133 years ago, November 28, Art. style (December 11, new style) in 1877, the siege of the Plevna fortress ended with the victory of Russian weapons.
The battles for this fortress, which the Turkish troops under the command of Marshal Osman Pasha held for almost five months, became the culmination point of the Russian-Turkish war of 1877–78. for the liberation of Bulgaria from the five-century Turkish yoke. This war, declared by the Manifesto of Emperor Alexander II on April 12 (22), 1877, received a rare in its unanimity support from all classes of Russian society.
Objectively, Russia was much stronger than the Ottoman Empire. And, it would seem, that is why the final result of the struggle could be considered predetermined. But in reality, the situation was much more complicated. The fact is that the Paris Peace of 1856, which ended the Crimean War, among other things, guaranteed the further territorial integrity of Turkey, and France and Great Britain acted as its guarantors. True, France after its defeat by Germany in 1870-71. itself needed an alliance with Russia. As recently as 1875, exclusively Russian intervention stopped the German Chancellor Bismarck from plans to defeat France again - in order to discourage the latter even from the shadow of hopes of a possible revenge.
On the other hand, Great Britain, acting in its own vein of traditionally anti-Russian policy, could well intervene in the war on the side of Turkey - as it already did in the Crimean War. The British, however, did not like to fight on their own - especially on land, and always preferred to have allies in this case, whose troops could be used as "cannon fodder." But the Turks alone were clearly not enough for this role, and the French, for the above reasons, would definitely not have fought for the British against the Russians, as in 1854-1856.
Of course, there was still Austria-Hungary, which had its own views of the Balkans and categorically did not want to strengthen Russia's positions there. But in Vienna they were ready to mischief Russia on the diplomatic front, but they were still afraid of a direct military clash with it. In addition, in January 1877, Russia entered into a written agreement with Austria-Hungary, which guaranteed the neutrality of the latter in exchange for the right to occupy Bosnia and Herzegovina.
However, it was not hard to guess that if the military campaign of Russia against Turkey would be protracted, and moreover, Russia would demonstrate military weakness, Vienna would not only take an anti-Russian position, but could also muster the courage to back it up with military force. Therefore, the Russian military command was faced with the task of defeating Turkey as soon as possible, as a maximum, within a year. The Turkish command, respectively, was faced with the task, relying on their Danube fortresses and the Balkan ridge, to hold out for as long as possible and, if possible, inflict irreparable losses on the Russian armies.
Indeed, the Russian war plan, drawn up by General Nikolai Obruchev, was based on the idea of a lightning victory: the army had to cross the Danube on the middle reaches of the river, on the Nikopol - Svishtov (Sistovo) section, where the Turks had no fortresses. In addition, this area was inhabited by Bulgarians friendly to Russia. After the crossing, it was necessary to divide the army into three equal groups: the first one blocks the Turkish fortresses in the lower reaches of the river; the second - acts against the Turkish forces in the direction of Viddin; the third - crosses the Balkans and goes to Constantinople.
The plan, in principle, was not bad, although everyone who was not too lazy - the emperor himself, Minister of War D. A. Milyutin, the commander-in-chief of the Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich Sr., his chief of staff, General A. A. Nepokoichitsky, assistant chief of staff, General K. V. Levitsky, etc. But for the successful implementation of the plan, the concentration of overwhelming forces in the theater of operations was required. However, as noted by the military historian Anton Kersnovsky, “Milyutin, and with him the General Staff, considered it possible to achieve decisive results without stressing the Russian armed forces and found it sufficient for this to have only 4 corps in the main Balkan theater of war. Drawing all their information about the enemy from random, unverified sources (mainly foreign newspapers), the Petersburg strategists believed that the Turks' forces in the Balkans were about 200,000, of which no more than 80,000 could be used against Russia."
Therefore, four (VIII, IX, XI and XII) corps formed the Army in the field, and VII and X remained to guard the Black Sea coast (the result of a depressing memory of the Allied landing in the Crimea). The total number of mobilized troops extended to 390,000 combatants, of which 130,000 were assigned to the active army, 60,000 - to the Black Sea coast, 40,000 - to the Caucasus. Inside the country, another 730,000 remained in a peaceful position. In other words, only one third of the armed forces was mobilized, and of this third, again, a third part was assigned to the main forces - the Army in the field.
