Kelly W.K. The History of Russia: from the Earliest Period to the Present Time. Volume 2
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A.D.
1783]
RUSSIAN USURPATIONS
IN
TURKEY. 85
kin's cousin
was not
so
scrupulous.
According
to
the
ac-
counts,
whose
unanimous
testimony
we are
obliged
to
follow,
even when
it
appears
to us
incredible,
Paul
Potemkin caused
above
30,000
Tatars,
of
every
age
and
sex,
to be massacred
in cold
blood,
and in this
way
procured
for his
cousin
the
easily-
won title ofthe
Tauriau,
and
the
place
of
grand-admiral
of
the
Black
Sea,
and
governor-general
of
the
new
province
of Tauris.
The
massacre in Tauris
took
place
in
April,
17S3,
and
the
Turks were unable to render
any
assistance
to the
Tatars
without
foreign support.
Among
the
European powers,
however,
England
was at
that time
fully
occupied
with
the
disturbances
which
in the
following
year
brought
Pitt
to
the
helm
of
affairs
;
Erance
was
glad
to see
an end
to the
Ameri-
can war
;
Joseph
II.
was bound
by
the
treaty
of
Tzarskoe-
selo
;
Erederic
II.
hoped
to
become
master
of
Thorn and
Dantzig,
if
Russia was
well-disposed
towards
him
;
and
Gustavus III. of
Sweden was
the
only
monarch
who could
have rendered
any
aid.
In
the
very
same
year,
however,
(lustavus
suffered himself to
be induced
to
go
to Eriedrich-
shamm,
where he sold
himself to
the
empress
;
nothing,
therefore,
was now
left to the Turks
but to
yield
to their
destiny.
The sultan
did what had been
done
by
the
king
of
Poland
a
few
years
before
;
by
his consent he
changed
that
into a
righteous
and
legal
possession
which,
being
seized in
the
midst
of
peace,
was
previously
a
robbery.
The whole
territory
of
the
Tatars,
the
Crimea,
the island
of
Taman,
and
a
great
part
of the Kuban were ceded
to
Russia,
and a
treaty
of
commerce was
forced
upon
the
Turks,
by
virtue of
which
tiie
Russian
consuls
in the
various
ports
of
Turkey
were
erected
into a
power
wholly
independent
of the
government
of
the
country.
This
treaty
of
commerce
had
been drawn
up
by
Panin
before
he had
been
obliged
to
yield
to
the
superior
influence of
Potemkin and withdraw' from
public
affairs
;
and
it
was now
concluded
on the
10th
of
June,
1783.
By
virtue
of
this
treaty
the
Turks
were
obliged
to submit the
decision
of
all mixed
civil
cases
in
which a Russian and a
Turk
were
the
respective
parties,
not to
the local
tribunals,
nor
to
the
higher
authorities,
nor to
a
court
of
arbitration,
but
to the
Russian
consul
;
and in
all
pecuniary
transactions
the
claims
of
a
Russian
against
a Turk
were
urged
with
much
greater
86 HISTOET OF EUSSIA.
[CH.
XLIT.
strictness than
in those cases
in which the
Turk
was the
claimant
and
the Russian the debtor.
In
the
eyes
of
the
world,
which
regards
only
externals,
Potemkin
was
now
a
great
and admired
statesman
;
and
so
absolute was
his
sway
over
the
empress
herself,
that she not
only
tolerated
Ids
insolence,
his
total
neglect
of all
pecuniary
obligations,
his
tyranny
over
all
classes,
and his
imperial
expenditure
and
magnificence,
but allowed him to
help
him-
self
to an
unlimited
extent out
of the
coffers of
the state.
Potemkin on
the one
hand did
homage
to the
empress
as if
she
were
a
goddess,
and on
the
other
he suffered
himself to treat
her with
the
most insolent
familiarity
and
rudeness.
He
would
even
saunter from
his own
apartments
into hers in his
dressing-gown
and
slippers,
with his
stockings hanging
down
and his
legs
bare.
