Battle of Philippopolis (1878)

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Battle of Philippopolis
Part of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878
0530 Vid na odnu iz ulits Filippopolia (Plovdiva), ianvar' 1878.jpg
View of one of the streets of Filipoppol (Plovdiv) after the liberation, January 1878
Date14-16 January 1878
Location Filibe Sanjak, Edirne Province, Ottoman Empire
(now Plovdiv, Bulgaria)
Result Russian victory
Belligerents
Romanov Flag.svg  Russian Empire Flag of the Ottoman Empire.svg  Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Iosif Gurko Suleiman Pasha
Strength
12,000 7,000
Casualties and losses
1,300 killed and wounded [1] 5,000 killed and wounded, 2,000 captured [2] [3] [1]

The Battle of Philippopolis, [4] [5] or Battle of Plovdiv, [6] was one of the final battles of the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish War.

Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) conflict of 1877–78

The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 was a conflict between the Ottoman Empire and the Eastern Orthodox coalition led by the Russian Empire and composed of Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro. Fought in the Balkans and in the Caucasus, it originated in emerging 19th-century Balkan nationalism. Additional factors combined Russian goals of recovering territorial losses endured during the Crimean War, re-establishing itself in the Black Sea and supporting the political movement attempting to free Balkan nations from the Ottoman Empire.

Following the crushing Russian victory at the last battle of Shipka Pass, Russian commander Gen. Joseph Vladimirovich Gourko began to move southeast towards Constantinople. Blocking the route was the Ottoman fortress at Plovdiv under Suleiman Pasha. On 16 January 1878, a squadron of Russian dragoons led by Captain Alexander Burago stormed the city. Its defenses were strong but superior Russian numbers overwhelmed them and the Ottoman forces retreated almost to Constantinople. At this time foreign powers intervened and Russia agreed to the Treaty of San Stefano.

Russia transcontinental country in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia

Russia, officially the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country in Eastern Europe and North Asia. At 17,125,200 square kilometres (6,612,100 sq mi), Russia is the largest country in the world by area, covering more than one-eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area, and the ninth most populous, with about 146.77 million people as of 2019, excluding Crimea. About 77% of the population live in the western, European part of the country. Russia's capital, Moscow, is the largest metropolitan area in Europe proper and one of the largest cities in the world; other major cities include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg and Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a wide range of environments and landforms. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares land borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia and North Korea. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk and the U.S. state of Alaska across the Bering Strait. However, Russia recognises two more countries that border it, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, both of which are internationally recognized as parts of Georgia.

Constantinople capital city of the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire, the Latin and the Ottoman Empire

Constantinople was the capital city of the Roman Empire (330–395), of the Byzantine Empire, and also of the brief Crusader state known as the Latin Empire (1204–1261), until finally falling to the Ottoman Empire (1453–1923). It was reinaugurated in 324 from ancient Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine the Great, after whom it was named, and dedicated on 11 May 330. The city was located in what is now the European side and the core of modern Istanbul.

Ottoman Empire Former empire in Asia, Europe and Africa

The Ottoman Empire, also historically known in Western Europe as the Turkish Empire or simply Turkey, was a state that controlled much of Southeast Europe, Western Asia and North Africa between the 14th and early 20th centuries. It was founded at the end of the 13th century in northwestern Anatolia in the town of Söğüt by the Oghuz Turkish tribal leader Osman I. After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans, the Ottoman beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror.

Liberation of Bulgaria

In Bulgarian historiography, the liberation of Bulgaria refers to those events of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) that led to the re-establishment of the Bulgarian state under the Treaty of San Stefano of 3 March 1878.

Plovdiv City in Bulgaria

Plovdiv is the second-largest city in Bulgaria, with a city population of 345,213 as of 2017 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. It is an important economic, transport, cultural, and educational center. There is evidence of habitation in Plovdiv dating back to the 6th millennium BCE, when the first Neolithic settlements were established; it is said to be one of the oldest cities in Europe.

Aleksandr Burago Russian Army officer

Aleksandr Petrovich Burago was an officer of the Russian Imperial army. Serving as a captain under Joseph Vladimirovich Gourko, he commanded the force that liberated Plovdiv from the Ottoman rule on 16 January 1878. Later on Burago became a colonel. He died of tuberculosis at the age of 30, in 1883, on Madeira, and was buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in Saint Petersburg.

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Treaty of Berlin (1878) a peace treaty signed on 13 July 1878

The Treaty of Berlin was signed on 13 July 1878. In the aftermath of the Russian victory against the Ottoman Empire, the major powers restructured the map of the Balkan region. They reversed some of the extreme gains claimed by Russia in the preliminary Treaty of San Stefano, but the Ottomans lost their major holdings in Europe. It was one of three major peace agreements in the period after the 1815 Congress of Vienna. It was the final act of the Congress of Berlin and included Great Britain, Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the Ottoman Empire. Germany's Otto von Bismarck was the chairman and dominant personality.

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References

  1. 1 2 Eggenberger D. An Encyclopedia of Battles: Accounts of Over 1,560 Battles from 1479 B.C. to the Present. Courier Corporation. 2012. P. 338
  2. ↑ Jacques T. Dictionary of Battles and Sieges. A Guide to 8,500 Battles from Antiquity through the Twenty-first Century. Greenwood Publishing Group. 2007. P. 804
  3. ↑ Dowling T. C. Russia at War. From the Mongol Conquest to Afghanistan, Chechnya, and Beyond. ABC-CLIO. 2014. P. 644.
  4. ↑ F. V. Greene, The Russian Arm and Its Campaigns in Turkey in 1877-1878, Read Books, 2008, p. 359.
  5. ↑ Norman Tobias, The International Military Encyclopedia, Academic International Press, 2004, p. 19.
  6. ↑ Stanley Sandler, Ground Warfare: An International Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, 2002, p. 690.

Coordinates: 42°9′N24°45′E / 42.150°N 24.750°E / 42.150; 24.750

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.

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