The southeast of Ukraine is traditionally contrasted with the West of this republic. And this is no coincidence: history, language, the ethnic composition of the population, and the nature of the economy - everything here is decisively opposed to “Ukrainianism” with its farmhouse nationalism, Russian-Polish jargon (“Move”), the cult of traitorous losers, and finally, the impenetrable Western mentality of the “Selyuks”. Another thing is that eastern Ukraine itself is also heterogeneous, which is reflected in the specifics of the political struggle in Ukraine. And among the least “Ukrainian” regions of Ukraine, it is necessary to highlight Novorossiya.

These days, this geographical concept is unknown to most Russians. In the mass literature, and even in scientific literature, the concept of “Novorossiya” is practically not used, which is why this concept has been forgotten. Even the most educated people can usually only say that Novorossiya once, from the middle of the 18th century (more precisely, from 1764, when the province of the same name was created) and until 1917, meant the territory along the northern shore of the Black and Azov Seas. Due to this name of the region, one can recall that the city of Yekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk) under Emperor Paul was called Novorossiysk, and the university in Odessa before the revolution was officially called Novorossiysk. During the Soviet era, this region was called the Northern Black Sea Coast, and now it is usually called Southern Ukraine. However, due to its ethnic history, this region deserves special consideration. Novorossiya is not a part of “Ukraine”, but a completely special part of historical Russia, different from all other regions of the country. The history of the region differs sharply from the history of all regions of Russia, including the history of Ukraine.

It seems that the time has come to rehabilitate the good old name of the region.

Geographically, the territory of Novorossiya changed quite often. In the 18th century, when the very concept of “Novorossiya” appeared, it meant steppe territories with undefined boundaries in the south of the Russian Empire, the development of which was just beginning. During the reign of Catherine II, when the Black Sea steppes and Crimea were annexed to Russia, these territories began to be called Novorossiya. In the first half of the 19th century, Bessarabia was also included in Novorossiya. For quite a long time, lands in the North Caucasus were also included in Novorossiya (this explains the name of the city of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus).

Pre-revolutionary scientists usually referred to Novorossiya in the broad sense as all the lands in the south of the empire annexed since the reign of Catherine II, but in a more common sense, Novorossiya meant the territories of the three Black Sea provinces - Kherson, Ekaterinoslav and Taurida, the Bessarabian province, which had a special status, and the region of the Don Army. Nowadays, the territories of these provinces correspond to the Odessa, Nikolaev, Kherson, Dnepropetrovsk, Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye, Kirovograd regions and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Transnistria, the Rostov region with the cities of Rostov-on-Don and Taganrog in the Russian Federation.

The natural conditions of the region are very favorable. The grain-growing steppe stretches to the Black Sea. It was this steppe, plowed up in the 19th century, that was the breadbasket of all of Russia, supplying grain to Europe as well. Wheat, soybeans, cotton, sunflowers, watermelons, melons, grapes and other exotic products for most of Russia were grown here. Coal, manganese, limestone, and iron ore are mined in the region. Novorossiya had serious economic importance in both the Russian Empire and the USSR.

Such significant rivers as the Dnieper, Dniester, Southern Bug, and Danube flow into the Black Sea. Convenient transport routes, favorable climate, abundant steppe, rich mineral resources - all this made Novorossia a desirable prey for many peoples in history. And it is no coincidence that the ethnic history of Novorossiya is perhaps the most complex among all regions of Russia. At the same time, individual parts of Novorossiya, such as Crimea, Bessarabia, and Donbass, are distinguished by their originality.

1. Ancient ethnic history

The Black Sea has been familiar to our ancestors since ancient times. Already during the times of the Cimmerians and Scythians, the Proto-Slavs, as can be judged from archaeological data, were among the original inhabitants of the northern coast of the Black Sea. This sea was very close to the East Slavic ancestral home. According to B. A. Rybakov, “here they fish, sail on ships, here is the maiden kingdom (of the Sarmatians) with stone cities; from here, from the sea shores, the Serpent Gorynych, the personification of the steppe inhabitants, goes on his raids on Holy Rus'. This is the real historical Black Sea-Azov Sea, which has long been known to the Slavs and even at times bore the name “Russian Sea”. From the forest-steppe outskirts of the Slavs... you can get to this sea by a “quick ride,” as they used to say in the 16th century, in just three days. In this sea there is the fabulous island of Buyan, in which one can easily guess the island of Berezan (Borisfen), which lay on the well-trodden path to the Greek lands; Russian merchant ships were equipped on this island in the 10th century. As we see, the Black Sea is not associated with cosmological ideas about the end of the earth; on the contrary, beyond this sea began everything “overseas,” attractive and only half unknown.”

However, a feature of the Black Sea was that the northern shore of the sea is a steppe, part of the Eurasian Great Steppe. The relationship between Russia and the steppe, as mentioned above, was directly reflected in the position of the sea, which periodically became either the truly Russian Sea or the lair of the Serpent Gorynych. Several times the pressure of the steppe inhabitants pushed the Slavs back from the shores of the sea to the protection of the forest. But every time, gathering strength, Rus' again and again sought to return to the Russian Sea. This happened too often, under a wide variety of rulers, regimes, economic and social conditions, to be an accident. There is some kind of mysticism in that majestic struggle between the Russian people and their desire for the sea.

However, the modern name of the sea, Black, was also given, apparently, by our ancestors. Among the many hypotheses about the origin of the name of the sea, the most convincing is the version of Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences O. N. Trubachev and Professor Yu. Karpenko. Back in the III-II millennium BC. On the northern shores of the Sea of ​​Azov, lived the Aryan (Indo-European) tribes of the Sinds and Meotians, who called the sea “Temarun”, which literally means “Black”. The origin of this name is associated with a purely visual perception of the color of the surface of two neighboring seas, now called the Black and Azov. From the mountainous shores of the Caucasus, the Black Sea actually seems much darker than the Sea of ​​Azov. In other words, among the Aryans who lived in the Trans-Kuban and Don steppes before they left for India, accustomed to the light surface of “their” sea, the contemplation of the neighboring one could not cause any other exclamation than “The Black Sea”. But it was at this time that the Proto-Slavs branched off from the pan-Aryan (Indo-European) ethno-linguistic family, so the Sindians and Meotians, in a certain sense, are also the ancestors of the Russian ethnos. The Sinds and Meotians were replaced by the Iranian-speaking Scythians, who also called the sea the word “Akhshaena”, that is, the “black or dark” sea. This name, as we see, has survived thousands of years and has survived to this day.

In ancient times, Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians, Goths, Huns, and Alans replaced each other on these steppes. The Tauri lived in the mountainous Crimea. Since the 7th century BC. Greek colonization took place. The Greeks founded many cities, some of which (albeit with a different ethnic population) still exist today.

But let's start in order. Ancient authors wrote that the vast steppe space from the Danube to the Volga was originally inhabited by nomadic Cimmerian tribes. The Cimmerians are mentioned by Assyrian authors under 714 BC, when these tribes penetrated into Asia Minor. In the next century, the Cimmerians also took part in wars in Western Asia. The Cimmerians probably belonged to the group of Iranian peoples. They wore pants, fitted shirts, and a hood on their heads. Russian Cossacks wore something similar even at the beginning of the twentieth century. As you can see, the steppe fashion turned out to be very conservative.

However, the Cimmerians disappeared from the Black Sea region in the 7th century. The Greeks no longer found them, but the nomadic Scythians who replaced the Cimmerians retained legends about their predecessors. According to the “father of history” Herodotus, the Cimmerians left the Black Sea region in fear of the Scythians. Be that as it may, the Cimmerians left behind geographical concepts such as the Cimmerian Bosporus (now the Kerch Strait), the so-called. “Cimmerian crossings” across this strait, the city of Chimeric on the shore of this strait. The Scythians, by which the Greeks meant all the “barbarian” tribes of various ethnic origins who lived along the northern shores of the Black Sea, came to replace the Cimmerians for a long time. In a narrow sense, Scythians are understood as Iranian-speaking nomadic tribes who lived in the steppes from the Danube to Altai, including the steppe Crimea. The nomadic Scythians ruled the region for more than five centuries (VIII - III centuries BC). The Scythians were known in antiquity as a nomadic pastoral people who lived in tents, ate milk and meat from cattle, and had cruel warlike morals, which allowed them to gain the glory of invincibility. The Scythians scalped their defeated enemies, made covers for their quivers from the skin torn off along with the nails from the right hand of enemy corpses, and made cups for wine from the skulls of the most worthy of their defeated enemies.

In the 7th century BC. The Scythians made long campaigns in Western Asia, and dominated the east for 28 years, until the Median king killed the Scythian leaders at a feast, and then the Scythian army that was left without commanders. But, having stopped long-distance campaigns, the Scythians still remained the masters of the Black Sea region. In 512 BC. The Scythians destroyed the huge Persian army of King Darius, which invaded their possessions.

The Scythians were tall (up to 172 cm) Caucasians. The Scythians, by the way, were carriers of haplogroup R1a, that is, very close relatives of the Slavs.

