Captain Ivan Borisov on the island of Samos in August 1771. On the history of the Russian-Greek relations during the first Archipelago expedition

Abstract

The article considers the short staying of stay of the commander of the “Saint Ianuarius” ship, captain Ivan Borisov, on the Greek island of Samos in 1771. during the Russian-Turkish War of 1769–1774. The Russian naval forces were on the island for only about a month. But, thanks to the report of the ship commander preserved in the Russian State Naval Archives, we have the opportunity to analyze the social relations of the local villages among each other, as well as evaluate their attitude towards the Russian naval forces. The cited document shows that with apparent sympathy for Russia, there was no uniform opinion as regards whether to accept the patronage of the Russian Empire and whether to enter into open confrontation with Istanbul, in whose power they were. One part of the island’s population, including the clergy, had a conservative position and did not want to disrupt the more or less stable relations established with the Ottoman Empire. The other part was strongly opposed to such a position and persistently asked Borisov, as a representative of the Russian government, to take them as [Russian] subjects despite the threat of the punitive measures from Turkey in the future. That micro-narrative could be partially applied to the Greek people on the whole. Within that picture, the nature of such contradictory things becomes more clearly visible: on the one hand, it was the readiness of the Greeks to participate in the war on the Russian side, on the other – the failed uprising in the Peloponnese and the Russian ruling elite’s lack of understanding of the reasons of that failure.