Fall of Özi to the Russians

Background. The Russo-Turkish War of 1787–1792 arose from an Ottoman attempt to regain lands lost to Russia in the previous war of 1768–1774. In 1787 the Ottomans demanded that Russia evacuate the Crimea and give up holdings near the Black Sea, which Russia treated as a casus belli; Russia declared war on 19 August 1787. The conflict ran alongside the Austro-Turkish War (1788–1791) and the Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790).

The Fortress and the Besieging Army. The Ochakov Fortress formed an irregular quadrangle of low bastions with a dry moat and glacis on the landward side and a simple stone wall facing the sea. By the time the Russians began the siege it was a strong fence, though unable to withstand an energetic storming for long. In 1788 Russian forces under Prince Grigory Potemkin, with General Alexander Suvorov commanding the left wing until injury, Prince Nikolai Repnin the center, and Ivan Möller the right wing, besieged the city held by Ottoman troops under Hüseyin Pasha, assisted at sea by Hasan Pasha.

Course of the Siege. Potemkin kept his soldiers out of direct battle to minimize Russian casualties, drawing accusations of cowardice from his generals, including Suvorov, while the Turks mounted sorties and interfered with the siege at sea. The Russians captured the strategically important Pirezin (Berezan) Island on 7 November 1788. A dispute within Russian headquarters over storming the fortress continued throughout the siege.

The Storm and Fall of the Fortress. With winter's arrival, Potemkin decided to halt the siege works and storm Ochakov on 17 December [O.S. 6 December] 1788. The storming ended in Russian success and the capture of Hüseyin Pasha, chief of the garrison. The Russians paid a high price, losing 15,000 men out of 40,000 during the siege.