Russo-Turkish War (1568–1570)

Russo-Turkish War (1568–1570)
Part of the Russo-Turkish Wars

Russo-Turkish War (1568–1570)
Date1568–1570
Location
Astrakhan and Azov
Result Russian victory[3][4][5]
Belligerents
Tsardom of Russia
Don Cossacks
Zaporozhian Cossacks[1]
Kabardia (East Circassia)		 Ottoman Empire
Crimean Khanate
Nogai Horde
Shamkhalate of Tarki[2]
Commanders and leaders
Ivan the Terrible
Pyotr Serebrianyi
Mikhail Cherkashenin
Michał Wiśniowiecki
Temroqwa Idar		 Selim II
Sokollu Mehmed Pasha
Mustafa Pasha
Devlet I Giray
Strength
30,000 troops 20,000 troops
30,000–50,000 troops
Casualties and losses
Unknown
500 killed
1,000 wounded[2][6]

60,000[7]

  • Over two-thirds of the forces perished.
  • Ottoman fleet scattered.

The Russo-Turkish War (1568–1570) or Don-Volga-Astrakhan campaign of 1569[8] (referred to in Ottoman sources as the Astrakhan Expedition) was a war between the Tsardom of Russia and the Ottoman Empire over the Astrakhan Khanate. It was the first of twelve Russo-Turkish wars ending with World War I in 1914–18.

In 1556, the Astrakhan Khanate was conquered by Ivan the Terrible, who had a new fortress built on a steep hill overlooking the Volga.[9]

In 1568, the Ottoman Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha, who was the real power in the administration of the Ottoman Empire under Selim II, initiated the first encounter between the Ottoman Empire and her future northern arch-rival Russia. The results presaged the many disasters to come. A plan to unite the Volga and Don by a canal was detailed in Constantinople.

Martin Janet explains the outbreak of the war by saying that the Russians interfered in the trading affairs of the Ottomans and prevented the pilgrimage to Mecca.[10] Vitaly Penskoi and Stanford Shaw argue that it was to occupy Astrakhan, which could have become the northern base for attacking the Sefids[11] or the core for will build a northern defensive system.[12] Murat Yaşar also claims that Astrakhan was the target of the Ottomans.[13] The Ottoman Empire sent a large force under Mustafa Pasha of 20,000 Turks and 50,000 Tatars to lay siege to Astrakhan.[10] Meanwhile an Ottoman fleet besieged Azov. However, a sortie from the garrison under Knyaz (prince) Serebrianyi-Obolenskiy, the military governor of Astrakhan, drove back the besiegers. A Russian relief army of 30,000 attacked and scattered the workmen and the Tatar force sent for their protection. On their way home up to 70% of the remaining soldiers and workers froze to death in the steppes or became victims of attacks by Circassians. The Ottoman fleet was destroyed by a storm. The Ottoman Empire, though militarily defeated, achieved safe passage for Muslim pilgrims and traders from Central Asia, and two years later, as a result of the Crimean raids, the Russians were forced to destroy of the fort on the Terek River.[14] The Russians did this because of the protracted hostilities in Livonia and fearing a new Ottoman campaign against Astrakhan.[15]

In 1572 was the battle of Molodi in which the Ottomans dispatched another large force to support the Crimean Khanate however they were defeated.

References

  1. ^ Маркевич Н. А. История Малой России Archived 2012-11-09 at the Wayback Machine — Moscow: В типографии Августа Семена, при Императорской Медико-Хирургической Академии, 1842−1843. — Т. 1. — Гл. III.
  2. ^ a b Adjamatov, Bagautdin (2022-05-15). Istambuldan Endireye (From Istanbul to Endirey) (in Russian). Litres. ISBN 978-5-04-256031-6.
  3. ^ Janet Martin, Medieval Russia: 980-1584, (Cambridge University Press, 1996), 356.
  4. ^ Садиков П. А. Поход татар и турок на Астрахань в 1569 г. // «Исторические записки». — М., 1947. — Т. 22.
  5. ^ Penskoi 2012, p. 157.
  6. ^ Тарановский, А. История о приходе турецкаго и татарскаго воинства под Астрахань (in Russian). p. 485.
  7. ^ Rus elçi raporlarında Astrahan seferi, İlyas Kamalov, sayfa 10
  8. ^ DeVries, Kelly Robert (2014-05-01). "The European tributary states of the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries". Choice. 51 (9).
  9. ^ Martin 1996, p. 354.
  10. ^ a b Martin 1996, pp. 356–357.
  11. ^ Penskoi 2012, p. 153.
  12. ^ Shaw 1976, p. 177.
  13. ^ Yaşar 2022, pp. 99–100.
  14. ^ Martin 1996, p. 356-357.
  15. ^ Yaşar 2022, p. 107.

Bibliography

  • Attila Weiszhár and Balázs Weiszhár: Lexicon of Wars, publisher: Athenaeum, Budapest 2004.
  • Martin, Janet (1996). Medieval Russia: 980–1584. Cambridge University Press.
  • Yaşar, Murat (2022). The North Caucasus borderland between Muscovy and the Ottoman Empire, 1555-1605. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-1-4744-9871-5.
  • Shaw, Stanford J. (1976). History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-21280-4.
  • Penskoi, Vitaliy (2012). Иван Грозный и Девлет-Герей [Ivan the Terrible and Devlet-Gerey] (in Russian). Moscow: Вече. ISBN 978-5-9533-6428-7.