HISTORY
OF CRIMEA
![](520px-Seas_Azov_and_Black.png)
Satellite
image of the Black Sea, with the lighter-colored Sea of Azov and
the Crimean peninsula in the center of the picture
The
recorded history of the Crimean Peninsula, historically known as
Tauris, Taurica, and the Tauric Chersonese (Greek: "Tauric
Peninsula"), begins around the 5th century BC when several
Greek colonies were established along its coast. The southern coast
remained Greek in culture for almost two thousand years as part
of the Roman Empire (47 BC – 330 AD), and its successor states,
the Byzantine Empire (330 AD – 1204 AD), the Empire of Trebizond
(1204 AD – 1461 AD), and the independent Principality of Theodoro
(ended 1475 AD). In the 13th century, some port cities were controlled
by the Venetians and by the Genovese. The Crimean interior was much
less stable, enduring a long series of conquests and invasions;
by the early medieval period it had been settled by Scythians (Scytho-Cimmerians),
Tauri, Greeks, Romans, Goths, Huns, Bulgars, Kipchaks and Khazars.
In the medieval period, it was acquired partly by Kievan Rus', but
fell to the Mongol invasions as part of the Golden Horde. They were
followed by the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire, which conquered
the coastal areas as well, in the 15th to 18th centuries.
In
1783, the Ottoman Empire was defeated by Catherine the Great. Crimea
was traded to Russia by the Ottoman Empire as part of the Treaty
provision. After two centuries of conflict, the Russian fleet had
destroyed the Ottoman navy and the Russian army had inflicted heavy
defeats on the Ottoman land forces. The ensuing Treaty of Küçük
Kaynarca forced the Sublime Porte to recognize the Tatars of the
Crimea as politically independent. Catherine the Great's incorporation
of the Crimea in 1783 from the defeated Ottoman Empire into the
Russian Empire increased Russia's power in the Black Sea area. The
Crimea was the first Muslim territory to slip from the sultan's
suzerainty. The Ottoman Empire's frontiers would gradually shrink,
and Russia would proceed to push her frontier westwards to the Dniester.
In
1921 the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was created.
This republic was dissolved in 1945, and the Crimea became an oblast
first of the Russian SSR (1945–1954) and then the Ukrainian
SSR (1954–1991). From 1991 the territory was covered by the
Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol City within independent
Ukraine. However, during the 2014 Crimean crisis, the peninsula
was taken over by Russia and a referendum on whether to rejoin Russia
was held. Shortly after the result in favour of joining Russia was
announced, Crimea was annexed by the Russian Federation as two federal
subjects: the Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol.
Prehistory
:
Archaeological evidence of human settlement in Crimea dates back
to the Middle Paleolithic. Neanderthal remains found at Kiyik-Koba
Cave have been dated to about 80,000 BP. Late Neanderthal occupations
have also been found at Starosele (c. 46,000 BP) and Buran Kaya
III (c. 30,000 BP).
Archaeologists
have found some of the earliest anatomically modern human remains
in Europe in the Buran-Kaya caves in the Crimean Mountains (east
of Simferopol). The fossils are about 32,000 years old, with the
artifacts linked to the Gravettian culture. During the Last Glacial
Maximum, along with the northern coast of the Black Sea in general,
Crimea was an important refuge from which north-central Europe was
re-populated after the end of the Ice Age. The East European Plain
during this time was generally occupied by periglacial loess-steppe
environments, although the climate was slightly warmer during several
brief interstadials and began to warm significantly after the beginning
of the Late Glacial Maximum. Human site occupation density was relatively
high in the Crimean region and increased as early as c. 16,000 years
before the present.
Proponents
of the Black Sea deluge hypothesis believe Crimea did not become
a peninsula until relatively recently, with the rising of the Black
Sea level in the 6th millennium BC.
The
beginning of the Neolithic in Crimea is not associated with agriculture,
but instead with the beginning of pottery production, changes in
flint tool-making technologies, and local domestication of pigs.
The earliest evidence of domesticated wheat in the Crimean peninsula
is from the Chalcolithic Ardych-Burun site, dating to the middle
of the 4th millennium BC.
By
the 3rd millennium BC, Crimea had been reached by the Yamna or "pit
grave" culture, assumed to correspond to a late phase of Proto-Indo-European
culture in the Kurgan hypothesis.
Antiquity
:
Tauri and Scythians :
![](519px-KulObaTreasure.jpg)
The
Scythian treasure of Kul-Oba, in eastern Crimea
In the early Iron Age, Crimea was settled by two groups: the Tauri
(or Scythotauri) in southern Crimea, and the East Iranian-speaking
Scythians north of the Crimean Mountains.
Taurians
intermixed with the Scythians starting from the end of 3rd century
BC were mentioned as Tauroscythians and Scythotaurians in the works
of ancient Greek writers.
The
origins of the Tauri, from which the classical name of Crimea as
Taurica arose, are unclear. They are possibly a remnant of the Cimmerians
displaced by the Scythians. Alternative theories relate them to
the Abkhaz and Adyghe peoples, which at that time resided much farther
west than today.
The
Greeks, who eventually established colonies in Crimea during the
Archaic Period, regarded the Tauri as a savage, warlike people.