In the meantime, Turkey also managed to get ready, bringing its army to 450,000 regular and 100,000 irregulars. All the infantry were equipped with excellent Peabody-Martini rifles, far superior in ballistic performance to ours. The Turkish cavalry received Winchester magazine carbines, and the artillery received long-range steel Krupp guns, albeit in a small proportion compared to the infantry. The Black Sea was completely dominated by the Turkish fleet. Russia, having achieved the right to the Black Sea Fleet only in 1871, did not have time to restore it by the beginning of the war.
The Turkish plan provided for an active defensive mode of action: concentrating the main forces (about 100 thousand people) in the "quadrangle" of the fortresses Ruschuk - Shumla - Bazardzhik - Silistria, wing. At the same time, quite significant forces of Osman Pasha, about 30 thousand people, were concentrated in Western Bulgaria, near Sofia and Vidin, with the task of monitoring Serbia and Romania and preventing the connection of the Russian army with the Serbs. In addition, small detachments occupied the Balkan passages and fortifications along the Middle Danube
The beginning of the campaign, however, developed according to the Russian plan. Russian troops occupied Romania in May, the latter declared itself an ally of Russia. On the night of June 15 (27), Russian troops under the command of General M. I. Dragomirov carried out a brilliant operation to force the Danube in the area of the Sistov heights. Having seized the bridgehead, Dragomirov ensured the crossing of the main forces of the Army in the field. The advance detachment on June 25 (July 7) occupied Tarnovo, and on July 2 (14) crossed the Balkans through the Khainkoy Pass. Soon the Shipka Pass was occupied, where the created Southern Detachment of General Gurko was moved. It seemed that the way to Istanbul was open. But here the lack of troops began to affect - there was no one to reinforce Gurko's detachment. And the Turkish command withdrew from Montenegro the corps of Suleiman Pasha that had fought there, which they threw against Gurko.
The western detachment of General Kridener occupied Nikopol at this time, Ruschuksky (or Vostochny), under the command of Tsarevich Alexander (the future Emperor Alexander III), advanced towards the Lom River in order to protect the Army in the field from a possible flank attack of the main Turkish forces concentrated in the "quadrangle".
And then the setbacks began. Osman Pasha's corps, which advanced from Vidin, did not manage to come to the aid of the Nikopol garrison. But Kridener did not have time to occupy Plevna, where Osman Pasha hurried. The assaults of Plevna, undertaken on July 8 (20) and July 18 (30), ended in complete failure and fettered the actions of the Russian troops. Meanwhile, Suleiman Pasha, with superior forces, attacked the Russian Southern detachment, which, after the battle at Staraya Zagora (Eski-Zagra), retreated to the Shipka Pass.
Only thanks to the desperate resilience of the Russian soldiers of the Orlov and Bryansk regiments, as well as the Bulgarian militias and the 4th rifle (future "iron") brigade from Dragomirov's 14th division, who rushed to help them, Shipku managed to defend.
Russian troops in the Balkans went over to the defensive. Affected by the insufficient number of the Russian expeditionary corps - the command did not have reserves to reinforce the Russian units near Plevna. Reinforcements from Russia were urgently requested and the Romanian allies were called to help. It was possible to bring up the necessary reserves from Russia only by mid-end of September. However, the commander-in-chief, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich Sr. decided not to wait for the full concentration of forces and to take Plevna on August 30 - to the namesake of his brother, Emperor Alexander II.
“And the assault on August 30 became the Third Plevna for Russia! It was the bloodiest deed in all the wars that the Russians have ever fought against the Turks. The heroism and self-sacrifice of the troops did not help, the desperate energy of Skobelev, who personally led them into the attack, did not help … General Zotov moved only 39 battalions to the assault on August 30, leaving 68 in reserve! The assault was almost a success, despite the fragmentation, incoherence, and partly the premature of the attacks. On the right flank, the Arkhangelsk and Vologda residents took the Grivitsky redoubt, … and on the left flank Skobelev, who led the troops astride a white horse, took the Plevna Keys - 2 redoubts … All day on August 31, an unequal battle was going on here - 22 Russian battalions fought with the Turkish army in front of 84 battalions standing and watching! Leaving a battalion of the Vladimir regiment on the redoubt of Abdul-bey, Skobelev took the floor from his commander, Major Gortalov, not to leave the redoubt. The heroic battalion held out against the entire Turkish army. Having received a refusal from Zotov for reinforcements, Skobelev, with a pain in his heart, sent Gortalov an order to retreat, saying that he was freeing him from his word. Tell General Skobelev that only death can free a Russian officer from this word! - answered Major Gortalov. Having released the remnants of his battalion, he returned to the redoubt and was raised by the Turks on bayonets,”Kersnovsky reports.
