| Crimean campaigns (1687–1689) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theRusso-Turkish War (1686–1700) | |||||||||
_-_Vasily_Golitsyn%2527s_campaign.jpg) An artist's impression of Russian troops returning from their failed Crimean campaign. | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Selim I Giray Suleiman II | 1st campaign: Vasily GolitsynIvan Samoilovich 2nd campaign: Vasily Golitsyn[6]V. D. Dolgorukov (Dolgoruky) M. G. Romodanovsky[7] Ivan Mazepa | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 30,000–40,000[8] | 1687: 91,038 men[9] 1689: 117,532 men[10] | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| Unknown | 1687: 20,000 – 30,000 dead, wounded, missing or sick[11][12] 1689: 222 killed, 1,028 wounded, 73 missing,[13] 35,000 died during the retreat[14] | ||||||||
TheCrimean campaigns (1687–1689) (Russian:Крымские походы,Krymskiye pokhody) were twomilitary campaigns of theTsardom of Russia against theCrimean Khanate. They were a part of theRusso-Turkish War (1686–1700) andRusso-Crimean Wars. These were the firstRussian forces to come close to Crimea since 1569. They failed due to poor planning and the practical problem of moving such a large force across the steppe but nonetheless played a key role in halting the Ottoman expansion in Europe. The campaigns came as a surprise for the Ottoman leadership, spoiled its plans to invade Poland and Hungary and forced it to move significant forces from Europe to the east, which greatly helped the League in its struggle against the Ottomans.[5]
Having signed theEternal Peace Treaty withPoland in 1686, Russia became a member of theanti-Turkishcoalition ("Holy League" —Austria, theRepublic of Venice and Poland), which was pushing the Turks south after their failure at Vienna in 1683 (the major result of this war was the conquest by Austria of most of Hungary from Turkish rule). Russia's role in 1687 was to send a force south toPerekop to bottle up the Crimeans inside their peninsula.
On 18 May 1687, a Russian army of about 90,610 soldiers, led byknyazVasily Golitsyn, leftOkhtyrka on the Belgorod Line. On 2 June they were joined by 50,000 Left Bank Cossacks underhetmanIvan Samoilovich at the mouth of the Samora River where the Dnieper turns south. In the heat of summer, 140,000 men, 20,000 wagons and 100,000 horses set out down the east bank of the Dnieper. The huge force, which started too late and was perhaps poorly organized, could only travel about 10 km per day. When the Russians reached theKonskiye Vody river on the west-flowing part of the Dnieper, they found that the Tatars has set fire to the steppe (they had planned to use steppe grass to feed their horses). After a few days of marching over burnt land, their horses were exhausted, they were short of water, and 130 miles from their goal atPerekop. However, Golitsyn built theNovobohorodytska Fortress at the junction of theDnieper and theSamara.[15] On 17 June they decided to turn back. (Ivan Samoilovich was made a scapegoat and replaced byIvan Mazepa.)
In February 1689, 112,000 Russian troops[15] and 350 guns set out. On 20 April they were joined at Novobogoroditskoye by 30–40,000 Cossacks under Mazepa. They followed the 1687 route, but marched in six separate columns and made much better time. By 3 May they were at the point where the 1687 expedition had turned back. On 15 and 16 May they were attacked by Crimean Tatars near Zelenaya Dolina and Chernaya Dolina. The Crimeans did fairly well but were driven back by the Russian'stabor defense and artillery.[16] On 20 May they reached the isthmus of Perekop. Golitsyn was dismayed to find that all the grass in the area had been trampled down and that there was no source of drinking water north of the peninsula, thereby making a long siege or blockade impossible.[15] Further on, the Tatars had dug a 7 km ditch which made moving the artillery forward impossible. The next day, Golitsyn ordered his army to turn back.
The Crimean campaigns of 1687 and 1689 diverted some of the Ottoman and Crimean forces in favour of Russia'sallies. They also led to the end of the alliance between the Crimean Khanate, France andImre Thököly signed in 1683.[5] However, the Russian army didn't reach the goal of stabilizing Russia's southern borders. The unsuccessful outcome of these campaigns was one of the reasons the government ofSophia Alekseyevna collapsed.[17]
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