Even after centuries of Greek and Roman settlement, the Tauri were
not pacified and continued to engage in piracy on the Black Sea.
By the 2nd century BC they had become subject-allies of the Scythian
king Scilurus.
The
Crimean Peninsula north of the Crimean Mountains was occupied by
Scythian tribes. Their center was the city of Scythian Neapolis
on the outskirts of present-day Simferopol. The town ruled over
a small kingdom covering the lands between the lower Dnieper River
and northern Crimea. In the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, Scythian Neapolis
was a city "with a mixed Scythian-Greek population, strong
defensive walls and large public buildings constructed using the
orders of Greek architecture". The city was eventually destroyed
in the mid-3rd century AD by the Goths.
Greek
settlement :
![](image.jpg)
Chersonesos
in modern Sevastopol
The ancient Greeks were the first to name the region Taurica after
the Tauri. As the Tauri inhabited only mountainous regions of southern
Crimea, at first the name Taurica was used only to this southern
part, but later it was extended to name the whole peninsula.
![](640px-Greek_colonies_of_the_Northern_Euxine_Sea_(Black_Sea).svg.png)
Greek colonies along the north coast of the Black Sea in
the 5th century BCE
Greek city-states began establishing colonies along the Black Sea
coast of Crimea in the 7th or 6th century BC. Feodosiya and Panticapaeum
were established by Milesians. In the 5th century BC, Dorians from
Heraclea Pontica founded the sea port of Chersonesos (in modern
Sevastopol).
In
438 BC, the Archon (ruler) of Panticapaeum assumed the title of
the King of Cimmerian Bosporus, a state that maintained close relations
with Athens, supplying the city with wheat, honey and other commodities.
The last of that line of kings, Paerisades V, being hard-pressed
by the Scythians, put himself under the protection of Mithridates
VI, the king of Pontus, in 114 BC. After the death of this sovereign,
his son, Pharnaces II, was invested by Pompey with the Kingdom of
the Cimmerian Bosporus in 63 BC as a reward for the assistance rendered
to the Romans in their war against his father. In 15 BC, it was
once again restored to the king of Pontus, but from then ranked
as a tributary state of Rome.
![](640px-Map_of_Colchis,_Iberia,_Albania,_and_the_neighbouring_countries_ca_1770.jpg)
The "Chersonesus Tauricus" of Antiquity, shown
on a map printed in London, ca 1770
Roman Empire :
![](640px-Fragment_of_a_marble_relief_depicting_a_Kore,_3rd_century_BC,_from_Panticapaeum,_Taurica_(Crimea)_(12853680765).jpg)
Fragment of a marble relief depicting a Kore, 3rd century BC, from
Panticapaeum, Taurica (Crimea), Bosporan Kingdom
In the 2nd century BC, the eastern part of Taurica became part of
the Bosporan Kingdom, before being incorporated into the Roman Empire
in the 1st century BC.
During
the AD 1st, 2nd and 3rd centuries, Taurica was host to Roman legions
and colonists in Charax, Crimea. The Charax colony was founded under
Vespasian with the intention of protecting Chersonesos and other
Bosporean trade emporiums from the Scythians. The Roman colony was
protected by a vexillatio of the Legio I Italica; it also hosted
a detachment of the Legio XI Claudia at the end of the 2nd century.
The camp was abandoned by the Romans in the mid-3rd century. This
de facto province would have been controlled by the legatus of one
of the Legions stationed in Charax.
Throughout
the later centuries, Crimea was invaded or occupied successively
by the Goths (AD 250), the Huns (376), the Bulgars (4th–8th
century), the Khazars (8th century).
Crimean
Gothic, an East Germanic language, was spoken by the Crimean Goths
in some isolated locations in Crimea until the late 18th century.
Middle
Ages :
Rus' and Byzantium :
In the mid-10th century, the eastern area of Crimea was conquered
by Prince Sviatoslav I of Kiev and became part of the Kievan Rus'
principality of Tmutarakan. In 988, Prince Vladimir I of Kiev also
captured the Byzantine town of Chersonesos (presently part of Sevastopol)
where he later converted to Christianity. An impressive Russian
Orthodox cathedral marks the location of this historic event.
At
the same time, the southern fringe of the peninsula was controlled
by the Byzantine Empire as the Cherson theme.
Mongol
invasion and later medieval period :
![](640px-THE_GENOESE_FORTRESS_IN_CAFFA.jpg)
Genoese fortress of Caffa
![](640px-Stary_Krym_Meczet_Chana_Uzbeka.jpg)
Khan
Uzbek Mosque 1314, Staryi Krym
Kiev lost its hold on the Crimean interior in the early 13th century
due to the Mongol invasions. In the summer of 1238 Batu Khan devastated
the Crimean peninsula and pacified Mordovia, reaching Kiev by 1240.
The Crimean interior came under the control of the Turco-Mongol
Golden Horde from 1239 to 1441. The name Crimea (via Italian, from
Turkic Qirim) originates as the name of the provincial capital of
the Golden Horde, the city now known as Staryi Krym.
