The Great Turkish War: Peter the Great’s first military campaign
The Russo-Turkish of 1686–1700 (third out of twelve) was a part of the Great Turkish War — perhaps the most important conflict between the Ottoman Empire and and her European nemeses. This is the war that completely changed the Eastern European borders. 23 rulers of participating nations died or were overthrown during this war. This is the war where the Ottomans got the furthest into Europe. This is the war where the Winged Hussars arrived and where the decline of the Ottomans became clear. But this is not the story of the winged hussars or Ottoman decline. This is the story of Peter the Great’s first military triumph — and his only ultimate military failure.
What was Europe up to?
In 1683, Balkan politics were shifting. Hungary was split in three parts — Royal Hungary under the Catholic Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, the Protestant Principality of Upper Hungary and the various vassals of the Ottoman Empire (see the map below). Leopold made an effort to consolidate his rule and implement counter-reformation, which did not sit well with the Protestants. And so the Protestant Upper Hungary swore fealty to the Ottomans, who tolerated them much better than the Catholic Austrians did. Upper Hungary pledged her troops to the Turks, eager to wage war against the Emperor.
In the meantime, Ottoman politics were dominated by the Köprülü Viziers. And they were becoming arrogant. In the past 20 years, Ottoman Empire took land from Austria, conquered Crete from the Venetians and consolidated her Ukrainian territories in wars with Russia and Poland-Lithuania. They stamped out religious separatism and reformed the crashing economy. As long as the Köprülü family succeeded, Sultan Mehmed IV was happy with them holding the Grand Vizier position. But their luck was about to run out.
Emboldened by recent victories, and with support of the Protestant Upper Hungary and the Crimean Khanate, Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa declared war on Austria. Without losing much time, he decided to take the Army straight to Vienna. This was the furthest Ottomans ever ventured into Europe. The Siege of Vienna went as planned for the first two months… and then the Winged Hussars arrived. Polish King Jan Sobieski relieved the siege and beat the Turks back. Enraged, Mehmed IV executed the Grand Vizier (in the next several years Vizier heads were flying left and right, and eventually the Köprülü family got their power back).
Emboldened by their victory, the Catholics formed the Holy League between the HRE, Poland-Lithuania and Venice, and launched an offensive against the Ottomans. The Venetians assaulted Greece, while Poland and Austria pushed into Hungary. Ottomans were losing city after city and the Holy League decided to further capitalise on their success… by inviting Russia into the Coalition.
When the Great Turkish War started, Russia was just beginning to stabilise after a terrible succession crisis. Regent Sophia and her favourite (and probably lover) Golitsyn were consolidating their power and the war provided a great opportunity for that. In 1686, Golitsyn signed the (not-so) Eternal Peace with Poland. As a result, Russia received a large chunk of Ukrainian territory including Kiev and joined the Holy League. This was Russia’s first alliance with Western European states. And so the new Russo-Turkish War began.
Disaster in Crimea
In May 1687, Golitsyn took a massive army (~140,000 men) and, joined by Ukrainian cossacks, marched on Crimea. Due to the sheer size of the army, it suffered from summer heat, as well as supply problems. Golitsyn wanted a battle with the Crimean Khanate, but seeing the size of the Russian army, the Khan instead employed scorched earth tactic, avoiding confrontation, burning fields and poisoning wells. Soldiers and horses were dying, conflict started brewing between the Russians and the cossacks. Two months after the start of the campaign, exhausted and famished, the Russians turned around and left Crimea. Russia managed to lose the campaign without meeting a single foe. Nevertheless, Golitsyn proclaimed the campaign successful, saying that the Russian army ‘showed its strength to the Crimean Khan’.
Two years later, Golitsyn gathered an even bigger army and went on the same expedition. This time he went in February to avoid summer heat. This time the Russians reached Crimea, but there they were attacked by the Crimean army and somehow lost despite the overwhelming numbers. To not waste any more men, Golitsyn retreated once again.
In the meantime, the Ottoman Empire was in shambles. Despite the spectacular failure of both offensives, Golitsyn’s campaigns proved useful for the Holy League, occupying the Crimean armies and making the Balkan theatre a cakewalk for the Holy Alliance. Disillusioned by the losses at Mohacs and Morea, the Turkish army overthrew Mehmed IV and installed Suleiman II on the throne… who soon died from an illness and gave the throne to Ahmed II, who also died and was succeeded by Mustafa II. Mustafa also wouldn’t last, but that is an entirely different story. Meanwhile in Russia, Sophia was overthrown by Peter in 1692. In other words, #stability.
The Big Amusement Campaign
The political turmoil did not help the Ottoman Empire. The Turks were losing battle after battle, provinces were taken one by one, Transylvania changed sides and supported the Holy League. Most importantly, Peter could realise his obsession with the Navy and capture the Azov port. Despite being in Crimean territory, the Azov Castle was governed directly by the Ottomans ever since it was taken from Genoa in 1471. Capturing the castle would give Russia access to the Black Sea — something it hasn’t had in centuries. But the Russian army wasn’t ready.
