What peoples inhabited Crimea in ancient times. Peoples who inhabited Crimea at different times
In recent years, after the return of the Tatars from deportation, interethnic and interregional relations on the Crimean Peninsula have worsened. The basis of the conflict is a dispute: whose land is this and who is indigenous to Crimea? First, let's define who historical and ethnographic sciences classify as indigenous peoples. The Encyclopedia gives this answer:
An indigenous people is an ethnic group that has mastered a territory that was not inhabited by anyone before.
Now let’s trace the changes in Crimean ethnogenesis (the appearance various peoples), although this will be far from full picture, but nevertheless it is impressive. So, they lived in Crimea at different times.
About 300 thousand years ago– primitive people (Early Paleolithic); tools for labor and hunting were found at sites on the South Coast.
About 100 thousand years ago– primitive people (Middle Paleolithic); more than 20 human sites are known: Kiik-Koba, Staroselye, Chokurcha, Shaitan-Koba, Akkaya, Zaskalnaya, Prolom, Kobazi, Wolf Grotto, etc.; religion - animism.
40-35 thousand years ago– people of the Upper Paleolithic; religion - totemism; 4 sites were found, including Suren I.
12th-10th millennium– people of the Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age); more than 20 sites were found throughout Crimea: Shankoba, Fatmakoba, Alimov canopy, Kachinsky canopy, etc.; religion - totemism.
8th millennium– Neolithic (New Stone Age) people; Kemi-Oba culture (Tashair); religion - totemism.
5th millennium(Bronze Age) – the arrival of the tribes of the “Catacomb” and “Srubnaya” cultures to the Crimea (burials in mounds).
Existence different cultures did not pass without a trace for them - they undoubtedly influenced each other, changed and enriched, and perhaps merged, giving rise to new cultures. Perhaps this was the beginning of the culture of the Cimmerians (alien tribes) and the culture of the Taurians (local tribes):
3rd millennium BC(Iron Age) – Cimmeria, Cimmerians – warlike people, Indo-Aryans are people of the European type; their distribution area: the south of modern Russia, Ukraine, the North Caucasus, Crimea; religion – polytheism. They lived in the valleys. Most likely, they brought the ability to mine and process iron to Crimea.
X century BC- Tavria, Tavrika, Taurida, Taurians (they can only be called a single people with a certain stretch; rather, they are a conglomerate of various tribes: Arichs, Napei, Sinkhs, etc.) They lived in the mountains, were engaged in agriculture, cattle breeding, hunting, fishing; their burials have been preserved - dolmens and fortifications: Uch-Bash, on Cape Kharaks, on Mount Castel Seraus, Koshka, Karaul-oba, on the rocks of the Kachin Gate, Ai-Yori and in the Karalez Valley; religion - the cult of the Virgin and other gods.
These tribes were united by one name by the Greeks, who were already visiting the Crimean shores in those days. It is not clear why they called them that: either because of their ferocious disposition, or because of their countless herds (“tauros” is a bull from Greek), or this word meant “highlanders” (taurus-tur-mountain)…
VII-VI centuries BC- Greeks. Chersonese Tauride, Cimmerian Bosporus on the shores of the Pontus Euxine (Black Sea) and Maeotis ( Sea of Azov). The Greeks founded these two states, as well as hundreds of settlements along the coast; religion - polytheism, Pantheon of Olympian gods led by Zeus (Cronos); from the 1st century AD – gradual Christianization; The Greeks were the first in Crimea to begin trading local slaves “for export” (how, by the way, could the Tauri, and then the Scythians, treat them, because they didn’t even consider them people?)
VIII-VII centuries BC– Scythia, Scythians (Skolot), Sindians, Meotians, Sakas, Massagetae and other Indo-Iranian nomadic tribes, which practically displaced the Cimmerians from the Crimean expanses and gradually became settled in vast territories (the capital of Scythia was near modern Nikopol, and the second - in the Crimea (Simferopol) – Scythian Naples, built in the 3rd century BC) Religion – polytheism. Pantheon of gods led by Popeye.
The eternal and irresistible process of mutual influence and mixing of peoples led to the fact that in the first centuries of our era the Tauri were no longer separated from the Scythians, but were called Tauro-Scythians, and some of the Scythian settlements mixed with the Greek ones (for example, the Tatars already in the 13th century found a poor Greek village, which was named Kermenchuk). But let's continue the list.
