Catherine the Great and the Dnipro Flotilla: River Power

The Romanov Dynasty: Rise, Power, and Bloody End — Fexingo History · Jul 9, 2026 · 6m · transcript

In 1736, during the Russo-Turkish War, the Russian Empire launched a surprising naval force on the Dnipro River: a flotilla of Cossack-style chaiky and newly-built galleys, designed by foreign engineers and crewed by Zaporozhian Cossacks and Imperial sailors. Catherine the Great, still a young Grand Duchess, observed the flotilla's construction and later, as Empress, would revive the river fleet for her Greek Project. This episode follows the flotilla's role in the sieges of Ochakiv and Kinburn, the strategic use of the Dnipro estuary, and the forgotten legacy of Russia's…