ON AMAZONS, EVZONES AND RUSSOPHILES: GREEKS IN THE CRIMEAN WAR

 

There is a history of Greeks fighting for Russia in the Crimea. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the Greek Battalion of Balaklava, comprised of Greeks living in Sebastopol, played an important role in facilitating the Russian annexation of Crimea and the expulsion of the Ottomans from the area.

At the suggestion of Grigory Potemkin and in order to please Russian Tsarina Catherine the Great, the Battalion also created an “Amazons” division, made up of one hundred wives and daughters of the Greek soldiers headed by Eleni Ivanovna Sarantova, the wife of officer Ioannis Sarantis. Trained in military drill and the use of the sword, they sufficiently impressed the tsarina so as to grant Eleni Sarantova the rank of captain, together with a diamond bracelet valued at 10,000 roubles.

At home at sea as well as on land, the Battalion was instrumental in the capture of Kaffa as well as Sudak. Later, prior to its disbandment in 1859, the Battalion, whose organisation was modelled on that of the Don Cossacks, as they were considered closer to the Greek character and national traditions, fought strenuously in order to oppose the British occupation of Balaklava during the Crimean War.

Ostensibly caused by Catholic incursions upon Orthodox holy sites in Palestine and the French Emperor’s assertion of sovereignty over all Christians in the region, a prerogative previously enjoyed by the Russians, the Crimean War pitted the major European powers in an alliance with the Ottoman Empire. As opposed to the modern war in the same region, Russia’s only ally was the nascent Kingdom of Greece, which saw the commitment of Ottoman troops far from the Balkans as an opportunity for Greece to invade Thessaly and Epirus. This caused the French and the British to blockade Piraeus for three years between 1854-1857. The Epirus Revolt, incited by King Otto in 1854 failed completely, as did the uprisings in Crete.

Greece was excluded from the ensuing peace conference and gained nothing from the war. Exasperated, Greek leaders held the King responsible for missing the opportunity, leading to a steep decline in his popularity and ultimately his abdication in 1862.

Greek official policy or lack thereof notwithstanding, Greeks also fought in the Crimea itself. In March 1854, the Greek Volunteer Legion was formed in the Danubian Principalities (modern day Romania) where there was a sizeable Greek population and fought in the siege of Sebastopol. In 1855, the Legion received the title Greek Legion of Emperor Nicholas I.

In the wake of the Russian incursion into Moldavia, in December 1853, Prince Mikhail Dmitrievich Gorchakov approved the formation of a volunteer corps under the command of Lieutenant General Salas. A few months later, Lieutenant General Fyodor Ivanovich Soymonov reported that the Greek forces comprised 1,097 men organized into ten companies, forming two battalions, whose primary aim was to support Russian troops fighting in Moldavia. The two battalions were led by commanders of Souliote origin: Konstantinos Zervas, who led the first battalion and Vasileios Balafas who led the second. According to contemporary sources, the vast majority of Greeks enlisting in the Legion where from Thessaly and Epirus, with the remainder coming from the Danubian Principalities. Only a tenth of those enlisted possessed a military background, while half were sailors or merchants.

There were also two independent companies, one led by the priest Konstantinos Doukas and the other by Aristeidis Chrysovergis, from Mesimvria, now Nesebar in modern Bulgaria. In the summer of 1854, Chrysovergis with the rank of captain, at the head of 25 Greek volunteers fought against a British force of 700 soldiers who were trying to take the Russian-held fort of Sulina. During the battle the British lost six officers and 72 enlisted men, including the aristocrat Hyde Parker IV. The loss of the son of Vice-Admiral Hyde Parker was keenly felt in Britain and the battle of Sulina was raised in discussions in the British Parliament. In his memoirs, Chrysovergis mentions that he also fought against Cossacks who were fighting on the side of the Ottomans.

A group of volunteers led by Father Konstantinos Doukas also fought in a battle between the Russian forces led by Soymonov and the Ottomans at Gurgiu on 5 July. Later, in October 1854, the 3rd Company of the 2nd Battalion, commanded by Stergios Harisis, fought at the village of Cherna, suffering nearly 100 casualties.