As Western researcher T. Rice notes, “from the images on vessels from Kul-Oba, Chertomlyk and Voronezh, it can be assumed that the Scythians had a stunning resemblance to the peasants of pre-revolutionary Russia... The external similarity of the Scythians, as can be seen from the works of Greek metal craftsmen, with the peasant population of pre-revolutionary central Russia may to a certain extent be coincidental, resulting from the fact that both preferred to wear the same hairstyles and long beards. But there are other similarities that are much more difficult to explain. Thus, a stocky build and large rounded noses were characteristic of both, and in addition, similar features are noticeable in the temperaments of both peoples. Both of them loved music and dancing; both were so passionate about art that they could admire, adopt and remake completely foreign styles into something completely new, national; both peoples had a talent for graphic arts, and they can also note an almost universal love for the color red. Again, both peoples demonstrated a willingness to resort to a scorched earth policy in the event of an invasion. Mixed marriages could well have played a role in preserving Scythian features in Russia, which to this day continue to find expression in the national image.”

Russian anthropologist V.P. Alekseev, back in 1985, pointed out the significant similarity of the anthropological type of the Eastern Slavs, including Russians, “... with the anthropological variant that was recorded in the Scythian burial grounds of the Black Sea region,” adding: “there is no doubt that most of the population living in southern Russian steppes in the middle of the 1st millennium BC, is the physical ancestor of the East Slavic tribes of the Middle Ages.” At the same time, V.P. Aleksev also noted the change in the anthropological type of the Eastern Slavs that occurred in the first centuries of the 2nd millennium AD. in favor of the West Slavic and connected this with the migrations of “new newcomers from the Carpathian regions - the ancestral homeland of the Slavs, and their marriage contacts with local populations.”

The ancient Greeks began to settle on the northern shore of the Black Sea, starting in the 7th century BC. In eastern Crimea, around the Cimmerian Bosporus, in the 5th century BC. The Bosporan kingdom was formed. For its time it was a fairly large and rich kingdom. The capital of Bosporus, the city of Panticapaeum, had an area of ​​about 100 hectares. At least 60 thousand city dwellers and approximately twice as many villagers lived in the kingdom. A considerable part of the population were Scythians, Sindians and Taurians.

Another significant center of Greek colonization was founded in 422 BC. Chersonesos, which had up to 100 thousand inhabitants.

To the east of the Scythians lived the Sauromatians related to them (later, from the 3rd century BC, the name changed to “Sarmatians”). They ousted the Scythians from the northern Black Sea region. However, most of the Scythians dissolved among the Sarmatians, who were related and had a similar way of life.

However, some of the Scythians remained in Crimea until the 3rd century, creating their own kingdom there. The Scythian state in Crimea turned into an agricultural country. Military defeats and the capture of most of the steppe nomads by the Sarmatians forced the Scythians to change their way of life. Most of the Crimean Scythians now lived sedentary lives, and only the aristocracy preserved nomadic traditions. Large agricultural settlements grew on the sites of old winter roads. The Scythians now sowed wheat, barley, millet, were engaged in viticulture and winemaking, and raised horses, small and cattle. Scythian kings built cities and fortresses. The capital of the kingdom was Scythian Naples, its ancient settlement is located next to modern Simferopol. The city was protected by a stone defensive wall with square towers. It stood at the intersection of trade routes that went from the Crimean steppes to the Black Sea coast. The main source of state income was the grain trade. The Scythian kings minted coins, fought against piracy and sought to subjugate their trading rivals - the Greek colonies - to their power.

The Taurians lived in the mountains and on the southern coast of Crimea. It is no coincidence that the Greeks called Crimea Taurida or Tavrika. Unlike the mobile Scythians and Sarmatians, the Tauri were sedentary inhabitants. However, they did not disdain piracy, sacrificing captives to their goddess the Virgin.

The origin of the Tauri is unknown. Their self-name is also unknown; in Greek “taurus” means “bull”. Whether this name came from the cult of the bull, widespread among many ancient peoples, or simply from the consonance of words, or from the transfer by the Greeks of the name of the Taurus mountain range in Asia Minor, we will apparently never know. Living together with Greek colonists and Scythians, the Tauri were assimilated by the 2nd-3rd centuries. Archaeologists have excavated family burials in which a man was buried with Scythian weapons, and a woman with Taurus jewelry. In the 1st century, historians and geographers began to use the term “Tauro-Scythians” to designate the mixed non-Greek population of Crimea.

However, along with the Hellenization of barbarians in the Northern Black Sea region, the barbarization of Greek colonists also took place. Dion Chrysostom, who visited the Black Sea region around the year 100, noted that the inhabitants of Olbia already spoke unclean Greek, living among the barbarians, although they had not lost their Hellenic sense and knew almost the entire Iliad by heart, idolizing its heroes, most of all Achilles. They dressed in Scythian style, wearing trousers and black cloaks.

The Sauromatians, who became the masters of the Scythian steppes, were typical nomads. A feature of the Sauromats was the high position of women, their active participation in public life and military operations. Ancient writers often call the Sauromatians a woman-ruled people. Herodotus retold the legend about their origin from the marriages of Scythian youths with the Amazons, a legendary tribe of female warriors. This legend was intended to explain why Sauromatian women ride horses, own weapons, hunt and go to war, wear the same clothes as men and do not even get married until they kill the enemy in battle.

Among the Sarmatians, the tribes of the Roxolans, Aorses, Iazygs, Siracs, and Alans stood out. Over time, the Alans became the strongest of them, subjugating the rest of the Sarmatians. Together with the Goths, in the middle of the 3rd century, the Alans invaded Crimea. This blow finally crushed the ancient cities of the Black Sea region. True, city life does not stop here. Cities with a Greek population, which is replenished by Byzantine Greeks, Armenians, and various tribes from the steppes, continue to exist.

Iranian-speaking Alans and Germanic Goths settled in the southwestern part of Crimea, which became known as Dori. Crimea itself was called Gothia for a long time. Orthodoxy spread among the Goths and Alans, and they gradually began to switch to a sedentary lifestyle. Since the Goths and Alans lived mixedly, had a common religion, culture and way of life, and used Greek as a written language, it is not surprising that in the 15th century the Italian Joseph Barbaro wrote about the people of the “Gotalans”.

However, in the steppes north of the Crimean Mountains, the ethnic picture changed endlessly. In the 4th century, the Huns dominated here, however, they quickly went west in search of the booty that the collapsing Roman Empire promised them. Then wave after wave of Avars, Bulgars, Khazars, Pechenegs, and Polovtsians are replaced here.

2. From Tmutarakan to Wild Field

Gradually, the Slavs began to stand out more and more in the region. They lived on the Black Sea shores long before our era. Even in ancient times, the Slavs were known as wonderful sailors who dominated the Black Sea. In 626, thousands of Slavs, allies of the Avar Kagan, besieged Constantinople, not only from land, but also blockading the royal city from the sea. Only with great difficulty did the Byzantines manage to fight back.

With the emergence of Kievan Rus, the period of Russian hegemony on this sea begins. Their maritime skills were significantly developed. The main vessel of the Russians was a sea boat, which was a single-tree deck with boards on its sides. The boat could row and sail. There was no regular permanent navy in Ancient Rus'. For sea voyages, a boat fleet was created as needed. Each boat represented an independent combat unit, its personnel (40 people) were divided into dozens. The carrying capacity of these ships ranged from 4 to 16 tons, they had a length of at least 16, a width of at least 3, and a draft of about 1.2 m. The boats were united into detachments that made up the fleet led by the prince. However, there were ships that could accommodate up to 100 people.

It was precisely these Russian squadrons that carried out the famous campaigns against Byzantium in 860, under Askold and Dir. In 907, Oleg the Prophet, with a fleet of 2 thousand ships, not only won a victory and gained fame and booty, but also achieved the signing of the first written Russian-Byzantine treaty in history. Prince Igor made two sea voyages - 941 and 944. Just in the 940s, the Arab scientist al-Masudi, mentioning the Black Sea, wrote: “... which is the Russian Sea; no one except them (Russians) swims on it, and they live on one of its banks.” The sea voyages of the Russians continued in later times. Thus, another Arab scientist, Muhammad Aufi, wrote about the Russians at the beginning of the 13th century: “They make trips to distant lands, constantly travel the sea on ships, attack every ship they come across and rob it.”

After the victories of Svyatoslav over the Khazars and Vladimir over the Pechenegs, which gave Rus' a temporary advantage over the steppe, the Tmutarakan principality was formed in the northern Black Sea region. Tmutarakan as a fortress city arose on the site of an ancient settlement around 965, after Svyatoslav Igorevich’s campaigns to the south, the defeat of the Khazars and the annexation of this region to the ancient Russian state. In these places lived the Greeks (descendants of ancient colonists and Hellenized Taurians and Scythians), Kasogs (Circassians), Iranian-speaking Yasses (Alans), Turkic-speaking Khazars and Bulgars, Ugrians, Germanic Goths, and over time the Russian population gradually began to penetrate here. It is difficult to say exactly when the first Slavs appeared in Crimea. But, as academician B. A. Rybakov noted, “we can trace the penetration of the Slavs into Crimea and Taman almost a thousand years before the formation of the Tmutarakan principality.” On one of the Greek inscriptions in the Bosporus, dating back to the 3rd century, the name Ant is mentioned. In the 8th-10th centuries, eastern Crimea and the Azov coast of the North Caucasus were under the rule of the Khazars. It was probably during the Khazar era that the Slavic population of the northern Black Sea region increased significantly, since many Slavs, being dependent on the Khazar Kagan, could freely settle in his possessions. As Khazaria weakened, the Slavs themselves began to organize invasions of Crimea. Thus, from one Byzantine life it is known that a certain Novgorod prince Bravlin (about whom, however, there is no mention in Russian chronicles) at the beginning of the 9th century plundered the entire coast of Crimea. By the end of the 10th century, at the time of the fall of the Khazar Kaganate, the Slavs were already noticeably distinguished by their numbers among the multi-ethnic population of the shores of the Kerch Strait. The appearance of the Slavic Tmutarakan principality along the shores of the Kerch Strait after the defeat of the Khazars becomes completely understandable.

