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Dear brothers

At 5 a.m. on the 12th (24th) of April, 1877 Russian troops crossed Romanian border and made their way to Danube. The order of commander-in-chief told: ╚The war on Turkey is declared. We do not seek conquests but are going to defend our desecrated and oppressed brothers. After crossing the border we enter Romania, a friendly nation. A lot of Russian blood was spilt for its liberation┘╩

The Russo-Turkish War of 1877√1878 had its origins in the Russian goal of gaining access to the Mediterranean Sea and capturing the Balkan Peninsula from the Ottoman Empire. The outcome of the war was the formal proclamation of independence of the principalities of Serbia, Montenegro and Romania, each of which have de facto already been sovereign for some period. Although the Bulgarians have formally remained under Ottoman rule until 1908, they have, nonetheless, managed to retrieve their statehood within the Ottoman Empire.

Battle at Sistov. Ambulance detachment [zoom (89k)]

An anti-Ottoman uprising occurred in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the summer of 1875. The main reason for this revolt was the heavy tax burden imposed by financially defunct Ottoman administration. Despite some relaxation of taxes, the uprising continued well over the end of 1875 and eventually triggered the Bulgarian April uprising of 1876. Tension in Bosnia and Russian support encouraged the principalities of Serbia and Montenegro▓s declaration of war against their nominal Ottoman overlord early in July. The war raised imperial appetites of the Great Powers, Russia (Prince Gorchakov) and Austria-Hungary (Count Andrеssy), who made the secret Reichstadt Agreement in July 8, on partitioning the Balkan peninsula depending on the outcome.

In August 1876, Serb forces, supported by Bulgarian and Russian volunteers, were defeated by the Ottoman army, which was the worst-case scenario for Russians and Austrians as they couldn▓t claim any Ottoman possessions. As a result the Istanbul Conference was held in December 1876 in Istanbul. At this conference, at which the Ottomans were not represented, the Great Powers discussed the boundaries of one or more future autonomous Bulgarian provinces within the Ottoman Empire.

The Conference was interrupted by the Ottoman foreign minister, who informed the delegates that Ottoman empire had approved a new constitution. Despite that, Russia remained hostile towards the Ottoman Empire, postulating that the constitution was only a partial solution. Through diplomatic negotiations Russians ensured the inaction of Austria-Hungary in future military operations. In Britain, the political signals were mixed. Despite strong civil support for the idea of Bulgarian liberation, fostered in Britain by the writings and speeches of former Prime Minister William Gladstone, the contemporary leader, Benjamin Disraeli was much more pessimistic of Russian intentions. He positioned Britain as the defender of the Ottoman Empire, as they had done in the Crimean War twenty years earlier. This lack of a uniform policy is evident in the negotiations of the Conference.

The British delegate, Lord Salisbury, got on well with his Russian counterpart, Count Nicholas Ignatiev, and was able to reach a compromise agreement. Bulgaria would be divided into an eastern and western province, Bosnia-Herzegovina united into one province, and each of these three provinces would have a considerable degree of autonomy, including a provincial assembly and a local police force. Also, Serbia was not realy forced to give up any territory and Montenegro was permitted to keep the areas she had overrun in Herzegovina and northern Albania.

Russia declared war on the Ottomans on 24 April 1877. In the beginning of the war the outcome was far from obvious. The Russians could send into the Balkans a larger army: about 300,000 troops were within reach. The Ottomans had about 200,000 troops on the Balkan peninsula, of which about 100,000 was assigned to fortified garrisons, leaving about 100,000 for the army of operation. The Ottomans had the advantage of being fortified, complete command of the Black Sea, and patrol boats along the Danube river. In reality, however, the Ottomans usually resorted to passive defense, leaving strategic initiative to the Russians who, after making some mistakes, managed to find a winning strategy for the war.

The Ottoman military command in Constantinople made poor assumptions of Russian intentions. They decided that Russians would be too lazy to march along the Danube and cross it away from the delta, and would prefer the short way along the Black Sea coast. This would be ignoring the fact that the coast had the strongest, best supplied and garrisoned Turkish fortresses. There was only one well manned fortress along the inner part of the river Danube, Vidin. It was garrisoned only because the troops, led by Osman Pasha, had just taken part in crushing the Serbs in their recent war against Ottoman Empire.

