For Independence), the liberation uprising of the Greek people against Turkish rule, which began in the 15th century. The secret revolutionary society Filiki Eteria, founded in 1814 in Odessa by Greek patriots, played a significant role in preparing the uprising. The uprising raised by A. Ypsilanti (one of the leaders of Filiki Eteria) in Moldavia in February (March) 1821 gave impetus to the anti-Turkish action in Greece, which began in March (April) 1821 and covered the entire Morea (Peloponnese) within 3 months ), part of continental Greece, the islands of Spetses, Hydra, Psara, etc. [Independence Day of Greece - March 25 (April 6)]. The uprising of the Greeks developed into a national liberation revolution, the main driving force of which was the peasantry. In the summer of 1822, a 30,000-strong Turkish army invaded Morea, but, having received a decisive rebuff, was forced to retreat, having suffered heavy losses. In 1821-22, the rebels liberated a significant part of Greece. Talented military leaders T. Kolokotronis, M. Botsaris, G. Karaiskakis, and others emerged from their midst. independent republic; A. Mavrokordatos was elected its president. In 1827 I. A. Kapodistria was elected president in the city of Troezen. There was no unity of government among the rebels; after the first successes, contradictions intensified in their camp, which led to two civil wars (November 1823 - June 1824, November 1824 - early 1825), which significantly weakened the Greek liberation movement.
In 1824, the Turkish sultan Mahmud II enlisted his vassal, the Egyptian Pasha Muhammad Ali, in the fight against the rebels, promising him the territories of Syria and Crete. In 1825, the Egyptian army under the command of Ibrahim Pasha devastated most of the Seas; On April 22, 1826, after an 11-month siege, Egyptian and Turkish troops captured the important stronghold of the rebels - the city of Mesolongion, in June 1827 the Turks captured the Athenian Acropolis, after which only small pockets of resistance remained in Greece. This development of events forced the leading European powers to intervene more actively in the conflict. In many countries, the public came out in support of the rebellious Greeks, and volunteers began to go to Greece. Russia, seeking to strengthen its position in the Balkans and the Mediterranean, initially supported the rebels. Great Britain, trying to prevent the strengthening of Russia's influence in the Balkans and at the same time trying to strengthen its positions there, in 1823, after the first successes of the Greeks, recognized them as a “belligerent side” and in 1824-25 allocated money loans to them. 23.3 (4.4). 1826 in St. Petersburg, a protocol was signed between Russia and Great Britain, according to which the parties assumed mediation in the Greek-Turkish conflict on the basis of granting internal independence to Greece. Under the London Convention of 1827, France joined Russia and Great Britain in resolving the Greek-Turkish conflict. The Turkish side rejected the proposals of the three countries, after which Russian, French, and British naval squadrons were sent to the Peloponnese, which defeated the Turkish-Egyptian-Tunisian fleet in the Battle of Navarino in 1827. The fate of Greece was actually decided by the Russian-Turkish war of 1828-29, which ended with the victory of Russia and the conclusion of the Peace of Adrianople in 1829, according to which the Ottoman Empire recognized the autonomy of Greece, subject to the payment of tribute to the Sultan. In 1830, Greece officially became an independent state.
1821 29 (Greek War of Independence) popular, as a result of which the Ottoman yoke was overthrown and the independence of Greece was won. Prepared mainly by members of the Filiki Eteria. It began with an uprising in March 1821 (Greek Independence Day ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
1821 29 (Greek War of Independence), popular, as a result of which the Ottoman yoke was overthrown and the independence of Greece was won. Prepared mainly by members of the Filiki Eteria (see FILIKI ETERIA). It began with an uprising in March 1821 (Day ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
- (Greek War of Independence), a popular revolution, as a result of which the Ottoman yoke was overthrown and the independence of Greece was won. Prepared mainly by members of the Filiki Eteria. It began with an uprising in March 1821 (Independence Day ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
See also the article: History of Modern Greece Greek Revolution Date March 25, 1821 February 3, 1830 Location ... Wikipedia
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Greek War of Independence, the revolution of the Greek people, as a result of which the Ottoman yoke was overthrown and the independence of Greece was won. It began in the conditions of national and social oppression in Greece and the rise of the national ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
ANTIQUE. I. THE PERIOD OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE (833 BC). The oldest written monument of Greek literature, the Homeric poems, is the result of a long development. It can only be restored tentatively… … Literary Encyclopedia
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The uprising raised by Ypsilanti in February (March) 1821 in Moldova served as a signal for a national liberation uprising in Greece, which began in March (April) 1821. March 25 (April 6) is celebrated in Greece as Independence Day. The rebels took the capital of Messinia, Kalama, and formed the first government body there - the Peloponnesian Senate. Soon the uprising swept the entire Peloponnese, then the islands of Spetses, Hydra, Psaruidr. A revolution has begun in Greece. The main driving force of the revolution was the peasantry. The detachments of the rebels were led by talented commanders T. Kolokotronis, M. Botsaris, G. Karaiskakis and others. The leadership of the revolution belonged to the emerging national bourgeoisie, whose leader was A. Mavrokordatos. In January 1822, in Piado (near Epidaurus), the National Assembly adopted the first Greek constitution, the so-called. The Epidaurian Organic Statute of 1822 declared Greece an independent state and elected Mavrocordatos as president. The heroic liberation struggle of the Greek people against the Turkish invaders (in February 1825, the Egyptian army under the command of Ibrahim Pasha came to the aid of the Turks) aroused the sympathy of various sections of the European public. Foreign volunteers arrived to help the Greeks (among them the English poet J. Byron and others), and philhellenic committees arose in a number of countries. April 1827.
