239            Empress Elisabeth Petrovna, who ruled Russia during the period between 1741-1761, wished to see someone from among the descendants of Peter the Great at the throne after herself.  But among his descendants there was only one prince , son of his daughter Anna who was married to the Duke of Holstein, in Germany.  This prince named Karl-Peter Ulrich, was brought to Russia  in 1742, when he was only fifteen years old.  He was converted to the orthodox faith.  He was declared as the crown prince.

            In 1745 he was married to the Sophia-Augusta, a daughter of the ruler of a small German principality called Anhalt-Zerbst, upon the suggestion of the Prussian King Frederich the Great. Sophia, who was made to adopt the orthodox faith, was subsequently named Katerina Alekseyevna.

            Elisabeth (or Elizaveta) Petrovna, just like any other sovereign not sure about her throne, was highly jealous of her position and was suspicious of every person.  She kept Karl-Peter, whom she had declared as the crown prince, and his wife Katerina, isolated from the governing bodies in her domain..  Forced them to lead a solitary life.  Nevertheless, she assured special education for the future Tsar.  She especially tried to have him trained in military affairs.

            The crown prince, who was a whimsical person, was not getting on well with his wife.  He killed time with the flighty officers of the army, and attended drinking and hunting parties;  as much as he could keep it secret from the Empress.

            Katerina, left by herself, was filling her days by reading.  The library of the palace was rich in this respect.  She studied some significant writings.  She educated herself.

            They had a child.  This little prince named Pavel was taken away from his parents.  He was brought up by Empress Petrovna.

            After the death of Elisabeth Petrovna, Karl Peter III took the name of Petro; he became the Russian Tzar, and Katerina (Catherine) became the Tzarina or the Queen of Russia..

            The advisors of Elisabeth Petrovna and her high officials were Russian.  Russian aristocrats had become influential in the government.  Petro III, who was a true German, chose German advisors.  The palace was filled with Germans.

            Katerina, who had gotten to know the palace and the Russian aristocrats very well during the sixteen years between 1745-1761, evaluated the situation differently.  She could see very well the discontentment building up, Against Petro III, in the army and the aristocracy.

            Her husband was not showing proper attention to her.  And she did not love him.

            Petro III was carrying on his decadent life style.  His drunkenness, flightiness was reaching repulsive levels.  He was not in a state to realize the growing resentment around him.

            There were marked changes in the character of Katerina, since she was relieved from the control of Elisabeth Petrovna.  She began not to hesitate to enter into relationship with the men from the aristocracy and powerful officers of the Guards Corps.  As she satisfied her womanly needs, she became acutely aware of the mounting resentment to her husband.  She decided to take advantage of the situation.

            Through a coup d'é-tat  she engineered in the palace, she dethroned her husband.  She had him killed after a short while.  Aleksi Orlof, one of her lovers, and his friends had very well organized the action.

            Thus, Katerina become the sole sovereign of the Russian throne.  She took the name of Tzarina Katerina II.

            Katerina II never married Again.  But she had lovers from the aristocracy, political figures, officers.  She reigned authoritatively, keeping  her role as a sovereign and her sexual relations apart.

            Katerina II was a capable woman as much as she was ambitious.  She used her (Russian) Ambassadors in Europe on secret missions. Through them she followed closely what was going on  the world arena.

240            At the time of her ascendance to the throne, the first encyclopedia was being prepared in France.  She formed contact with group of Diderot and D'lambert who were preparing the encyclopedia.  She subscribed to all of the newspapers published in Europe and to the journal called "Literary Letters" edited by Grim.  The essays of the authors of the encyclopedia, academicians and French philosophers were published in this journal.

            She read the famous French jurist Montesquis’ "L'Esprit de la Loi."

            No doubt these contacts with the west influenced Katerina.  She wanted to rule Russia with the contemporary methods.  She prepared a draft to delineate the new reforms she wanted to promulgate.  It was called the "Nachos". It could not be implemented;  there was a great gap between her thinking and the realities of Russia.

