The Russo-Turkish war of 1677-1681 was the first serious clash of two great powers. Until now, conflicts between them have been resolved either by negotiations, or by small skirmishes, or by someone else’s hands, as was the case in 1569, when the Ottoman sultan sent the Crimean Tatars vassals to conquer Astrakhan from the Russians. However, in the 17th century, the interests of the two states entered into such a contradiction that an open military conflict became inevitable.
The reasons for the Russian-Turkish war of 1677 - 1681
The subject of the dispute was the land of Right-Bank Ukraine. Three powerful geopolitical players claimed their rights to these territories: Russia, Poland and the Ottoman Empire, which had gained power. The 17th century was a time when aggressive campaigns were the norm. Empires expanded at the expense of weaker neighbors, captured or took under the protectorate entire countries with their population.
Initially, Ukraine was divided by the Russian state and the Commonwealth. The long war of 1654 - 1667 led to the division of Ukrainian lands into the Polish Right Bank of the Dnieper and the Russian Left Bank. The conflict exhausted both sides, it seemed that peace was achieved. However, in the second half of the 17th century, the Ottoman Empire began its expansion to the west and north. The Turks skillfully took advantage of the internal political differences among Ukrainians, having received a formal reason for the invasion of Ukraine.
Pre-war situation in Ukraine
Ukrainian political life on the eve of the Russo-Turkish war of 1667-1681 resembled a tangled tangle. A small part of the Cossacks remained loyal to the Polish king, the left-bank Ukraine was ruled by the pro-Moscow hetman Bryukhovetsky, on the right bank of the Dnieper the hetman Doroshenko ruled, who came under the influence of the Turks. It was through Doroshenko that the Ottoman Empire tried to extend its influence to all Ukrainian lands, providing him with military, political and financial assistance.
In 1668, Bryukhovetsky, yielding to the persuasion of Doroshenko, who had promised him power on both banks of the Dnieper, rebelled against the Moscow Tsar. The rebellious Cossacks expelled the governor and seized power on the Left Bank. But the promises were a hoax. Bryukhovetsky was killed by order of Doroshenko, who declared himself the hetman of all Ukraine, having achieved two goals at once: he destroyed a serious rival for power and weakened Moscow’s influence on the left bank.
The Russian troops, led by the governor Rodomovsky, easily drove Doroshenko and the rebels beyond the Dnieper. Moscow regained power over the Left Bank, in 1669 Demyan Mnogoshinniy became its hetman, but due to ties with Doroshenko and the Turks he was deposed in 1672, and Ivan Samoilovich took his place, who for 15 years defended the interests of the Russian state as hetman.
Buchach world and Moscow response
In 1669, Doroshenko openly announced the transition of Right-Bank Ukraine to the Ottoman Sultan. Turks gained the right to intervene in Ukrainian affairs without diplomatic obstacles. Turkish and Crimean troops defeated Polish forces in a series of battles, conquered Podolia with its main fortress city of Kamenetz-Podolsky, and in 1672 forced the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to a humiliating treaty, which became the prologue of the Russo-Turkish war of 1667 - 1681.
According to the agreement, defeated Poland recognized itself as a tributary of the Ottoman Empire, withdrew all military garrisons from Ukraine, pledged to pay an impressive indemnity to Porte every year. The Turks officially included Podolia in their Empire, and the Poles completely abandoned the rights to Right-Bank Ukraine, which they received under the Andrusovsky treaty with Russia.
After the defeat of Poland, a military clash between Moscow and the Port became inevitable and imminent. The appetites of the Turks could not be limited only to the Right Bank, and the Russian state sought to incorporate Ukrainian lands along the Dniester border. Russia searched in vain for allies among the Western powers, none of them wanted to get involved in the war. Moscow was left alone with the mighty Ottoman Empire, in the fall of 1672 the tsar of Moscow issued a decree on preparations for the war, which was called the help to the Orthodox inhabitants of Podolia and the Polish king. Some historians consider this date to be the actual beginning of the first Russo-Turkish war of 1667 - 1681.
