The Crimean War

by Figes, Orlando

  m

  A reference to the Don Pacifico affair.

  n

  In the battle of Poltava (1709) Peter the Great defeated Sweden and established Russia as a Baltic power.

  o

  It is one of the ironies of the Crimean War that Sidney Herbert, the British Secretary at War in 1852 – 5, was the nephew of this senior Russian general and Anglophile. Mikhail was the son of Count Semyon Vorontsov, who lived for forty-seven years in London, most of them after his retirement as Russia’s ambassador. Semyon’s daughter Catherine married George Herbert, the Earl of Pembroke. A general in the war against Napoleon, Mikhail was appointed governor-general of New Russia in 1823. He did a great deal to establish Odessa, where he built a magnificent palace, promoted the development of steamships on the Black Sea and fought in the war against the Turks in 1828 – 9. Following the Anglophile traditions of his family, Vorontsov built a fabulous Anglo-Moorish palace at Alupka on the Crimea’s southern coast, where the British delegation to the Yalta Conference stayed in 1945.

  p

  There was no Russian Bible – only a Psalter and a Book of Hours – until the 1870s.

  q

  One of them now stands in front of the City Duma building on the Primorsky Boulevard.

  r

  Their determination was given more religious force when Musa Pasha was later killed by a shell that landed directly on him while he was conducting evening prayers for divine intervention to save Silistria.

  s

  After it was amputated (without anaesthetic) Raglan had asked to have the arm so that he could retrieve a ring given to him by his wife. The incident had sealed his reputation for personal bravery.

  t

  The first Zouave battalions were recruited from a Berber mountain tribe called the Zouaoua. Later Zouave battalions of Frenchmen adopted their Moorish costumes and green turbans.

  u

  A tall shako, named after Prince Albert, who supposedly designed it.

  v

  Events would prove them right. On 8 August Napier launched an allied attack against the Russian fortress at Bomarsund in the Aaland Islands, between Sweden and Finland, mainly with the aim of involving Sweden in the war. The support of Swedish troops was necessary for any move on the Russian capital. After a heavy bombardment that reduced the fortress to rubble, the Russian commander and his 2,000 men surrendered to the allies. But Bomarsund was a minor victory – it was not Kronstadt or St Petersburg – and the Swedes were not impressed, despite strong approaches from the British. Until the allies committed more serious resources to the campaign in the Baltic, there was no real prospect of involving Sweden in the war, let alone threatening St Petersburg. But the allies were divided on the significance of the Baltic. The French were far less keen on it than the British – Palmerston in particular, who dreamed of taking Finland as part of his broader plans to dismantle the Russian Empire – and they were reluctant to commit more troops to a war aim which they saw as serving mainly British interests. For Napoleon, the campaign in the Baltic could be no more than a minor diversion to prevent the Tsar from deploying an even bigger army in the Crimea, the main focus of their war campaign.

  w

  The British army had allowed four wives per company to go with their men to Gallipoli. Provided for by the army (‘on the strength’) the women performed cooking and laundry services.

  x

  The first British casualty of the fighting was Sergeant Priestley of the 13th Light Dragoons, who lost a leg. Evacuated to England, he was later presented with a cork leg by the Queen (A. Mitchell, Recollections of One of the Light Brigade (London, 1885), p. 50).

  y

  Having given the order to advance, Raglan had taken the incredible decision to ride up ahead and get a better view of the attack. With his staff, Raglan crossed the Alma and occupied a position on an exposed spur of Telegraph Hill, well ahead of the British troops and practically adjacent to the Russian skirmishers. ‘It seems marvellous how one escaped,’ wrote Captain Gage, a member of Raglan’s staff, from the Alma the next day. ‘Shells burst close to me, round shot passed to the right, left & over me. Minié and musket whistled by my ears, horses & riders of Ld R’s staff (where I was) fell dead & wounded by my side, & yet I am quite safe & can hardly realize what I have gone thro” (NAM 1968 – 07-484 – 1, ‘Alma Heights Battle Field, Sept. 21st 1854’).

