Russian Seapower and ‘The Eastern Question’, 1827–41

331 Pages·1991·31.312 MB·English

by  John C. K. Daly (auth.)

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RUSSIAN SEAPOWER AND
THE EASTERN QUESTION'
1827-41
John C. K. Daly
Assistant Professor of Russian and Naval History
Kansas State University
M in association with the
Palgrave Macmillan
MACMILLAN
©John C.K.Daly 1991
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1991
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Daly, John C.K.
Russian Seapower and 'The Eastern Question', 1827-41. —
(Studies in Russia and East Europe)
1. Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
I. Title II. University of London, School of Slavonic and
East European Studies. II. Series
359.00947
ISBN 978-1-349-09602-2 ISBN 978-1-349-09600-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-09600-8
To Mary Kennedy Daly, for everything.
To Celia Pesce, who helped me to remember the things I forgot.
To Maria Clara Florence Daly, who helped me to learn things that I
never knew.
Contents
Preface viii
Map of the Black Sea area xvi
Map of the Bosphorus, Dardanelles and surrounding area xvii
1 The Greek Revolt and Tsar Nicholas's First Turkish War 1
2 The Adrianople Peace and the Growth of Russian Black
Sea Trade 35
3 The Empire Strikes Back: the First Egyptian Revolt, and
Muslim Revolt in the Caucasus 66
4 The Hunkar Iskelessi Peace, Russophobia, and a Middle
Eastern Arms Race 100
5 The Second Egyptian Revolt and an Uneasy Peace 140
Conclusions 175
Appendix 1: Shipbuilding Programme of the Black Sea Fleet,
1827-41 196
Appendix 2: Warship Construction in the Black Sea, 1827-41 200
Appendix 3: Russian Warship Losses in the Black Sea,
1827-41 201
Appendix 4: Russian Merchant Ship Construction in Black
Sea Ports, 1827-41 203
Appendix 5: Russian Expenditure on the Imperial Navy,
1827-41 206
Notes and References 207
Bibliography 261
Index 292
vii
Preface
'Any ruler with an army has one hand, but he who also has a fleet
has two hands ... '.
Peter the Great, Ustav morskoi
(Saint Petersburg, 1720, p. 1)
'It is then particularly in the field of naval strategy that the teachings
of the past have a value which is no degree lessened.'
Alfred Thayer Mahan,
The Influence of Seapower upon History (p. 9)
This work attempts to delineate the activities, abilities, materiel and
personnel of the Russian Black Sea Fleet during the years 1827-41 in
relation to the abilities and activities of the other Mediterranean naval
powers within the larger context of the 'Eastern Question.' The subject
is both worthwhile and largely unknown. During the one-hundred
and-forty-year gradual decline of the Ottoman Empire from the Treaty
of Passarowitz to the Crimean War, Russian seapower in the Black
Sea emerged from obscurity to parity with the Ottoman naval forces.
The maritime balance of power between Russia and the Ottoman
Empire became the crucial pivot upon which Russian foreign policy
towards Turkey revolved during the post-Napoleonic, pre-Crimean
period. Due to the fact that this was unstated and implicit, the topic
has received surprisingly little attention in studies of the 'Eastern
Question' over the years.
There are a number of reasons for this obscurity. First and
foremost, perhaps, is the fact that 'naval science' emerged only late
in the nineteenth century with the epochal studies of Mahan and
Colomb. Both writers largely concentrated their focus on the glorious
history of the Royal Navy; other countries and their nautical abilities
were measured by this glittering yardstick, not only by British, but
frequently by foreign historians evaluating their own countries'
viii
Preface IX
histories. For many, the years following Trafalgar are largely a
wasteland, until they are aroused from their torpor by Tsushima.
While naval history has increasingly evolved as a historical discipline
in its own right, many historians have to a certain extent used the
Royal Navy's performance to evaluate their own countries' endea
vours, downplaying the obvious fact that national needs dictate
differing perceptions and policies.
This blue-water myopia was not solely restricted to admirers of the
Royal Navy. Admiral Sergei Georgievich Gorshkov was frequently
referred to as a 'Russian Mahan'; in his Morskaia moshch' gosudarstva
he dismisses the entire Russian naval effort in the period under
consideration here in one pithy sentence, noting 'the ships almost
never went to sea'.