The National Assembly elected I. Kapodistria, a Greek politician who had been in the Russian diplomatic service for a long time, as the President of Greece. In order to prevent the growth of Russia's influence in Greece, Great Britain and France concluded the London Convention of 1827 with Russia, according to which the three powers pledged to jointly demand that the Turkish government grant autonomy to Greece, subject to the payment of an annual tribute to the Sultan. After the refusal of the Turkish sultan to accept the proposals of the three powers, Russian, English and French naval squadrons were sent to the shores of the Peloponnese, which defeated the Turkish-Egyptian fleet in the Battle of Navarino in 1827. The fate of Greece was finally decided by the Russian-Turkish war of 1828-1829, which ended with the Adrianople Peace Treaty of 1829, which provided for the granting of autonomy to Greece, subject to the payment of tribute to the Sultan. The borders of Greece were established along the line from the Gulf of Arta to the Gulf of Volos, including the islands of the Cyclades. On February 3, 1830, by decision of the London Conference of the Three Powers, Greece became officially an independent state. Greece did not include Epirus, Thessaly, Crete, Samos and other territories inhabited by Greeks; Acarnania and part of Aetolia were torn away in favor of Turkey (purchased by Greece in 1832). The London Conference imposed a monarchical form of government on Greece.
After gaining independence as a result of the revolution of 1821, Greece entered a new era in its history. Scattered across numerous islands, separated by bad roads and underdeveloped infrastructure, torn apart by numerous contradictions and inter-clan enmity, the Greeks had to embark on a long and difficult path of building a single national state, defining their foreign and domestic political guidelines and forming a new Greek image and self-consciousness. For a long time living under the yoke of the Turkish yoke and finally gaining the long-awaited freedom and national independence, the Greeks were forced to solve the difficult tasks of building a new way of life, settling internal problems and building relationships with the world around them.
The romance of the national liberation revolutionary struggle and the formation of a national state on the territory that was the cradle of European civilization constantly attracted the enthusiastic glances of a large army of sympathetic Greeks in all European countries. It is no coincidence that philhellenic societies are springing up all over Europe, aiming to contribute in every possible way to the formation of Greek statehood, the development of its institutions and the revival of the historical monuments of Ancient Hellas. The geopolitical position of Greece, which was the European gateway to Asia, makes the new state the object of close attention of the strongest European powers, such as Russia, England and France, in whose eastern policy the Greek direction is increasingly manifested.
There are several main unifying principles that cemented Greek society at the initial stages of the formation of the national state and later served as the basis for the formation of the Greek nation. Firstly, the unification was based on the linguistic community of the inhabitants of many Greek islands and localities and a peculiar national culture. Despite the fact that often the representatives of the political elite, who were educated abroad, experienced certain difficulties with the transition to the Greek language, gradually the national cultural traditions took over. “I saw many young people in Greece who returned from Europe, where they were brought up during the revolution .... Many have to give up their clothes and dress again in national clothes. Parents angrily express their dissatisfaction, seeing in their children capricious foreigners, sometimes having lost both their native language and their native attachment to religion, ”recalled Konstantin Bazili, a translator for the Russian fleet in his memoirs“ The Archipelago and Greece in 1830-1831.
Already in the first years after the revolution, the formation of the Modern Greek language was actively going on, its literary norm was being developed, which became an important factor in the unity of the Greeks. “Recently, the Modern Greek language has made rapid progress,” Liprt noted in an article from Otechestvennye Zapiski in 1841. The national unity of the Greek population was also facilitated by the awareness of themselves as descendants of the ancient Hellenes and attempts to revive the heritage of Ancient Hellas. Not the last role in this was played by European enlightenment, the ideas of which gradually, to a greater or lesser extent, began to penetrate into the broad strata of Greek society. Without exception, all Russian travelers noted the enormous efforts that the Greeks made to preserve and restore ancient monuments, despite the difficult financial situation of the state. Among the Greeks, it became fashionable to name their children after prominent ancient statesmen, writers and philosophers, although a few decades ago the vast majority of the Greek population, mainly oriented towards their narrow community, had no idea about the heroes and achievements of ancient Hellas.