2nd century BC Sarmatia. The Sarmatians pushed the related-speaking Scythians out of the Northern Black Sea region and the Azov region into the Crimea; religion - polytheism.
1st century BC – Jewish Diaspora- Semites. Religion – monotheism (god Yahweh); gravestones with seven-branched candlesticks and inscriptions in Hebrew were discovered on the Kerch and Taman peninsulas.
I century BC - I century AD– Pontic people (Pontic Bosporus); settled on the site of the Bosporan Cimmerian kingdom led by Mithridates VI Eupator (Kerch); religion - polytheism. Together with the Pontic people, Armenians appeared on the peninsula.
1st century BC – III century AD– the Romans and Thracians, after the defeat of the Pontic Kingdom, captured Crimea (now this is the easternmost outskirts of the Roman Empire); religion - polytheism, and from 325. – Christianity; The Romans introduced local residents to their culture and introduced them to the virtues of Roman law.
Until the 4th century AD – East Slavs: Antes, Tivertsy (Artania) - known since ancient times in the Northern Black Sea region; pushed to the north during the Great Migration of Peoples, partially preserved in Taman - the future Tmutarakan; religion - polytheism.
III century AD– Germanic tribes: Goths and Heruli (Gothia, Captaincy of Gothia); came from the Baltic states, destroyed Scythia and created their own state of Gothia on the southern coast of Crimea. Later, they left the Huns to the west, some returned in the 7th century. The Goths were the impetus for the unification of the Slavs; religion - polytheism, and later - Christianity.
III century AD– Alans-Yas, related to the Sarmatians (distant ancestors of the Ossetians); together with the Sarmatians they settled among the Scythians; best known in Crimea for their settlement of Kyrk-Ork (until the 14th century, then Chufut-Kale), when they were pushed into the mountains by the Huns; religion – Christianity.
IV century– Huns, Xiongnu (Hun Principality) – the ancestors of today’s Tuvans; invaded from the Trans-Altai region, dealt a powerful blow to the Goths, drove away a significant part of the population, thereby marking the beginning of the Great Migration of Peoples; religion - paganism, later - Christianity.
IV century– Byzantium (East Roman Empire), Kherson theme; after the collapse of the Roman Empire, Taurica, as it were, was “inherited” by Byzantium; strongholds in Crimea - Kherson, Bosporus (Kerch), Gurzuvits (Gurzuf), Aluston (Alushta), etc. In 325. accept Christianity.
VI century– the Turks (Mongoloid Turkets) raided to the Crimea from Siberia, having established their Ashin dynasty in Khazaria (the lower reaches of the Volga and Terek), but did not gain a foothold on the peninsula; pagans.
VI century- Avars (obry) - created the Avar Kaganate in Transnistria, also raided the Crimea until they were defeated by the Bulgars; pagans.
7th century– Bulgars (Bulgarians). Some of them settled in the Crimea, becoming settled from nomadic, settling in foothill valleys and engaging in agriculture (in general, the Volga Bulgar-Turks moved to the West; another wave of them went north, creating the Kazan Khanate; in the Balkans they assimilated with the southern Slavs, founding Bulgaria and adopting Christianity ); pagans, and from the 9th century. - Orthodox Christians.
7th century– Greekized superethnos (Gothia, Doros) – formed the Greek-speaking basis of the population of the Mangup principality (Dori); Byzantium is strengthening, uniting multilingual peoples who lived in the mountainous Crimea and along the South Coast; religion – Christianity, as well as other religions.
VIII-X centuries– Khazar Khaganate, Khazars (Turkic-speaking peoples of the Dagestan type); religion is paganism, later some converted to Islam, some to Judaism, and some to Christianity. Power in the Kaganate is first seized by the Turkets-Ashins, then by the Jews; Judean Khazaria captures part of the steppe and coastal Crimea, competes with Byzantium, and seeks to subjugate Rus' (destroyed by Prince Svyatoslav in 965).
