Before the seizure of Crimea by the Mongol-Tatars and the accession of the Golden Horde here, many peoples lived on the peninsula, their history goes back centuries, and only archaeological finds indicate that the indigenous peoples of Crimea settled the peninsula 12,000 years ago, during the Mesolithic. The sites of ancient people were found in Shankobe, in the Kachinsky and Alimov sheds, in Fatmakob and in other places. It is known that the religion of these ancient tribes was totemism, and they buried the dead in log cabins, piling high mounds on top of them.

Cimerians (IX-VII centuries BC)

The first people that historians wrote about were the fierce Chimerians who inhabited the plains of the Crimean peninsula. The Cimerians were Indo-Europeans or Iranians and were engaged in agriculture; the ancient Greek geographer Strabo wrote about the existence of the capital of the Cimerians - Chimerida, which was located on the Taman Peninsula. It is believed that the Chimerians brought metalworking and pottery to the Crimea, their fat herds were guarded by huge wolfhounds. The Cimerians wore leather jackets and trousers, and their heads were crowned with pointed hats. Information about this people exists even in the archives of the king of Assyria, Ashurbanipal: the Cimerians more than once invaded Asia Minor and Thrace. Homer and Herodotus, the Ephesian poet Callinus and the Milesian historian Hecateus wrote about them.

The Cimerians left the Crimea under the onslaught of the Scythians, part of the people joined the Scythian tribes, and part went to Europe.

Taurus (VI century BC - I century AD)

Taurus - this is how the Greeks who visited the Crimea called the formidable tribes living here. The name may have been associated with the cattle breeding they were engaged in, because "tauros" means "bull" in Greek. Where the Taurus came from is unknown, some scholars tried to associate them with the Indo-Aryans, others considered them Goths. It is with the Taurus that the culture of dolmens - ancestral burials - is associated.

The Taurus cultivated the land and grazed livestock, hunted in the mountains and did not disdain sea robbery. Strabo mentioned that the Taurus gather in the Symbolon (Balaklava) Bay, get lost in gangs and rob ships. The most vicious tribes were considered the Arihs, Sinhis and Singhs: their battle cry made the blood of enemies freeze; opponents of the Taurus were stabbed to death, and their heads were nailed to the walls of their temples. The historian Tacitus wrote how the Taurus killed the Roman legionaries who survived the shipwreck. In the 1st century, the Taurus disappeared from the face of the earth, dissolving among the Scythians.

Scythians (VII century BC - III century AD)

The Scythian tribes came to the Crimea, retreating under the pressure of the Sarmatians, here they moved to settled life and absorbed part of the Taurus and even mixed with the Greeks. In the III century, a Scythian state appeared on the plains of the Crimea with the capital Naples (Simferopol), which actively competed with the Bosporus, but in the same century it fell under the blows of the Sarmatians. Those who survived were finished off by the Goths and the Huns; the remnants of the Scythians mixed with the autochthonous population and ceased to exist as a separate people.

Sarmatians (IV-III centuries BC)

The Sartmatians, in turn, supplemented the genetic heterogeneity of the peoples of the Crimea, dissolving in its population. Roksolans, Iazygs and Aorses fought with the Scythians for centuries, penetrating into the Crimea. With them came the warlike Alans, who settled in the south-west of the peninsula and founded a community of Goto-Alans, having adopted Christianity. Strabo writes in Geography about the participation of 50,000 Roxolans in an unsuccessful campaign against the Pontians.

Greeks (VI century BC)

The first Greek colonists settled on the Crimean coast during the Taurus times; here they built the cities of Kerkinitida, Panticapaeum, Chersonesos and Theodosia, which in the 5th century BC. formed two states: Bosporus and Chersonesos. The Greeks lived off gardening and winemaking, fished, traded and minted their own coins. With the onset of a new era, the states fell into submission to Pontus, then to Rome and to Byzantium.

From the 5th to the 9th century A.D. in the Crimea a new ethnos "Crimean Greeks" arose, whose descendants were the Greeks of antiquity, Taurus, Scythians, Gotoalans and Turks. In the 13th century, the center of Crimea was occupied by the Greek principality of Theodoro, which was captured by the Ottomans at the end of the 15th century. Some of the Crimean Greeks who have preserved Christianity still live in Crimea.

Romans (1st century AD - IV century AD)

The Romans appeared in the Crimea at the end of the 1st century, defeating the king of Panticapaeum (Kerch) Mithridates VI Eupator; soon Chersonesus, who suffered from the Scythians, asked for their protection. The Romans enriched Crimea with their culture, building fortresses on Cape Ai-Todor, in Balaklava, on Alma-Kermen and left the peninsula after the collapse of the empire - this is what Igor Khrapunov, a professor at the University of Simferopol, writes about in his work "Population of Mountainous Crimea in Late Roman Time".

Goths (III-XVII centuries)

In Crimea lived the Goths, a Germanic tribe that appeared on the peninsula during the Great Migration. The Christian saint Procopius of Caesarea wrote that the Goths were engaged in agriculture, and their nobles held military posts in the Bosporus, which the Goths took control of. Having become the owners of the Bosporan fleet, in 257 the Germans undertook a march to Trebizond, where they captured untold treasures.

The Goths settled in the north-west of the peninsula and in the 4th century they formed their own state - Gothia, which stood for nine centuries and only then partially entered the principality of Theodoro, and the Goths themselves were apparently assimilated by the Greeks and Ottoman Turks. Most of the Goths eventually became Christians, their spiritual center was the fortress Doros (Mangup).

For a long time, Gothia was a buffer between the hordes of nomads who pressed on the Crimea from the north, and Byzantium in the south, survived the invasions of the Huns, Khazars, Tatar-Mongols, and ceased to exist after the invasion of the Ottomans.

The Catholic priest Stanislav Sestrenevich-Bogush wrote that even in the 18th century the Goths lived near the Mangup fortress, their language was similar to German, but they were all Islamized.

Genoese and Venetians (XII-XV centuries)

Merchants from Venice and Genoa appeared on the Black Sea coast in the middle of the 12th century; Having concluded an agreement with the Golden Horde, they founded trading colonies, which held out until the seizure of the coast by the Ottomans, after which their few inhabitants were assimilated.

In the IV century, the cruel Huns invaded Crimea, some of whom settled in the steppes and mixed with the Goto-Alans. And also Jews, Armenians who fled from the Arabs, moved to Crimea, Khazars, Eastern Slavs, Polovtsians, Pechenegs and Bulgars visited here, and it is no wonder that the peoples of Crimea are not alike, because the blood of various peoples flows in their veins.

Crimea is a unique place that has preserved traces of different cultures and eras. Muslim mosques here side by side with Orthodox churches, the history of Byzantium is inseparable from the legends about the Golden Horde. East and West are intertwined in local architectural monuments and only a sophisticated researcher can separate them. The peninsula was and remains the intersection of sea and land routes. One of the most famous trade roads, which for a long time connected the Roman and Chinese empires, the famous Silk Road, passed through this area.