National Greek culture also developed. Despite the long years of the Turkish yoke, the native Greeks largely retained many features of the way of life and features of folk culture and were in no hurry to adopt foreign fashion trends. This manifested itself especially characteristically at the everyday level in the daily life of the Greek lower classes. Zakharov noted that among the Greeks it was even considered a special dignity to emphasize their commitment to the national culture: “We must do justice to the Greeks, their attachment to their own, the people; for a Greek, there is no higher good than to be able to successfully express their nationality in songs, dances, in front of the public, especially in front of women, who, for their part, are not indifferent to national customs and appreciate the one who especially distinguished himself by devotion to his homeland. An important role in the process of the formation of the Greek state was played by the common Orthodox religion, which could now be freely practiced. Religion played a unifying role in the Greek struggle for independence. Orlov-Davydov recalls how in one of the poor rural churches of the Peloponnese he happened to see texts of patriotic songs pasted on the walls. “This church portrays better than any long description of the feelings of the Greeks towards their religion. They fought for it, and therefore decorate the church with their trophies, i.e. national songs,” the traveler wrote.
The low profitability of agriculture in most regions of the country did not contribute to the conservation of feudal relations, which could, to a certain extent, become a brake on the path of the country's economic development. Orlov-Davydov writes that "the vast lands ceded to the Turks at the end of the war remain to this day without any benefit to the landowner, because their cultivation under the imposed duties would have exceeded the price of the estate itself."
An important factor in the formation of the new Greek state and self-consciousness was the development of education. An important factor that testified to the democracy of the Greeks and greatly contributed to the social mobility of Greek society was the availability of education for the widest sections of the population. As a result, the Greek student differed in many ways from his counterparts in Europe. Zakharov emphasizes that since the creation of an independent state in Greece, many new educational institutions have opened: a university, a polytechnic school, several gymnasiums, military schools, to which all layers of Greek society rushed in search of knowledge.
Features of the historical and geographical development of the state, the absence of a feudal tradition rooted for centuries created the prerequisites for the future political and economic modernization of Greece, which would be based on the formation of capitalist relations. In many ways, this modernization will be based on advanced educational ideas.
Ελληνική Επανάσταση του 1821 - the armed struggle of the Greek people for independence from the Ottoman Empire, which began in 1821 and ended in 1832 with the Treaty of Constantinople, which established Greece as an independent state. The Greeks were the first of the subject peoples of the Ottoman Empire to gain independence.
The Ottoman Empire ruled almost all of Greece, with the exception of the Ionian Islands, Crete and parts of the Peloponnese, from the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries. In the 17th century, the Ottomans conquered the Peloponnese and Crete. But in the 18th and 19th centuries, a wave of revolutions swept across Europe. The power of Turkey was decreasing, Greek nationalism began to assert itself and gained more and more support from Western European countries.
In 1814, the Greek patriots N. Skoufas, E. Xanthos and A. Tsakalov formed a secret organization in Odessa called "Φιλική Εταιρεία" ("Friendly Society"). In 1818 the center of the organization was moved to Constantinople. With the support of the wealthy Greek communities in Britain and the US, with the help of sympathizers in Western Europe, and covert assistance from Russia, they planned an uprising against Turkey.
The uprising against Ottoman rule was led by a group of conspirators led by Ypsilanti, which consisted largely of Russian officers of Greek origin. John Kapodistrias was offered to lead the liberation movement, but he, holding important diplomatic posts in the Russian administration, for a long time considered it impossible for himself to participate in an uprising that was not officially supported by Russia.
The uprising began on March 6, 1821, when Alexander Ypsilanti, accompanied by several other Greek officials of the Russian army, crossed the Prut River in Romania and entered with his small detachment into the territory of modern Moldavia. He was soon defeated by the Turkish army. An uprising broke out in the South Peloponnese (Morea) on March 25. Within 3 months, the uprising swept the entire Peloponnese,
part of continental Greece, the island of Crete, Cyprus and some other islands of the Aegean Sea. The rebels captured a significant territory. On January 22, 1822, the 1st National Assembly in Piado (near Epidaurus) proclaimed the independence of Greece and adopted a democratic constitution. 1822 30 thousand the Turkish army invaded Morea, but retreated, having suffered significant losses. Greek troops led by talented commanders M. Botsaris, T. Kolokotronis, G. Karaiskakis.
Military operations against the Turkish troops proceeded relatively successfully. Turkey's response was terrible, thousands of Greeks were repressed
Turkish soldiers hanged the Patriarch of Constantinople Gregory V. However, the Greeks did not remain in debt. The Greek rebels executed the Turks. All these events were poorly received by Western Europe. The British and French governments suspected that the uprising was a Russian plot to take over Greece and possibly even Constantinople. However, the rebel leaders clashed among themselves and were unable to establish a regular administration of the liberated
territories. All this led to internecine struggle. A civil war began in Greece (late 1823 - May 1824 and 1824-1825).