The name Tmutarakan was formed from the distorted Khazar word “tumen-tarkhan”, which meant the name of the headquarters of Tarkhan - a Khazar military leader who had an army of 10 thousand soldiers (“tumen”). For the first time this name is mentioned in the “Tale of Bygone Years” in 988, when Vladimir Svyatoslavich formed a principality there and installed his son Mstislav in it.

The very fact of the emergence of the Tmutarakan principality, cut off from Kiev by the steppe expanses, testifies not only to the power of Rus', but also to the fact that a significant Slavic population lived in the Crimea and the North Caucasus, and long before the creation of the state in Rus' (since there is no historical evidence of organization by the Kiev princes of the mass resettlement of Russians in the Black Sea region). As the famous historian V.V. Mavrodin wrote: “Rus of the Black Sea-Azov coast before the time of Svyatoslav, these were Slavic merchants and warriors who appeared in the cities and villages of Khazaria, Crimea, the Caucasus, the Lower Don, and individual colonies of settlers, and nests of Russified ethnic groups reincarnated from the tribes of the Sarmatian world, socially and culturally-linguistically close to other tribes interbreeding in the northern and forest-steppe zones with genuine Slavs.” After the annexation of the region under Svyatoslav in 965, the ethnic composition of the population of Tmutarakan did not change.

The importance of Tmutarakan is evidenced by the following data: it was based on these lands that Prince Mstislav entered into the struggle for his father’s inheritance with his brother Yaroslav the Wise, and was able to conquer from him all the Russian lands along the left bank of the Dnieper. According to the researcher, “Tmutarakan was not a small principality remote from Rus', but a large political center that had the forces of almost the entire southeast of the European part of our country, relying on which Mstislav could not only defeat Yaroslav with his Varangians, but and take possession of the entire left-bank part of Dnieper Rus'.”

The Tmutarakan principality experienced rapid economic growth in the 10th-11th centuries. In the capital city of the principality, under Prince Vladimir Krasno Solnyshko (980-1015), the walls of a powerful fortress were built. As archaeologists noted, the construction techniques used in Tmutarakan were also used in the construction of fortresses on the Stugna River near Kiev. Tmutarakan Prince Oleg (1083-1094) issued his own silver coin with his portrait and the inscription “Lord, help.” His wife, Feofania Muzalon from Byzantium, had a seal where she was called "Archontess (Princess) of Rus'."

The fact that the Russian and Russified population predominated among the Tmutarakan residents is evidenced by numerous graffiti (wall inscriptions) in the Old Russian language, icons, and seals of the local mayor Ratibor. It is also significant that, although the majority of local settled residents have been Christians since the 4th century, since the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine, Tmutarakan became independent in church terms from the Byzantine clergy.

In addition to Tmutarakan and Korchev (Kerch), located in the same principality, other Russian cities are known on the Russian Sea or close to it: Oleshye (Aleshki, now Tsyurupinsk) in the lower reaches of the Dnieper, Belgorod-Dnestrovsky in the Dniester estuary, founded on the ruins of a city destroyed by the Goths. the ancient city of Tire, Small Galich (now Galati in Romania).

However, Rus''s dominant position on the Black Sea was short-lived. Between the main territory of Rus' and Russian settlements on the Black Sea lay hundreds of kilometers of sun-scorched steppe, which was impossible to plow with the agricultural technology of that time. When the Polovtsian onslaught began in the second half of the 11th century, coinciding with the time of the collapse of Kievan Rus into appanages, the connections between the Dnieper region and Tmutarakan were interrupted. Under the Polovtsian attacks, the Russian population of the Black Sea lands was mostly pushed to the north, and some died.

After 1094, Russian chronicles do not report anything about Tmutarakan, and the Tmutarakan chronicles have not survived to this day. Tmutarakan probably entered into vassal relations with Byzantium, since communicating with Constantinople by sea was easier and more convenient than going through the Polovtsian steppes to Rus'. However, dependence on Byzantium had the character of a military alliance, since Tmutarakan was ruled by local princes whose names are unknown. In addition, Tmutarakan paid tribute to one of the Polovtsian khans, who owned the steppe Crimea. The Russian population of Crimea and Taman continued to live here later. In any case, the Arab geographer Idrisi around 1154 called Tamatarkha (that is, Tmutarakan) a densely populated city, and called the Don River the Russian River. The treaties between Byzantium and Genoa in 1169 and 1192 stated that north of the Kerch Strait there was a market place with the name “Russia” (with one “s”)! Archaeologists have excavated a Slavic settlement on Tepsel Hill (Planernoe village), dating from the 12th to the beginning of the 13th centuries.

But still Rus' was cut off from the Russian Sea.

Of course, Rus' has not forgotten about the Black Sea lands. It is no coincidence that in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” Prince Igor was going to “look for the city of Tmutarakan” when setting off on a campaign against the Polovtsians. But Rus', divided into appanages, was not able to return to the shores of the Black Sea. The return occurred only after seven centuries!

About Tmutarakan, the Russians soon had nothing left in their memory except vague memories of something very far away. Even the location of Tmutarakan was completely forgotten, so in the 16th century Moscow chroniclers considered Tmutarakan to be the city of Astrakhan.

The Cuman invasions, the first of which occurred back in 1061, took on the character of a massive invasion three decades later. In the 90s In the 11th century, the Polovtsians almost continuously invaded Rus'. The Russian princes, busy with strife, were not only unable to repel the Polovtsian onslaught, but often themselves invited the Polovtsians to plunder the possessions of their rivals. Among the Polovtsians, major commanders emerged: Tugorkan (in Russian epics he was called Tugarin Zmeevich) and Bonyak Sheludivy. In 1093, the Polovtsians defeated the squads of Russian princes near Trepol (on the Stugna River), and three years later they plundered the outskirts of Kyiv and burned the Pechersky Monastery.

The steppe border of Rus' now ran in an unstable broken line from Mezhibozhya to the lower reaches of the Rosi River, from where it turned sharply to the northeast to the upper reaches of the Sula, Psla, Worksla, Seversky Donets, Don and Pronya rivers.

The Russian princes, under pressure from the Polovtsian danger, began to unite. Already in 1096, Vladimir Monomakh defeated the Polovtsians on the Trubezh River. Under the leadership of Vladimir Monomakh, the united Russian squads made a number of successful campaigns against the Polovtsians in 1103, 1107, 1111. During the last campaign, the Polovtsians suffered a particularly severe defeat on the Salnitsa River. Monomakh managed to stop the Polovtsian invasions, thanks to which the authority of this prince rose very high. In 1113 he became the Grand Duke of Rus'. Vladimir Monomakh became the last prince to rule all of Russia. Paradoxically, it was precisely as a result of Monomakh’s victories and the weakening of the Polovtsian threat that the appanage princes no longer needed the single central power of the Grand Duke, and therefore, according to the chronicler, “the Russian land was torn.” Polovtsian raids on Russian lands continued, but not as large-scale as under Tugorkan and Bonyak. The Russian princes continued to “bring” the Polovtsians to the lands of their rivals.

Due to the Polovtsian invasions, the Slavic population from Transnistria and the Bug region (the middle and lower reaches of the Southern Bug River), where the Ulichs and Tivertsy once lived, was significantly pushed to the forest north. But in the 12th century, their fertile lands began to resemble a desert steppe. On the middle Dnieper, the “Polovtsian Field” was already approaching Kyiv itself. On the Don, the Slavic population remained only at the very sources of the river. In the steppes on the lower Don, there were still small towns where Slavs, Yasses (Alans), and remnants of the Khazars professing Orthodoxy lived. The chronicler described the town of Sharukan, whose residents came out to meet the Russian squads with an Orthodox spiritual procession.

You can accurately name the date when the Russians left the steppe territories. In 1117, the “Belovezhians”, that is, the inhabitants of Belaya Vezha, the former Khazar Sarkel, inhabited by Russians, came to Rus'. This is how the evacuation of the settled Christian Slavic population from the steppe zone took place.

True, there were still very numerous and warlike Slavs in the steppes. They were called wanderers. They are mentioned quite often in Russian chronicles, participating in civil strife between Russian princes, as well as in wars with the Polovtsians. Our chronicles first mention the Brodniks in 1146. During the fight between Svyatoslav Olgovich and Izyaslav Mstislavovich, Svyatoslav’s ally, Yuri Dolgoruky, sends him a detachment of “wanderers”. In 1147, “Brodniki and Polovtsi came (to the Chernigov prince) in large numbers.”

In 1190, the Byzantine chronicler Niketas Acominatus described how the Brodniki, a branch of the Russians, he said, participated in the attack on Byzantium. “People who despise death,” the Byzantine calls them. In 1216, the Brodniks took part in the battle on the Lipitsa River during the period of strife between the Suzdal princes.

The wanderers became “exiles,” that is, runaway slaves who preferred to “wander” the steppes rather than be in boyar bondage. “Exiles” from Rus' were attracted to the steppes by their rich “landscapes” - animal, fish and bee grounds. The wanderers were led by their chosen governors. Both the origin and lifestyle of the Brodniks are strikingly reminiscent of the later Cossacks.

