Kanaris Emmanuel, economist, Athens (descendant of the hero of the national liberation uprising of 1821 Kanaris Konstantinos) In November 1986, I went to the Holy Mountain to meet Elder Paisios. There I told a monk, a zealot, with whom I was staying, that

Eastern question. Revolt in Greece 1821–1830 Russian-Turkish war of 1828 and peace in Adrianople 1829

Eastern question. Position of Turkey

We have repeatedly pointed out that the so-called "Eastern Question" in the language of newspapers has been dragging on, with various changes, through the entire history of the world. From the end of the 17th century, Europe ceased to be afraid of the Turks and the Ottoman invasion of Western Europe. The question and its danger, on the contrary, consisted rather in the visible weakening of the power of the Ottomans and in what new political organization would be reborn in this disintegration? How long, how soon will the transformation take place? To what extent will the crisis, in various stages, affect the European powers and their mutual relations?

The position of Christians in Turkey. Greece

The barbaric domination of the Ottomans, who still recognized their one right of conquest and acted on the basis of this right, was intolerable to the "rays", that is, the herd, as the arrogant Mohammedan Turks call the Christian population of European Turkey. To the extent that, under the influence of the events of 1789, the creation of their own political destiny was awakened in the peoples of European-Christian development, the peoples of the East were, if not fully aware of the intolerability of the situation, then nevertheless the idea that they, Christians and Europeans, are subordinate and are in semi-slavery among the Mohammedans and barbarians. This consciousness was especially strong among the Greek people: one common hatred, one language, common memories of the great past and one Church united this people. The path to deliverance had long been in mind: the policy of powerful and united Russia was clearly sympathetic to them. The thought of imminent liberation, of the rebirth of Greece, animated the society that had existed since the beginning of the century, the Heteria of the Friends of the Muses, and next to it another - the society of filiks, similar in rites and symbolism to Freemasons or Carbonari. These unions took on an almost political character, consisted of many members, including even those close to Emperor Alexander.

Revolt in the Danubian Principalities

A noble Greek, one of the emperor's adjutants, Prince Alexander Ypsilanti, became the head of the Geteria society in 1820. The position of the Ottoman Empire seemed to favor the beginning of action. In March 1820, an open struggle flared up between the reigning Sultan Mahmud II and his indignant satrap, Ali Pasha Janinsky, according to the custom of the East, a semi-independent ruler of Albania, Thessaly and part of Macedonia. In Wallachia, since January 1821, after the death of the ruler, there was also complete indignation, directed under the leadership of the local boyar against the all-powerful monetary and bureaucratic aristocracy in Constantinople, the so-called Phanariots. In March of the same year, Ypsilanti crossed the Prut and from Iasi, the main city of Moldavia, sent out a proclamation to the Hellenes, urging them to fight against the descendants of Darius and Xerxes. This enterprise failed: Ypsilanti most of all counted on the support of Russia, but she did not move; Emperor Alexander, who dreamed, as the noblest idealist and great of the world, of doing something for his Greeks, was now unpleasantly struck by the serious state of affairs and urged the Greeks and Wallachians to immediately submit to the lawful sovereign. It was not possible to conduct business together with the Romanians and the Serbian prince Milos Obrenovic, and this unskillfully conducted business was put to an end by the defeat of the Turkish troops at the village of Dragachan. Prince Ypsilanti crossed the Austrian border, but here the political exiles could never hope for humane and decent treatment: he was seized and locked up in a miserable closet in the fortress of Munkache in Hungary.

Peloponnese

The example set by this failed uprising reverberated with full force on the other side of the peninsula. In the Peloponnese, modern events were known enough to arouse hatred and explode the long-held ideas of independence. The fighters for independence gathered in Maina, ancient Laconia, under the leadership of Petro Mavromichalis; in the mountains of Arcadia, under the command of Theodore Kolokotronis; in the Gulf of Achaia, the banner of rebellion against Turkish rule was raised in April by Archbishop German. The Central Greek lands, Athens, Thebes, immediately joined the rebels. The ancient folk leaders took over the leadership, as in ancient Phocis, Odysseus under Eta. With the primitive shepherd, militant-robber people, klephts, the members of Geteria, brought up in European concepts of freedom and popular dominion, united and agreed. They were sympathetically treated in the capital of Russia and in the highest influential circles of the West; but especially important was the participation of the Aegean archipelago, its main three islands - Hydra, Spezia and Psara and their wealthy merchants. Without any interference from the careless Turkish jailers, many ships were armed, letters of marque were issued in the name of Christ and the cause of freedom: a few weeks later all the Hellenes were on the move.

Greek uprising. Position of the Powers

The Turks, struck by what could not have been a surprise even to a blind man, acted like true barbarians. On the day of Pascha, the Patriarch of Constantinople, who served mass, was seized in full dress by the crowd on the cathedral porch and hanged, after which his body was dragged through the streets. This was followed by executions, the destruction of churches, robbery and violence. The provinces followed the example of the capital, and the news of these horrors aroused minds throughout Western Europe, naturally inclined to sympathize with Christians, kindred in education and development, although it must be said that they also paid cruelty for cruelty wherever they could. In the very first weeks of this general upsurge, a firm, unshakable, as a dogma of faith, decision appeared: not to submit to Turkish rule any more under any form, in any form and through any mediation.

To the eternal shame of the Holy Alliance, the uprising in Greece was left to its own forces, although even in the circles of politicians of the "maintenance of the existing order" they looked at this uprising differently than at the military or military popular uprising in Avellino or Isla de Leon. Only Metternich saw here, too, Jacobinism and revolution, only in a different form. Prussia was not directly interested in the events in the southeast. France was busy with her own and Spanish affairs. England waited. The uprising threatened to cause a war between Russia and the Porte and the return of Russia to its former conquest plans for the Porte. The Greeks also counted on this war in the forthcoming terrible struggle.

Wrestling 1821

Expectations did not come true. Alexander did not dare to break, and the Greeks were left to their own forces for a long time. The struggle dragged on, with all the accidents that the country represented with its labyrinth of mountains, the archipelago of islands and the position of the contending parties: a small people, without state organization, against a powerful barbarian empire, without order in government and in the army. In the first year (1821), the struggle concentrated on the eastern coast of the Peloponnese, near Tripolis. In the summer, first aid arrived in the Greek camp from the west of Europe, as they put it here, “Frankish” help: it was Alexander’s brother Ypsilanti, Dimitri, with fifty comrades. In October, the Greeks took possession of the fortress, after a long, irregular, several times interrupted siege. At sea, they also achieved some success. They conceived a state organization, and the main role was played, next to Demetrius Ypsilanti, by Prince Alexander Mavrocordato. A popular assembly at Piada, in the north of the Peloponnese, in January 1822 solemnly declared the independence of Greece, established a directory of five members and a constitution: the basic statute of Epidavros. Willingly adhered to the ancient names, more familiar to the classically educated West. More Frankish volunteers were added to the Greek camp, and a fairly well-known military man (although his reputation was not impeccable), General Norman, appeared between them. He commanded the Württemberg troops at Kitzin and Leipzig and then turned over to the allies. Military happiness this year was changeable. In February 1822, Ali Pasha Yaninsky, succumbing to deception, left his impregnable fortress and appeared in the camp of the besiegers: after this, his head was put up in Constantinople.