In 1825, the Turkish sultan turned for help to the vassal, but showing great independence Khedive of Egypt, Muhammad Ali, who had just carried out serious reforms of the Egyptian army according to European models. The Sultan of Turkey promised to make concessions regarding Syria if Ali helped. Egyptian forces, under the command of Ali's son Ibrahim, quickly took possession of the Aegean.
Ibrahim was also successful in the Peloponnese, where he managed to return Tripolis, the administrative center of the region. However, in European countries, especially in England and France (and, of course, in Russia), sympathy for the Greek patriots grew among the educated elite and a desire to further weaken the Ottoman Empire among politicians. In 1827, a convention supporting independence was passed in London.
Greece. On October 20, 1827, British, French and Russian squadrons, under the overall command of the English Vice Admiral Edward Codrington, entered Greek waters. On the same day, the allies in the Navarino Bay of the Peloponnese met with the Turkish-Egyptian fleet. During the four-hour Battle of Navarino, the Turkish-Egyptian fleet was defeated by the Allies. Following this, the French landing landed
on land and helped the Greeks complete the defeat of the Turks. Having won this victory, the allies did not take further joint actions aimed at undermining the military power of Turkey. Moreover, disagreements began in the camp of the former allies over the division of the former possessions of the Ottoman Empire. Taking advantage of this, Turkey in December 1827 declared war on Russia.
The Russian-Turkish war of 1828-1829 began, in which Turkey was defeated. According to the Adrianople Peace Treaty of 1829, Turkey recognized the autonomy of Greece. On February 3, 1830, the London Protocol was adopted in London, according to which the independence of Greece was officially recognized. By the middle of 1832, the borders of the new European state were finally drawn.
Greece during the Ottoman period
After the fall of Constantinople (1453), the Turks captured the Duchy of Athens (1456), took Thebes, Lesbos and Morea (1460), except for some inaccessible mountainous places in Laconia and a few coastal points. The latter, as well as the islands of the Archipelago and the Ionian Sea, belonged to the Venetian Republic, which had claims to all of Greece. Turkey's struggle with Venice lasted two and a half centuries. In 1470, the Turks captured the island of Negropont (Evboe) and returned the Morea, which was taken away by the Venetians. Bayazet II by peace treaty
1503 received the cities of Lepanto, Navarino, Modon, Coron and some others. Nauplia was conquered in 1540. The peace of 1573 left the Venetians only a few fortresses on the Albanian coast, Candia and the Ionian Islands. Candia was taken by the Turks in 1666. Converted into a Turkish province, Greece was divided into pashaliks. Despite the gross arbitrariness of the administration, aimed mainly at extortion, they did not touch either the church or local government - and these two institutions saved the Greek nationality from destruction.
In Constantinople, only 8 churches were converted into mosques; the rest remained with the Christians. Sultan Mohammed II appointed Gennady the Greek Patriarch and granted the clergy freedom from personal taxes. Although in the Divan, the thought of the total extermination of the Greeks sometimes arose. The self-governed Greek Church maintained jurisdiction over the Orthodox and served as a nexus for the Greek subjects of the Porte. The communities were ruled by elected demogerons, who, in turn, elected the heads of the dioceses, kodzhabashs.
The Greeks kept their schools, led by the clergy; thanks to this, during the entire period of Turkish domination, they were distinguished by their education from a number of other Turkish subjects; many of them, mostly Phanariotes, reached high levels in the civil service. Despite these liberties, and partly, perhaps, thanks to them, the hatred of the Greeks for the victors has always been strong. This was facilitated by the contempt that the Turks showed towards the “rai” (herd) and which was expressed, among other things, in the form obligatory for the Greeks and
colors of dresses and houses. More important was the political and economic oppression, heavy enough to cause protest, but not systematic enough to crush the nationality and destroy the desire for freedom. The central government did not pursue the abuses of local authorities; even the benefits to the clergy were paralyzed by the system of baksheesh (bribes), which corroded the Turkish state organism; the place of the patriarch soon began to be traded, like any other; freedom of worship also caused endless extortion and was violated at the whim of any pasha. Property insecurity
led to the decline of agriculture and spread trade among the Greeks; this was facilitated by complete freedom of trade and the absence (in the first centuries after the fall of Constantinople) of customs. Little by little, trade in Turkey was concentrated almost exclusively in the hands of the Greeks, of whom very many amassed large fortunes during the eighteenth century. By the time of the uprising, the merchant fleet of the Greeks reached 600 ships. The stronger the desire for a different regime, ensuring the rights of the individual and property.
