ABSTRACT
In 1853-55 Russia was defeated in the Crimean war by the British, French, Ottoman and Sardinian forces which attacked Russia in the Baltic, Black, White and Azov Seas, in the Pacific and in the Crimea. The 1856 Peace of Paris stripped Russia of the means of defending the Black Sea coastline and left Russia Baltic coastline exposed to naval attacks. Russian political and military course in post-Crimean years responded to the need to forestall or divert threats from Britain in these regions. Britain and Russia found themselves in opposition during the 1870's Balkan crisis. British Russophobia, on the popular and political levels, encompassed the Russian government and nation. Russia was represented and imagined in Britain as the evil force looming over European civilization and progress. Sir Robert Morier was the first British ambassador in Russia to suggest in 1884 an understanding with Russia in Asia and in Europe to maintain Ottoman Empire and to share its inheritance when it collapsed.
