Romanian War of Independence (1877–1878)
Part of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78

Romanian troops returning to Bucharest after the war, 8 October 1878.
DateApril 24 [O.S. April 12] 1877 – 3 March 1878 (10 months, 1 week, 2 days)
Location
Balkans
Result

Allied victory

Territorial
changes		 Northern Dobruja passed from Ottoman Empire to Romania
Southern Bessarabia passed from Romania to Russian Empire
Belligerents
Romania Romania
Russian Empire Russia		  Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Romania Carol I
Russian Empire Grand Duke Nikolai
Russian Empire Nikolai Stoletov		 Ottoman Empire Ahmed Muhtar Pasha
Ottoman Empire Gazi Osman Pasha
Strength
Romania 66,000 troops[1]
190 cannons
Russian Empire 280,000 troops (European front)
500 cannons[2]		 Ottoman Empire 106,000 troops[1]
210 cannons
Casualties and losses

Romania 4,302 killed and missing
3,316 wounded
19,904 sick[3]
Russian Empire 15,567 killed
56,652 wounded
6,824 died from wounds
81,363 died from disease
1,713 died from other causes
3,500 missing[4]

Total: 230,000 (during the entire Russo-Turkish War)		 30,000 killed in battle, 50,000 died from wounds and diseases[5]
(during the entire Russo-Turkish War)[6]
2 river monitors sunk[7][8]

The Romanian War of Independence is the name used in Romanian historiography to refer to the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78), following which Romania, fighting on the Russian side, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire. On April 16 [O.S. April 4] 1877, Romania and the Russian Empire signed a treaty at Bucharest under which Russian troops were allowed to pass through Romanian territory, with the condition that Russia respected the integrity of Romania. Consequently, the mobilization of the Romanian troops also began, and about 120,000 soldiers were massed in the south of the country to defend against an eventual attack of the Ottoman forces from south of the Danube. On April 24 [O.S. April 12] 1877, Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire and its troops entered Romania through the newly built Eiffel Bridge, on their way to the Ottoman Empire. Due to great losses, the Russian Empire asked Romania to intervene. On July 24 [O.S. July 12] 1877, the first Romanian Army units crossed the Danube and joined forces with the Russian Army.[9]

Romanian proclamation of independence

On May 21 [O.S. May 9] 1877, in the Romanian parliament, Mihail Kogălniceanu read the act of independence of Romania as the will of the Romanian people. A day later, on May 22 [O.S. May 10] 1877, the act was signed by Prince Carol I. For symbolic reasons, the date of May 10 was celebrated as Independence Day, until 1947, since it also marked the celebration of the day when the German Prince Carol first came to Bucharest (May 10, 1866). After the Declaration, the Romanian government immediately cancelled paying tribute to the Ottoman Empire (914,000 lei), and the sum was given instead to the Romanian War Ministry.

Initially, before 1877, Russia did not wish to cooperate with Romania, since they did not wish Romania to participate in the peace treaties after the war, but the Russians encountered a very strong Ottoman army of 40,000 soldiers, led by Osman Pasha, at the Siege of Plevna (Pleven) where the Russian troops, led by Russian generals, suffered very heavy losses and were routed in several battles.[10]

Conflict

Due to great losses, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, the Russian commander-in-chief, asked Prince Carol I for the Romanian Army to intervene and join forces with the Russian Army.[10][11]

Prince Carol I accepted the Duke's proposal to become the Marshal of the Russian troops in addition to the command of his own Romanian army, thus being able to lead the combined armed forces to the conquest of Plevna and the formal surrender, after heavy fighting, of the Turkish General Osman Pasha. The Army won the battles of Grivitsa and Rahova, and on 28 November 1877 the Plevna citadel capitulated, and Osman Pasha surrendered the city, the garrison and his sword to the Romanian colonel Mihail Cerchez and Russian division commander Ivan Ganetsky. After the occupation of Plevna, the Romanian Army returned to the Danube and won the battles of Vidin and Smârdan.

On 19 January 1878, the Ottoman Empire requested an armistice, which was accepted by Russia and Romania. Romania won the war but at a cost of about 10,000 casualties. Additionally, another 19,084 soldiers fell sick during the campaign.[12][13] Its independence from the Porte was finally recognized on 13 July 1878.