The loss of such an ally was very sensitive for the Greeks, but, on the other hand, the Acropolis in Athens fell into the hands of the rebels. In April of the same year, the commander-in-chief (kapudan-pasha) of the Turkish fleet, Kara-Ali, horrified the whole world by showing that when barbarism had an opportunity to sacrifice to its genius, the greatest cruelties of Europeans were overshadowed and seemed insignificant. He landed at Chios with 7,000 of his troops, who raged on the wonderful island like wild animals, so that only a few hundred people remained of the whole population. There is no need to dwell on these infamies, which aroused general indignation. Weak satisfaction was the news that in June of the same year, two Greek fireships managed to blow up the admiral's ship of the Turkish fleet, anchored in the harbor. Just at that time the monster Kara-Ali was giving a feast; 3,000 people flew into the air, he himself was pulled out of the water, but he died on the shore. In the summer it seemed that the fate of the Greeks was decided. 4000 people, whom Mavrocordato led to help the Souliotes, allies of the murdered Pasha Yaninsky, were finally defeated in Western Hellas, near the village of Peta; Mahmud, the Pasha of Dram, now walked without resistance through Central Greece to the Peloponnese, the ancient road of the hordes of Xerxes: they had already crossed Argos, and it seemed that everything was lost. A number of accidents, among other things, a delay in the delivery of provisions for the army - a common occurrence among the Turks - forced him to retreat and even cost him the entire convoy. In November he himself died in Corinth. Even more surprising was the fact that the handful left after the defeat at Peta, under the command of Mavrocordato and Marco Botsaris, managed to rush to Missolonga near the Gulf of Corinth, and here they were lucky enough to stock up on life supplies, collect several troops, and they successfully resisted the 11,000th Turkish army who finally retreated in January 1823.

Struggle from 1822 to 1825

Mutual exhaustion led to a lull the following year. The sympathies of all Western peoples were now loudly manifested, and the representatives of Europe, assembled at the congress at Verona in 1822, still did not officially accept a deputation or representatives from the insurgent people. Significant sums of money were collected, many individual volunteers flocked to the Greek camp, among them, of course, many very dubious ones. They found the situation far from brilliant: there was neither common administration nor unity in military operations; the most diverse elements: the Franks and the Nationals, the inhabitants of the mainland and the islands - and all quarreled among themselves. The Turks were also exhausted. The Sultan was forced to take a very dangerous step, clearly indicating the weakness of the empire: he had to accept the help of one of his satraps, and this help was not offered in vain.

Mehmed Ali

Mehmed-Ali the Egyptian, at about the same time as Ali Pasha Janinsky, made a purely Turkish career. Among the troops with which the Porte wanted to overcome the adventures of Bonaparte in Egypt in 1798 was he, the son of an insignificant official, and in this public service, where neither noble birth nor examination was needed, he made up his happiness, reached the highest positions. In his pashalik, which fully corresponded to his ambition, he acted quite independently, arranging the administration and the army in a European way with the help of French adventurers. Now he delivered the help needed by the padishah, captured the island of Crete, and while the Greeks were wasting their strength on quarrels, his adopted son Ibrahim, elevated by the sultan to pasha of the Morea, landed from Crete with significant forces at Modon in the southwest of the Peloponnese, established himself in an unfortunate country and devastated it with barbaric succession. At the same time, at sea, where the Greeks generally had an advantage, complete anarchy reigned, which turned into sea robbery, disastrous for any trade.

Mehmed Ali Pasha, Viceroy of Egypt. Engraving by Blanchard from a portrait by Coudet

Ibrahim's successes were all the more offensive to the Turks because they, for their part, could not boast of successes in Central Greece. The siege of Missolonghi, renewed from May 1825, was unsuccessful for a whole summer. Even Ibrahim Pasha, who in the meantime had broken all resistance in the Peloponnese and added his military force to the troops of Redshid Pasha, did not achieve victory here so soon. At this very time, the death of Alexander I - he died on November 19, 1825 in Taganrog - gave events a different direction and changed the situation in Western Europe.

Russia. Death of Alexander I, 1825

The era of congresses and the greatest influence of Metternich on European affairs largely adversely affected the state activities of Emperor Alexander in the second half of his reign. That great and leading role that fell to his lot in the fight against Napoleon for the liberation of Europe distracted him from the issues of internal Russian life and politics to solving various international problems that had no meaning for Russia, and meanwhile forced the emperor to leave almost every year. Russia to attend European congresses. Constantly carried away by lofty and noble, though somewhat abstract, goals, Emperor Alexander conceived of returning the importance of an independent state to Poland, and achieved at the Congress of Vienna that it was decided to annex the Duchy of Warsaw to Russia and the Russian Emperor was given the right to give this duchy such a political structure as he find the best. As a result of this decision of the congress, Emperor Alexander restored, to the direct detriment of Russia, an independent Poland, under the name of the "Kingdom of Poland". Although the Kingdom of Poland was connected with Russia by the fact that the Emperor of Russia was at the same time the King of Poland, however, Poland was granted the right to be governed by separate laws on the basis of a special constitution granted by Emperor Alexander I to the Kingdom of Poland (December 12, 1815).

Deeply sympathizing with the main goals of the Holy Alliance, Emperor Alexander conscientiously and disinterestedly fulfilled all the conditions of the union treaty to such an extent that he even treated the uprising of the Greeks against Turkish rule (in 1821) with some dislike. However, he could not calmly look at those terrible cruelties with which the Turks hoped to suppress and weaken the flaring uprising of the Greeks. At the beginning of 1825, Emperor Alexander I ordered the Russian ambassador to leave Constantinople, and Russian troops were already beginning to converge on the Turkish borders, when the emperor suddenly fell ill and died in southern Russia.

The sharp difference, which was felt by everyone and which really existed between the first, very liberal, and the second half of Alexander's reign, could not but cause some discontent in modern Russian society. Everyone recalled with pleasure the first years of the reign of Alexander, when he turned all his attention to the internal administration of the state, abolished the restrictive measures against the press introduced in the reign of Paul I, and facilitated relations with Western Europe; when the main concern of the emperor was the reasonable and expedient reorganization of the highest state institutions, the spread of education among the people and the improvement of the life of the peasants, to whom Alexander I even intended to give complete freedom from serfdom ... And then, after a long and painful period of wars that cost Russia so dearly, at that a time when everyone expected intensified internal work and important transformations, everyone saw that Emperor Alexander devoted himself entirely to solving the problems of foreign, European policy, and left the government of Russia to the most unworthy of his favorites, Count Arakcheev, who ruled affairs in the spirit of the strictest absolutism and conservative ideas of the Holy union, everywhere introducing military discipline and subordination to its arbitrariness. The peasant question was abandoned, censorship returned to its former oppression, the newly founded universities were undeservedly persecuted by the hypocritical pietist Magnitsky ...

All this gradually caused discontent, which was expressed in the fact that part of the Russian youth - especially those who spent several years abroad (during the wars with Napoleon) - joined the secret societies that formed in the south and north of Russia, with to carry out a coup d'état in Russia. There was no definite goal, no strictly deliberate plan in these secret societies; but this did not prevent the conspirators from taking advantage of the confusion that was caused by some accidental circumstances after the death of Emperor Alexander I, during the accession to the throne of his brother, Nicholas I. The circumstances that caused the confusion were as follows. Since Emperor Alexander I died childless, then, according to the law of succession to the throne established by Paul I, Alexander was to be succeeded by his brother, Tsarevich Konstantin Pavlovich. But the crown prince divorced his first wife and married a person not from the royal house - even during the life of Alexander I. Regarding this marriage, at the same time the law on succession to the throne was supplemented with an indication that “a member of the Imperial family who married special, not from the royal house, cannot transfer to his wife and children born of her, their rights on the throne. With this in mind, Tsarevich Konstantin, even during the life of Alexander, voluntarily renounced his rights to the throne in favor of his own brother, Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich. On this occasion, on August 16, 1823, a special manifesto was drawn up, but at the request of Emperor Alexander I, this manifesto was not made public during his lifetime, but was deposited in the Moscow Assumption Cathedral and in higher state institutions. Only the Metropolitan of Moscow Filaret and a few dignitaries knew about the existence of this manifesto; Grand Duke Nikolai himself knew, but still did not consider the issue finally resolved.

