The fertile climate, picturesque and generous nature of Taurida create almost ideal conditions for human existence. People have inhabited these lands for a long time, so the eventful history of Crimea, dating back centuries, is extremely interesting. Who owned the peninsula and when? Let's find out!
History of Crimea since ancient times
Numerous historical artifacts found by archaeologists here suggest that the ancestors of modern man began to inhabit fertile lands almost 100 thousand years ago. This is evidenced by the remains of Paleolithic and Mesolithic cultures discovered in the site and Murzak-Koba.
At the beginning of the 12th century BC. e. Tribes of Indo-European nomads, the Cimmerians, appeared on the peninsula, whom ancient historians considered the first people who tried to create the beginnings of some semblance of statehood.
At the dawn of the Bronze Age, they were forced out of the steppe regions by the warlike Scythians, moving closer to the sea coast. The foothill areas and the southern coast were then inhabited by Tauris, who, according to some sources, came from the Caucasus, and in the north-west of the unique region, Slavic tribes, migrating from modern Transnistria, established themselves.
Ancient heyday in history
As the history of Crimea testifies, at the end of the 7th century. BC e. The Hellenes began to actively develop it. Immigrants from Greek cities created colonies, which over time began to prosper. The fertile land gave excellent harvests of barley and wheat, and the presence of convenient harbors contributed to the development of maritime trade. Crafts actively developed and shipping improved.
The port cities grew and became richer, uniting over time into an alliance that became the basis for the creation of the powerful Bosporan kingdom with its capital in, or present-day Kerch. The heyday of an economically developed state, which had a strong army and an excellent fleet, dates back to the 3rd-2nd centuries. BC e. Then an important alliance was concluded with Athens, half of whose need for bread was provided by the Bosporans; their kingdom includes the lands of the Black Sea coast beyond the Kerch Strait, Feodosia, Chersonesos, flourish. But the period of prosperity did not last long. The unreasonable policies of a number of kings led to the depletion of the treasury and the reduction of military personnel.
The nomads took advantage of the situation and began to ravage the country. At first he was forced to enter the Pontic kingdom, then he became a protectorate of Rome, and then of Byzantium. Subsequent invasions of barbarians, among which it is worth highlighting the Sarmatians and Goths, weakened it even more. Of the necklace of once magnificent settlements, only the Roman fortresses in Sudak and Gurzuf remained undestroyed.
Who owned the peninsula in the Middle Ages?
From the history of Crimea it is clear that from the 4th to the 12th centuries. Bulgarians and Turks, Hungarians, Pechenegs and Khazars marked their presence here. The Russian prince Vladimir, having taken Chersonesos by storm, was baptized here in 988. The formidable ruler of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Vytautas, invaded Taurida in 1397, completing his campaign in. Part of the land is part of the state founded by the Goths. By the middle of the 13th century, the steppe regions were controlled by the Golden Horde. In the next century, some territories were redeemed by the Genoese, and the rest were conquered by the troops of Khan Mamai.
The collapse of the Golden Horde marked the creation of the Crimean Khanate here in 1441, 
independently existed for 36 years. In 1475, the Ottomans invaded the area, to whom the khan swore allegiance. They expelled the Genoese from the colonies, took by storm the capital of the state of Theodoro - the city, exterminating almost all the Goths. The khanate with its administrative center was called the Kafa eyalet in the Ottoman Empire. Then the ethnic composition of the population is finally formed. The Tatars are moving from a nomadic lifestyle to a sedentary one. Not only cattle breeding begins to develop, but also agriculture and gardening, and small tobacco plantations appear.
The Ottomans, at the height of their power, complete their expansion. They move from direct conquest to a policy of hidden expansion, also described in history. The Khanate becomes an outpost for conducting raids on the border territories of Russia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Looted jewelry regularly replenishes the treasury, and captured Slavs are sold into slavery. From the XIV to the XVII centuries. Russian tsars undertake several campaigns to the Crimea through the Wild Field. However, none of them leads to pacification of the restless neighbor.
When did the Russian Empire come to power in Crimea?
An important stage in the history of Crimea. By the beginning of the 18th century. it becomes one of its main strategic goals. Possessing it will not only secure the land border from the south and make it internal. The peninsula is destined to become the cradle of the Black Sea Fleet, which will provide access to the Mediterranean trade routes.
However, significant success in achieving this goal was achieved only in the last third of the century - during the reign of Catherine the Great. An army led by Chief General Dolgorukov captured Taurida in 1771. The Crimean Khanate was declared independent, and Khan Giray, a protégé of the Russian crown, was elevated to its throne. Russian-Turkish War 1768-1774 undermined the power of Turkey. Combining military force with cunning diplomacy, Catherine II ensured that in 1783 the Crimean nobility swore allegiance to her.
After this, the infrastructure and economy of the region begins to develop at an impressive pace. Retired Russian soldiers settle here. 
Greeks, Germans and Bulgarians come here in large numbers. In 1784, a military fortress was founded, which was destined to play a prominent role in the history of Crimea and Russia as a whole. Roads are being built everywhere. Active grape cultivation contributes to the development of winemaking. The southern coast is becoming increasingly popular among the nobility. turns into a resort town. Over the course of a hundred years, the population of the Crimean peninsula has increased almost 10 times, and its ethnic type has changed. In 1874, 45% of Crimeans were Great Russians and Little Russians, approximately 35% were Crimean Tatars.
Russian domination of the Black Sea has seriously worried a number of European countries. A coalition of the decrepit Ottoman Empire, Great Britain, Austria, Sardinia and France unleashed. The mistakes of the command, which caused the defeat in the battle on , and the lag in the technical equipment of the army led to the fact that, despite the unprecedented heroism of the defenders shown during the year-long siege, the allies captured Sevastopol. After the end of the conflict, the city was returned to Russia in exchange for a number of concessions.
During the Civil War in Crimea, many tragic events occurred that were reflected in history. Since the spring of 1918, German and French expeditionary forces, supported by the Tatars, operated here. The puppet government of Solomon Samoilovich Crimea was replaced by the military power of Denikin and Wrangel. Only the Red Army troops managed to take control of the peninsular perimeter. After this, the so-called Red Terror began, as a result of which from 20 to 120 thousand people died.
In October 1921, it was announced the creation of the Autonomous Crimean Soviet Socialist Republic in the RSFSR from the regions of the former Tauride province, renamed in 1946 the Crimean region. The new government paid great attention to it. The policy of industrialization led to the emergence of the Kamysh-Burun ship repair plant and, in the same place, a mining and processing plant was built, and a metallurgical plant.
The Great Patriotic War prevented further equipment. 
Already in August 1941, about 60 thousand ethnic Germans who lived on a permanent basis were deported from here, and in November Crimea was abandoned by the Red Army. There were only two centers of resistance to the fascists left on the peninsula - the Sevastopol fortified area and, but they also fell by the fall of 1942. After the retreat of the Soviet troops, partisan detachments began to actively operate here. The occupation authorities pursued a policy of genocide against “inferior” races. As a result, by the time of liberation from the Nazis, the population of Taurida had decreased almost threefold.
The occupiers were expelled from here. After this, facts of massive cooperation with the fascists of the Crimean Tatars and representatives of some other national minorities were revealed. By decision of the USSR government, more than 183 thousand people of Crimean Tatar origin, a significant number of Bulgarians, Greeks and Armenians were forcibly deported to remote regions of the country. In 1954, the region was included in the Ukrainian SSR at the suggestion of N.S. Khrushchev.
Recent history of Crimea and our days
After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, Crimea remained in Ukraine, gaining autonomy with the right to have its own constitution and president. After lengthy negotiations, the basic law of the republic was approved by the Verkhovna Rada. Yuri Meshkov became the first president of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in 1992. Subsequently, relations between official Kiev worsened. The Ukrainian parliament decided in 1995 to abolish the presidency on the peninsula, and in 1998 
President Kuchma signed a Decree approving the new Constitution of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, with the provisions of which not all residents of the republic agreed.
Internal contradictions, which coincided with serious political aggravations between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, split society in 2013. One part of the residents of Crimea was in favor of returning to the Russian Federation, the other was in favor of remaining in Ukraine. On this issue, a referendum was held on March 16, 2014. The majority of Crimeans who took part in the plebiscite voted for reunification with Russia.
Even during the times of the USSR, many were built in Taurida, which was considered an all-Union health resort. had no analogues in the world at all. The development of the region as a resort continued both in the Ukrainian and Russian periods of the history of Crimea. Despite all the interstate contradictions, it still remains a favorite vacation spot for both Russians and Ukrainians. This region is infinitely beautiful and is ready to warmly welcome guests from any country in the world! In conclusion, we offer a documentary film, enjoy watching!
Even when modern designers, influenced by the idea of a “united Ukraine,” create visual images of various regions in the form of ornaments, for the Donetsk region, instead of traditional patterns, they sculpt a miner’s helmet (they say, where do traditional ornaments come from in the Donbass?). But in vain.
The Donetsk region has its own tradition, albeit not very well known, but original, associated with the ethnic group that has been living on these lands for more than one century. And the villages with “exotic” names are those that were once founded, 235 years ago, by the Crimean Greeks on the territory of the modern Donetsk region, in that part of it called Nadazovie or Priazovie - this is the southern part of the Donetsk region, starting from approximately the now infamous Volnovakha and extends further, right up to the northern shores of the Sea of Azov. It is here, in Nadazovye, that the third largest ethnic community of the region, after Ukrainians and Russians, lives compactly - the Greeks, who are called Nadazov (Azov) or Mariupol. It is precisely this phrase - “Nadazov Greeks” - that correctly designates this community, because it is different from other groups of Greeks who live somewhere in Ukraine or beyond its borders: Pontic, Thracian, Malobuyalyk Greeks in Greece itself, etc.
Many uninitiated readers associate Greek culture primarily with the “sirtaki” dance, ancient Greek myths, tunics and the like. In fact, different groups of Greeks (like, say, Jews or gypsies who live in different countries) have many significant differences in history, language, traditional culture, customs, music, cuisine, folk costume, and the like. So, the culture of the Nadazov Greeks has many similarities with the culture of the Crimean Tatars rather than the Greeks living in Greece or other countries, since they come from Crimea. These commonalities can be seen in music, cuisine, material culture, as well as language. One of the two dialects of the Nadazov Greeks - Urum - is related to the Crimean Tatar, and the other - Rumeian - has many Turkic borrowings in its lexical composition.
