event
Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78
the Russo-Turkish war
also: русско-турецкая война
The war in which Russia, supporting Balkan Christian uprisings against Ottoman rule, defeated the Ottoman Empire; obsessively followed in the Russian press of the period and referenced here as the era's stock topic of amateur political talk.
Reading notes
- Out of the Frying Pan into the Fire §27 Russo-Turkish war
The 1877-78 war in which Russia, backing Balkan Christian uprisings against Ottoman rule, fought and defeated the Ottoman Empire -- a conflict followed obsessively in the Russian press and, per this story, in provincial taverns and choir lofts alike.
- Frost §33 the last Russo-Turkish war
The governor's own war memory -- a night spent motionless for thirteen hours in the snow under fire discipline -- is offered as his contribution to the men's shared exchange of frost-survival stories, putting an aristocrat's wartime hardship alongside a merchant's childhood poverty as equally real, if very differently caused, suffering.
- This and That §25 Russo-Turkish campaign
The Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, still recent news when Chekhov wrote this; the officer's second maiming occurs during it, at the storied siege of Plevna.
- A Living Chronology §47 captured Turks
Turkish prisoners of war quartered in provincial Russian towns after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 -- the reference anchors Sharamykin's story chronologically, then promptly gets lost in his contradictory dates.