The
Byzantines and their successor states (the Empire of Trebizond (1204–1461)
and the Principality of Theodoro (early 14th century–1475))
continued to maintain control over parts of southern Crimea until
the Ottoman conquest in 1475. In the 13th century the Republic of
Genoa seized the settlements which their rivals, the Venetians,
had built along the Crimean coast and established themselves at
Cembalo (present-day Balaklava), Soldaia (Sudak), Cherco (Kerch)
and Caffa (Feodosiya), gaining control of the Crimean economy and
the Black Sea commerce for two centuries.[citation needed]
In
1346 the Golden Horde army besieging Genoese Kaffa (present-day
Feodosiya) catapulted the bodies of Mongol warriors who had died
of plague over the walls of the city. Historians have speculated
that Genoese refugees from this engagement may have brought the
Black Death to Western Europe.
Crimean
Khanate (1441 – 1783) :
Crimea
in the middle of the 15th century
![](Crimean_Khanate_1600.gif)
The
Crimean Khanate in 1600
After the destruction of the Mongol Golden Horde army by Timur (1399),
the Crimean Tatars founded an independent Crimean Khanate under
Haci I Giray, a descendant of Genghis Khan, in 1441. Haci I Giray
and his successors reigned first at Qirq Yer, and from the beginning
of the 15th century, at Bakhchisaray.
The
Crimean Tatars controlled the steppes that stretched from the Kuban
and to the Dniester River, however, they were unable to take control
over commercial Genoese towns. After the Crimean Tatars asked for
help from the Ottomans, an Ottoman invasion of the Genoese towns
led by Gedik Ahmed Pasha in 1475 brought Kaffa and the other trading
towns under their control.
After
the capture of the Genoese towns, the Ottoman Sultan held Meñli
I Giray captive, later releasing him in return for accepting Ottoman
suzerainty over the Crimean Khans and allowing them rule as tributary
princes of the Ottoman Empire. However, the Crimean Khans still
had a large amount of autonomy from the Ottoman Empire, and followed
the rules they thought best for them.
Crimean
Tatars introduced raids into Ukrainian lands, in which they captured
slaves for on-sale. For example, from 1450 to 1586, eighty-six Tatar
raids were recorded, and from 1600 to 1647, seventy. In the 1570s
close to 20,000 slaves a year went on sale in Kaffa.
Slaves
and freedmen formed approximately 75% of the Crimean population.
In 1769 a last major Tatar raid, which took place during the Russo-Turkish
War, saw the capture of 20,000 slaves.
Tatar
incursions :
The Crimean Tatars as an ethnic group entered the Crimean Khanate
during the 15th to 18th centuries. They are descended from a complicated
mixture of Turkic peoples which settled in Crimea from the 8th century,
presumably also absorbing remnants of the Crimean Goths and the
Genoese. Linguistically, they are the related to the Khazars, who
invaded the Crimea in the mid 8th century, their language forming
part of the Kipchak or Northwestern branch of the Turkic languages,
although it shows substantial Oghuz influence due to historical
Ottoman Turkish presence in the Crimea.
A
small enclave of the Crimean Karaites, a people of Jewish descent
practising Karaism who later adopted a Turkic language, formed in
the 13th century. It existed among the Muslim Crimean Tatars, primarily
in the mountainous Çufut Qale area.
Cossack
incursions :
In 1553–1554 Cossack Hetman Dmytro Vyshnevetsky gathered together
groups of Cossacks and constructed a fort designed to obstruct Tatar
raids into Ukraine. With this action, he founded the Zaporozhian
Sich, with which he would launch a series of attacks on the Crimean
Peninsula and the Ottoman Turks. In 1774 the Crimean Khans fell
under Russian influence with the Treaty of Küçük
Kaynarca. In 1778 the Russian government deported numerous Greek
Orthodox residents from Crimea to the vicinity of Mariupol. In 1783
the Russian Empire annexed all of Crimea.
Russian
Empire (1783 – 1917) :
This
section does not cite any sources.
![](New_Russia_on_territory_of_Ukraine.jpg)
A map of what was called New Russia during the time of the
Russian Empire. Only the parts of New Russia that are now in Ukraine
are shown
The Taurida Oblast was created by a decree of Catherine the Great
on 2 February 1784. The center of the oblast was first in Karasubazar
but was moved to Simferopol later in 1784. The establishment decree
divided the oblast into 7 uyezds. However, by a decree of Paul I
on 12 December 1796, the oblast was abolished and the territory,
divided into 2 uyezds (Akmechetsky and Perekopsky) was attached
to the second incarnation of the Novorossiysk Governorate.
After
1799, the territory was divided into uyezds. At that time, there
were 1,400 inhabited villages and 7 towns—Simferopol, Sevastopol,
Yalta, Yevpatoria, Alushta, Feodosiya, and Kerch.
In
1802, in the course of Paul I's administrative reform of areas that
were annexed from the Crimean Khanate, the Novorossiysk Governorate
was again abolished and subdivided. Crimea was attached to a new
Taurida Governorate established with its centre at Simferopol. The
governorate included both the 25,133 km2 Crimea as well as 38,405
km2 of adjacent areas of the mainland. In 1826 Adam Mickiewicz published
his seminal work The Crimean Sonnets after traveling through the
Black Sea Coast.