As a result of this state of affairs, when at the end of November 1825 the news of the death of Emperor Alexander I was received in the capitals, a very understandable misunderstanding occurred. Each of the Grand Dukes strove to fulfill his duty, and therefore Tsarevich Konstantin, who was in Warsaw, hastened to swear allegiance to Emperor Nicholas I, and Grand Duke Nicholas, who was in St. Petersburg and did not know the final decision of his brother, swore allegiance to Emperor Constantine, and sent manifestos to his accession to the throne. Until the matter was clarified, several days passed: only on December 12, 1825, Tsarevich Konstantin informed his brother in writing about his complete abdication from the throne. Then, on December 14, the publication of the manifesto on the accession to the throne of Emperor Nicholas I and the swearing of everyone to him was scheduled. Thus, due to an accidental misunderstanding, it was necessary for several days to swear allegiance first to one, and then to another emperor. People belonging to the aforementioned secret societies took advantage of this circumstance and angered some guards regiments with various false rumors, with which they went to the square, not allowing them to swear allegiance to Emperor Nicholas and hoping to cause a serious rebellion. But the attempt failed. The population of the capital did not even think of joining the rebels, and most of the guards marched into the same square against the rebels, and when no persuasion helped, two volleys of grapeshot dispersed the disorderly crowd of rebels and order was restored.

Nicholas I, Emperor of All Russia, in his youth. Lithograph by Fr. Jenzen from a portrait by Fr. Kruger

Greek question

The new sovereign was a man brought up in a military way, of a firm character and very definite views: but that is why he understood more clearly than his predecessor, first of all, Russian interests, and at the beginning of his reign did not succumb to the ideas of Metternich. In the West, meanwhile, a lively interest and sympathy for the Greeks was growing. These feelings were revived from time to time by events. In April 1824, the most distinguished of the volunteers, the English poet Lord Byron, died in Missolong, and a year later this fortress finally fell after a heroic defense, the last scenes of which were capable of arousing general sympathy: for example, a night outing on April 22-23, with 1300 people , men, women and children, broke through the enemy chain and went to the mountains; the last fierce struggle in the streets of the city; several separate heroic deeds and, among other things, the feat of the primate Kapsalis: he gathered all the old people, the sick, incapable of combat, to the cartridge factory and, together with them and with the enemy who burst in, blew them all up.

Lord Byron. Engraving by C. Turner from a portrait by R. Vestal

Russia and England, 1825

In the higher spheres, negotiations dragged on from year to year, leading to nothing: serious issues had to be resolved somehow. The danger was that until they were resolved, Russia could every minute find a pretext for a break with Turkey, and then it would be easy for her to carry out her plans, well known to Europe. The easiest way was to resolve the issue by the combined actions of England and Austria, which had common interests regarding Russia. But the Austrian government did not understand this. Here they generally found it unnecessary to really settle any question in such a way that Canning, who controlled the foreign policy of England, boldly and at the same time cleverly turned directly to the new king, to whom he sent Wellington, a well-chosen representative, with congratulations from the English king on the occasion of the accession to the throne.

Turkish politics

Both powers entered into an agreement: Greece was to remain a tributary of Turkey, but with an independent government of its own choice and with the approval of the Turkish government.

It was necessary to present this in a favorable form to the Sultan and his ministers. The matter was complicated, since Russia had its own scores and disputes with Turkey; they concerned the relations between the commercial and naval police, the decrees of the Treaty of Bucharest in 1812, and Moldavia and Wallachia, where the Russians had the right to protectorate. Turkish politicians, well aware that the wind was unfavorable for them, preemptively settled all these misunderstandings with the Akkerman Treaty (October 1826). But in the case of Greece, they did not want to hear about the agreement. From their point of view, they were right: they were afraid of the consequences of their compliance with the uprising of the Christian population, although not officially, but supported by Europe. So, they said, they would come to the question, frankly expressed already in the note of the Russian court in 1821, is it possible at all for the existence of Turkey along with other European powers?

Sultan Mahmud. Destruction of the Janissaries

Turkey has carried out a reform or even a revolution this year in its own way. Sultan Mahmud, an energetic man, took up the transformations in the army that cost the life of his predecessor Selim, and carried them out. The infantry, organized and trained according to the European model, included 150 Janissaries for each battalion. The Janissaries, on the other hand, constituted a special estate or workshop, with many privileges and even greater abuses, and they rebelled: then the sultan unfurled the banner of the prophet and crushed the uprising in a bloody way. They were executed mercilessly, and the arrogant Praetorian army was destroyed: their very name they did not dare to pronounce loudly anymore.

London treaty. Battle of Navarino, 1827

This beneficent reform, of course, did not at first serve to strengthen the Porte, and European intervention in the affairs of Greece became inevitable. On the basis of the St. Petersburg agreement in London on July 6, 1826, an agreement was concluded between England, Russia and France, according to which the three great powers undertook to jointly petition for peace between the Porte and the Greeks, and during the negotiations to force, if necessary, both sides to suspend hostilities . Over the next year, this led to disaster. Turkish ruling circles did not want to hear about European intervention. For his part, the leading politician in Vienna offered mediation, fruitless, like all his policies. In the meantime, a Russian-French-English squadron was formed to give great weight to the London agreement. The position of the Greeks was improved by the influx of abundant funds from the West and the arrival of Bavarian officers, who were sent to them by King Ludwig I of Bavaria, an ardent philhelleinist. An English sailor, Lord Cochran, took command of the Greek naval forces, General Church of the land forces; put an end to internal troubles by meeting a single popular assembly in Troezen (April 1827), and on the basis of the new constitution elected the president or cybernet of the new Corfiot community, Count John Kapodistrias, former minister of Emperor Alexander. The Greeks, of course, readily accepted the suspension of hostilities, which inclined in their favor; on the part of the Turkish military leaders, resistance was to be expected, and what to do in such a case, the instructions given to the three admirals did not exactly determine, giving them or the eldest of them, the Englishman Codrington, "due to the exceptional state of affairs, a certain freedom of action." In September, the Turkish-Egyptian fleet landed troops and offloaded supplies at Navarino harbor, in the southwest of the Peloponnese. Ibrahim Pasha intended to send a transport of provisions to Patras and Missolonga, but the English admiral delayed him. Negotiations began. Ibrahim announced that he was a soldier and servant of the Porte and had no right to receive political messages. The transport was re-sent and delayed a second time. Then Ibrahim began to devastate the Peloponnese, to fight as barbarians fight, and how it is not customary to fight in the nineteenth century. The united squadron entered the Navarino Bay. War was not declared, but two strong hostile military fleets stood in a cramped bay, close, opposite each other, with mutual hostility of the crews. As if by themselves, the muzzles of the guns were discharged from dinner, all evening (October 20, 1827 ), a fierce battle went on all night, at the end of which only 27 out of 82 ships remained in the Turkish fleet.