The role of the Crimean lands in the military and economic life of eastern and western countries can hardly be overestimated. Recent political events have confirmed this. In our article, we will briefly highlight the main events of the ancient and modern history of the peninsula: we will talk about the milestones and stages of the development of Crimea in antiquity, we will tell about its fate in the Middle Ages, we will trace the ties with Russia and other countries in the 19th and 20th centuries.

How it all began: primitive people on the Crimean land

For a long time it was believed that the first man appeared here 300,000 years ago. The caves of the foothills in the early Paleolithic era were occupied by Neanderthals. Scientists have discovered more than 10 sites along the east coast. Almost all of them were found at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century. Here are the most interesting ones:

Wolf grotto Baryu-Teshik

The cultural layer was discovered by Konstantin Sergeevich Merezhkovsky, the brother of the famous poet and chief ideologist of the Symbolist movement, D. S. Merezhkovsky. Archaeological expeditions regularly visited this place in the future. So O. Bandera's team managed to find a previously unnoticed location - a platform in front of the grotto. The researchers also found animal remains and campfire remains. The bones of mammoths, reindeer and polar foxes hint to lovers of antiquity about the serious climatic changes that have occurred on the island.

The location of the grotto is unfortunate for permanent housing. The entrance is on the northwest side. This means that the cave was open to cold northerly winds. Remains of flint tools suggest the possibility of a "workshop" for processing flint here.

The Wolf Grotto is open to the public. There is a beautiful lake surrounded by rocks next to it. Tourists make stops near it, take pictures and simply enjoy the coolness and beauty of nature.

Chokurcha

This is a historical monument of world significance - the oldest preserved dwelling of primitive people in Europe. The skeletons of the former inhabitants were found here. The walls have preserved rock paintings. One of the most valuable finds is Mousterian microliths from the Early Paleolithic. These are spearheads made of limestone and silicon. The cave gave the world about 500 museum exhibits: bones of ancient animals, scrapers, samples of the simplest weapons. If you go on vacation to Simferopol, be sure to visit this place. Excursion buses run from the city.

Kiik-Koba

Primitive site, cultural landmark of the Belogorsk region. In the center of the cave there was a burial place where the remains of a woman and a child were preserved. The cultural layer is similar to that found in Chokurcha: a stone shelter preserved the bones of a cave bear, a wild horse, a giant deer and a large number of tools.

Neighborhood of the White Rock

In the 1960s, the expedition of Yu.N. Kolosov found 20 sites near the northern slope. Not all of them are open for tourist excursions, there are those where excavations continue in our time.

According to the latest scientific data, it is impossible to speak of Neanderthals as the predecessors of modern humans. Experts in the history of the ancient world came to the conclusion that Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals lived in the Crimean territory at the same time period. These are not two different types, but two subspecies of "Homo sapiens". Their representatives differed from each other in about the same way as the Japanese and the European now differ.

But the team of Sergei Zhuk, an archaeological scientist from Yalta, refuted the established stereotype about the first people and excited the public for a long time by unearthing the simplest tools of labor, which are more than 800,000 years old. Historians have established that they belonged to the Pithecanthropus. From Latin, the name of this kind of pre-human is translated as "straightened man". Focusing on the theoretical base and the found exhibits, the scientists suggested that the primitive ape-like tribe lived in the southern part of Crimea in the Olduvai Paleolithic era. Material confirmation of this point of view was found near the village of Gaspra, in the vicinity of Artek and near the Echki-Dag mountain range.

Almost all evidence of the life of primitive man on the territory of the peninsula is found in the exhibition halls. If you are interested in ancient history, visit the local history museums in the cities:

• Simferopol.
• Evpatoria.
• Kerch.
• Yalta.
• Feodosia.

How many names did the Republic of Crimea have: the history of the name

The ancient Greeks called the tribes that lived on the Crimean lands in the 1st millennium BC Taurus. The name of the people gave the name of the area. Until the 14th century, Crimea was called Tavrida or Tavrika. Linguists have several versions of the origin of the word "taurus":

• In Olympic Greece, bulls were called so. There is a myth in which the god of fertility Dionysus plows the land of the peninsula with the help of these animals. But historians consider it late.
• People called any mountain landscapes Tavrika. This theory is based on the fact that similar names are found in other regions. For example, in Asia Minor there are mountain slopes "Taurus".
• Another option: the area was named so because it was separated from the rest of the world by the Pereskop moat: an ancient defensive fortification was dug even before the first Hellenes set foot on the Crimean coast. "Tavros" means a moat. This point of view is confirmed by the fact that the Greeks called all the indigenous inhabitants of the island (Taurus, Scythians, Sarmatians) the same - Taurus.

The origin of the name "Crimea" is also unclear. There are many theories and new ones appear every year. Here are the most popular ones:

• In the Turkic language there is a word "kyrym". It means the same as tavros. In the 13th century, in Tavrika, by order of one of the khans of the Golden Horde, the city of Solkhat was renamed "Kyrym". This decision was probably made because the settlement was reliably protected by a defensive rampart and surrounded by a deep ditch. It is believed that over time, the name of the main city began to refer to the entire territory occupied by the Tatar-Mongol people.
• Perhaps, referring to the same Pereskop ditch, the Crimean peoples called their homeland "Kyrym adasy". Experts in the history of the Turkic language argue that the word meant “island beyond the moat” and over time was reduced to the modern name - Crimea.

Since at different times different nations and peoples lived on the Crimean lands, documentary sources have preserved a lot of toponyms. So the area was called Cimmeria, Scythia, Sarmatia, Khazaria, Tataria.

The history of the Crimean peninsula from ancient times is brief: to whom and when the peninsula belonged

In the XV-XVIII centuries. BC. the Crimean coast was occupied by the Cimmerian people. It was a warlike tribe with a developed military system. Testimonies of them have survived to this day thanks to ancient Greek documents. The Cimmerians were mentioned in the Iliad in the famous list of ships. Homer portrays their homeland as gloomy and uncomfortable: "a sad region covered with moist fog and mist of clouds."

The author of the first significant historical treatise, Herodotus, writes that the tribe could repel any invaders, even the warlike Scythians, but chose to leave their habitable place and go to Asia Minor. Burial mounds remind us of their presence: near the village of Tselinnoye in the Northern Sivash region and near the village of Zolnoye, near Simferopol. Remnants of the Cimmerian culture have been preserved in Lugovoye, Front and some other territories of Kerch. In the XI - VIII centuries. BC. Taurians live in the mountains and forests of ancient Crimea. They are adjacent to the Cimmerians and are widely known outside the peninsula. This people is mentioned in 50 ancient written sources.

In the VII centuries. BC Crimean steppes conquer the Scythians. Persian king Darius in 513 BC unsuccessfully tried to conquer and enslave the proud people, but the military campaign ended in failure. The Persian army could not show their martial art, since the Scythians did not give them the opportunity to start an open battle. They went deep into the peninsula, sweeping away everything in their path. Enemies were met by scorched grass and drained springs.

In the VI-V centuries. BC e. Hellenes come to the Crimean coast. Until the end of the 3rd century A.D. Scythians and Greeks divide these lands. Naples-Scythian is the capital of Lesser Scythia. In the 70s, the Romans, who conquered Greece, erected the Kharax fortress on Cape Ai-Todor and laid the first mountain road from it to Kherson. This is how the city of Sevastopol was once called.

