ABSTRACT
Between 1711 and the First World War imperial Russia waged war with the Ottoman Empire on no less than nine occasions. These conflicts constituted a key element of the so-called “Eastern Question” – the gradual decline of the Ottoman Empire and the resulting struggle amongst the Great Powers for territory and influence along the Black Sea coast, in the Caucasus and the Balkans. Russia, the Sultan’s most consistent antagonist, had gained the upper hand in this struggle during the reign of Catherine the Great (1762–1796) and by the turn of the century her borders touched the northern limits of the “Rumanian” lands and reached as far as Georgia in the Caucasus. As a result, the lands bordering the Russo-Turkish frontier were more than ever populated by a disparate collection of ethnic/national groups. Religious and political affinity with one of the two Powers, a desire for protection or liberation, the ambitions and designs of local rulers, as well as the military significance of their geographical position all ensured that these ethnic groups would increasingly be drawn into the orbit of the Russo-Turkish struggle and, at times, come to dominate it.