Battle of Navarino, October 20, 1827 Engraving by Chavannes from a painting by Ch. Langlois

Feedback on the Russo-Turkish War

The whole Western European world rejoiced along with the Greeks at the news of what had happened - finally, the matter was conducted in a real way, as it should have long been! In Vienna, they were astonished by thunder: they spoke of this case as of an insidious murder. The English throne speech in January 1828 referred to the naval battle of Navarino as an unfortunate, untimely, unfortunate event - there is no other way to translate the expression untoward event - and they were right: exactly what they tried to avoid was now a necessity. The state of affairs was confused and complicated by the Russo-Turkish war.

Count John Kapodistrias. Engraving from a 19th century portrait.

Hostilities 1828–1829

The Ottoman Porte, in anger - part of the blame fell on her own arrogance and stubbornness - announced her desire to enter into agreements with the European powers, in terms offensive to Russia, calling her her primordial enemy; Russia responded to this by declaring war (April 28). Before that, the war between Russia and Persia had just ended with a peace treaty in Turkmanchay, February 10, 1828. This Turkish war lasted two years. In the first campaign of 1828, the Russians occupied the fortress of Kare, in Armenia, in Asia. But the influence of hostilities in the European theater turned out to be decisive; here the Russians were to retreat to the left bank of the Danube, occupying only Varna and vainly besieging Shumla. The Austrian statesmen were uneasy; they were afraid of Russian victories and benefits that might come from this for Russia; in England and France they did not find enough sympathy, and they did not dare to intervene armed.

The second campaign of 1829 was decisive. Emperor Nicholas himself kept away from hostilities and acted prudently, since he had no military talent. He gave the main command to General Dibich. This general made a brilliant campaign: leaving an observation corps at the Silistria fortress, he moved south to Shumla and defeated the Turks at the Battle of Kulevcha (June 11). After the fall of Silistria, he spread the rumor that with all his might he would begin the siege of Shumla, and, meanwhile, crossed the Balkans and unexpectedly appeared in front of Adrianople, which could have boldly resisted against 30,000 Russian troops. But the perplexed Turks, having no knowledge of the general course of affairs, fled along the road to Constantinople and left the big city to the bold conqueror (August 28), who once again decided to try courage to overcome the Turkish incapacity. With a small army, no more than 20,000, he went to Constantinople.

To attack a well-fortified city lying in an unparalleled good position was madness with such insignificant forces, and with the most limited military art, a few days would be enough to force the general to a dangerous retreat, given the small number of his detachment. But in Constantinople they did not understand this; they considered themselves in the most dangerous position. Diebitsch supported them in this conviction with his preparations for the attack and the great self-confidence he showed. In Asia, the Turks were also unlucky, and they wanted to end the war. The European cabinets advised the Porte to enter into an agreement with Russia, and the Prussian General Müfling did a great service by representing the military situation of the Turks in Constantinople from the Russian point of view.

Peace of Adrianople, 1829

This is how the Peace of Adrianople took place on September 14, 1829, which returned to the Turks all their possessions in Europe. In Asia, the Russians received Poti, Anapa on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, and several fortresses inland. Regarding the Danubian principalities, the provisions of the Akkerman Treaty were renewed, which left them under Russian influence: the rulers were elected for life, and they were almost completely freed from the supreme power of the Porte. This peace treaty was the beginning of the resolution of the Greek question. Even during the Russian-Turkish war, the victor at Navarino, Codrington, appeared before Alexandria and forced the pasha Mohammed-Ali to send an order to his son to cleanse Greece. In the summer of 1828, 14,000 Frenchmen, under the command of General Maison, landed in the Peloponnese, and the Turks handed over to them the fortresses they still occupied. In paragraph 10 of the Treaty of Adrianople, the Porte recognized the basis of the treaty of July 6, 1826 - the independence of Greece in internal affairs, with the payment of an annual tribute to the Porte.

Declaration of Independence by Greece

Thus, the Greek question entered the last phase of its development. At the head of the government, if this expression can be used here, was for the time being the chosen one of Cybernet, Count Kapodistrias, who arrived in Nafplia in January 1828. His task was extremely difficult in a country ruined, with an unknown future, rivalry between parties, passions and intrigues. The fate of the country was to be finally decided at the conference of the great powers in London. In the final Anglo-French-Russian resolution of February 3, 1830, Greece was freed from any tribute to Turkey, and, therefore, made a completely independent state, but in order to reward the Ports narrowed the borders compared to the initial assumptions. They were looking for a king for a new kingdom: Prince Leopold of Coburg, son-in-law of George IV of England, refused after much deliberation, among other things because the borders did not meet, in his opinion, the needs of the country.

Thus, Kapodistrias remained temporarily at the head of the government of a country that had experienced a lot, but was finally freed from an unbearable and unnatural yoke. Its further organization, of course, had to stand in the closest connection and dependence on the will and mutual consent of the great European powers.

CHAPTER FOUR

July Revolution

Holy Union

In the Greek question, the principles of the congress proved inapplicable. The Ottoman yoke was a perfectly legal yoke, and the Greek uprising was as much a revolution as any other. Meanwhile, this revolution achieved its goal, precisely thanks to the help of Emperor Nicholas, an autocrat and a strict legitimist. This is not the only case where it was clearly shown that the phrase about "supporting the existing" cannot serve as a basis for a serious policy and can serve as a dogma only for very limited minds, at that time advanced by special circumstances into a dominant role and position, to which they were also little prepared, like Franz I for the rank of Emperor of Austria. What Metternich and his imitators and followers called a revolution, so as not to search for the real causes and means of healing, five years after the victory of absolutism in Spain, won one victory after another, and fifteen years after the founding of the Holy Alliance, a major victory in France shocked to the foundation of the order established with such labor and diligence.

The emergence of the national liberation movement.

At the end of the eighteenth - beginning of the nineteenth century. the long and stubborn struggle of the Greek people for national liberation acquired a wide scope and a qualitatively new content. By this time, significant changes had taken place in the Greek economy and in its public life, connected with the formation of the capitalist structure in Western and Central Europe. Vast areas of Greece began to be drawn into sphere commodity-money relations. A significant part of the grain, tobacco, and cotton produced in the country went to European markets. The economic role of the city of Thessaloniki has increased, becoming the largest port not only in Greece, but also in the entire Balkan region. The expansion of "foot trade created the preconditions for the development of local merchant capital: in the early years of the 19th century. in the Peloponnese, there were 50 Greek trading firms. But the social order in Greece hindered any significant development of the bourgeoisie. As F. Engels noted, “...Turkish, like any other Eastern domination, is incompatible with capitalist society; the acquired surplus value is not guaranteed in any way from the predatory hands of satraps and pashas; the first basic condition for bourgeois entrepreneurial activity is missing --- the security of the merchant's personality and his property.

Under the disastrous conditions of Ottoman domination, only the merchant bourgeoisie of the Aegean archipelago was able to turn into a serious economic and political force. In 1813 the Greek merchant fleet consisted of 615 large ships. Most of them sailed under the Russian flag. Thus, using the policy of “protection” pursued by the tsarist government of the Orthodox population of the Balkans, Greek merchants received significant guarantees for the preservation of their property 2 .

There were also changes in the spiritual life of Greek society. The last decades of the 15th century and the first decades of the 19th century. entered the history of Greek culture as the Age of Enlightenment. It was a period of rapid upsurge of spiritual life. New educational institutions were founded everywhere, and book printing in the Modern Greek language expanded significantly. Great scientists, original thinkers, wonderful teachers appeared. Their activities, as a rule, unfolded outside of Greece - in Russia, Austria, France, where many Greek settlers settled.