Being the military genius that he was, Peter recognised the keys to victory — discipline, leadership, logistics. Goltsyn’s disastrous Crimean campaign showed that the Russian army lacked all three. To solve the first two problems, Peter organised the Kozhukhovskiy Campaign (also called the ‘Big Amusement Campaign — and yes, it sounds just as funny in Russian) — the first army exercises in Russian history. For this, Peter built an entire wooden castle with a garrison of 5000 men surrounded by a 3m deep ditch. The soldiers were split into two camps and the generals were given funny nicknames like ‘Generalissimus and Polish King Ivan’. Peter himself lead the bombardier division.
The ‘script’ for the campaign was created by Peter’s military mentor, Scotsman Patrick Gordon. It included open battles, a river crossing, artillery fire, a siege, and many other elements. Despite the training nature of the campaign, the battles resulted in dozens of people injured and even in one death. The soldiers learnt Western-style formations, modern siege strategies, offensive and defensive tactics, as well as engineering. By the end of the Big Amusement Campaign, the army was ready. It was much smaller than Golitsyn’s horde (about 30,000 men), but it was trained and ready to achieve what Golitsyn could not.
The Azov Campaigns
Peter decided to learn from the logistical mistakes of Golitsyn as well. Instead of searching for the Khan’s army while suffering from water and food shortages, he went directly for the castle. To solve the supply problem once and for all, Peter spent the months before the campaign building transport boats on the Don river — a waterway that led directly from Russian territory to Azov. And so, in 1695, the Azov campaign began.
The army was separated into four parts. The three main parts laid siege to Azov from three sides. The fourth part, comprised of mobile cossack horsemen, moved West to attack fortresses of the Crimean Khan. While the cossack army succeeded in taking four forts, the main army had to pull back after several unsuccessful assaults of Azov. The winter was coming and the cold would have given the defenders an advantage.
The armies moved back into Russian territory and regrouped. Peter issued an edict, according to which all serfs who would volunteer for the army would gain freedom. By May, the the size of the Russian force more than doubled. This time Peter completely changed his strategy. First, he wanted to cut off Azov from the sea. Immediately after the first campaign, he ordered European engineers to being construction of a navy. A dozen galleys was built on the Don river and moved down towards the sea. There, the small fleet successfully attacked Ottoman trade ships and blockaded the Azov castle. The Turkish Navy was immediately dispatched to the region, but was (somehow) repelled by the newly founded Russian Navy. This was Russia’s first major victory on the water. And it only solidified Peter’s love for the Navy, which would later play a major role in the Great Northern War…
In the meantime, Peter’s land force laid siege to Azov. Unlike the first time, Peter decided to avoid assaulting Azov with full force, and instead bombarded the castle with artillery. After 3 days under fire, Azov fell to the Russians. Peter immediately ordered restoration works on the badly damaged walls, and founded a naval base nearby.
The Azov campaign showed the clear importance of the Navy and artillery. It showed Peter’s ability to learn from his own mistakes (especially contrasted with Golitsyn’s inability to do the same). The capture of access to the sea gave birth to the Russian fleet. However, the Azov campaigns did not give Peter the access to the Black Sea he longed for. The Sea of Azov was hopelessly cut off from the Black Sea by the Kerch Strait, still held by the Ottomans (marked on the map above as green). Peter had no capacity to continue the campaign and, having left a garrison in the newly captured castle, ventured on a diplomatic campaign — the Great Embassy. He failed to gather allies against the Turks, but came back with inspiration for his great reforms, as well as support for his Swedish ambitions.
Meanwhile, the war in the West dragged on. Initially, the Habsburg Austrians and the Poles and wanted to throw the Ottomans out of Europe completely, but the Nine Years War against France occupied a large proportion of Austrian troops. Eventually, the Habsburgs managed to get their act together and decisively defeat Sultan Mustafa II at the Battle of Zenta. Caught in a surprise attack during a river crossing, the Turks lost over 30,000 men and were forced to sue for peace.
The 1699 Treaty of Karlowitz gave most of Hungary, Croatia and Serbia to Austria; Morea and Dalmatia went to Venice; and Poland received western Ukraine. The treaty hit the Ottoman Empire hard, it was the first serious territory loss for the Turks. The army was in shambles, the economy was crashed. The recovery was lead by the Köprülü Viziers (they’re back!) and saw the Ottomans adopt a more defensive policy.
After Karlowitz, Peter negotiated for another year and concluded a separate Treaty of Constantinople, where Russian ownership of Azov was confirmed and a truce was signed. This truce became incredibly important later, as it allowed Peter to start the Great Northern War against Sweden without fear of Turkish attack in the south… but that is a story for another time.
Written with the help of Erkut Erdinçler
