Lieutenant Colonel Nazar Karazin: An Adventurer in the Service of Catherine II, and the Anti-Ottoman Conspiracy in the Shadow of the Monastery Walls
Vasily B. Kashirin
Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences
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Hungarian Historical Review Volume 15 Issue 2 (2026): 163-187 DOI 10.38145/2026.2.163
The eighteenth century was a “golden age” of adventurers, impostors, and mystifiers in Europe. It was also the era when the Russian Empire began an offensive policy in the Black Sea and Balkan region. It is not surprising that several extraordinary travelers and adventurers were associated with the Russian service in this area. Nazar Aleksandrovich Karazin (1731–1783) was an ethnic Bulgarian, a lieutenant colonel in the Russian service, intelligence officer, and secret emissary of Catherine II in the Danubian Principalities on the eve of the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774. The son of a native of the Balkans, Karazin participated in all major battles of the Russian army in the Seven Years’ War in the ranks of the multinational Serbian Hussar Regiment, and retired with the rank of second major. In early 1768, he went on a trip to Bulgaria to claim an inheritance. Traveling as a private individual in Wallachia, Karazin, posing at his own initiative as a secret emissary of the Russian Empire, established secret contacts with representatives of the Russophile party in the high boyars and clergy of the principality. Without having the authority to do so, he reached a preliminary agreement with them on joint actions against the Ottomans in the event of the outbreak of a Russo-Turkish war. Returning to Russia Karazin presented his own project for organizing an anti-Ottoman uprising in the Balkan region. Catherine II approved the project, and in February 1769, Karazin, disguised as an Orthodox monk, set out from Kyiv on a solo journey back to Bucharest. He carried printed manifestos from Catherine II to the Balkan Slavs, and a large sum of gold. Traveling alone and on foot Karazin reached Bucharest, where he reestablished contact with the anti-Ottoman party and then returned safely. In November, at his own initiative, he even occupied Bucharest with his troops. The history of his activities provides a vivid example of how a lone adventurer can exert significant individual influence on the course of a war, and how the transnational network of Orthodox Church helped these efforts.
This article draws on previously unknown documents from the collections of the Russian State Military Historical Archive, the Russian Archive of Ancient Documents, and the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire.
Keywords: Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774, Russian Empire, Principality of Wallachia, Catherine II, Russian intelligence, secret diplomacy