Brodniki became so numerous that in one of the documents of Pope Honorius III, dated 1227, the southern Russian steppes are called brodnic terra - “land of brodniks”

However, wanderers played a not very plausible role in history. In 1223, during the Battle of Kalka, the Brodniki, led by Ploskina, found themselves on the side of the Mongol-Tatars. The Brodniki also took part in the Mongol-Tatar invasions of the southern lands of Rus' and Hungary. In any case, the Hungarian monks complained that there were many “most wicked Christians” in the Mongol army. In 1227, a papal archbishop was appointed to the “land of wanderers”. However, we do not know any information about the conversion of wanderers to Catholicism. In 1254, the Hungarian king Béla IV complained to the pope that he was being pushed out from the east, i.e. from the Carpathian-Dniester lands, Russians and Brodniks. As we see, the Hungarian monarchs distinguished the Brodniks from the bulk of the Russians. But, on the other hand, we were not talking about the wanderers as a separate people.

After the 13th century, information about wanderers disappeared from chronicles.

Almost simultaneously with the brodniks, chroniclers report about certain berladniks. Actually, the Berladniks were part of the Brodniks, who had their own center - the city of Berlad (now Barlad in Romania). The lands between the lower reaches of the Danube, the Carpathians and the Dnieper, which were previously inhabited by the Ulich and Tivertsi tribes, suffered greatly from the Polovtsian invasions at the turn of the 11th-12th centuries. The population decreased many times, some died, some fled to the north, under the protection of forests and the Carpathian Mountains. However, these lands were not completely deserted. There are still cities here - Berlad (which became the capital of the region), Tekuch, Maly Galich, Dichin, Derst, and a number of others. In 1116, Vladimir Monomakh sent Ivan Vojtisich here as a governor, who was supposed to collect tribute from cities on the Danube. After the collapse of Kievan Rus, these lands recognized the supreme power of the Galician prince, but on the whole they were quite independent. The Byzantine princess Anna Komnenos, in a poem dedicated to the life of her father, who ruled in 1081-1118, mentioned independent princes who ruled on the lower Danube. In particular, a certain Vseslav ruled in the city of Dichin. But then Berlad became the center of the region.

In fact, Berlad was a veche republic. Berlady was ruled by governors chosen by local residents, but sometimes Berladniks hosted individual Galician princes. One of these princes went down in history under the name of Ivan Berladnik.

The exact boundaries of Berlady are indefinable. Most likely, Berlad occupied the territory between the Carpathians, the lower Danube and the Dniester. Now this is the northeastern part of Romania, Moldova and Transnistria.

The population of Berladi was very mixed, including both Russians (apparently the predominant ones), and people from various tribes of the steppe, and Romance-speaking Vlachs (on the basis of which modern Romanian historians consider Berladi to be a “national Romanian state”). However, the Russian language and loyalty to the house of the Galician princes mean that Berlad was still a Russian political entity, combining the features of the Tmutarakan principality, just as cut off from the main territory and multilingual, as free as Mister Veliky Novgorod, who had “liberty in the princes,” and the structure of the future Cossack troops.

Berladniks also had a reputation as brave warriors. They captured the port of Oleshye in the South Bug Estuary, causing heavy losses to Kyiv merchants. The large number of Berladniks is evidenced by the fact that in 1159, while fighting with his own uncle, Prince Ivan Berladnik gathered 6 thousand soldiers from Berladnik. (For that era when the most powerful monarchs gathered several hundred warriors, the number of berladniks looks impressive).

The further history of Berlady is unknown to us.

However, in the same region at the turn of the XII-XIII centuries. chroniclers mention certain “Pondanubians”. Coming from the “vygontsy” (this ancient Russian term meant expelled or voluntarily left from their community), people from the southern Russian principalities who settled in the lower reaches of the Danube and Dniester, these “Podunaytsy” had their own cities - standing on the right bank of the Dniester Tismyanitsa (first mentioned under 1144) and Kuchelmin first mentioned in 1159. Probably, the “Podunaytsy” and the Berladniki are one and the same. The well-known governors of the Podunays are Yuri Domazhirovich and Derzhikrai Volodislavovich, who came from noble boyar Galician families. In 1223, the Danubian people made up the entire regiment of Mstislav the Udal in the Battle of Kalka. It is interesting that the “Galich expulsions” in the amount of 1 thousand lodiyas went along the Dniester to the Black Sea, and from there entered the Dnieper.

The Brodniki, of which the Berladniki were part, according to some historians (V. T. Pashuto), were actually on the path to becoming a separate nomadic people of Slavic origin. However, most scientists do not agree with this, believing that the Brodniks were about the same part of the Russian ethnic group as the Cossacks were later.

On the southern steppe border of Rus', a very militarized life of local residents developed. Most of the border residents owned weapons and could fend for themselves during individual raids, not as large-scale as during the times of Tugorkan and Bonyak. The life of the inhabitants of the steppe borderland was reminiscent of the life of the Cossacks of the following centuries.

In “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” Prince Igor proudly says: “And my Kuryans are a seasoned squad: they are wooed under the trumpets, nurtured under their helmets, nourished from the end of the spear; their paths are well-trodden, their ravines are known, their bows are drawn, their quivers are open, their sabers are sharpened; they themselves gallop like gray wolves in a field, seeking honor for themselves and glory for the prince.” The inhabitants of Kursk (Kursk people) really were, having grown up in the eternal steppe war, as if they were fed from the end of a spear.

It is interesting that among the border warriors there were also women who were called Polenitsa, or Polenitsa. They fought bravely alongside the heroes and participated as equals in princely feasts.

One of the ancient Russian epics about Prince Vladimir the Red Sun says:

And Vladimir is the prince of Stolnya-Kyiv

He started a feast of honors and a feast

For many princes and all the boyars,

For all the strong Russians, for the mighty heroes,

Ay to the glorious glades and to the daring ones.

Polyanitsy are also mentioned in one of the epics about Ilya Muromets. According to one of the epics, in the duel Ilya almost lost to the Polenica.

The princes of the border territories began to widely use other, “their” steppe inhabitants in the fight against the steppe inhabitants. In the middle of the 12th century, around 1146, on the steppe border, along the Ros River, a tribal union was formed from Turkic nomadic tribes dependent on Rus'. Kyiv chroniclers called the steppe allies of Rus' “black hoods” (that is, black hats). This union included the remnants of the Pechenegs (in fact, the last time the Pechenegs appear on the pages of the chronicle was in 1168 precisely as “black hoods”), as well as the Berendeys, Torks, Kovuis, Turpeis, and other small Polovtsian tribes. Many of them maintained paganism for a long time, which is why the chroniclers called them “their filthy ones.” The cavalry of the “black hoods” faithfully served the Russian princes both in their confrontation with the steppe and in their civil strife. The center of the “black hoods” was the city of Torchesk, which stood on the Ros River, and was apparently inhabited by a tribe of Torks. The Torci themselves, who came from the Aral region, were first mentioned in chronicles back in 985, as allies of Rus', who fought with her against the Khazars and Volga Bulgarians. Under the blows of the Polovtsians, the Torci found themselves on the Russian border. In 1055 they were defeated by the son of Yaroslav the Wise, Vsevolod. Subsequently, some of the Torci submitted to the Polovtsians, others entered the service of old acquaintances of the Russian princes.

“Black Klobuks” not only defended the southern borders of Rus', but were also used as elite cavalry units in other Russian lands where they were needed. Names such as the Berendeevo swamp, where Evpatiy Kolovrat fought with the Mongol-Tatars, and a number of other names with the adjective “berendeevo” still exist in the Vladimir and Yaroslavl regions. In Ukraine, in the Zhitomir region, there is the city of Berdichev, which two centuries ago was called Berendichev.

So, the Russians were significantly pushed back from the Black Sea steppes, and were forced to stubbornly defend themselves against Polovtsian raids.

3. The era of the Crimean Khanate

The Mongol-Tatar invasion particularly devastated the southern steppes. The small Russian population that remained by the 13th century was partly destroyed, partly pushed even further from the sea to the north. A new ethnic group began to dominate in the Black Sea region - the Crimean Tatars, which included the Cumans, and the remnants of other steppe peoples. This blessed land was completely deserted, and only isolated fires of shepherds and traces of their herds testified that the human race still lives here. Only in Crimea, thanks to the mountains, were cities, crafts, and international trade still preserved, and even there the decline was noticeable.

In the 1260s, the cities on the southern coast of Crimea were captured by the Genoese, who obtained the right of the Golden Horde Khan to have his own trading posts. Gradually, by the middle of the 14th century, the Genoese became masters of the entire southern coast. This suited the Horde khans quite well, because the Genoese colonies became the main buyer of slaves stolen from Rus'.

In the mountains around the beginning of the 13th century, a small Christian principality of Theodoro arose, the main population of which were Greeks and descendants of the Hellenized Scythians, Goths and Alans. There were several other small feudal formations in the mountains, in particular, the Kyrk-Or and Eski-Kermen principalities with a mixed population.

This was a very strong enemy. Back in 1482, the Tatars burned and plundered Kyiv, which then belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

It is known that in the first half of the 16th century alone there were 50 “Crimean armies” in Moscow Rus', that is, military predatory incursions. A major invasion occurred in 1507. Five years later, two Crimean princes devastated the environs of Aleksin, Belev, Bryansk, and Kolomna, besieged Ryazan, capturing “full of many.” In 1521, the Crimeans, together with the Kazan people, besieged Moscow.

