Crimean campaigns of 1687 and 1689 | |||||||
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Part of the Russo-Turkish War (1686–1700) | |||||||
An artist's impression of Russian troops returning from their failed Crimean campaign. |
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Belligerents | |||||||
Tsardom of Russia | |||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Selim I Giray Suleiman II |
1st campaign: Vasily Golitsyn Ivan Samoilovich Grigory Romodanovsky 2nd campaign: Vasily Golitsyn V.D. Dolgoruky M.G. Romodanovsky |
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Strength | |||||||
Unknown | 1st campaign 180,000 2nd campaign 150,000 |
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Casualties and losses | |||||||
Unknown |
2nd campaign 20000 killed, 15000 captured, 70 guns |
Russian defeat
2nd campaign
The Crimean campaigns of 1687 and 1689 (Russian: Крымские походы, Krymskiye pokhody) were two military campaigns of the Russian army against the Crimean Khanate. They were a part of the Russo-Turkish War (1686–1700) and Russo-Crimean Wars. These were the first Russian 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.
Having signed the Eternal Peace Treaty with Poland in 1686, Russia became a member of the anti-Turkish coalition ("Holy League" — Austria, the Republic 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 to Perekop to bottle up the Crimeans inside their peninsula.
On 2 May, 1687, a Russian army of about 132,000 soldiers, led by knyaz Vasily Golitsyn, left Okhtyrka on the Belgorod Line. On 30 May they were joined by 50,000 Left Bank Cossacks under hetman Ivan Samoilovich at the mouth of the Samora River where the Dnieper turns south. In the heat of summer, 180,000 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 not well organized, could only travel about 10km per day. When the Russians reached the Konskiye 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 at Perekop, however Golitsyn built a fortress at Novobogoroditskoe at the junction of the Dnieper and the Samara. On 17 June they decided to turn back. (Ivan Samoilovich was made a scapegoat and replaced by Ivan Mazepa.)