26. The war starts but not quite, yet….
The map below is the only one that I found which (a) could be loaded and (b) is not excessively confusing in the terms of what was there in the XVIII vs. what is there now. Ignore the arrows - they represent wars of Khmelnitsky period. What is important:
1. by the time in question Russia controls territories painted in pale yellow, Kiev and Braclaw Voyevodships (Киевское Воеводство and Брацлавское Воеводство on the map)
2. Off white piece below these areas is Zaporizie (the Sich).
3. Bender - Бендеры on the map.
4. The river which is going from North to South through all these lands is the Dnieper, one to the left of it is Bug (Буг), further to the left Dniester (Днестр) . The river which flows into the Dnieper from the left is Psel (Псел).
So the Great Raid of 1707 started in February [1].
Left Flank
Neither Orlik nor Mehmed Giray bothered themselves excessively with gathering “strategic intelligence”. The border towns were “historically” weakly fortified and did not have adequate garrisons (and this was the case when Orlik fled to Bender) and the rest was routinely found during the raids. So when it was discovered that Braclaw, Boguslav and Nemirov do have the newly created earth and wood fortifications with the artillery and adequate garrisons [2] it was unpleasant surprise but not a major problem.
The Problem (for Orlik’s plans) started almost immediately because the Tatars of Mehmed Giray did not
really care too much about Orlik’s political goals, Hetmanate and other nonsense: they were there explicitly and exclusively
for looting and if, by whatever reason, Mehmed Giray had a different opinion, it was just too bad [3]. So, as soon as they entered Right Bank Ukraine they spread and proceeded with the important business. The resisting places had been bypassed but if the Cossacks wanted to besiege them, they had a complete freedom to do so. Probably it should come as not a big surprise that as soon as the looting started, the Orlik’s cossacks (most of them from the Right Bank) began to desert en mass leaving him mostly with the Zaporizian “knights” who did not give a blip.
As a result, only by the late March the army reached “mighty fortress” Белая Церковь and stuck there. Well, it is not like Vauban had anything to do with its design but when a besiegers do not have an artillery and most of them consider a very idea of digging (for which they don’t have tools, anyway) as something well below their dignity, the siege may prove to be a long and not very productive. The Crimeans and Zaporizians tried to storm it, lost over 1,000 and abandoned the idea. By that time the troops of Dmitry Golitsyn, Ukrainian Governor, crossed the Ros River at Корсунь (Korsun) cutting off a retreat route to the “neutral” Zaporizie.
An idea of getting into a battle with the regular army of 20-30,000 strengthened by “semi-regular” Landmilitia was not even entertained by Mehmed Giray and he did even bothered with soliciting Orlik’s opinion on that account. Neither was he bothered with a rather rhetorical question “And what about the allied Cossacks?”. He was facing a fundamental problem of all Crimean raiders: how to escape with as much loot as possible? Keep in mind that a biggest and most valuable part of the loot were prisoners (“Yasak”) and you will easily figure out that just riding away was an option acceptable only in the life or death cases. So the first goal was to cross the Bug River
with the Yasak: the river crossings were traditional places where the raiders had been caught by the pursuers and forced either to flee and to lose the Yasak, or to fight with a loss of significant part of it (and of your own troops as well) [4]. So there has to be a race to the Bug. If the pursuers were relying on their infantry then the Crimean could squeeze so advantage even if it would result in the higher Yasak losses. But if the enemy’s cavalry was strong, then the chances for a comfortable escape with any profit were not good at all. And against Golitsyn’s 8 regiments of the regular cavalry and 5,000 Left Bank Cossacks & mounted Landmilitia they were depressingly bad so the best solution was to spread. To a certain degree this worked: Mehmed Giray with most of his Tatars and Yasak escaped to the Bender but up to 10,000 did not make it and Golitsyn could boast release of 15,000 prisoners which was a clear success [5]. It was also a success because a big part of the Orlik’s followers had been captured and dealt with [6] and because Gordienko’s flight back to the Sich provided a perfect excuse for occupying it and doing a thorough cleansing of the disloyal ones [7]. By April the fighting was over.
Center
Khan Devlet II Giray invaded the Left Bank Ukraine in the mid-March with approximately 35,000 Crimeans and kept advancing in classing raiding fashion on a wide front stretching from the Dnieper to Gadyach (Гадяч). He crossed the Psel River without problems not meeting a serious resistance anywhere but after the crossing things started changing abruptly. The raiders on the right flank had been energetically attacked by a massive force coming from the
Russian territory (green on the map) moving with a speed that was so far quite unusual for a mixed army and not burdening itself with taking prisoners. Khan reacted immediately upon receiving the news but getting together the horde spread into the small groups and already burdened with the Yasak was not an overnight process and by the time Devlet Giray assembled most of his army his numbers shrunk below 30,000. It was found that in front of him he has Sheremetev with 30,000 troops which warranted immediate withdrawal behind the Psel [8]. Unfortunately, not to much later Khan was informed that there are also big numbers of the Russian troops on Psel’s left bank blocking the escape route and leaving only an option to try crossing the Dnieper near Kremenchug.
The river was wide but there were numerous inlets and small island which would make it worth trying….
As a side note, a rowing boat with few extra people having the spears and just long poles provides certain fighting advantages over a swimmer [9].
Most of the Crimean army never made it across and Sultan’s personal escape did not do too much in the terms of significant improvement of the strategic situation. Anyway, before he could do anything significant in the terms of organizing defense of the Peninsula, two things happened: (a) the Russians already had been there and (b) was replaced by Quaplan Giray and sent to exile to Rodos [10].