In the second half of the 16th century, the Moscow-Crimean wars assumed a grandiose scale. Almost the entire adult male population of the Khanate took part in major Crimean raids; tens of thousands of soldiers fought on the Moscow army’s side.

So, in 1555, near Tula at Sudbischi, the Crimeans suffered a setback from Russian troops. In 1564, the Tatars burned Ryazan. In 1571, Khan Devlet-Girey burns Moscow, and the following year a united army of zemstvo and oprichnina governors defeats the Crimeans at Molodi, halfway between Moscow and Serpukhov. But the raids did not stop. In 1591, a new Crimean army led by Khan Kazy-Girey was repulsed near the village of Vorobyovo (now within Moscow). The Donskoy Monastery was erected at the site of the battle. During the 16th century there is no information about raids for only 8 years, but eight times the Tatars made two raids a year, and once - three raids! Twice they came near Moscow and once they burned it, burned Ryazan, and reached Serpukhov and Kolomna.

In the 17th century, not a year goes by without a Crimean raid. The Tula serif line was destroyed in 1607-17. Especially during the Time of Troubles, when “the Tatars went to Rus' until they were tired,” and the Shah of Iran, familiar with the state of the eastern slave markets, expressed surprise that there were still inhabitants in Russia. Only in 1607-1617. The Crimeans drove away at least 100 thousand people from Russia, and in total in the first half of the 17th century - at least 150-200 thousand. The losses of the Russian population in the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were no less, where 76 raids were carried out during the same time (1606-1649). Taking advantage of the lack of fortifications in the steppe “ukrainas” of the Moscow state, the Crimean Tatars again entered the interior of the country. In 1632, Crimean raids contributed to Russia's failure in the Smolensk War of 1632-34. In 1633, the Crimeans robbed in the vicinity of Serpukhov, Tula and Ryazan.

Only the construction of the Belgorod abatis line led to relative calm in the vicinity of Moscow. However, in 1644 the Tatars devastated the Tambov, Kursk and Seversk lands. The following year, a new invasion from Crimea was defeated, but the Tatars still took more than 6 thousand captives with them. The Crimean Tatars continued to systematically ravage the Russian lands, again sometimes reaching Serpukhov and Kashira. The total number of those taken captive by the Tatars for sale at slave markets in the first half of the 17th century was approximately 200 thousand people. Russia had to pay tribute (“wake”) to the Crimean Khan in the second half of the 17th century. - over 26 thousand rubles. annually.

In Ukraine, engulfed in civil strife between various hetmans who succeeded each other after the death of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, it was very easy for the Tatars to capture prisoners. In just 3 years, 1654-1657, over 50 thousand people were driven into slavery from Ukraine.

In the 18th century, it became more difficult for the Tatars to invade Russia, since they would have to overcome the fortifications of the Izyum Line. Nevertheless, the raids continued. So, in 1735-36. in the Bakhmut province, “a large number of ordinary people, male and female, were rounded up and beaten, and the standing and milked bread was burned without a trace, and the cattle were driven away.” The “trans-Dnieper places” (along the right tributary of the Dnieper Tyasmin) were also devastated.

In the first half of the 18th century, according to the testimony of the Catholic missionary K. Dubay, 20 thousand slaves were exported annually from Crimea. About 60 thousand slaves were used in the Khanate itself, mainly for agricultural work.

The last raid of the Crimean Khan occurred in the winter of 1768-69. In the Elisavetgrad province, as one eyewitness reported, the Tatars burned 150 villages, “a huge smoky cloud spread 20 miles into Poland,” and 20 thousand people were taken captive.

But all these grandiose invasions had only one goal - the capture of prisoners. Since hunting for live goods was the main branch of the Khanate's economy, and slaves were its main export product, it is not surprising that the organization of raids was worked out to perfection.

Based on the number of participants, the raids were divided into three types: large (seferi) raids were carried out under the leadership of the khan himself, over 100 thousand people took part in it. Such a raid brought at least 5 thousand prisoners. A medium-scale campaign (chapula) involved up to 50 thousand soldiers under the command of one of the beys, and usually up to 3 thousand prisoners were captured. Small raids (“besh-bash”, literally “five heads”) were carried out by a murza, or a free fishing artel led by its own elected commander. Such a raid brought several hundred captives.

It is interesting that the Tatars usually did not take weapons on a campaign, limiting themselves to a saber, a bow and several dozen arrows, but they certainly stocked up on belts to tie up prisoners. The Tatars tried not to engage in battle with the Russian military detachments, moving deeper into foreign territory extremely carefully, confusing their tracks like an animal. Having taken a village or city by surprise, the Tatars captured prisoners, killing those who resisted, after which they quickly retreated into the steppe. In case of persecution, the Tatars dispersed into small groups, then gathered in an appointed place. Only in case of their overwhelming numerical superiority did the Crimeans enter into battle

Slaves captured in raids were mostly immediately bought by merchants, predominantly of Jewish origin, who subsequently resold their “goods” at a large profit to everyone in need of slaves who were willing to pay generously for them.

The buyer of slaves was mainly the Ottoman Empire, which widely used slave labor in economic spheres. However, in the XIV and XV centuries. Slavic slaves were bought by merchants of the Italian urban republics that were experiencing the Renaissance, which did not in any way affect the fate of Russian slaves. Slaves of Slavic origin are noted as something common in the 14th century in the notarial deeds of some Italian and southern French cities. In particular, one of the main buyers of Russian slaves was the Roussillon region in the south of France. The famous poet Petrarch mentions the “Scythian” slaves in his letter to the Archbishop of Genoa Guido Setta. As the modern Ukrainian author Oles Buzina sarcastically reminds, “I hope it is now clear to everyone where so many blondes appeared on the canvases of Italian artists of that time. Given their chronic deficit among native women of Italy...”

Later, France became one of the most important buyers of “live goods” delivered from Crimea. During the reign of the “Sun King” Louis XIV, Russian slaves were widely used as rowers on galleys. Neither the “most Christian” monarchs, nor the pious bourgeoisie, nor the humanists of the Renaissance saw anything wrong with buying Christian slaves from Muslim rulers through Jewish intermediaries.

It is characteristic that the Crimean Khanate itself, located in the fertile Crimea with its most fertile soils and favorable geographical position, was a completely primitive state structure. Even such an author as V.E. Vozgrin, the author of the book “Historical Fates of the Crimean Tatars,” having devoted his entire work of 450 pages to “evidence” that the innocent Crimean Tatars became victims of tsarism’s aggression, nevertheless admitted: “the fact of a completely unique (if not on a global scale, then at least for Europe) stagnation of the entire economy of Crimea in the 13th-18th centuries.” . Indeed, by the end of its history, fewer people lived in the Crimean Khanate than at its inception, and the economy remained at the level of 500 years ago.

The reason for the stagnation is clear: the Crimean Tatars themselves considered any work other than robbery to be a disgrace, so crafts, trade, gardening and other types of economic activity in the Khanate were carried out by Greeks, Armenians, Karaites, as well as slaves captured in raids. When Catherine II decided to completely undermine the economy of the Crimean Khanate, she ordered the eviction of the Greeks and Armenians living on the peninsula. This was enough to make the Khanate defenseless and the Russians were able to take it with their bare hands in 1783

In the fight against Turkish aggressors and Tatar predators, the free Cossacks glorified themselves. The Zaporozhye Sich stood as a powerful barrier to the invasion of the Tatar hordes. In response to the Tatar raids, the Cossacks and Donets organized retaliatory campaigns against the Crimea and Turkish fortresses on the Black Sea, freeing prisoners. On their light boats “seagulls” the Cossacks crossed the Black Sea, even attacking the outskirts of Istanbul. The Cossacks sometimes interrupted Turkish voyages in the Black Sea for years, sinking or boarding even large Turkish ships. Only from 1575 to 1637. The Cossacks made up to twenty trips across the Black Sea, often engaging in naval battles with the Turkish fleet. In 1675, the Zaporozhye ataman Ivan Serko invaded Crimea, devastating the peninsula and freeing 7 thousand captives. Finally, during the Russian-Turkish War of 1735-40, Russian troops under the command of Field Marshal I.Kh. Minikha invaded Crimea, defeating the capital of the Khanate, Bakhchisarai.

The lands between the Dniester and Dnieper belonged to Turkey, but were not actually inhabited. From the middle of the 18th century. Ukrainian-Moldovan villages appeared here, paying tribute to the Crimean Khan (the so-called “Khan’s Ukraine”).

Russia's vital interests required the elimination of the Crimean Tatar and Turkish threats and the return of access to the Black Sea.

Rybakov B. A. Paganism of Ancient Rus'. M, 1988, p. 761

Rice T. Scythians. Builders of steppe pyramids. http://www.bibliotekar.ru/skify/7.htm

Alekseev V.P. Paleoanthropology and history // Questions of history. 1985. No. 1

Red Banner Black Sea Fleet. M, 1979, p. 7

Rybakov B. A. Slavs in Crimea and Taman. Simferopol, 1952, p. 17

Kabuzan V. M. Settlement of Novorossiya (Ekaterinoslav Kherson provinces) in the 18th - first half of the 19th centuries (1719-1858). M, science, 1976, p. 51, 76

There, p. 106

Vozgrin V. E. Historical destinies of the Crimean Tatars. M., 1992, p. 164

Until the 17th century. the territory of most of Ukraine was under the rule of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The first national Ukrainian state was formed in 1654 in the modern central region of Ukraine during the liberation war of Bohdan Khmelnytsky. On the eve of the First World War, parts of Western Ukraine, together with Transcarpathia, were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

How the borders of Ukraine were formed

However, one must understand a simple thing - Ukraine itself, in fact, did not contribute to the expansion of its territory. Let us consider some stages in the formation of the borders of modern Ukraine.