Already in the 17th century, the Greeks looked at Russia, which was of the same faith to them, as a support in the future struggle. Russian sovereigns, starting with Peter I, dreamed of conquering Constantinople with the help of the Greeks. Catherine II cherished the broadly conceived "Greek project", tending towards the formation of Greek. empires; in the person of her grandson Constantine, she prepared the future Greek emperor. When a Russian squadron under the command of Alexei Orlov appeared in the Mediterranean Sea (1770, the First Archipelago Expedition), an uprising swept the Morea, but it was easily suppressed and led to
devastation of the country. Neither the Chesme victory, nor the Kuchuk-Kainarji peace (1774) had a practical result for the Greeks. Faith in Russian help was shaken, and during the next war (1787-1792), the instigation of Russian agents could only cause isolated outbreaks. The French Revolution gave a major impetus to the liberation aspirations of the Greeks. Together with many other patriots, the first martyr for Greek freedom, the poet Konstantin Riga, who was executed by the Turks in 1798, counted on her. Wallachian rulers Alexander Ypsilanti and his son Konstantin in contrast
to their friend Riga, they built their plans on helping Russia and acted accordingly in the Turkish Divan, where they enjoyed great influence. The triumph of the hostile party cost the life of Alexander Ypsilanti and forced his son to flee. The latter's stay in Russia, where he tried in vain to win over Emperor Alexander I, dispelled his dreams of Russian help. Shortly before his death, he urged his sons in their struggle for the freedom of Greece not to count on any foreign help.
In 1814, the Philomuzes, a secret society founded in Athens, was founded; after him, also in 1814, a friendly community arose in Odessa among Greek merchants - "Filiki Eteria" (Greek Ξιλική Έτερία). They propagated the idea of revolution and systematically prepared for an uprising. Patriots of more moderate views looked at these plans with the utmost disapproval; Thus, the minister of Alexander I, the Greek Kapodistrias, a friend of the Ypsilanti family, was against any violent coup, still pinning hopes on the help of Russia, although its emperor, inspired by the ideas of the Holy Union,
apparently lost interest in the Greek cause, especially after the Spanish Revolution (1820). Nevertheless, the name of the Greek Kapodistrias was pronounced in a whisper, as the name of the secret head of the heteria, and did much to recruit members, as well as confidence in Russian help. At the beginning of 1821, everything was ready for the uprising. In Bessarabia, many heterists rallied around Alexander Ypsilanti (son of Constantine), waiting for the right moment. Such was the death (February 1, 1821) of the ruler of Wallachia, Alexander Sutso. The Serbian uprising had previously weakened Turkey;
the difficult struggle with the rebellious Ali Pasha still continued, in addition to everything, unrest broke out in Wallachia. On October 5, 1821, the main city of the Morea, Tripolitsa, was taken by the Greeks. At this time, the uprising had already engulfed all of Greece and the islands. On February 3, 1830, the London Protocol was adopted in London, according to which the independence of Greece was officially recognized. By the middle of 1832, the borders of the new European state were finally drawn.
April 10/23 is the day of memory of the Hieromartyr Gregory V, Patriarch of Constantinople (1821), ktitor of the Russian Monastery on Athos of the St. Panteleimon Monastery. On the same day, the memory of another ktitor of the Russian Svyatogorsk monastery, Prince Scarlat Kallimachus, who was executed by the Turks at the same time as Holy Martyr, is also venerated. Gregory.
In March 1821 there was an uprising in Wallachia. Shortly before this, Prince Scarlat Callimachus, who had been appointed Gospodar of the region, was suspected by the Sultan of organizing an uprising, although he had not even had time to leave Constantinople (Istanbul) and begin his duties as a gospodar.
Prince Scarlat was a Phanariot Greek who openly professed Orthodoxy and occupied a noble official position under the Turkish government. Phanariots constituted a privileged estate in the Ottoman Empire, they were legal representatives of the Orthodox Greek population. They traditionally did not support revolutionary ideas, striving more for a gradual evolutionary transformation of the Ottoman Empire into the Byzantine one, by occupying key posts in the state by Phanariots. administration, diplomacy, trade and education. Speaking in modern terms, they represented a systemic opposition built into the system of power, in contrast to the non-systemic, extremist, seeking to come to power through a coup, dismantling the entire existing political system.
Prince Scarlat Callimachus (+ 1821)
Ktitor of the Russian monastery on Athos
The tolerance of the Ottomans towards the Phanariotes was explained by their political interest in peaceful coexistence. The Phanariots, admitted to government and comfortable in the Turkish empire, were an excellent means of restraining and protecting the development of the pan-Slavic state, which they so feared. But the Greeks themselves, no less than the Turks, were afraid of the so-called "pan-Slavism", which restrained them from violent methods in the struggle for power. “As long as the Turk is on the Bosporus,” the extreme Greek now tells himself, Pan-Slavism is impossible; and it is easier for us to fight against it with the existence of the Turkish Empire in its current composition,” wrote Konstantin Leontiev, who was personally aware of the situation in the Orthodox countries of the Ottoman Empire, where he was on diplomatic service for a number of years.
