In the XVIII century, the main bone of contention between Russia and Turkey was the Crimean Khanate. Tatars regularly appeared in the territories of the Cossacks, which caused inevitable conflicts. In May 1735, news came to St. Petersburg that the army of the khan crossed the Russian border in order to reach Persia. This was a good reason for declaring another war with Turkey (the Crimean Tatars were its vassals).
Leontief Campaign
At this time, Anna Ioannovna ruled Russia (1730 - 1740). Shortly before a conflict broke out with the Ottoman Empire, its troops went to Poland to support Elector Augustus in the struggle for the local throne. The campaign was led by a favorite of Empress Minich. It was he who received a telegram from the capital, in which Anna asked the German to go south with the army. Thus began the Russo-Turkish war of 1735-1739.
Minich decided to wait until winter and, with the onset of cold weather, to begin the blockade of Azov, an important fortress for which Peter the Great still fought. In September, the favorite and his advisers became ill with fever. Because of this, he changed his plans and sent General Leontyev to the Crimea.
His army was about 40 thousand people and dozens of guns. However, he did not achieve any success. Autumn rains and mudslings played a cruel joke with him. In the army, diseases and the mass death of horses began. Having lost 9 thousand people, Leontyev returned with nothing. The Russo-Turkish War of 1735 - 1739 It began with the usual headache of senior officials and failures.
The siege of Azov
In order to make it easier for the army to conduct military operations in the vicinity of Azov, a temporary base was built 30 kilometers from it - the fortress of St. Anne. Minich arrived here in March 1736. At the end of the month, a siege began, which was designed to deplete the enemy. The Turks were poorly prepared for such a turn of events, and almost without a fight they surrendered all the surrounding fortifications.
However, on the part of the Russian generals, there were many nonsense. For example, in April, Count Peter Lassi received an order to go under Azov to participate in the management of hostilities. He was in such a hurry that he took with him only a tiny detachment of a dozen Cossacks. Near the raisins (a city in the modern Kharkov region), a gang of Tatars attacked him. The detachment was scattered, and the general himself barely blew his legs.
Surrender of Azov to the Turks
In May, a Russian squadron arrived down Azov down the Don. Ships brought new artillery. From this moment on, about 40 guns fired continuously at the fortress. Once a shell landed in a warehouse of gunpowder, which caused a severe explosion in the city, destroying hundreds of houses and killing more than three hundred inhabitants.
Against the backdrop of these successes, the Turkish governor decided to surrender Azov, as his compatriots could not come to his aid. It happened on June 19th. The terms of surrender were agreed. The entire Muslim population of the city was free to leave its walls. About 40 thousand inhabitants left Azov. Russian troops freed hundreds of Orthodox hostages from a local prison. The winners also got a lot of guns. Due to regular mortar fire, city buildings were mostly destroyed or badly damaged. The Russian-Turkish war (1735 - 1739) was marked by the first serious success of our army.
Minih in Crimea
In April 1736, Minikh led a 54,000th army into the Crimea. On the 18th, it approached Perekop, an outpost that stood on the only narrow isthmus that led to the peninsula. Around him was a deep moat. This unpleasantly surprised Minich, since on the eve he was assured that the infrastructure of the Turks was in poor condition.
Before starting the assault, the field marshal decided to send a letter to the khan. In it, he invited the Tatars to become citizens of the Russian Empress, and also accused the neighbors of regular raids. Khan in response sent a murza, who said that there were no attacks, and there were Nogais in the place of the robbers. The Russian-Turkish war (1735 - 1739) could end if the parliamentarians found a common language.
However, Minih could not agree with the Murza. Then he sent the ambassador back, promising the khan that he would see his cities burning and destroyed for not wanting to accept the mercy of Anna Ivanovna.