Map of the Siege of Plevna
Map of the Siege of Plevna
The battlefield of Plevna and Grivitsa
The battlefield of Plevna and Grivitsa
Romanian infantry storming the Grivitsa Redoubt
Romanian troops storming the Grivitsa Redoubt
Osman Pasha surrendered his sword to Russian division commander Ivan Ganetsky, 1877
Osman Pasha surrendered his sword to Russian division commander Ivan Ganetsky, 1877
The gunboat România
The spar torpedo boat Rândunica

The Romanian Navy consisted of three gunboats: Ştefan cel Mare, România and Fulgerul and one spar torpedo boat, Rândunica.[14] The three gunboats displaced 352, 130 and 85 tons respectively.[15] Ştefan cel Mare and România were each armed with four guns and Fulgerul with one gun.[16] Despite its inferiority on paper, the Romanian Navy destroyed many Turkish river gunboats.[17]

According to the Russian-Romanian treaty signed in April that year, the Romanian spar torpedo boat Rândunica served under joint Romanian-Russian command. She was also known as Tsarevich by the Russians. Her crew consisted of two Russian Lieutenants, Dubasov and Shestakov, and three Romanians: Major Murgescu (the official liaison officer with the Russian headquarters), an engine mechanic and a navigator. The attack of Rândunica took place during the night of 25–26 May 1877, near Măcin. As she was approaching the Ottoman monitor Seyfi, the latter fired three rounds at her without any effect. Before she could fire the fourth round, Rândunica's spar struck her between the midships and the stern. A powerful explosion followed, with debris from the Ottoman warship raising up to 40 meters in the air. The half-sunk monitor then re-opened fire, but was struck once again, with the same devastating effects. The crew of Seyfi subsequently fired their rifles at Rândunica, as the latter was retreating and their monitor was sinking. Following this action, Ottoman warships throughout the remainder of the war would always retreat upon sighting spar torpedo boats. The Russian Lieutenants Dubasov and Shestakov were decorated with the Order of St. George, while Major Murgescu was decorated with the Order of Saint Vladimir as well as the Order of the Star of Romania. Rândunica was returned to full Romanian control in 1878, after the Russian ground forces had finished crossing the Danube.[18][19] The Ottoman monitor Seyfi was a 400-ton ironclad warship, with a maximum armor thickness of 76 mm and armed with two 120 mm guns.

Another Ottoman monitor, the Podgoriçe, was shelled and sunk by Romanian coastal artillery on 7 November 1877.[8]

Aftermath

The Carpatho-Danubian-Pontic Space in 1878 AD, after the Treaty of Berlin and the international recognition of Romania's independence.

The peace treaty between Russia and the Ottoman Empire was signed at San Stefano, on 3 March 1878. It created a Bulgarian principality and recognized the independence of Serbia, Montenegro, and Romania.[20]

The Convention between Russia and Romania, which established the transit of Russian troops through the country, is one by which Russia obliged itself "to maintain and have the political rights of Romanian state observed, such as they result from the internal laws and the existent tratatives and also to defend the present integrity of Romania".[21] The Romanians believe that "defend" in a diplomatic act means recognition of the status-quo set by Congress of Paris of 1856, whereby three counties in Southern Bessarabia (part of Budjak, a region conquered by Turks around the late 15th century and ruled until the late 19th century when it was conquered by Russians) were taken from the Russian Empire, defeated in the Crimean War, and given back to the Romanians in Principality of Moldavia. The Russian Empire wanted to conquer as much as possible from the sick man of Europe, the Black Sea region (control of Danube) all the way to Constantinopole (Dardanelles/Bosphorus) and the Mediterranean Sea.[22][23]

The treaty was not recognised by the Central Powers and the 1878 peace conference in Berlin decided that Russia would give Romania its independence, the territories of Northern Dobruja, the Danube Delta and access to the Black Sea including the ancient port of Tomis, as well as the tiny Snake Island (Insula Şerpilor), but Russia would nevertheless occupy as a so-called "compensation" the old Romanian counties of Southern Bessarabia (Cahul, Bolgrad and Ismail), which by the Treaty of Paris of 1856 (after the Crimean War) were included in Moldavia. Prince Carol was most unhappy by this unfavorable turn of negotiations; he was finally persuaded by Bismarck (in now-published original letters exchanged at that time) to accept this compromise with Russia in view of the great economical potential of Romania's direct access to the Black Sea and its ancient ports at the expense of Bulgaria.[24]

