The Plevna Mystery

An unusual street name leads us on an historical journey

©2006 David M Kidd Eighth Edition: 2026

I grew up in Plevna Terrace in Bingley, England, and, as children do, never thought about what Plevna meant, until by accident I came across it in an historical atlas. There it was on the map, in Bulgaria, near the Danube River. And it said there had been a battle there in 1877 in which the town was taken from the Turks by the Russians after a siege of 143 days. Since our house in Bingley was built in the Victorian period, it seems our street was named after that battle. However, since it was a battle that did not involve Britain at all, why was it so named?

PLEVNA STATISTICS

July 20-December 10 1877
Casualties
Russian 38,000 killed, wounded or captured
Turkish 45,000 killed, wounded or captured
Results

“The siege had held up the main Russian advance into Bulgaria and captured the world's admiration. ”

Osman Pasha was tied down to Plevna by orders from the Sublime Porte in Constantinople.

THE TURKISH VERSION

Then I found a Turkish description of the battle:

"a handful of soldiers of a bedraggled army of Turks stopped cold the enormous forces of the Czar of Russia.... Pinned-down by a huge infantry surrounding them, being bombarded day and night by heavy artillery positions from all sides. They were cut off from all civilisation”.

The first Russian attack failed.... Europe was electrified by the news of Russian defeat at Plevna. People could hardly believe that the mighty Russian hordes had been defeated by a handful of Turks. The name of Osman Pasha rang throughout the world.... The Czar gave orders for Plevna to be starved into submission. Thousands and thousands of fresh Russian troops were brought to the scene for the purpose of encircling and blockading the little town.
Days followed into weeks, weeks, into months. The siege continued. Food and fuel supplies quickly ran out in Plevna.... The living were forced to eat the soles of their shoes to stay alive.

On December 10 the last battle of Plevna occurred. [Outnumbering the Turks almost 5 to 1, the Russians drove the Turks back across the Vid and wounded Osman in the process.] Believing that Osman was dead and not just wounded, the grief-stricken Turkish soldiers were in disarray.... surrendered to the Russians. All Europe was entranced by the heroism of Osman Pasha and his men. ”

“All over the continent of Europe, especially in England, hundreds upon hundreds of newborn babes were named after the Turkish general: Osman Pasha the "Turkish Tiger, who tamed the Russian bear."

But were English babies really named after Osman Pasha? Was that true or a wild exaggeration? I have found none in any reigister, However one of our readers has found a baby being named after Plevna: "My grandmother's cousin was named Plevna Mary Davies. She was born in Newcastle Emlyn, Carmarthenshire, Wales in the last quarter of 1883..

WE ARE NOT ALONE

I found that my house was not alone In the rest of Britain I have found, so far

Plevna Terrace, Great Yarmouth
Plevna Terrace, Sunderland, Durham
Plevna Terrace, Tywyn Wales
Plevna Street, Poplar, London E14
Plevna Street, Hartlepool
Plevna Street, Bolton, Lancs BL2 2BY
Plevna Road, Hampton Village, Middlesex
Plevna Road, Enfield, London
Plevna Road, Edmonton, London N9 0BU
Plevna Road, Richmond, London TW12
Plevna Road. Stoke Newington, Middlesex
Plevna Place, Alton, GU34 2DS
Plevna Park, Edmonton, London
Plevna Park, Falls, Belfast, N. Ireland
Plevna Crescent, S.Tottenham, London N15
Plevna Crescent, Stoke-Newington
Plevna Crescent, Haringey

MY QUESTION

So I can understand that the Russians, Bulgarians Roumanians Finns and the Turks would honor their parts in the battle, but why did England commemorate it?
Why was my home named in honour of the Turks? Had the Russians had fallen out of favour since the passing of Catherine. Or was it partly named in favour of the Russians? I can hardly believe it was named with a double meaning. Can I sort this out: who was being honoured in the naming of Plevna Terrace in England? What quality of the battle was being commemorated by the naming of my home after it? Was it heroism?

BOTH SIDES

It seems as if both sides are proud of this massacre. I came across two places named after Plevna in honor of the Russian side

"Plevna Chapel on St Elijah's Square in Moscow, opened in 1882, commemorates the Russian soldiers who died in the Battle of Pleven."

"A large new factory building, completed in 1877, of the Finlayson & Co cotton mill in Tampere, Finland was named Plevna commemorating the battle and the Guard of Finland that took part on the Russian side.

OTHER PLEVNAS

I have found five Plevnas in the Americas:
Plevna Montana MT59344 population 138,
Plevna Kansas KS67568 population 99,
Plevna North Madison County AL, and
Plevna in Missouri MO67568 population 0.
There is a larger Plevna in Ontario KOH 2MO population well over 200.
Also I have found a Plevna Court in Parkwood, Perth, Australia.

Why were they so named? I expected some Plevnas would be named by Bulgarians immigrants but all the explanations I've received tell otherwise: The residents of Reno County Kansas say their Plevna's founders were Germans and the town was first mentioned in 1879, so that leans towards the named-for-the-battle theory.
In 1877 the town of Buckshot, Ontario had to change its name but there was so much argument about it that a resident said this reminded him of the conflict in Plevna -- hence the name: Plevna Ontario
Some of the people of Plevna, North Madison County, Alabama have celebated leaving it with a tune. Listen here to SlipJig playing "Leaving Plevna" available at iTtunes

STILL THE QUESTION

Still my question remains unanswered: why this commemoration of a foreign war? Must we go further back in history to understand the circumstances? For the circumstances that brought about the situation in Plevna we must look back a long way.

