Siege of Pleven

Siege of Pleven
Part of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)
The Capture of the Grivitsa redoubt, by Henryk Dembitzky
Date 20 July – 10 December 1877 Location Plevnа, Ottoman Empire (now Pleven, Bulgaria) 43°25′N 24°37′E / 43.417°N 24.617°E / 43.417; 24.617Coordinates: 43°25′N 24°37′E / 43.417°N 24.617°E / 43.417; 24.617 Result Russian/Romanian Victory
Belligerents
Russian Empire Romania Bulgarian volunteers	Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Tsar Alexander II Prince Carol I of Romania Grand Duke Nicholas Eduard Totleben Mikhail Skobelev	Osman Nuri Pasha
Strength
130,000	67,000
Casualties and losses
40,000 killed or wounded	25,000 killed or wounded 43,340 surrendered (including non-combatants)

The Siege of Plevna, or Siege of Pleven, was a major battle of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, fought by the joint army of Russia and Romania against the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman defense held up the main Russian advance southwards into Bulgaria for five months, encouraging other great powers actively to support the Ottoman cause. Eventually, superior Russian and Romanian numbers forced the garrison to capitulate. The Russian-Romanian victory on 10 December 1877 was decisive for the outcome of the war and the Liberation of Bulgaria.

In July 1877 the Russian Army, under the command of Grand Duke Nicholas, moved toward the Danube River virtually unopposed, as the Ottomans had no sizable force in the area. The Ottoman high command sent an army under the command of Osman Nuri Pasha to reinforce Nikopol, but the city fell to the Russian vanguard in the Battle of Nikopol (16 July 1877) before Osman reached it. He settled on Plevna, a town among vineyards in a deep rocky valley some twenty miles to the south of Nikopol, as a defensive position. The Ottomans quickly created a strong fortress, raising earthworks with redoubts, digging trenches, and quarrying out gun emplacements. From Plevna Osman's army controlled the main strategic routes to the Balkan Mountains. As the Turks hurried to complete their defenses, Russian forces began to arrive.

General Yuri Schilder-Schuldner, commanding the Russian 5th Division, IX Corps, received orders to occupy Plevna. Schilder-Schuldner arrived outside the town on 19 July and began bombarding the Ottoman defenses. The next day his troops attacked and succeeded in driving Ottoman forces from some of the outer defenses; however, Osman Pasha brought up reinforcements and launched a series of counterattacks, which drove the Russians from the captured trenches, inflicting 3,000 casualties at a cost of 2,000 of his own men.

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