See also

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 Istoria Militară a Poporului Român (The Military History of the Romanian People), Centrul de Studii și Cercetări de Istorie și Teorie Militară, Editura Militară, București, 1987 (in Romanian)
  2. ↑ Мерников А. Г., Спектор А. А. Всемирная история войн. — Минск: 2005. — С. 376.
  3. ↑ Scafes, Cornel, et al., Armata Romania in Razvoiul de Independenta 1877–1878 (The Romanian Army in the War of Independence 1877–1878). Bucuresti, Editura Sigma, 2002, p. 149 (Romence)
  4. ↑ Урланис Б. Ц. Войны и народонаселение Европы. — М.: 1960.
  5. ↑ Мерников А. Г., Спектор А. А. (2005). Всемирная история войн. Minsk: Харвест. ISBN 985-13-2607-0.
  6. ↑ Kaminskii, L. S., și Novoselskii, S. A., Poteri v proșlîh voinah (Victimele războaielor trecute). Medgiz, Moscova, 1947, pp. 36, 37
  7. ↑ Cristian Crăciunoiu, Romanian Navy Torpedo Boats, p. 19
  8. 1 2 Nicolae Petrescu, M. Drăghiescu, Istoricul principalelor puncte pe Dunăre de la gura Tisei până la Mare şi pe coastele mării de la Varna la Odessa, p. 160 (in Romanian)
  9. ↑ "Demersuri româno-ruse privind implicarea armatei române la sud de Dunăre". Archived from the original on 2020-07-20. Retrieved 2018-10-14.
  10. 1 2 https://archive.org/stream/reminiscencesofk00kremiala "Reminiscences of the KING OF ROMANIA", Edited from the original with an Introduction by Sidney Whitman, Authorized edition, Harper& Brothers: New York and London, 1899
  11. ↑ The telegram of Nikolai to Carol I (translated in Romanian): "Turcii îngrãmãdind cele mai mari trupe la Plevna ne nimicesc. Rog sã faci fuziune, demonstratiune si dacã'i posibil sã treci Dunãrea cu armatã dupã cum doresti. Între Jiu si Corabia demonstratiunea aceasta este absolut necesarã pentru înlesnirea miscãrilor mele" ("The Turks, massing together the largest army at Pleven, are laying us waste. I ask you to make mergers, demonstrations and if it is possible cross the Danube with the army as you wish. Between Jiu and Corabia this demonstration is absolutely necessary to facilitate my movements.)
  12. ↑ Dan Falcan (March 2022). "Războiul din 1877-1878, independența României și Marile Puteri". Historia (in Romanian). No. 38. pp. 10−11.
  13. ↑ Manuel Stănescu (7 June 2017). "9 mai 1877: România independentă". historia.ro (in Romanian).
  14. ↑ Cristian Crăciunoiu, Romanian Navy Torpedo Boats, p. 13
  15. ↑ Constantin Olteanu, The Romanian armed power concept: a historical approach, p. 152
  16. ↑ W. S. Cooke, The Ottoman Empire and its Tributary States, p. 117
  17. ↑ Béla K. Kiraly, Gunther Erich Rothenberg, War and Society in East Central Europe: Insurrections, Wars, and the Eastern Crisis in the 1870s, p. 104
  18. ↑ Mihai Georgescu, Warship International, 1987: The Romanian Navy's Torpedo Boat Rindunica
  19. ↑ Cristian Crăciunoiu, Romanian navy torpedo boats, Modelism, 2003, pp. 13-18
  20. ↑ "Treaty of San Stefano | Russia-Turkey [1878] | Britannica".
  21. ↑ Istoria Romanilor de la Carol I la Nicolae Ceausescu By Ioan Scurtu, pp 132
  22. ↑ Babcock, Alex (30 June 2017). "Russian Mediterranean Sea Interest Before World War I". Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  23. ↑ Spencer C. Tucker (2016). The Roots and Consequences of 20th-Century Warfare. California: ABC-CLIO. p. 1.
  24. ↑ https://archive.org/stream/reminiscencesofk00kremiala "Reminiscences of the KING OF ROMANIA", Edited from the original with an Introduction by Sidney Whitman, Authorized edition, Harper& Brothers: New York and London, 1899, pp.15–20.
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