And the The Welcome to Russian History Retold, episode 143.

The Crimean War Part 4. Last time we covered the events leading up to the beginning of

hostilities at the dawn of the Crimean War. Today we begin discussing the war itself.

We are now in March of 1853,

where Shamil, the imam of the Caucasus tribesmen,

called for help from the Ottoman Empire to stem the tide of Russian advances

through the areas of Chechnya and Agustan. Governor General Mikhail Varonsov was sweeping through the region, but not by direct military

conflict, but by burning and destroying the natives' farms, villages, and crops. The Chechen people began to side with the Russians because of this,

just hoping that they would just leave them alone and let them feed their families. Gradually, the Russians, seeing that they were succeeding in

subduing the population, began to slowly transfer troops from the Caucasus to

the Danubian provinces. This gave the Turks a place to concentrate their

ground forces on as they viewed it as a Russian weak spot now. So on November 9th, the Sultan called for a holy war against the Russians and would

aid Shemelle and his men.

They attacked and took the fortress of St. Nicholas, the town of Shekvutili and Georgia, and killed about a thousand

Cossacks, tortured many of the older male population, raped the women, and sold their children into slavery at the markets of Constantinople.

They did this with the knowledge that the French and British had anchored a number of ships at the city of Becoz right outside of Constantinople.

The Turks knew that they had to supply their men in the Caucasus by ship, and although their

Navy was no match for the Russians, led by Admiral Vladimir Cornilov and

Pavel Nachymov, they decided to go ahead.

They actually knew that they'd be destroyed in battle, but went through with it with almost

a face of complacency, almost wanting to be defeated in order to hasten the inclusion of the British

and French in the war. On November 30th, 1853,

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