The Russian campaign was better planned, but it relied heavily on Turkish passiveness; with a more aggressive counterpart, the outcome of the campaign would be very uncertain. A crucial mistake was sending too few troops initially; the Danube was crossed in June by an expeditionary force of about 185,000, which was slightly less than the combined Turkish forces in the Balkans (about 200,000). After first setbacks in July (at Pleven and Stara Zagora), Russian military command realized it did not have the reserves to keep the offensive going and switched to the defense. The Russians did not even have enough forces to blockade Plevna properly until late August, which effectively delayed the whole campaign for about two months.

N. Dmitriev-Orenburgsky. The last battle at Plevna on November 28, 1877 [zoom (52k)]

At the start of the war, Russia destroyed all vessels along the Danube and mined the river, thus ensuring it could cross the Danube at any point it wanted. This didn▓t mean anything to the Turkish command. In June a small Russian unit passed the Danube close to the delta, at Galati and marched towards Ruse. This made the Ottoman even more confident that the big Russian force would come right through the middle of the Ottoman stronghold.

Then in July the Russians, unobstructed, constructed a bridge across the Danube at Svishtov, and began crossing. There were no significant Ottoman troops in the area.

The command in Constantinople ordered Osman Pasha to march in that direction and fortify the nearby fortress of Nikopol. On his way to Nikopol, Osman Pasha learned that the Russians had already secured it, and so moved to Plevna, now Pleven.

Less than 24-hours after Osman Pasha fortified Plevna, numerous Russian forces under the charismatic general Mikhail Dmitrievich Skobelev known and adored by his soldiers as the White General (as he used to dress in white uniform and mounted on a white horse) attacked the city. Skobelev was called the world▓s ╚ablest single commander╩ between 1870 and 1914 and a ╚skilful and inspiring╩ leader by the British Field-Marshall Bernard Montgomery.

Osman Pasha organized a brilliant defence and repelled two Russian attacks with huge casualties on the Russian side. At that point the sides were almost equal in numbers and the Russian Army was very discouraged. Most analysts agree that a counter-attack would have allowed the Turks to gain control and destroy the passing bridge. However, Osman Pasha had orders to stay fortified in Pleven, and so did not leave that fortress.

Russia had no more troops to throw against Plevna, so they besieged it, and subsequently asked the Romanians to provide extra troops. Soon afterwards, Romanian forces crossed the Danube and joined the siege. On August 16th, at Gorni-Studen, the armies around Pleven ≈ renamed the West Armies ≈ were placed under the command of the Romanian Prince Carol, aided by the Russian general Pavel Dmitrievich Zotov and the Romanian general Alexandru Cernat.

The Romanians fought bravely to capture the Grivitza redoubts around Pleven, and kept them under their control until the very end of the siege. The siege of Pleven (July √ December 1877) turned to victory only after Russian and Romanian forces cut off all supply routes to the fortified Turks, starving them and thus forcing their surrender. That was the major struggle between the joint army of Russia and Romania; and the Ottoman Empire.

The siege had held up the main Russian advance into Bulgaria and captured the world▓s admiration. The fall of Pleven freed up Russian reinforcements, which were sent to Joseph Vladimirovich Gourko. By the end of November, the Ottoman forces tried to cut through the encirclement in the direction of Opanets, in the sector defended by Romanian troops. The attempt failed and, on November 28th, the wounded commander Osman Pasha was captured and surrendered his sword to the Romanian colonel Mihail Christodulo Cerchez.

