Ivan the Terrible (1547–1584)
Ivan the Terrible (Ivan IV Vasilyevich) did not even consider claiming the Byzantine Empire after accepting the tsarship as the true heir of the Roman-Byzantine rulers (most were of Greek descent). Of the rights of Constantinople’s rulers, he assimilated only one: the right to be regarded as the representative and protector of universal Orthodoxy. The tsars in Moscow did not see themselves as freeing Orthodox countries from Turkish rule.
“It is desirable that you also receive mercy from God, like a cup full of dissolution, and get rid of blasphemous languor in these days, and when we hear about this, we will rejoice and bring a song of victory to God to the glory and honor of His name,” Ivan the Terrible wrote to the patriarch of Constantinople after the conquest of Kazan and Astrakhan.
It was the subjugated Orthodox peoples themselves who, beginning in the 16th century, started to pressure Russian rulers into playing the role of liberators from Turkish rule.
The Patriarch of Constantinople called Ivan the Terrible “the hope of all Christian families, whom he will deliver from barbaric hardship and bitter work” in his letter approving the royal wedding. He writes that he and the entire council pray to God to strengthen his kingdom and raise their hands: “May He deliver all Christian families everywhere from the foul barbarians, raw-eaters, and terrible pagan Hagarenes.“
Alexis of Russia (1645–1676)
The legend of Moscow’s tsar as the ultimate conqueror of the Turks gained steam throughout the course of the 17th century. In the overthrow of Polish rule by Bohdan Khmelnytsky’s uprising, the Byzantines or Eastern Romans were given optimism that Tsar Alexis of Russia would also attack the Turks after annexing Little Russia (or Ukraine).
Khmelnitsky and Moscow relied heavily on the help of Patriarch Paisius of Jerusalem as a mediator. The Patriarch of Constantinople and many other Byzantines, both religious and not, also pushed for Russia to take over Malorossiya (or Little Russia).
Peter the Great (1682–1725)
Peter the Great had designs on the Balkans and the Middle East, despite his preoccupation with the conflict in the Great Northern War. For instance, the Russians lost access to the Sea of Azov after their 1711 Pruth River Campaign, but the victorious Russo-Persian War (1722–1723) brought the Russian forces to Dagestan and the Caspian Sea.
Conditions apparently prompted the first Russian monarch Peter the Great to attempt to conquer Constantinople. This idea served as inspiration for the German Field Marshal Münnich in Russia, and it was through Münnich that Catherine the Great (Catherine II) learned about Peter the Great’s military preparations.
Once, at the celebration of Pavel Petrovich’s (Paul I of Russia) birthday, Münnich told Catherine the Great:
“I desire that when the Grand Duke reaches seventeen years of age, I can congratulate him as Generalissimo of Russian forces and take him to Constantinople to listen to mass in the cathedral of St. Sophia. They may call it a chimera, much like they did when the Rogervik Baltic port was built. I can only attest to the fact that Peter the Great, from the time he laid siege to Azov in 1695 until his death, never wavered in the pursuit of his most cherished objective: the conquest of Constantinople, the expulsion of the Turks and Tatars from Europe, and the restoration of the Christian Roman Empire. I can, most gracious empress, propose a plan for this vast and important enterprise. Unfortunately, after spending several years developing this strategy in exile, it was—already written—destroyed when I switched to my new fortification scheme. It’ll require some time for reflection and redrawing.“
Anna of Russia (1730–1740)
During the Russo-Turkish War of 1735–1739, which most lauded Burkhard Christoph von Münnich, Anna of Russia also considered an attack on the Turkish capital. Alexey Veshnyakov, an assistant to the Russian resident in the Ottoman Empire, wrote to St. Petersburg a letter in which he imagined the Turks’ demise in Crimea. He said, “They cannot do otherwise so as not to risk everything, i.e., to initiate a formal war against the state, as everyone understands perfectly well that even Constantinople will be not far from ruin at that time.“
Münnich outlined a general strategy for the war in a letter to Ernst Johann von Biron in the spring of 1736. In 1736, the self-confident commander appointed the capture of Azov; in 1737, the Crimea; and in 1738, Moldavia and Wallachia. About the next year, he wrote:
“For 1739: the banners and standards of her army are being hoisted… where?—in Constantinople. In the first, oldest Roman-Christian church, the famous Hagia Sophia, she is crowned as a Roman empress and gives peace… to whom?—to a world without limits, no—to people without numbers. What glory! What an empress! Who will then ask, who deserves the imperial title? Is it the one who is crowned and anointed in Frankfurt, or the one who is in Istanbul?“
Catherine the Great (1762–1796)
During the Russo-Turkish War that raged from 1768 to 1774, Catherine the Great focused only on securing Russia’s access to the Black Sea. However, the empress indicated through her military commanders that the war was being undertaken for the freedom of the Orthodox peoples of the Balkans from the oppression of the Ottomans.
Inspired, hordes of Byzantine nationalists flocked to the Russian flags, while the local intellectual elite was also buoyed. In July 1771, Catherine of Russia invited the scholar and clergyman Eugenios Voulgaris to visit her. While there, Voulgaris voiced his disappointment to the royal audience that Catherine was not a Byzantine empress, saying, “Byzantine, after God, looks up to you, prays to you, falls to you.“
Following that, the clergyman outlined his plan for resolving the “Eastern Question”. As Voulgaris put it:
“… The division of the Turkish provinces in Europe, together with the creation of a small independent Principality of the Byzantine Nation, could help to maintain a real European balance in the future.”
Bibliography
- A .A. Kochubinskij. Count Andrey Osterman and the partition of Turkey. From the history of the Eastern question. Five Years War (1735-1739).
- Nikolai Fedorovich Kapterev. The Nature of Russia’s Relations with the Orthodox East in the XVI and XVII Centuries, Sergiev’ Posad, M. S. Elova, 1914.
