The Defense of Sevastopol

A fortress hill falls after 349 days

Sevastopol, Crimea is a city layered in history. The remains of the ancient Greek city of Khersones are here, as are those of the medieval Byzantine fortress of Kalamita, known now as Inkerman – Turkish for “cave fortress.” Roman legionnaires also walked these lands. In the middle ages, Genoese traders took note of the area’s excellent natural harbors and placed a fortress here. The paths of Byzantine, Italian, Tatar and Turkish merchants – as well as many others – all intersected here; cultures mixed, they built churches and mosques, harbor fortifications and warehouses.

At the end of the 18th century, the lands of the Crimean Khanate became part of the Russian Empire. Empress Catherine the Great, like many of her predecessors, appreciated the strategic significance of this place by the sea, whose steep and jagged coastline was easily defended. And so, in 1783-84, a port was built here and Catherine gave it the Greek name of Sevastopol – “city worthy of veneration.”

Catherine, born a German princess, was inspired by the ancient dream of Russia’s tsars, who considered Moscow to be the Third Rome, protector of Orthodox lands. And this idea was the basis for yet another: that Russia had a claim to the Second Rome: Istanbul, capital of the Ottoman Empire and once known as Constantinople.

This dream had an amazing, almost mystical power over Russia’s foreign policy and  history. Even in the 19th century, despite all of Russia’s advances in the sciences and in political and social thought, the aspiration to possess the Second Rome did not weaken. In fact, for geopolitical and economic reasons (the desire to gain control over the Bosphorus and Dardanelles Straits and establish influence in the Balkans), the ambition grew even stronger.

All of this was the source of numerous wars between Russia and Turkey, of which the Crimean War, which began in 1853, had the farthest reaching consequences for Russia. At first, the Russian Army had little trouble against the rather weak Turkish forces. As long as Russia was only fighting the Ottoman Empire, one victory followed another. The great powers of Europe, however, had no intention of looking calmly on as Russia expanded her reach around the Black Sea and into the Balkans. As a result, Russian forces clashed with the powerful English and French armies. Most other European powers made their opposition to Russia clear, leaving the nation, already shaken by intense fighting, in a state of diplomatic isolation.

The history of the Crimean War knows many fierce battles. The war’s name is, however, a bit misleading. Its military clashes were widespread – throughout the Crimea, but also in the Caucasus, parts of the Balkan Peninsula and even in the Baltic Sea. But the defense of Sevastopol, the largest Black Sea port, was at the center of it all. In September 1854, the city was approached by the alliance’s ships. The entire Sevastopol garrison and the city’s civilian population – including the elderly, women and children – were put to work on defensive fortifications. It is easy to imagine the intense pace of the work; prisoners were even released to help construct bulwarks and fortresses.

Among Sevastopol’s many historical sites, those associated with the events of the Crimean War are perhaps the most numerous. And among these, Malakhov Kurgan (“Hill”), holds a special place. This hill looks down on the center of the city and provides a view of all the coastal bays and ports. Legend has it that the hill is named for an unassuming captain by the name of Mikhail Malakhov who settled here in the 1820s. The honesty and fairness of this captain made him so popular among the townspeople, who frequently came to him for advice, that they began to refer to the hill overlooking the city by his name. During the Crimean War, two of Captain Malakhov’s sons – Afanasy and Ilya – took part in the defense of the hill that bore their father’s name. One of them was wounded during the defense of Malakhov Kurgan.

The fiercest battles of the war unfolded in this part of the city. Along the road leading up to the hill you can see numerous memorials to the companies that fought to defend the city on land and at sea. Perhaps when there are too many memorials, they can begin to obscure living history. But when you climb this hill and look out onto the sea, you can imagine the dozens of English and French ships anchored south of the town, thousands of soldiers camped around its walls and the English nurse Florence Nightingale working to save hundreds of her nation’s soldiers who might otherwise have died of wounds, disease and filth. And on the other side of the front, here, on Malakhov Kurgan, you can imagine the young officer, Count Lev Tolstoy, already pondering his Sevastopol Stories. War and Peace was still in the distant future, but this was his first taste of the barbarity of war, the helplessness of man faced with a constant barrage of cannon fire falling from the heavens.

And it was here on Malakhov Kurgan that Pyotr Koshka did battle. A memorial to him stands nearby. Today it is hard to say whether he really performed all the feats attributed to him. Did he really grab a bomb that was just about to explode and hurl it out of the trenches? Did he really save the body of a fallen comrade from the ravages of the French, who were using it for target practice? No matter the truth, Pyotr Koshka, with his energy, resourcefulness and bravery, became a symbol of the defense of Sevastopol in general and Malakhov Kurgan in particular.

The thundering of explosions and gunfire, the cries and moans of the wounded filled the air over this hill until August 1855. By this time, three admirals leading the defense of Sevastopol had died on or near this hill – Kornilov, Nakhimov and Istomin. This fact alone suggests how many simple officers, soldiers and sailors must have perished.

On August 27, 1855 French troops occupied Malakhov Kurgan. After that, it became impossible to defend this part of the city. The Russians crossed over to the opposite shore of Sevastopol Bay. Military operations came to a halt. Several months later, a treaty was signed in Paris. Its terms were extremely disadvantageous to Russia, but the young Tsar Alexander II understood that the war had been lost largely due to Russia’s economic backwardness, prompting his decision to move quickly toward ending serfdom.

Lying in ruins, Sevastopol was gradually reconstructed and covered with a huge number of memorials and monuments. Almost a century later, this was the site of an even bloodier battle during the Second World War. Another half century later, the port of Sevastopol became a bone of contention between Ukraine and Russia, which expended great effort to peacefully resolve their dispute.

Malakhov Kurgan still looks down on the city, surrounded by memories of battles long passed. Among these, one of the bloodiest and most tragic was that of August 27, 1855, when Russian troops, with clenched jaws and under the fire and smoke of a relentless barrage, retreated from the hill that they had defended for 349 days.