The order to refuse the admittance of Ypsilantis’ rebels certainly put Sabaneev and
Inzov, who were noted for their sympathy towards the Balkan Christians, in a difficult
position.(41) When the first reported instance of an attempt by rebels to enter Bessarabia
arose in April, both did their best to persuade Wittgenstein to admit them. Sabaneev wrote
of three armed rebels who were requesting refuge. He accepted that Wittgenstein’s
instructions of 26 March OS forbade the acceptance of revolutionaries, but pointed to a
supposedly contradictory instruction in the same order by which Balkan refugees were to be
accepted ‘in order to save their lives’.(42) Wittgenstein’s reply was non-committal. It
made no mention of the case in hand and gave only an abstract formula. All rebels
‘especially the leading ones and those who are armed’ are not to be accepted but that
‘private persons are to be accepted without discrimination as we have no means of
establishing with accuracy which of them participated in the revolt’.(43) Sabaneev
interpreted these instructions as permitting the acceptance of the rebels.(44) In May,
Sabaneev received a further request for sanctuary from 300 rebels. He declared his
readiness to grant it in the event of ‘necessity’, that is in order to save their lives. He,
however, set down two preconditions; the rebels had to ‘firstly, lay down their weapons
and, secondly, submit themselves to our cordon guards and remain there’.(45) Sabaneev
understood that as long as the rebels disarmed and caused no trouble in Russian territory he
could justify their admittance on the grounds of saving their fives. Thus of the many
thousands of refugees accepted by the Second Army between March and November 1821
there is little doubt that this number included many rebels.(46)
Whilst the military authorities in Bessarabia were dealing with the practical
problems of the influx of refugees, Russia’s diplomats in the capital were deciding the
question of war or peace. Alexander’s initial hostility to the Greek revolt had by the end of
April been greatly reduced. For following the spread of the revolution from the
Principalities to the Morea on 25 March OS, the Porte began exacting reprisals on its
Christian population with an ever-increasing barbarity. Its army ravaged the Principalities
whilst in the capital the Greek Patriarch Gregory V was executed and many Orthodox