True, they finally agreed to give Skobelev a full-time position - he received the 16th Infantry Division. That is, at the top they began to consider him, if not yet completely equivalent to the corps commanders Zotov and Kridener, then, in any case, not much inferior (or even quite equivalent) to Shilder-Schuldner (who failed the First Plevna).
At the military council held on September 1, almost all senior commanders led by the Grand Duke lost heart and spoke in favor of retreating from Plevna (others - for the Danube) and for ending the campaign until next year. But Alexander II - and this is indeed his enormous contribution to history - decided that after all these failures, retreat is absolutely unthinkable both politically and actually militarily: it would be both a loss of the war and a complete military-political catastrophe for Russia. …
It was decided to take Plevna by blockade, and on September 15, engineer-general Eduard Totleben arrived near Plevna, who was tasked with organizing the siege of the city. For this it was required to take the heavily fortified redoubts Telish, Gorny and Dolny Dubnyaki, which ensured the safety of the road connecting Plevna with Sofia, along which the supply and replenishment of Turkish troops had been going all this time. Just on September 8, a whole Turkish division with a huge baggage train proceeded from Sofia to Plevna literally under the very nose of the timid and uninitiated General Krylov - thus providing Osman Pasha with food and ammunition for almost three months. Meanwhile, more and more troops were drawn to Plevna, but operations in other directions were stopped, which is the undoubted merit of Osman Pasha to his empire. On Shipka, which the Turks periodically tried to attack, reinforcements were allocated with a great creak, and even the commander of the Ruschuk detachment, the Tsarevich, could not knock out new reinforcements for himself.
In the course of fierce battles from 12 to 20 October, Gurko, who received command of the guards units that had arrived from Russia, finally took Telish, Gorny and Dolny Dubnyaki. The blockade of Plevna became complete. Gurko's detachment, reinforced by cavalry units, struck a blow on the Sofia grouping of the Turks in November to discourage them from trying to unblock Osman. However, the further destruction of Turkish troops in the Sofia direction was suspended by the "headquarters" - again, referring to the threat of Osman's army in Plevna. “Locked in Plevna, Osman invisibly dominated all Russian operations. Home Apartment, burnt on milk, blew on the water - she missed one victory after another,”stated Kersnovsky.
Meanwhile, the 50-thousandth army of Osman Pasha attracted the 125-thousandth Russian-Romanian army. The blockade of the city led to the depletion of provisions in it, the army of Osman Pasha suffered from diseases, lack of food and medicine. As historian P. N. Simansky in his work “The Fall of Plevna”, “there is no doubt that the defense of Plevna reached heroism; her fall was also heroic. In short, this episode is a brilliant page in this war among the Turks."
Osman Pasha responded to the offer to surrender to the Russian command: "… I prefer to sacrifice our life for the benefit of the people and in defense of the truth, and with the greatest joy and happiness I am ready to shed blood rather than shamefully lay down my arms."
On November 24, Bulgarians who made their way from Plevna told the Russian command that each soldier of the garrison was given 100 grams of bread, 20-25 grams of meat and two ears of corn a day, and there are up to 10 thousand sick Turks in the city. The Bulgarians reported that there would be enough food in Plevna for only five or six days, that "Osman Pasha is thinking of breaking through these days … All the shells and cartridges the Turks have taken to the redoubts."
Indeed, Osman Pasha and his subordinates were not going to give up. At the military council held, it was decided to break out of the city in the direction of the bridge over the river Vid, held by the Turks, and move towards Sofia. Before leaving, observation towers were dismantled, scarecrows were installed in the fortifications, and after the necessary documents, remnants of provisions, weapons and telegraph wires were collected, the Turkish army, accompanied by local Muslims, set off on the road. In the morning fog on November 28, the entire army of Osman rushed into a desperate attack on the position of the Russian Grenadier Corps of General Ivan Ganetsky. In the north, the Romanians adjoined the grenadiers with their redoubts at Opanza; to the south-west of them stood Skobelev with the 16th division, whose position was on Green Mountain, against the Turkish redoubt Krishin.
