Qualla: Russo-Turkish War of 1672-1681

Russo-Turkish War of 1672-1681: Introduction

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Joannii Janssonii. Amsterdam, Public domain. The prize was a fortress on a river bend, and the price was appalling. For most of the 1670s the Tsardom of Russia and the Ottoman Empire hurled armies at each other across the Ukrainian steppe, and again and again the fighting converged on one place: Chyhyryn, the old Cossack capital on the Tiasmyn River near the Dnieper. Whoever held Chyhyryn held the door to Right-bank Ukraine. In the largest series of campaigns Europe would see before the Great Turkish War, two of the era's mightiest states fought for that door - and the town at the center paid in fire.

Image: Joannii Janssonii. Amsterdam | Public domain

Russo-Turkish War of 1672-1681: The Contest for Right-Bank Ukraine

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Joannii Janssonii. Amsterdam, Public domain. The war grew out of Ottoman ambition. Having overrun the region of Podolia in a war against Poland, the Ottomans set out to extend their rule over all of Right-bank Ukraine, backing a Cossack hetman, Petro Doroshenko, who had become their vassal in 1669. Doroshenko's pro-Turkish ...

Image: Joannii Janssonii. Amsterdam | Public domain

Russo-Turkish War of 1672-1681: Two Sieges

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Joannii Janssonii. Amsterdam, Public domain. In July 1677 an Ottoman army of some 45,000 under Ibrahim Pasha advanced on Chyhyryn. The Russian and Ukrainian relief force fought its way across the rivers under artillery cover and fell on the besiegers' camp, and by the end of August Ibrahim broke off and retreated, leaving p...

Image: Joannii Janssonii. Amsterdam | Public domain

Russo-Turkish War of 1672-1681: The Cost and the Line on the Map

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Joannii Janssonii. Amsterdam, Public domain. Wars of this scale were as much a struggle against hunger as against the enemy. An Ottoman field army of 60,000 men and 40,000 horses devoured something like half a million kilograms of food every single day, and the strain of feeding these hosts crippled both treasuries, extract...

Image: Joannii Janssonii. Amsterdam | Public domain