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Description

Rare battle plan showing the fortifications and envrions of Ochakiv and Kibour on the mouth of the Dniepr River, depicting the battle of July 3, 1737.

The plan shows two detachments of Russian forces as they prepare to attack the Turkish fortresses of Ochakiv and Kinburn from the north. A beautifully-rendered scene in the lower right depicts the actual investiture of one of the forts, while above, an angel holds aloft a general map of the Ukraine. From the lower left, a Turkish gentlemen regards the scene with a look of alarm.

Throughout the 18th Century Russia was engaged in an epic contest against the Ottoman Empire and their Tatar affilaites, for control of what is now the southern Ukraine. The Russians decided to throw massive resources towards prosecuting the Russo-Turkish War of 1735 to 1739. In 1736, Field Marshal Burkhard Christoph von Münnich, was placed in charge of a massive army of 60,000 men, and from Kiev they made steady progress down the Dnieper River.

The Russians' main targets were the Turkish-controlled fortresses of Ochakiv (called here 'Oczakow') and Kinburn (called here 'Kibour'), which guarded the mouth of the Dnieper at the Black Sea. Münnich successfully took the forts in July 1737. However, the Russian army had poor supply lines and was running desperately short of provisions, and so had to abandon the forts in 1738.

While Russia had, overall, bettered the Ottomans in the conflict, their Austrian allies had been decisively defeated by the Turks and Sweden threatened to attack Russia. This forced Russia to hastily sign the Treaty of Nis (1739), whereby she handed back most of her gains to the Ottomans in return for an immediate end to the conflict. The 1737 siege of Ochakiv became famous for its inclusion in one of the Baron Münchhausen tales.