            Notwithstanding her personal association with the West, she remained as an authoritarian ruler. By the time the war was declared in the Fall of 1768, Katerina was a knowledgeable and experienced empress.  She was at the peak of her power.

            She was lucky as well.  Time and the circumstances were on her side.  The west, especially the intellectuals, admired Russia and Russians as much as they despised Turks and the Ottoman Empire.  They considered Russians as the most likely power that would drive Turks out of Europe.

            The winter palace of Katerina was by the Neva river.  After being crowned she had built the Hermitage pavilion.  This pavilion was connected to the winter palace by a secret passage.  She was keeping her library, various art collections at Hermitage.  She did her private studies here.

            Hermitage could be considered as her secret temple.

            Katerina followed Crimean Khan as he was whirling through Ukraine in 1769.  She went back and forth between the winter palace and Hermitage pavilion.  She prepared her war strategy in her secret temple.

            She was kept informed about Kırım Giray's winter campaign with no delay.  She had many agents and informers in Crimea, Wallachia and Moldavia.  She gathered information on the direction of the campaign, and  sources of the forces participating in it.  In spite of her awareness of all the details, she didn't order any military operation.  She left the miserable Ukrainian villagers and the glacial steppes to Kırım Giray.  She had calculated that it would be most difficult to deal with the highly mobile Crimean Cavalry Units by the heavy artillery battalions of the Russian forces.  She contended herself by giving orders to her generals like Orlov brothers, Prince Potemkin and Suvarov, for operations in the spring.

            Katerina and her military officers organized four armies and one navy during the winter months.

            A small army was to be watching over Poland.  They would intervene if there should be any agitation by the Polish Nationalists.

            The second army was to attack the Ottoman fortresses along the border.  If need be, they would stop the Ottoman army marching to north.

            The third army was to be stationed at Crimean frontiers.

            The fourth army was to march into Caucasia.

            A long campaign was planned for the Russian navy.  It was to set out from the Baltic Sea, cross the Manch, and enter the Mediterranean through the Strait of Gibraltar.  It would strike the Ottoman islands and Anatolian coasts on the Aegean Sea..  If the circumstances required, it would force into the Strait of Dardanelle.  This was a grand plan, it seemed like a fantasy.

            In the spring of 1769, the operations were put into action as planned in the winter.

            Katerina sent Orlov brothers, Potemkins, Suvarovs; with whom she had love affair;  on to the battle fields, so and skillfully meandered consolidation of her Crown.

                                                             O0O

241            Sultan Mustafa III was then at the Ottoman throne. He acceded to the throne in 1757, when the Seven Years Wars were still going on in Europe.  The Sultan, having observed that the small Prussian state had not only managed to survive, but also had  scored victories at several fronts Against two major European powers, Austria and Russia; inferred that certain developments beyond his comprehension were taking shape in the continent. He wished to learn those aspects information that were missing in his empire.  Thus, he initiated establishment of relations with the Prussian king Great Frederich.

            The Sultan's desire to acquire information could not over-ride the rigid government traditions of the Ottoman empire. The Sultan’s ambition was doomed to remained within the confines of the palace.

            As the War touched off due to the developments in Poland, the Ottoman army was caught unprepared.    The information necessary wage a war were not available. In addition, the enemy was forewarned six months in advance by publicly announcing that the Ottoman Army would launch an offensive “next Spring”.

            It was predicted that the Russian attack on Poland would not be appreciated by Austria and Prussia  For that reason, it was hoped that at least these two countries would remain neutral.

            France and England, during the first months, in appearance tried to prevent the war breaking.  The two great powers had serious concerns.  England had significant commercial interests in Russia, France in Ottoman territories.

            While England supported Russia covertly, France only gave some encouraging advice to Ottoman Empire.

