This war, according to many historians, was the first attempt by Russia to move towards the southern borders and establish the Russians on the banks of the Bosporus, an attempt to completely liberate the Slavic lands from the unbearable Turkish yoke. The reunification of Russia and Ukraine in 1654 did not bring the long-awaited peace in the region. The Ottomans and Poles wanted to snatch their piece of the pie, so the population of the Right-Bank and Left-Bank Ukraine did not know peace either from Poland or from the Ottoman Empire.
And the Cossacks regularly showed their dissatisfaction with the Pereyaslav agreement. In February 1667, the Andrusovo truce (for 13.5 years) ended the war between Russia and Poland. According to the agreement, the Left Bank remained to the Russian Tsar, and the Right-Bank part of Ukraine - to Poland. Kyiv was supposed to be Russian, but only 2 years. Turkey was eager to strengthen the confrontation between Poland and Moscow and gain full control over the territory of the Right-Bank Ukraine, in this it was assisted by the ambitious hetman Petro Doroshenko, who announced back in 1669 the transfer of Ukraine to Ottoman citizenship.empire.
Having established themselves in the south of Little Russia, the Turks, together with the Crimean Tatars, unceremoniously began to threaten both the Polish and Ukrainian territories, which could not but cause a military conflict. Doroshenko, who sought to take power over all of Ukraine, openly fomented a civil war. Having settled in Chigirin, which by that time had become the capital of the Right Bank, he constantly opposed the Little Russian Cossacks.
A conflict was brewing, which in 1672 escalated into an armed attack by the Turks and their vassals of the Crimean Tatars on the Commonwe alth. The Turkish onslaught ended with a peace treaty in Buchach, according to which Podolia was ceded to the Ottoman Empire, and the Cossacks received the Bratslav and Kiev provinces. But this did not bring satisfaction to either side, the conflict grew.
The inevitability of war
The Ottoman Empire was clearly preparing for expansion north of the Black Sea. Turkey, which promised Doroshenko to return the Left Bank and Kyiv at the end of the war with Poland, actively discussed plans for their conquest. In addition, the Bashkirs, Astrakhan and Kazan Tatars insisted on freeing them from the Gentiles. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich considered that only war could resolve the conflict situation in Ukraine.
Failing in the search for allies, in December 1672 he issued a decree on preparations for war with the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate. It was necessary to take under the protection of the Orthodox population of Podolia and to help the King of Poland. The meeting of the Boyar Duma on December 18 marked the beginning of the collection of the war tax. Russiastood on the brink of war.
Year 1673 - on the threshold of victories and defeats
The year was marked by the campaigns of Russian troops to Kyiv (the army under the command of Prince Yu. P. Trubetskoy), detachments were sent to the Don. Despite the demands of Russia to stop hostilities, the Crimean Tatars, led by Khan Selim Geray, attacked the Belgorod notched line, partially destroying it in the Novy Oskol area. But, fearing complete encirclement, they considered it necessary to retreat.
In Ukraine, dissatisfaction with the Turkish occupation increased, the atrocities of the Ottomans crossed all borders, Podolia, included in the Ottoman Empire, groaned under the yoke, all the fortresses on its territory were destroyed, the Turks offered Doroshenko to destroy all the right-bank fortresses, leaving only Chigirin. He leaned more and more towards Moscow, while demanding a number of privileges for himself, but by this time many of his associates had gone over to the side of the Russians, and his authority was noticeably shaken.
The first campaign of Russian troops
In the winter of 1674, the first Chigirinsky campaign took place. Under what king did these events take place? Under Fyodor Alekseevich. The war brought the first successes. The troops of G. G. Romodanovsky and I. Samoilovich successfully crossed the Dnieper and occupied Cherkasy and Kanev almost without resistance.
Tatars, who tried to help Doroshenko, were defeated and then finished off by local residents. Only two regiments remained loyal to Doroshenko - Pavolochsky and Chigirinsky. And on March 15, in Pereyaslav, the elected Cossacks of the right-bank regiments were elected to the post of hetmanboth sides of the I. S. Samoilovich, at the same time the conditions for the subordination of the Cossacks of the Right Bank to the Moscow Tsar were accepted.
Strategic City
May brought new successes in the Chigirinsky campaign (briefly about these events - further). The Russians again crossed the Dnieper and, having defeated the Janissaries, were able to capture I. Mazepa, who was sent to the Crimean Tatars for help. On July 23, Russian-Ukrainian forces laid siege to Chigirin, a city of strategic importance to both sides, which from that moment became the center of hostilities. But Fazyl Ahmed Pasha, who outnumbered the advancing Turkish troops, crossed the Dniester and entered Ukrainian territory.