By
the late 19th century, Crimean Tatars continued to form a slight
plurality of Crimea's still largely rural population but there were
large numbers of Russians and Ukrainians as well as smaller numbers
of Germans, Jews (including Krymchaks and Crimean Karaites), Bulgarians,
Belarusians, Turks, Armenians, and Greeks and Gypsies.
The
Tatars were the predominant portion of the population in the mountainous
area and about half of the steppe population. Russians were concentrated
most heavily in Feodosiya district. Germans and Bulgarians settled
in the Crimea at the beginning of the 19th century, receiving a
large allotment and fertile land and later wealthy colonists began
to buy land, mainly in Perekopsky and Evpatoria uyezds.
![](Malakhov1.jpg)
Detail of Franz Roubaud's panoramic painting The Siege of
Sevastopol (1904)
Crimean War :
The Crimean War (1853–1856), a conflict fought between the
Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British
Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Kingdom of Sardinia, and the Duchy
of Nassau, was part of a long-running contest between the major
European powers for influence over territories of the declining
Ottoman Empire. Russia and the Ottoman Empire went to war in October
1853 over Russia's rights to protect Orthodox Christians; to stop
Russia's conquests France and Britain entered in March 1854. While
some of the war was fought elsewhere, the principal engagements
were in Crimea.
Following
action in the Danubian Principalities and in the Black Sea, allied
troops landed in Crimea in September 1854 and besieged the city
of Sevastopol, home of the Tsar's Black Sea Fleet and the associated
threat of potential Russian penetration into the Mediterranean.
After extensive fighting throughout Crimea, the city fell on 9 September
1855.
The
war devastated much of the economic and social infrastructure of
Crimea. The Crimean Tatars had to flee from their homeland en masse,
forced by the conditions created by the war, persecution and land
expropriations. Those who survived the trip, famine and disease,
resettled in Dobruja, Anatolia, and other parts of the Ottoman Empire.
Finally, the Russian government decided to stop the process, as
the agriculture began to suffer due to the unattended fertile farmland.
![](627px-Swallow%27s_Nest_(Crimea)_2007.jpg)
The Swallow's Nest, a symbol of Crimea, one of the best-known, romantic
castles near Yalta. It was built in 1912 in the Neo-Gothic style
by the order of the Baltic German Baron Stengel. It was designed
by Russian architect Leonid Sherwood.
Potemkin sunk a submarine :
In 1909, the Russian battleship Potemkin accidentally sank a Russian
submarine.
Russian
Civil War (1917 – 1921) :
Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, the military and political
situation in Crimea was chaotic like that in much of Russia. During
the ensuing Russian Civil War, Crimea changed hands numerous times
and was for a time a stronghold of the anti-Bolshevik White Army.
It was in Crimea that the White Russians led by General Wrangel
made their last stand against Nestor Makhno and the Red Army in
1920. When resistance was crushed, many of the anti-Bolshevik fighters
and civilians escaped by ship to Istanbul.
Approximately
50,000 White prisoners of war and civilians were summarily executed
by shooting or hanging after the defeat of General Wrangel at the
end of 1920. This is considered one of the largest massacres in
the Civil War.
![](image1.jpg)
A 25-ruble banknote of the Crimean Regional Government
Crimea changed hands several times over the course of the
conflict and several political entities were set up on the peninsula.
These included :
•
Crimean People's
Republic—December 1917–January 1918—Crimean Tatar
government
• Taurida
Soviet Socialist Republic—19 March 1918 – 30 April 1918—Bolshevik
government
• Ukrainian
People's Republic—May 1918–June 1918
• First
Crimean Regional Government—25 June 1918 – 25 November
1918—German puppet state under Lipka Tatar General Maciej
(Suleyman) Sulkiewicz
• Second
Crimean Regional Government—November 1918–April 1919—Anti-Bolshevik
government under Crimean Karaite former Kadet member Solomon Krym
• Crimean
Socialist Soviet Republic—2 April 1919–June 1919—Bolshevik
government
• South
Russian Government—February 1920–April 1920—Government
of White movement's General Anton Denikin
• Government
of South Russia—April 1920 (officially, 16 August 1920)–16
November 1920—Government of White movement's General Pyotr
Wrangel
•
Bolshevik Revolutionary committee government—November 1920–18
October 1921—Bolshevik government under Béla Kun (until
20 February 1921), then Mikhail Poliakov
• Crimean
Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic—18 October 1921 –
30 June 1945—Autonomous republic of the RSFSR in the Soviet
Union
Soviet Union (1921 – 1991) :
Interbellum :
![](636px-Europe_map_1919.jpg)
London Geographical Institute's 1919 map of Europe showing
Crimea
![](image2.jpg)
Stalin
on board the "Red Ukraine" warship, Crimean coast near
the village of Mukhalatka, 1929
On 18 October 1921, the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
was created as part of the Russian SFSR which, in turn, became part
of the new Soviet Union. However, this did not protect the Crimean
Tatars, who constituted about 25% of the Crimean population, from
Joseph Stalin's repressions of the 1930s. The Greeks were another
cultural group that suffered. Their lands were lost during the process
of collectivisation, in which farmers were not compensated with
wages. Schools which taught Greek were closed and Greek literature
was destroyed, because the Soviets considered the Greeks as "counter-revolutionary"
with their links to capitalist state Greece, and their independent
culture.