ON THE NORTH COAST OF THE SEA OF AZOV, THE CRIMEAN GREEKS, TOGETHER WITH SMALL GEORGIANS AND VALOCHS, FOUNDED SEVERAL DOZENS OF VILLAGES AND THE CITY OF MARIUPOL
Where did the Nadazov Greeks come from?
The Nadazov Greeks originate from the first Hellenic colonists who founded ancient cities on the Black Sea coast in Crimea. As a special ethnic group, they formed on the Crimean Peninsula in the early Middle Ages and during the Crimean Khanate. Their history is still evidenced by the remains of ancient city policies, cave cities and early Christian temples. For several centuries, the Crimean Greeks called themselves "Romeos", that is, "resident of the East Roman (Byzantine) Empire", which in the local dialect turned into "Romei" or "Rumei". Subsequently, part of the Greeks, who underwent linguistic assimilation by the Crimean Tatars and Turks, began to call themselves “urum”, which, in fact, is the Turkic translation of the self-name “rumey”. Consequently, the Crimean Greeks, having a common history, material culture, and Christian Orthodox faith, were divided into two language groups: the Rumeans (Hellinophones) and the Urums (Turkophones).
Settlements founded by Urums and Romans in the northern Azov region
In 1778-1780, almost the entire Christian population of the peninsula, which at that time consisted mainly of ethnic Greeks, Armenians, Georgians and Vlachs, was resettled to the northern coast of the Sea of Azov on the initiative of the leadership of the Russian Empire led by Catherine II. There is now debate as to whether this can be called deportation. Yes, these settlers had the opportunity to pack their things, take some property, livestock, and the like. In the new place they were promised material assistance, land and a number of privileges, such as: a certain level of self-government (government of Mariupol and Greek villages was carried out by the Mariupol Greek court as part of the Mariupol Greek district, abolished in 1869), exemption from paying taxes for a certain period and exemption from conscription duty. So they hit the road. But at the same time, if they changed their decision or were dissatisfied with the new conditions, they could no longer return back to Crimea. All the way from Crimea to new lands, the settlers were accompanied by soldiers of Suvorov's army. On the journey, which lasted two years, many migrants died from disease and poverty. In general, the mass consent of Christians to voluntary resettlement from inhabited Crimea to unfamiliar lands raises doubts. It is not for nothing that one of the old songs “The Exodus of the Greeks from Crimea” contains the following lines: “Today is a black sky, today is a black day, today everyone is crying and the mountains are sad...” Therefore, probably, this fact can be called, if not real deportation, then at least forced relocation.
On the northern coast of the Sea of Azov, the Crimean Greeks, together with the small number of Georgians and Volokhs, founded several dozen villages and the city of Mariupol. In the new place, the Urumi and Rumei settled separately, with the exception of one jointly founded village of Velikaya Novoselka (also known as Bolshoi Yanisol). The arriving Greeks mainly named their settlements in the new place in honor of the settlements they abandoned in Crimea. The Rumeians founded the villages of Yalta, Urzuf, Sartana, Chermalyk, Cherdakli (now Kremenevka), Maloyanisol, Karakuba (now Razdolnoye), Styla and Constantinople. Urumi founded the villages of Ulakly, Bogatyr, Komar, Kermenchik (now Staromlinovka), Stary Krym, Mangush, Beshevo (now Starobeshevo), Laspi (now Starolaspa), Karan (now Granitnoye), as well as, in fact, the city of Mariupol itself, which became the center of the district of the same name and to this day remains the unofficial capital of the Nazi Greeks. Over time, new settlements founded by the Romans arose: Bugas, New Karakuba (now Krasnaya Polyana), Novoyanisol, Truzhenka, Kir "yakivka (now Katerynivka), Kasyanivka, Byzantium (now Klyuchevaya), Athens (now Zarya), Kellerovo (now Kirovo) and others. Urumi additionally founded the settlement of Novobeshev, Novolaspa, Belaya Kamenka, Novaya Karan (now Kamenka), Maly Kermenchik, New Kermenchik (now Novomlinovka), etc.
Today, almost all of these villages are located on the territory of modern Donetsk region, with the exception of one village - Novomlinovka, which belongs to the Zaporozhye region. Now the Nadazov Greeks represent the overwhelming majority of the Greek diaspora in Ukraine, and the Donetsk region is the place of their compact residence.
Language of the Nadazov Greeks
As evidenced by documents from the end of the 18th century, at the time of resettlement in Nadazovye, both groups of Crimean Greeks spoke the Urum language, that is, the Rumei within their community communicated in Rumean, the Urumi - in Urum, but Urum was also the language of intergroup communication between Urum and Rumei. He was also in use in the courts, trade, and public life. Greek letters were used to write texts in the Urum language.
Soon the Russian authorities began to cancel the privileges granted to the settlers. Since 1820, the lands that the Greeks could not develop were given to other colonists: Germans, Jews, Ukrainians. In 1834, the Greeks lost their previously granted exclusive right to settle in the Mariupol Greek district. In 1859, the administrative self-government of the Mariupol district was abolished and it became accountable to the Yekaterinoslav province. From the middle of the 19th century, Russians, Ukrainians, Germans, Jews, Gypsies, and representatives of other nationalities began to actively move to Mariupol, and subsequently to Greek villages. At the end of the 19th century, the Greeks no longer constituted the overwhelming majority.
Since then, the Urum and Rumean languages were used in everyday life, but were not taught in it until the late 1980s - early 1990s, when the possibility of national revival and the development of national languages and cultures again arose. Literary works in the Urum language began to be published. But there was no one to publish. These are Valery Kior (born 1951) from Old Crimea, Victor Borota (born 1936, born in the village of Starognatovka, lives in Donetsk) and Kirikia Khavana (born 1947) from Starognativka. This time, when writing texts in the Urum language, they already used the Cyrillic alphabet, which is still used to this day. Valery Kior created an elective for the study of the Urum language at a school in Old Crimea, hosted a program in the Urum language “Ana sezyu” (“Native word”) on Mariupol city radio.
Languages of the Nadazov Greeks
Dialects: Kypchak-Polovtsian dialects:
- Velyka Novoselka
- Starobeshevo
- Mangush
Kipchak-Oguz dialects:
- Old Kermenchik
- Bogatyr
- Ulakly
Oguz-Kypchak dialects:
- Karan
- Starolasp
- Camara
- Gurji
Oguz dialects:
- Mariupol
- Old Crimea
- Carakuba
Distribution of the Urum dialect in the northern Azov region
When the question arose of which language to officially introduce as a native language for the Greeks in the school education system in Greek villages, the organization, which at that time represented the interests of the Greeks of Ukraine, decided to choose the Modern Greek language for teaching in both Rumean and Urum villages. It was believed that knowledge of the Modern Greek language would become a cultural unifier for the Nadazov Greeks, in particular the Urums, both in Greece itself and in other Greek diasporas around the world, and would help them join world Hellenism. Greece was not slow in providing assistance in the educational sphere: it sent modern Greek language teachers to Mariupol, and local Greeks got the opportunity to study this language in Greece. Teachers of the Modern Greek language also began to be trained at the University of Mariupol. Modern Greek is taught at the school in the Urum village of Stary Krym. The languages that are actually native to the Nadazov Greeks - Urum and Rumean - were left without attention. They were leveled to the status of “dialects of the Azov Greeks,” which significantly reduced the level of their prestige among the local population and, accordingly, their status among the local Greek community.
Ethnonyms are inappropriate
At the time of the resettlement from Crimea at the end of the 18th century, the Azov Greeks were officially designated by a single term - “Christians of the Greek law”; they were not divided into Urums and Rumeans based on their language. During the formation of the Soviet education system, the focus on teaching national languages necessitated a terminological distinction between two groups of Nadazov Greeks, who were divided according to language into “Greco-Tatars” and “Greco-Hellenes.” After the curtailment of the policy of “indigenization” and the cessation of teaching national languages in the 1930s, there was again no need to distinguish between the two groups. In the Soviet era, during the population census, the single term “Greek/Greek” was again used to indicate both groups - Urums and Rumeans (and indeed representatives of all groups of Greeks). This name was indicated in the “nationality” column in the Soviet passport, in official questionnaires and other documents.
During the time of Ukraine as an independent state, although the “nationality” column in the passport was abolished, during the population census in official documents, in statistical data all Greeks are designated by the term “Greek”. In tables, documents, and maps reflecting the national composition of the population of Ukraine, “Greeks” are indicated everywhere among other peoples, and their native language is “Greek”. In addition, in many official documents, in particular during the population census, on maps that reflect the national (or ethnic) composition of the population of Ukraine, both groups of Mariupol Greeks are designated by one common term - “Greeks”, and their native language is Greek. There is not a single hint that the vast majority of the entire Greek population of Ukraine is Urumi and Rumean, and their native languages are Urumi and Rumean. So, the word “Greek” can mean anything: modern Greek, Rumean, and the language of Turkic origin - Urum. Such inaccuracy creates a certain confusion in terms, gives a false picture of the ethnic composition, and therefore complicates legislative or educational work aimed at informing the public about ethnic and linguistic diversity in Ukraine, and also introduces confusion into the definition, formation and implementation of the appropriate state language policy, which would contribute, in particular, to the protection of the Urum language as endangered. I am sure that the same confusion arises with other peoples, ethno-confessional or linguistic groups living in Ukraine. The solution to the issue, which is quite controversial and requires serious discussions, must be approached professionally, carefully and carefully and not turn a blind eye to the attempts of certain circles to use belonging to a certain national group as a way to obtain some political dividends.
In resolving this issue, one should turn to the experience of other states. For example, in Poland, on a map where ethnic minorities are indicated, next to Lithuanians, Gypsies, Tatars and many others, for example, Kashubians or Lemkos are indicated separately.
Meanwhile, the process of linguistic decline continues. As for the Urum language, today Urum folklore is still preserved in some places, folk groups have been created, and Urum songs are still sung. There is even modern Urum literature: both prose and poetry. But the number of audiences and readers capable of reading these works, that is, native speakers of the Urum language, who today are predominantly representatives of the older generation, is steadily declining. Over the past more than 20 years, a new generation of Urums has already grown up, who studied the Modern Greek language, but it did not become their native language (which is quite obvious), although they also do not speak the language of their great-grandfathers. Today, the Urum language has found itself, as linguists note, in a situation of so-called language shift: it has been almost completely replaced by Russian. The Urum city of Mariupol, where, by the way, the outstanding artist, Urum by origin, Arkhip Kuindzhi, was born, today is almost entirely Russian-speaking, and the Greeks themselves make up a significant minority among its population. The process of linguistic assimilation among the Urum is gaining momentum.
