FYI
Forwarded message:
> From: "Marko R. Stech" <[email protected]>
> To: "Marko R. Stech" <[email protected]>
> Subject: IEU Features the Crimea, the Southernmost Region of Ukraine (February 2014)
> Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2014 17:02:55 -0500
>
> INTERNET ENCYCLOPEDIA OF UKRAINE
>
> FEATURES:
>
>
>
> THE CRIMEA: THE SOUTHERNMOST REGION OF UKRAINE
>
> (February 2014)
>
>
>
> The Crimean Peninsula, which today forms the southernmost tip of Ukraine,
> was, throughout its history, often dominated politically and culturally by
> southern states and influenced by the states that controlled the Ukrainian
> mainland. The peninsula itself was too small to organize a strong,
> independent state. The earliest known settlements in the Crimea date back to
> the Lower Paleolithic Period, about 100,000 years ago. The earliest
> historical population in the Crimea was the Cimmerians, of Iranian descent,
> who came in the first centuries of the first millennium BC. They were forced
> out to Asia Minor by the Scythians in the 7th century BC. In the 6th century
> BC the Greeks began to found colonies on the Crimean coast. The most
> successful colonies were Chersonese Taurica (now Sevastopol), Panticapaeum
> (now Kerch), and Teodosiia. From the 5th century BC until the 4th century AD
> the Bosporan Kingdom, with Panticapaeum as capital, controlled the eastern
> Crimea. At the end of the 5th century AD the Crimean coast came under the
> rule of Byzantium. For a time the Crimea mediated between Kyivan Rus' and
> the Byzantine Empire. Prince Volodymyr the Great of Kyiv captured Chersonese
> Taurica in 988 and in the 10th-12th century the eastern part of the Crimea
> belonged to Tmutorokan principality, which was part of the Kyivan Rus'
> state. When the Crusaders took Constantinople, the Byzantine Empire lost its
> influence in the Crimea. In the mid-13th century Venetian and, more
> importantly, Genoese trade colonies were established in the Crimea. The
> leading colony was Kaffa (now Teodosiia). From the mid-13th century the
> Crimea, except for the Italian colonies, was seized by the Tatars of the
> Golden Horde who eventually organized a separate state known as the Crimean
> Khanate. In 1474 Turkey captured the Italian colonies in the southern
> Crimea, and in 1478 the Crimean Khanate recognized the supremacy of the
> Ottoman Empire. Tatar forces invaded the Ukrainian lands almost annually,
> destroying the towns and villages and seizing inhabitants, whom they later
> sold at slave markets. In the 16th century the Ukrainian Cossacks came to
> the defense of the population, and by the beginning of the 17th century they
> took the offensive against the Tatars. In the 18th century the Cossacks
> helped Russia wrest control of the Black Sea coast from Turkey and the
> Crimean Khanate. The Russo-Turkish peace treaty of 1774 led to Russia's
> annexation of the Crimea in 1783. In 1775 the population of the Crimea
> consisted primarily of Crimean Tatars (200,000 or 80 percent of the
> population). Following the Russian annexation, the number of Tatars declined
> continuously in absolute and relative terms: in 1897 there were 194,000 or
> 35.5 percent; in 1926 there were 179,000 or 25.1 percent. Following the
> Second World War, the Soviet authorities forcefully resettled the entire
> Crimean Tatar population from the Crimea to the Soviet interior...
>
>
>
> Learn more about the Crimea, its ancient history and major cities, by
> visiting:
>
> http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/featuredentry.asp
>
> or by visiting:
>
> http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com
>
> and searching for such entries as:
>
>
>
>
>
> CRIMEA. The most southerly part of Ukraine, the Crimea is an irregular
> quadrangular peninsula situated between the Black Sea (in the west and
> south) and the Sea of Azov (in the east). It has a breadth of 200 km north
> to south, a maximum length of 320 km east to west, and an area of 27,000 sq
> km. It is connected to the mainland by the narrow, 7 km Perekop Isthmus,
> which is flanked by Karkinitska Bay in the west and Syvash Lake in the east.