The regional leadership cited economic reasons for including the Taganrog and Aleksandro-Grushevsky districts into this region. In 1920, the local population wished to join the RSFSR, and in 1923 - to the Ukrainian SSR, each time citing the same reasons: “there are better roads there and there are no rivers.” At the beginning of 1923, the Ukrainian SSR put forward a project to revise the Ukrainian-Russian borders, demanding a significant part of the Kursk, Bryansk and Voronezh provinces. Also at the end of April, the Taganrog Executive Committee presented its theses on the ownership of the Taganrog District to Ukraine and Donbass. The reaction of the peasants and Cossacks, who, as a result of the settlement of the Ukrainian-Russian border, ended up on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR, was almost the same as that of the residents of the Kursk and Voronezh provinces. In the Shakhtinsky district, the majority of party leaders did not agree to return to the RSFSR, while the workers were mainly in favor of joining the South-East.

Territorial disputes of the Ukrainian SSR and the central black earth provinces of Russia

After the overthrow of the tsar, the Central Rada, organized in March 1917, became the center of the Ukrainian national movement. Thus, the ethnographic criterion became the main one in determining the borders of Ukraine, but it was limited by the administrative division that existed since the time of the Russian Empire. The new congress was proclaimed All-Ukrainian, and the Central Executive Committee of the Ukrainian (Soviet) People's Republic was elected.

The same situation was observed on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR adjacent to the Kursk province. Both historians substantiated Ukraine's right to own the disputed territories of Kursk, Voronezh and Bryansk provinces. Moreover, when the policy of Ukrainization began in these Russian provinces, the local Ukrainian population reacted negatively to it. While the leadership of the Kursk, Voronezh and Bryansk provinces clearly opposed the transfer of territory, the opinion of the local population was divided. The issue of border regulation was again considered at a meeting of the USSR Central Executive Committee commission on zoning on November 14, 1924. The issue of borders with the South-East and the BSSR was recognized as agreed upon. The Ukrainian delegation insisted that the Ukrainian Republic must be brought to its ethnographic borders and correct the incorrect delimitation of provinces before the revolution. Ukraine demanded the annexation of areas with a Ukrainian population living there, despite the presence in Ukraine itself of large territories with Russian heritage.

After the death of Catherine, in 1812, Bessarabia - Moldova and Budzhak - part of the current Odessa region between the Prut and Dniester rivers was annexed to Russia. As a result of the second and third partitions of Poland in 1793-1795, Right Bank Ukraine and Volyn were annexed to Russia. Moreover, Southern Ukraine (not to mention Crimea), unlike the Right Bank and Volyn, was in no way a Ukrainian ethnic territory and became one precisely thanks to Russian conquests. However, in fact, the UPR was only one of the state entities created on the territory of the Ukrainian provinces of the Russian Empire. In September 1939, the USSR liberated the territories of Western Ukraine, previously captured by Poland.

At the end of January 1918, the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic was also organized on the principles of national autonomy. Its power extended to the Kharkov, Ekaterinoslav, and partially Kherson provinces and to some areas of the Don Army. After the revolution in Germany in the fall of 1918, the Bolsheviks again launched an offensive in the eastern regions of Ukraine. However, there was no longer talk of the DKR joining the RSFSR - Stalin advocated the unification of Donbass with Central Ukraine in the interests of internationalism. On January 31, 1919, the Council of People's Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR adopted a resolution on the formation of the Donetsk province consisting of two counties - Bakhmut and Slavyanoserb. On February 7, 1919, the People's Commissar for Military Affairs of Ukraine ordered the formation of the Kharkov Military District, which included the territories of Kharkov, Yekaterinoslav, Poltava and Chernigov provinces.

Borders of Ukraine from the Middle Ages to the present day?

The reign of Danil Romanovich was the period of the greatest rise of the Galicia-Volyn principality. The border of Ukraine before the revolution in 1917 changed rapidly. Polesie was annexed by Lithuania at the beginning of the 14th century in a series of wars between the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. From this year, the Galicia-Volyn principality was in official decline.

As has already been written, until the beginning of the twentieth century there was no state of Ukraine. There were separate principalities, there was the Zaporozhye Sich. On the Acting-Man website I found an interesting map of changes in the borders of Ukraine, starting from 1654 to the present day. Even Kyiv was not initially part of Ukraine.” In common use there were the concepts of Little Russia (sometimes called Ukraine) and Novorossiya (lands annexed after the Russian-Turkish peace treaties of 1773-74). If you trace the borders of Little Russia, then at first it was the Left Bank of the Dnieper, which was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In the 16th century, these lands were part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Yes, the borders of Ukraine have expanded since the formation of this state.

The beginning of Novorossiya

As of 1914, the term “European Russia” was officially applied to 51 provinces and regions of the Don Army. Within European Russia, the Southwestern Territory, the Northwestern Territory, and the Baltic provinces were distinguished. On the territory of European Russia there were governor generals: Moscow (Moscow city and Moscow province) and Kiev (Volyn, Kiev and Podolsk provinces).

The history of Kyiv as an independent city-state begins with the capture of the capital by Oleg, who brought with him the Eastern Slavic tribes.

On January 16 (29), 1918, a Bolshevik uprising began in Kyiv against the Central Rada, in which workers of the Arsenal plant and part of the Bolshevik Ukrainian regiments took part. On April 8, the Germans occupied Kharkov; The government of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic fled to Lugansk. The defeat of Germany in the First World War and the German revolution on November 9, 1918 sharply complicated the position of the Skoropadsky regime. At the beginning of 1919, Vinnichenko and other socialists were removed from the Directory, and it was actually headed by Petliura, who established his military dictatorship. With the evacuation of German-Austrian troops at the end of 1918, a political vacuum was created on the territory of Ukraine, which three forces claimed to fill: Petliura, the Bolsheviks and Denikin. In the spring of 1919, the offensive of the AFSR troops began, which occupied Donbass, Yekaterinoslav, Kharkov and Odessa. With its disappearance two months later (with the defeat of the Poles in Ukraine by Soviet troops), the UPR finally ceased to exist.

The Ukrainian delegation led by V. Vinnichenko arrived in Petrograd in mid-May, but the Provisional Government did not make a clear decision on Ukrainian demands. Speaking about Ukrainian territory, Kerensky named five central provinces. In Kyiv, the Bolsheviks were unable to seize power, and the new government - the Council of People's Commissars - was hostile to the Central Rada. Only in the Donbass did they support the Bolsheviks and in early October they took power in Lugansk, Gorlovka, Makeevka and Kramatorsk. As a result of the hostilities of December 1917 - January 1918. The Bolsheviks occupied Ekaterinoslav, Poltava, Kremenchug, Elisavetgrad, Nikolaev, Kherson and other cities.

By the beginning of autumn 1919, all independent Soviet republics except the RSFSR were abolished. Together with the Cossacks, Denikin’s army held the region of the Don Army. The Revolutionary Insurgent Army of N. Makhno fought against Denikin. In mid-September, the Makhnovists occupied Yekaterinoslav and threatened Taganrog, where Denikin’s headquarters was located. On October 11, 1919, the Red Army began its offensive against Denikin - the third attempt to establish Bolshevik power in Ukraine.

The rise of the state

It’s amazing what the border of Ukraine was like before the 1917 revolution! The territories expanded incredibly: from the Carpathians to the Baltic steppes and the Black Sea region. By the middle of the 12th century, a dark era of feudal fragmentation began in the powerful Kievan Rus, with turmoil breaking into a dozen separate principalities ruled by various branches of the Rurikids.

According to him, the Slavic Slavs had a common ancestor, and they live in three Vendian tribes - the brave Veneds, the strong Antes, and their smaller brothers - the Sklavins. But in the 7th century, the French chronicler and historian Fredegar said that “the Slavins are Wends.” During the times of the Antes, the process of the emergence of Kyiv and Volyn began, which once again changed the borders of Ukraine.

Revolt 1648-1654 under his leadership led to the emergence of an autonomous hetman. In Khmelnitsky, the Rada made a number of decisions, the consequence of which was the Russian-Polish War of 1654-1667. Its course contributed to the outbreak of civil wars between various hetmans.

The first people on Ukrainian territory were the Cimmerians, who were mentioned in the reflection of the era - “The Odyssey”.

The first centralized stronghold of culture on the territory of Ukraine - Great Scythia - was described by Herodotus. In the 3rd century BC, the Scythians finally replaced the Sarmatians in the Black Sea steppes.