Today, the most complete study of the Urum language remains the works of Alexander Garkavets, who published the Urum-Ukrainian dictionary (“Urum Dictionary”) and a collection of Urum folklore (“Urumi Nadazov”). Based on the results of scientific research in Urum villages conducted by scientists from St. -Petersburg, the first copy of the textbook of the Urum language "Urum language. Urum dili (Azov version)" (author Maria Smolina) was published. But, naturally, there is still a lack of educational and methodological literature, dictionaries, textbooks. Until now, officially a single alphabet and rules for writing the Urum language have not been agreed upon and approved, a single literary norm of the Urum language has not been formed. Taking into account all of the above, it can be stated that the Urum language is really under threat of extinction and the level of this threat is very high. And if we are already talking about a full revival does not work, then it would be worth raising the issue of at least preserving this language, and state help would really be useful here. Although, undoubtedly, in the matter of the future fate of the Urum language, one should not neglect the attitude towards it on the part of the Urum group itself, who should show more respect for it and understand its value. There are many methods for popularizing information about different ethnic groups, their culture, and many means for mutual knowledge and enrichment.
After the Maidan, there is a lot of talk about the creation of a unified Ukrainian political nation. We agree that this is indeed a future-oriented matter. But we also agree that a return to origins is not only a return to the past, on the contrary: this process can keep pace with the creation of a united Ukraine, in which many ethnic groups live, the preservation and study of its traditional culture, while simultaneously creating modern culture, common to everyone.
Translation from Ukrainian Pavel Onoiko
In the disputes that arise around the ownership of Crimea, there is often a half-joking assumption that the peninsula is not Russian, not Tatar, not Ukrainian, and not even Greek. It is clear that in this case we are talking more about the roots of human civilization in Crimea, and not about the political status of the peninsula in recent centuries. Nevertheless, it should be recognized that the Greeks, like probably no other nation, contributed to the creation of the Crimea or Taurida as we know it. It was they who began to grow grapes and make wine here, they built the first buildings and cities here, grew the first gardens and became the first fishermen of coastal waters. Of course, the Tauri or nomads - the Cimmerians and Scythians, could have taken the palm from the Greeks, but unlike the Greeks, they disappeared without a trace in world history. The Greeks live in Crimea to this day.
“Crimea is little Greece,” says 72-year-old Irina Zekova, chairman of the Greek society in the village of Chernopolye, 45 kilometers from Simferopol. On the walls of her house there are photographs of relatives, flags of Russia, Greece, icons and the Ten Commandments. In conversation, Zekova often switches to Greek and constantly uses the Greek “ne” (Russian “da”) as a sign of confirmation of your words. “Our ancestors came to Karachol (the former name of Chernopolye) from Old Crimea in 1871. And they accepted Russian citizenship, since foreigners were forbidden to sell land. But we are still very, very Greek."
Greek colonization of the peninsula began in the 6th century. BC. by forces of immigrants from the Ionian cities of the Asia Minor coast and, above all, from Miletus. The only Dorian colony on the North Black Sea coast was Chersonesus, founded in the 5th century. three kilometers from present-day Sevastopol by settlers from Heraclea Pontic (now the city of Eregli in Turkey). The Greek colonies extended from Kalos-Limen (on the Tarkhankut Peninsula) to Panticapaeum (Kerch), only on the modern southern coast of Crimea the Hellenes failed to gain a foothold. During the heyday of the largest Greek cities on the peninsula, the population of Chersonesus, for example, according to various estimates, ranged from five to 20 thousand people, Feodosia - six to eight thousand people, and in the Bosporan kingdom with its capital in Panticapaeum, 150-200 thousand people lived, although at least half of them were barbarians.
The size of the economy of the Crimean Greeks of that period can be judged from the words of Demosthenes, who claims that Athens received from the Bosporus half of all the imported grain it needed - about 16 thousand tons per year. In turn, Chersonesos exported up to 10 million liters of wine annually.
Plutarch, from the life of Pericles, 1st century:
“Among the campaigns of Pericles, his campaign to Chersonesus was especially popular, which brought salvation to the Hellenes living there. Pericles not only brought with him a thousand Athenian colonists and strengthened the population of the cities with them, but also built fortifications and barriers across the isthmus from sea to sea and thereby prevented the raids of the Thracians, who lived in large numbers near Chersonesos, and put an end to the continuous, difficult war, from which This land constantly suffered, being in direct contact with barbarian neighbors and filled with bandits of bandits, both border and those located within its borders.”
After the appearance of the Romans on the shores of the Black Sea, the Greek city-states and the Bosporan kingdom submitted to the new masters of the world, while maintaining their Hellenic customs and way of life. And yet, constant conflicts with the barbarians - the Scythians, Sarmatians, later - the Huns, Goths, and then the Khazars, led to the fact that the Greek colonies, after a prosperous almost thousand-year existence, began to decline. This marks the end of the era of the ancient Greeks in Crimea and the beginning of the medieval era.
Zekova remembers a lot about the deportation of 1944. “In total there were 119 households and 619 people in the village. In the 101st courtyard there is either one Greek or both Greeks, and in 18 - the fathers of the family are either Russian or Ukrainian. So 101 yards were evicted. And we were traveling half naked - they told us that we shouldn’t take anything with us, and we’ll be back in a week. We arrived in the Perm region - some to the mine, and there was still some kind of law there, and some to the forest, to the barracks where criminals used to live. So the trees were felled, there was no food, 1200 grams of bread a day for seven and that’s it. In 1946, my grandmother died of hunger. Both milk and bread were according to the lists, but nothing was given for children and the elderly. And the locals looked at us as enemies of the people. We came to them in this capacity. But when we prayed, we prayed for a return to Crimea, and not to Greece.”
By the time of the fall of the Roman Empire and the transition of Greek cities under the control of Byzantium, Kalos-Limen and Kerkintida (Eupatoria) ceased to exist, and the Bosporus fell into decay. Chersonesus became the center of Greek civilization on the peninsula, and the theme of the Byzantine Empire was formed around it. The appearance of new Byzantine, read - Greek, fortresses in Crimea - Gorzuvity (Gurzuf) and Aluston (Alushta) dates back to the same period. In the 8th century, during the reign of a succession of iconoclast emperors in Byzantium, many monks and simple Greek icon-worshipers moved to Crimea. As a result of the mutual assimilation of Greeks, Taurians, Goths, Alans and other newcomers in the southern coastal and mountainous Crimea, a new medieval nation was formed with the self-name “Romeans” - the Byzantines also called themselves. The descendants of these Romans later became the so-called “Mariupol Greeks”. The last state formation dominated by Greeks in Crimea was the Principality of Theodoro (captured by the Ottoman Empire in 1475), which for some time coexisted peacefully with the Tatars, who came to Crimea in the first half of the 13th century and outlived the Byzantine Empire itself by 22 years.
During the years of Turkish-Tatar rule (the Ottomans retained control over all the most important coastal territories, and the Crimean Khanate was a vassal of the Sublime Porte), the creation of a new ethnic group was completed, and quite rare, since it was created by peoples not related by kinship. This merger was facilitated by the common Greek language and culture of religion ("Greek Orthodoxy") in the territory. Over time, the very title “Romey” in Crimea became synonymous with “Orthodox”.
Meanwhile, during this period, the number of Greeks in Crimea decreases - some of them migrate to other regions of the Ottoman Empire, and many of those who remain adopt the Turkic language, which becomes a means of interethnic communication on the peninsula. Even Orthodox services are held there. To this day, some of the Azov Greeks still have Turkic surnames, Tatar dances, etc. In modern ethnography, Turkic-speaking Greeks are usually called Urums.
Today, every summer, the youth of Chernopolye go to work on the southern coast of Crimea. “There are no such work opportunities in the village,” explains Zekova. - These used to be collective farms, good salaries and bonuses. Since 1927 there was an artel, and since 1930 there was a collective farm. Those who did not want to join were sent to Arkhangelsk; they returned only before the war. But we had a good collective farm, and we grew livestock, fruits, and tobacco. We returned here from 1967 to 1974, and restored everything anew. And before that we lived in Alexandria in the Kherson region - they didn’t let us into Crimea.”
By the time of the conclusion of the Kuchuk-Kainardzhi Peace Treaty of 1774, according to which the Crimean Khanate was declared independent of the Ottoman Empire, but became dependent on the Russian Empire, the Greeks made up more than three percent of the population of the peninsula. They lived in more than 80 settlements, mainly on the South Coast and in the mountains, where they were engaged in crafts, fishing, vegetable growing, viticulture, gardening, and every sixth was engaged in trade. Moreover, the Khan's census of movable property, compiled during the resettlement of the Crimean Greeks to the Azov region, shows that the material well-being of the bulk of the Greeks was quite high.
From a letter from Empress Catherine II to Prince Grigory Potemkin, March 1778:
“On this date, we issued a rescript to our Field Marshal Count Rumyantsev-Zadunaisky to order the Greeks, Georgians and Armenians living in the Crimea, who will voluntarily agree to come under our protection and wish to settle in the Novorossiysk and Azov provinces, then not only all of our military personnel staying in the Crimea the chiefs to accept with all kindness and assistance to transport them to the Novorossiysk and Azov governors... but also try in every way to persuade and persuade so that they voluntarily agree to move from there... By this force we command you, in accordance with this intention of ours, to carry out the proper actions on your part orders so that these new villagers, from the day they enter our borders, not only do not suffer the slightest lack of food, but also, according to your consideration, are provided with both a sufficient amount of land and the benefits necessary for the establishment of their house-building from our treasury.”
The idea of relocating Christians, including Greeks, from Crimea after the Kuchuk-Kainardzhi peace belonged, according to one version, to Grigory Potemkin, according to another, to the commander of the Russian troops in Crimea, Count Pyotr Rumyantsev. There was no official permission for this from Empress Catherine, since she could not dispose of the subjects of another state.
