Russia’s Turkish Wars: The Tsarist Army and the Balkan Peoples in the Nineteenth Century

Russia’s Turkish Wars examines the changing place of the Balkan population in Russian military thought, strategic planning, and occupation policies. It reveals choices made by the tsarist strategists and commanders during the Russian-Ottoman wars, reflecting a general reconceptualization of the role of ＂the people＂ in modern warfare that took place during the nineteenth century.

The book explores the tsarist military’s engagement with the population of the Balkans in the wake of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. It draws on previously unpublished materials from Russian archives as well as a broad range of published primary sources. Victor Taki recounts the discussions among Russian military men and the international relations of the nineteenth century. Russia’s Turkish Wars ultimately provides a new perspective on both military change and Imperial Russia’s Balkan entanglements.

Victor Taki is a sessional instructor of history at Concordia University of Edmonton and the author of Tsar and Sultan: Russian Encounters with the Ottoman EmpireRussia on the Danube: Empire, Elites, and Reform in Moldavia and Wallachia, 1812-1834.