The desperate attack undertaken by the Turks fell upon the Siberian regiment, which occupied the extreme rifle pits. A fierce battle with bayonets broke out. The Astrakhan and Samogit grenadier regiments soon came to the aid of the Siberian regiment. The first fierce pressure forced the Russians to retreat and surrender the advanced fortifications to the Turks. But now the Turks came under concentrated artillery fire from the second line of fortifications. Equilibrium was restored under the weight of this gunfire. General Ganetsky, although he was shell-shocked two days before this battle, himself led his grenadiers into the attack. The struggle was fierce again; worked with bayonets, and ended with the retreat of the Turks to Vid. Having approached the river bank, the Turks again began a firefight. Meanwhile, the Romanians from the north, from Opanets and Bukovy, were advancing on the retreating line of the Turks, and from the south, General Skobelev launched an attack, seizing the weakly defended Turkish trenches near Krishin, and entered with his army into Plevna itself, thus cutting off Osman- plow your way to retreat to positions east of the city. From Bukovo, Plevna was occupied by the Romanians.
“Osman Pasha, exposed without any caution to the fire of the Russians, was seriously wounded in the leg. He was aware of the total hopelessness of his position; his plan with a full blown blow to smash the Russian lines failed, and his army found itself between two fires. He soon made up his mind. By 12 ½ o'clock he halted the battle and threw out the white flag at many points. The surrender took place soon; The Pleven army surrendered unconditionally. When Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich appeared on the battlefield, the Turks had already surrendered. This last struggle at Plevna cost the Russians 192 killed and 1252 wounded, the Turks lost up to 6,000 people. wounded and killed. The prisoners turned out to be 44,000, between them the ghazi (victorious) Osman Pasha, 9 pasha, 128 headquarters and 2,000 chief officers and 77 guns. Considering this army, the Russians have more than 100,000 prisoners,”Simansky reports.
The wounded Osman handed his saber to the commander of the grenadier - General Ganetsky, later Alexander II himself would return this saber to him. The emperor, having learned about the fall of Plevna, immediately went to the troops, congratulated them, embraced Prince Karl of Romania, generals Totleben, Imeretinsky and Ganetsky and pointed out the special merits of engineer-general Totleben.
Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich was awarded the Order of St. George, I degree, General Nepokoichitsky (who had absolutely nothing to do with it) and the winner of Osman Totleben himself received the St. George's star (that is, George II degree). Ganetsky, who directly captured the "Lion of Pleven", "as a reward for the courage, bravery and management shown during the capture of Plevna and the capture of the army of Osman Pasha," the Grand Duke was awarded George III degree.
The fall of Plevna was of great importance. The army of Osman Pasha stopped hanging over the flank of the Russian troops and fettered their operations. Now it was possible with all forces to begin solving the main task of this war. “None of our victories,” wrote one of our contemporaries, “evoked such noisy enthusiasm as the victory at Plevna. The joy of the Russians would hardly have manifested itself with greater force even if the capital was conquered by Constantinople."
On December 11, the Russians entered the conquered city, surrounded on all sides by mountains, and on December 15, the emperor left the theater of military operations and went to Petersburg.
Both the Turks and their English patrons, as well as other European powers, decided that the campaign was over and the Russians were leaving for winter quarters. The chief of the German General Staff, Field Marshal Moltke, who was closely monitoring the course of hostilities, ordered to remove the map of the Balkans: "I won't need it until spring!" No one could have imagined that the fall of Plevna was only a prologue to an unprecedented winter assault on the Balkans, the complete defeat of the Turkish troops and the rapid withdrawal of Russian armies to the walls of Constantinople itself.
The victory of the Russian troops filled the hearts of the Bulgarians with joy and hope for a speedy liberation. After the entry of the Russian army into Plevna, the newspaper "Balgarin" wrote: "The fall of Plevna, which became a significant holiday for us, will be inscribed in history in capital letters."
Exhausted, having endured incredible hardships and hardships, the inhabitants of Plevna on December 30, 1877 presented their liberators with a grateful address, in which they expressed their delight at an exceptional event in the history of the city, in the history of the whole country. “The liberation of Pleven,” the address said, “is the dawn of the liberation of ancient Bulgaria. Pleven was resurrected first, just as several centuries ago he was the last to die! This resurrection will forever remain in the memory of our descendants."