The population, hoping for help from the Russians, desperately resisted the Ottoman aggression, as a result of which seventeen cities were devastated and destroyed, the population was driven into slavery. There was no mercy for men, in Uman they were all brutally massacred. The small Russian army had to lift the siege of the city and retreat to Cherkassy, but they could not hold out here either. Without waiting for reinforcements, after minor battles with the Turks, it was decided to burn the city and, taking the population, cross to the Left Bank.
The second Chigirinsky campaign of Russian troops (1676)
The next two years of the war took place in the Polish territories - In Podolia and Volhynia, where the Turkish army and the Crimean horde conducted offensive operations. In March 1676, Ivan Samoylovich, at the head of 7 regiments, approached Chigirin, but it never came to hostilities against Doroshenko, obeying the decree of the tsar, heretreated and began to negotiate, trying to bring the enemy into submission.
The rumors about the movement of the Ottoman troops forced Moscow to send the troops of Vasily Golitsyn to reinforce the army of Romodanovsky and the detachments of Samoylovich, which allowed the latter to go on the offensive on Chigirin, having previously sent the army of Kasogov and Polubotok forward and forced Doroshenko to surrender and swear allegiance to the Russian Tsar, which happened on September 19.
The Turks were dissatisfied with the outcome of the second Chigirin campaign (1676-1677), but preferred to resolve the Polish issue first. Polish troops were surrounded in the Lvov region and capitulated. As a result of the Chigirinsky campaign (1677), Podolia and most of the Right Bank again went to the Ottoman Empire. How did events develop further?
Ottoman troops: their first Chigirinsky campaign
The Russian-Turkish war continued. Having occupied Chigirin, the Russian regiments under the command of Shepelev and Kravkov actively began preparations for defense. With great difficulty, the guns and fortifications were repaired, and supply issues were resolved. 3 Streltsy orders (2197 people) were sent to Chigirin, and 4 Cossack regiments (450 infantry) were sent by Hetman Samoylovich, and a little later another 500 Cossacks.
At the time of the siege, the defending forces were about 9000 people, commanded by A. F. Traurnicht, and the military engineer Jacob von Frosten was sent to help him. The army of Ibrahim Pasha, who set out on a campaign against Ukraine in May, amounted to 60 thousand people. Therefore, the task of the defendersit was necessary to resist until the arrival of the main forces - the armies of Romodanovsky and Golitsyn.
Besieged
The siege began on August 5, the same day the Turks sent a demand for surrender. Refused, they began bombarding the city with heavy guns, causing significant destruction. But Traurnicht managed to strengthen the fortifications, and a new shaft, poured three meters behind the fortress wall, made it possible to install guns that immediately hit the enemy. On August 8, Yuriy Khmelnytsky, whom the Turks proclaimed hetman of Ukraine, addressed the besieged, but his speeches calling for the surrender of the city were unsuccessful.
Archers and Cossacks tried to attack the enemy, but their attacks failed. The Turks managed to blow up the wall of the fortress and attack the gap, but they were driven back. On August 17, the Turks made another assault attempt, blowing up 8 fathoms of the wall, and again failed.
The last assault
On August 20, the besieged met reinforcements - a detachment of Lieutenant-Colonel F. Tumashev. And on August 23, artillery salvos were heard from the Dnieper - Russian-Ukrainian troops reached the great river. The Turks tried to prevent the army from crossing, but failed. The last assault on the fortress did not bring success to Ibrahim Pasha, although it was the most bloody. On August 29, the Turkish camp was burned, and the Ottoman troops hastily retreated. The Russian army and the Cossacks entered Chigirin on September 9.
The second campaign of the Ottoman troops
Knowing that the Turks will tryto take revenge, Romodanovsky and Samoilovich strongly recommended to strengthen Chigirin, which was done. I. I. Rzhevsky, who became the head of the garrison, took care of the supply of gunpowder, weapons and food. In July 1678, Chigirin was again besieged by the Turkish-Crimean army, but this time it was led by the Grand Vizier Kara-Mustafa. Almost simultaneously, Russian troops and the Ottoman army approached the fortress.
The Turks and Tatars attacked the troops of Romodanovsky and Samoylovich, the military operations went on with varying success, and on August 3, after exhausting battles, the Russian troops captured Strelnikova Gora, uniting with the garrison. On August 11, the systematic destruction of the city by the troops of both armies began, the garrison retreated, uniting with the main force of the Russian troops, which began to retreat to the Dnieper, pursued by enemy troops.
Outcome of the war
The defeat in the Chigirinsky campaigns (date - 1674-1678) predetermined the end of the war. Everyone needed the world. The Turkish protectorate over the Right-Bank Ukraine was restored. On December 22, the messenger Vasily Daudov went to Istanbul with peace proposals. After protracted negotiations, Russia was forced to agree to Turkish terms. Only two years later, on January 13, 1681, the Treaty of Bakhchisaray was signed. The war ended in a draw, only the entire Right-Bank Ukraine, devastated and plundered, licked its wounds.
