Heroic Russian General Suvorov defeated Turks 220 years ago today
October 1, 2007 marks the 220th anniversary of the Battle of Kinburn, when a Russian army defeated the Ottoman Empire in the early stages of the Second Russo–Turkish War of 1787–1792. The Russians were led by Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov (1729–1800), one of the greatest generals in Russian history.
Kinburn was a Russian fort on the Dneiper River near the Black Sea in what is now the Ukrainian Crimea. The Ottomans, as part of their general policy of expansion into European lands, had seized the area in the 1500s and kept it until driven out by Catherine the Great in 1768. The Battle of Kinburn occurred when the Turks kidnapped the Russian ambassador to the Sublime Porte and launched a war to seize back their lost lands.
On October 1, the Turks used their tactic of attempting to overwhelm their opponent with massive numbers — 6,000 Ottomans landed from boats in front of Kinburn, where Suvorov was commanding a force of Cossacks and foot soldiers. When the Turks came within range of Kinburn Suvorov personally led a counterattack, driving the Turks back into their lines until Ottoman naval bombardment forced a Russian retreat, with Suvorov himself seriously wounded. Finally, Cossack reinforcements arrived, and with the help of that old Russian standby of heavy artillery, smashed the Turks onto the beach and broke the back of the Ottoman offensive.
Painting: Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov never lost a battleAs a result of this early victory in this important war — a war which snuffed out westward Ottoman attacks across Russian lands into Europe — Suvorov gained the acclaim of the Empress herself, who awarded him the Order of St. Andrew, stating that “You deserved it by faith and by faithfulness.”