He went
so far as
to
extort from those
who
enjoyed
the
empress's
favour,
a
part
of
the
money
which
they
received from
her,
and
yet
he allowed
poor
Sahim Gherai
to
starve. He
never
paid
him the
assigned
pension
of
100,000
rubles
which was
yearly
debited to the
empress's
account,
and
even the
displeasure
of
Catharine
could
not
induce
him
to
bestow
upon
this Russian
protege
the
simplest
means of
life.
The
founding
of
a
new Russo-Grecian
capital,
with which
Potemkin
now busied
himself,
was
a
magnificent piece
of
flattery
for the
empress,
but
for which she
was
unhappily
obliged
to
pay
too
dear. Catharine
indulged
with Voltaire
in those
visionary
schemes
of
a
utopian
Greece,
of a
civilisa-
tion
of
whicli she and
not the
people
was to be the
source,
of
an
enlightenment,
industry
and trade to be carried into these
conquered
deserts
by
ukases and courtiers
;
Potemkin acted
according
to this
fancy.
He first erected a
city
with build-
ings
of
every
description,
and then
sought
for
inhabitants,
or
forcibly
drove
them
for a time from
all
quarters,
when he
wished
to
make
a
court-spectacle
of this
theatrical
city
and
to enchant
the
empress.
It was
of no
consequence
to him
that his
city
fell to
pieces
and
its
inhabitants
disappeared
as
soon
as he
turned
away
his
eyes.
The
new
city
was
called
Kherson,
a name
long
since
obscured
by
that
of
Odessa
;
the
empress
granted
18,000,000 rubles,
most of
which,
however,
Potemkin
diverted
to his own
private
use.
The situation
was
badly
chosen,
and
yet
this
shadow
of a
capital
was for a
A.D.
1784]
SUVAKOF
LANSKOY.
S7
length
of time
charmed
into existence
by
innumerable
arts of
fraud
and
open
violence
;
and the
deserts of which
it was
to
be
the
metropolis
were
erected
into
a
province,
to
which
Potemkin
gave
the
name of Catharine's
Glory
(Slava
Eka-
tharina).
Another
province,
somewhat
farther
to the
north,
near the
celebrated falls of the
Koidack,
was also honoured
with the name of the
empress,
and called
Ekatarinoslaf.
The
general
to
whom
Potemkin
at
this time
assigned
the
congenial
task
of
havoc
and destruction
in
the
country
of
the
JNogai
Tatars
and in
Kuban,
was
Suvarof,
a man who
from that distant
period
till our own
century
had
the misfor-
tune to
be
continually employed
as the
instrument
of a mur-
derous
military
despotism.
In Poland he
executed
three
times
those
orders of
annihilation which were
issued from
Petersburg.
He
destroyed
the Turks and sacrificed
the
Kussiaus
by
thousands
at
the
will
of
Potemkin.
He sub-
sequently
shared Paul's
hatred
against
the
French
and
every
thought
of
civil
freedom,
and
performed
the same
kind of
heroic
deeds for that madman's
pleasure
as he
had
previously
done at the
bidding
of Potemkin.
He was
undoubtedly
one
of
the
greatest
generals
of modern
times,
but
wholly
destitute of
humanity,
for
he
sacrificed
thou-
sands without
hesitation in
order
to
secure a
victory
or
storm a
fortress,
when
either
was calculated
to
produce
a
splendid
effect
though
but for the moment.
He not
only
flattered
the
empress,
but
even the common soldiers
and
their
superstitious.
Though
he
was a
man
of
various
know-
ledge,
and had
made
himself
master of
all the arts of
life
as
practised
in
the
highest
society,
he assumed at court
the
character
of a sort
of
court-fool,
and
acted
often as
if
he were
mad,
merely
in
order
to
carry
out
some
surprising
piece
of
flattery.
In
the
company
of the
common soldiers he affected
the
manners of the
*c mi-
barbarous
Kussian,
lived
as
they
did
themselves,
submitted
to
every
privation
which
they might
be
called
upon
bo
endure,
and
knelt and
prayed
before
every
wayside
image,
often
when
the
roads were
deep
with mud.