At the same time, the “Greek Project” was gaining strength in Russia and some of the Greeks, who had previously fought as volunteers in the Russian army, already had the opportunity to settle on the shores of the Sea of Azov. It was also proposed that the head of the Crimean Christians, Metropolitan Ignatius, and his entire flock move there. The organization of the resettlement of 31,386 people (18 thousand Greeks, 12 thousand Armenians, as well as Georgians and Vlachs) was led by Alexander Suvorov. Russia allocated 230 thousand rubles for this action. Today, about 80 thousand Greeks live in the Azov region. As a result of the resettlement, Russia strengthened its borders in the lands conquered from the Turks and Crimean Tatars, and the economic situation of Crimea itself was undermined, the social situation was destabilized, and just four years after the exodus of Christians, it was quickly incorporated into the Russian Empire.
However, according to approximate data, there are still about 10 thousand Greeks left on the peninsula. Some of them assimilated with the Tatars, but still in the first half of the 19th century the Greek Crimean colony continued to exist, numbering about three thousand people. Among them we can include immigrants from the islands of the Greek archipelago, who fought with the Turks on the side of Russia. At the direction of Potemkin, the Balaklava battalion was formed from them, which guarded the coast from Sevastopol to Feodosia with the center in Balaklava. From this group of settlers came the so-called “Balaklava Greeks”.
“The church in the village,” says Zekova, “was built back in 1913. In the name of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Constantine and Helen - these were the patrons of the homeland of our ancestors in the Fraction. It was built with funds from the village residents, although in 1927 it was damaged during an earthquake, but two years later we restored it. And in 1932 they took it away from us and made a club there. After the USSR collapsed, they began to think about how to restore the church. In 1996, at a conference in Sevastopol
In 2014-2015, among the news about Donetsk region Crimean names are often heard:Old Crimea, Urzuf, Sartana, Mangush, Yaltaand many others. These settlements were founded in 1778 year by settlers from the Mountainous Crimea and the Crimean coast of the Black Sea - the hereditary possessions of the Turkish sultans of the Ottoman dynasty and some lands of the Crimean Khanate. In all likelihood, Christians were not evicted from the lands of the Shirin beylik, since historically for many centuries the Shirin clan was associated with the Moscow state, and militarily opposed the Turkish sultans more than once. However, at the end of the 18th century, the “under-deported” Crimean Greeks had to change their surnames and hide their nationality. This is the answer to the question: “ What people are you from?» — « we are Christians«.
Greek settlements in Crimea at the end of the 18th century. Map to the article by A.L. Berthier-Delagarde "Study of some puzzling questions of the Middle Ages in Taurida" (1920).
There are known and documented cases where, in general, Christian communities of the Crimean Mountains converted to Islam to avoid relocation. In general, the question is very difficult. But it is important that Crimea and Donbass are connected with each other by many historical threads.
Briefly about the meaning of the resettlement of Greeks and other Christians from Crimea in 1778 to the Azov region: these Christians were mostly Turkic-speaking(some part of Hellenophones) and loyal to Turkey and the Crimean Khanate. They paid taxes in money and were economically very strong. The Russian Empire solved a strategic problem in Crimea - back to the beginning 1800
- the basis of interethnic communication and the market language becomes Russian
. Before this, even the Crimean Armenians had a special Turkic dialect - Bazargan.
With the annexation of the Crimean lands of the Ottoman Empire and then the Crimean Khanate to Russia, a significant resettlement of Greeks and South Slavs began, who hated everything Turkish and Muslim. Having significant personal experience and centuries-old family traditions of smuggling and guerrilla warfare, these new settlers became very diligent and skillful guards at ports, customs, and border guards. The officers received huge plots of land on the lands of the Crimean Greeks, empty after 1778, as well as on the lands of the Crimean Turks and Tatars who emigrated to Turkey. In June 1944, the descendants of these Greeks were deported from Crimea on charges of massive collaboration with the Nazi occupiers. The miraculously surviving residents of the “Crimean Khatyn”, the mountain town of Laki, were also deported, where for helping the partisans, everyone whom the punitive forces found at home was locked in a church and burned.
Thus the descendants of the Crimean Greeks in the Azov region, in the Donetsk region, and the descendants of Greek settlers from the Ottoman Empire differ in their ethnopsychology. But common to all descendants three main waves of resettlement Hellenes, Byzantines and Greeks of the New Age are enterprise, perseverance, ingenuity, contempt for stupid waste of energy and unproductive loss of time, ability to live, independence.
In this review
:
1. Introduction from the author
2. Saint Ignatius of Mariupol and the resettlement of the Crimean Greeks in the Azov region
3. GREEKS IN THE SERVICE OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE.
4. Dmitry Nikolaenko. Five reasons to love the Greeks
9. GREEKS OF THE AZOV REGION: FEATURES OF ETHNOCULTURAL IDENTITY
10. Monuments and tourist sites of Greek culture in Crimea
11.
I am starting this review in the hope of help from site visitors.
The topic “Greeks and Crimea” seems at first glance to be extremely simple - there were such wonderful cultural people in Crimea - the Greeks. But now they are all dead, and they left us with picturesque ruins and charming legends.
Okay, let’s say, why then is the sacred Orthodox spring called “Savlukh-su” in Tatar?Yeah. This is just not in Tatar. This is exactly in Greek, or more precisely in Urum. And the Urums are Romans. Such Orthodox Romans who spoke the Turkic language. And they often took girls from Islamic families as wives. And they, in turn, gave their daughters as wives to Muslims.
True, other Muslims, for example, from Bakhchisarai, called both the Orthodox Urums and their Muslim neighbors from the town of Kokkoz (Blue Eye) or Biya-sala - tats. Tat means stranger.
But the Urums themselves already called other “Romans” who lived in Crimea, mainly on the seashore - the Romans (Rumeli), and who spoke Greek, with the same word “tat”. Because for the Orthodox Turkic-speaking “Romans” Urums, it was the Greeks from Greece who were strangers. And the Greeks who settled in Crimea in the 19th century were generally called Albanians or Arnauts!
In general, everything is very difficult and confusing. And this is not surprising, the history of the Greeks in Crimea goes back more than 3 thousand years. And the word Greek itself at different times meant different nations and cultures, however, the Greek language (or rather, the languages) of different historical eras have significant differences.
First, let's try to find answers (in the form of links to sites) to several main questions.
Well, then we’ll wait for new questions from visitors and try to look for new information.
I apologize for the lack of system and chronology in the arrangement of materials. So far this is not even a review, but only a small collection of quotes and links.
But first, a historical note: on June 24, 1944, the eviction of Armenians, Bulgarians and Greeks from Crimea began. About 11 thousand Armenians, more than 12 thousand Bulgarians and 14.5 thousand Greeks were deported. Together with them, Turks, Kurds, Persians, and Gypsies living in Crimea were sent to a special settlement.
Among other Crimean Greeks, the few surviving residents of the village of Laki, Bakhchisarai region, were evicted. The Nazis burned this entire village for helping the partisans, and the Nazis burned the residents who did not have time to go into the forest and locked themselves in the church right in the church. Stalin’s “falcons” from the NKVD had no time to find out which of the Crimean Greeks collaborated with the German occupiers and who helped the partisans. The families of Crimean Greek Red Army soldiers were also deported.
2. Saint Ignatius of Mariupol and the resettlement of the Crimean Greeks in the Azov region http://www.pravoslavie.ru/put/4387.htm
Saint Ignatius, Metropolitan of Gotthea and Kefai, founder of the city of Mariupol, faithful son of the Orthodox Church and collaborator of the great Suvorov, is the spiritual leader of the Greeks of the Black Sea region. He brought more than 30 thousand Orthodox Greeks, Armenians and Georgians out of Tatar spiritual captivity, who, having settled in the Azov region, could from that time freely profess their faith and preserve their culture under the auspices of the Orthodox Russian Empire.
More than two and a half thousand years ago, the Greeks settled on the shores of the Black Sea. Ancient Greece is the cradle of modern culture, the birthplace of philosophy and science, art and architecture. Ancient Rome learned from the Greeks, and New Europe admired them.
The holy apostles, disciples of Jesus Christ, proclaimed the Good News to the world in Greek. And it was Greek culture, transformed by Christianity, that was able to express Christian teaching with maximum completeness in the theology of the holy fathers and in icon painting.
The main points in our understanding of Greek culture are somewhat confusing here:
- 1. we are accustomed to the fact that the Greeks are naked, beautiful people. It was these naked beautiful people who created philosophy, science, art and architecture.
- 2. Greek culture “transformed by Christianity” is men in black. Always gloomy. And what’s interesting is that no one can say what kind of philosophers, scientists and poets Christian Byzantium glorified itself with?
- 3. The Azov Greeks themselves evaluate the personality of Metropolitan Ignatius very differently. Some openly call him an accomplice of the vile and cynical deception of the Crimean Orthodox Christians. In any case, Saint Ignatius was not a native of Crimea. He sincerely hated Turks and Muslims in general, and probably really believed that Christians were being oppressed in Crimea. As for Catherine the Great and her Great Lover Potemkin, they carried out an unprecedentedly successful operation to change the Crimean Tatar language of interethnic communication (which was native not only to Orthodox Urums, but also to Crimean Jews, Karaites, Crimean Armenians and even the Goths) into Russian , which soon became the common language for Crimean Estonians, Crimean Germans, Crimean Czechs, Crimean Lithuanians, Crimean Poles and many more new residents of Crimea from different parts of the great Russian Empire.
- All disputes about the role of Metropolitan Ignatius and the role of Alexander Suvorov in the conquest of Crimea can be reduced to the short formula “ Success is never blamed". Ignatius and Suvorov did the same thing as the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yes, during the resettlement of the Greeks and Armenians, many of them died. Yes, those who settled in the new place were deceived. In the literal sense of the word, they were “thrown away.” The money for resettlement was stolen by officials, and the promised benefits were soon canceled.
- But. The Crimean Khanate, as a vassal of Turkey, was suppressed economically, that is, bloodlessly. It was bloodless not only on the part of Russia, but the lives of Turkish and Crimean Tatar soldiers were saved. The Christian population of Crimea was the most faithful and reliable sector of taxpayers to the treasury of the Crimean Khanate. Christian monasteries of Crimea were the main intermediaries in the redemption and exchange of slaves. By the way, the Christian monasteries of Crimea themselves also widely used slave labor. You can, of course, draw some analogies with the film “Schindler’s List” - yes, the Crimean monasteries could take traditional gifts from the Crimean khans not only in the form of gold and huge wax candles in order to serve the next prayer service for the success of the next Tatar raid on Moscow, but they could also take yasyr (living goods, little people), so that Orthodox souls do not work in the sweat of their brow for the damned infidels, but live, or rather hump, still surrounded by fellow believers. Even if these co-religionists did not understand a word of Russian...