From the end of the 3rd century AD until 565, the peninsula experienced difficult times. Scythian settlements, badly damaged by the Goths, could not survive the invasion of the Huns. The Huns practically wiped out all the settlements that existed at that time.

In VI-XII Christians come to Taurida. The first cave settlements and monasteries appear. Many of the first righteous were persecuted by the Byzantine authorities for veneration of icons. In 988 Vladimir conquered Kherson.

The invasion of the Golden Horde in the XIII centuries does not pass without a trace for Crimea. Batu likes fertile hot lands and he creates the Crimean ulus. In the 15th century, Khan Girey proclaimed his khanate an independent state and named Bakhchisarai the main city. He favorably relates to agriculture and the development of handicrafts, does not interfere with the construction and the neighborhood of Christian temples and Muslim mosques. Khan's descendant, Mengli-Girey, continues his work: he takes control of the northern and eastern territories.

In 1475, the khanate submits to the Turkish invaders. The war between Russia and Turkey for the Crimean lands goes on until the end of the 18th century. The last point of rivalry will be the Russo-Turkish War, which ended in the recognition of the Russians' right to annex Crimea.

In the future, the peninsula repeatedly becomes the site of bloody battles. He will survive the Crimean War (Leo Tolstoy will describe it in "Sevastopol Tales"), withstand revolutionary unrest and suffer greatly during the Second World War. The leaders of the great powers will gather in Yalta in 1945: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin. They will make decisions on the division of defeated Nazi Germany and on the creation of the UN. Crimean castles and palaces will more than once meet the first persons of the Western and Eastern states.

In 1954, at the behest of N.S. Khrushchev, Crimea was transferred to the Ukrainian SSR. When the USSR ceased to exist, Crimea finally became part of Ukraine. The events of recent years have turned the history of the Crimean peninsula in an unexpected way: it returned to Russia. What other vicissitudes await him is unknown.

But we hope our brief historical summary has helped you understand that these places are worth visiting. And our company will help you with this: contact us and we will organize an exciting trip for a large family, a noisy company or a couple in love. We will also select an individual travel program for those who prefer to travel alone.

You and I are accustomed to approaching the concept “ Crimea»As the name of a place where you can have a great summer vacation, have a good rest on the seashore, making a couple of trips to nearby attractions. But if we approach the issue globally, look at the peninsula from the distance of centuries and knowledge, it becomes clear that Crimea is a unique historical and cultural territory, striking with antiquity and a variety of natural and “man-made” values. Numerous crimean cultural monuments reflect religion, culture and historical events of different eras and peoples. History the peninsula is a plexus of West and East, the history of the ancient Greeks and the Golden Horde Mongols, the history of the birth of Christianity, the emergence of the first churches and mosques. For centuries, different peoples lived here, fought with each other, concluded peace and trade agreements, settlements and cities were built and destroyed, civilizations appeared and disappeared. Inhaling the Crimean air, in addition to the notorious phytoncides, you can feel in it the taste of legends about life amazons, Olympian gods, Taurus, Cimmerians, Greeks…

The natural conditions of Crimea and the geographic location favorable for life contributed to the fact that the peninsula became cradle of humanity... Primitive Neanderthal people appeared here 150 thousand years ago, attracted by the warm climate and the abundance of animals, which were their main food base. In almost every Crimean museum you can find archaeological finds from grottoes and cavesthat served as natural shelters for primitive man. The most famous sites of primitive man:

• Kiik-Koba ( Belogorsk district);
• Staroselie (Bakhchisarai);
• Chokurcho (Simferopol);
• Wolf Grotto (Simferopol);
• Ak-Kaya (Belogorsk).

About 50 thousand years ago, the ancestor of modern people appeared on the Crimean peninsula - a man of the Cro-Magnon type. Three sites of this era are open: Suren (near the village of Tankovoye), Adzhi-Koba (slope of Karabi-Yaila) and Kachinsky shed (near the village of Preduschelnoe, Bakhchisarai district).

Cimmerians

If before the first millennium BC, historical data only slightly open the veil from different periods of human development, then information about a later time allows us to speak about specific cultures and tribes of Crimea. In the 5th century BC, the Crimean coast was visited by Herodotus, an ancient Greek historian. In his writings, he described the local lands and peoples inhabiting them. It is believed that among the first peoples who lived in the steppe part of the peninsula in the 15th-7th centuries BC were cimmerians... Their warlike tribes were driven out of the Crimea in the 4th-3rd centuries BC by no less aggressive Scythians and lost in the vast expanses of the steppes of Asia. Only ancient names remind of them:

• Cimmerian walls;
• Cimmeric.

Taurus

Mountain and foothill Crimea in those days was inhabited by tribes taurus, distant descendants of the Kizil-Koba archaeological culture. In the descriptions of ancient authors, the Taurus look bloodthirsty and cruel. Skilled sailors, they piracy, plundering ships along the coast. The captives were thrown into the sea from a high cliff from the temple, sacrificing to the goddess Virgo. Refuting this information, modern scientists have established that the Taurus were engaged in hunting, collecting shellfish, fishing, farming and raising livestock. They lived in huts or caves, but built fortified shelters to protect them from external enemies. Taurus fortifications were found on the mountains: Cat, Uch-Bash, Kastel, Ayu-Dag, on Cape Ai-Todor.

Another traces of the Taurus are numerous burials in dolmens - stone boxes, consisting of four flat slabs placed on the edge and covered with a fifth on top. One of the unsolved mysteries about the Taurus is the location of the cliff with the Temple of the Virgin.

Scythians

In the 7th century BC, Scythian tribes came to the steppe part of the Crimea. In the IV century BC, the Sarmatians are pushed back scythians to the lower Dnieper and Crimea. At the turn of the IV-III centuries BC, a Scythian state was formed on this territory, the capital of which was Naples Scythian (in its place is modern Simferopol).

Greeks

In the 7th century BC, rows of Greek colonists stretched to the Crimean coast. Choosing places convenient for living and sailing, greeks based on them city-states - "policies":

• Feodosia;
• Panticapaeum-Bospor (Kerch);
• (Sevastopol);
• Mirmeky;
• Nymph;
• Tiritaka.

The emergence and expansion of the Greek colonies served as a serious impetus for the development of the Northern Black Sea region: political, cultural and trade ties between the local population and the Greeks intensified. The indigenous inhabitants of Crimea learned to cultivate the land in more perfect ways, began to plant olives and grapes. The influence of Greek culture on the spiritual world of the Scythians, Taurians, Sarmatians and other tribes who came into contact with it turned out to be enormous. However, the relationship between the neighboring peoples was not easy: periods of peace were followed by years of wars. Therefore, all Greek city-states were protected by strong stone walls.

IV century BC was the time when several settlements were founded in the west of the peninsula. The largest of them are Kalos-Limen (Black Sea) and Kerkinitida (Evpatoria). At the end of the 5th century BC immigrants from the Greek Heraclea founded the policy of Chersonesos (modern Sevastopol). A hundred years later, Chersonesos became a city-state independent of the Greek metropolis and the largest city-state in the Northern Black Sea region. During its heyday it was a powerful port city, a cultural, handicraft and trade center of the southwestern part of Crimea surrounded by fortress walls.

