Orlov revolt
The Orlov revolt or Orlofika ( Greek Ορλωφικά ) is the name given to the uprisings of the Greeks against Ottoman rule in 1770, which heralded the Greek Revolution . They are named after the Orlow brothers, Count Grigori , Alexei and Fyodor Orlow .
background
The background was the Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774) . In order to weaken the Ottoman Empire, the Russian tsarina Catherine II, probably on the initiative of her lover Grigori Grigoryevich Orlov , remembered the friendly relations already cultivated under Peter the Great with the Orthodox fellow believers in Greece and sent emissaries to regional Greek leaders such as Bishops, Klephten and notables like the Mavromichalis in the Mani or Daskalogiannis in Crete. Many Greeks saw the legendary "xanthón génos" ( Greek ξανθόν γένος , blonde race ) in the Russians , which would bring them liberation.
Course of the uprisings
In 1769 Catherine II dispatched a fleet of 14 warships under the command of Count Alexei and his brother Fyodor Orlov to the Mediterranean . She anchored off Itylo in the spring of 1770 and encouraged the inhabitants of the Mani Peninsula and Kalamata to rise. However, only a small force of Russian soldiers was released to support the rebels on land. Riots were also sparked in Epirus , the Cyclades and Crete.
The rebels were initially successful in the Peloponnese in particular . They could take Navarino and Mystras , also Messolongi and Patras . However, when about 8,000 Greek insurgents, reinforced by 50 Russian soldiers, advanced against Tripoli , they suffered a heavy defeat for the 15,000 battle-hardened Albanians who had been recruited by the Ottomans to support them, which was followed by a massacre in which thousands of Greeks were slaughtered; the spiritual leaders of the Greeks were impaled . The siege of Koroni and Methoni was also unsuccessful. Patras was recaptured by the Ottoman-Albanian forces and burned down, as was Mystras, so that the Peloponnese uprising collapsed after a few months. The uprising in Crete under Daskalogiannis and the uprisings in other parts of the country suffered the same fate .
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Meanwhile, the Russian fleet sailed further into the Aegean and won an important victory against the Ottomans in the sea battle of Çeşme at the beginning of July , which was an important milestone on the way to the peace of Küçük Kaynarca , in which the Porte admitted their defeat.
Results
As successful as the Orlofika were for Russia, they were just as disappointing from the perspective of the Greeks, who had hoped for stronger Russian support, who were subsequently subjected to often cruel reprisals by Ottoman rule and who received nothing tangible in the peace of Küçük Kaynarca. As a contribution to the southern expansion of Russia, which had become a protectorate power for the Christians living in the Ottoman Empire and a power factor in the Mediterranean, and as a contribution to the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, which heralded its decline, the uprisings had better conditions for the later Freedom struggles created.