the course of the campaign, it became clear to the outstanding Russian commander and engineer Burkhard Christoph Minich that the Wild Field needed to be developed and populated.
And not only within the defensive lines built according to his design south of Izyum and Slavyansk, but all the way to the sea coast. In the following reigns, this issue was resolved, but without the participation of the heroes of the forgotten war.