> In the east the Crimea is separated from the Kuban (the Taman Peninsula) by
> the Kerch Strait. The Crimea consists of two very different parts--the
> semiarid, treeless steppe of the Crimean Lowland in the north and the
> Crimean Mountains in the south. The Crimean steppe, with its continental
> climate and steppe soils and vegetation, is a continuation of the Ukrainian
> steppe and together with the Kerch Peninsula occupies four-fifths of the
> Crimea's territory. The Crimean Mountains consist of a narrow range of
> foothills and a low mountain chain covered with forests and high pastures.
> Below the mountains in the south is a narrow (2-12 km) coastal lowland--the
> Crimean southern shore--with a Mediterranean climate and vegetation. Because
> of its geographical location, the Crimea has the most ancient and richest
> history of all the regions of Ukraine. Control of the Crimea gives Ukraine
> today ready and safe access to the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, the Kuban,
> and Caucasia, as well as a secure southern border...
>
>
>
>
>
> SIMFEROPOL (or Symferopil). A city (2013 pop 337,285) on the Salhyr River
> and the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea within Ukraine. The
> vicinity has been inhabited since the Paleolithic Period. The Scythian
> capital of Neapolis (3rd century BC to 4th century AD) occupied the
> southeastern part of present-day Symferopil. By the early 16th century the
> Tatar stronghold of Kermenchyk and settlement of Ak-Mechet had been
> established at the site. After annexing the Crimea, Catherine II set up the
> fortified town of Simferopol as the capital of Tavriia oblast (from 1802,
> Tavriia gubernia). Initially, the town developed slowly as a trading and
> manufacturing center. The opening of the Kharkiv-Sevastopol railway line in
> 1874 ushered in rapid industrial growth. The city expanded to the other bank
> of the river, where a fine residential district was developed. A number of
> learned societies were established: a gubernia archival commission (1887)
> with a museum of antiquities and a library, and a natural history museum set
> up by the gubernia's zemstvo (1889). Following the Revolution of 1917
> Simferopol was occupied by various armies. On 24 April 1918 the Crimean
> Group of the Army of the Ukrainian National Republic took the city. In 1921
> it became the capital of the Crimean ASSR. Simferopol's most interesting
> architectural monuments are the Taranov-Belozerov residence (1822-6) and the
> Vorontsov palace (1827). Some of the old Tatar quarter, with its winding,
> narrow streets and Oriental buildings, has been preserved...
>
>
>
>
>
> KERCH. City (2012 pop 145,319) and port in the eastern Crimea. It originated
> in the 6th century BC as the Greek colony of Panticapaeum, which in the
> succeeding century became the capital of the Bosporan Kingdom. From the
> middle of the 1st century BC it was under Roman and then Byzantine control.
> It suffered severely from barbarian invasions and was devastated by the Huns
> in AD 375. From the 10th to the 12th century the Slavic settlement of
> Korchev, which belonged to Tmutorokan principality, was a center of trade
> between Kyivan Rus' and the Crimea, Caucasia, and the Orient. In the 14th
> and 15th centuries the Genoese colony of Cerco (Cerchio) was established
> there, which in the late 15th century passed to the Turks, who built a
> citadel there. By the Peace Treaty of Kucuk Kaynarca in 1774, Kerch and the
> neighboring fortress of Yenikale (built in 1706) were ceded to Russia. Kerch
> is the center of the Kerch Iron-ore Basin, the base of a fishing fleet, and
> an important fish-processing center for numerous varieties of fish products.
> Its most impressive architectural monuments are Demeter's Vault with Greek
> mythological frescoes (1st century AD), the Church of Saint John the Baptist
> (10th century, with murals from the 13th-14th century), and the Yenikale
> fortress. Located nearby are several ancient kurhans, such as Melek-Chesmen
> kurhan, Tsarskyi kurhan, and the Scythian Kul Oba kurhan, as well as
> excavated cities of Panticapaeum and Nymphaeum...
