Exactly 190 years ago, the London Protocol was signed, with which Russia, Britain and France recognized the independence of the new state of Greece. The return of the country of the Greeks to the map of Europe has been a long-standing dream of the monarchs of Russia, who saw the Greeks as Orthodox brothers and allies in the war with the Turks. But in the end Greek independence almost cost the Romanovs their very crown.
By Dmitriy Bavyrin
SOURCE:https://vz.ru/
TRANSLATION:SOTIRIS DIMOPOULOS
Beginning in 1801 and up until the fall of the monarchy, Russian emperors were called either Alexanders or Nicholas. But previously in the Romanov dynasty such names were not used and, taking into account in their case the reverence for traditions, they should not be used. This peculiar "revolution" was started by Catherine II , ordering that her grandchildren be given Greek names - Alexander (in honor of Alexander the Great), Konstantinos (in honor of Constantine the Great) and Nikolaos (from the Greek words "victory" and "people").
The issue was that the empress had an ambitious geopolitical plan, which, over time, became an almost obsessive idea:the revival of Byzantium in the form of the Greek Empire - a state allied to Russia, with the establishment of which the Ottoman Empire and Islam will be expelled from Europe.
This idea, looking at it from the 21st century, can be seen as extreme religious intolerance, but we must understand that the Ottoman empire was created and expanded on the idea of converting Europe and the entire then known world to Islam. However, the cultural-religious struggle was, for Catherine, largely an ideological construct – control of the Bosphorus was of much greater interest to Petrograd.
Catherine saw Constantine – her second grandson – as the future emperor of Greece which got this unusual name by this very calculation. That is, he intended to play "in the long run", but even so the realization of the "Greek plan" was greatly delayed due to the strong opposition of England and France. In London and Paris they feared the strengthening of Russia and considered the Sublime Gate - "the great patient of Europe" - as a necessary compensation in Petrograd.
A real opportunity to realize the dream of his beloved grandmother appeared to Emperor Alexander I only in the early 1820s when the Greek Revolution broke out in the Balkans. It is easy for someone who does not know Greek history to be led astray, saying, for example, that the revolution and what followed were the machinations of the Russian emperor. This is supposed to result from a simple enumeration of events, starting with the vision of Catherine II, which was not a secret to any of the European states.
The first president [governor] of the independent Greek republic became Ioannis Kapodistrias – a person close to the emperor, and foreign minister of the Russian Empire during the years 1816-1822. The revolution, which created this Republic, started with the rebellion of Alexander Ypsilantis – general of the Russian army and former aide to Alexander I. Finally, the "Friendly Society" organization, which played the role of the "brain" of the revolution and the organizational center, was created and was based in Odessa, Russia.
Today data of this kind would serve as strong evidence of the involvement of the "hand of Moscow". But the historical reality of the 1820s refutes this scenario. Greece began its renaissance and achieved its independence from the Turks against the will of the Russian emperor.
Alexander abandoned his grandmother's dream at the same time as the liberal notions of his youth, falling before the end of his life into depression and reaction. One version holds that he was finally disbanded by the mutiny of the Semyonovsky regiment of the Tsarist Guard, which he had personally commanded in the past. In any case, the emperor no longer saw the Ottoman Empire as his main enemy, but any revolution and upheaval.
The Porte remained a historical rival, but at the same time it was a legitimate monarchical authority, and the rebellious Greeks threatened to open "Pandora's box" and inspire rebellion in other peoples of the continent.
The Holy Alliance of Russia, Prussia and Austria established after the defeat of Napoleon was primarily an ideological scheme:the hegemonic houses of Eastern Europe agreed together to resist revolutions and to support in the struggle against them even those "colleagues » had not joined their alliance. And all this in the background of the Greek events - of the revolution itself. Alexander also fell under the influence of the Austrian chancellor and foreign minister Clemens von Metternich, known throughout Europe for his conservative views.
Even the cruelty of the Turks, who rushed at the heads of the orthodox Greeks, could not shake the new image of the world that the emperor had in his head. At that time, he already had little interest in Orthodoxy, and began to sympathize with the Quakers, who advocated the principle of non-violence unless it was necessary for self-defense. It therefore emerged that the Ottomans were acting in self-defense in this particular case.
Strictly speaking, Alexander was not against Greek independence - indeed he was for it, but on the condition that its leaders would not rebel and shed the blood of their oppressors. Needless to say, this was completely unrealistic and out of touch with real life.
Even when the Patriarch of Constantinople, Gregory V, was murdered and hanged at the gates of his house wearing his hierarchal vestments, Petropolis simply broke off relations with the Gate, but did not help the rebels. Kapodistrias, unreservedly loyal to his master, could not withstand the pressure of national sentiment (in other words - the conflict of interests) and asked to resign.
This attitude of Alexander turned against him a significant part of the Russian aristocracy and intelligentsia – the Greek struggle was liked by both Orthodox conservatives and liberal progressives, including for example Pushkin, who from then on thoroughly hated the "blessed" tsar.
In France and England, the social support of the Greeks took on colossal proportions. Many factors contributed to this - from the action of the Greek diaspora, which depicted the barbarities of the Turks (truly unimaginable) and the heroism of their compatriots, to the widespread fashion of the time for everything Greek, in architecture, philosophy or literature . The story of the poet and Lord George Byron, who bought a ship with his own money and went to fight for the Greeks, is known to everyone from school books.
Among them, and under the pressure of public opinion, the leading circles of England and France revised their views on Greek independence. A paradoxical situation arose, where the West and Russia began to deal with the Greek issue, as in the time of Catherine II, but with reversed roles.
London and Paris played an extremely skillful game, seeking, on the one hand, to draw Russia into resolving the conflict in favor of the Greeks, but, on the other hand, to prevent it from strengthening its positions in the region. In the end, it happened that way, but after the restoration to the Russian throne of Nicholas I. He revised his brother's policy in the Greek direction, much more so that it was now impossible to ignore the Turkish "meat machine" against the Christians of the Balkans.
The result was that Russia contributed to the victory of the Greek revolution (mainly politics) and won nothing for it. Supporting the emergence of independent Greece, the British were ready to give it a very small area with few points of strategic importance, and, of course, without Constantinople. Such a Greece would not be able to strengthen Russia, even if it wanted to stop being "obedient". 6-7 times fewer Greeks lived within the Greek state than outside the surrounding areas.
At the same time, Nicholas I fell headlong into the ideas and principles of the Holy Alliance to the great joy of Metternich, who had been severely disappointed by the success of the Greek rebels. The "holy allies" will then backstab Russia and deliberately work against her interests, but the new emperor could not do otherwise - basically, his big brother was right. The slogans of the Greek revolution, its enthusiasm, its songs and its exploits in contrast to the shameful position of the imperial house had a significant effect on the Decembrists.
The attempt at a revolution of our own was realized very soon, thanks also to the succession crisis, when the unborn Byzantine emperor Constantine ceded the power of Russia to his younger brother. With this uprising the Decembrists, according to Lenin's famous expression, "awakened Herzen". But they themselves were awakened by the Greeks.