- The only fact of oppression remains that Ottoman Turkey took a “blood tax” from subject Christians - the best boys from all Christian families were taken into the Janissaries every three or four years. But the Janissaries were the most privileged part of the army of the Sublime Porte. Their lives were valued much higher than the life of a warrior from the indigenous Turks. But it probably makes sense to make a separate review about the Janissaries.
- For now, let’s confine ourselves to the fact that many Crimean Christians did not succumb to Ignatius’s persuasion. Some Crimean Greeks, such as residents of the town of Kermenchik (now Vysokoye, Bakhchisaray district), quickly converted to Islam, and quickly converted their Orthodox church into a mosque.
- Many families of Crimean Greeks simply left their native places and from generation to generation hid their origins, posing as some Russians who for some reason could not live a day without strong coffee (I’m talking about my grandmother Ksenia)…
3. GREEKS IN THE SERVICE OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE.
History of the Balaklava Greek Infantry Battalion. http://www.rus-sky.com/gosudarstvo/army/greeks.htm
One of the little-known pages of our country’s past is the fate of the Greeks in the Russian service, more narrowly the history of the Russian Albanian army, from which the Balaklava Greek infantry battalion was formed. The Greek army played a remarkable role in the annexation and retention of Crimea as part of the Russian Empire. The circumstances were such that under the Russian banners the Hellenes fought for their freedom, for their Faith. And in the ranks of the Russian army they fought for their Motherland.
The Greek battalion in Crimea had an important task: pacifying the Tatar population hostile to Russia and patrolling the coast of the peninsula from Sevastopol to Feodosia. In addition, the Greeks also carried out cordon security during epidemics. Greek troops took part in all the wars that Russia waged in the first half of the 19th century. With their service, the Hellenes earned the respect of their superiors, and more than once their courage was noted by the command and royalty.
Unfortunately, their difficult fate remained undeservedly forgotten by their descendants. Today in Balaklava there is not a single monument that would remind of the Greek battalion and its heroic service under the banners of the Russian Empire.
….. The events of the Russian-Turkish War of 1768-1774 can be considered the prehistory of the Russian Albanian army.
The confrontation between Russia and the Porte, incited by France, was heading towards a military conflict. Russia at the time was tied up in a war with the Polish Confederates, and this forced Russia to keep its troops in Poland. This moment was chosen by Turkey to speak out. The Porte's plans included joining forces with the Poles, which would extremely complicate the situation for Russia.
Of course, conflict with the Porte was inevitable. The Crimean Tatars constantly threatened the southern border. From century to century, their raids devastated the already sparsely populated south of Ukraine, tens of thousands of Ukrainians and Russians were driven into slavery. To the shame of the “civilized” countries of Western Europe, they willingly bought such slaves, not at all embarrassed by the fact that they were Christians.
…. Military operations begin in 1768 in the Caucasus, Crimea and Moldavia. In order to pin down Turkish forces in many directions at once, it was decided to transfer part of the Russian fleet from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean.
The transition was carried out in a complicated political situation. By the time hostilities began against the Turks, Russia continued the diplomatic struggle with France, with the Schauzel cabinet, which was extremely hostile towards Russia and strongly supported the Porte. In addition, France and Turkey were united by long-standing economic interests. Therefore, both the weakening of Turkey and the strengthening of Russia in the event of its victory were disadvantageous for France. Spain also took the side of France.
…. With strict orders not to engage in confrontation, the fleet, divided into four squadrons, managed to sail into the Mediterranean without loss. Having arrived at the theater of military operations, the Baltic squadrons safely united under the command of Admiral G.A. Spiridov.
After the squadrons united, the fleet began active operations. Troops were landed in Vutulo, where 600 Russian soldiers were joined by 2,500 Greeks. The wave of uprising of the Orthodox peoples subject to the Porte is becoming widespread. The Russians brought with them weapons and equipment much needed by the rebels.
The search of the Russian fleet in the Mediterranean Sea was crowned with brilliant success. The squadron inflicted a crushing defeat on the Turkish fleet in Chesme Bay on July 5, 1770. The Russian fleet blocked the Dardanelles, carried out a number of daring operations on the Mediterranean archipelagos and landed troops in Greece.
- And from here we will separately quote an interesting passage that fully explains the name Polikurovsky Hill in Yalta:
“The Ottoman Empire in the 15th century, after the fall of Constantinople and the occupation of Greece by the Ottomans, was never able to conquer a number of mountainous areas (mountains of Aetolia, Pindus, Agrafi, especially the mountainous region of Suli, as well as a whole large mountainous region in the southwest of the Peloponnese - Maina), which were never subordinated to Turkey. There was a continuous guerrilla war here. The inhabitants of the valleys took refuge in the mountains from the oppression of the Ottomans and created independent communities there, whose members called themselves “klefts.”
Gathering into squads of 100-200 people, the klefts carried out daring attacks on Turkish troops. Sometimes they united into large detachments for serious military performances. If necessary, the klefts could easily disperse, “dissolve” in an area well known to them, since the population supported them and provided them with everything they needed. Ordinary warriors called themselves " polycars“- the brave ones were led by captains of the kleft squads. The Klefts were known as desperate brave men and excellent marksmen. Their exploits earned them fame among the people.
Shortly before the start of the Mediterranean campaign, Count Alexei Orlov, while “on vacation” in Italy, negotiated with the Greeks and Slavs, urging them to revolt against Turkey, and promised them Russian help. For these purposes, he asked Empress Catherine to send him several state letters “with her seal and her own signature,” in which the monarch would promise support and protection to all those who rebelled against the Porte.
- It is known that Catherine the Great generously settled with the Greeks (who soon became known as the “Balaklava Greeks”) with lands in the Crimea, mainly on the former possessions of the Turkish sultans, including Yalta. It is quite possible that the lands on Polikurovsky Hill(the slide from Massandra beach to the Yalta bus station) was exactly what those brave souls got polycars.
====================
4. Dmitry Nikolaenko. Five reasons to love the Greeks
Now the work is more difficult to understand, written by the Doctor of Geographical Sciences Dmitry Nikolaenko. By the way, his grandfather’s last name was Nikolaenko Greek came up with a quick idea just to save himself and his family from death, so there is some irony in the fact that Soviet historians love the Greeks as a kind of “virtual cultural community” more than the Crimean Tatars, should not be understood as disdain for the Greeks.
«. .. Academician Rybakov, in his understanding of time, is similar to Sharikov, with his unambiguous and categorical assessments. He knows everything, and resolves all issues clearly, clearly and, sometimes, unexpectedly. Rybakov-Sharikov loves and appreciates someone, but doesn’t really love and value someone. All this is very interesting and for this reason we will give the floor to “Academician Sharikov«.
Five reasons to love the Greeks
Love is a delicate feeling, difficult to grasp, but not for a Soviet academic historian. Everything here has rational Soviet foundations.
Rybakov loves the Greeks.
Rybakov likes the Greeks in Crimea.
Greeks in Crimea are progressive.
“The founding of city-polises in Crimea by Hellenic settlers had a great positive significance for the historical development of Crimea, as it introduced it to the high ancient civilization. The symbiosis of Greek cities and the local population led to the creation of a unique culture of the Black Sea region.”
There are common grounds in the love of the Greeks of current Russian and recent Soviet authors. Why do Russian authors in general and Academician Rybakov in particular like the Greeks? Sharikov liked elephants and did not like cats. Rybakov and Soviet authors like the Greeks and do not like the Tatars in Crimea. Why? Let's make our guess. There are several reasons.
First reason. Probably because the Greeks are not Tatars and are obviously different from the Tatars. This is the main reason why Russian authors love the Greeks in Crimea, at all times. The Greeks are living evidence that Crimea was not only Tatar territory.
It is important and interesting that the theoretical love of Russian authors for the Crimean Greeks did not save the latter from systematic practical deportations from their homeland. Suvorov began. Ended with the work of the NKVD in 1944. Love in the Russian SCS (hereinafter SCS is a socio-cultural system) is a harsh matter, like goodness, which “must be done with fists.” It is quite clear that great good must have “big fists.” The incident was described by a Soviet poet.
The second reason for loving progressive Greeks is due to the fact that they are “exiles”. This official party-punitive term, in this case, is very important. It is known where the homeland of the Greeks is located, and it is clear that they cannot claim any special rights in Crimea. Greeks live in Greece, not in Crimea. And no matter how long the Greeks lived in Crimea, for Rybakov-Sharikov they will always be deportees - migrants. Ultimately, this is what happened. This happened later, and the Crimean Greeks received a lot of help in this regard.
The third reason for love is due to the fact that the Crimean Greeks were strongly assimilated into the Russian SKS. We love those who are like us. We do not tolerate differences. The Greeks, while maintaining their ethnic identification, were generally subject to assimilation. They easily fit into the Russian SKS. The Greeks had no resistance to assimilation from the Russian SCS. The first time this manifested itself was in the process of (re)eviction of the Crimean Christian population by Suvorov’s troops outside the Crimea. This was the first instance of violence that actively promoted assimilation. The rest proceeded in much the same spirit. The tendency of the Crimean Greeks to assimilate gives rise to a favorable attitude towards them by the Russian authorities and the love of historians and ideologists.
The fourth reason for love is due to the fact that the Crimean Greeks are Christians, and for this reason are considered as the antipode of Muslim Tatars, even in atheistic Soviet times. Still, “almost our own.” In some historical periods, religious identification plays an important role. At some times, it loses its meaning, but in general, it never disappears.
The fifth reason for the love of Russian historians of all times for the Crimean Greeks is due to the fact that they do not claim their own version of Crimean history. Among all the ethnic groups living in Crimea, the Greeks have the longest regional history. They had city-policies, that is, statehood. But that was a long time ago, and in modern times they have no reason to claim something independent. This pleasantly distinguishes them from the Crimean Tatars, who still cannot forget about their past statehood. They all had to be expelled from Crimea for this.
The Greeks, just like Rybakov, build Crimean history according to linear principles and do this from an anti-Tatar position. A striking example is associated with the works of the modern Greek Crimean historian Kesmedzhi.