NOVOROSSIYA, a territory that included n. XX century historical Russian provinces: Kherson, Ekaterinoslav and Tauride (except Crimea) - cut through by the lower reaches of the Dnieper, Dniester and Bug. This flat steppe space imperceptibly merges with the steppes of Eastern Russia, turning into the Asian steppes, and therefore has long served as the home of tribes moving from Asia to the West. In ancient times, a number of Greek colonies were founded on the same Black Sea coast. The constant change of population continued until the Tatar invasion (see: Tatar-Mongol yoke). In the XIII-XVI centuries. the Tatars dominated here, making the peaceful colonization of the country by neighboring peoples impossible, but in the middle. XVI century Military colonization began. Below the rapids on the Dnieper island Khortitsa, the Cossacks (see: Cossacks) founded the Sich. All R. XVIII century new settlers appear here - people from Slavic lands, Bulgarians, Serbs, Volokhs. The government, intending to create a military border population, gave them benefits and various privileges. In 1752 two districts were formed: New Serbia and Slavyanoserbia. At the same time, fortification lines were created. After the 1st Russian-Turkish War, fortified lines captured new spaces. The annexation of Crimea in 1783, making Novorossiya unsafe from the Tatars, gave a new impetus to the colonization of the region. The 2nd Russian-Turkish War gave the Ochakov region into Russian hands. (i.e., the western part of Kherson province). From 1774, the prince was placed at the head of the administration of the Novorossiysk region. G. A. Potemkin, who remained in this position until his death (1791). He divided the country into provinces: Azov to the east of the Dnieper and Novorossiysk to the west. Potemkin's concern was the settlement and comprehensive development of the region. In terms of colonization, benefits were given to foreigners - immigrants from Slavic lands, Greeks, Germans and schismatics; huge land holdings were distributed to dignitaries and officials with an obligation to populate them. Simultaneously with government colonization there was free colonization from Great Russia and Little Russia. Russian colonists did not, like foreigners, benefit from help from the treasury, but they did not encounter any obstacles to settling in new places; there was a lot of land, and its owners willingly allowed people to settle on it. They also looked condescendingly at the settlement of runaway peasants in the region, the number of whom with the development of serfdom in the 18th century. XIX century everything increased. Under Potemkin, a number of cities were founded in Novorossiya - Ekaterinoslav, Kherson, Nikolaev, etc. Later Odessa was founded. Administratively, Novorossiya was reshaped several times. In 1783 it was named the Ekaterinoslav governorship. In 1784 the Tauride region was formed, in 1795 - Voznesensk province. Under Paul I, part of the Ekaterinoslav governorship was separated, and the Novorossiysk province was formed from the rest. Under Alexander I, the provinces of Ekaterinoslav, Kherson and Tauride were established here, which, together with the Bessarabian region annexed from Turkey, formed the Novorossiysk Governor-General. The administrative center of Novorossiya, as well as industrial and cultural, in the 19th century. Odessa became. S. Yu.

This territory extended from the Dniester to the possessions of the Don Cossacks - the Region of the Don Army. Until the 18th century, it was neither Russian nor Ukrainian (in the modern sense of the word). True, during the times of Kievan Rus there were several Russian strongholds on the Black Sea coast between the mouths of the Dnieper and Danube. Later, Lithuanian princes tried to gain a foothold there. But those small settlements were conquered and wiped off the face of the earth by the Tatars who came from the east. For a long time, the vast expanse of the Black Sea steppes turned into a Wild Field, where only nomads lived.

The situation began to change only at the end of the 17th century. With the reunification of Little and Great Rus', the Russian state felt strong enough to begin the struggle to reconquer the Northern Black Sea region. It took about a hundred years to achieve this goal. This was followed by the economic development of new territories. Russian farmers settled here - both Great Russians and Little Russians.

Since Little Russia was geographically closer, there were somewhat more immigrants from there. But this certain numerical dominance had no significance. After all, both the Little Russians and the Great Russians were Russians. Even the Zaporizhian Cossacks, who came primarily from the Little Russian regions, according to Dmitry Yavornitsky, a prominent Ukrainian historian, author of the three-volume “History of the Zaporizhian Cossacks” (first published in the 1890s and republished several times in independent Ukraine), considered themselves “one people with the Great Russians.” . Moreover, the Little Russian peasants considered themselves as such. There were no contradictions on national grounds between the Little Russians and the Great Russians, because, I repeat, both recognized themselves and each other as a single Russian nation.

This continued until 1917. Well, then the revolution came...

The Central Rada, organized in Kyiv in the spring of 1917, announced preparations for the creation of an autonomous Ukraine, which wanted to include not only Little Russia, but also Novorossia. After negotiations with the Provisional Government, it was decided that autonomous Ukraine would consist of five Little Russian provinces - Kyiv, Volyn, Podolsk, Poltava and Chernigov (without the four northern districts, populated mainly by Great Russians). As for the Novorossiysk provinces - Kherson, Yekaterinoslav, Tauride, as well as the Kharkov province, they were to be annexed (in whole or in part) to Ukraine only if the local government bodies, elections to which were then held, spoke in favor of this.

And here’s what’s typical: not a single locality, not a single district or city wanted to join Ukraine. He didn’t want to, first of all, because under the leadership of the Central Rada it was no longer Little Russia, but some kind of anti-Russian project. For example, the newly elected Odessa City Duma (Odessa was then part of the Kherson province) categorically rejected the claims of the Central Rada to its city and surrounding areas. A prominent Ukrainian researcher, a representative of the Ukrainian diaspora, Bogdan Kravchenko, in his monograph devoted to the formation of “Ukrainian national identity,” was forced to admit that the reaction of the Odessa Duma was “typical for the region.”

WHERE DOES THE MOTHERLAND START?

Early Iron Age. 1st millennium BC - beginning 1st millennium AD

The first people on Ukrainian lands whose name is known are the Cimmerians, mentioned in Homer's Odyssey. It is believed that these nomads, who spoke a language related to Iranian, came to the Black Sea region in the 9th century BC. from the Lower Volga region. Here he stopped for two centuries. They did not have writing: the sources of the ancient Greeks and Assyrians, in particular Herodotus of Halicarnassus, tell about the Cimmerians.

From the Dniester in the west to Vorskla in the east lived the Chernolestsy: a tribe on whose lands the Cimmerians staged devastating raids. No matter how powerful the latter may seem, in the 7th century BC. they were supplanted by the Scythians, also Iranian-speaking nomads; They lived by horse breeding and wars. They reached their greatest prosperity in the V-IV centuries BC.

The first centralized state on the territory of Ukraine, Great Scythia, as Herodotus wrote, stretched in a rectangle across the entire northern Black Sea region from the Danube in the west to the Sea of ​​Azov in the east. From the north, its borders are the Pripyat River and the line on which modern Chernigov, Kursk, and Voronezh lie. In the 3rd century BC. The Scythians in the Black Sea steppes were replaced by the Sarmatians - that’s what the Greeks and Romans called them, apparently from the Iranian word meaning “girt with a sword”: they, too, were nomadic warriors. They ruled in the Black Sea steppes for about six centuries, until they were supplanted by the Goths and Huns in the first millennium AD. After their invasion, the Slavic tribes of Antes and Sklavins reigned on the territory of Ukraine.

600-650 years. Veneds, Antes, Sklavins

For example, the Gothic historian of the 6th century Jordan writes about the Sklavins (similar to the word “Slavs”, isn’t it?). According to him, the Slavs have a common ancestor, and they live in three tribes: Venets (or Veneds), Ants and Sklavins. In the 7th century, the Frankish chronicler Fredegar says that “the Slavins are called Wends.” The Ants lived between the Dniester and the Dnieper.

Archaeologists sometimes find Ant treasures consisting of gold and silver looted during campaigns. The Ant warriors were armed with poisoned arrows, spears, swords, shields and characteristic long swords. The Antes were considered the strongest Slavic tribe: their warriors served in the Byzantine army. The prisoners were used as slaves, sold or ransomed from neighbors. However, after some time, the captured slave became free and entered the community. The main deity of the Ants was Perun. The sacrifices were bloodless: food was sacrificed.

During the times of the Antes, the cities of Kyiv and Volyn were born.

KIEVAN RUS

862-1132. Kievan Rus

This state arose in the 9th century, when the East Slavic and Finno-Ugric tribes united under the rule of the princely Rurik dynasty. Its history begins with the capture of Kyiv by Oleg, who subjugated the East Slavic tribes.

During the period of the highest prosperity of Kievan Rus, its borders were the Dniester and the upper reaches of the Vistula in the west, the Taman Peninsula in the southeast, and the upper reaches of the Northern Dvina in the north. Geography also helps to understand the cities of Kievan Rus, the most ancient of which were Kyiv, Chernigov, Pereyaslavl, Smolensk, Rostov, Ladoga, Pskov, Polotsk.

The reign of Prince Vladimir (c. 960 -1015) and Yaroslav the Wise (1019-1054) was the time of the greatest prosperity of the state, the borders of which expanded unusually (from the Baltic states and the Carpathians to the Black Sea steppes).

By the middle of the 12th century, feudal fragmentation had set in in Kievan Rus, and it broke up into one and a half dozen separate principalities ruled by different branches of the Rurikovichs. The beginning of fragmentation is considered to be 1132, when, after the death of Mstislav the Great, the son of Vladimir Monomakh, the power of the Kyiv prince was no longer recognized by Polotsk and Novgorod. Kyiv was formally considered the capital until the Mongol invasion (1237-1240).

1220-1240. First encounter with the Mongols

Almost all the southern Russian princes took part in the battle with the Mongols on the Kalka River (in the territory of the modern Donetsk region on May 31, 1223), many of them, like many high-born boyars, died. Victory went to the Mongols. With the weakening of the southern Russian principalities, the onslaught of the Hungarian and Lithuanian feudal lords intensified, but the influence of the princes in Chernigov, Novgorod, and Kyiv also increased. In 1240, the Mongols (under the leadership of Batu Khan, the grandson of Genghis Khan) reduced Kyiv to ruins. The city went to Prince Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, whom the Mongols recognized as the main one, and then to his son Alexander Nevsky. But they did not move the table to Kyiv, and remained in Vladimir.