Konstantin Nikolayevich Leontiev (1831 - 1891)
Russian diplomat; religious-conservative thinker; philosopher, writer, literary critic, publicist, conservative. Spiritual development is connected with the acquaintance of Konstantin Nikolaevich with the elders of the Panteleimon convent, Jerome and Macarius, whose memory he kept for the rest of his life.
But the Greeks were far from homogeneous in ideological terms. There were among them both those who sympathized with the Slavs and, in particular, the Russians, and those who were extremely nationalistic.
One of the representatives of the former was Patriarch Kallinikos V of Constantinople, who openly maintained friendly relations between the Greeks and the Russians. It was he who prevented the abolition of the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos and sanctioned its restoration. Among the latter, i.e. nationalist-minded Greeks, was the Hieromartyr Gregory V, Patriarch of Constantinople. But God’s Providence arranged it in such a way that it was he who took the warmest part in the fate of the Russian Svyatogorsk Monastery, becoming one of its patrons and benefactors. Saint Gregory personally visited the Panteleimon Monastery and performed the rite of consecrating the Panteleimon Cathedral in 1815. Prince Scarlat Kallimachus also belonged to the nationalist-minded Phanariots. But the great martyr Panteleimon himself “intervened” in the usual course of his life, calling on the prince to help his monastery on Athos. So Prince Scarlat became the patron and patron of Russik.
Extreme manifestations of nationalism, such as xenophobia, a sense of national superiority, are incompatible with the profession of Christianity and, in particular, Orthodoxy. If a person leads a spiritual life, participates in the sacraments, in the life of the Church, tries to struggle with his passions, then the grace of God will undoubtedly reveal, show and heal what needs to be corrected, so that a person who sincerely strives for God would not have any a defect that removes him from communion with God. Hatred, pride, exaltation—the constant companions of extreme nationalism—make impossible the mysterious communion of the human soul with God. The manifestation of these passions testifies that their bearer is a stranger to God's grace and true Orthodox Churchness.
Having become close to Hegumen Russik Elder Savva and becoming his spiritual son, Prince Scarlat focused on spiritual life. Remaining a patriot of his people, Scarlat Callimachus, thanks to the intervention of the Providence of God, was alien to hatred or hostility towards fellow-believing Slavs. Fulfilling all the instructions of the Porte, he, however, was aloof from the political intrigues of his time. His life has become a victim of someone else's game.
Unlike the Phanariots, who strove for the evolutionary transformation of the Ottoman Empire into the Byzantine Empire, secret societies arose in the places where the Greeks settled, with the goal of organizing a Greek uprising. One of these societies was the organization Filiki eteria (Greek Φιλική Ἑταιρεία - "society of friends").
Filiki Eteria was created under the influence of the secret societies of Europe, with the support of the Greek capitalists of Great Britain and the USA. In its structure, Etheria copied the organization of Masons and Carbonari. The whole structure of "Etheria" was pyramidal. At the top was "Invisible Power". No one knew and could not ask about her. Her orders were not discussed, the members could not make their own decisions. The society was called "temple" and had four levels of initiation: α) Brothers (αδελφοποιητοί) or Vlamids (βλάμηδες), β) Recommended (συστημένοι), γ) Priests (ιερείς), δ) Shepherds (ποιμένες).
The organizers of the society were Nikolaos Skoufas, Xanthos Emmanuel, Tsakalof Athanasios. Skoufas was associated with Konstantinos Rados, a member of the Carbonari, and Xanthos was a member of the Masonic lodge in Levada.
The society was replenished initially by the Greeks of Moldavia, Wallachia and the South of Russia. Since 1818, mass entry into the organization begins already in the Greek regions of the Ottoman Empire. The society began recruiting members from among the officers of the Tsarist army of the Russian Empire of Greek origin, who were to lead an armed uprising. The presence of officers of the tsarist army was also supposed to give the character of Russia's interest in the uprising and its secret participation.
Eteria sought to turn her movement into a general uprising of the peoples of the Balkan Peninsula. In 1817, the Serbian rebel leader Karageorgi joined the society. On behalf of Etheria, Georgakis Olympios initiated into society Vladimirescu, whom he knew and who, like Olympios, served in the Russian army, receiving the Order of Vladimir of the third degree with swords.