From
1923 until 1944 there was an effort to create Jewish settlements
in Crimea. At one time, Vyacheslav Molotov suggested the idea of
establishing a Jewish homeland.
Crimea
experienced two severe famines in the 20th century, the Famine of
1921–1922 and the Holodomor of 1932–1933. A large Slavic
population influx occurred in the 1930s as a result of the Soviet
policy of regional development. These demographic changes permanently
altered the ethnic balance in the region.
World
War II :
During
World War II, Crimea was a scene of some of the bloodiest battles.
The leaders of the Third Reich were anxious to conquer and colonize
the fertile and beautiful peninsula as part of their policy of resettling
the Germans in Eastern Europe at the expense of the Slavs. The Germans
suffered heavy casualties in the summer of 1941 as they tried to
advance through the narrow Isthmus of Perekop linking Crimea to
the Soviet mainland. Once the German army broke through (Operation
Trappenjagd), they occupied most of Crimea, with the exception of
the city of Sevastopol, which was later awarded the honorary title
of Hero City after the war. The Red Army lost over 170,000 men killed
or taken prisoner, and three armies (44th, 47th, and 51st) with
twenty-one divisions.
The
"Big Three" at the Yalta Conference in Crimea: Winston
Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin
Sevastopol held out from October 1941 until 4 July 1942 when the
Germans finally captured the city. From 1 September 1942, the peninsula
was administered as the Generalbezirk Krim (general district of
Crimea) und Teilbezirk (and sub-district) Taurien by the Nazi Generalkommissar
Alfred Eduard Frauenfeld (1898–1977), under the authority
of the three consecutive Reichskommissare for the entire Ukraine.
In spite of heavy-handed tactics by the Nazis and the assistance
of the Romanian and Italian troops, the Crimean mountains remained
an unconquered stronghold of the native resistance (the partisans)
until the day when the peninsula was freed from the occupying force.
The
Crimean Jews were targeted for annihilation during Nazi occupation.
According to Yitzhak Arad, "In January 1942 a company of Tatar
volunteers was established in Simferopol under the command of Einsatzgruppe
11. This company participated in anti-Jewish manhunts and murder
actions in the rural regions."
In
1944, Sevastopol came under the control of troops from the Soviet
Union. The so-called "City of Russian Glory" once known
for its beautiful architecture was entirely destroyed and had to
be rebuilt stone by stone. Due to its enormous historical and symbolic
meaning for the Russians, it became a priority for Stalin and the
Soviet government to have it restored to its former glory within
the shortest time possible.[self-published source?]
Deportation
of Crimean Tatars :
On 18 May 1944, the entire population of the Crimean Tatars were
forcibly deported in the "Sürgün" (Crimean Tatar
for exile) to Central Asia by Joseph Stalin's Soviet government
as a form of collective punishment on the grounds that they allegedly
had collaborated with the Nazi occupation forces and formed pro-German
Tatar Legions. On 26 June of the same year Armenian, Bulgarian and
Greek population was also deported to Central Asia, and partially
to Ufa and its surroundings in the Ural mountains. By the end of
summer 1944, the ethnic cleansing of Crimea was complete. In 1967,
the Crimean Tatars were rehabilitated, but they were banned from
legally returning to their homeland until the last days of the Soviet
Union. The Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was abolished
on 30 June 1945 and transformed into the Crimean Oblast (province)
of the Russian SFSR.
1954
Transfer to Ukraine :
On
19 February 1954, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR
issued a decree on the transfer of the Crimean region of the RSFSR
to the Ukrainian SSR. This Supreme Soviet Decree states that this
transfer was motivated by "the commonality of the economy,
the proximity, and close economic and cultural relations between
the Crimean region and the Ukrainian SSR".
In
post-war years, Crimea thrived as a tourist destination, with new
attractions and sanatoriums for tourists. Tourists came from all
around the Soviet Union and neighbouring countries, particularly
from the German Democratic Republic. In time the peninsula also
became a major tourist destination for cruises originating in Greece
and Turkey. Crimea's infrastructure and manufacturing also developed,
particularly around the sea ports at Kerch and Sevastopol and in
the oblast's landlocked capital, Simferopol. Populations of Ukrainians
and Russians alike doubled, with more than 1.6 million Russians
and 626,000 Ukrainians living on the peninsula by 1989.
The
North Crimean Canal (in the Soviet Union – North Crimean Canal
of the Lenin's Komsomol of Ukraine) is a land improvement canal
for irrigation and watering of Kherson Oblast in southern Ukraine,
and the Crimean peninsula. The canal also has multiple branches
throughout Kherson Oblast and the Crimean peninsula.
The
construction preparation started in 1957 soon after the transfer
of Crimea of 1954. The main project works took place between 1961
and 1971 and had three stages. The construction was conducted by
the Komosomol members sent by the Komsomol travel ticket (Komsomolskaya
putyovka) as part of shock construction projects and accounted for
some 10,000 "volunteer" workers.
Autonomous
Republic within Ukraine (1991 – 2014) :
This
section needs additional citations for verification.
