Persian Empire 1845

Chapter 150 Decline
There are three routes from the North Caucasus to the South Caucasus. The first route goes south along the Caspian Sea to Baku, the second route goes through the valley in the middle to Tbilisi, and the third route goes along the Black Sea to Sukhumi.

At this point, the first route was unusable, the second was also in imminent danger, and Vorontsov had to divide his troops to garrison the valley fortress against the Circassians. Therefore, only the third route remained as a viable option for continued transport.

Despite being ill, Vorontsov directed the deployment after receiving criticism from the Tsar. He deployed the remaining 100,000 troops in Georgia, hoping to hold onto the remaining territory until at least June.

But this move terrified the local residents even more, and landowners left with their serfs, heading north to settle in Rostov. Tbilisi and neighboring Gori also began to leave.

During this winter, Britain, France, the Ottoman Empire, and Iran continued to discuss the alliance and outlined their conditions as a blueprint for future negotiations with Russia.

For the Ottomans, the desired outcome was simply for Russia to cease its attacks. For Britain and France, their objectives ranged from reducing Russian territory to maintaining freedom of navigation in the Black Sea; their primary concern was protecting stability in the Eastern Mediterranean and deterring Russian expansionist ambitions. Only in this way could they safeguard their interests in the Ottoman Empire and India.

And coincidentally, Iran's demands perfectly aligned with their needs. Tehran demanded the annulment of the Treaty of Turkmenchay signed in 1828, the acquisition of Russian territory south of the Caucasus Mountains, and the independence of the Chechens and Circassians.

This demand would indeed shift Russia's focus to domestic affairs, and Britain and France could anticipate what would happen within Russia. At the same time, Iran's animosity towards Russia would intensify, and to protect itself, Iran would certainly continue to align itself with Britain and France. This would be advantageous for them.

Palmerston and his hawks naturally support Iran's terms: only land, no reparations—a very favorable deal for Russia. Moreover, given the current situation, Russia would likely suffer even greater losses if it disagreed.

And he had an even grander plan: to return the Åland Islands and Finland to Sweden; to cede some German provinces along the Baltic coast under Russian control to Prussia; and to establish an independent Kingdom of Poland as a buffer between Germany and Russia. But to achieve this, however, it would require the alliance of Sweden, Prussia, and Austria.

He argued that Britain should expend greater effort to persuade the Germans to join the war against Russia, since Berlin was only a few days' march from the Tsarist Russian border, the German population was predominantly Protestant and shared many similarities with Britain, so they should be very concerned about a Russian invasion. Moreover, geographically, Germany was an ideal base from which to liberate the Christian West from "barbaric" Russia.

Napoleon III envisioned returning Crimea to the Ottoman Empire. A staunch supporter of Italian independence, he believed the Crimean War was an opportunity to force Austria to relinquish Lombardy and Venetian territory; in return, Austria could gain control of the two Danube principalities. However, his greatest sympathy lay with the Polish independence movement, the most pressing issue in French foreign policy. He believed Austria and Prussia might agree to rebuild an independent Poland, as these countries needed a buffer zone between themselves and Russia to counter Russian expansionist ambitions. At this time, Russian soldiers' rations had been drastically reduced; their only meat was rotting flesh from dead cattle, made into salted meat. Every day, a dozen or so Russian soldiers deserted. To boost morale, the Tsar ordered an attack. But the attack lasted only three hours; the Russian army was quickly repelled, losing 1,500 men before retreating into the open countryside. With nowhere to rest or hide along the way, many soldiers succumbed to exhaustion and cold, their frozen corpses left to rot on the vast steppes.

The Russian army was not only short of troops, but also extremely dispersed, resulting in many weak points in its defense. Of the 12 million combat troops in the Russian army at that time, 120 were stationed in the Baltic Sea, 26 in Poland and western Ukraine, 29 in Bessarabia and the Black Sea coast, and another 20 were on paper in the Caucasus.

The Russian army's defensive lines were so long that they were extremely worried that the Allied forces would break through and advance unimpeded. Therefore, they devised a plan to launch guerrilla warfare along the route of the 1812 war. However, this plan failed. Although some peasant militias did appear near Kiev, and some were quite large, with as many as seven hundred people, most of them believed that they were fighting to liberate themselves from their serfdom, rather than to fight against the invaders.

When news of the defeat reached St. Petersburg, the Tsar was critically ill. He had been bedridden with influenza, but insisted on handling daily affairs. When he felt slightly better, disregarding his doctor's advice, he went out to inspect the troops in -23 degree Celsius weather without wearing winter clothing. He went out again the next day, and that evening his health deteriorated rapidly; he contracted pneumonia.

Although doctors pulled him back from the brink of death, the current state of the Russian army is truly appalling. In an effort to end the war as soon as possible, Austria proposed a four-point solution to both sides, including freedom of navigation in the Black Sea and equality for all Christians within Ottoman territory.

Nicholas I expressed his willingness to accept, as he was aware that a major European war against Russia was imminent and was deeply concerned about it. Therefore, he was willing to seek a dignified way to end the Crimean War.

Britain was skeptical of Russia's motives. Queen Victoria told the Foreign Secretary that, in her view, Russia's acceptance of the proposal was merely a diplomatic maneuver to prevent the coalition's occupation of Crimea. The Queen believed that military action should not cease, and that the coalition must capture Sevastopol to guarantee Russia's acceptance of the four-point proposal.

The Poles also supported launching a major European war against Russia. A Polish legion was formed with funding from France and Britain, consisting of 1,500 Polish exiles, Polish prisoners of war and deserters from the Tsarist army, and armed by Britain and France.

Because Britain lacked a mandatory conscription system, it was unable to significantly increase its number of military-trained reservists and traditionally relied on foreign mercenaries. The heavy losses of troops in Crimea made the British army even more dependent on recruiting foreign legions. Furthermore, the British forces in Crimea were only half the size of the French forces, meaning that France held the upper hand in determining the Allied operational objectives and strategies.

(End of this chapter)