 Complete the following phrase:  Peter the Great had succeeded in gaining a toehold in the south, on the edge of the Black Sea, in the Azov campaigns. Catherine completed the conquest of the south, making Russia the domit power in south-eastern Europe after the Russo-Turkish War of 17681774. Russia inflicted some of the heaviest defeats ever suffered by the Ottoman Empire, including the Battle of Chesma 57 July 1770 and the 