Russians under Field Marshal Joseph Vladimirovich Gourko succeeded in capturing the passes at the Stara Planina mountain which were crucial for maneuvering. Next, both sides fought a series of battles for Shipka Pass. The Fourth Battle of Shipka Pass from January 5√9 was the final battle for Shipka Pass and a crushing Russian victory during the war. General Radezky, commanding the garrison, made preparations to attack from the pass on January 5 while Gourko brought up two columns under Generals Mikhail Skobelev and Nikolai Mirskii to cut off the Turkish retreat. On January 8, Radezky▓s attack began but Skobelev was held up by unsuspectedly heavy resistance and Mirskii attacked unsupported, making little progress. On January 9, Mirskii suffered a Turkish counterattack, but Skobelev was able to move forward in support and defeat the Turks. Ottoman troops spent much effort to recapture this important route, to use it to reinforce Osman Pasha in Pleven, but failed. Eventually Gourko led a final offensive which crushed the Ottomans around Shipka Pass. The Ottoman offensive against Shipka Pass is considered one of the major mistakes of the war, as other passes were virtually unguarded. At this time a huge number of Turkish troops stayed fortified along the Black Sea coast and engaged in very few operations.

Besides the Romanian Army, a strong Finnish contingent and more than 12,000 volunteer Bulgarian army (Opalchenie) from the local Bulgarian population as well as many hajduk detachments fought in the war on the side of the Russians. To express his gratitude to the Finnish battalion, the Tsar elevated the regiment on their return home to the name Old Guard Battalion, which they still hold.

N. Dmitriev-Orenburgsky. Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich entering Tyrnovo on June 30, 1877 [zoom (68k)]

Stationed in the Caucasus in Georgia and Armenia was a Russian force composed of approximately 75,000 men under the command of Count Mikhail Nikolayevich; his force stood against a Turkish army of 20.000 men led by General Ahmed Muhtar Pasha. While the Russian army was better prepared for the fighting in the region, it lagged behind technologically in certain areas such as heavy artillery and was bested by Mukhtar Pasha▓s army which possessed modern British artillery.

Many of the commanders under Nikolayevich were of Armenian descent including generals Beybut Shelkovnikov, Mikhail Loris-Melikov, Ivan Lazarev and Arshak Ter-Ghukasov. It was the forces under Lieutenant-general Ter-Ghukasov, stationed near Yerevan, who began their first assault into Ottoman territory by capturing the town of Bayazid on April 27, 1877. Capitalizing on Ter-Ghukasov▓s victory in Bayazid, Russian forces advanced further, taking the region of Ardahan on May 17; Russian units also besieged the region of Kars in the final week of May although Turkish reinforcements lifted the siege and repulsed them back.

In October 1877, the Turkish army launched a massive counteroffensive against Russian forces near Ajaria. Since July 19, Muhtar Pasha▓s forces had been holding the mountains heights that dominated the geography of the region. In the following months, the Russian forces under General Lazarev attempted to take the region back but had failed to do so at each turn. His forces were able to stave off another Turkish offensive in October and then advance forward to take the region on October 15. Turkish casualties in the battle for Ajaria amounted to 5,000√6,000 dead or injured while over 8,500 became prisoners of war; the number of Russian dead was close to 15,500.

Under pressure from the British and having suffered enormous Russia accepted the truce offered by Ottoman Empire on January 31, 1878, but continued to move towards Constantinople.

The British sent a fleet of battleships to intimidate Russia from entering the city, and Russian forces stopped at San Stefano. Eventually Russia entered into a settlement under the Treaty of San Stefano (Ayastefanos Anlasmasi in Turkish) on March 3, by which the Ottoman Empire would recognize the independence of Romania, Serbia, Montenegro, and autonomy of Bulgaria.

Alarmed by the extension of Russian power into the Balkans, the Great Powers later forced modifications of the treaty in the Congress of Berlin. The main change here was that Bulgaria would be split, according to earlier agreements among the Great Powers that precluded the creation of a large new Slavic state: the northern and eastern parts to become principalities as before (Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia), though with different governors; and the Macedonian region, originally part of Bulgaria under San Stefano, would return to direct Ottoman administration.

This war caused a division in the emblems of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement which continues to this very day. Both Russia and the Ottoman Empire had signed the First Geneva Convention (1864), which made the Red Cross, a color reversal of the flag of neutral Switzerland, the sole emblem of protection for military medical personnel and facilities.