In order to understand the main goals pursued by the organizers of this secret society, it is necessary to pay attention to the ideals that they promoted. Etheria inspired its members with the ideal of the great French revolution, formed a new worldview under the influence of the ideas of the Enlightenment. Orthodox Byzantine identity was relegated to the background, and instead of it, the revival of ancient pagan Hellas was sung. Aspiring to join the family of European peoples, the Eterists deliberately prepared the ground for breaking off relations with fellow-believing Slavic peoples, including Russia, in order to please Western Europe and, in particular, England, from whose banks it was financed. Thus, the main goal of the organizers of the uprising (and those who stood behind them and financed them) was to split the traditional unity of the Orthodox peoples, divide them into several hostile, mutually alienated camps, turn the emerging Greece into an outpost of Western Europe in the Balkans against Russia.
John Kapodistrias (1816 - 1831)
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire
Prime Minister of Greece (1827)
First President of Greece (1828 - 1831)
At the beginning of 1818, the Eterists invited the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, John Kapodistrias, a Greek by birth, to head their society. But he not only refused, but also wrote that Filiki Eteria was responsible for the unrest in Greece. Patriarch Gregory V, who was after being removed from the throne on Mount Athos in 1808, also refused the proposed membership in the Society, motivating his refusal by the fact that he could not take part in an organization that had all the signs of Freemasonry.
Hieromartyr Gregory V
In 1820 the society was headed by Alexander Ypsilanti. Prince Alexander Ypsilantis Jr., in Russia Alexander Konstantinovich Ypsilanti (Greek Αλέξανδρος Υψηλάντης, Rum. Alexandru Ipsilanti, December 12, 1792, Constantinople - January 31, 1828, Vienna) - the leader of the Greek Revolution, the national hero of Greece. He served in the Russian army, participated in the campaigns of 1812 and 1813, lost his right arm in the battle of Dresden, was an adjutant of Emperor Alexander I. Major General of the Russian army (1817), commander of the 1st Hussar Brigade. His grandfather and father held the position of Lords of the Wallachian Principality.
Alexander Ypsilanti
Ypsilanti (Greek Υψηλάντης - Ypselántes) - as well as Kallimahi, Phanariot aristocratic family, whose origin, in her own opinion, dates back to the era of Komnenov; she moved from Trebizond to Constantinople in the 15th century. Exposed several rulers of Wallachia. The Callimachus and Ypsilanti families were, in a sense, rivals at the court of the Turkish sultan. The rivalry of these families became a hidden spring to the fateful events of 1821.
In March 1821, Alexander Sutsu, who held the position of Wallachian Sovereign, died. Sutsu and Ypsilanti traditionally alternated, replacing each other in this post. However, contrary to tradition, the sultan appointed Prince Scarlat Callimachus Gospodar to Wallachia, whose family had never ruled in Wallachia before. Alexander Ypsilanti took advantage of this event in order to start an uprising. Under the guise of a popular liberation movement, he pursued his own selfish interests, claiming at least princely power in an independent Wallachian state, and at a maximum - the royal throne in independent Greece. Neither came out.
Ypsilanti Crossing the Prut
Here is how V. Vodovozov characterizes the Ypsilanti uprising: "March 6, 1821<...>with a crowd of heterists (etherists) he crossed the Prut and called on the people of the Danubian provinces to revolt against the Turkish yoke. This venture was doomed to failure from the start. The living conditions of the Romanian people, who were supposed to raise the banner of insurrection, were not taken into account: it was forgotten that the Greeks in their midst are not at all loved and that feudal dependence on their own boyars is no less hard on the people than the Turkish yoke. Then, Alexander I. himself did not possess the qualities necessary for the leader of the uprising. He naively believed in his destiny and in his rights to the crown of Greece, he was vain, arrogant and weak of character; in Iasi, he surrounded himself with a court and lingered for a whole week, busying himself with the distribution of titles. He approved the massacre carried out by one of the participants in the uprising, Vasily Karavliy, in Galati, which he had taken; extorted money from rich people, arresting them and demanding a ransom."
The European powers and, first of all, England accused Russia of aggression against independent Turkey, of preparing separatists and organizing intervention. The Western press trumpeted the Russian and pan-Slavic threat.
Ypsilanti himself contributed to this hysteria. In his appeal, he declared the support of "one great power", and with this false assurance he alienated Emperor Alexander I from himself. Ypsilanti tried to enlist the support of Kapodistrias, who held the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, but he refused him, and even earlier accused the Eterists of organizing riots in the Ottoman Empire. The Patriarch of Constantinople excommunicated him from the Church. Russia has officially declared that it has nothing to do with the revolutionaries. In June 1821, after two unsuccessful battles, Ypsilanti secretly left his comrades to their fate (they later died in battle) and fled to Austria, where he was imprisoned. After a change in Russian policy, he was released at the request of Emperor Nicholas I, shortly after which he died (1828). "The news of his mistakes, however, did not reach Greece, and in the minds of the Greek people he remained the hero and martyr of the struggle for independence," which is considered to this day.