First clashes
Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich honored the signing of the Buchach peace by annulment of the Andrusov treaty with Poland. Moscow authorities told the Polish king that from now on Russia would seek to take right-bank Ukraine under its protection and protection. Moreover, discontent was accumulating in the Slavic population under the rule of the Turks. The Ottomans forcibly converted Christians to Islam, made mosques from the churches, mocked and raped Ukrainians.
In the spring of 1673, the Russian army approached the Dnieper. Its commander, Prince Grigory Romodanovsky, on behalf of the tsar, entered into negotiations with the hetman Doroshenko and his closest colonels, demanding that he be transferred to Moscow. Doroshenko’s situation was very precarious, most Ukrainians began to look at Russian soldiers as saviors, and the Ottomans destroyed all the fortresses on the Right Bank, except for Chigirin, so the war with the powerful Russian army promised the hetman continuous disaster.
Doroshenko once again embarked on political tricks. He gave Romodanovsky a vague consent to the transition to the arm of the Moscow Tsar, but was not in a hurry to confirm this. He did the opposite, constantly asking the Ottoman Sultan for military assistance. As a result, from 1672 to 1676, the clashes between the Russian and Turkish troops were inconstant, almost random.
Vassals of the Sultan Crimean Tatars staged periodic raids on the Left-Bank Ukraine, even reaching the Belgorod defensive line. Russian troops crossed the Dnieper and occupied Kanev, Cherkassy, and in the summer of 1674 they besieged Chigirin, but were forced to retreat when the Crimean khan came to the aid of the besieged.
The Ukrainian cities revolted in the hope of the help of the regiments of Romodanovsky and Hetman Samoilovich, but the Russian forces on the right bank were still too weak for such a full-scale clash as the first Russo-Turkish war of 1677 - 1681. Therefore, unrest was brutally suppressed by the Turks, sometimes the Ottomans completely slaughtered the male population, and children and women were turned into slaves.
The fall of Doroshenko
The fierce cruelty of the Turks became one of the main reasons for the fall of power of Doroshenko. The embittered, tormented population turned their discontent and anger against the main protege of the invaders. Ukrainians fled from oppression to the safer left bank of the Dnieper. Neither persuasion nor strength helped to keep them. By the winter of 1676, Doroshenko controlled only Cherkasy and Chigirin.
When the Russian troops approached Chigirin, the right-bank hetman resisted only for sight, he realized that his power was over, and further struggle would cost him his life. Doroshenko swore allegiance to the Russian tsar, and in March 1677 he was taken to Moscow, where the Russian sovereign showered yesterday's enemy with honors, a little later he was given the post of Vyatka governor, and then he was given a generous pension in the form of a thousand peasant households. Doroshenko died quietly away from Ukraine in 1698, at the age of 71, starting, but not participating in the Russian-Turkish war of 1677 - 1681.
Start of war
The great war between the Russian state and Porta broke out in 1677. The impressive pause between the start of preparations for military operations and the first major clashes is due to the fact that the Turkish sultan finally resolved the Polish question. The Polish Sejm refused to recognize the infamous Buchach peace, signed by the king, so the hostilities lasted until the fall of 1976 and ended in victory for the Ottomans.
Detailed descriptions, information about the battles, maps and tables of the Russian-Turkish war of 1677 - 1681 are presented in numerous scientific works. A detailed image of all the milestones and events of this war will take a lot of time, so it makes sense to dwell only on the most important points. Active hostilities lasted two years and were conducted mainly near Chigirin. Then followed a lengthy negotiation process, culminating in the signing of a peace treaty. But first things first.