VIII-X centuries– Karaites; came to Khazaria from Israel through Persia and the Caucasus; crossed with the Khazars; forced out by Rokhdanite Jews to the outskirts of Khazaria, including the Crimea; language – Kynchak dialect Turkic language, close to Crimean Tatar; religion – Judaism (only the Pentateuch – Torah is recognized).
VII-I centuries– Krymchaks (Crimean Jews) – remained in Crimea and Taman as fragments of the defeated Khazar Kaganate (known as residents of the Tmutarakan principality and Kievan Rus); the language is close to Karaite; religion – Orthodox Judaism-Rabbinism.
Late 9th – early 19th centuries.– Pechenegs-Bejans (Turkmens) – Turks from the Baraba steppes; defeated by the Polovtsians and Guzes; some dispersed to the Crimea, some to the Lower Dnieper region (Karakalpaks); were assimilated by the Eastern Slavs; religion – paganism.
X-XI centuries– Guz-Oghuz (Turkmen) – Turkic people. Leader - Oguz Khan; ousted the Pechenegs from the Crimea and the Northern Black Sea region, and then, together with the Pechenegs, opposed the Russes (Rugs), Slavs and Polovtsians; religion - paganism.
X-XIII centuries- Eastern Slavs (Tmutarakan Principality as part of Kievan Rus). This is the principality (Taman and Korchev-Kerch), founded by Prince Vladimir in 988, in 1222. together with the Polovtsians, they fought off the Turks; at the Battle of Kalka in 1223. Ataman Tmutarakan Plaskinya took the side of the Mongol-Tatars; religion – Christianity.
XI century– Polovtsians (Kypchaks, Cumans, Komans). They created the state of Odzhaklar in the Black Sea region and Crimea with its capital Sarkel (on the Don). They alternately fight with Russia and make alliances; together with four Russian princes Mstislav and Khan Katyan, they were defeated on the Kalka River in 1223; some went to Hungary and Egypt (Mamluks), the rest were assimilated by the Tatars, Slavs, Hungarians, Greeks, etc. Religion - paganism.
XI century– perhaps Armenians were settling in Crimea at this time (their homeland was being tormented by the Persians and Seljuk Turks). Mountain Taurica east of present-day Belogorsk has for some time been called Primorsky Armenia; in a wooded tract there emerges the Armenian monastery of Surb-Khach (holy cross), known even outside the Crimea; Belogorsk itself is a large and rich city - Solkhat (it is inhabited by Kipchaks, Alans and Rus, as well as Soldaya, Surozh (Sudak).
Ancient authors have many reports about the dews (Rus) who lived from the first centuries of our era in the Northern Azov region, the Black Sea region and in the Crimea. In Byzantine documents it was stated: “ Scythians, who are Russians" In the 9th century. The Black Sea was called the Russian Sea by the Arabs (previously it was the Rum Sea - “Byzantine”). In the 9th century. The enlightener Kirill saw books “written in Russian characters” in Taurica. The word "ros" means "light, white." The Tarkhankut Peninsula was designated as the “white coast”, and the Dews lived there. The Arabs called the Rus Slavs, the Greeks called Scythians, and the Cimmerian Bosporus was considered their homeland. There is a version that the Novgorod prince Bravlin, who went to the Greek settlements, was a local Tauro-Scythian leader, and the “Russian new city” is most likely Scythian Naples. In the 11th century. The Kerch Strait is called the Russian River, and on its Crimean shore, opposite Tmutarakan, stands the city of Rosia - the White City (Kerch?). The Russian merchant Afanasy Nikitin in 1474, when returning from “Overseas”, visited Crimea, where he saw many Russians and people in general Orthodox faith, as well as baptized Tatars (which he wrote about in his diaries).
XII-XV centuries- Venetians, Genoese, Pisans founded trading posts in Crimea: Kafa, Soldaya, Vosporo, Chembalo. They appeared in Crimea back in Byzantine times and participated in the Battle of Kulikovo in Mamai’s army. In 1475 Kafa (modern Feodosia) fell under the attacks of the Turks and Tatars. Religion – Catholicism.
XII-XV centuries– in Crimea, the multi-ethnic Mangup principality of Theodoro emerges, having connections with Constantinople, Europe, Moscow and numbering 200 thousand. people population ( most of- Greeks). It extended from Balaklava to Alushta, located in the mountainous Crimea; defeated by the Turks and Tatars in 1475. After 300 years, only 30 thousand remained in Crimea. Greeks, half of them Urums (Tatarized). In 1778, the Greeks left for the Azov region (Mariupol).