This problem of interpretation is exacerbated when one considers
the 'Eastern Question'; linguistic complexities unite with problems of
access to sources to make such a study dauntingly difficult.
With the exception of Navarino, the period under consideration
contains no major fleet actions. When Russian participation at
Navarino is mentioned in the West, it is almost as an aside. Such a
dismissal is unfair, however, as the period 1827-41 contains a number
of events of interest, altering the traditional Mediterranean 'balance of
power', beginning with the battle of Navarino, which assured the
eventual freedom of Greece. In 1830, a French naval operation
captured Algiers, putting an end to a nest of corsairs that had preyed
on Mediterranean commerce for centuries.
To find the antecedents of the period 1827-41, we must consider
Russo-Turkish relations from the time of Peter the Great. Peter is
regarded as the 'father' of the Russian navy, and his successful capture
of Azov from the Turks presaged an eventual Russian breakthrough
to the shores of the Black Sea itself. Peter's galley fleet, built at
Voronezh on the lower Don, may be regarded as the direct forerunner
of the Black Sea Fleet. Although Peter had to return his hard-won
gains after the Prut Treaty in 1711, the pattern was set for future
Russo-Turkish relations; sea power could provide the decisive edge in
warring with the Turks.
Peter's successors unfortunately lacked his dynamism, and his navy
was allowed to decline. Russian maritime fortunes were to recover
with the accession of Catherine the Great to the throne in 1768.
Catherine immediately set about reviving the navy as a tool of Russian
foreign policy, and her reign scored notable successes; the most
brilliant was the burning of the Turkish fleet at <;esme in 1770, a
x Preface
battle which destroyed more line ships than Trafalgar. Catherine had
only her Baltic squadron to use in her battles, as Russia was still
barred from the Black Sea by the Turks. In order to fight the Turks,
Catherine sent a squadron from the Baltic to the Mediterranean.
The appearance of Orlov's squadron in the Mediterranean opened a
new phase for Russia's struggle to control the Black Sea; indeed,
control of the Black Sea could only be decisively achieved in the
Mediterranean. The strategic importance of 'command of the sea' in
the Mediterranean has long been noted; as Mahan has observed,
'Circumstances have caused the Mediterranean Sea to playa greater
part in the history of the world, both in a commercial and in a military
point of view, than any other sheer of water of the same size.'
<;esme provides a useful illustration of inherent weaknesses in
Russia's navy that would persist until the Nicholaeven navy and
beyond. First, Orlov's squadron contained a fair number of foreign
officers; there were simply not enough Russian officers with sufficient
skill to man all the ships. The supreme commander of the squadron,
Admiral Elphinston, was British. By the time of Tsar Nicholas I, the
need for foreign officers had been alleviated, but there were still
significant shortages in the officer corps of highly-trained personnel.
Many Russian officers served as volunteers in the Royal Navy, in
order to participate in its 'blue-water' training, which the Russian navy
could only provide in limited amounts.
Orlov's squadron was in the Mediterranean entirely due to the good
offices of the British. The squadron had stopped in Britain on its way
to the Mediterranean, and after arriving in the Mediterranean, used
Royal Navy facilities at Malta. Following the <;esme victory, Russian
seapower dominated the Mediterranean, and was instrumental in
forcing the Ottoman Empire to sign the Kii~iik Kaynarca Treaty in
1774. The treaty was interpreted as giving Russia a protectorate over
Orthodox subjects of the Porte, the first time that Russia had achieved
such a dominant position in Constantinople.
Russia's hold on the northern Black Sea littoral was tightened with
her annexation of the Crimea in 1783; with the founding of Sevastopol
in the same year, the stage was set for Russia to be able to increase her
maritime pressure on the Ottoman Empire from the north.
Russian seapower in the Mediterranean had been entirely artificial,
dependent on the good grace of a Mediterranean littoral power. Such
support could be withdrawn if circumstances changed. The fragility of
Russian seapower in this context is graphically illustrated by Admiral
Seniavin's experiences in 1807.