Russian scholars blame Vatican for unleashing Crimean War

As Russia prepared to mark the 150th anniversary of the heroic defense of its southern port of Sevastopol, Russian historians released sensational archive data refuting the traditional interpretation of the reasons and outcome of the Crimean War (1853-1856), RIA-Novosti reported Wednesday.

Scholars have discovered sensational documents at the Foreign Ministry’s archives of the Russian Empire, Sheremet’s colleague, historian-orientalist Mikhail Yakushev added. Those papers shed light on the conflict between Pope Pius IX and Napoleon III, on the one hand, and the Orthodox clerics of the Jerusalem Church and Emperor Nicholas I, on the other.

“It was that inter-clerical strife concerning the Holy places in Jerusalem and Bethlehem, that flared up in the year 1850 had triggered the Crimean war,” Yakushev said.

Archive data show that the Greek hierarch, being aware of the Sultan Abdul Mejid plan to sacrifice the interests of his subjects — Orthodox believers in favour of foreigners (Catholics) — urged Russia to protect the Orthodox Church.

Those data give us a chance to look at the Crimean War from a different angle, the scholars say. “That was not a war for the ’selfish ends of the Tsar’, but a ’holy war’ for Christian sanctuary, for the keys to the Temple of the Holy Sepulcher and the Temple of Bethlehem, the war against discrimination of Orthodox communities in Jerusalem and the Orient,” Alexander Melnik, head of the Center of the National Glory of Russia, said.

The Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia in 1853 upon enlisting support from England and France.