The Last Victory of the Crimean Yurt: The Battle near Migeya Tract on June 7 (18), 1769

The article is devoted to one remarkable and dramatic, but still completely unknown combat episode from the history of the initial period of the Russo-Turkish war of 1768–1774, the battle at Migeya Tract in the summer of 1769 between two regiments of light cavalry of the Russian 2nd army and the vastly superior cavalry forces of the Crimean Khanate. As a result of the mistakes of their command and the fatal coincidence of a number of circumstances, the Russian regiments were surrounded by Tatars on the banks of the Southern Bug and tried to defend themselves in wagenburg. Despite of their fierce resistance, it was taken by storm, and most of the Russian detachment was destroyed. This was the last victory in history of the armed forces of the Crimean Khanate in a field battle. The tragedy at Migeya led to an official investigation of the surviving officers and lower ranks of the two defeated Russian regiments. The materials of their interrogations contain valuable factual and psychological details related to the events of that battle. The circumstances of the fighting at Migeya reflected both: some of the strengths of the armed forces of the Crimean Khanate in the last period of its existence, and natural shortcomings of semi-regular cavalry units guarding the borders of Russian Ukraine – Company Cossacks and settled lancers regiments. Also, the events at Migeya are a remarkable episode from the history of the command of General Count P.A. Rumyantsev of the Russian 2nd army in Ukraine in the campaign of 1769, and his reaction to what happened adds new details to his portrait as a commander and a human. The article is based on previously unpublished documents from the collections of the Russian State Military Historical Archive (RGVIA). The most important of them, Rumyantsev’s report and an extract from the interrogations of the participants of that battle, are published in the appendix to the article.