Foreign communities became the base of the Greek national liberation movement that arose at the end of the 15th century. under the direct influence of the French bourgeois revolution. For the struggle for the liberation of Greece, the ideas of revolution were first used by the fiery revolutionary and poet Rigas Velestinlis. He developed a political program that provided for the overthrow of the Ottoman yoke by the combined efforts of the Balkan peoples. But the liberation plan of Velestinlis became known to the Austrian police. The Greek revolutionary was arrested and handed over to Porte along with seven of his associates. On June 24, 1798, the brave freedom fighters were executed in the Belgrade fortress.

Despite this heavy blow, the movement for the liberation of Greece continued to gain momentum. In 1814, Greek settlers founded in Odessa a secret national liberation society "Filiki Eteria" ("Friendly Society"). Within a few years, the organization had gained numerous adherents in Greece and the Greek overseas colonies. The foundation of Filiki Eteria in Russia contributed to the success of its activities to a large extent. Although the tsarist government did not encourage the liberation plans of the Eterists, the widest circles of Russian society sympathized with the struggle of the Greeks for their liberation. In the minds of the Greek people from the first centuries of Ottoman domination, there was a hope that it was Russia, a country of the same faith with the Greeks, that would help them free themselves. These expectations received new food when, in April 1820, Filiki Eteria was headed by the prominent Greek patriot Alexander Ypsilanti, who served in the Russian army with the rank of Major General. Under his leadership, the etherists began to prepare an armed uprising.

The beginning of the revolution.

The banner of the national liberation struggle was raised in the Danubian Principalities, where Filiki Eteria had many supporters. Arriving in Iasi, A. Ypsilanti on March 8, 1821 published an appeal calling for an uprising, beginning with the words: “The hour has struck, brave Greeks!” A. Ypsilanti's short campaign in Moldova and Wallachia ended unsuccessfully. But she diverted the attention and forces of the Porte from the uprising that broke out in Greece itself.

The first shots were fired in the Peloponnese at the end of March 1821; soon the uprising swept the whole country (“Independence Day” is celebrated in Greece on March 25). The Greek national liberation revolution lasted eight and a half years. Its history can be divided into the following main stages:

1821 - 1822 The liberation of a significant part of the country's territory and the formation of the political structure of an independent Greece;

1823 - 1825 Exacerbation of the internal political situation. Civil wars;

1825 - 1827 Fight against the Turkish-Egyptian invasion;

1827 - 1829 The beginning of the reign of I. Kapodistrias, the Russian-Turkish war

1828 - 1829 and the successful completion of the struggle for independence.

The main driving force of the revolution was the peasantry. In the course of the struggle, it sought not only to get rid of the foreign yoke, but also to get the land confiscated from the Turkish feudal lords. Large landowners and wealthy who seized the leadership of the uprising shipowners sought to preserve and strengthen their property interests and political privileges. The serious successes of the uprising in 1821 made it possible to convene the National Assembly, which on January 13, 1822, proclaimed the independence of Greece and approved a provisional constitution, the Epidaurian Organic Statute. It was greatly influenced by the constitutions of bourgeois France at the end of the fifteenth century. A republican system was established in Greece, and a number of bourgeois-democratic freedoms were proclaimed. The state structure was based on the principle of separation of powers. The executive power of five people received the greatest rights. A. Mavrokordatos, who defended the interests of the wealthy elite of Greek society, was elected president of the executive branch.

Sultan Mahmud II did not accept the fall of Greece. Barbaric repressions fell upon the insurgent population. The massacre was carried out in the spring of 1822 on the island of Chios. 23 thousand civilians were killed, 47 thousand were sold into slavery. The flowering island, which was called the garden of the Archipelago, was turned into a desert.

But even the Christian monarchs of Europe met the revolution in Greece with open hostility. The leaders of the Holy Alliance, who gathered in 1822 for their congress in Verona, refused to deal with representatives of the Greek government as rebels against their "lawful sovereign." In difficult conditions of foreign policy isolation, the rebels successfully continued the unequal struggle. Invading the Peloponnese in the summer of 1822, a select 30,000-strong Turkish army was defeated by Greek detachments under the command of the talented commander Theodoros Kolokotronis. Then the bold attacks of the Greek ships forced the Turkish fleet to leave the Aegean and take refuge in the Dardanelles.

The temporary weakening of the external danger contributed to the aggravation of social and political contradictions in the rebel camp, which led in 1823-1825. to two civil wars, the scene of which was the Peloponnese. As a result of these wars, the positions of the Aegean shipowners, who pressed the landed nobility of the Peloponnese, strengthened.

Turkish-Egyptian invasion.

Meanwhile, a new menacing danger approached liberated Greece. Mahmud II, with the promise of ceding the Peloponnese and Crete, managed to involve his powerful vassal, the ruler of Egypt, Muhammad Ali, in the war. In February 1825, an Egyptian army landed in the south of the Peloponnese, commanded by the son of Muhammad Ali - Ibrahim Pasha. It consisted of regular units trained by French instructors. The Greek forces, despite the heroism shown in the battles, could not stop the advance of the Egyptians.

Having again subdued most of the Peloponnese, Ibrahim Pasha in December 1825 with a 17,000-strong army approached Messolonga - an important stronghold of the rebels in Western Greece. On the towers and bastions of the city, bearing the names of William Tell, Skanderbeg, Benjamin Franklin, Rigas Velestinlis and other freedom fighters, the entire population fought. The 20,000-strong Turkish army, which had been standing under the walls of the city since April 1825, was unable to capture it. But the arrival of the Egyptian army and fleet created a huge preponderance of forces in favor of the besiegers. Messolonga's communication with the outside world was interrupted. As a result of continuous bombing, most of the houses were destroyed. A terrible famine raged in the city. Having exhausted all the possibilities of resistance, the defenders of Messolonghi on the night of April 22-23, 1826 made an attempt to break through the enemy lines. Almost all of them died in battle and during the massacre perpetrated by the Turkish-Egyptian troops who broke into the city.

After the fall of Messolonga, fierce fighting continued on all fronts. In June 1827, the Greeks suffered a new serious setback - the Athenian Acropolis fell. As a result, all the Greek regions north of the Isthmus of Corinth were again occupied by the enemy. But even during this difficult period, the determination of the Greek people to achieve liberation did not weaken. In March 1827, the National Assembly in Trizin adopted a new constitution. It further developed the bourgeois-democratic principles of the Epidaurian constitution. Here, for the first time, the principles of the sovereignty of the people, the equality of citizens before the law, freedom of the press and speech were proclaimed. But in the new constitution, as in the previous ones, the agrarian question was not resolved. The Trizin constitution introduced the position of the sole head of state - the president. He was elected for a period of seven years, an experienced statesman and diplomat, former Russian Foreign Minister Ioannis Kapodistrias. Arriving in Greece in January 1828, the president took vigorous measures to improve the country's economic situation, increase the combat capability of the armed forces, and centralize administration. By this time there had been a favorable turn for the Greeks in the international situation.

The Greek question in the international arena.