Assault Perekop
The Russians began the assault. The soldiers managed to quickly force the moat, as well as the parapet. The towers that continuously fired on infantry remained a serious problem. One of them managed to capture the company of the Preobrazhensky regiment, which consisted of 60 people. 160 Turks were chopped up here. The remaining garrisons fled after the Tatars.
The last stronghold of the enemy remained a fortress. Pasha passed it on May 22, after he agreed that the Turks would be allowed to freely leave the besieged fortification. So Perekop was captured.
The Russo-Turkish War of 1735 - 1739 went on. Following Perekop, Kinburn Fortress surrendered. General Leontiev went to her, at the disposal of which there were about 10 thousand soldiers. It was an important fort that controlled the mouth of the Dnieper.
Hike deep into the peninsula
After the first successes on the military council, a dispute arose. Minich proposed continuing the offensive inland with all possible forces. He believed that thanks to this, the Russo-Turkish war (1735-1739 - its actual duration) would end faster. Some other generals thought differently. They explained the danger of going to lands where there is practically no water. As a rule, armies isolated from communications in such conditions became easy prey for the Tatars. However, the point of view of Minich was still supported, and on May 25 he went south.
The first city fell Kozlov, or modern Evpatoria. When a detachment of Cossacks went on the assault, it turned out that the fortress was abandoned and set on fire, and its inhabitants fled to Bakhchisaray. On June 17, the Russians approached the capital. It was not easy to take it by direct assault, since the only passable road was under surveillance. Therefore, Minich left all the sick and wounded with convoys aside under the protection of a small detachment, and he, with selected troops, moved around the city. The maneuver was a success: the Tatars did not notice how, under cover of night, the Cossacks were next to Bakhchisarai. The best regiment from the Tatars and Janissaries was sent to meet them. At first they managed to crush the Russians and even select a few guns. However, in the end, a counterattack led to the defeat of the Turks. Bakhchisaray was taken, and the inhabitants fled.
Return to winter apartments
Tatars hid in the mountains, and the Turks were evacuated to Kafu. At first, Minich wanted to go to this city in order to also destroy it. However, the Russian army was extremely exhausted. The heat was especially fierce - the shelves appeared after dawn and walked all day with mowing knowledge. It was a European war strategy, which was not suitable for campaigns in the steppes with such a climate. Due to numerous casualties, Minih turned back. In Perekop, he also lingered for a short while. Having gathered all his troops, the field marshal counted the losses - about 30 thousand people, most of whom died from illness or heat.
The ruined peninsula was abandoned, and Minikh went to Petersburg to explain himself to the empress. Thus ended the campaign, which marked the Russo-Turkish War (1735 - 1739). The reasons for the great losses were Minich's inability to adapt to the local southern conditions.
Austria joins the war
The victory of Russian weapons convinced Austria that Turkey was defenseless. The Habsburg monarchy wanted to continue its expansion in the Balkans. However, the armies of Emperor Charles VI suffered a number of sensitive defeats on their front, which only strengthened the position of the Ottoman Empire. Failures were associated with poor organization and hatred in the Austrian headquarters.
Fights for Ochakov
Meanwhile, Minikh arrived in Kiev, where an army of 70,000 fresh soldiers was waiting for him. His goal was the important fortress Ochakov. In the garrison of Minich there were about 20 thousand people. The Russian army came to the walls of the city suddenly. Her artillery was far behind infantry. Minich decided not to wait for the delivery of guns, but to begin the assault with the forces that he had at that time. The situation was rather precarious, as the Turks gathered an auxiliary army near Bender.
On the first day, unexpectedly, almost the entire garrison went out of the gate and attacked the besiegers. However, the courage of the Turks did not help, and they had to retreat. Their army suffered heavy losses. The situation of the besieged became critical when a powder warehouse exploded in the city and a serious fire started. Confusion in the garrison took advantage of the Russian fleet. Cossacks left the ships and captured the fortress from the sea. After that, the commandant gave the order to raise the white flag.