![](640px-Sarych_(Crimea).jpg)
Crimea's
southernmost point is the Cape of Sarych on the northern shore of
the Black Sea, currently used by the Russian Navy
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Crimea became part of the
newly independent Ukraine. Independence was supported by a referendum
in all regions of Ukrainian SSR, including Crimea. 54% of the Crimean
voters supported independence with a 60% turnout (in Sevastopol
57% supported independence). The percentage of the total Crimean
electorate that had voted for Ukrainian independence in the referendum
was 37%. In 1994, the legal status of Crimea as part of Ukraine
was backed up by Russia, who pledged to uphold the territorial integrity
of Ukraine in a memorandum signed in 1994, also signed by the US
and UK.
This
new situation led to tensions between Russia and Ukraine. With the
Black Sea Fleet based on the peninsula, worries of armed skirmishes
were occasionally raised. In August 1991, Yuriy Meshkov established
the Republican Movement of Crimea which was registered on 19 November.
On
2 September 1991, the National Movement of Crimean Tatars appealed
to the V Extraordinary Congress of People's Deputies in Russia demanding
the program how to return the deported Tatar population back to
Crimea. Based on the resolution of the Verkhovna Rada (the Crimean
parliament) on 26 February 1992, the Crimean ASSR was renamed the
Republic of Crimea. The Crimean parliament proclaimed self-government
on 5 May 1992. (which was yet to be approved by a referendum to
be held 2 August 1992 [clarification needed Did the referendum happen,
or was it cancelled?]) and passed the first Crimean constitution
the same day. On 6 May 1992 the same parliament inserted a new sentence
into this constitution that declared that Crimea was part of Ukraine.
On
19 May, Crimea agreed to remain as part of Ukraine and annulled
their proclamation of self-government. By 30 June, Crimean Communists
forced the Kiev government to expand on the already extensive autonomous
status of Crimea. In the same period, Russian president Boris Yeltsin
and Ukraine's Leonid Kravchuk agreed to divide the former Soviet
Black Sea Fleet between Russia and the newly formed Ukrainian Navy.
On 24 October, Meshkov re-registered his movement as the Republican
Party of Crimea – Party of the Republican Movement of Crimea.
On 11 December 1992, the President of Ukraine called the attempt
of "the Russian deputies to charge the Russian parliament with
a task to define the status of Sevastopol as an imperial disease".
On 17 December 1992, the office of the Ukrainian presidential representative
in Crimea was created, which caused wave of protests a month later.
Among the protesters that created the unsanctioned rally were the
Sevastopol branches of the National Salvation Front, the Russian
Popular Assembly, and the All-Crimean Movement of the Voters for
the Republic of Crimea. The protest was held in Sevastopol on 10
January at Nakhimov Square.
![](640px-Foros_in_02.jpg)
Interior of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, near
Yalta
On 15 January 1993, Kravchuk and Yeltsin in the meeting in Moscow
appointed Eduard Baltin as the commander of the Black Sea Fleet.
At the same time the Union of the Ukrainian Naval Officers protested
the Russian intervention into the Ukrainian internal affairs. Soon
after that there were more anti-Ukrainian protests led by the Meshkov's
party, the Voters for the Crimean Republic, Yedinstvo, and the Union
of Communists that demanded to turn Sevastopol under the Russian
jurisdiction and followed by the interview given by the Sevastopol's
Communist, Vasyl Parkhomenko, who said that the city's Communists
request to recognize the Russian as the state language and restoration
of the Soviet Union. On 19 March 1993, the Crimean deputy and the
member of the National Salvation Front, Alexander Kruglov, threatened
the members of the Crimean Ukrainian Congress not allow into the
building of the Republican Council. A couple of days after that,
Russia established an information center in Sevastopol. In April
1993, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence submitted an appeal to Verkhovna
Rada to suspend the Yalta Agreement of 1992 that divided the Black
Sea Fleet that was followed by the request from the Ukrainian Republican
Party to recognize the Fleet either fully Ukrainian or a fleet of
a foreign country in Ukraine. Also over 300 Russian legislators
called the planned Congress of Ukrainian Residents a political provocation.
On
14 April 1993, the Presidium of the Crimean parliament called for
the creation of the presidential post of the Crimean Republic. A
week later the Russian deputy, Valentin Agafonov, stated that Russia
is ready to supervise the referendum on Crimean independence and
include the republic as a separate entity in the CIS. On 28 July
1993, one of the leaders of the Russian Society of Crimea, Viktor
Prusakov, stated that his organization is ready for an armed mutiny
and establishment of the Russian administration in Sevastopol. In
September, Eduard Baltin accused Ukraine of converting some of his
fleet and conducting an armed assault on his personnel, and threatened
to take countermeasures of placing the fleet on alert.
