RUSSO-TURKISH WARS

Between Peter the Great's outright accession in 1689 and the end of Romanov dynastic rule in 1917, Russia fought eight wars (1695–1696, 1711, 1735–1739, 1768–1774, 1787–1792, 1806–1812, 1828–1829, and 1877–1878) either singly or with allies against the Ottomans. In addition, Turkey joined anti-Russian coalitions during the Crimean War (1854–1856) and World War I (1914–1918). Although these conflicts often bore religious overtones, the fighting was primarily about power and possessions. Early on, Russian incursions into Poland, the Baltics, the Crimea, and the southern steppe threatened useful Ottoman allies. By the second half of the eighteenth century, however, the issue between St. Petersburg and Constantinople had become one of titanic struggle for hegemony over the northern Black Sea and its northern and northwestern littoral. In the nineteenth century, the issue came to involve Russian aspirations for influence in the Balkans and the Middle East, access to the Mediterranean through the Turkish Straits, and hegemony over the Black Sea's Caucasian and Transcaucasian littoral. As the rivalry became increasingly one-sided in Russia's favor, St. Petersburg generally advocated maintenance of an enfeebled Turkey that would resist outside interference and influences while supporting Russia's interests.

Russia scored its most important successes in the Black Sea basin during Catherine II's First (1769–1774) and Second (1787–1792) Turkish Wars. In particular, three of her commanders, Peter Alexandrovich Rumyantsev, Alexander Vasilevich Suvorov, and Grigory Alexandrovich Potemkin, introduced into the fight a winning combination of resolve, assets, tactical mastery, logistics, colonists, and military-administrative support. Subsequently, with Imperial Russian attention and assets diverted elsewhere, and with the increasing interference of the European powers on Turkey's behalf, St. Petersburg proved unable to repeat Catherine's successes. Outside interference was no more evident than in the aftermath of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, when considerable Russian gains in the Balkans were virtually erased in June–July 1878 by the Congress of Berlin.

See also: military, imperial era; turkey, relations with

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Kagan, Frederick W., and Higham, Robin, eds. (2002). The Military History of Tsarist Russia. New York: Palgrave.

Menning, Bruce W. (1984). "Russian Military Innovation in the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century." War & Society 2 (1):23–41.

Bruce W. Menning