The Aftermath of the Orlov Revolt in the Venetian Ionian Islands: Outlaw Nicolin Fortuni and the Question of Russophile Influence

Abstract:In 1770, in the immediate aftermath of the Orlov Revolt in the Ottoman Peloponnese, islanders from Zante and Cephalonia, subjects of the Venetian Republic who were involved in the uprising, were driven back to their homelands by the Muslim Albanian contingents that fought against them. Upon their return, these individuals challenged the islands' social order and controlling them became a matter of high priority for the local authorities. One such individual was the peasant Nicolin Fortuni, who, after leading the islanders' invasion of Ottoman Gastouni in March 1770, returned to Zante and became a notorious brigand. A reconstruction of Fortuni's activities after the revolt offers new insights into the birth of Ionian Russophilism before the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797.