At
the time when
a
high-flown
sentimentality
was
the
fashion
in
Germany,
and
the
empress
was
past fifty,
she
indulged
in
a fit
of
romantic
love
for
the
insipid
and
spiritless
Lanskoy.
This
turn
in
her
affections was
very
agreeable
to
Potemkin,
for
Lanskoy
neither
took
up
the cause
of
the
88
HISTORY
OF RUSSIA.
[en.
X.LIV.
destitute
khan,
nor
yielded
to
the
allurements of the
king
of
Prussia,
the
emperor
Joseph
II.,
or the
English,
when
they
were
desirous of
engaging
him in
affairs of
state.
Potemkin
freely
permitted
the
empress
to
indulge
her
visionary
love
for
the
wonderfully
handsome
and
youthful
face
which
eaptivated
her
affections,
and did not
grudge
her,
among
the
many
gross
and
degrading
scenes of
her
life,
the
enjoy-
ment of one
romantic
passion,
after
the
manner of
Wer-
ther and
Siegwart,
from the
year
1780
till
July,
1784. Ca-
tharine's love
for
Lanskoy
had been romantic in his
life,
and
her
sorrow at
his
death
was
not less
extravagant
;
but
notwithstanding
all this
ideality,
she
had
been also
careful
to show
him
substantial
proofs
of
her affection at the
cost of
the
country.
She bestowed
upon
him not
only
all
possible
titles, orders,
and
decorations
—
diamonds,
plate,
and
collec-
tions of
every
kind,
but
he left
behind him in
cash a
property
of
7,000,000
of
rubles.
The
fantastic
mourning
for
Lanskoy
was no
sooner
evapo-
rated
than
the
empress
allowed
Potemkin,
who
presented
candidates
for
every
office,
to
supply
her
with a
substitute
for her
departed
lover. In order to exclude all
other
pretenders,
Potemkin
on
every
such occasion was
prepared
to
fill the
vacancy
;
and
with
this
view
he
had for some time
made lieutenant
Yermolof one of his
adjutants.
In 1785
this
man
became
the declared favourite of the
empress,
and
soon
•ventured to
pursue
a course
which
Lanskoy
would
never
have
thought
of. He directed Catharine's
attention
to
the
tyranny
of
Potemkin,
and
gave
her
some
hints
respecting
his
behaviour towards Sahim Grherai.
The
empress expressed
her
displeasure
without
naming
the
person
who
had made
her
acquainted
with the
unhappy
fate
of the khan
;
Potemkin,
however,
easily guessed
that
no
man in
the
empire
would dare
to
speak
ill
of him
to
the
empress
except
Yermolof. He
therefore
threateningly
re-
plied,
"
That
must have been said
by
the White
Moor"
as
he
was
accustomed
to
call
Yermolof,
on account
of his
fair
countenance
and
flat
nose. Catharine did
not
hesitate
severely
to
repi'oach
Potemkin
for his
harsh and
unjust
conduct
towards the
khan,
and
she even
wavered for some
months
between her
favourite
and this
son
of the
Titans,
whom
she
regarded
as her
protector,
and
the
creator
of
her
a.d.
1787]
Catharine's
pkogkess
to kiieeson.
S9
glory
and her
greatness.
At the end
of
June,
1786,
a
fresh
scene
occurred,
by
which the
empress
was
compelled
to
declare
either
for the
one or
the other.
Termolof had
made
a new
attempt
to
alienate the
empress
from
Potemkin
;
the
latter, therefore,
haughtily
insisted
that
either
Yermolof
or
he
must retire from her service
;
Catharine felt
herself
constrained to adhere
to
Potemkin,
and Yermolof
went
upon
his
travels.
During
the course of
the
year
he
had
been loaded with
riches,
and
on
his
departure
he
was
furnished with
100,000
rubles
and
imperial
recommenda-
tions to the Eussian ambassadors
at all the
European
courts.
