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150-ANNIVERSARY OF CRIMEAN WAR (1854 – 2004).
The Crimean war was fought between Imperial Russia on one side and an alliance of France, the United Kingdom, the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the Ottoman Empire on the other. The majority of the conflict took place on the Crimean Peninsula, with additional actions occurring in western Turkey, the Baltic Sea region, and in the Russian Far East.
In the first half of the 19th century, the Czar was the leading proponent of the Holy Alliance, intent to guarantee the inviolability of the political order of Europe. In Asia, however, Russia pursued a policy of expansion, which was successful especially in the Caucasus region, but also in Central Asia, where the Elder Horde of the Kazakhs was subjugated in 1847.
Britain eyed at Russian expansion with suspicion, fearing that Russia might at one time gain access to the world's oceans and challenge British supremacy on the sea.
In December 1852 the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, responding to a French request, transferred the key to (and control over) the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (hitherto Orthodox) to the Catholic Church. Russia, claiming to be the protector of the Orthodox christians living in the Ottoman Empire, demanded it to be restored to the Greek Orthodox Church. Britain and France were opposed to an expansion of Russian influence in the region and dispatched a fleet to the Dardanelles (June 1853); in August, the Russians occupied the Duchies of Moldavia and Wallachia.
In October 1853 the Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia. In January 1854 the Anglo-French fleet entered the Black Sea. On March 28, 1854 Britain and France declared war on Russia.
Savoy-Piemont-Sardinia joined the British and French in 1855. Russian Czar Nicholas I. died in 1855 and was succeeded by Alexander II. When Austria threatened to enter the war on the side of Russia's enemies in an ultimatum (Dec. 16th 1855), Russia accepted the peace conditions.
Russian forces laid siege to Silistria (Dobruja, April 14th-June 26th, broken off). On July 28th they withdraw across the Pruth River. On September 14th the allied landed on the Crimea peninsula, 60,000 men strong. The Battles of Alma (Sept. 20th), Balaclava (Oct. 25th) and of Inkerman (Nov. 5th) end in allied victories, though not without significant losses, and not decisive. Sevastopol was repeatedly bombarded; on Sept. 9th 1855 it was evacuated by the Russians.
All belligerents suffered considerably from infectious diseases (Disentery, Cholera).
Being granted benevolent neutrality by Sweden, the British fleet established a base at Farösund (Gotland). From there it sailed off to Kronstadt outside St. Petersburg (June 26th 1854) where little could be achieved due to sea mines produced by the factory of Alfred Nobel's father. On August 16th 12,000 French soldiers took Bomarsund fortress on the Åland Islands; the bombardment of Sveaborg (Finland) August 9th 1855 was of limited success.
British warships even appeared in the White Sea off Archangelsk, and hunted Russian ships along the coast of the Far East. A Peace Treaty was signed in Paris on March 30th 1856. Sevastopol was returned to Russia, which in turn returned the Kars district (taken Nov. 25th 1855) to the Ottoman Empire and a small coastal strip in Bessarabia to Moldavia; Wallachia and Moldavia were granted political autonomy (independence in all but by name. The Åland Islands remained Finnish (i.e. Russian), but were demilitarized.
The Crimean War had ended Russia's illusion of a working Holy Alliance. With Russia giving up the idea, the Alliance effectively ended. Russia was disappointed about the opportunistic position taken by Austria, which in 1848/49 had accepted Russian aid which had been given to them selflessly without conditions attached.
Russia also realized that in order to keep up with the western powers militarily and economically, it had to enter on a modernization course; one of the major steps in this direction was the Liberation of the Serfs in 1861.

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1. Bailiwick of Guernsey. The battle of Alma. September 20, 1854.
2. Alderney. The battle of Inkerman. November 5, 1854.
3. Bailiwick of Jersey. The battle of Balaclava. October 13, 1854.

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