The entire article is posted on the website Crimea and Crimean Tatars. http://kirimtatar.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=127&Itemid=381
5. Greeks of the Azov region 200 years after resettlement from Crimea
From an article in the newspaper “Priazovsky Rabochiy” http://ndgazeta.org.ua/razd.php?n=1514
More than 200 years ago Greek Christians, having moved from Crimea, founded Mariupol and 20 villages. Over these years, the Azov Greeks carried their history, language and traditions through the centuries. Currently, the majority of Greeks live in Pervomaisky, Telmanovsky, Volodarsky, Velikonovoselkovsky, Starobeshevo districts of Donbass. Their history still contains many little-studied and controversial issues, which are expected to be resolved within the framework of the research project “ Greek settlements of the Azov region". This joint Ukrainian-Greek project is being carried out for the first time in Ukraine on the basis of the Faculty of History of the Mariupol State Humanitarian University and aims to create a base for a research center " Greeks of the Azov region«.
Project participants are students and teachers of the Faculty of History and the Faculty of Greek Philology of Moscow State Humanitarian University, students of the Cyprus National University and a famous Greek journalist Stelios Elliniadis — We have already visited field ethnographic expeditions in many villages, in particular in the Novoselkovsky district, where we collected material on statistics (we studied documents of the village councils), material (housing, clothing, food) and spiritual (family calendar rituals) culture. They also studied the dialects of local Greeks to compile dictionaries, issues of self-identification of the Greek population (who do they consider themselves to be - Greco-Urums or Greco-Rumeans) and migration sentiments.
The expedition members visited the recently restored local church, the Urzuf History Museum, where they saw many unique exhibits: a rich collection of antiques, household items, a collection of coins, etc. A real find for students, both Mariupol and Cypriot, was the acquaintance with the oldest resident of the village, former teacher S.I. Kudakotsev. Even in pre-war times, as a young rural teacher, Spiridon Ivanovich dreamed of returning to his native village and doing what he loved - studying its history. Years passed, and Spiridon Ivanovich’s dream came true - he worked a lot in the archives and museums of the then USSR, collected a rich collection of archaeological monuments and created a valuable work - “The History of the Village of Primorskoe (Urzuf) in the Period 1779 - 1978.” The children listened very carefully to the guardian of the village’s history, as his fellow villagers call him, and carefully wrote down everything he told. And Spiridon Ivanovich had something to tell, because, despite his venerable age (he was 88 years old), he retained good spirits and an excellent memory. And the project participants were interested in absolutely all the details of Urzuf’s historical past. Especially family traditions and outfits of the bride and groom. This is not surprising, because out of nine students from Cyprus, eight are girls.
When asked what they remembered most during the ethnographic expeditions, the Cypriots answered: “Your Greeks are more Greek than we are http://www.pr.ua/news.php?new=2713 . They have preserved, as if they had preserved, many elements of language, culture and traditions dating back to antiquity. This has not happened in Cyprus for a long time.”
- It is quite clear that the modern Greek population of Cyprus has very little relation to the ancient Greeks of Hellas in terms of culture and traditions. Perhaps, anthropologically, these are completely different communities. However, let’s not rush to conclusions; let’s wait for more references.
6. Repressions against the Azov Greeks in 1937
After the 12th Congress of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) proclaimed the policy of indigenization, Mariupol became the center of compact residence of the Greek diaspora, two Greek national districts were organized near it: Sartansky (with its center in the village of Sartana (now part of the Ilyichevsky district of Mariupol) and Mangushsky (with its center in the village Mangush). In the city itself, a pedagogical college was opened with the Greek language of instruction, as well as 14 Greek schools, where education was conducted in Modern Greek, and not in Rumean, which did not have a literary standard.
... In 1937, repressions took place in the Mariupol region against the Germans and Greeks, at enterprises and educational institutions, as a result of which about 35 thousand people were repressed - managers, engineers, teachers, military men, sailors, workers, peasants. In 1937, the Greek theater in Mariupol was closed, and the artistic director, directors, and many actors were shot, and the Greek newspaper “Collectivistis” stopped publishing. During 1937, by decision of the Mariupol city committee of the Communist Party (b)U, all churches were dismantled with the participation of forcibly brought peasants from Azov villages. On the site of some churches, schools No. 11, 36, 37 were built from their bricks.
Dmitry Gubin
Greek operation of the NKVD 1937-1938. was the bloodiest of all national operations during the Great Terror.
Of the over 22 thousand Greeks arrested, more than 90 percent were shot.
About 2.5 thousand ended up in camps.
The majority - 1500-1600 people - served mostly ten-year sentences in Kolyma.
Of these, approximately 800 people died there from exhaustion, scurvy and other diseases.
7. About the deportations of Crimean Greeks in 1941-42 and 1944
The deportation of Greeks from Crimea in 1944 is relatively well known, since it was total in nature: there were no exceptions either for partisans or for relatives of officers and soldiers of the Red Army. But this was the second eviction of Greeks during the war - in 1944, unlike the preventive deportation of 1942, it was carried out after the expulsion of the Nazis from Crimea.
1941-1942 for the Crimean Greeks, too, were not in vain. Immediately after the start of the war, the Greeks of Sevastopol, who were related to the local Germans, were forced to leave Crimea. By the same decree of June 22, 1941, but already in 1942, several dozen Greek families were expelled (Konstantin Orfanidi from Yalta, Despina Popondopulo, Semyon Argiropulo, Elena Evkolidi, Mikhail Miatidi (all from Kerch), Anna Dilyanova from the village of Novy Kermenchik et al.
In '42, during the deportation of the Kuban and Baku and Crimean Greeks, it was impossible to bring charges against them for collaborating with the Germans, as they say, by definition. The Greeks did not have time for entire families to carry out the intentions attributed to them to go over to the side of the enemy. Now, in 1944, the initiators of the resettlement could rub their hands contentedly. The Greeks of Crimea were under occupation, which means they were German accomplices.
But first, as soon as Crimea was liberated from the Nazis, preparations began for its liberation from the Crimean Tatars. And only after them came the turn of the Bulgarians, Armenians and Greeks.
It was decided to punish all of them for the “crimes” they committed. On May 29, 1944, L. Beria sent a special letter, or in the form of an analytical note on this subject, addressed to I. Stalin. There is only one paragraph dedicated to the Greeks:
“After the eviction of the Crimean Tatars in Crimea, work continues on the eviction and seizure by the NKVD of the USSR of the anti-Soviet element, checking and combing settlements and forest areas in order to detain Crimean Tatars who may have fled from eviction, as well as deserters and bandit elements.
There are 12,075 Bulgarians currently living on the territory of Crimea, 14,300 Greeks, and 9,919 Armenians.
...The Greek population lives in most areas of Crimea. A significant part of the Greeks, especially in coastal cities, took up trade and small industry with the arrival of the invaders. The German authorities assisted the Greeks in trade, transportation of goods, etc.”
...The NKVD of the USSR considers it expedient to carry out evictions of all Bulgarians, Greeks and Armenians from the territory of Crimea.”
… Sevastopol residents Nikolai Puludi and his son Dmitry made a living by making hand-held stone mills for grinding grain, collecting rubber tires and exchanging all this stuff for bread in the surrounding villages. And the Germans did not interfere with them.
They also could not prevent Dmitry from being a member of the children's front-line brigade, and then the Sevastopol underground fighters. Dmitry and his friend stole a typewriter from one of the Gestapo departments and handed it over to the partisans. This typewriter printed leaflets calling on Crimeans to resist the occupiers. For this gift, the partisans awarded Dmitry Puludi with a knife. (It was taken away while being loaded onto a truck during deportation).
But here is a more serious sin.
Savely Popandopulo at the end of 1943 received a patent from the German city government to run his own bakery. Savely baked bread and sold it at the market. Complicity on the part of the Germans is obvious.
Taking a specific look at the situation, it is easy to accuse S. Popandopulo himself of collaborating with the Germans. And although Savely sold bread only to his fellow countrymen, two of his children worked for the Germans. The 22-year-old daughter Pulcheria and 24-year-old son Socrates were driven away by the Nazis to Germany, where, whatever one may say, they strengthened the enemy state with their work.
Website Greek mortyrologist http://www.greek-martirolog.ru/1940/book1940_p02_gl02.php
8. Deportations of Pontic Greeks (Greeks of the Northern and Western Black Sea and Azov regions) in the Soviet Union
In 1942, 1944 and 1949, the Greeks of the Soviet Black Sea coast (Krasnodar Territory - where most of them lived compactly), the Caucasus and Transcaucasia, as well as the Crimea were deported to Siberia and the Kazakh steppes.
They were transported in freight cars, having previously transferred all their property to the population that did not fall “under the decree.” During their “delivery” to places, people died from various diseases. They were not provided with water or food. During stops they drank water from various bodies of water, which were often swamps and practically puddles. Children were especially infected.
At that time, not only the Greeks, but also the Bulgarians and Armenians fell under the “resolution of the State Defense Committee”. GOKO Resolution No. 5984ss dated June 2, 1944 stated:
“To oblige the NKVD of the USSR (comrade Beria), in addition to the eviction of the Crimean Tatars according to the GOKO resolution No. 5859ss of May 11, 1944, to evict from the territory of the Crimean ASSR 37,000 people of German collaborators from among the Bulgarians, Greeks and Armenians.”
According to some estimates, the number of Greeks forcibly resettled in Kazakhstan, the Urals, Siberia and other regions is from 60 to 80 thousand people.
In 1956, many of them returned.
In the 80s, there was a tendency towards re-emigration to their historical homeland (especially from the countries of Transcaucasia). from Wikipedia
9. GREEKS OF THE AZOV REGION: FEATURES OF ETHNOCULTURAL IDENTITY
Dr. Kira Kaurinkoski, anthropologist,
Institute of Mediterranean and Comparative Ethnology,
Aix-en-Provence (France).
Since the 80s. XX century more than 150 thousand ethnic Greeks left the territory of the former USSR and moved to their historical homeland. First of all, the Greeks of Kazakhstan, Georgia and Uzbekistan rose from their homes; quite a lot of them left the North Caucasus. At the same time, for quite a long time nothing was heard about the Greeks living on the territory of Ukraine. Only since 1994 did they begin to move to Greece, but in small numbers. Their departure was provoked by a long-term socio-economic crisis in the republic.
According to the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in 1995 there were 150 thousand Greeks in Russia; in Ukraine - 250 thousand, in Georgia - 120 thousand, in Kazakhstan - 50 thousand; in Armenia - 15 thousand and, finally, 10.5 thousand in Uzbekistan. By 2000, according to the same ministry, there were 135 thousand of them left in Russia, 50 in Georgia, 20 in Kazakhstan, 9.5 thousand in Uzbekistan, and 5 thousand in Armenia. At the same time, the number of Greeks living in Ukraine has remained almost unchanged.