THE FLOWING OF WESTERN UKRAINE

1245-1349. Galicia-Volyn Principality

In 1245, in the Battle of Yaroslavl (near modern Yaroslav in Poland, on the San River), the troops of Daniil of Galicia defeated the regiments of Hungarian and Polish feudal lords. Daniil of Galicia, counting on Western alliance against the Golden Horde, accepted the title of king from the Pope in 1253. The reign of Daniil Romanovich became the period of greatest growth of the Galicia-Volyn principality. Its strengthening caused concern in the Golden Horde. The principality was forced to pay tribute to the Horde, and the princes had to send troops for joint campaigns with the Mongols. Nevertheless, the Galicia-Volyn principality pursued an independent foreign policy.

In the second half of the 13th century, the Galician-Volyn principality did not control Podolia, but then regained control over these lands and gained access to the Black Sea; after 1323 they were lost again. Polissya was annexed by Lithuania at the beginning of the 14th century, and Volyn - in the War of the Galician-Volynian Succession between the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Galicia was annexed by Poland in 1349. This year is considered to be the end of the existence of the Galicia-Volyn principality.

UNDER LITHUANIA

1386-1434 Grand Duchy of Lithuania

The Grand Duke of Lithuania Olgerd in 1362 defeated the Mongols at Blue Waters (in the territory of the modern Kirovograd region, near Novoarkhangelsk) and annexed the Podolsk land. Then he removed Fyodor, who reigned in Kyiv, subordinate to the Golden Horde, and gave the city to his son Vladimir. At first, these lands stopped paying tribute to the Horde, in which there was then a struggle for power. In 1386, Jagiello became the Grand Duke of Lithuania. He converted to Catholicism and ruled Poland under the name of Władysław II until 1434. Many Orthodox princes opposed rapprochement with Poland: three civil wars took place in 1381-1384, 1389-1392 and 1432-1439. Many cities, including, for example, Lviv, Kyiv, Vladimir-Volynsky, received their own self-government, the so-called Magdeburg law.

In the 90s of the 14th century, Jogaila's cousin Vladislav Vytautas, thanks to an alliance with the Mongols, managed to peacefully annex the vast territories of the Wild Field in the south.

COSSACK ERA

1751. Hetmanate and Zaporozhye Sich

The uprising of Bohdan Khmelnytsky in 1648-1654 led to the emergence of an autonomous Hetmanate. At the Pereyaslav Rada, Khmelnitsky accepted citizenship of the Russian Empire, the Russian-Polish War of 1654-1667 began, during which a civil war (Ruin) began in the Hetmanate. Left-bank Ukraine wanted to be part of Russia, and Right-bank Ukraine sought a union with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

During the Russian-Turkish War of 1676-1681, the Russian-Cossack army repelled the invasion of the Ottoman Empire into Left Bank Ukraine. During the Northern War, Hetman Mazepa went over to the side of the Swedish king Charles XII, with whom he was defeated in the Battle of Poltava. As a result, the autonomy of the Hetmanate was limited and it began to be governed through the Little Russian Collegium. In the 18th century, the Cossack nobility integrated into the Russian nobility. In 1751, the Zaporizhian Sich was transferred to the power of the Hetmanate, in 1764 Catherine II abolished the Hetmanate, and in 1775 - the Zaporizhian Sich. The Cossack nobility is equated to the Russian nobility; the Cossacks are allocated lands annexed to Russia: Novorossiya, Kuban, Stavropol.

WHAT IS NOVOROSSIYA?

In the Russian-speaking tradition, this name was used until the beginning of the 20th century. It originated from the Novorossiysk province (existed in 1764-1775 during the time of Catherine II and in 1796-1802 under Paul I). This was the name given to the territories of the northern Black Sea region that were transferred to the Russian Empire as a result of the Russian-Turkish wars in the second half of the 18th century. Novorossiya (the province of the same name was then divided) meant the Kherson, Ekaterinoslav, Tauride, Bessarabian, and also the Stavropol provinces plus the Kuban region with the Don Army Region. In many respects it coincides with the Ukrainian historical region of the Hetmanate. Since the mid-20th century, the definitions “Northern Black Sea Region” and “Southern Ukraine” have been used. Nowadays the definition of “Southeastern Ukraine” is used.
Now the term “Novorossiya” is widely used by supporters of the federalization of Ukraine. On April 17, Russian President Vladimir Putin called southeastern Ukraine “Novorossiya” during his “direct line.”

UKRAINIAN PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC

1918-1920

The UPR was proclaimed the Third Universal of the Ukrainian Central Rada on November 7, 1917. Broad national autonomy was assumed, federally linked to Russia. The Fourth Universal declared the independence of the UPR on January 22, 1918. And a year later - On January 22, 1919, the “Zluka Act” was proclaimed, uniting the Western Ukrainian People's Republic and the UPR.

The Ukraine of that time was much larger than the modern one, its territory was determined by the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty and recognized by Austria-Hungary, Germany, Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria. At the Paris Peace Conference, the URN delegation declared its borders, but they were not recognized due to the position of Great Britain, France and Poland.

So, the proclaimed Ukrainian territory included the lands of Eastern Poland, Transnistria and part of Transnistria, extending to a depth of up to 250 km in the territory of modern southern Belarus and Russia, including part of the Kursk and Belgorod regions, as well as the lower Don. For example, on February 20, 1918, the legislative body of the Independent Kuban People's Republic adopted a resolution on the annexation of Kuban to the UPR on a federal basis.

In 2005, a most interesting document was discovered in Sumy. This is a map of independent Ukraine, drawn up in 1918, on which the Ukrainian state borders of that time are marked, that is, the borders of the UPR. The copy, as scientists believe, is the only one that has survived to our time. The map, as follows from the mark in the upper right corner, above the scale bar, was published in Kharkov by the geodetic publishing house "Southern Expedition". This rarity was given to the state by the Golubchenko family from Sumy.

OLD DISPUTE ABOUT CRIMEA

On peninsula during the time of the UPR, the local government was headed by Tsarist General Matvey Suleiman Sulkevich, who was against the inclusion of Crimea into the UPR. Hetman Skoropadsky, who considered Crimea Ukrainian, introduced an economic blockade of the peninsula. As a result, during the negotiations they decided to include Crimea into Ukraine on the basis of territorial autonomy.

The newspaper “Tauride Voice” wrote on January 3, 1918: “The main nationalities of Crimea are the Great Russians, Tatars and Germans. There are few Ukrainians in Crimea. And the simple inclusion of Crimea on an equal basis with other parts of Ukraine in the Ukrainian state would not correspond to the wishes of the majority of the population. With the unification of Crimea with "By Ukraine, the population of Crimea must receive a guarantee of the freedom of their national self-determination and independent internal self-government. Such a guarantee is the autonomous structure of the region."

ALL POWER TO THE SOVIETS

1920-1951. Ukrainian SSR

For some time, two districts of the Belgorod region remained within Soviet Ukraine. When the issue of borders between the Ukrainian SSR and the RSFSR was considered, they decided to take the pre-revolutionary borders between the provinces as a basis. The authorities agreed that the leadership of Soviet Ukraine would not lay claim to the Don region of the RSFSR. At the same time, four districts in the north of the Chernigov province became part of the Gomel province. The RSFSR transferred Taganrog to Ukraine along with the district, but in 1924 it was returned to Russia. In 1925-1926, Ukraine continued to expand: it received parts of the Kursk, Bryansk and Voronezh provinces.

In 1939, Soviet troops occupied territories belonging to Poland, which became part of the Ukrainian SSR. Then, in 1945, some of them were returned to Poland. The border ran along the Curzon line, deviating slightly towards Poland. In the summer of 1940, the Soviet army occupied Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, which belonged to Romania. Transnistria was transferred to the Moldavian SSR. The Ukrainian SSR received Northern Bukovina with the city of Chernivtsi and southern Bessarabia.

In 1945, part of Transcarpathia, which belonged to Czechoslovakia, became part of Ukraine. In 1951, the USSR gave part of the Drohobych region (existed until 1959) to Poland. On February 15, 1951, an exchange of territories took place between the USSR and Poland, as a result of which the Ukrainian SSR lost part of the territory of the Drohobych region.

NOT CRIMEA ALONE

1954-2014. Crimea

On February 5, 1954, the Crimean region of the RSFR was transferred to the Ukrainian SSR by a resolution of the Supreme Council of the Russian Soviet Federative Republic. While some historians associate this with the personal initiative of the First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Nikita Khrushchev, others consider the transfer a forced measure related to the difficult economic situation on the peninsula: there was post-war devastation, the Crimean Tatars were deported, and Russian settlers did not have the skills to manage a farm in the steppe. zone.

On March 16, 2014, an illegal referendum was held in Crimea: the majority of the pro-Russian population voted for Crimea to join Russia. At the same time, Russian military units operated on the territory of the autonomy without identification marks, capturing Ukrainian garrisons and blockading Ukrainian Navy ships. Crimea was actually annexed by Russia, which accepted the peninsula into its territory. The international community does not recognize the status of Crimea as a subject of the Russian Federation, determined by Russia, nor the results of the referendum, nor the self-proclaimed local government. Ukraine officially considers Crimea its territory, while on some Russian maps Crimea is already designated as part of the Russian Federation.