Siege of Varna

The siege of Varna is an episode of the Russo-Turkish war of 1828-1829 .

Siege of Varna
Main conflict: Russian-Turkish war of 1828-1829
date	July 13 - September 29, 1828
A place	Varna , Ottoman Empire
Total	victory of Russian troops
Opponents
Ottoman Empire Russian empire
Commanders
Omer Vrioni Lieutenant General P.P. Sukhtelen → Adjutant General A. S. Menshikov → Field Marshal M.S. Vorontsov
Forces of the parties
20 thousand people (garrison) and 25 thousand people. ( Omer Pasha case) 32 thousand people, 170 guns

Varna was one of the strongest Turkish fortresses: it had 178 guns in its arsenal, the garrison was about 15 thousand people. Russian troops overlaid Varna at the end of July 1828, and on the night of August 1 to 2 began the construction of siege batteries. At the same time as the ground forces, a squadron of the Black Sea Fleet under the command of Alexei Greig approached Varna and tightly blocked Varna from the sea; also Russian ships landed in the Varna region.

Initially, the detachment was led by a detachment of Lieutenant General P.P. Sukhtelen , then the siege of Varna was entrusted to Adjutant General A.S. Menshikov with the landing troops from under Anapa . After Menshikov’s wound, the siege was entrusted to Field Marshal M. S. Vorontsov ^[1] . The siege was attended by Nicholas I , who was stationed on the ship Paris, which was part of Greig's squadron. The emperor received daily reports from the troops, and personally visited the positions of the besiegers. ^[2]

In late August, the Guards Corps arrived from Russia, which included 64 guns. With his arrival, the number of Russian troops near Varna increased to 32 thousand people, 118 field and 52 sea guns. Together with the corps, the first Russian missile company under the command of Lieutenant Colonel V. M. Vnukov arrived in Varna.

To release Varna from the south, the 25,000th Omer Pasha case came up. On September 16 (10), Omer Pasha attacked the combined detachment of Colonel Count Zaluski from the forces of Adjutant General Golovin , who blocked Varna from the south. Zalusky’s detachment with heavy losses (1 general, 17 officers and 450 lower ranks were killed) moved to the main forces ^[3] .

In parallel with the ongoing rocket-artillery bombardment, the Russians launched a mine war. By September 20, mines were laid under the 1st and 2nd bastions, which after their explosion on September 21 and 22 formed wide and easy to attack wall collapses. On September 25, Russian troops stormed the 1st bastion by storm and installed a strong battery on it for flank shelling of the fortress batteries. The Turkish garrison launched a furious counterattack and repulsed the 1st bastion, but the further advance of the Turks stopped the Russian artillery carte gun fire. The difficult situation of the garrison forced the Turkish command to negotiate, which ended on September 29 with the surrender of Varna. Russian troops captured up to 6 thousand people.

In honor of the capture of Varna, two ships of the Russian fleet were named. The 60-gun frigate Varna joined the Black Sea Fleet in August 1830 and died during a storm at the mouth of the Sochi River on May 31, 1838. The 84-gun battleship Varna entered the Black Sea Fleet in July 1842 and September 11, 1854 was flooded in the Sevastopol raid.