On
the
day
after
his
departure,
Mornonof,
another
adjutant
of
Potemkin,
occupied
his
place.
About this
period
Potemkin
repeatedly
travelled
from
Petersburg
to
Tauris
and back
with
all the
expedition
of
a
courier,
whilst
he
was
engaged
in the
building
of
Kherson,
in order
to
prepare
a
splendid triumph
for
the
empress.
The
neglected
Sahim Gherai hastened
thither
to
meet
him
and
make him
acquainted
with the
urgency
of his
wants
;
but
Potemkin,
instead of
rendering
him
any
assistance,
banished
him
to
Kaluga,
where he fell into a state of the
deepest
poverty.
He then
conceived
that he
might
find
some relief from his
fellow-believers,
and
fled
to
Turkey,
but
the
sultan
caused
him to be arrested
as
a traitor and
rene-
gade
at
Khotchim,
to be
conveyed
to
Ehodes,
and
there
despatched
by
the
bow-string
(1787).
The
plan
contem-
plated
by
Potemkin and the
empress
was to raise the
grand-duke Constantine,
second
grandson
of the
empress,
to
the
dignity
of
emperor
of
Byzantium,
at
the
expense
of the
Turks,
and at
the
same
time to
incorporate
the
kingdom
of
Poland
with
Russia.
The new
city
of
Kherson was no
sooner
ready
for this
grand
theatrical
representation,
than
the
empress
was to travel thither
to
receive the
homage
of
her
new
subjects,
and
to
deceive the
world
by
an
ostentatious
display
of
magnificence
and
pomp. Joseph
II. was
invited
to meet
the
empress
in
Kherson,
in order to consult with
her
upon
a
partition
of
the
Turkish
empire
;
but Constantine
himself
was in the
first
instance
left
at
home. The
luxury
and
extravagance
exhibited
by
Potemkin
during
the
empress's
journey,
and the
fetes
prepared
for her
reception
and
enter-
tainment at
Kherson,
were
worthy
of the
heaven-storming
90
HISTOBT
OP
EUSSIA.
[CH.
XLIY,
characters
of the
pair.
They
remind
us
of
the
extravagance
of
the
Abassides
and the descendants
of
Timur,
with
this
difference,
that civilisation
and
the
arts were
strangers
to
the
people
of the
kkalifs and
of
the Great
Mogul.
Never
perhaps
was
there seen in
monarchical
Europe,
where
such
things
are not
rare,
such
a
gross
abuse
of the
wealth and
well-being
of
the
people,
and
such
insult cast
on
public
opinion
by
a
contemptible
comedy,
as
on
the
occasion
of this
imperial
progress.
It
began
in
January,
1787,
and
was
continued
night
and
day.
To facilitate
the
journey
by
night,
Potemkin
had
caused
great piles'of
wood to
be
erected
at
every
fifty perches,
which
were
kindled
at
night-fall,
and
imparted
to the whole
district
almost
the
brightness
of
day.
On
the sixth
day
the
cortege
reached
Smolensk,
and
fourteen
days
afterwards
Kief,
where
the
degraded
Polish
magnates,
who
made a trade
of
their
nation,
their
honour,
and
their
friendship,
were
as-
sembled
to offer
their
homage
to the
empress
and
join
in the
revelry
of her
court.
Potemkin
himself
had
gone
forward
in
advance
in order to
arrange
the
side-scenes
of
the
theatre
which
he erected
from
Petersburg
to
Kherson.
Deserts
were
peopled
for
the occasion
;
and
palaces
were
raised
in the
trackless
wild. The
nakedness
of the
plains
was
disguised
by
villages
built for
the
purpose
of a
day,
and enlivened
by
fire-
works.
Chains
of
mountains
were
illuminated.
Pine roads
were
opened
by
the
army.
Howling
wildernesses
were trans-
formed
into
blooming
gardens
;
and
immense
flocks
and herds
were driven
to
the sides
of the
road
in
order
to
delight
the
eyes
of the
empress
in her
hasty
transit.