Around 480 BC, the independent Greek cities united to form Bosporan kingdom, the capital of which was the city of Panticapaeum. A little later, Theodosia joined the kingdom.

In the IV century BC, the Scythian king Atey united the Scythian tribes into a strong state that owned the territory from the Dniester and the Southern Bug to the Don. From the end of the 4th century BC and especially in the 3rd century BC scythians and the Taurus, which were under their influence, exerted strong military pressure on the policies. In the III century BC, Scythian settlements, fortifications and cities appeared on the peninsula, including the capital of the kingdom - Scythian Naples. At the end of the II century BC Chersonesos, besieged by the Scythians, turned for help to the Pontic kingdom (located on the southern coast of the Black Sea). The troops of Pontus lifted the siege, but at the same time captured Theodosia and Panticapaeum, after which both Bosporus and Chersonesus were part of the Pontic kingdom.

Romans, Huns, Byzantium

From the middle of the 1st century to the beginning of the 4th century AD, the entire Black Sea region (including Crimea-Taurica) was included in the sphere of interests of the Roman Empire. The stronghold of the Romans on Taurica became Chersonesos... In the 1st century, on Cape Ai-Todor, Roman legionaries built a fortress of Kharax and connected it by roads with Chersonesos, where the garrison was located. The Roman squadron was stationed in the Chersonesos harbor.

In 370, hordes of Huns came to the Crimean lands. They wiped out the Bosporan kingdom and the Scythian state from the face of the earth, destroyed Chersonesos, Panticapaeum and Scythian Naples. After the Crimea, the Huns went to Europe, bringing the destruction of the great Roman Empire. In the IV century, the Roman Empire was divided into Western and Eastern (Byzantine). The southern part of Taurica entered the sphere of interests of the Eastern Empire. The main base of the Byzantines in the Crimea was Chersonesos, which became known as Kherson. This period became the time of penetration of Christianity into the peninsula. According to church tradition, Andrew the First-Called became his first messenger. The third bishop of Rome, Clement, who was exiled to Kherson in 94, also actively preached the Christian faith. In the 8th century, the iconoclasm movement appeared in Byzantium: all images of saints were destroyed - on icons, in temple paintings. Monks fled from persecution on the outskirts of the empire, including in the Crimea. In the mountains of the peninsula, they founded cave monasteries and temples:

• Kachi-Kalion;
• Chelter;
• Uspensky;
• Shuldan.

At the end of the 6th century, a new wave of invaders rushed to the peninsula - the Khazars, the ancestors of the Karaites. They occupied the whole Crimea, except for Kherson. In 705, Kherson recognized the Khazar protectorate and separated from Byzantium. In response, Byzantium sent in 710 a punitive fleet with a small army on board. Kherson fell, and the Byzantines treated its inhabitants with unprecedented cruelty. But as soon as the imperial troops left the city, it revolted: having united with the Khazars and part of the army that had changed the empire, Kherson seized Constantinople and put its emperor at the head of Byzantium.

Slavs, Mongols, Genoese, Theodoro principality

In the 9th century, a new force actively intervenes in the course of Crimean history - slavs... Their appearance on the peninsula coincided with the decline of the Khazar state, which was finally defeated in the 10th century by Prince Svyatoslav. In 988 - 989 Kherson was captured by the Kiev prince Vladimir. Here he adopted the Christian faith.

In the XIII century, the Tatar-Mongols of the Golden Horde invaded the peninsula several times and thoroughly plundered the cities. From the middle of the XIII century, they began to settle on the territory of Taurica. At this time, they captured Solkhat and turned it into the center of the Crimean yurt of the Golden Horde. It received the name Kyrym, later inherited by the peninsula.

In the same years, the Orthodox Church appeared in the mountains of Crimea. principality of Theodoro with the capital in Mangup. The Genoese had controversial issues with the principality of Theodoro over the ownership of the disputed territories.

Turks

At the beginning of 1475, Kafa had a fleet Ottoman Empire... The well-fortified Kafa withstood the siege for only three days, after which it surrendered at the mercy of the victor. By the end of the year turks captured all the coastal fortresses: the rule of the Genoese in the Crimea ended. Mangup held out the longest and surrendered to the Turks only after a six-month siege. The invaders brutally treated the captured Theodorians: the city was ravaged, most of the inhabitants were killed, and the survivors were taken into slavery.

Crimean Khan became a vassal Ottoman Empire and a conductor of the aggressive policy of Turkey in relation to Russia. Raids to the southern lands Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and Russia became permanent. Russia strove to defend its southern borders and gain access to the Black Sea. Therefore, she fought with Turkey many times. The war of 1768 - 1774 was unsuccessful for the Turks. In 1774, between the Ottoman Empire and Russia was concluded Kuchuk-Kainardzhi agreement about the world that brought independence to the Crimean Khanate. Russia received in the Crimea the fortresses of Kin-burn, Azov and the city of Kerch, together with the Yeni-Kale fortress. In addition, now Russian merchant ships have free access to navigation in the Black Sea.

Russia

In 1783 Crimea was finally annexed to Russia. Most of the Muslims left the peninsula and moved to Turkey. The land fell into desolation. Prince G. Potemkin, the governor of Taurida, began to resettle retired soldiers and serfs from neighboring regions here. This is how the first villages with Russian names appeared on the peninsula - Iziumovka, Mazanka, Clean... This move of the prince turned out to be correct: the economy of the Crimea began to develop, agriculture was revived. In an excellent natural harbor, the city of Sevastopol, the base of the Black Sea fleet of Russia, was laid. Near Ak-Mosque, a small town, Simferopol was under construction - the future "capital" of the Tauride province.

In 1787, the Crimea was visited by Empress Catherine II with a large retinue of high-ranking officials of foreign states. She stayed in the traveling palaces specially built for this occasion.

Eastern war

In 1854 - 1855, Crimea became the arena of another war, called the Eastern. In the fall of 1854, Sevastopol was besieged by the united army France, England and Turkey... Under the leadership of Vice Admirals P.S. Nakhimov and V.A. Kornilov's defense of the city lasted 349 days. In the end, the city was destroyed to the ground, but at the same time it was glorified throughout the world. Russia lost this war: in 1856, an agreement was signed in Paris prohibiting both Turkey and Russia from having navies in the Black Sea.

Health resort of Russia

In the middle of the 19th century, the doctor Botkin recommended the royal family to acquire the Livadia estate, as a place with an extremely healthy climate. This was the beginning of a new, resort era in Crimea. Villas, estates, palaces belonging to the royal family, wealthy landowners and industrialists, and the court nobility were built along the entire coastline. For several years, the village of Yalta has become a popular aristocratic resort. Railways, which connected the largest cities of the region, further accelerated its transformation into a resort and dacha health resort of the empire.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the peninsula belonged to the Tauride province and was, in economic and economic terms, an agrarian region with several industrial cities. These were mainly Simferopol and port Kerch, Sevastopol and Feodosia.

