by Denis Davydov
[REGNUM] The figure of Empress Catherine the Great, first installed in Odessa in 1900 and restored in 2007, was demolished three years ago, as was the monument to the military leader Alexander Suvorov. As part of “decolonization” and “cleansing Ukraine of traces of its imperial past.” But, as in all such cases, the demolition left an ideological void.
Because the construction of the city of Odessa in 1794 became possible as a result of the Treaty of Jassy, which ended more than two hundred years of Russian-Turkish wars. Ukraine simply had nothing to replace the treaty concluded on January 9, 1792 between the All-Russian Empire and the Sublime Ottoman Porte following the Russo-Turkish War of 1787-1791: a permanent Ukrainian population appeared in the Northern Black Sea region only with the beginning of Russia's development of this deserted land.
And the contribution of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, to whom a modern myth attributes the founding of a certain settlement "long before Catherine", consists primarily of participating in battles against the Turks in the Russian service. And nothing more, no matter what anyone says.
THE EMPRESS'S FIRST CAMPAIGN
For Catherine II, this was already the second war with the Turks, and it all began long before: the Ottoman Empire sought to repeat the success of the Roman Empire. The Black Sea was already internal Turkish, the Mediterranean and Red Seas almost became so, the Turks had access to the Caspian, under them was North Africa and part of Persia (including modern Syria and Iraq), Greece, the Balkans and, of course, the entire Caucasus.
The Porte was striving for Western Europe, and only the unsuccessful siege of Vienna, in the defense of which, by the way, the Zaporozhian Cossacks who served the Polish king took part, broke the Turkish onslaught. But still, not a single European power, including Russia, could single-handedly win a battle against the world's first army until the 1770s.
That is why there is a monument to Catherine, because only with her accession to the Russian throne was it possible to change the “tradition” of the invincibility of the Ottomans.
In general, only the victory of Russian arms in the first of Catherine's Turkish wars and the signing of the Küçük Kaynarca Peace Treaty in 1774 forced the Ottoman government to officially recognize the Russian ruler's title of empress, equal in status to the title of Ottoman padishah, something the Sultan's court had long refused even to Peter I.
The city of Azov, the steppe lands between the Southern Bug and the Dnieper (eastern Yedisan), including the fortress of Kinburn, passed to the Russian Empire, and ownership of Kerch and the nearby fortress of Yeni-Kale was confirmed. The weakened Crimean Khanate, which had drunk a fair amount of blood over the past centuries, was recognized as independent and not interfering in the affairs of either Russia or Turkey.
Russian ships were allowed free passage through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles, as well as the Danube River. Yes, in fact, the Black Sea Fleet appeared under the decree of 1783, initially created as the Sevastopol squadron from the Azov and Dnieper military flotillas, participants in the First Turkish War.
At the same time, the Russian army left Bessarabia, the principality of Wallachia and the Principality of Moldavia, which for a time returned to the hands of Constantinople. And the war, full of brilliant victories, such as the Battle of Chesma and the Battle of the Fortress of Kagul, became the beginning of the brilliant career of Count Suvorov.
But the fruits of the first major victory did not last long. Moreover, inspired by it, Russia annulled the articles of the treaties concerning the independence of Crimea in 1783. The Crimean Khanate was annexed to the empire, which Turkey did not like at all. In Europe, an active offensive policy was also being conducted, the uprising of the lordly confederates in Podolia, who had promised Turkey its "historical lands" as a prize for support, was crushed, the first partition of Poland took place, which excited the English and French.
So the Second Turkish War, which began in 1787, was already a "joint product" of Anglo-French political intrigues with Turkish military power. Accordingly, on the other hand, a Russian-Austrian military alliance arose, which Turkey learned about too late.
THE BLOW THAT BROKE THE EMPIRE
During the campaign, which lasted for four years, Suvorov's military star flared up in the military firmament along with the commanders of the young Black Sea Fleet - Rear Admiral Nikolai Mordvinov, the Montenegrin Rear Admiral Marko Voynovich and the great Fyodor Ushakov, who has already been canonized in our time.
Russian troops took the fortresses of Ochakov and Izmail with great success, the Turkish campaigns on Bender and Ackerman failed, and a decisive battle was fought at Rymnik, for which Suvorov received the prefix Rymniksky to his surname.
The sailors smashed the Turkish fleet in battles in the Dnieper-Bug estuary, near Zmeiny Island, near Tendra Spit and Cape Kaliakra. Upon learning of the fall of Ochakov, the Empress wrote to the commander of the troops, Field Marshal Grigory Potemkin :
“Taking you by the ears with both hands, I mentally kiss you, my dear friend… With the greatest recognition I accept the zeal and diligence of the troops you lead, from the highest to the lowest ranks… I greatly regret the brave men who were killed; the illnesses and wounds of the wounded are sensitive to me; I regret it and pray to God for their healing. I ask everyone to express my recognition and gratitude on my behalf…”
The bodies of the Russian officers who died during the Ochakov assault were, by order of Prince Potemkin, transported to one of the new cities of the Russian Black Sea region - Kherson - and buried within the fence of the Church of St. Great Martyr Catherine. Here in 1791 the prince himself was buried, having also managed to found the city of Yekaterinoslav, conceived as the center of Novorossiya and the third capital of the Russian Empire after Moscow and St. Petersburg. Today it is known as Dnepr and the unrecognized capital of telephone scammers.
Well, Sultan Selim III, who replaced his predecessor who died from the upheavals, was forced to make peace: for Turkey this was a complete defeat.
The Treaty of Jassy secured Crimea and Ochakov for Russia and moved the border between the two empires to the Dniester River in the west and the Kuban River in the east. By the beginning of the 19th century, these borders would expand, having crossed the Dniester and annexed Bessarabia, Russia would reach the Prut and the Danube, and beyond the Caucasus Mountains, Orthodox Georgia would join it, claims to which Türkiye had renounced precisely under the Treaty of Jassy.
As for Iasi, now one of the largest cities in Romania and an important transport hub, in the old days the settlement belonged to the ancient Moldavian Principality and was closely connected with Russia. As early as the 14th century, there was a significant Russian community here, which is why it is mentioned in several chronicle documents as " Yasii Torg on the Prut River". In 1711, in Iasi, the Moldavian ruler Dimitrie Cantemir swore allegiance to our country and became the first Russian orientalist, an adviser to Peter I on eastern issues.
Before the start of the "Potemkin" Russo-Turkish War, there was a Russian vice-consul in Iasi; during the war, Potemkin made Iasi his "campaign capital", and after the end of the hostilities, the Russian consulate was again located in its usual place; the city became part of Romania only in the middle of the 19th century.
The long struggle for access to the Black Sea ended with an intermediate major success - Russia will have to prove its right to own these lands more than once, including in our days. But one thing is unshakable and indisputable: if not for almost 350 years of efforts, there would be no Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia or Armenia on the world map. Bulgaria and Romania would probably remain Turkish possessions, and the fate of Serbia, Montenegro and Greece would be very controversial.
But if in most cases we are talking about long-inhabited lands that had their own statehood, then the wild Black Sea steppes were conquered and first developed by Russia, which founded cities here and built a new economy. And the right to own them was paid for in full with the blood of Russian soldiers and sailors.