The
rocks
in the
Dniepr
were
sprung,
that
the
empress
might
descend
the
stream as
conveniently
as
she
had travelled
thither
in
the
chamber
of
her
sledge.
At
the
beginning
of
May
the
whole
party
embarked on
the river
in fifteen
splendid
galleys
at
Krementshuk,
and on
the
following
day
Stanislaus
of Poland
presented
himself at
Kanief,
in
order,
as
it
were,
by
his
in-
sipid
and
pitiful
character
to
serve as a foil
to
the
monarchial
splendour
of
a
woman.
He
accepted
an alms
of
100,000
rubles for
the
expenses
of
his
journey,
was
very
graciously
received
by
Potemkin,
treated with coldness
and
indifference
by
the
empress,
and as
if
his
royal
Polish
income
was
simply
a
Russian
pension,
he
begged
for
an
augmentation.
He was
A.D.
1787]
Catharine's
PROCURESS TO KHERSON. 91
not
ashamed
to
acknowledge
to all tlie courts
whose
ambas-
sadors
accompanied
the
empress,
that
he
regarded
his
king-
dom
as
a Russian
province,
for
he
besought
the
empress
to
grant
the succession to his
nephew,
and
to Ins
nation
the
free
navigation
of the
Dniepr.
As
is
customary
in
such
cases,
there was no lack
of
promises
;
but
none of his
petitions
were
really
granted,
for
it
was
impossible
either to value
or
respect
him,
and in his
situation
he was
incapable
of
inspiring
fear.
The
emperor
Joseph,
who had
anticipated
the arrival of
his
ally
in
Kherson,
travelled
to
meet her
as far as
Kaidack,
and returned
with
her.
He soon
perceived
that she
was
shamefully
deluded
by
the
appearance
of
prosperity,
civilisa-
tion,
and
population,
and that
as
soon
as she
had
passed
through,
all
was
again
to become
empty
and deserted.*
Like
the
villages,
flocks,
and men
by
the
wayside,
the new
buildings
in which the
distinguished
travellers
passed
their
nights,
and
the
houses and
shops
in
Kherson,
all
vanished
again
when
they
had served
their
temporary
purpose.
It will
not be
regarded
as
incredible that
7,000,000
of rubles
were
expended
on
the
journey,
when it is known that
the
throne
itself,
which was
erected for
the
empress
in what was
called the
admiralty
at
Kherson,
cost
14,000.
Catharine
made a
mag-
nificent
entry
into the
new
city, passing
under
a
triumphal
arch,
on which
was inscribed
in the
Greek
tongue,
"The
w.\r to
Byzantium."
CHArTER
XLV.
AUSTRO-RUSSIAN
WAR WITH TURKEY
WAR
BETWEEN
RUSSIA AND
SWEDEN
—
TREATY OF
VARELA.
After
the
meeting
at Kherson the two
imperial
allies
j
in
'pared
to
direct
their
forces
against
the
whole
extent
of
*
Joseph
was
invited
by
Catharine to
place
the second
stone
of
a
town,
of which
she had
herself,
with
great parade,
laid
the
first.
After
the
ceremony
lie
said,
"
The
empress
of
llussia
and
I
have
finished
a
very
important
business
in
a
single
day:
she has
laid
the
first
stono of
a
city,
and I
have
laid
the
last."
92
HISTORY
OF EUSSIA.
[CH.
XLT.
the
Turkish
frontier,
from the
Adriatic
to the Black Sea.
Care was
taken,
however,
to furnish
an excuse for the
parti-
cipation
of
Austria,
by inciting
the
Turks to make the first
attack
;
for
only
in
such a case
was
Austria bound
to furnish
auxiliaries to the
Russians.