  z

  A lone Russian woman, Daria Mikhailova, cared for the wounded with a cart and supplies purchased at her own expense. Daria was the 18-year-old daughter of a Sevastopol sailor killed at the battle of Sinope. At the time of the invasion, she was working as a laundress in the Sevastopol naval garrison. According to popular legend, she sold everything she had inherited from her father, bought a horse and cart from a Jewish trader, cut her hair and dressed up as a sailor, and went with the army to the Alma, where she distributed water, food and wine to the wounded soldiers, even tearing her own clothes to make dressings for their wounds, which she cleaned with vinegar. The soldiers saw through Daria’s disguise, but she was allowed to carry on with her heroic work in the dressing station at Kacha and then as a nurse in the hospitals of Sevastopol during the siege. Legends spread about the ‘heroine of Sevastopol’. She came to symbolize the patriotic spirit of the common people as well as the Russian female ‘spirit of sacrifice’ that poets such as Alexander Pushkin had romanticized. Not knowing her family name, the soldiers in the hospitals of Sevastopol called her Dasha Sevastopolskaia, and that is how she has gone down in history. In December 1854 she was awarded the Gold Medal for Zeal by the Tsar, becoming the only Russian woman of non-noble origin ever to receive that honour; the Empress gave her a silver cross with the inscription ‘Sevastopol’. In 1855 Daria married a retired wounded soldier and opened a tavern in Sevastopol, where she lived until her death in 1892 (H. Rappaport, No Place for Ladies: The Untold Story of Women in the Crimean War (London, 2007), p. 77).

  aa

  The engineering department of the War Ministry had failed to implement a plan of 1834 to reinforce the city’s defensive works, claiming lack of finance, though at the same time millions were spent on the fortification of Kiev, several hundred kilometres from the border. Afraid of an Austrian attack through south-west Russia, Nicholas I had kept a large reserve of troops in the Kiev area, but saw no need to do so in Sevastopol since he dismissed the danger of an attack by the Turks or the Western powers in the Black Sea. He had overlooked the huge significance of steamships, which made it possible to carry large armies by sea.

  ab

  According to a Russian source, the Tatar spies were shot on the orders of the British when the truth was discovered (S. Gershel’man, Nravstvennyi element pod Sevastopolem (St Petersburg, 1897), p. 86).

  ac

  A pejorative Turkish term for a Balkan Christian.

  ad

  After the Russian annexation of the Crimea, the Giray clan had fled to the Ottoman Empire. In the early nineteenth century the Girays had served as administrators for the Ottomans in the Balkans and had entered into military service. The Ottoman Empire had various military units made up of Crimean émigrés. They had fought against the Russians in 1828 – 9, and were part of the Turkish forces on the Danubian front in 1853 – 4. Mussad Giray was stationed in Varna. It was there that he persuaded the allied commanders to take him with them to the Crimea to rally Tatar support for their invasion. On 20 September the allies sent Mussad Giray back to the Balkans, praising him for his efforts and considering that his job was done. After the Crimean War, the French awarded him with a Légion d’honneur medal.

  ae

  Balaklava (originally Bella Clava: ‘beautiful port’) was named by the Genoese, who built much of the port and saw it thrive until their expulsion by the Turks in the fifteenth century. Plundered by the Turks, the town remained a virtual ruin until the nineteenth century, although there was a monastery in the hills above the town and some Greek soldiers stationed there, who were expelled by the allie
s.

  af

  A hot drink made with honey and spices.

  ag

  Defensive tall wicker baskets filled with earth.

  ah

  A Turkish term for a woman who is dressed improperly. In the Ottoman period it was used to describe non-Muslim women and had sexual connotations, implying that the woman ran a brothel or was herself a prostitute.

  ai

  It is something of a mystery as to why the Russians, faced by such a tiny defence force, did not make a quicker and more powerful attack against Balaklava. Various Russian commanders later claimed that they lacked sufficient troops to capture Balaklava, that the operation had been a reconnaissance, or that it was an attempt to divert the allied forces from Sevastopol rather than capture the port. But these were excuses for their failure, which perhaps could be explained by their lack of confidence against the allied armies on an open battlefield after the defeat of the Russian forces at the Alma.

