Day of Remembrance of Russian soldiers who fell during the defense of Sevastopol and in the Crimean War of 1853-1856

On September 9, Russia celebrates the Day of Remembrance of Russian soldiers who fell during the defense of Sevastopol and in the Crimean War of 1853-1856 The greatest importance is attached to this holiday on the peninsula itself, where mass events are held It was the Russian community of Crimea that initiated the addition of an official holiday to the calendar in 1995, exactly 140 years after the end of the Crimean War The history of Russia remembers many dates that changed its course and influenced the further development of the entire country It contains references to these special events, which even today determine the national identity of Russians and instill in them pride in the courage and dedication of their ancestors Some milestones of history are covered with the dust of time and fade after a few centuries So that the memory of them does not sink into oblivion, official holidays are added, which become a living reminder to contemporaries of the affairs of bygone days It is to them that September 9 can be attributed In the Crimean War, the Russian Empire fought against an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, Sardinia and Great Britain By that time, our power wanted to gain a foothold on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus and the Balkans In the future, the Russian Empire could gain exclusive control over the entrance to the Black Sea if it reached the Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits In fact, the state had every chance of appropriating the sea, which would become its internal reservoir Naturally, many Western countries could not allow such a development of events, so they joined forces and opposed the Russian Empire in the hope of reducing its ambitions and satisfying their own Among the main strategic goals of the enemy coalition was absolute dominance in the Black Sea region, the Caucasus, Vladivostok and the Balkans Although the war is called the Crimean, the fighting took place not only in the Black Sea, but also in the White, Azov, Baltic, Barents Seas and even in the Kuril Islands and Kamchatka The conflict was given this name because it was in Crimea that it reached its climax War was declared first by Turkey, and then by France and Great Britain due to the refusal of the Russian emperor to withdraw his troops from Wallachia and Moldavia As the conflict developed, enemy troops managed to gain a foothold in the Black Sea region, and in the meantime, the Russian army won a number of significant victories in the Caucasus, inflicted serious damage on the Turks and recaptured the city of Kars The opponents decided to take advantage of the situation and landed in Crimea From this moment, a new page in the chronology of the military conflict opens and the heroic defense of Sevastopol begins, which, alas, ended in the complete defeat of our army This city was the central base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet The defense of Sevastopol lasted 349 days Only after the death of the Russian emperor, the opponents managed to advance and capture the southern part of the city The course of the war was largely influenced by the indecisiveness of the Russian command, which at times showed complete mediocrity and missed rare opportunities to take the initiative into their own hands and move from defense to offense A little later, coalition troops tried to capture Nikolaev, where the Black Sea Fleet units evacuated from Sevastopol were located The opponents were unable to pass through the Dnieper-Bug estuary, in which the Russians occupied mine and artillery defensive positions During the operation, coalition troops captured the Kinburn fortress, which they gave up without a fight a few months later In fact, these battles ended the entire conflict Military operations ceased on all fronts When the fighting fervor of the opponents died down, long preparations for peace negotiations began Russia backed down at the prospect of Austria joining the coalition In fact, our country was forced to conclude a peace treaty on unfavorable terms From that moment on, the Black Sea became neutral territory The Turks received the mouth of the Danube and southern Bessarabia A number of geopolitical restrictions were imposed on Russia, which took our country out of the game on the Balkan and Black Sea maps for several decades