On March 27, 1854, Britain and France declared war on Russia and entered the Crimean War. From that moment on, everything went wrong, as the Russian emperor had planned. And in general, he was completely unprepared to face a broad European coalition, which in terms of quality of weapons was much superior to the Russian army of that time.
The start of the Crimean War, in which Turkey fought alone against Russia, took place according to a scenario in Russia’s favor. Meanwhile, Türkiye was the first to officially declare war. By then, however, he had already managed to get the tacit support of the Western powers that he would not get in trouble and be given the Russians to swallow. Moreover, in part, France and Britain did a lot diplomatically to provoke Turkey into conflict with Russia.
London and Paris were increasingly disturbed by the activities of the Russian emperor in the Balkans, where he was making plans to liberate the Orthodox peoples from the rule of the Ottoman Empire. However, Nicholas the First took many aggressive steps towards the war, a simple soldier simply did not like and complex political combinations.
At the end of his reign, he was increasingly burdened by the so-called Vienna system, or the system of joint management of European processes, created by the victorious powers in the war, also called the “Concert of Europe”. Napoleon after the 1815 Congress of Vienna. Later, Russia, England, Austria, Prussia and post-Napoleonic France agreed to show mutual respect for each other, not to upset the balance of power between the leading countries, to oppose anything, in the name of the prosperity, peace and happiness of Europe. revolutions, including national liberation uprisings, and protecting major European monarchies.
The “Concert of Europe” worked somewhat until the late 1840s, when Europe was again swept by a wave of revolution. And for example, when an anti-Turkish uprising broke out in Greece in 1821, the Russian emperor (still Alexander I at that time) did not send troops to aid the Greeks because the allies were against it. Under Nicholas I, the war with Turkey continued very victoriously for Russia. And according to the Edirne Peace Treaty of 1829, Greece nevertheless gained independence, and Serbia, Moldavia and Wallachia – autonomy. The last two are under the auspices of Russia. But all these conditions were also agreed with other major European powers, Russia could have captured much more territory for itself then, but it did not.
But from the early 1840s, Nikolai began to refer to Turkey as the “sick man of Europe” (his term, by the way), and it was time to push the chessboard of European geopolitics. Moreover, according to his ideas, he will not mind Austria, France and England.
The last two had exorbitant colonial ambitions that could only be satisfied at the expense of the Ottoman Empire. For example, Britain rushed to Egypt and the Isthmus of Suez (the canal began to be built after the Crimean War, but the French), France rushed to the eastern Mediterranean and North Africa. Austria borders directly with Turkey and has experienced many conflicts in the Balkans. But none of the European powers were eager to go to war with Türkiye. In Europe, as it turned out later, even the natural conditions of the Crimea were not so well imagined where the expeditionary forces occupied, believing it to be something like the tropics.
During a visit to London in 1844, Nicholas I openly proposed the partition of the Ottoman Empire, which, according to the Russian emperor, was about to collapse. He wanted to take the Black Sea straits, which frightened the European powers, for himself, such strengthening of Russia’s trade routes was not part of his plans. The idea didn’t work.
Then, in 1848, against the background of the revolutions in Europe, Nicholas decided to act independently and, in his opinion, bypass the obsolete Vienna system. In 1848, as a result of the rapid expedition of Russian expeditionary forces into Hungary, the Austrian monarchy actually survived collapse. Moreover, the invasion itself was carried out without consultation and agreement with France and England (in which another revolution was raging). The ease of victory instilled self-confidence in the Russian emperor, who, as it turned out later, had no justification.
From the beginning of the 1850s, Nicholas I deliberately started to steer the issue towards war with Turkey. The British and French actually provoked the Russian tsar to this – they say, let him break his neck.
The French, in particular, suddenly sparked a debate between Catholic and Orthodox clergy for the right to control Christian shrines in the Holy Land under Turkish control. They handed over the keys of the Bethlehem Church of the Nativity into the hands of the Catholics. Nikolai considered this an intolerable insult.
At the beginning of 1853, Russia deliberately demanded an unenforceable ultimatum to Turkey: to transfer the Orthodox subjects of the Ottoman Empire under the special protection of the Russian emperor. That’s a third of the inhabitants of the empire at that time for a minute. For further persuasion, the Russian army sent troops to Moldavia and Wallachia until it met “Russia’s just demands” in the summer of the same year. In fact, demanding their withdrawal, Türkiye will declare war on Russia. But before that, having the support of the West.