  aj

  Soimonov relied on a naval map, without any markings on the land. A member of his staff showed him the way by drawing on the map with his finger (A. Andriianov, Inkermanskii boi i oborona Sevastopolia (nabroski uchastnika) (St Petersburg, 1903), p. 15).

  ak

  Woods was mistaken: the Russian Guards were nowhere near the Crimea.

  al

  A reasonable mistake to make amid the heavy fog and brushwood on the heights, where non-wounded soldiers lay down on the ground to ambush the enemy.

  am

  Tolstoy is citing the official figures passed for publication by the military censors. The true Russian losses were double that amount.

  an

  So incompetent was the commissariat that it took shipments of green, unroasted coffee beans, instead of tea, the usual drink of the troops in an Empire based on the tea trade. The process of roasting, grinding and preparing the coffee was too laborious for most of the British soldiers, who threw the beans away.

  ao

  Born Princess Charlotte of Württemberg, she was received into the Russian Orthodox Church and given the name Elena Pavlovna before her marriage to the Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich in 1824.

  ap

  The telegraphs were meant for military use; journalists were not allowed to clog them up with long reports, so there was a time lag between the headline story in a newspaper, which arrived by cable, and the full report, which came later by steamship. There were often false reports because of this – the most famous in The Times, on 2 October 1854, which announced the fall of Sevastopol on the basis of telegraph communications of the victory at the Alma and Russell’s first dispatch from the Crimea, covering the landing of the allied troops. It was not until 10 October that Russell’s full report on the Alma got to London, by which time the true situation had been clarified by further telegraphs.

  aq

  The vicar Joseph Blakesley, who styled himself ‘A Hertfordshire Incumbent’, wrote so many lengthy letters to The Times, offering his learning on anything associated with the war, from the climate in the Crimea to the character of Russia, that he earned a reputation as a popular historian and was later even appointed to the Regius Professorship of History at Cambridge University, despite his lack of academic credentials.

  ar

  There was some basis to the rumours about America. US public opinion was generally pro-Russian during the Crimean War. The Northern abolitionists were sympathetic towards the Western powers but the slave-owning South was firmly on the side of Russia, a serf economy. There was a general sympathy for the Russians as an underdog fighting against England, the old imperial enemy, as well as a fear that if Britain won the war against Russia it would be more inclined to meddle once again in the affairs of the United States. Relations between the USA and Britain had been troubled during recent years because of concerns in London about America’s territorial claims over Canada and its plans to invade Cuba (Clarendon had told the British cabinet that if Cuba was invaded Britain would be forced to declare war against America). Isolated in Europe, the Russians developed relations with the USA during the Crimean War. They were brought together by their common enemy – the English – although there were lingering suspicions on the Russian side of the republican Americans and, on the American side, about the despotic tsarist monarchy. Commercial contracts were signed between the Russians and Americans. A US military delegation (including George B. McClellan, the future commander of the Northern army in the early stages of the Civil War) went to Russia to advise the army. American citizens sent arms and munitions to Russia (the arms manufacturer Samuel Colt even offering to send pistols and rifles). American volunteers went to the Crimea to fight or serve as engineers on the Russian side. Forty US doctors were attached to the medical department of the Russian army. It was at this time that the USA first proposed the purchase of Russian-America, as Alaska was known, a sale that went ahead in 1867.

  as

  ‘As for Constantinople, we will have it, rest assured.’

  at

  In 1857 he married Parthenope Nightingale, the elder sister of Florence Nightingale, and remained close to Florence all his life.

  au

  Not to be confused with Mikhail Gorchakov, his commander-in-chief.

  av

  Herbert’s resignation from the cabinet (as Secretary to the Colonies) came after weeks of harsh and xenophobic criticism in the British press, which had focused on his family connections to Russia. It was said, for example, in the Belfast News-Letter (29 Dec. 1854) that his mother Lady Herbert was the sister of a prince with a ‘splendid palace in Odessa’ that had been deliberately spared by the British during the bombardment of that town (in fact Vorontsov’s palace had been badly damaged during the bombardment of Odessa). In the Exeter Flying Post (31 Jan. 1855), Herbert was accused of attempting to ‘obstruct the way [of the government] and favour the designs of the Czar’.