Beginning of the 13th century.– Crimea is inhabited by Tatars – Ulus of the Golden Horde. The capital becomes Eski-Crimea - Old Crimea (formerly Solkhat). The Transbaikalian tribes of the Tatars and Mongols, led by Genghis Khan, captured the Yenisei and Ob Kirghiz and conquered the peoples of Central Asia. At the beginning of the 13th century. Genghis Khan moved west towards the Kipchaks and Kievan Rus. In Crimea - since 1239; pagans, and from the 14th century - Sunni Muslims.
Crimean Khanate (Tatars) - from 1428. the capital moved from Solkhat to Bakhchisarai; formed after the collapse of the Golden Horde. Since 1475 to 1774 this state is a vassal of the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire; liquidated in 1783 Religion – Islam.
XIII century– Gypsies – known in Crimea since the time of the Crimean Khanate. They may have first appeared in Khazar times; religion - paganism, and then partly Christianity, partly Islam.
XV century – 1475-1774– Turks, Ottoman Empire(the first attempt to establish itself in Crimea was in 1222) The Turks capture Kafa, Sudak, the cave cities of Mangup and Chufut-Kale, and the Sultan becomes the religious head of the Crimean Tatars. Religion – Islam.
XVIII - XX centuries.– Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Bulgarians, Germans, Czechs, Estonians, Moldovans, Kara Greeks, Wallachians, Georgians, Azerbaijanis, Kazan and Siberian Tatars, Koreans, Hungarians, Italians, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, etc.
After the annexation of Crimea to Russia in 1783. Turks and most of the Tatars go to Turkey, and the settlement of Crimea and the Novorossiysk region by Slavic and other peoples (including from abroad) begins. Religion – various religions and denominations.
Afterword
The article uses data from the article “Indigenous and local” (newspaper “Krymskaya Pravda” dated January 27, 2004), written by the candidate historical sciences, Honored Education Worker of Crimea, member of the Writers' Union Vasily Potekhin, who states:
None of the peoples currently living in Crimea are aboriginal - autochthonous, that is, indigenous. The principle of our peaceful multi-ethnic existence today is reflected on the coat of arms of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in the form of the motto: “Prosperity in unity.” Nationalism inevitably leads to national fascism. Crimea was, is and will be a historical testing ground for the creation of multinational Eurasian culture.
Culture will save the world.
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Our Motherland - Crimea
...There is no other country within Russia that has lived such a long and such an intense historical life, participating in the Hellenic Mediterranean culture in all centuries of its existence...
M. A. Voloshin
The Crimean peninsula is "the natural pearl of Europe" - due to its
geographical location and unique natural conditions since ancient times
was the crossroads of many sea transit roads connecting various
states, tribes and peoples. The most famous "Great Silk Road"
passed through the Crimean peninsula and connected the Roman and Chinese empires.
Later, it connected together all the uluses of the Mongol-Tatar Empire
and played significant role in the political and economic life of peoples,
inhabited Europe, Asia and China.
Science claims that approximately 250 thousand years ago in the territory Crimean peninsula man appeared for the first time. And from that time, in different historical eras, various tribes and peoples lived on our peninsula, replacing each other, and state formations of different structures existed.
Many of us have had to deal with the names “Tavrika”, “Tavrida”, which were and continue to be used in relation to Crimea. The appearance of these geographical names has a direct relation to the people, who can rightfully be considered Crimean aborigines, since their entire history from beginning to end is inextricably linked with the peninsula.
The ancient Greek word "tauros" translates as "bulls". On this basis, it was concluded that the Greeks named the local residents this way because they had a cult of the bull. It was suggested that the Crimean highlanders called themselves some unknown word, consonant with Greek word"bulls". The Greeks called the mountain system in Asia Minor Taurus. Having mastered the Crimea, the Hellenes, by analogy with Asia Minor, called it Taurus and Crimean mountains. The people who lived in them (Taurs), as well as the peninsula (Tavrika) on which they were located, got their name from the mountains.