In the same 1853, Nicholas offered England to divide Turkey, promising Egypt and Crete, but he “wanted to keep” the Balkans and the straits to himself. The bid failed again. Shortly after Russian troops entered Wallachia and Moldavia, representatives of Britain, France, Prussia, and Austria met in Vienna, which contained a call to somehow avoid a major war and somehow continue with the agreement in accordance with the Vienna Agreement. they adopted the so-called Vienna Note. Principles of the Vienna system. However, Nikolai no longer wanted to negotiate on Türkiye. The Europeans did not resist.
At first it was easy to fight Turkey, a series of impressive victories were won. For example, the Turkish navy was destroyed in the Battle of Sinop, the last battle of sailboats. However, the Turkish army nevertheless put up an unexpected resistance: before the start of the war, the Turks managed to carry out a number of important army reforms and partial military modernizations.
At the same time, the defeat of the Ottoman Empire and the consequent sharp strengthening of Russia in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean and the Balkans were not part of the plans of London and Paris. Yes, and in Vienna, although the Austrian emperor did not enter the Crimean War from the remnants of gratitude. However, he did not respond to Nicholas’ proposal to divide the Balkans and take Montenegro for himself.
The Russian emperor still hoped that the Western powers would not go to war, but would limit themselves to political limitations. He miscalculated. On the eve of the removal of the Western allies to the Crimea, III. As he replied to Napoleon: “Russia in the 54th year, as in the 12th year!” It wasn’t, times have changed.
Technologically and industrially, Russia lagged behind the leading European countries. Despite having an army of almost two million under arms, it smelted iron per capita 20 times less than Britain (which was then the most important indicator of the level of industrial development, as well as the ability to make computer chips now). The only railroad in the whole country, the Crimean War with smoothbore guns and 24 military steamships with 150 British and 108 French propellers. Prince Alexei Menshikov, the commander-in-chief of the Russian army at that time, was fundamentally opposed to the entry of steamships into the fleet. He was mediocre, his only merit was that he was the grandson of the same Menshikov from the time of Peter I, whom Nicholas considered his idol.
Russia could not fight against the Western armies as successfully as against the Turks. Although he continued to successfully defeat the Turks in the Caucasus.
The European expeditionary force of about 60,000 simply struck the Russian soldiers and defeated the Russian army on the Alma River in Crimea, because the firing range of the rifled equipment was four times greater than that of the Russian smoothbore.
In many respects, all this technical backwardness was the result of deliberate isolationism of the times of Nicholas I and “self-reliance” to prevent the penetration of “European revolutionary and liberal contagion”. As Nikolai himself noted, “Russia no longer needs talents, but efficient officials.” Finally, the enlisted serf army was inferior in many combat qualities to the draft armies. Although later everyone will know about the unique cases of heroism of the defenders of Sevastopol.
After months of heroic resistance, Sevastopol fell, but Nicholas would never see it again. He’ll have time to die at age 59, as he caught a cold in the parade. Some believe he did this on purpose, realizing that he was putting the country in a stalemate.
Given that the French and British initially did not intend to go further than the Crimea and would not occupy it, the losses on both sides were terrible – about half the personnel. About 220 thousand for the Russians and about 170 thousand for the Western allies.
At the same time, France and England could not fully see the results of the war as their victories. The Crimean War ended because both sides thought it was pointless to continue the war any longer. After the fall of Sevastopol, hostilities actually subsided. They realized that they could not completely break through the Russian army, including the Western allies.
As British newspapers at the time wrote, “Never before has such a large navy with such powerful forces and vehicles resulted in such an absurd result.” While the Paris Peace Treaty was humiliating for Russia, it coped with its consequences. It was necessary to withdraw the troops from Moldavia and Wallachia, abandon the territorial gains in the Caucasus and temporarily abandon the Black Sea Fleet. The Black Sea has been disarmed for all. After the defeat of France in the war with Prussia and another French revolution in 1871, Russia would violate the provisions of this treaty and return Sevastopol its naval base status.
In itself, the defeat in the Crimean War gave a powerful impetus to deep transformations in Russia, from the abolition of serfdom to the reform of the army and, in general, the entire socio-political system of the country. Exactly in accordance with the formula of the foreign Russian rebel Alexander Herzen, with whom “the most durable chains for the people” were often forged from “victorious swords”. By the way, he wrote that all the atrocities of the Crimean War, all the mediocrity of the commander belonged to the tsar, and the heroic defense of Sevastopol to the Russian people.
The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the editors’ position.