  aw

  There were many Poles who ran away from the Russian army and joined the Sultan’s forces, some of them quite senior officers who adopted Turkish names, partly to disguise themselves from the Russians: Iskander Bey (later Iskander Pasha), Sadyk Pasha (Micha Czaykowski) and ‘Hidaiot’ (Hedayat) with Omer Pasha’s army in the Danube area; Colonel Kuczynski, chief of staff of the Egyptian army at Evpatoria; and Major Kleczynski and Major Jerzmanowski of the Turkish army in the Crimea.

  ax

  Taganrog had insufficient military forces to defend itself, just one battalion of infantry and a Cossack regiment, along with a unit of 200 armed civilians, in all some 2,000 troops, but no artillery. In a desperate effort to save the town from bombardment, the governor sent a delegation to meet the commanders of the allied fleet with an offer to decide the fate of Taganrog by combat in the field. He even offered to make the sides unequal to reflect the allied advantage at sea. It was an extraordinary act of chivalry that could have come directly from the pages of medieval history. The allied commanders were unimpressed, and returned to their ships to begin the bombardment of Taganrog. The entire port, the dome of the cathedral and many other buildings were destroyed. Among the many inhabitants who fled the besieged city was Evgenia Chekhova, the mother of the future playwright Anton Chekhov, who was born in Taganrog five years afterwards (L. Guerrin, Histoire de la dernière guerre de Russie (1853 – 1856), 2 vols. (Paris, 1858), vol. 2; N. Dubrovin, Istoriia krymskoi voiny i oborony Sevastopolia, 3 vols. (St Petersburg, 1900), vol. 3, p. 191).

  ay

  Peto & Grissell, the company he ran with his cousin Thomas Grissell, built many well-known London buildings, including the Reform Club, the Oxford & Cambridge Club, the Lyceum and Nelson’s Column.

  az

  This incident is the origin of the famous phrase, originally coined by Totleben: ‘The French army is an army of lions led by donkeys.’ The phrase was later used to describe the British army in the First World War.

  ba

  A barrier about 2 metres high and a metre or so wide, made up of felled trees, timber and brushwood. />
  bb

  In an attempt to stop them from deserting, the Russian officers had told their men that if they gave themselves up to the enemy their ears would be cut off and given to the Turks (whose military custom was to cut off ears to receive a reward); but even this had not prevented Russian troops from running off in large numbers.

  bc

  Lyde’s accusers claimed that he had fired wilfully at the beggar but the only witnesses of the shooting were three women. The testimony of women was inadmissible in a Turkish court.

  bd

  It was from this time that Nice became a favourite resort of the Russian aristocracy, a ‘Russian Brighton’, according to the British press, which was alarmed by the appearance of Russian merchant ships in the Mediterranean, a sea dominated by the Royal Navy. There were dire warnings of an intrigue between Russia and the Catholic powers. When rumours later circulated that the Russians were intending to set up coaling stations in other parts of the Mediterranean, in 1858, Palmerston (by this stage out of office) called for a show of naval strength against the Sardinians. But the Conservative government of Lord Derby was less concerned, seeing Russia’s deal with the Sardinians as no more than a commercial agreement. The Villafranca contract lasted until 1917.

  be

  In 1857 the army song was published by the socialist exile Alexander Herzen in his periodical the Polar Star. The ballad was well known in the student revolutionary circles of the 1860s and was later even cited by Lenin. In fact, Tolstoy was not wholly responsible for the song, which expressed a discontent that was widely felt in the army. It originated with a group of artillery officers, including Tolstoy, who gathered round the piano in the rooms of their commander on an almost daily basis to drink and sing and make up songs. As he was already known for his writing, Tolstoy, who no doubt played a leading role in the composition of the verses, took most of the blame for them.

  bf

  Under the terms of the emancipation, the peasants were obliged to pay redemption dues on the land transferred to them. These repayments, calculated by the gentry’s own land commissions, were to be repaid over a forty-nine-year period to the state, which recompensed the gentry in 1861. Thus, in effect, the serfs bought their freedom by paying off their masters’ debts. The redemption payments became increasingly difficult to collect, not least because the peasantry regarded them as unjust from the start. They were finally cancelled in 1905.