This once again suggests that the so-called Azov Greeks - the indigenous people of Ukraine .
... The Greeks of the Azov region are distant descendants of the inhabitants of the ancient Crimean colonies, founded back in the 8th-5th centuries. BC e. They represent a large Greek diaspora, the cradle of which Crimea has long been considered4. At the end of the 18th century. by decree of Catherine II they were resettled in the Mariupol area. As members of the community say, “they founded the city of Mariupol and 20 villages, giving them the names of the settlements in which they lived in Crimea.” Two centuries later, they remain in the same place, where their name comes from - “Azov Greeks”, or “Mariupol Greeks”.
…. In the article I would like to focus on issues relating to the identity of the members of the community under study, their linguistic preferences and their relationship to their historical homeland. We will also try to find out what the commonalities and differences are between the Azov Greeks and their fellow tribesmen from Central Asia and the Caucasus. In addition, it will be considered how the Azov Greeks preserve their ethnic identity.
…. I worked in two villages located 25 km from Mariupol and considered quite large - Sartana (11.2 thousand inhabitants) and Stary Krym (6.5 thousand). Among their inhabitants were 60% Greeks, 20% Russians; 15% are Ukrainians and 5% are representatives of other ethnic groups.
... According to their linguistic affiliation, the Greeks of the studied region are divided into two subgroups: Hellinophones and Turkophones. This division dates back to the 15th century. - the times of the Ottoman Empire. In the villages of Crimea, located near large cities, the Greeks spoke the language of the Crimean Tatars, while those who lived in remote settlements communicated in Hellenic dialects, close to the Greek language, which they perceived as “original”.
There are both similarities and differences between the language of the Hellinophone Greeks living on the coast of the Sea of Azov and the modern Greek language used in Greece itself. Thus, according to T. Chernysheva, who until recently was the only linguist who studied the Greek dialects of the Azov region, they are very similar to classical Greek and modern Greek in terms of syntax, morphology and phonetics, but the differences lie in the area of lexical originality. Unlike Dimotika, the language of modern Greece, the Azov dialect contains many words of Turkish origin (approximately 30%) and many borrowings from Russian and Ukrainian. The former cover mainly social vocabulary, and the latter - everyday vocabulary. Words of Turkic origin are found in all lexical layers. Experts in the field of the Greek language define the dialects of the Azov region (as well as Crimea) as a large dialectal group forming a special Greek-speaking space." According to T. Chernysheva, they are close to the Northern Greek dialects of modern Greece.
The language of the Azov Greeks is divided not only into Greek and Crimean Tatar, but also into separate rural dialects. Soviet and Russian linguists identify five Greek subdialects and three Turkic (Crimean Tatar) subdialects in the Azov region. In fact, each village has its own dialect, and while Turkic dialects are very similar to each other, Greek dialects are very different, so residents of different Greek-speaking villages do not understand each other well.
... In the 19th century. teaching in schools and other Greek educational institutions was conducted in Russian and the so-called Kafarevusa language, and then in Dimotika* (*Modern Greek literary language exists in two forms - Kafarevusa, “purified”, continuing the traditional Attic norm, and Dimotika - folk , created on the basis of the dialects of Central Greece.)
... In 1926-1927. in the Donetsk region there were approximately 65 Greek schools, of which 20 were in Mariupol itself, where there were also German, Tatar, Jewish (with instruction in Yiddish) and numerous Russian and Ukrainian schools. At the Mariupol Pedagogical Institute, teaching in one of the departments was conducted in Greek. There were two theaters in the city, Russian and Greek; Greek national song and dance ensemble “Sartan Gems”
... The time of “cultural flourishing” did not last long. Already at the end of the 30s. National policy towards minorities sharply tightened, which immediately affected the press. Although in other regions of Ukraine publications in the Ukrainian language were widespread until the beginning of the Patriotic War, in the Donetsk region in the 30s. Intensified Russification of newspapers and magazines began19. Thus, the Mariupol daily newspaper, which in 1937 received the name “Priazovsky Rabochiy” (which it still bears to this day), began to be published only in Russian, and Greek newspapers disappeared. At the same time, the Greek department at the Pedagogical Institute and the Greek theater were closed. The folklore ensemble “Sartan Gems” has ceased its work. In all schools in the region, teaching began to be conducted only in Russian.
... In families where both spouses were from the same village, they often spoke Greek to each other, but addressed the children in Russian. Some were afraid that children would not learn Russian well if only Greek was used at home; others feared accusations of nationalism; still others deliberately taught their children the Russian language in order to “make their life easier” and raise them to be “normal Soviet citizens”, no different from others.
…. Dora, a Greek woman from Sartana who was born immediately after the war, says:
“I was born here, in Sartan, where I spent all my youth. My parents spoke Greek among themselves, but they addressed me in Russian. Nevertheless, I understood Greek. My husband was from the neighboring village of Urzuf. In this village there is a different dialect. Since during the first years of our marriage we lived in Urzuf, listening to local speech, I did not understand anything. My husband and I always spoke Russian. We moved to Mariupol. My son did not understand Greek. I remember one case when we were with friends and I decided to say a few words to my son so that no one would understand, and I said the phrase in Greek. He looked at me and laughed - it turns out he didn’t understand anything either.”
...in the Hellenic-phone Sartan they know their language better than in the Turkic-phone Old Crimea. In general, people in Hellenic-phone villages speak their native language better than in Turkic-phone villages.
According to statistics from 1994, 77% of Ukrainian Greeks consider Russian their native language, 18.6% - Greek and only 2.3% - Ukrainian.
- the author of the article explains this situation by forced Russification, but forced Ukrainization in Crimea does not at all make Ukrainian the second language of the Crimean Tatars (and certainly not the main one). 90% of the population of Crimea, that is, in addition to Russians, the majority of Ukrainians and the majority of Crimean Tatars officially named Russian as their native language in the census materials.
... In fact, the predominant spoken language in the Donbass, as in other eastern and central parts of Ukraine (primarily in rural areas) is the so-called Surzhik, a mixture of Russian and Ukrainian. Surzhik is based on the Russian language, but it also contains many Ukrainian words, in particular prepositions, for example: ta instead of the conjunction and; si instead of or, sho instead of what; this instead of that back. You can often also hear: “speaks for me,” and in Russian it is customary to “speak about me” or “about me,” while in Ukrainian it is “speaks about me.” Another common example is “to laugh at me”, while in Russian it is “to laugh at me”, and in Ukrainian it is “to laugh for me”. The construction “I live near Crimea” would sound correctly in Ukrainian if it were not inserted into a Russian phrase (in Russian they say: “I live in Crimea.”
- Taurichan and Azov Surzhik are natural languages of the south of the Russian Plain, and not at all the result of some kind of “madness” between Russians and Ukrainians. The Slavs in these places coexisted with the Hellenes and Turks since time immemorial, for at least 3000 years.
Alexandra Ivanovna, a native of Kirillovka, a small Greek-speaking village, said that at the age of 15 she was still pronouncing Russian words incorrectly, so she was very shy and practiced at home in front of the mirror.
In this case, we are dealing with such a manifestation of linguistic “hypercorrectness” (overcorrectness), which F. Kafka mentioned in his novel “The Trial”, describing the behavior of a foreigner. Having internalized the cultural norms of the society into which he wants to integrate, the society whose embrace he seeks, he not only follows these norms, but, moreover, emphasizes his adherence to them. However, due to such “extreme behavior”, he becomes recognizable to the host society as not one of his own.
In my opinion, the linguistic hyper-correctness observed among some Greeks is one of the forms of so-called hyper-adaptation, excessive efforts to adapt caused by the lack of a sense of security among the ethnic group. In the USSR, not only career growth, but also social approval were hardly achievable without the Russian language. The following point also attracts attention: those who speak Russian very well have often already lost the language of their group. The question is whether such loss is a necessary sign of ethnic assimilation26. There is no doubt that language helps a nation come together. But if the Azov Greeks are mostly Russian-speaking, this does not mean that they have become Russian.
... Hellinophones and Turkophones. Both of them do not miss the opportunity to emphasize their specificity, although it does not have any formal expression - according to their passports, both of these groups were considered “Greeks” in Soviet times. It is interesting that marriages between them are practically not concluded, although both of them have become very Russified and themselves often marry Ukrainians and Russians. They also do not live nearby, and therefore the Greek villages of the Azov region are either Hellenophone or Turcophone.
Conflicts between members of two related groups are quite common. But even if there is no conflict, there is always an invisible line dividing them.
- It is quite natural that the descendants of the Tauri, Scythians, Alans, Dacians, Goths and other peoples, having once united against a common enemy - the Hellenes, precisely on the basis of the ancient Greek and then Byzantine language, still perceive people from Greece, which is always poor in resources, as Muscovites — limiters. Like “let’s come in large numbers here.” For at least a thousand years, the Crimean Orthodox could easily choose to be “Elinophone,” but they always chose a purely local indigenous language, clearly opposing themselves to the newcomers from Byzantium, and then from the Orthodox population of the Turkish Empire. In the 10th-17th centuries, Turkic, or rather various variants of the Kipcha and Oguz dialects, established itself in a completely natural way as the language of interethnic communication in Crimea. And this was connected exclusively with the cultural and economic influence of the Great Silk Road.
- Turkic-phonicity meant the possession of resources, and Elinic-phonicity only meant a thirst for these resources.
- The tone of the article also clearly shows the absurd desire of the government of modern Greece to impose on the Pontic Greeks (whose ancestors, among other peoples, created the most powerful empire of our time - Russia and the Soviet Union), the cultural values of the backyards of Europe. For warm-up, let's remember only the famous polar explorer Papanin, the no less famous actor Papanin, and the very famous first Soviet tractor driver Praskovya Angelo (who is supposedly Pasha Angelina). The Greeks in Russia built and fought, creating a great country together with other peoples. But in the 13th-16th centuries, Crimea was much more powerful than a dozen small countries on the site of present-day Ukraine and Russia.
- But the main thing is that participation in the Great Silk Road meant possession of resources and understandable simplicity. And the Mediterranean world has always been distinguished by poverty, which was dressed in gold and purple, by roguishness, which piled up mountains of moralizing writings, and carefully protected itself from the barbarians with its arrogance, and certainly not with force.