THE TURKISH PAST

How did the Turks get there? In 1300 The Turks were fleeing from the advance of the Mongols when they settled in Asia Minor. And when the Byzantine Empire fell they took Constantinople in 1453. By 1541 they had conquered Hungary and by 1683 had conquered nearly all the land surrounding the Black Sea. The Russo-Turkish border then lay by the Dnieper river in the Ukraine. However the Ottoman Empire then began to decline. Here we go back to Catherine the Great when in 1770 with the aid of English officers her fleet defeated the Turks to conquer the Black Sea, determining Turkey's decline as "the sick man of the Bosphorus". In 1783 Russia annexed the Crimea and Potemkin developed the "New Russia" there, and soon took the entire Northern coast of the Black Sea as Russian, and so it remains to this day.

CRIMEAN WAR

In 1853 Russia wanted to push further South but by this time England had switched sides. In the 1840s Palmerston and other British leaders expressed fears of Russian encroachment upon its Empire in India and Afghanistan, and advocated finding an opportunity to weaken this threat. Britain had opposed Russia occupying Constantinople as it feared this would lead to Russia dominating the Near East.

When the Tsar sent his troops into the "Danubian Principalities" the United Kingdom, seeking to maintain the security of the Ottoman Empire, sent a fleet to the Dardanelles, where it was joined by another fleet sent by France. At the same time, however, the European powers hoped for a diplomatic compromise. The representatives of the four neutral Great Powers - United Kingdom, France, Austria and Prussia - met in Vienna, where they drafted a note which they hoped would be acceptable to Russia and Turkey.. [but they did not agree]. The United Kingdom and France set aside the idea of continuing negotiations, but Austria and Prussia wanted to continue the diplomatic process. [Although Austria did not declare war it refused to guarantee its neutrality. Russia feared that Austria would enter the war] The Sultan declared war, his armies attacking the Russian army near the Danube. Russia responded with warships, destroyed the entire Ottoman fleet, thereby making it possible for Russia to land and supply its forces on the Turkish shores fairly easily. The destruction of the Turkish fleet and the threat of Russian expansion alarmed both the United Kingdom and France, who stepped forth in defence of the Ottoman Empire. In 1854, after Russia ignored an Anglo-French ultimatum to withdraw from the Danubian principalities, the United Kingdom and France declared war.<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_War>

Austria occupied the Danubian principalities. In 1854 British and French Solders landed in the Crimea: siege of Sebastapol [home of the Tsar's Black Sea fleet]. An Allied victory but losses of 150,000 men owing to cholera and the winter cold. 1856 Peace of Paris: Russia lost the Danube Delta, the Black Sea was neutralized, and a European protectorate of Turkish Christians with a guarantee of the integrity of the Ottoman Empire and Danubian Principalities. <The Anchor Atlas of World History p.69>

CONSEQUENCES FOR BRITAIN

Crimea showed that Britain lacked an experienced land army. .... During the war, over 26,000 British troops were estimated to have been killed. The result was inconclusive, and... the only major result of the war was to forestall the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire for several decades more. The Crimean War revealed Britain to be an economic and social power, but a rather weak military power...... Thus, after the Crimean debacle, Britain avoided major military engagements with the major powers, relying instead on the strategies of balance of power and spheres of influence to exert her global geopolitical power and influence.... The period that resulted was termed the era of "splendid isolation" wherein Britain avoided major conflicts.

RUSSIA

Russia lost prestige as a result of defeat in the 1854-56 Crimean War.... and resented restrictions on movements in the Black Sea, which were part of the 1856 treaty... Russia wanted to send warships through the Bosphorus.... Russia regarded itself as leader of the Pan-Slav movement and thought it had a mission to liberate Balkan Christians from Ottoman oppression.

THE BRITISH CONNECTION AT LAST

Finally I stumbled across the historical connection with England:
In Turkey about 1875 was formed the party of Young Turkey, desirous of reforming the empire on the European model. Two sultans, Abdul-Aziz and Murad, were successively deposed. A new sultan, Abdul-Hamid, proclaimed on 23 Dec 1876 a constitution resembling the European with a parliament and responsible ministers; but the reforming grand vizier Midhat Pasha was strangled, and the opening of parliament was no more than a comedy. Europe decided to act, and in 1877 Russia took the lead and sent an army across the Balkans, after the difficult siege of Plevna, and would have entered Constantinople had it not been for the intervention of the English fleet.

So there we have British participation at last, it was the British Navy not the Army who makes our link with Plevna.

IN MORE DETAIL

The siege had held up the main Russian advance into Bulgaria and captured the world's admiration. The fall of Pleven freed up Russian reinforcements... who decisively defeated the Turks in the fourth battle of Shipka Pass....began to move southeast towards Constantinople. Blocking the route was the Turkish fortress at Plovdiv under Suleiman Pasha. On January 17, 1878 Gourko stormed the city. The defenses of Plovdiv were strong but superior Russian numbers overwhelmed the defenses and the Turks retreated almost to Constantinople. At this time foreign powers intervened and Russia agreed to the Treaty of San Stefano. ~wikipedia