Russia and the Making of Modern Greece, 1800-1850

The Greek War of Independence, 1821-1830, is usually viewed as resulting from French Revolutionary ideas about national liberation. This book takes a different view, arguing that the Greek nation developed out of a religious community, the Orthodox Christian millet of the Ottoman Empire, and that although revolutionary nationalism was important, the role of Eastern Orthodoxy was also extremely important, especially in shaping the identity of the Greek nation and the nature of the Greek state post-independence, and that Russia played a crucial role in all this. The book, based on extensive original research, explores Russia’s foreign policy towards the Ottoman Empire in this period, showing how an expected Russia invasion helped stimulate the Greek revolt of 1821, and how Tsar Nicholas I’s conservative principles of Orthodoxy, autocracy, nationality were embedded in the new Greek state, including in the autocephalous status of the Greek Orthodox Church, the first of the national Orthodox churches, an arrangement which brought about national unity of religion and state in the ＂sacred communion＂ of the nation. The book goes on to discuss how Russia-Greek and Russia-Ottoman Empire relations continued to develop as the ＂Eastern Question＂ unfolded in the run-up to the Crimean War, and how the new regime in Greece settled down in the decades after independence.

Lucien J. Frary is an Associate Professor of History at Rider University, Lawrenceville, New Jersey, USA