Soviet power was established in Crimea only in the fall of 1920, after the German army and Denikin's troops were driven from the peninsula. A year later, the Crimean Autonomous Socialist Republic was formed. Palaces, dachas and villas were given over to people's sanatoriums, where collective farmers and workers from all over the young state were treated and rested.

The Great Patriotic War

During the Second World War, the peninsula courageously fought against the enemy. Sevastopol repeated its feat, surrendering after a 250-day siege. The pages of the heroic chronicle of those years are full of such names as "Tierra del Fuego Eltigen", "Kerch-Feodosia operation", "The feat of partisans and underground workers"... For their courage and resilience, Kerch and Sevastopol were awarded the titles of hero cities.

February 1945 gathered the heads of allied countries in Crimea - USA, UK and USSR - at the Crimean (Yalta) conference in the Livadia Palace. During this conference, decisions were made to end the war and establish a post-war world order.

Postwar years

Crimea was liberated from the occupiers at the beginning of 1944, and the restoration of the peninsula - industrial enterprises, rest homes, sanatoriums, agricultural facilities, villages and cities - began immediately. The expulsion of Greeks, Tatars and Armenians from its territory became a black page in the history of the peninsula at that time. In February 1954, by decree of N.S. Khrushchev, the Crimean region was transferred to Ukraine. Today, many believe that it was a royal gift ...

During the 60-80s of the last century, the growth of Crimean agriculture, industry and tourism reached its climax. Crimea received the semi-official title of the all-Union health resort: 9 million people annually rested in its health resort facilities.

In 1991, during a coup in Moscow, the USSR General Secretary M.S. Gorbachev at the state dacha in Foros. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Crimea became Autonomous Republic, which became part of Ukraine. In the spring of 2014, after the all-Crimean referendum, the Crimea peninsula seceded from Ukraine and became one of the subjects of the Russian Federation. Started recent history of Crimea.

We know Crimea as a republic of rest, sun, sea and fun. Come to the Crimean land - let's write the history of this our resort republic together!

For a long time, the peoples living on the territory of the Crimean peninsula participated in the formation of ethnic societies. These processes were counted for centuries. At the time of BC, this area was inhabited by the Taurus, nomadic Cimmerian, Scythian and Sarmatian tribes. In the Middle Ages, Greeks, Tatars, Alans, Goths, Turks left their mark. The Tatar-Mongols, intertwining with the Greeks and Cumans, formed the nucleus of an ethnic group called the Crimean Tatars, which represented the main population of the Crimean Khanate that existed from the 15th to the 18th centuries. After the conquest of the Crimea, from 1783 there was a gradual resettlement of Russians, Ukrainians, Bulgarians, Greeks, and Jews to these lands.

By our time, a modern multinational community of peoples has developed. This ethnic symbiosis includes representatives of about 125 nationalities. The largest groups are Russians (65%), Ukrainians (16%) and Crimean Tatars (12%). Taking into account such a structure of the population in Crimea, three languages \u200b\u200bare used and enshrined at the legislative level: Russian, Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar. Other nationalities are not so widely represented, but they all have their place in the national palette and influence the culture of this region. According to statistics from the census, 2.3 million people permanently reside in Crimea (including the city of Sevastopol). The Russian language is the most widespread and used in all spheres of life, and is also universal for interethnic communication.

Russians

The representation of the Russian people in the Crimea has been quite significant since ancient times. During the period of the Crimean Khanate, prisoners from Russia, Russian diplomats, merchants, and monks stayed there. They were part of the local population for centuries and after the conquest of the Crimea remained there as Russian subjects. The mass settlement of the Russian people began after the annexation of the Crimea to Russia in 1783. The settlers were the military, who received preferences from the state for calling their relatives for permanent residence on the peninsula. Widows and unmarried girls came to create families. An additional impetus was the departure of the Crimean Tatars to the territory of modern Turkey and the liberation of fertile lands for the start of a new life for the settlers. The migration of Russians to Crimea continued throughout the 19th century. The favorable climate and nature of the southern coast attracted many tourists for treatment and recreation. It was at this time that magnificent palaces began to appear for reigning and influential persons, which today act as attractions and places of pilgrimage for vacationers. The result of these processes was the predominance of the Russian ethnos in the Crimea at the beginning of the last century.

Ukrainians

After the revolutions and wars in Russia in the 1920s and 1930s, Ukrainians began to move to Crimea. The mass resettlement of Little Russians began after the annexation of the Crimea to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954. Fulfilling the government's plans, settlers from the western regions of Ukraine, officials and employees flocked to the collective farms of the Crimean region.

Crimean Tatars

Crimean Tatars are the third largest ethnic group on the Crimean peninsula. This is a people of complex and dramatic destiny, an ethno-cocktail from a mixture of different peoples, formed over several centuries. The emergence of a special Turkic ethnic group was facilitated by living in a separate area, the predominance of Islam and a common language. Initially, the Tatars lived in the steppe Crimea, but the spread of Islam expanded their zone of influence. They were joined by residents of the mountainous regions and the southern coast, who adopted a new religion. The annexation of Crimea to Russia facilitated the outflow of indigenous people from the peninsula, and the resettlement of Slavic peoples reduced the share of Tatars in the population. Another dramatic exodus of the Crimean Tatars happened during their deportation from Crimea in 1944. But at the end of the twentieth century, the reverse process of the Tatars returning to their historical land began, and in recent years there has been a steady increase in the number of this ethnic group. The main population density of the Crimean Tatars is in the countryside in the steppe part of the peninsula.

Other peoples

In addition to these three large peoples, there are still a large number of medium and small ethnic groups living on the territory of Crimea, whose roots have firmly grown together with the Crimean land. These are Crimean Greeks, Crimean Armenians, Jews, Karaites and Krymchaks, Gypsies, Azerbaijanis, Moldovans, Poles, Germans, Bulgarians. Crimea is a multinational, multilingual and professing many religions peninsula, so small in area and so big in warmth and friendship.

Ancient peoples of Crimea

During the Jurassic period of the Earth, when there was no man yet, the northern edge of the land was located in the place of the mountainous Crimea. Where the Crimean and southern Ukrainian steppes are now spread, a huge sea was overflowing. The appearance of the Earth gradually changed. The bottom of the sea rose, and where there were depths of the sea, islands appeared, continents advanced. In other places of the island, the continents sank, and their place was occupied by the endless surface of the sea. Huge cracks split the continental blocks, reached the molten bowels of the Earth, and giant lava flows poured out to the surface. Piles of ash, many meters thick, were deposited in the coastal strip of the sea ... The history of the Crimea has similar stages.

Crimea in the context

In the place where the coastline now stretches from Feodosia to Balaklava, at one time there was a huge crack. Everything that was located to the south of it sank to the bottom of the sea, what was to the north rose. Where the depths of the sea were, a low coast appeared, where there was a coastal strip - mountains grew. And from the crack itself, huge pillars of fire erupted into streams of molten rocks.

The history of the formation of the relief of Crimea continued when the volcanic eruptions ended, earthquakes subsided and plants appeared on the land that emerged from the depths. If you look closely, for example, at the rocks of the Kara-Dag, you will notice that this mountain range is riddled with cracks, some of which are rare minerals.

