Tucked away in the
car park of Finland’s Ministry of Defence is a little known
memorial to a little known battle.
I came across this
memorial doing research on the military of the Grand Duchy of
Finland. I knew that Finnish troops had seen limited service during
the Russian Empire era but wasn’t aware of any large scale battles.
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| The memorial as it stands today. Source: puolustusministeriö |
So recently I was
returning to Northern Ireland to visit family and thought I would see
if I could visit the memorial for pictures. However due to not being
a Finnish citizen and the area is classified as a military zone, I
wasn’t allowed to visit. Gratefully though the Public Affairs
Officer offered to send my a USB with pictures of the memorial for me
to use.
How it all arrived. Source: Personal Collection
The Russo-Turkish
War of 1877-78
The Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 is seen by many historians as the
most important war between the Russian and Ottoman Empires. The two
empires had clashed several times since the formation of the Russian
Empire in 1721, as well as numerous times before that. The main
reason for their conflicts was the gaining and regaining of
territories along each others borders but there was always underlying
and secondary factors as well.
The 18th and 19th centuries saw the mighty
Ottoman Empire in decline due to economic instability, internal
insecurity and outside influences. Within the multinational empire, a
growing nationalism resulted in several rebellions starting with the
Serbian Revolution of 1804-17. By 1875 the Ottoman Empire was in
bankruptcy, suffering from famine and strife, and thanks to the
abuses of the local leaders, Bosnia and Herzegovina broke out in
rebellion. This rebellion started the Balkan Crisis; the Bulgarian
Uprising of 1876, the Serbo-Turkish War 1876–78 and
Montenegrin–Ottoman War 1876–78.
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| Soliders of the Battalion taken shortly after the conclusion of the Battle of Gorni Dubnik. Source: Wikimedia |
Russia saw an opportunity to gain territory, as well as establishing
independent, Pan-Salvic Balkan nations to help secure their southern
borders. After some diplomatic maneuvering with the Austro-Hungarian
Empire, Russia declared war on the Ottomans on 24 April 1877 and sent
a force of 185,000 through the Turkish ruled Principality of Romania.
The Ottomans were overconfident and believed that a strategy of
passive defence focused around their forts equipped with superior
firepower coupled with the stereotype of Russian incompetence would
win them the day. It was not to be the case. While the campaign did
highlight massive flaws within the Russian military, caused higher
casualties and forced the Great Powers of Europe to intervene on side
of the Turks, the Russian military succeed in marching to the steps
of Constantinople. The end result of the war saw Romania, Serbia,
and Montenegro independence, regaining of Kars and Batum (which
Russia had lost during the Crimean War) and the establishing of the
Principality of Bulgaria.
The Battle of
Gorni Dubnik
The Russian military quickly advanced through Romania and crossed the
Danube, in response to this the Ottoman high command ordered Osman
Nuri Paşa to take his force of 15,000 to hold the fortress of
Nikopol. Before he could get there though, the fortress had been
captured by Russian forces and so Osman redirected his troops to the
town of Plevna. He knew the small rural town set within a deep rocky
valley would be on the route of the advancing Russians and so set
about making the area defensible. Almost overnight the area was
turned into a formidable redoubt, covered in trenches, earthworks and
gun emplacements. General Yuri Schilder-Schuldner of the Russian 9th
Division had been ordered to take his 9,000 strong division to take
the town of Plevna. When he arrived on the evening of the 19th
July he saw the impressive defences arrayed before him and told his
guns to begin their bombardment.
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| Map of the battle. The Finnish Guard can be seen on the bottom right of the picture. Source: Wikimedia |
The morning of the 20th July saw the beginning of a 5
month siege that dragged in approximately 200,000 soldiers and
resulted in the deaths of over 55,000. By the end of the summer, the
Russians had concluded that the town would not fall through means of
forced frontal assaults. With this in mind, a new strategy of
encirclement and cutting off the chains of supply was enacted. This
meant that the surrounding towns and villages needed to be brought
under Russian control. One of these was the village of Gorni Dubnik.
Gorni Dubnik was a small village which lay on the road between Plevna
and Sofia and thus made it a crucial communication line for the
Turkish forces besieged in Plevna. Ahmed Hifzi Pasha and his force of
7,000-10,000 men had built up a strong defence with two redoubts
encompassed with numerous entrenchments and had orders to hold at all
costs. The Russians brought some 20,000 troops with them, including
the Finnish Guards' Rifle Battalion, under the command of General
Iosif Vladimirovich Roman-Gurko. General Gurko planned the attack to
strike from three sides, the north-east, east and south-east, with
the advance starting at 7 in the morning of the 24 October 1877. The
Finnish Guards’ were part of the north-east advance and engaged the
enemy soon after. The engagement was bloody and the Russian forces,
which preferred the Suvorov doctrine of Cold Steel over long range
rifle fire, saw their casualties mount. However by 3 in the
afternoon, the decisive attack was launched, with all forces pushing
against the main redoubt. The battle became so intertwined by the two
opposing forces that the Russia guns were forced to cease fire for
fear of hitting their own men. After a viscous assault by infantry
and a heavy close range cannonade, the white flag was hoisted over
the burning garrison at 6 in the evening. The battlefield had claimed
over 850 Russian lives and over 1,000 Turkish lives.
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| Close up of the memorial. Source: puolustusministeriö |
For the Finnish Guard, they had suffered 22 dead and 95 wounded (two
of the wounded died soon afterwards). During the battle they had
fired some 1,850 shots and had advanced all the way to the redoubt.
This first blooding for the Battalion had a profound effect upon not
only the unit but upon the Finnish nation as a whole, who held the
battle up as an example of their loyalty to their Emperor and of the
bravery of the Finnish people. The Battalion saw itself used in a
handful of minor engagements after that, even making its way to San
Stefano by the end of the war. Due to their sacrifices, bravery and
loyalty, the Emperor promoted the Battalion to the status of the Old
Guards.
The Memorial
On the fourth anniversary of the battle a memorial was unveiled in
the courtyard of the Guards’ barracks. The work of Finnish Swede
Frans Anatolius Sjöström, it was placed as a monument to those who
gave their lives during the war but also as a place to celebrate the
courageousness of the Finnish Guard.
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| Close up of part of the memorial. Written first in Swedish and then Finnish, the dedication is for the remembrance of the fallen. Source: puolustusministeriö |
On the memorial is the names of 27 of the fallen (some died from a
later Typhoid fever epidemic) and sees a wreath laying twice a year,
on the anniversary of the battle and Liberation Day, Bulgaria’s
national day, 3rd March.
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| Some of the names upon the memorial. Source: puolustusministeriö |
Unfortunately the site is within the courtyard of the Ministry of
Defence and as such is a military area. This means it is a restricted
area, so please don’t attempt to visit without seeking permission
from the Ministry beforehand. A special thanks to the puolustusministeriö public affairs team for answering my email and providing a USB with the pictures.
Sources
Laitila, Teuvo, The Finnish Guard in the Balkans (Gummerus Oy,
Saarijärvi, 2003)
Luntinen, Pertti, The Imperial Russian Army and Navy in Finland
1808-1918 (Suomen Historiallinen Seura, Helsinki, 1997)
