Greece During the Crimean War

Abstract

The confessional clash in Palestine during the 1840s and 1850s evoked a potent element of Greek nationalism, and the Greek people exhibited unanimous sympathy for the Orthodox cause. The timing of the international quarrel in the Holy Land was precipitous. In March 1853 elaborate religious services and public festivities in Athens celebrated the anniversary of the Greek Revolution. Similar commemorations were prepared for the 400th anniversary of the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks. In the winter of 1853 and the spring of 1854, thousands of would-be Christian liberators, under the support of King Othon, secretly organized and executed an invasion of Epirus and Thessaly, both Ottoman provinces. The invasion enjoyed wide acceptance by the Russian state, the Russian Holy Synod and other tsarist institutions. The Russian press recounted tales of exceptional faith and bravery in Greece that paralleled reports about Russia's heroic performance in the Black Sea and Crimea. Prophecies, poems and learned essays sustained Greek expectations for Russian deliverance during the Eastern War. Whereas Russian aid was substantial, due to the distances involved and the allied intervention, the aid was insufficient to guarantee the success of the Greek irredentist drive at this moment in history.