Right flank
Ayuka (“Аюка” - Russian mispronunciation of his name “Ayusha”, which had something to do with Buddha, never mind, this is irrelevant), the 4th Chief Taisha and from 1700 the 1st Khan of the Kalmyk Horde. Unified all Kalmyks of Volga. Kind of the Russian vassal. Actively participated in the Russian wars and helped to suppress a number of rebellions. Important part: seriously dislikes the Nogais.
Even before implementation of the Nogai part of the plan started, it was pretty much over: Ayuka Khan with the Cossacks of Don attacked them and chased from their territory all the way to the South of Kuban River.
Turning the tables
By the end of the April, 1707:
1. The Russian army of 25,000 regulars and up to 10,000 mounted Ukrainian Landmilitia under command of Menshikov (Golitsyn returned to his administrative duties) had been standing on the Bug River ready to invade territory of the Enissan Horde.
2. The Russian army of 50,000 under command of Sheremetev after marching through the Sich territory, reached the ruins of Kizi-Kerman (Кызы-Керман) on the lower Dnieper and stopped there to get some rest and, after restoring some of its fortifications, establish a supply base there. [11].
3. Russian force of 15,000 had been concentrating near Genichesk getting itself ready to cross to the Arabat Split, with the assistance of Apraxin’s flotilla, and march along the Split to the Peninsula’s “soft belly”. At its head had been placed a major general Michael Golitsyn speedily promoted after the LNW thanks to the glowing recommendations from King Charles.
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[1] Formally, it did not qualify as a war, just one more routine violation of the Treaty of Constantinople.
A very big one but there was nothing in a treaty regarding a size of the raiding parties. OTOH, the treaty stipulated a right of the offended side to resist and retaliate.
[2] Of course, quality of the newly-created Landmilitia was not extremely high but you don’t really need to be the world’s best troops to sit behind the fortifications and fire into the enemy who does not have an artillery and not too much in the terms of the firearms either.
[3] He was not an idiot so there was no problem coming from that corner.
[4] To be fair, the Tatars (or at least their leaders) had been routinely demonstrating a remarkable pragmatism in the terms of the relative values. There plenty of Tatars and their market value was zero because they were not to be sold and, in general, they were, so to speak, coming for free. OTOH, the prisoners did have a market value and their capture involved considerable effort and even some expenses. Also, less raiders on a safe side meant a bigger share of Yasak per capita so, all things considering, the better solution was to fight.
[5] Rather conveniently, success was routinely measured in a number of the released prisoners. Silly questions about the total numbers captured were not asked following the wise principle: “the women will produce the new ones”.
[6]
Some of the earliest deserters got an amnesty and
some of the rest had been left alive but if you are under impression that Petrian Russia was anywhere close to the liberal Paradise, you are seriously mistaken.
[7] “I have only two categories of the subjects: the loyal ones and disloyal ones”.
[8] Of course, Sheremetev’s performance in the LNW was not impressive enough to make him a world-class celebrity but he made his career fighting with a noticeable success against the Crimeans so the name recognition was there and it did not promise anything good, especially combined with his new warfare style.
[9] Outside of a certain type of the movies, of course.
[10] Actually, chronolgy was somewhat different: Devlet II Giray: 1699-1702, Selim I (this was his 4th reign): 1702-1704, Gazi III Giray, Qaplan Giray: 1707-1708, Devlet II Giray (2nd time): 1709-1713 , Qaplan Giray (2nd but not the last time): 1713-1715. But here the schedule is different (in OTL the big raid happened in 1711 and was a success) so I cut on the unnecessary Girays. 😉
[11] Ottoman fortress taken by Sheremetev in 1695. By the Treaty of Constantinople it was destroyed so its restoration relates only to the earthworks which Sheremetev ordered to add in 1697-98. Now comes the fun part:
On the allegoric engraving of the fortress capture you can see a procession led by
Peter who was not there (busily losing his 1st Azov campaign) followed by Sheremetev. 😂
Edit: In practical terms all this means that the Russian armies are starting their operations being in approximately 80km or less from Perekop and being practically across the border from Edisan Horde with the reliably established supply lines by the major rivers. Which makes a fundamental difference from the campaigns of Vasily Golitsyn and OTL War of 1735 where they had to march hundreds miles (with the supplies) to the theater of war. A little bit of an extra time required for putting the Sich under controls is compensated by cutting the OTL problems down to a minimum. Also, the Tatars as an obstructing factor along the route are pretty much gone.
[12] As always, there was some politics involved. Prince Dmitry Golitsyn was somewhat an “ad hoc general”: he was much more valuable as an administrator and statesman. Menshikov, who was always obsessed with self-promotion had been whispering to Peter’s ear that the Prince was too slow and allowed a considerable part of the Crimean Horde to escape (yeah, of course, dealing with the traitors was done brilliantly but nonetheless….) while
he (with a ritual mandatory praise toward Sheremetev who was in charge on the Left Bank 😉) played a great role in a complete destruction of Devlet Giray’s army. Which, was, of course, true: as Sheremetev’s top subordinate commander he was quite important in implementing the final trap and idea with the boats was his own. What’s even more important, assembling a big number of those in a very short time was not a mean fit and Menshikov performed it brilliantly (receiving a ritual praise from Sheremetev, these two absolutely different people proved to be a great team). All this warranting him finally to receive an independent command (and became eligible for St. George 1st class 😉). Sheremetev concurred expressing sorrow in being deprived of such a good subordinate (hugs, kisses, assurances of a mutual affection, etc.). Now, the whole reshuffling should not look like an affront to the Golitsyn family so its young rising military star had been given an opportunity to finally show his talents on the Russian service. Of course, his force was small and was a part of Sheremetev’s army but his task was not an ordinary one and presented a great opportunity for showing his abilities. Taking into an account that Apraxin’s small craft was securely controlling the coastal waters, the risk, if everything else was going right, was not prohibitively great and potential operational advantage could be quite significant.