Over the years, the Black Sea chipped off coastal rocks and threw their fragments onto the shore, and today on the beaches we walk along smooth pebbles, we find green and pink jasper, translucent chalcedony, brown pebbles with calcite interlayers, snow-white quartz and quartzite fragments. Sometimes you can also find stones that were previously molten lava, they are brown in color, as if filled with bubbles - voids or interspersed with milky white quartz.

So today each of us can independently plunge into this distant historical past of Crimea and even touch its stone and mineral witnesses.

Prehistoric period

Paleolithic

The oldest traces of hominid habitation on the territory of the Crimea belong to the Middle Paleolithic - this is the site of the Neanderthals in the Kiik-Koba cave.

Mesolithic

According to the Ryan-Pitman hypothesis, up to 6 thousand BC. the territory of Crimea was not a peninsula, but was a fragment of a larger land mass, including, in particular, the territory of the modern Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov. About 5500 thousand BC, as a result of the breakthrough of waters from the Mediterranean Sea and the formation of the Bosporus Strait, significant territories were flooded in a rather short period, and the Crimean peninsula was formed.

Neolithic and Eneolithic

In 4-3 thousand BC. through the territories north of the Crimea, migrations to the west of tribes took place, presumably speakers of Indo-European languages. In the 3rd millennium BC. the Kemi-Obinsk culture existed on the territory of the Crimea.

Nomadic peoples of the Northern Black Sea region of the 1st millennium BC

At the end of the 2nd millennium BC. the Cimmerian tribe emerged from the Indo-European community. This is the first nation that lived on the territory of Ukraine, which is mentioned in written sources - Homer's "Odyssey". The greatest and most reliably told about the Cimmerians was the Greek historian of the 5th century. BC. Herodotus.

monument to Herodotus in Halicarnassus

We also find references to them in Assyrian sources. The Assyrian name "kimmirai" means "giants". According to another version from the ancient Iranian - "mobile equestrian detachment".

Cimmerian

There are three versions of the origin of the Cimmerians. The first is the ancient Iranian people who came to the land of Ukraine through the Caucasus. Second, the Cimmerians appeared as a result of the gradual historical development of the pre-Iranian steppe culture, and their ancestral home was the Lower Volga region. The third - the Cimmerians were the local population.

Archaeologists find material monuments of the Cimmerians in the Northern Black Sea region, in the Northern Caucasus, in the Volga region, on the lower reaches of the Dniester and Danube. The Cimmerians were Iranian speaking.

The early Cimmerians were sedentary. Later, due to the onset of the arid climate, they became a nomadic people and bred mainly horses, which they learned to ride.

The tribes of the Cimmerians united in large alliances of tribes, which were headed by the king-leader.

They had a large army. It consisted of mobile units of horsemen, armed with steel and iron swords and daggers, bows and arrows, war hammers and maces. The Cimmerians fought with the kings of Lydia, Urartu and Assyria.

Cimmerian Warriors

The settlements of the Cimmerians were temporary, mainly camps, winterers. But they had their own smithies and blacksmiths who made iron and steel swords and daggers, the best at that time in the Ancient World. They themselves did not extract metal; they used iron mined by forest-steppe or Caucasian tribes. Their craftsmen made horse bits, arrowheads, ornaments. They had a high level of development of ceramic production. Glazed goblets decorated with geometric patterns were especially good.

The Cimmerians knew how to perfectly work bones. They had very beautiful jewelry made of semi-precious stones. Preserved to this day are stone gravestones made by the Cimmerians with images of people.

The Cimmerians lived in patriarchal clans, which consisted of families. Gradually, they have a military nobility. Predatory wars contributed to this to a large extent. Their main goal was to plunder neighboring tribes and peoples.

Religious beliefs of the Cimmerians are known from burial materials. Noble people were buried in large mounds. There were male and female burials. Daggers, bridles, a set of arrowheads, stone bars, sacrificial food, and a horse were placed in men's burials. Gold and bronze rings, glass and gold necklaces, and earthenware were placed in women's burials.

Archaeological finds show that the Cimmerians had connections with the tribes of the Azov Sea, Western Siberia and the Caucasus. Among the works of art were found women's ornaments, decorated weapons, stone steles without a head, but with a carefully reflected dagger and a quiver with arrows.

Along with the Cimmerians, the central part of the Ukrainian forest-steppe was occupied by the descendants of the Belohrudov culture of the Bronze Age, carriers of the Chornolis culture, who are considered the ancestors of the Eastern Slavs. The main source for studying the life of the Chornolis is the settlements. Found both ordinary settlements with 6-10 dwellings and fortified settlements. A line of 12 settlements, built on the border with the steppe, defended the Chornolistsi from the attacks of the nomids. They were located in areas closed by nature. The hillfort was surrounded by a rampart, on which a wall of wooden log cabins and a moat was built. The Chornolis settlement, the southern outpost of the defense, was defended by three lines of ramparts and ditches. During attacks, residents of neighboring settlements found protection outside their walls.

The basis of the Chornolisciv economy was plowed agriculture and household cattle breeding.

The metalworking craft has reached an extraordinary level of development. Iron was used primarily in the manufacture of weapons. The largest sword in Europe of that time with a steel blade with a total length of 108 cm was found at the Subbotov settlement.

The need to constantly combat the attacks of the Cimmerians forced the Chornolis to create foot troops and cavalry. Many parts of a horse harness and even a skeleton of a horse laid next to the deceased were found in the burials. The finds of archaeologists showed the existence of the Cimmerian day in the Forest-Steppe of a rather powerful association of Proto-Slavs-farmers, which for a long time resisted the threat from the Steppe.

The life and development of the Cimmerian tribes were interrupted at the beginning of the 7th century. BC. the invasion of the Scythian tribes, which is associated with the next stage of the ancient history of Ukraine.

2. Brands

Almost simultaneously with the Cimmerians in the southern part of Crimea, the indigenous population lived - the Taurus (from the Greek word "Tavros" - tour). The name of the Crimean peninsula - Taurida, introduced by the tsarist government after the annexation of Crimea to Russia in 1783, comes from the Taurus. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus in his book "History" said that the Taurus on the mountain plateaus were engaged in cattle breeding, in the river valleys - in agriculture, and on the Black Sea coast - in fishing ... They were also engaged in crafts - they were skillful potters, they knew how to spin, process stone, wood, bones, horns, and also metals.

From the second half of the 1st millennium BC. In the Taurians, like in other tribes, property inequality appeared, a clan aristocracy was formed. The Taurus built fortifications around their settlements. Together with the neighbors - the Scythians, they fought against the Greek city-state of Chersonesos, which seized their lands.

modern ruins of Chersonesos

The further fate of the Taurus was tragic: at first - in the II century. BC. - They were conquered by the Pontic king Mithridates VI Eupator, and in the second half of the 1st century. BC. captured by Roman troops.

In the Middle Ages, the Taurus were exterminated or assimilated by the Tatars who conquered the Crimea. The original culture of the Taurus was lost.

Great Scythia. Ancient city-states in the Northern Black Sea region

3.Scythians

Since the VII century. by the III century. BC. the tribes of the Scythians, who came from the depths of Asia and invaded the Northern Black Sea region, caught up with the horror of the tribes and states of Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

The Scythians conquered a vast territory at that time between the Don, Danube and Dnieper, part of the Crimea (the territory of modern South and South-Eastern Ukraine), forming the state of Scythia there. Herodotus left a more detailed description and description of the life and life of the Scythians.

