The new memorial plaque in Bulgaria's Black Sea town of Sozopol remembers the heroic defense of the town by Russians, Bulgarians, and Greeks against the Ottoman forces between February 16 and July 7, 1829. Photo by National History Museum
Bulgaria's Black Sea town of Sozopol inaugurated Monday a plaque in memory of the Russian soldiers and local volunteers who fought against Ottoman forces in the 1828-1829 Russo-Turkish War, the National History Museum announced.
The memorial plaque is a way of remembering the events of a largely forgotten episode of the Tenth Russo-Turkish War, when in 1828 Russia moved against the Ottoman Empire.
As the Russian troops got bogged down by Ottoman defenses in today's Northeast Bulgaria, the Russian command landed troops at the Black Sea town of Sozopol on February 16, 1829.
10 000 Russian troops and a regiment of 1 000 local Bulgarian and Greek volunteers defended Sozopol against Ottoman attacks for five months until in July of 1829, the Russian general Dibitsch Zabalkanskiy pushed back Ottoman Turkish forces, crossed into Southern Bulgaria and joint forces with the Sozopol troops.
The 1828-9 War ended with the Treaty of Adrianople, which gave Russia most of the eastern shore of the Black Sea and the mouth of the Danube, confirmed the autonomy of Serbia, Wallachia and Moldavia, and made Greece an independent state.
The memorial plaque inaugurated in Sozopol Monday is a gift to the town's residents by the Pliska Association, which is chaired by the Director of the National History Museum, Bozhidar Dimitrov, who himself is a native of Sozopol.