To this end
Bulgakof,
Catharine's
ambassador
at
Constantinople,
was ordered
by every
means
to
excite commotions
among
the
Greeks,
Bulgarians,
Valla-
chians,
and
Sclavonians,
as well as
in
Egypt
and in Asia
Minor. The
Turks,
justly
incensed
at these
intrigues,
in-
sisted
upon
a
distinct
declaration
of
their views
on the
part
of the
Russians
;
and
when
they
received
for answer
only
the usual
diplomatic subterfuge,
that
the ambassador must
wait
for
instructions from
Petersburg,
they
immediately
declared
war,
sent
Bulgakof
to the
state-prison
of the Seven
Towers,
and
nothing
but the
threatening
interference of the
English
minister
could have
prevented
them from
inflicting
summary
vengeance
upon
him,
to show their
righteous
dis-
pleasure
at
the
conduct of his
government.
Catharine and
Joseph
had
now
gained
their wishes.
The Turks
were
the first to
declare
war,
and
a
pretence
was
thus afforded
to
the
Russians to
call
upon
the
Austrians for
that aid which
they
were
bound
by treaty
to render in case
of an attack
on
the
part
of the
Turks.*
Had Potemkin
been
as
great
a
general
as
he
was
capable
of
devising magnificent
plans
and
playing
the
Russian
tyrant,
great things
would
have been
accomplished
in
1787,
for all
*
Catharine
published
a
manifesto,
in a
style
with which
some recent
productions
of
her
grandson's
pen
have made
us familiar.
After
a
long
enumeration
of the
pretended wrongs
ascribed to the
Porte,
she
added
:
"
That, provoked
by
a
conduct,
in
itself so
offensive,
she
had,
very
unwillingly,
been
obliged
to have recourse to
arms,
as
the
only
means left
her for
the
support
of those
rights
which she had
acquired
at
the
price
of
so
much
blood
;
and to
avenge
her
wounded
dignity,
suffering
from
the violence that had been
used towards
her
minister
at
Constantinople;
that,
entirely
innocent of all
the calamities
inevitably
engendered
by
war,
she relied
with
confidence,
not
only
on
the
Al-
mighty protection
and
the
assistance
of
her
allies,
but
on the
prayers
of the Christian
world,
for
triumph
in
a
cause so
just
as
that
which
she was
obliged
to
defend."
This
manifesto was soon
followed
up
by
a
second,
which
declared :
"
That
the Porte
had
arrogantly presumed
to
insist on a
categorical
answer to
its absurd
demands;
and
that
the
empress,
forced
to
repel
the
aggression
of the
enemy
of the
Christian
name,
.armed
herself with
confidence,
under the
protection
of
that
just
God who had
so
long
and
so
powerfully
shielded
the
Russian
empire."
A.D.
1788]
ATJSTEO-RUSSIAN
WAR
WITH TURKEY.
93
the
preparations
for
the war had been
made
long
beforehand.
Field-marshal Romantzof was
to
share
the command
of
the
army
with
Potemkin
;
that is to
say,
he
was to
do
all
the
work,
and the other
was
to
engross
all
the merit.
Romantzof
declined
this
thankless
office,
and Potemkin
stood alone at
the head of the
army
;
but
he
did not succeed
in
deceiving
posterity,
for
no one has ever ascribed to him
what was
effected
by
the
officers
under his
command,
—
by Repnin,
Paul
Potemkin, Suvarof,
Kamenskoi, Galitzin,
and
Kutusof,
all
of
whom
became more or
less renowned in
the wars
of
the
present century.
Potemkin found in
Suvarof
precisely
such an
instrument
as
he needed
;
for to
that
general
the
will
of the
empress
or
her
favourite
was in all cases
a
law
paramount
to
all moral
obligations,
or
any feelings
of
humanity.
He was
sent to
Kinburn,
the chief
object
of the
campaign
being
apparently
the
siege
of
Otchakof,
by
the
main
body
under
Potemkin,
whilst other
divisions
were
despatched
to
observe the movements
of
the
Tatars
in
the
Kuban. Kinburn was a small fortress
occupied
by
the
Russians,
and
situated
upon
a
promontory
directly
opposite
to
Otchakof,
in
and
around which
the
Turkish
army
was
stationed.