            The war decision was taken by the Divan who gathered at the sultans audience on 11 October 1768 in Istanbul.

            The Russian ambassador and his entourage were locked in the Yedikule goals.  On the twentieth of October, a new Sadrazam was appointed, and some preparations begun to be made.

            As mentioned earlier, Crimean Khan was replaced, the fortresses at the frontiers were alerted. The new Khan, Kırım Giray, was granted permission for a Russian campaign by the Ottoman Sultan.

            In the Ottoman-Russian war of 1736-1739, Crimean units had failed to stop the Russians.  The Azov fortress was lost to the Russians. The Russian Army entered Crimea.   It was at that juncture that the assumption that Crimea would defend the northern frontiers of the empire was blown up. Kırrım Seraskerliğ¹   was formed to take care of the Ottoman frontiers in the north against the Russians. The Command had its headquarters at Or-kapi, at the entrance to the Crimean Peninsula.

            Upon the declaration of war, Ibrahim Pa?a was appointed as the Serasker or the Commander-in-Chief of the Ottoman Forces in Crimean theater of war, and  the north-eastern front..

            The Crimean Command controlling entire Crimea, had alerted all the Snacks (Districts) of the Kefe province, to stay in readiness for the war.  It was a very difficult job to maintain  sufficiently effective  organization in such an extensive  front.

            Important Districts of the Kefe province, such as Kefe, Balaklova, Kerç, were on the Crimean peninsula.  Taman, Adahun, Soğucak, Balisira were in Caucasia.  Azov, on the other hand, was at the mouth of the Don river at Sea of Azov .  The Azov fortress had been destroyed in the previous war.  According to the treaty, it was not rebuilt.  It was a District existed only in name.

            The River Kuban branched in to two as it approached  the sea.  The river bed had silted over the centuries.  So water flow in this area was very slow..  The southern branch joined the Koba Lake.  The water rested in the Koba Lake, then passed through Adahun strait and pored  into Azov Sea. The Adahun fortress was built at the junction of the strait and the Sea.  The function of Adahun Fortress was to stop the attacks to Kerç strait coming from the north, in other words from Azov Sea.

            The northern branch Kuban  fed the Azov Sea directly.  At the southern bank of the river’s mouth, there were the Temruk Fortress and the town of Kaplu. Temruk, as we have already mentioned, was a simple wooden fortress.

            The Blazer Fortress was on an island in the north of Kerç strait.

            These fortresses, which served only as surveillance points during the strong periods of ascendancy of the Crimean Khanate, at the trashold of the war were unprepared. After the declaration of the war there seemed to be nothing that the Crimean Command could do anything to fortify these fortresses.

242            At the Taman peninsula and the Kerç strait, there was an intense relationship among the Ottomans, Crimeans, and Caucasians.

            There were numerous Adige villages            at the Taman peninsula, on the island where the Tuzla fortress  was located, and in the neighborhood of Adahun  and Temruk.  In the Taman region there were  Hatukoys, and in the neighborhood of Kaplu there lived the Janes.  At the north of Kuban river, Nogay clans were living scattered.

            The internecine fighting of one Nogay Mirzas Against the other divided the Nogay people.. The Ulu Nogays had been isolated in the east of Volga.  The Kiçi (the lesser) Nogays  had moved to the west; as far as the northern banks of the River Kuban.  They had also dispersed in smaller groups along the  Black Seacoast in  the territories of Bender, Akkerman, and Bessarabia..

            All the cities and towns in Caucasia and the Kerç strait were centers of commerce,  with markets and fairs, proportionate to the  location of each town.  Turkish, Tatar, Armenian, Jewish and European merchants gathered there.

            News about the war stirred excitement and anxiety in all these groups.  Each begun to worry about its own survival.

            So was the situation in Crimea and Caucasia when the war was declared in the Winter of 1768-1769.

¹The Ottoman Military Command for Crimea, hereafter referred to as “the Crimean Command”