![](Vladimir_Putin_18_April_2000-2.jpg)
Russian President Vladimir Putin laying wreaths at a monument
to the defenders of Sevastopol, April 2000
On 14 October 1993, the Crimean parliament established the post
of President of Crimea and agreed on the quota of the Crimean Tatars
representation in the Council to 14. The head of the Russian People's
Council in Sevastopol, Alexander Kruglov, called it excessive. The
chairman of the Tatar Mejlis, Mustafa Abdülcemil Qirimoglu,
used words "categorically against" in regards to the proposed
election for Crimean president on 16 January. He stated that there
cannot be two presidents in a single state. On 6 November, the Crimean
Tatar leader, Yuriy Osmanov was murdered. A series of terrorist
actions rocked the peninsula in the winter; among them were the
arson of the Mejlis apartment, the shooting of a Ukrainian official,
several hooligan attacks on Meshkov, the bomb explosion in the house
of a local parliamentary, the assassination attempt on a Communist
presidential candidate, and others. On 2 January 1994, the Mejlis
announced a boycott of the presidential elections, which were later
canceled. The boycott itself was later taken on by other Crimean
Tatar organizations. On 11 January, the Mejlis announced their representative,
Mykola Bahrov, the speaker of the Crimean parliament, as the presidential
candidate. On 12 January, some other candidates accused Bahrov of
severe methods of agitation. At the same time, Vladimir Zhirinovsky
called on the people of Crimea to vote for the Russian Sergei Shuvainikov.
On
30 January 1994, the pro-Russian Yuriy Meshkov was elected to the
new post but quickly ran into conflicts with parliament. On 8 September,
the Crimean parliament degraded the President's powers from the
head of state to the head of the executive power only, to which
Meshkov responded by disbanding parliament and announcing his control
over Crimea four days later. On 17 March 1995, the parliament of
Ukraine intervened, scrapping the Crimean Constitution and removing
Meshkov along with his office for his actions against the state
and promoting integration with Russia. Meshkov was removed from
power after Ukrainian special forces had entered his residence,
disarmed his bodyguards and put him on a plane to Moscow (Russia).
After an interim constitution lasting from 4 April 1996 to 23 December
1998, the current constitution was put into effect, changing the
territory's name to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
Following
the ratification of the May 1997 Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation,
and Partnership on friendship and division of the Black Sea Fleet,
international tensions slowly eased off. With the treaty, Moscow
recognized Ukraine's borders and territorial integrity, and accepted
Ukraine's sovereignty over Crimea and Sevastopol. In a separate
agreement, Russia was to receive 80 percent of the Black Sea Fleet
and use of the military facilities in Sevastopol on a 20-year lease.
However,
other controversies between Ukraine and Russia still remain, including
the ownership of a lighthouse on Cape Sarych. Because the Russian
Navy controlled 77 geographical objects on the south Crimean Shore,
the Sevastopol Government Court ordered the vacating of the objects,
which the Russian military did not carry out. Since August 3, 2005,
the lighthouse has been controlled by the Russian Army. Through
the years, there have been various attempts to return Cape Sarych
to Ukrainian territory, all of which were unsuccessful.
![](Feodosiya_protest_2006.jpg)
The 2006 anti-NATO protests in Feodosiya
In 2006, protests broke out on the peninsula after U.S. Marines
arrived at the Crimean city of Feodosiya to take part in the Sea
Breeze 2006 Ukraine-NATO military exercise. Protesters greeted the
marines with barricades and slogans bearing "Occupiers go home!"
and a couple of days later, the Crimean parliament declared Crimea
a "NATO-free territory." After several days of protest,
the U.S. Marines withdrew from the peninsula.
In
September 2008, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Volodymyr Ohryzko
accused Russia of giving out Russian passports to the population
in the Crimea and described it as a "real problem" given
Russia's declared policy of military intervention abroad to protect
Russian citizens.
During
a press conference in Moscow on 16 February 2009, the Mayor of Sevastopol
Serhiy Kunitsyn claimed (citing recent polls) that the population
of Crimea is opposed to the idea of becoming a part of Russia.
Although
western newspapers like the Wall Street Journal have speculated
about a Russian coup in Sevastopol or another Crimean city in connection
with the Russian-Georgian war and the Recognition of Abkhazia and
South Ossetia by Russia. Valentyn Nalyvaychenko, acting head of
the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), stated on 17 February 2009,
that he is confident that any "Ossetian scenario" is impossible
in Crimea. The SBU had started criminal proceedings against the
pro-Russian association "People's front Sevastopol-Crimea-Russia"
in January 2009.
On
the 55th anniversary of the transfer of the Crimea from the Russian
SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR (on 19 February 2009) some 300 to 500
people took part in rallies to protest against the transfer.
![](640px-Crimea_autonomous_republic_map.svg.png)
Map of modern Crimea
On 24 August 2009, anti-Ukrainian demonstrations were held in Crimea
by ethnic Russian residents. Sergei Tsekov (of the Russian Bloc
and then deputy speaker of the Crimean parliament) said then that
he hoped that Russia would treat the Crimea the same way as it had
treated South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Chaos
in the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament) during a debate
over the extension of the lease on a Russian naval base erupted
on 27 April 2010 after Ukraine's parliament ratified the treaty
that extends Russia's lease on a military wharf and shore installations
in the Crimean port Sevastopol until 2042. The Chairman of the Verkhovna
Rada Volodymyr Lytvyn had to be shielded by umbrellas as he was
pelted with eggs, while smoke bombs exploded and politicians brawled.