The
object
of
Suvarof
's mission was
to
frustrate
the
efforts
of
the
Turkish
fleet
to land a
division
on the
promontory
of Kinburn
;
and he executed
the
task in
a
masterly
manner.
At
first
he
remained
perfectly
quiet
in
the
fortress,
after
having
erected a
battery
at
the
extremity
of
the
promontory,
in
order to cannonade the
Turkish
ships-
from the
land,
at the
same moment in which
they might
be
attacked
by
the
Russian
fleet.
He
allowed
the Turks
to
proceed
without
molestation
till
they
had
disembarked from
0000 to 7000
men
;
he then
sent
a few
regiments
of
Cossacks
against
them,
and at
the same time
charged
them at
the head
of two battalions
of
infantry
with
fixed
bayonets,
and
exter-
minated
them
all.
Immediately
afterwards he
employed
his
battery
against
the
Turkish
fleet.
The
prince
of
o
*
Nassau-
Siegen,
who had the
command of the Russian
gun-boats
of
Nicolaief,
attacked the
Turkish
ships
at
the
very
entrance
of
what is
called
the
Liman,
and within
range
of Suvarof
's
guns,
to whose well-directed
fire
he was indebted
for
a
great
share
of the
advantages
which he
gained.
The
whole
remaining
part
of the
year
1787,
as
well
as the
94 HISTORY
OF RUSSIA.
[CH.
XLV.
spring
and
a
great
part
of the summer of
17S8,
elapsed
without
anything
important
having
been
undertaken
;
the
whole
of
the
Russian
land-forces
were,
however,
directed
towards
the
Bog,
in
order to
push
forward with
the
greatest
expedition
to
the
Danube. The Turks had
already
suffered
defeats at sea and in the Caucasus. The
Russian
fleet in
the
Black
Sea,
which was
almost
wholly
commanded
by
foreigners,
nearly
annihilated the
Turkish
navy
;
generals
Tallitzin and
Tekely
massacred the Tatars of the
Kuban,
and
Tamara
reduced
Georgia
and
Lesghistan.
In
August,
Potemkin at
length
marched
against
Otchakof,
but
very wisely
left
the
whole
conduct
of the
military
operations
to
Suvarof,
the
victor
of
Kinburn.
The
Russian
operations
were
delayed
in
expectation
of an Austrian
army,
which,
in
connexion
with a Russian force under
Soltikof,
was
to
make
an
incursion
into Moldavia. This
delay
was
protracted
till
king
Gustavus
began
to exhibit
symptoms
of
making
an
attack
on the
pro-
vinces
contiguous
to
Sweden,
which
were now
deprived
of
means of defence.
He
had
to
revenue
on Russia
a
lone:
series of
wrongs,
crowned
by
the
intolerable
conduct of
Catharine's
ambassador
Razumofsky,
whom
she had
sent
to
form
conspiracies against
him,
and to
persecute
and insult
him
in
his
own
capital.
Gustavus
III.
would
also
willingly
have
induced
Denmark
to
take
part
in the
movement
against
Russia
;
in
this,
how-
ever,
he was
unsuccessful, although
supported
by
Eugland
and
Prussia.
Razumofsky,
the
Russian
ambassador,
was
ordered
to leave
Stockholm
on
the
23rd of
June,
and
went
to
the
army
in
Finland. The
king
appeared
as if
he
designed
immediately
to march
against
Petersburg,
which
excited no
small concern in the minds of
the
government, because,
in
confident reliance
on
the
king's
misunderstanding
with
the
Swedish
nobles,
the whole
of
their
good
troops
had
been
despatched
to
the frontiers
of
Turkey.
The
king
of
Sweden was
acquainted
with the
feelings
of
his
nobles,
consequently
with
those of
the
generals
and offi-
cers
of
his
army
;
he therefore
endeavoured to
deprive
the
malcontents
of
the
apparently
legal
point
of a refusal
to
serve,
by changing
the offensive war
which lie
contemplated
into
a
defensive
one,
and
for
this
purpose
had
recourse
to a
very
childish
subterfuge.
There
had
been
a
long-existing
dispute