... Since Greece is a country that recognizes the jus sanguinis, it accepts all people of Greek origin who have documents confirming this fact29. After a certain period of time, they can obtain citizenship. In the first half of the 1990s. in Greece there was even a government program for the repatriation of compatriots (Pontians) from the former USSR. However, since 1994, as the uncontrollable flow of migrants increased, the Greek authorities' policy towards Greeks from the former USSR and Albania became more selective and harsh, especially in matters of obtaining citizenship. At the same time, the Greek government began to more actively support the diaspora - we are talking about material assistance, supplying educational literature in Greek, teacher training, organizing summer camps for children and the elderly, participating in the construction of churches, sending priests there, etc.
How many Greeks from the former USSR now live in Greece? Between 1989 and April 2000, 105 thousand people received citizenship of their historical homeland, and approximately 40 thousand are now awaiting a decision from the authorities. However, among them there are very few immigrants from Ukraine. As for the total number of former residents of the Soviet Union in Greece, there are many more of them, since this group includes Russians, Ukrainians, Georgians, etc. In addition to spouses and other family members of ethnic Greeks, these are economic migrants, as well as other people who have managed to or otherwise enter the country. Many of them entered on tourist visas or with false documents purchased on the black market. There are a lot of Ukrainians in this group. According to official data, there are now about 15 thousand 34 Ukrainian citizens in Greece, and according to unofficial data there are more than 150 thousand, mostly immigrants from Western Ukraine. We are talking about economic migration, predominantly female.
The entire article is on the website of the Azov Greek Heritage Association http://www.azovgreeks.org/gendb/rus/kaurinkoski.htm
- After reading this article, I think that the Pontic Greeks (or rather the Urums) should focus not on begging for grants from Greece. Let Greece delight us with its tourist beauty and the common cultural heritage of Europeans (a significant part of which, by the way, is located in Turkey). Both of these countries, however, like Egypt, in their modern cultural and scientific respects have a very dubious continuity of ancient traditions. Vectors of development have long left these countries to the north and west.
- Right now, when the hasty “conciliar” version of the Ukraine project is living out its last days, it is important for the well-being of all the peoples of the country to achieve recognition that the Urums (like the Crimean Tatars, Crimean Armenians, Karaites, Krymchaks, Gagauz, Nogai) are the indigenous peoples of Ukraine.
10. Monuments and tourist sites of Greek culture in Crimea
One of the villages that have preserved monuments of the traditional culture of the Greeks who arrived in Crimea after the Russian-Turkish War (1828-1829) from Rumelia (Eastern Thrace) is the village Chernopillya(former Karachol) Belogorsk district. Dwellings dating back to the early 20th century have been preserved here. Currently, the church in the name of Saints Constantine and Helena (built in 1913) has been restored; there is a source of St. Constantine - “Holy Spring”, where the Greeks come after the liturgy for ablution and drinking. The holy holiday of Panair, held annually by the Chernopol community on June 3-4, is famous among the Greeks of Crimea and the Donetsk region. Folk rituals, traditions and customs, rich song folklore are preserved not only in families, but also in folklore groups. In January 2000, an ethnographic house museum was opened in the village of Chernopolye.
In addition to the so-called “Modern Greek” monuments, many monuments have been preserved in Crimea, characterizing various periods of Greek culture in Crimea. Christian and Muslim necropolises of the 16th-17th centuries were discovered and explored in the Bakhchisarai region. Among the old-timers of the Greek population were Greek Christians (Rumeians) and Turkic-speaking ones - Urums, therefore the inscriptions on the tombstones are found in two languages. These priceless historical and cultural monuments, many of which are dated and have preserved their ornamentation, arouse enormous interest among residents of the peninsula and researchers. Thus, the villages of the Bakhchisarai region Vysokoye, Bogatoye, Gorge, Bashtanovka, Mnogoreche, Zelenoe with Christian and Muslim necropolises, preserved dwellings of the 19th century. can be distinguished as ethnographic objects characterizing the spiritual and material culture of the late medieval population of Crimea - the Greeks.
…. The self-name of the people of one of the branches in the Greek line is known - Buzmak, which appeared as a result of the long coexistence of several ethnic groups. Such mixing and layering of cultures is known in the village of Alekseevka, Belogorsk district (formerly the village of Sartana).
…. The total number of allocated objects on the culture of the Greeks is 13, geographically they are located in the Bakhchisarai and Belogorsk regions and the city of Simferopol (Greek shopping arcades, the former Church of Constantine and Helen, the A. Sovopulo fountain).
Page about Crimean Greeks on the website of the Ministry of Resorts and Tourism of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea
11. About the Pontic Greeks and Urums on the Kalimera website http://kalimera.ucoz.ru/publ/1-1-0-1
For Greeks living in Ukraine, Russia and the Transcaucasian countries, there is a collective term “Pontic Greeks”, however, it is not entirely adequate. It is used, as a rule, by ideologists of the national movement to differentiate the Pontians from the Greeks of Greece.
It is more correct to call “Pontic Greeks” the Greek-speaking immigrants of the Orthodox faith from the Asia Minor region of Pontus, who began to settle in Transcaucasia (in the village of Kyaryak, Tsalka region - in 1897, about 1000 families, in the Crimea, the Balkans and the Black Sea region since 1830.
It is worth noting that not all refugees from Pontus were Greek-speaking; certain communities spoke Turkish (more precisely, they were bilingual, from the 15th century): Bafrali (city of Bafra), Samsunians, Sinopeans, Trabzonians (Trebizond), Kerasundians, Uniians, Kotiorians ( Orduians).
Together with the Pontians, purely Turkish-speaking and Armenian-speaking groups of Greek Christians from Cappadocia, Erzurum and Kataonia fled from Eastern Anatolia.
Currently, about 80 thousand Pontians and Urums live in Russia (Krasnodar Territory and Stavropol Territory), who during censuses call themselves Greeks and do not separate themselves. The ideologists of the national movement of the Pontic Greeks and Urums use “Pontios,” “Pontians” as an ethnonym, differentiating them from the Greeks of mainland Greece, while at the same time, under the influence of panhellenism, the ethnonyms “Hellenes,” “Hellenes,” “Hellenos” are introduced into circulation. Pontians." Ethnonyms are used: Armenian – “uyn”; Georgian – “berdzeni”.
In addition to Russia, people from Pontus and Eastern Anatolia are found in Georgia, Abkhazia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, the USA, Germany, Canada, and a small number still live in Turkey.
In the 30s, a Greek administrative region existed in the south of the European part of the RSFSR. At the beginning of the Second World War, the Pontians and Urums were deported from the North Caucasus and the Transcaucasian republics to Central Asia. In 1956, many of them returned.
Initially, the Urum language was close to the Crimean Tatar, and then its individual dialects absorbed Oguz and Nogai elements. It is impossible to talk about a complete Urum language; we can state the existence of a group of dialects that are structurally related. The Greek substrate was expressed in the loss of the local Turkic case, the emergence of the category of participles and gerunds, a certain form of tenses, verbal nouns, and analytical forms in syntax. The sounds /k/ and /g/ moved to /sh/ before /e/, /i/.
The Urum (Turkic group) language and the Tauro-Rumean dialect of the Pontic dialect (Greek group) are spoken in 30 villages in Ukraine (29 in the Donetsk region, 1 in Zaporozhye) and in the city of Mariupol.
Dialects of the Urum language
:
Kipchak-Polovtsian subgroup (dialects: Velikonovoselovsky, Yeni-Salinsky, Starobeshevo, Pershotravnevsky, Mangush)
Kipchak-Oguz subgroup (Staromlinovsky, Kermenchiksky, Bogatyrsky, Ulaklynsky)
Oguz-Kypchak subgroup (granite, Karansky, Starolaspinsky, Komarinsky, Kamaransky, Starognatovo, Gurdzhinsky)
Oguz subgroup (Old Crimean, Mariupol)
CRIMEAN GREEKS are part of the Greek diaspora, which was formed differently in different periods of history and had certain ethnic, linguistic and cultural differences. Its appearance dates back to the 6th century. BC e., when the colonization of Crimea began by the ancient Greeks, who created a number of policies on the western, southeastern and eastern coasts and on the Kerch Peninsula: Kerkinitida, Panticapaeum, Feodosia, Chersonese, etc., which later united into 2 states - the Bosporan Kingdom and the Republic of Chersonese . The ancient Greeks, mainly engaged in agriculture, crafts and trade, made a great contribution to the economic development and culture of Crimea. At the beginning of the Middle Ages, the bulk of the ancient Greeks assimilated with the local (Tauro-Scythian) and alien (Sarmatian-Alan, Germanic, and later Turkic-Bulgar) populations, as well as with the Byzantines who moved to the peninsula, among whom there were also many Greeks. The next wave of Greeks poured into Crimea in the 11th-13th centuries. in connection with the restoration of Byzantine power in Taurica. Caused the widespread spread of Christianity, the construction of churches, monasteries, castles, and fortresses. The main occupation of the Greeks during this period was cattle breeding, crafts, and trade. Many of them were Turkified by language, customs, and partly by religion. Most of the medieval Greek-Christians were resettled by the tsarist government in the Azov region in 1778, but soon some of them, by order of G. A. Potemkin, returned to the peninsula. At the same time, after the Kuchuk-Kainardzhi Peace of 1774, the Greeks of the archipelagic army formed by Count A. S. Orlov were settled in Kerch and Yenikale. After the annexation of Crimea to Russia, a battalion was created from them to guard the southern coast; later this battalion participated in the Crimean War. 12-13 thousand Greeks fled to Crimea from Turkey, fleeing genocide, during the 1st World War. wars (they were called “new Greeks”). On the peninsula, the Greeks lived in small compact groups next to the Bulgarians, Russians, Ukrainians, Tatars and others in cities and 398 villages and hamlets, engaged mainly in gardening, melon growing, tobacco growing and trade, as well as viticulture and fishing. In 1939, 20,652 Greeks lived in Crimea. During the Great Patriotic War, many Crimean Greeks were at the front and very actively participated in the partisan and underground movement. On June 14, 1944, all Crimean Greeks, including former front-line soldiers, partisans and underground fighters, were forcibly deported from Crimea “to other regions of the USSR.” Due to the fact that the Crimean Greeks did not cooperate with the Nazi occupiers, they did not need rehabilitation. Already in the 50s. some of them returned to the peninsula. Now this process has intensified. However, many of the Crimean Greeks emigrated and continue to emigrate to Greece.
