HISTORICAL DICTIONARY A–Z - Russia: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present - page 306

the Austrians. One month later, in October
1739, Russia and Turkey signed the Treaty of
Nissa, by which Russia retained Azov and gained
part of the Black Sea between the Donets and
Bug Rivers. In exchange, the Russians agreed
not to have a fleet on the Black Sea and to
destroy their fortifications at Azov.
A second phase in the wars between Russia
and Ottoman Empire, in which Russia increas-
ingly had the upper hand, began with the war of
1768-74. The Russians advanced into Moldavia
and Wallachia (present-day Romania), Georgia,
and Crimea and destroyed the Ottoman fleet at
the Battle of Cecme in the Aegean Sea in July
1770. After negotiations in 1773 failed to pro-
duce a peace settlement, the Russian army, com-
manded by Aleksandr SUVOROV , defeated most of
the Ottoman army at Shumla in June 1774. The
Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainardji of July 1774 con-
firmed the independence of Crimea, placed Mol-
davia and Wallachia under Turkish suzerainty,
and awarded a large part of the northern shore-
line of the Black Sea to Russia. The treaty also
gave Russia the right to intervene in Ottoman
affairs in order to protect the interests of Ortho-
dox Christians living under Turkish rule. War
resumed in 1787-92 following Russia's annexa-
tion of Crimea in 1783 and the Ottoman
Empire's attempt to incite Russia's Muslim Tatar
population to revolt against Russian rule. The
Treaty of Jassy of 1792 awarded all lands east of
the Dniester River to Russia.
The eighth war between Russia and Turkey
occurred in 1806-12 in the context of the
Napoleonic Wars, as the French encouraged Sul-
tan Selim III to declare war on Russia. Most of
the fighting ceased after an armistice of August
1807 that followed a Russian naval victory at the
Battle of Lemnos in June 1807. The war itself did
not end until both sides signed the Treaty of
Bucharest of 1812, which reaffirmed Ottoman
control of Moldavia and Wallachia and awarded
the province of Bessarabia to Russia. In 1828,
the two empires again went to war when Russia
supported the Greek nationalists fighting for
independence from the Ottoman Empire. The
Russians captured Varna in the Balkans after a

three-month siege and Kars in the Caucasus.
Under General Hans Diebitsch-Zabalkansky, the
Russian army won several more victories in the
Balkans before marching half-depleted into the
town of Adrianople (Edirne). Here, the Treaty of
ADRIANOPLE was signed in September 1829, giv-
ing Russia control of the mouth of the Danube
River and access to the Straits of Constantinople,
while recognizing the independence of Greece.
The final three conflicts between Russia and
Turkey were part of larger international conflicts
(the CRIMEAN WAR and World War I) or drew in
other nations in determining peace terms between
the two empires (the RUSSO - TURKISH WAR OF
1877-78 ). The Crimean War of 1853-56, fought
primarily on the Crimean Peninsula, began as
other Russo-Turkish conflicts had in the past but
soon found an international coalition of Great
Britain, France, Sardinia, and, to a lesser extent,
Austria on the side of the Ottoman Empire against
Russia. Under the Treaty of Paris (1856) Russia lost
its control of the mouth of the Danube and was
deprived of the right to maintain a navy on the
Black Sea, a clause that it later revoked unilater-
ally in 1870. In 1877 Russia declared war on
Turkey in great part to protect the interests of
Christian Serbs under Ottoman rule. It was joined
by Romania, a state formed from the union of the
former Ottoman principalities of Moldavia and
Wallachia. By January 1878, Russian forces had
captured the European Ottoman strongholds of
Plevna, Plovdiv, and Adrianople and threatened to
advance on Istanbul (Constantinople). The
Ottomans initially acceded to the Treaty of SAN
STEFANO , signed in March 1878 but judged by
other European nations to be excessively tilted in
favor of Russia. The treaty was subsequently
revised at the Congress of BERLIN in June-July
1878. The final confrontation between Russia and
the Ottoman Empire took place during World War
I, which ultimately resulted in the collapse of the
two empires. While Russia had aligned itself with
the Triple Entente, the Ottoman Empire joined the
Central Powers in the fall of 1914. Most of the
fighting between the Russian and Ottoman
Empires took place in the Caucasus and eastern
Anatolia.