1677: a brilliant victory for Russian weapons
In the summer of 1677, a huge Ottoman army led by Ibrahim Pasha approached Chigirin. It totaled about 70 thousand people, it was Yuri Khmelnitsky, whom the Turks hoped to make an obedient hetman of Ukraine. Chigirin was defended by less than 10 thousand Russian soldiers and Cossacks. The sevenfold advantage seemed to turn the defenders into the doomed.
However, a military miracle happened, with which the Russian army will surprise the world many more times. The Turks launched a siege on August 3, constantly fired at the fortress walls with artillery, made trenches, threw infantry into the breaches, but Chigirin held on, and his defenders managed to arrange bold attacks, causing considerable damage to the Ottomans. This went on for almost three weeks, until on August 20 the army of Romodanovsky and the regiments of the hetman Samoilovich came to the rescue.
Ibrahim Pasha tried to defeat the arrivals during the crossing, but was defeated and was forced on August 29 to lift the siege from Chigirin, burn his camp and get out. The first Chigirinsky campaign was the greatest success of the Russian army in the Russian-Turkish war of 1677 - 1681. However, it was very early to sum up the results. The Ottoman Empire, having learned a lesson, decided next year to take a convincing revenge.
1678: the destruction of Chigirin
The Ottomans worked on the mistakes and July 18, 1678 besieged Chigirin with even more impressive forces than a year earlier. The troops of the Sultan totaled up to 140 thousand soldiers, possessed over the defenders of the fortress an unconditional advantage in artillery and more than ten times in number.
The battles began not only under the walls of Chigirin, but also at the nearby Tyasminskie Heights, where Romodanovsky’s army, which had come to the rescue, crossed over. Having broken through the defense of the Ottoman forces, on August 4, Russian regiments were located just a few kilometers from the fortress. However, Romodanovsky never ventured to break through the siege. He was worried about the exhaustion of the army, the superiority of the enemy’s forces, the fear of being surrounded.
Therefore, on August 11, he gave the order to Chigirin’s defenders to leave the city and join the main forces. On August 12, the general retreat of the army and the crossing of the Dnieper began under the fire of Turkish artillery. The last regiments left the right bank on August 27. The army of the Sultan completely destroyed the Chigirinsky fortress, and left the burnt city on August 23. The protectorate of the Ottoman Empire over Right-Bank Ukraine was again restored.
Long negotiations
Moscow ruling circles were afraid that the Ottoman army would continue the attack on Kiev and Left-Bank Ukraine, and the Sultan was really seriously considering this plan. But then, comparing the impressive Turkish losses near Chigirin, with the losses that would certainly entail subsequent wars with the Russian armies, he decided to translate the conflict into a negotiation channel. Negotiations lasted more than two years and culminated in the signing of the Bakhchisarai Peace on January 3, 1681 . Russian-Turkish war of 1677 - 1681 has been completed. According to the contract:
- between the Russian state and the Port, peace was declared for 20 years;
- it was forbidden to build fortresses on the Dnieper;
- the border between Russia and the Ottoman Empire was drawn along the Dnieper;
- Kiev and the Kiev settlements remained in the possession of the Russian Tsar;
- The Russian state was obligated to pay tribute to the Crimean Khan.
War Results
Historians evaluate the results of this confrontation differently. Some believe that both sides did not achieve their goals, Soviet historians insisted on the victory of the Russian troops, but most are inclined to believe that the Russians lost significantly more than the Turks. Judging impartially and briefly, the Russian-Turkish war of 1677 - 1681 weakened the Russian state, it turned into tributaries of the Crimean Tatars, lost all influence on the Right-Bank Ukraine, it was necessary to forget dreams about the Russian border along the Dniester until better times.
But the Chigirin campaigns prompted the Russian authorities to build a four-hundred-kilometer defensive line in the south of the country, as well as to an extensive reform of the armed forces, because in the war, infantry regiments of the foreign type showed themselves best of all, not archers. The reorganization of the army was completed by Peter the Great and became the basis for the future great victories of Russian weapons, including over the Ottoman Empire.