In the V century. BC. he personally visited Scythia and described it. The Scythians were descendants of Indo-European tribes. They had their own mythology, rituals, worshiped gods and mountains, brought them a blood sacrifice.

Herodotus singled out the following groups among the Scythians: the royal Scythians, who lived in the lower reaches of the Dnieper and Don and were considered the top of the union of tribes; Scythians-Pahari, who lived between the Dnieper and Dniester (historians believe that these were the descendants of the Chornolis culture who were defeated by the Scythians); Scythians-farmers who lived in the forest-steppe zone, and Scythians-nomads who settled in the steppes of the Black Sea region. Among the tribes named by Herodotus the Scythians proper were the tribes of the royal Scythians and the Scythian nomads. They ruled over all other tribes.

The outfit of the Scythian king and military leader

At the end of the VI century. BC. in the Black Sea steppes, a powerful state union headed by the Scythians is formed - Great Scythia, which included the local population of the steppe and forest-steppe regions (chipped). Great Scythia, according to Herodotus, was divided into three kingdoms; one of them was headed by the chief king, and the other two were the younger kings (probably the sons of the chief).

The Scythian state was the first political union in the south of Eastern Europe in the early Iron Age (the center of Scythia in the 5th-3rd centuries BC was the Kamenskoye settlement near Nikopol). Scythia was divided into districts (nomes), which were ruled by leaders appointed by the Scythian kings.

Scythia reached its highest rise in the IV century. BC. It is associated with the name of King Atey. The power of Athea spread over vast territories from the Danube to the Don. This king minted his own coin. The power of Scythia did not shake even after the defeat from the Macedonian king Philip II (father of Alexander the Great).

Philip II on the march

The state of the Scythians remained powerful and after the death of 90-year-old Atey in 339 BC. However, on the border of the IV-III centuries. BC. Scythia is in decline. At the end of the III century. BC. Great Scythia ceases to exist under the onslaught of the Sarmatians. Part of the Scythian population moved south and created two Lesser Scythia. One, which was called the Scythian kingdom (III century BC - III century AD) with the Scythian capital in Naples in Crimea, the other in the lower reaches of the Dnieper.

Scythian society consisted of three main layers: warriors, priests, ordinary community members (farmers and cattle breeders. Each of the layers traced its origin from one of the sons of the ancestor and had its own sacred attribute. For warriors it was an ax, for priests - a bowl, for community members - plow with whitefish Herodotus says that the Scythians were especially honored by seven gods, who were considered the progenitors of people and creators of everything on Earth.

Written sources and archaeological materials indicate that the basis of Scythian production was cattle breeding, since it provided almost everything necessary for life - horses, meat, milk, wool and felt for clothing. The agricultural population of Scythia grew wheat, millet, hemp, etc., and they sowed bread not only for themselves, but also for sale. Farmers lived in settlements (settlements), which were located on the banks of rivers and were fortified by ditches and ramparts.

The decline and then the collapse of Scythia were caused by a number of factors: worsening climatic conditions, drying up of the steppes, the decline of the economic resources of the forest-steppe, etc. In addition, in the III-I centuries. BC. a significant part of Scythia was conquered by the Sarmatians.

Modern researchers believe that the first sprouts of statehood on the territory of Ukraine appeared precisely in Scythian times. The Scythians have created a distinctive culture. The so-called dominated art. "Animal" style.

The monuments of the Scythian era are well known: the Solokha and Gaimanova Graves in Zaporozhye, Tolstaya Mogila and Chertomlyk in the Dnepropetrovsk region, Kul-Oba, etc. Found royal jewelry (golden pectoral), weapons, etc.

FROM kythian gold pectoral and scabbard from Tolstoy Tomb

Silver amphora. Kurgan Chertomlyk

Chairman of Dionysus.

Kurgan Chertomlyk

Golden scallop. Mound of Solokha

Interesting to know

Herodotus described the burial rite of the Scythian king: Before burying their king of the sacred territory - Gerra (Dnieper region, at the level of the Dnieper rapids), the Scythians drove his embalmed body to all the Scythian tribes, where they performed a rite of memory over him. In Guerra, the body was buried in a spacious tomb along with his wife, closest servants, horses, etc. The king was given gold things, precious jewelry. Huge mounds were poured over the tombs - The more noble the king, the higher the mound. This testifies to the property stratification among the Scythians.

4. War of the Scythians with the Persian king Darius I

The Scythians were a warlike people. They actively intervened in conflicts between the states of Southwest Asia (the struggle of the Scythians with the Persian king Darius, etc.).

Around 514-512 BC. The Persian king Darius I decided to conquer the Scythians. Gathering a huge army, he crossed the floating bridge over the Danube and moved deep into the Great Scythia. The army of Daria I, according to Herodotus, numbered 700 thousand soldiers, however, as they say, this figure is several times exaggerated. The Scythian army probably numbered about 150 thousand soldiers. According to the plan of the Scythian generals, their army avoided an open battle with the Persians and, gradually leaving, lured the enemy into the interior of the country, destroying wells and pastures on its way. At present, the Scythians planned to gather forces and defeat the weakened Persians. This "Scythian tactic", as it was called later, turned out to be successful.

in Darius's camp

Darius built a camp on the shores of the Azov Sea. Overcoming great distances, the Persian army tried in vain to find the enemy. When the Scythians decided that the forces of the Persians were undermined, they began to act decisively. On the eve of the decisive battle, the Scythians sent strange gifts to the king of the Persians: a bird, a mouse, a frog and five arrows. His advisor interpreted the content of the "Scythian gift" to Darius as follows: "If, Persians, you do not become birds and do not fly high into the sky, or mice and do not hide in the ground, or frogs and do not jump into the swamps, then you will not return to yourself, those arrows will lose you. " It is not known what Darius I was thinking, Despite these gifts and the Scythians who were building troops into battle. However, at night, leaving the wounded in the camp who could support the fires, he fled with the remnants of his army.

Skopasis

The king of the Savromats, who lived in the VI century BC. e., mentions in his books the father of history Herodotus. Uniting the Scythian armies, Scopasis defeated the Persian troops under the command of Darius I, who had come to the northern shores of Meotida. Herodotus writes that it was Scopasis who regularly forced Darius to retreat to Tanais and did not allow him to invade Great Scythia.

So the attempt of one of the most powerful owners of the then world to conquer Great Scythia ended shamefully. Thanks to the victory over the Persian army, which was then considered the most powerful, the Scythians won the glory of invincible warriors.

5. Sarmatians

During the III century. BC. - III century. AD in the Northern Black Sea region, the Sarmatians dominated, who came from the Volga-Ural steppes.

Ukrainian lands in the III-I centuries. BC.