The struggle of the Greek people for freedom received a great international response. A broad public movement of solidarity with the rebellious Greeks swept many countries in Europe and the United States. In Paris, London, and Geneva, there were philhellenic committees that raised funds for fighting Greece. Thousands of volunteers from different countries rushed to help the Greeks. Among them was the great English poet Byron, who fell for the cause of Greek freedom. The Greek Revolution aroused great sympathy in all sections of Russian society. The Decembrists and circles close to them greeted her with special enthusiasm. These sentiments were expressed by A.S. Pushkin, who wrote in his diary in 1821: “I am firmly convinced that Greece will triumph and 25,000,000 Turks will leave the flourishing country of Hellas to the legitimate heirs of Homer and Themistocles.”

Signatures were successfully signed in Russia in favor of numerous refugees from the Ottoman Empire who found refuge in Novorossia and Bessarabia. Funds were also used to buy captive inhabitants of Chios. The irreversible changes in the Balkans caused by the Greek Revolution intensified the rivalry between the great powers, primarily between England and Russia, and forced them to reconsider their policy towards Greece. In 1823 the British government recognized Greece as a belligerent.

In 1824 - 1825. Greece received British loans, which marked the beginning of the financial enslavement of the country by foreign capital. In 1824, Russia put forward its own plan for resolving the Greek question on the basis of the creation of three autonomous Greek principalities. Soon there was a tendency towards agreement between the rival powers.

On July 6, 1827, England and Russia, joined by France, concluded an agreement in London. It provided for the cooperation of these powers in ending the Greco-Turkish war on the basis of granting Greece full internal autonomy. Ignoring this agreement by Porta led to the Battle of Navarino (October 20, 1827), in which the squadrons of Russia, England and France that arrived on the coast of Greece defeated the Turkish-Egyptian fleet. The battle of Navarino, for which the sultan laid responsibility on Russia, aggravated Russian-Turkish relations. In April 1828, the Russian-Turkish war began. Having won a victory in it, Russia forced Mahmud II to recognize the Adrianople peace treaty 1829 Greek autonomy. In 1830, the Porte was forced to agree to granting the Greek state the status of independence.

The results and significance of the revolution.

The creation of an independent state was of great importance for the Greek people, for their national and social progress. Greek National Liberation Revolution 1821 - 1829 It also became an important milestone in the struggle of the European peoples for national liberation, against tyranny and despotism. This was the first successful revolutionary action in Europe during the Restoration and at the same time the first major defeat of European reaction. The Greek Revolution was especially important for the Balkans. For the first time, a Balkan country won independence. This became an inspiring example for the peoples of other Balkan countries.

But the Greek revolution failed to resolve a number of major social and political problems. The Greek peasantry remained landless, bearing the brunt of the struggle on its shoulders. The lands confiscated from the Turkish feudal lords, which accounted for more than a third of the cultivated area, became the property of the state. These "national lands" were cultivated by landless peasants on extortionate terms. The problem of national liberation was only partially solved. The new state included the territory of continental Greece, limited in the north by a line between the bays of Arta and Volos, and the Cyclades. Thessaly, rapier, Crete and other Greek lands remained under the Ottoman yoke.

The powers that were parties to the London Treaty of 1827 unceremoniously interfered in the internal affairs of Greece and fomented political strife. Their victim was I. Kapodistrias, who was killed on October 9, 1831 in the then capital of the Greek state of Nauplia. The “protecting powers” ​​imposed a monarchical system on Greece. In 1832, Russia, England and France proclaimed Prince Otto of the Bavarian Wittelsbach dynasty king of Greece.

Greece, turned into a Turkish province in the 15th century, constantly strived for independence. From the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries, the Ottoman Empire ruled almost all of Greece, with the exception of the Ionian Islands, Crete, and parts of the Peloponnese. In the 17th century, the Ottomans subjugated the entire Peloponnese and Crete. But in the 18th and 19th centuries, a wave of revolutions swept across Europe. The power of Turkey was weakening, a national upsurge began in Greece, which met with the support of Western European countries. Already in the 17th century, the Greeks looked at Russia, which was of the same faith to them, as a support in their future struggle with the Turks; these hopes met with sympathy in the Russian ruling circles. When in 1770 a Russian squadron appeared in the Mediterranean Sea, an uprising seized Morea, but it was easily suppressed by the Turks.

The wars between Russia and the Ottoman Empire at the end of the 18th century had no practical significance for the Greeks. The French Revolution gave a significant impetus to the liberation movement; the Greek poet of the late 18th century, Rigas, wrote freedom-loving, militant songs. Rigas was extradited by the Austrian authorities to the Turks and, by order of the Belgrade Pasha, was executed in 1798. The poet's martyrdom increased the significance and influence of his songs. Throughout Greece and wherever the Greeks lived, secret societies began to form, heterii (friendships), which had the goal of liberating Greece from Turkish rule.

In 1814, the Greek patriots Nikolaos Skoufas, Emmanuel Xanthos and Athanasios Tsakalof created a secret organization in Odessa, Filiki Eteria (Greek. Φιλική Εταιρεία - Friendly society). In 1818 the center of the organization was moved to Constantinople. With the support of wealthy Greek communities in Britain and the United States, with the help of sympathizers in Western Europe, and covert aid from Russia, they planned an uprising.

The uprising against Ottoman rule was launched by a group of conspirators led by Alexander Ypsilanti, which consisted largely of Russian officers of Greek origin. It was proposed to lead the liberation movement to John Kapodistrias, 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.

When a new ruler was appointed in Wallachia in 1821, a riot took place there; the Arvanites sent by Turkey to pacify joined the rebels; at the same time, Ali Pasha Yaninsky refused to obey the Turkish sultan.

This moment was considered convenient for the start of the uprising. The Russian general, an ethnic Greek, Prince Alexander Ypsilanti, having left his service without permission, arrived in Moldavia and in March called on the Greeks to overthrow the yoke. Up to 6 thousand insurgents gathered to him.

The defeats inflicted by the Turks on the Heteriotes at the Drahomans and the Sekku Monastery, the official announcement by Russia that it had nothing to do with the movement of the revolutionary Heterii, put an end to the movement of the Greeks. In Constantinople, Patriarch Gregory V of Constantinople, who was suspected of having relations with the heterii, was hanged at the gates of his dwelling in full episcopal vestments, and three metropolitans were executed with him. However, this spread the flames of the uprising throughout Greece and strongly set Russia against Turkey, which broke off diplomatic relations with her.

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 with each other and were unable to establish 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).

The uprising broke out in the southern Peloponnese (Morea), in the city of Areopolis on March 25 (April 6), 1821. Within 3 months, the uprising engulfed 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. The Turks hid in the fortresses, and the few Turkish garrisons of Attica took refuge in Athens in the Acropolis, where they were besieged by the Greeks.

The islands of Hydra, Insara and Spezia also took part in the uprising; a Greek fleet of 80 ships appeared in the Archipelago. A stubborn struggle began, in which women also took part (for example, Babolina, who donated her huge fortune to equip ships and detachments, participated in many battles and even commanded a ship under Nauplia).

The struggle of scattered Greek detachments with an organized Turkish army was very difficult. The Greeks, armed with ancient guns and having no artillery, were strong only in the mountains, but could not fight in the open field. Although all the Greeks were united by a sense of common hatred for the Turks, this did not prevent the manifestations of envy and enmity between individual tribes, clans and their leaders; it also hurt that their squads largely consisted of cruel and undisciplined klefts. However, in the same year, Corinth was occupied by the monk Gregoras; from there the uprising spread to the Isthmus of Corinth, to Aetolia, Attica, Acarnania and Livadia; in Epirus and Thessaly, Odysseus led the uprising.