However, the success of the siege of Ochakov was soon nullified. A few months later, an epidemic broke out in the city, because of which the soldiers were dying en masse. In September 1739, the military council decided to leave the fortress. The same fate awaited the soldiers in Kinburn. So ended another campaign, which remembered the Russian-Turkish war (1735 - 1739). The table below shows the aspect ratio during the siege of Ochakov.
The siege of Ochakovo in 1737 | Russia | Turkey |
| Warlords | Burchard Minih | Mustafa Pasha |
| Forces of the parties | 70 thousand | 20 thousand |
| Losses | 3 thousand | 15 thousand |
Campaign to Bender in 1738
The new target of the main army of Minich was Bender. The farther the Russians advanced west along the Black Sea coast, the greater the chances were that the Russo-Turkish War would end soon (1735-1739). The results of the campaign, however, were disappointing. Minich failed to capture at least one important fortress and gain a foothold in the region.
The Dniester River turned out to be the last border. When the field marshal came here, he met on the opposite bank a huge 60,000th army of Turks, which it was very difficult to fight with due to the lack of a normal crossing. Engineers could not build temporary bridges due to the fact that they constantly opened fire. Standing on the Dniester led to the fact that the army began to run out of supplies.
The Russian-Turkish war of 1735 - 1739, in short, was with varying success. Therefore, Minih did not dare to give a general battle and again retreated to the winter apartments.
Campaign 1739
The very next year, the army still managed to force the Dniester. This was done due to the fact that the path to this river was significantly reduced. Minich persuaded the empress to give him permission to go south through Poland, which was noticeably easier than in the wild steppe.
The main success of Russian weapons this year was the capture of the Khotin fortress, which opened the way to Bender. General Levendal became the commandant of this important city. At the same time, Minih approached Iasi, where the Moldovan ethnic majority lived.
Belgrade World
Amazing news arrived in Petersburg. In September 1739, Austria signed a peace with Turkey, bypassing its agreements with Russia. In addition, the Swedish government was in talks with the Ottoman Empire on allied actions. An additional corps of 10 thousand soldiers was sent to the Finnish border. It became clear that Russia faces the threat of war on two fronts. St. Petersburg clearly did not want this, and therefore began negotiations with the Turks on the end of the armed conflict.
On September 29, 1739, an agreement was signed between the two countries. The parliamentarians met in Belgrade. The main points of the document were as follows. Russia got Azov, however, all the fortifications of the fortress had to be torn down, which made the city defenseless. In addition, Russia could not have its own fleet in the Black Sea. Trade in the region was to be carried out only with the help of Turkish ships. This meant that Russia received almost nothing after a bloody four-year campaign, which cost the lives of 100 thousand soldiers. The Russian-Turkish war (1735 - 1739), in short, did not meet the expectations of St. Petersburg. Nevertheless, Anna Ioannovna tried to maintain a reputation and arranged endless maneuvers and holidays in the capital on the occasion of the signing of the contract.
Reasons for Small Success
This remained in the history of the Russo-Turkish war of 1735 - 1739. The reasons for the failure of Russia were also the fact that all the European powers opposed it. This concerned the Austrians, as well as the French, who were official intermediaries between the parties to the conflict, but did nothing to support the Romanovs. It was important for Paris to secure its interests in the region after the Russo-Turkish War of 1735-1739 ended. The table below shows the main military leaders of this conflict.
Warlords of the Russo-Turkish War (1735 - 1739)| Russia | Turkey |
| Burchard Minih | Mahmoud I |
| Peter Lassi | Mengli Giray |
It should be noted the strategic mistakes of the main generals - Minich and Lassi. They did not spare the soldiers. In addition, field marshals used a combat square, which was extremely ineffective against the attacks of mobile and fast cavalry. This was shown by the results of the Russo-Turkish war of 1735-1739. The soldiers fired back from the cavalry, while the bayonet was hardly used, which was a gross error of command.