>
>
>
>
>
> SEVASTOPOL (or Sevastopil). A city (2013 pop 343,156) and port on the Black
> Sea in the Crimea. The region was inhabited by the Taurians from the
> beginning of the 1st millennium BC. In the 5th century BC the Greek colony
> of Chersonese Taurica was established at the site. In 1784, after annexing
> the Crimea, Catherine II ordered the fortress and naval port of Sevastopol
> to be built at the site of the Tatar village of Akhtiar. In 1804 it became
> the home of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. The city grew from 30,000
> inhabitants at the beginning of the century to 47,400 in 1853. During the
> Crimean War (1853-6) the city was almost completely destroyed. After the war
> it was demilitarized. In the 1870s its naval facilities were rebuilt and
> expanded, and a railway connecting it with the grain-growing interior was
> constructed. The population of the city grew rapidly, from 11,000 in 1875 to
> 53,000 in 1897. During the First World War the city was occupied by the
> Germans (May-November 1918), the Allied Powers (November 1918 to April
> 1919), and Anton Denikin's forces (June 1919 to November 1920) before it was
> taken, finally, by the Red Army. On 29 April 1918, just before the German
> occupation, the Ukrainian flag was raised on the ships of the Black Sea
> Fleet in Sevastopol. During the Second World War Sevastopol resisted the
> Germans for eight months before surrendering in July 1942. After its
> recapture in May 1944 the city was in ruins. In 1945-55 it was rebuilt and
> expanded...
>
>
>
>
>
> TEODOSIIA (or Feodosiia). A city (2011 pop 70,043) on the coast of the Black
> Sea in southeastern Crimea. It originated in the 6th century BC as
> Theodosia, a colony of the Greek city-state of Miletus, and developed into
> an important trading center. From 355 BC it was part of the Bosporan
> Kingdom. In the 4th century AD Theodosia was sacked by the Huns, and at the
> end of the 6th century it was captured by the Khazars. During the second
> half of the 1st millennium the city had close ties with Byzantium. The
> Genoese established a trading post called Kaffa on Tatar-held territory in
> the 13th century. In 1475 it was captured by the Turks, who developed it
> into the largest slave market in the Crimea. The Zaporozhian Cossacks sacked
> Kaffa and freed the slaves in 1616, 1628, and 1675. During the Russo-Turkish
> War of 1686-99 the town was captured by the Russian army, in 1771, and
> annexed by the Russian Empire in 1783. It reassumed its ancient name of
> Teodosiia, and it became a county center of Tavriia gubernia in 1802. The
> completion of a railway line (1892) and new port facilities (1895)
> stimulated economic development: the number of factories in the town
> increased from 13 in 1891 to 30 in 1894. Under Soviet rule Teodosiia was
> part of the Crimean ASSR from 1921. The city's main architectural monuments
> are the remaining walls and turrets of the Genoese fortress (14th-15th
> century), a 13th- to 15th-century church, and a 17th-century mosque...
>
>
>
>
>
> BAKHCHESARAI (or Bakhchysarai). City (1926 pop 10,000, of which 72 percent
> were Tatars; 2013 pop 26,482) in the Churuk Valley on the northwestern slope
> of the Crimean Mountains; a raion center in the Autonomous Republic of
> Crimea, Ukraine. The city has a food industry and an institute of
> construction technology. From the end of the 15th century to 1783
> Bakhchesarai was the capital of the Crimean Khanate. It is a typically
> oriental city, with narrow, winding streets, fountains, and mosques. Its
> most famous architectural landmark is the group of buildings that once
> constituted the khan's palace (16th-18th century), now the Bakhchesarai
> Historical and Archeological Museum. The most interesting buildings are the
> Golden Cabinet (18th century), the Hall of Assembly (16th-18th century), and
> the Fountain of Tears (built by master Omer in 1764). Not far from
> Bakhchesarai are the ruins of the medieval underground fortress town
> Chufut-Kaleh. In 1681 Muscovy concluded a peace treaty with Turkey and the
> Crimean Khanate in Bakhchesarai (see Treaty of Bakhchesarai)...
>
>
>
> *******
>
> The preparation, editing, and display of the IEU entries about the Crimea,
> its history and major cities, were made possible by the financial support of
> the CANADIAN FOUNDATION FOR UKRAINIAN STUDIES.
>
> *******
>
>
>
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