Finally, Turkey took up military action. Khurshid Pasha, who pacified Ali Pasha Yaninsky, detached Kyahvi Bey against the Greek insurgents, who attacked the Greek camp at Valdez, but was defeated. The first success encouraged the insurgents, and temporary agreement was established between them; to them arrived: Dmitry Ypsilanti, Alexander's brother, and Prince Kantakuzin. After the battle of Valdez, the Greeks turned their attention to the fortified places in which the Turks settled. And here success was on the side of the Greeks: Prince Kantakuzin took possession of Monembisia, Dmitry Ypsilanti - Navarino; Tripolitsa was taken by storm; the leader of the armatols, Marco Botsaris, successfully fought in western Greece with Khurshid Pasha near Mesolung; Negris won a victory in Solon, and Odysseus defeated the Turks in Thessaly in September.

But in Macedonia, the actions of the Greeks were unsuccessful. The Pasha of Thessaloniki captured and plundered the Kassandra peninsula, Omer-Vrione took the fortress and the city of Arta from the Greeks. The Turkish fleet ravaged the city of Galaxidi, the Greek fleet at the same time plundered the shores of Asia Minor and massacred the Turks; these cruelties aroused the indignation of the Europeans and the bitterness of the Turks against them.

On October 5, 1821, the main city of the Morea, Tripolitsa, was taken by the Greeks. The Greek victory ended in a massacre of Turks and Jews: at least 8,000 - 10,000 men, women and children were killed.

Thus ended 1821; the Greeks felt the need to unite and fight according to a common plan.

On May 20, 1821, the Assembly opened in Calteson ( Calteson Assembly) chairman ( πρόεδρος της συνέλευσης ) to whom Petros Mavromichalis was elected. Assembly elected Peloponnesian Council (Πελοποννησιακή Γερουσία ), headed by the chairman of the council ( Πρόεδρος της Γερουσίας ) - Bishop Theodoret of Wresthenia and Deputy Chairman (αντιπρόεδρος) - Asmakis Fotilas.

November 4, 1821 in Missolongion opened Assembly of Western Greece (Συνέλευση της Δυτικής Χέρσου Ελλάδος ) which included 30 deputies ( πληρεξούσιος ), chairman of the assembly ( πρόεδρος της συνέλευσης ) Alexandros Mavrocordatos was elected. Also elected by the assembly was the Council of Western Greece ( Γερουσία της Δυτικής Χέρσου Ελλάδος ).

On November 18, 1821, the Assembly opened in Amfissa ( Salon Assembly - Συνέλευση ) who chose the Areopagus of Eastern Greece ( Άρειος Πάγος της Ανατολικής Χέρσου Ελλάδας ).

On January 22, 1822, the 1st National Assembly (67 deputies) in Piado (near Epidaurus) proclaimed the Greek State, independent of the Ottoman Empire, and adopted a constitution - the Provisional Government of Greece ( Προσωρινό Πολίτευμα της Ελλάδος ), the legislature of which was the Legislative Corps ( Βουλευτικον Σωμα ) under the chairmanship of Dmitry Ypsilanti, the executive body is the Executive Corps ( Εκτελεστικον Σωμα ) chaired by Mavrocordato. But the disagreements continued; Ypsilanti resigned; Odysseus, Kolokotroni and Mavromichali did not recognize their subordination.

Meanwhile, young philhellenes from all over Europe flocked to the Morea. The Turkish troops, who had pacified Ali Pasha Yaninsky, turned against the Greeks; Khurshid Pasha acted against Thessaly, the fleet threatened Navarin, but was repulsed by Norman. Ypsilanti and Nikitas took over the leadership in eastern Greece, and in western - Mavrocordato.

Hostilities also began in Macedonia, where the Thessaloniki Pasha dispersed crowds of armed Christians at Nyosta and killed up to 5 thousand civilians.

The affairs of the Greeks in the west were also unsuccessful; On July 4, the Greeks were completely defeated near Peta and Souliota, leaving their hometown and hiding in the mountains and on the islands; Mavrokordato and Botsaris locked themselves in Mesolungi. Dram-Ali with 30 thousand broke through Thermopylae, and Yusuf Pasha went to Corinth and occupied it and the Acropolis.

In the spring, the Turkish fleet pacified the islands of Kandia, Samos and Chios, but during its stay at Chios, it was attacked by Greek fireships, which burned two Turkish ships.

The failures and cruelties suffered by the Turks made the Greek leaders forget their strife and disagreements; they acted together against Khurshid Pasha, and the latter retreated to Larissa; In December, the Greeks captured Nauplia. The year 1822, thanks to the coordination of the actions of the Greek leaders, ended successfully.

In 1823, Mavrocordato again decided to create a solid government; he convened a second National Assembly of the Greeks, and in April a law was promulgated establishing a Greek government, the seat of which was the Tropolis. Konduriotti was elected president of the legislative council and Mavromichali the executive; command over the land forces was given to Mavrocordato, over the sea - to Orlandi; Odysseus acted in eastern Greece, and Botsaris in western Greece. The main concern of the Greek government was the extraction of money for war and internal organization; new taxes were instituted; there were many donations from well-wishers of Greece from Europe and America.

This year the Greeks occupied Kissamos on the island of Candia; Seraskir Pasha was defeated by Odysseus; Marco Botsaris defeated the Pasha of Scutari by attacking his camp at Karpinissa at night; Marco Botsaris himself was killed in this battle, but his brother Constantine pursued the pasha to Scutari and headed for Mesolungi. Many Europeans joined the ranks of the defenders of Greece, and among them the famous English poet Lord Byron, who died here in early 1824. Greece's struggle for its independence became popular throughout Europe.

Meanwhile, among the Greek leaders, disagreements arose again; Kolokotroni rebelled against Mavrokordato, Odysseus arbitrarily ordered in eastern Greece, but President Konduriotti knew how to force his orders to be carried out; he managed to conclude a loan in England and put the military unit in order.

In 1824, Turkey made peace with Persia and asked for help from the Khedive of Egypt Muhammad Ali, who had just made serious reforms of the Egyptian army according to European standards. The Sultan of Turkey promised to make big concessions on Syria if Ali helped put down the Greek uprising. As a result, Muhammad Ali sent a fleet with troops and his adopted son Ibrahim. Dervish Pasha Vidda was sent by the Sultan to the Peloponnese, Pasha Negropontsky was ordered to pacify the eastern regions of Greece, and Omer-Vrione - the western, but all Turkish detachments were pushed back by the Greeks.

The Egyptian fleet at that time occupied Candia and Klesos, the Turkish - Insara, but Miavilis again took this island from the Turks and drove the fleet to Mytilene. The Egyptian fleet, united with the Turkish, fought the Greek at Naxos; the Greek fire-ships inflicted great damage on the Turkish ships sailing to Constantinople; Ibrahim Pasha took refuge in Rhodes.

In European countries, especially in England and France, and of course in Russia, there was growing sympathy for the Greek patriots among the educated elite and a desire to further weaken the Ottoman Empire among politicians.

Meanwhile, strife continued among the Greek leaders. Using them, Ibrahim Pasha in February 1825 landed 12 thousand in Greece, between Coron and Modon, and laid siege to Navarino. Despite the brave defense of Mavrokordato and the successful attacks of Miavlis on the Egyptian fleet, Navarino surrendered, and Tropolitsa and Kalamata soon surrendered.

