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Wykorzystanie Greków do ugruntowania obecności rosyjskiej na wschodnim obszarze Morza Śródziemnego w latach 60. i 70. XVIII wieku
С. 42–56.
Smilyanskaya E., Смилянская И. М.
Translator: U. Cierniak
Using the Greeks in Strengthening the Russian Presence on the Eastern Coast
of the Mediterranean Sea in the 18th Century (1760s–1770s)
Th e article deals with the period of the fi rst considerable intensifi cation of contacts between
Russians and Greeks due to the military activities of Catherine II on the Greek Islands.
Th e Russian fl eet’s entrance into the Mediterranean region during the fi rst Russian-Turkish
war in 1768–1774 is often assessed only from the point of view of strengthening the military
power of Catherine II. However, during the reign of the “enlightened” and “tolerant” empress,
the idea of liberating Orthodox brothers and Christian temples from heterodoxy, and the cradle
of ancient civilization from barbarity, was also used to justify Russian policies. Based on archival
materials, Russian and international press of the 1760s and 1770s, the authors attempt to
answer questions about the importance of the support for Orthodox inhabitants living in the
Balkans and in the Archipelago in the propaganda and real political calculations of Catherine
II. Furthermore, they try to fi nd out how the expeditions to the Greek Islands were prepared,
and how the information brought back by secret emissaries to the Greeks in the Balkans infl
uenced the strategic plans of Catherine II and Orlov with respect to the Greek Uprising. Th e
article focuses primarily on how the Russian participants of the expedition to the Archipelago
perceived the Greeks – brothers in faith, and on the changing policy toward the Greeks as allies
and the Greeks as the empress’s subjects during the stay of the Russian fl eet on the Aegean Sea
