Revolution of Orloff

The Revolution of Orloff or Expédition of the brothers Orloff (in Ορλωφικά Greek, events of Orloff) is an episode of the war which opposed the Russia Catherine II and the Ottoman Empire between 1768 and 1774. This episode proceeded in Greece, mainly in the south of the Peloponnese starting from the Magne and in Aegean Sea, in the Cyclades. She is regarded as one of the first steps of the Guerre of Greek independence.

The Xanthos Genos

A certain number of popular legends in connection with the release of the Greeks and the reconquest of Constantinople ran to XVIIe and XVIIIe siècles.
They utilized warlike God and his Saints at the sides of the Greek soldiers. Holy Georges and the archangel Saint Michel mainly, preceded by the Prophet Élie on his tank of fire, would lead them to the victory. The lightning would strike the Turks; the mountains would crush them. When they would arrive for Constantinople, the last Emperor, Constantin XI Paleologist would awake. Indeed, another legend told that at the time of the catch of the City, whereas it was going to be killed by a Turk, it was removed by the angels and was transported in a cave close to the Khrysoporta , the Porte of Gold, one of the many doors of the city. There, transformed into marble, it would wait the day when the angels would come to deliver it. The Marmaromenos Vassilias , the marble Emperor, once awaked, would take the head of the combat and would drive out the Turks of Constantinople. It would continue them then definitively to return them to Kokkini Milia (the Red Pommier ), the mythical place of Central Asia from where they would have left. The Greek warriors would be also accompanied in this combat by a xanthos genos , of a race of liberators to the fair hair come from North. Therefore the Greeks always believed that the Russians, the Orthodoxes not to only be not submitted to the Turks, would come to help them to recover to them liberté.
Another legend related to a prophecy of Leon VI Wise the. He would have announced that Constantinople would be released 320 years after being conquered, that is to say in 1773.
In September 1769, a fleet of seven ship of the lines, four frigates and buildings of transport left Saint-Pétersbourg. This fleet was ordered by two brothers of the count Orloff: Féodor and Alexis. It was divided into two on the level of Malta, Féodor going to seek in the island the assistance of the knights of the Ordre of Malta, which was refused to him. Alexis wet in bay of Coron and put the seat at the city. The Greeks were disappointed to see that the Russian forces were limited to 800 men. However, Mavromichalis raised Magne and Benaki the plain of Kalamata. The Turks took refuge initially in their place-strong of the Peloponnese: Nauplie, Corinth and Tripolizza.
Alexis organized two troops gréco-Russian called Western legion of Sparte and Eastern legion of Sparte . The first moved towards the Arcadie and Tripolizza and the other towards Mistra. The Byzantine fortress was conquered. The surviving Turks and their family obtained the free-passage. A kind of provisional government was installed in Mistra. The seat of Mining cottage not giving anything, the Russian fleet went to shelter in bay of Navarin. The Othoman defeat was total, only one ship was not cast: it was captured. The others all were destroyed, mainly thanks to the Brûlot S. the Russian fleet went to parade in front of Constantinople then put the seat at Lemnos. It lasted three months, then the reinforcements Turkish obliged Alexis Orloff with évacuer.
The Russian fleet went to winter in bay of Naoussa, in the north of the island of Paros, in the Cyclades. Touched by an epidemic at the summer 1771, it evacuated Greece, giving up its allies It is the same in the Itinéraire from Paris to Jerusalem. of Chateaubriant.
However, excesses Turkish caused the escape of many Greeks. This emigration became a diaspora which came into contact with the novel ideas of the Lumières and transformed the Greek national ideology. That led to the creation of the Filiki Eteria then the Guerre of Greek independence. The islands were comparatively saved by Othoman vindication and their trade, under Turkish house thanks to the treaty of Kutchuk-Kaïnardji became flourishing. Fortunes of Hydra or Psara found their origin there. The fleet and the richness of these islands were determining at the time of the war of independence.

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