While the overall strategy was determined by the Russians, the Greek troops were distinctive. They largely armed themselves and chose as their uniform, not Russian military garb, but rather the foustanella, like the evzones who formed the Greek Royal Guard. Greek inspired insignia was adopted for the legion: the phoenix, the double-headed eagle and a cross sitting on top of an upturned crescent being but a few.

Russian occupation of the Danubian Principalities proved untenable, and as they withdrew across the Prut River, other nationalities who had also formed battalions under the Russians such as the Moldavians and the Wallachians disbanded. Of the original 1079 Greeks who enlisted however, 1045 chose to remain. Sympathy of for the Russian cause must have played a part in this, for those who remained did so on reduced pay. However, another factor was the extreme practical difficulty faced by those who would seek to return to their homes during war time, especially considering that the vast majority of Greek volunteers had made their way to the front by ship, the return journey by the same mode of conveyance being made perilous by the Allied Naval Blockade.

Transported to the Crimea, the Greeks were largely supported by the Odessa Greek community which raised funds for its subsistence. New recruits were compelled to pledge that they would settle in the Crimea after the War was over, renewing a Greek presence that stretched back to times ancient.

In February 1855, the Greeks arrived at Eupatoria and were tasked with assisting the Russians to capture the city from the Ottomans, under the command of Phanariote Prince Mourouzis. The siege was unsuccessful, resulting in the death of sixty Greeks. After the defeat, they were transported to Sevastopol. Trained in the guerilla tactics of the Balkan and unused to regimented European military discipline, they failed to impress Prince Pavel Aleksandrovich Urusov, who wrote of them derisively:

"There exists neither discipline nor any organization. The volunteers absent themselves from distant hospitals and arrive here without any document whatever; the other ranks do not obey the officers; the company commanders, of whom no responsibility is sought, are only in formal command of the companies".

For some reason, the Greeks’ insistence that they wear the foustanella raised Urusov’s ire. He recommended that Russian military uniform be adopted as a means of instilling military discipline, a suggestion welcomed by the erudite and urbane Prince Mourouzis but vehemently opposed by the dashing Chrysovergis. Another suggestion was more practical. It was widely observed that the Greeks were excellent marksmen. However, they were equipped with antiquated flintlocks for whom ammunition was hard to come by in the besieged city.

A typhus epidemic decimated the Legion even though Chrsyovergis distinguished himself with his valour at the Battle of Kurgan and problems with discipline led to the replacement of Mourouzis with Grigorios Kantakouzinos. The members of the Legion began to slip away, heading for Bessarabia, where they attempted to survive under parlous conditions, even though attempts were made to support them by the Odessan Greeks. Historian Maria Todorova claims:

"the files of the Russian war ministry are full of pleas by Greeks and Bulgarians from the beginning of 1856 who, left penniless, begged for a job or assistance".

In June 1856, with the disbandment of the Legion at the close of the wat, some 300 former volunteers arrived at Piraeus but were refused entry to their homeland by a Greek State fearful of French and British reaction. A number of volunteers decided to settle in Russia, being allowed to do so by Tsar Alexander II, primarily in the Greek villages around Mariupol, now destroyed during the current war, as well as Odessa.

Despite their reputation for indiscipline, the volunteers of the Greek Legion were honoured by the Russian Empire. Of the over 1,200 volunteers serving in the Legion, 730 of them received the medal "For the Defence of Sevastopol" while 31 received the highest Russian military decoration, the Cross of St. George.

While a memorial was planned to honour their contribution as early as 1864 in Sebastopol, this was only achieved in 2016. In the intervening period, the Greeks would return to the region, notably in 1919 at the behest of Venizelos, to support pro-White western foreign intervention against the Bolsheviks, with disastrous results both for the Greeks of the region, as well as Greek foreign policy in general, sowing the seeds of the Asia Minor Catastrophe.

DEAN KALIMNIOU

kalymnios@hotmail.com

First published in NKEE on Saturday 16 November 2024