The Eterist uprising led by Ypsilanti was like a bolt from the blue for Russia. Was the Russian Empire interested in this uprising, in the destruction of Turkey and ousting her beyond the Bosphorus? This question can be answered with the words of a contemporary of that era, Konstantin Leontiev:
Russia was and should be hostile not to Turkey itself, not to the sultan; it was and should be hostile to Western intrigues, which until now have been played out so freely in the bowels of the body of the Turkish Empire, a complex body and shocked by the development of new peoples outside Islam.
Russia, both in terms of its history, and in terms of its geographical position, and in terms of its religion, and in terms of tribal characteristics, had much more reason than other powers to seek to attract the hearts of possible heirs, in the event of a possibility (I do not say inevitable or desirable, but in the case of only a possible ) Turkish departure for the Bosphorus.
The constant danger for Russia is in the West; Isn't it natural for it to look for and prepare allies for itself in the East? If Islam wants to be this ally, so much the better. But if Turkey was never allowed by the power of the West to this union, should Russia have humbled herself before the West?
Who will demand it? Russia thought to find natural allies in the young Christian nations of the East. It has made it its rule to uphold and defend the civil rights of Christians, and at the same time to temper, as far as possible, the fervor of their political aspirations.
Such was the reasonable and moderate activity of official Russia in the East.
Russia was interested not only in the preservation of the Ottoman Empire, but also in its location to itself in order to create a counterweight to a stronger enemy. Did this mean a betrayal of the interests of the Balkan Slavs? Far from it. "Russia has always supported Christians in the East; she knew that if not she, then others would support them just in case<...>The Greeks complained about oppression from the Turks - Russia protected them; the Bulgarians complained about the oppression from the Greeks - Russia protected them. Even in India, one hears, both Muslims and Hindus have predictions in favor of the Urus and against the Inglez... The name of the White Tsar, they say, is known in India. Such is the special, curious political fate of this despotic Russia. The interests of this power everywhere more or less coincide with the desire of the weakest<...>The historical fate of Russia has always inclined it to defend the weakest, or the younger, or the obsolete, in a word, the one who was dissatisfied with his neighbors and the strongest. The Greeks, of course, would be the weakest not only against the entire Yugoslav nation, but also against their two neighbors, the Serbs and the Bulgarians. Just as Russia never had and did not want to indulge the Greeks in the Hellenization of the Bulgarians, she will never, as long as she has the strength, erase the nationality of the Greeks.
After Ypsilanti's uprising, the Turkish sultan suspected Prince Scarlat Kallimachus, who had just been appointed by him in Wallachia, of having connections with the etherists. Perhaps he suspected a collective conspiracy of Phanariot nobles, to which Ypsilanti and Callimachi belonged. The main accusatory argument against Scarlat was his open connection with the Russian monastery on Mount Athos (although there were no Russian inhabitants there then). The Sultan had no doubt that Russia had organized the uprising, since Russian generals were part of Etheria. The West also trumpeted about the trail of the Russian bear.
But for Prince Scarlat himself, the death of martyrdom was not a surprise, it was foretold to him by the Great Martyr Panteleimon himself, calling on him to become a ktitor of his monastery on Athos. Inclusion in the rank of martyrs was the best reward from St. Panteleimon to the selfless Prince Scarlat, whose name is still commemorated at all funeral services in the Russian Svyatogorsk monastery.
Scarlat Callimachus was killed by the Turks on the night before Easter. Almost simultaneously with him, the Hieromartyr Patriarch Gregory V was executed.
Martyrdom of Patriarch Gregory on Holy Pascha
Tomb of Hieromartyr Gregory V
After 4 days, the hegumen of the Russian Svyatogorsky monastery, Elder Savva, confessor of Prince Scarlat, died. At the same time, threats were pouring down towards the monastery from the Turks, so that the brethren were forced to leave it. The monastery was occupied by the Turkish garrison.
The death of the Patriarch, the Head of the Greek nation in the Ottoman Empire, was the impetus for the beginning of a genuine popular liberation uprising, which, like a flame, spread throughout Greece and led to its liberation from the Ottoman yoke.
This spontaneous popular uprising, in contrast to the uprising of the Eterists, was supported by the Russian Empire, outraged by the blasphemous murder of the Patriarch of Constantinople. Russia broke off diplomatic relations with Turkey. Ultimately, it was the help of Russian weapons in 1828-1829. contributed to the successful completion of the national liberation war of the Greek people.
Episode of the Russian-Turkish war of 1828-1829.
The activities of the Filiki Eteria society coincided in time with the maturing of a revolutionary situation in Russia. Therefore, it is impossible to deny their interconnection, common Masonic nature and common external guidance. The future Decembrists P. I. Pestel, M. F. Orlov, V. F. Raevsky, K. A. Okhotnikov, I. I. Pushchin and other representatives of the Russian progressive intelligentsia were well acquainted with many members of the Filiki Eteria, promoted them in the preparation of the uprising, studied the experience of the etherists.
