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People
Greek War Of Independence (1821-1829)
Lambros Katsonis (1752-1804)
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Lambros Katsonis {Λάμπρος Κατσώνης} (1752-1804) [Flags] [Odissefs Androutsos]. In 1787 when Императрица Екатерина ІІ Алексеевна Великая [Russian Alphabet] (1729-1796, Empress Ekaterina II Alekseevna the Great, of Russia) joined forces with Emperor Joseph of Austria to defeat the Ottomans, she sent Major Lambros Katsonis of the Russian army to Greece. He was originally from Livadia {Λειβαδιά}.
Having got together a small fleet with contributions made by the communities in Italy, Katsonis set sail for the Aegean Sea {Egeon Pelagos ~ Αιγαίον Πέλαγος}. There he beat the Ottoman fleet in many battles and reached the Dardanelles {Dardanellia ~ Δαρδανέλλια}. However, he was defeated in a battle in the Straits of Andros {Άνδρος} (1790) and lost his fleet. It is worth mentioning that this event gave rise to the humorous Greek saying, "If you dare Uncle Lambros, just come back again to Andros", that is to say "do that again and I'll show you".
Despite the fact that the Empress ordered him to stop hostilities as she had drawn up a peace treaty with the Ottomans, indifferently abandoning the Greeks whom she had previously incited to rebel, he was undeterred, got together a new fleet and landed 500 fighting men on Mani {Μάνη} with Georgios Andritsos {Γεώργιος Ανδρίτσος} as their leader. He was, however, surrounded by Ottoman war ships and two French single bank ships (fast, light war ships with one bank of oars) and had difficulty getting away from them to head back to Russia.
Andritsos fought his way across the Peloponnese {Peoloponnisos ~ Πελοπόννησος} and mainland Greece, and reached Corfu {Kerkira ~ Κέρκυρα}. But the Venetian overlords of the island delivered him to the Ottomans who drowned him in the Bosporus {Vosporos ~ Βόσπορος}.
Lambros Katsonis (1752-1804)
04-23-2004