Along with the Verkhovna Rada the treaty was ratified by the Russian
State Duma as well.
Before
2014, Crimea can be considered a part of the political base of then
President Viktor Yanukovych. Thus, in the period just prior to 2014,
Crimea was not experiencing intense mobilization against Ukraine
or on behalf of absorption into Russia.
Russian
annexation and aftermath (2014 – Present) :
The crisis unfolded in late February 2014 in the aftermath of the
Euromaidan revolution. On 21 February, President Viktor Yanukovych
agreed to a three-party memorandum that would have kept him in office
until the end of the year. Within 24 hours the agreement was broken
by the Maidan-activists and the president was forced to flee. He
was dismissed the following day by a rump Verkhovna Rada, the legislature
elected in 2012, and the Government he dismissed was replaced by
a non-elected, illegal "Government", contrary to the Constitution.
In the absence of a president, the newly appointed Speaker of the
legislature, Oleksandr Turchynov, became acting President with limited
powers. Russia labeled events as a "coup d'état"
and later began referring to the government in Kyiv as a "junta,"
because armed extremists were involved in running the country and
the legislature elected in 2012 was not still in charge. An election
to elect a new president without opposition candidates was immediately
set for 25 May.
Within
days, on 26 February 2014, hundreds of pro-Russia and pro-Ukraine
protesters clashed in front of the parliament building in Simferopol.
The previous day, 300–500 pro-Russia protesters chanting "Russia"
had replaced the flag of Ukraine with the flag of the Russian Federation.
Leaders of Crimean Tatars organised a meeting in order to block
a meeting of Crimean parliament which is "doing everything
to execute plans of separation of Crimea from Ukraine". According
to the Russian state media, the pretext of the clash was the purported
abolition, on 23 February 2014, of a controversial law on the status
of regional languages.
On
27 February, unidentified troops widely suspected of being Russian
special forces seized the building of the Supreme Council of Crimea
and the building of the Council of Ministers in Simferopol. Whilst
the "little green men" were occupying the Crimean parliament
building, the parliament held an emergency session. It voted to
terminate the Crimean government, and replace Prime Minister Anatolii
Mohyliov with Sergey Aksyonov. According to the Constitution of
Ukraine, the Prime Minister of Crimea is appointed by the Supreme
Council of Crimea in consultation with the President of Ukraine.
Both Aksyonov and speaker Vladimir Konstantinov stated that they
viewed Viktor Yanukovych as the de jure president of Ukraine, through
whom they were able to ask Russia for assistance.
The
"little green men" began to surround Ukrainian bases in
the peninsula and soon individuals were kidnapped. On 11 March,
after disagreements between Crimea, Sevastopol, and the interim
Government in Ukraine, the Crimean parliament and the city council
of Sevastopol adopted a resolution to show their intention to unilaterally
declare themselves independent as a single united nation with the
possibility of joining the Russian Federation as a federal subject,
should voters approve to do so in an upcoming referendum.
On
16 March, Crimea's government claimed that nearly 96% of those who
voted in Crimea supported joining Russia. The vote received no international
recognition and, aside from Russia, no country had sent official
observers there.
On
17 March, the Crimean parliament officially declared its independence
from Ukraine and requested to join the Russian Federation.
On
18 March 2014, the self-proclaimed independent Republic of Crimea
signed a treaty of accession to the Russian Federation. The accession
was granted but separately for each the former regions that composed
it: one accession for the Autonomous Republic of Crimea as the Republic
of Crimea—the same name as the short-lived self-proclaimed
independent republic - and another accession for Sevastopol as a
federal city. The accession was only recognised internationally
by a few states with most regarding the action as illegal. Though
Ukraine refused to accept the annexation, the Ukrainian military
began to withdraw from Crimea on March 19.
All
actions of Crimean parliament were declared null and void by Ukrainian
constitutional court that led to its disbandment by Ukrainian parliament.
The
Ukrainian parliament has stated that the referendum is unconstitutional.
The United States and the European Union said they consider the
vote to be illegal, and warned that there may be repercussions for
the Crimean ballot.
On
27 March, the U.N. General Assembly passed a non-binding resolution
100 in favour, 11 against and 58 abstentions in the 193-nation assembly
that declared invalid Crimea's Moscow-backed referendum.
On
31 March 2014, the Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev announced
a series of programmes aimed at swiftly incorporating the territory
of Crimea into Russia's economy and infrastructure. Medvedev announced
the creation of a new ministry for Crimean affairs, and ordered
Russia's top ministers who joined him there to make coming up with
a development plan their top priority. On 3 April 2014, the Republic
of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol became parts of Russia's Southern
Military District. On 11 April 2014, the Republic's parliament approved
the new Constitution of the Republic of Crimea which came into legal
effect the following day. On 1 June 2014 Crimea officially switched
over to the Russian ruble as its only form of legal tender. On May
7, 2015 Crimea switched its phone codes (Ukrainian number system)
to the Russian number system.
In
July 2015, Russian Prime Minister, Dmitry Medvedev, declared that
Crimea had been fully integrated into Russia.
On
18 September 2016, the whole of Crimea participated in the Russian
legislative election.
Source
:
https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/History_of_Crimea