The Russian fleet of the Orloff brothers engages the Ottomans at Cape Cesme, east of Chios. It is the culmination of the revolution in Greece instigated by Catherine the Great of Russia, but also its swan song.
At the start of the Russo-Turkish War of 1768, Russia sent a powerful Baltic Fleet Squadron to the Mediterranean in order to create a disturbance, to draw Ottoman troops from the front and especially their powerful fleet from the Black Sea, where the Russian defenses were patients. In this work, Catherine the Great entrusted her secret lover and chief conspirator in the overthrow of her husband (Tsar Peter III), Count Alexei Orlov, and his brother Fyodor.
Alexei Orlov with a fleet and army (under the command of Admirals Grigory Spiridov and John Elphinstone) raised revolutions that liberated Moria and most of Crete and then moved towards the Aegean. The meeting with the Ottoman fleet took place in the Straits of Chiuto 1770, where the 12 Russian warships faced 28 Turkish, 13 galleys and 32 lighter vessels.
The conflict lasted three days, and with the loss of one man-of-war (Sv. Evstafii), three gunners and 550-600 men, the Russians destroyed their opponents (who lost 69 ships and had casualties of over 8,000 men). The victory at Cesme coincided with the decisive victory of the Russian army at the Battle of the Larga River in Moldowallachia. It was the biggest destruction of a Turkish fleet since the naval battle of Nafpaktos (1571), but not the last.
The victory was credited to Orloff, who received titles most notably “Chesmensky”, brought Russian morale uplift, sparked revolutions by many Christian and minority groups within the Ottoman Empire, and ensured the Russians’ stay and dominance in the Aegean for another five years.
The Orloff campaign initially gave the advantage the Russians sought, diverting Turkish reinforcements to the South. But the failure to arrive of strong land forces that would support the Greeks further resulted in the final victory of the Turks and the suffocation of the stand. Having taken what they asked for, the Russians withdrew from Moria and the islands, signing a peace treaty at Kiucuk Kaynartzi with the Ottoman Empire.
The Greeks were neglected in the terms of the peace treaty and the harsh period of the Arvanitocracy that followed made them strongly distrust the Russians. Great was the blood tax paid by the populations of Moreos and Epirus, both in the battles and in the Ottoman reprisals against the civilian population. Forms of the resistance, such as Patrokosmas, “Skylogiannis” Mavromichalis and Constantis Kolokotronis were lost in the revolution or shortly after.
A new generation of thieves will be brought up with hatred for the Turks, keeping their distance from the Russians (Kolokotronis, Petrobeis, Bouboulina), while later political actors, such as Mavrokordatos, will seek support from England and France.