We do not know how these tribes called themselves. The Greeks and Romans called them Sarmatians, which translates from ancient Iranian as “girded with a sword.” Herodotus argued that the ancestors of the Sarmatians lived to the east of the Scythians beyond the Tanais (Don) river. He also told the legend that the Sarmatians trace their ancestry to the Amazons, who were taken by the Scythian youths. However, they could not master the language of men well and therefore the Sarmatians speak a spoiled Scythian language. Part of the truth in the statements of the "father of history" are: the Sarmatians, like the Scythians, belonged to the Iranian-speaking group of peoples, and women had a very high status among them.

The settlement of the Black Sea steppes by the Sarmatians was not peaceful. They exterminated the remnants of the Scythian population and turned most of their country into a desert. Subsequently, on the territory of Sarmatia, as the Romans called these lands, several Sarmatian tribal associations appeared - Aors, Siraks, Roksolans, Yazygs, Alans.

Having settled in the Ukrainian steppes, the Sarmatians began to attack the neighboring Roman provinces, ancient city-states and settlements of glorious farmers, Lviv, Zarubinets culture, forest-steppe. Numerous finds of Sarmatian arrowheads during excavations of the ramparts of the Zarubinets settlements became evidence of attacks on the Pre-Slavs.

Sarmatian horseman

The Sarmatians were nomadic herders. They received the necessary agricultural products and handicrafts from their settled neighbors by means of exchange, tribute and ordinary robbery. The basis of such relations was the military advantage of the nomads.

Wars for pastures and prey were of great importance in the life of the Sarmatians.

Sarmatian warrior outfit

No Sarmatian settlement has been found by archaeologists. The only monuments that they left are the burial mounds. There are many female burials among the excavated mounds. They have found magnificent samples of jewelry made in the "Animal" style. An indispensable accessory for male burials is weapons and equipment for a horse.

Fibula. Nagaychinsky mound. Crimea

At the beginning of our era, the rule of the Sarmatians in the Black Sea region reached its highest point. The sarmatization of the Greek city-states took place, for a long time the Sarmatian dynasty ruled the Bosporus kingdom.

They, like the Scythians, had private ownership of livestock, which was the main wealth and the main means of production. A significant role in the economy of the Sarmatians was played by the labor of slaves, in which they turned prisoners captured during continuous wars. However, the tribal system of the Sarmatians kept quite steadfastly.

The nomadic way of life of the Sarmatians and trade relations with many peoples (China, India, Iran, Egypt) contributed to the spread of various cultural influences among them. Their culture combined elements of the culture of the East, ancient South and West.

From the middle of the III century. AD the Sarmatians are losing their leading position in the Black Sea steppes. At this time, immigrants from Northern Europe - the Goths - appeared here. Together with local tribes, among which were the Alans (one of the Sarmatian communities), the Goths carried out devastating attacks on the cities of the Northern Black Sea region.

Genoese in Crimea

At the beginning of the 13th century, after the knights-crusaders seized Constantinople as a result of the fourth crusade (1202-1204), the Venetians who took an active part in organizing the campaign got the opportunity to freely penetrate into the Black Sea.

storming of Constantinople

Already in the middle of the XIII century. they regularly visited Soldaiya (modern Sudak) and settled in this city. It is known that the uncle of the famous traveler Marco Polo, Maffeo Polo, owned a house in Soldaya.

fortress Sudak

In 1261, Emperor Michael Palaiologos liberates Constantinople from the Crusaders. In this he was assisted by the Republic of Genoa. The Genoese receive a monopoly on navigation in the Black Sea. In the middle of the XIII century. the Genoese defeated the Venetians in a six-year war. This was the beginning of a two-hundred-year stay of the Genoese in the Crimea.

In the 60s of the XIII century, Genoa settled in Kaffa (modern Feodosia), which becomes the largest port and trade center in the Black Sea region.

Feodosia

Gradually the Genoese are expanding their possessions. In 1357 Chembalo (Balaklava) was captured, in 1365 - Sugdeya (Sudak). In the second half of the XIV century. captured the southern coast of Crimea, the so-called. "Captaincy Gotia", which was previously part of the principality of Theodoro - Lupiko (Alupka), Muzahori (Miskhor), Yalita (Yalta), Nikita, Gorzovium (Gurzuf), Partenita, Lusta (Alushta). In total, there were about 40 Italian trading post-colonies in the Crimea, Azov and the Caucasus. The main activity of the Genoese in Crimea is trade, including the slave trade. Cafe in the XIV - XV centuries. was the largest slave market on the Black Sea. More than a thousand slaves were sold annually in the Kafa market, and the permanent slave population of Kafa reached five hundred people.

At the same time, by the middle of the 13th century, a huge Mongol empire was formed, which was formed as a result of the conquest campaigns of Genghis Khan and his descendants. The Mongols' possessions stretched from the Pacific coast to the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region.

Cafe is actively developing at the same time. However, its existence was interrupted in 1308 by the troops of the Golden Horde Khan Tokhta. The Genoese managed to escape by sea, but the city and the pier were burned to the ground. Only after the new Khan Uzbek (1312-1342) reigned in the Golden Horde, the Genoese reappeared on the shores of the Feodosia Gulf. By the beginning of the XV century. a new political situation is taking shape in Tavrika. At this time, the Golden Horde finally weakens and begins to fall apart. The Genoese cease to consider themselves vassals of the Tatars. But their new opponents are the growing strength of the principality of Theodoro, which laid claim to the coastal Gothia and Chembalo, as well as the descendant of Genghis Khan Haji-Girey, who sought to create a Tatar state independent of the Golden Horde in Crimea.

The struggle between Genoa and Theodoro for Gothia lasted with interruptions for almost the entire first half of the 15th century, and the Theodorites were supported by Hadzhi-Girey. The largest military clash between the warring parties took place in 1433-1434.

Haji Giray

On the approaches to Solkhat, the Genoese were unexpectedly attacked by the Tatar cavalry of Haji-Girey and were defeated in a short battle. After the defeat in 1434, the Genoese colonies were forced to pay an annual tribute to the Crimean Khanate, which was headed by Haji-Girey, who vowed to expel the Genoese from their possessions on the peninsula. Soon, the colonies had yet another mortal enemy. In 1453. the Ottoman Turks took possession of Constantinople. The Byzantine Empire finally ceased to exist, and the sea route connecting the Genoese colonies in the Black Sea with the metropolis was taken under control by the Turks. The Genoese Republic was faced with a real threat of losing all of its Black Sea possessions.

The common threat from the Ottoman Turks forced the Genoese to draw closer to their other implacable enemy. In 1471 they entered into an alliance with the ruler Theodoro. But no diplomatic victories could save the colonies from death. On May 31, 1475, a Turkish squadron approached the Cafe. By this time, the anti-Turkish bloc "Crimean Khanate - Genoese colonies - Feodoro" had cracked.

The siege of Kafa lasted from 1 to 6 June. The Genoese capitulated at a time when the means for the defense of their Black Sea capital were not at all exhausted. According to one version, the city authorities believed the promises of the Turks to save their lives and property. One way or another, but the largest Genoese colony went to the Turks surprisingly easily. The new masters of the city took away the property of the Genoese, and they themselves were loaded onto ships and taken to Constantinople.

Soldaya put up more stubborn resistance to the Ottoman Turks than Kafa. And after the besiegers managed to break into the fortress, its defenders locked themselves in the church and died in the fire.