Lieutenant-Colonel Nazar Karazin in the Danubian Principalities on the Eve and at the Beginning of the Russian-Turkish War of 1768–74

Abstract

In this article, which is based on unpublished materials from the Russian archives and Romanian sources which are practically unknown in Russia, the activities of Russian Lieutenant-Colonel Nazar Aleksandrovich Karazin are described. Karazin was a secret emissary of Empress Catherine II in the Principality of Wallachia at the beginning of the Russian-Turkish War of 1768–74, and later the commander of an independent partisan detachment with a special assignment in the Danube theatre of war, acting separately from the main forces of the Russian army. Based on the new material, this article clarifies the geography and chronology of Karazin’s walking trip (in the guise of a pilgrim monk) to Bucharest in the spring of 1769. Moving through Galich on the Dniester and via the Great Skete Monastery (Manyavsky Holy Cross Monastery) in the region of Pokutie, Karazin arrived in the town of Suceava on 4 April, from where he travelled to Wallachia through Austrian Transylvania, crossing the Carpathian Mountains twice. On 7 May, 1769, he arrived in Bucharest, and then, having established contact with the leadership of the pro-Russian party of Wallachia, on 19 May moved back and arrived at the camp of the main forces of the Russian 1st Army near Derazhnya on 2 June, 1769. After that, Karazin, in accordance with his instructions, remained at the headquarters of the 1st Army commander, Prince A. M. Golitsyn, during the summer campaign. On 10 September, 1769, after the capture of the Khotin fortress by the Russian army and the retreat of the Turks from Moldova, Karazin, on behalf of Golitsyn, again set off at the head of a detachment of Arnauts (mercenaries of Balkan origin who had switched to the Russian side) to the town of Fokshany on the border between Moldavia and Wallachia, with a mission to raise an anti-Turkish uprising. His detachment played an important role in organizing the insurrectionary movement in the northeastern part of Wallachia and the expulsion of the Turks from Bucharest in early November 1769, and then in the defense of the capital of Wallachia during the counter-offensives of the Ottoman forces in December 1769 and January 1770. The content of the article refutes the family narratives about N.A. Karazin and his adventures during the war years, which contain factually inaccurate information.

Keywords

• nazar karazin
• the russian-turkish war of 1768–74
• the principality of wallachia
• bucharest
• parvu kantakuzino
• arnauts