Conduriotti and Mavrocordato took every measure to establish harmony among the Greeks; Kolokotroni was appointed commander-in-chief; he defended Nauplia, but could not prevent Ibrahim Pasha from occupying the entire Peloponnese. The Egyptian and Turkish fleets appeared in front of the Mesolungs; Reshid Pasha won a victory at Solon and overlaid Mesolungi from land. But this fortress survived thanks to the help rendered to it from the sea by Konstantin Botsaris and Miavlis. At this time, the Greek detachment of Guras made his way from Livadia to Solon and distracted Reshid Pasha from Mesolung, and Nikitas defeated the Turkish detachment on the Isthmus of Corinth.

In April 1826, Ibrahim Pasha, after the greatest efforts, took possession of the Mesolungs. On April 22, the garrison tried to break through, but only a few succeeded, while the rest, led by Nolos Botsaris, blew themselves into the air; the population of the city (up to 4 thousand) was partly killed, partly enslaved. Ibrahim Pasha returned to the Tropolis and began to rule the Peloponnese, showing great cruelty; Turkish detachments penetrated into eastern and western Greece.

Reshid Pasha laid siege to Athens and after the death of Guras, who was killed by a disgruntled Greek, took possession of Athens; but the Acropolis continued to defend itself, and Colonel Voutier managed to get there with troops and supplies.

The actions of the Turks in western Greece were also successful, and Kolokotroni fought unsuccessfully with Ibrahim Pasha in Arcadia; only in the Sea held a few more cities and islands. Greece has become a desert; thousands of people died of hunger. The disasters of the Greeks, their heroic efforts and cruel sufferings began to arouse the liveliest participation throughout Europe, while the trade of all the states of Europe suffered heavy losses. Volunteers and money poured into Greece in abundance from England, France, and Germany; the governments of the European powers also could not look indifferently at the strengthening of the Turks, and in July 1826 in London an agreement was signed between Russia, France and England to end the struggle between Greece and Turkey. The Bavarian colonel Heidekker, the English general Church and Lord Cochrane, who arrived in Greece, tried in vain to reconcile the warring Greek parties and worked on the transformation of the Greek naval and land forces. The Greeks at that time tried to free the Acropolis besieged by the Turks.

In 1827, the third National Assembly of the Greeks met, adopted the Civil Constitution of Hellas, the legislative body of which was the Council, the executive power was exercised by the Ruler. The ruler, with the consent of the three great powers, was elected John Kapodistrias. Lord Cochrane took command of the fleet and General Church of the land forces. But their joint efforts to liberate Acropolis were unsuccessful, and this fortress, as well as the ports of Piraeus and Faleros, surrendered to the Turks.

Meanwhile, the actions of the Greek detachments continued to be unsuccessful, due to the defiance of the newly formed Greek regular troops. After the battle of Navarino, the French expeditionary force of General Maison arrived in Greece; Navarino, Coron, Modon and Patras were occupied by French troops; Egyptian troops left Greece, and in October 1828 the Morea and the Cyclades were free from the Turks.

In 1829, direct popular elections were held for the fourth National Assembly of the Greeks, which created the Senate as an advisory body.

The allied powers offered Turkey to take part in meetings and reconciliation with Greece, but the Turks refused, and in March 1829 the allied powers established the borders between Greece and Turkey.

Meanwhile, in northern and eastern Greece, the war was still going on: Dmitry Ypsilanti defeated Mahmud Pasha at Lamantico and captured Solona, ​​Lepant and all of Livadia; General Church occupied Vonnitsa, the Greeks besieged Anatoliko and Mesolungi.

In the war with Russia, Turkey was defeated. According to the Adrianople Peace Treaty of 1829, Turkey recognized the autonomy of Greece.

The geographical conditions of Greece have always created natural sailors from its coastal population. But with the fall of the Byzantine Empire, Greek navigation, due to political conditions, degenerated into coastal trading and piracy. Only since the appearance of the Russian fleet off the coast of Greece (the war between Russia and Turkey in 1769-1774), the Greek navigation has received an organization approaching the military: assisting Russia with their ships, attaching them to the Russian squadrons and detachments, the Greeks carried out reconnaissance and transport services, they themselves entered Russian ships as officers and sailors, served as pilots, received patents for sailing their corsair ships under the Russian flag, and even commanded individual detachments.

So it was in the subsequent Russian-Turkish wars, and especially in 1787-1791, when, due to the cancellation, due to the outbreak of war with Sweden, the previously assumed departure of the Baltic Fleet to the Mediterranean Sea, military operations were carried out almost exclusively by Greek corsairs under the Russian flag. This military school developed brave sailors from the Greeks, at the same time tempering the militant spirit of the coastal and especially the island population in the tireless struggle for liberation. This was facilitated by the ever more developing Greek piracy, which attracted the attention of foreign powers interested in trade with the Levant.

The Greek uprising of 1821 brought forward a number of outstanding sailors who, with insignificant forces, made desperate attacks on Turkish ships and squadrons. The period from 1827 to 1832 (the year of the formation of the Greek kingdom) is marked by individual performances of organized Greek naval forces, already recognized by the powers as a belligerent; in 1828, a squadron was formed under the command of Rear Admiral (antinavarhos) Sakhturi from 8 brigs and galleots and several gunboats; its appointment was coordinated with the actions of the allied powers. The squadron was supposed to intercept food and Turkish smuggling to the island of Crete, blockade the fortresses of Coron, Modon and Navarino and contribute to the blockade of the bays of Patras and Lepantskago. Separate actions of the Greek detachments took place at various points in the Archipelago, especially near the island of Chios, and during meetings with Turkish ships on the high seas. Of the Greek sailors of this era, in addition to Sakhturi, Admiral Miaoulis, Konaris, Captain Sahani and others especially stood out. Later, in 1831, when the strife that arose in Greece itself was appeased, the Russian fleet had to face the hostile actions of Miaoulis, who became the head of the rebellious (idriot) detachment, and the matter ended with the defeat of the rebels in the bay of the island of Poros. However, the military operations of the Greek fleet, too small in number and under the control of foreign powers (Russia, England, France), were predominantly partisan in nature, could not develop into independent operations and therefore had only an indirect effect on the war with Turkey.

On February 3, 1830, the Protocol of London was adopted in London, which officially recognized the independence of the Greek state, which was called the Kingdom of Greece. By the middle of 1832, the borders of the new European state were finally drawn. The Hellenic Republic included Western Hellas, Eastern Hellas, Attica, Peloponnese and the Cyclades. In 1832, the Fifth National Assembly of the Greeks met, recognizing the Protocol of London and, in connection with this, adopting the Constitution of the Kingdom of Greece.

Page 1

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. In 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 (bought 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.

Anglo-Boer War. The course of hostilities
At the end of September 1899, Boer troops concentrated at the borders. They made up three groups. One of them, numbering up to 25 thousand people, with 40 guns, 16 machine guns, led by General P. Joubert, was located along the Folkerus - Valkestrom - Freiheid line. The other - numbering up to 6 thousand people, with 20 guns and 6 machine guns is located ...

Ideological struggle and social movement in Russia in the second half of the 19th century
In the second half of the 50s of the XIX century. (the period of preparation of the peasant reform) in the socio-political life of Russia, there has been a certain convergence of different ideological directions. The whole society understood the need to renew the country. It spurred and stimulated the beginning of the transformational activity of the government. However, reality...

Relations between Russia and France
Alexander I considered Napoleon a symbol of trampling on the legality of the world order. But the Russian emperor overestimated his capabilities, which led to the disaster near Austerlitz in November 1805, and the presence of the emperor in the army, his inept orders had the most disastrous consequences. Treaty of peace signed in June 1806 with France Al...