In 1767, at the instigation of the King of France, she declared war on Turkey, with the avowed object of aiding the Poles. The Russian general, Galitzin, attacked the Grand Vizier at the town of Khotin, in 1769, and, continuing the campaign in that part of the world, her forces the following year defeated the Khan of the Crimea, the Turkish ally, and in 1770 she won the great victory of Kalgul. In 1771 her armies overran the Crimea, and the infamous Alexis Orloff defeated the Turks in a naval engagement at Thesme on the coat of Asia Minor.
In this expedition the Russians were assisted by the English, who in great numbers entered the naval service of the Empress. In 1774 she signed a peace wherein the Sultan acknowledged the independence of the Crimea. The Russians thus detached this province from the Turkish dominions, and after exercising over it a kind of protectory, added it to their dominions. The Sultan also ceded Azoff on the Don, Kinburn at the mouth of the Dnieper, and the fortified places of the Crimea. The unfortunate Greeks, who in the meantime had been induced to rise against the Turks, were abandoned to their fate.
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From General Nelson A. Miles
Thrilling Stories of The Russian-Japanese War, 1904