Ancient sources brought to us scant information about the ancient inhabitants of Crimea - the Cimmerians, Taurians, Scythians, Sarmatians. Ancient authors call the Tauris the main population of Crimea, especially the mountainous part. The most ancient people recorded in writing in the Crimea and the Black Sea steppes were the Cimmerians; they lived here at the turn of the 2nd-1st millennia BC, and some scientists consider the Tauri to be their direct descendants. Around VII-VI centuries. BC. the Cimmerians were supplanted by the Scythians, then the Scythians were supplanted by the Sarmatians, while the remnants of first the Cimmerian, then the Taurus and Scythian tribes, as researchers think, retreat to the mountains, where they preserve their ethnocultural identity for a long time. Around 722 BC e. The Scythians were expelled from Asia and founded new capital, Scythian Naples, in Crimea on the Salgir River (within the boundaries of modern Simferopol). The "Scythian" period is characterized by qualitative changes in the composition of the population itself. Archaeological data show that after this the basis of the population of northwestern Crimea were peoples who came from the Dnieper region. In the VI – V centuries BC. e., when the Scythians ruled the steppes, the Greeks founded their trading colonies on the coast of Crimea.
The settlement of the Black Sea region by the Greeks occurred gradually. Mostly the sea coast was populated, and in some places the density of small settlements was quite high. Sometimes settlements were in direct line of sight from one another. Ancient cities and settlements were concentrated in the region of the Cimmerian Bosporus (Kerch Peninsula) with the largest cities of Panticapaeum (Kerch) and Feodosia; near Western Crimea- with the main center Chersonesos (Sevastopol).
During the Middle Ages, a small Turkic people appeared in Taurica - the Karaites. Self-name: Karai (one Karaite) and Karailar (Karaites). Thus, instead of the ethnonym “Karaim” it is more correct to say “Karai”. Big interest They are caused by material and spiritual culture, language, life and customs.
Analyzing the available anthropological, linguistic and other data, a significant part of scientists see the Karaites as descendants of the Khazars. This people settled mainly in the foothills and mountainous Taurica. The settlement of Chufut-Kale was a kind of center.
With the penetration of the Mongol-Tatars into Taurica, a number of changes occurred. First of all, this concerned the ethnic composition of the population, which underwent great changes. Along with the Greeks, Russians, Alans, and Cumans, Tatars appeared on the peninsula in the middle of the 13th century, and Turks in the 15th century. In the 13th century, the mass migration of Armenians began. At the same time, Italians are actively flocking to the peninsula.
988, the Kiev prince Vladimir and his squad adopted Christianity in Chersonesos. On the territory of the Kerch and Taman peninsulas the Tmutarakan principality was formed with prince of Kyiv at the head, which existed until the 11th - 12th centuries. After the fall of the Khazar Kaganate and the weakening of the confrontation between Kievan Rus and Byzantium, the campaigns of Russian squads in Crimea ceased, but trade and cultural ties between Taurica and Kievan Rus continued to exist.
The first Russian communities began to appear in Sudak, Feodosia and Kerch in the Middle Ages. These were merchants and artisans. The massive resettlement of serfs from central Russia began in 1783 after the annexation of Crimea to the empire. Disabled soldiers and Cossacks received land for free settlement. Construction railway at the end of the 19th century and the development of industry also caused an influx of Russian population.
Now in Crimea live representatives of more than 125 nations and nationalities, the main part are Russians (more than half), then Ukrainians, Crimean Tatars (their number and share in the population is growing rapidly), a significant proportion of Belarusians, Jews, Armenians, Greeks, Germans, Bulgarians , Gypsies, Poles, Czechs, Italians. The small peoples of Crimea - the Karaites and Krymchaks - are small in number, but still noticeable in culture.
The centuries-old experience of nationalities leads to the conclusion:
Let's live in peace!
Anatoly Matyushin
I won't reveal any secrets,
There is no ideal society
If only the world consisted of aesthetes,
Maybe there would be an answer.
Why is the world so restless,
A lot of anger and all kinds of enmity,
We are neighbors in a huge apartment,
We shouldn't end up in trouble.
Taking up arms is not the point,
Grieving for all the oppressed,
Don't try to change others,
Maybe just improve yourself?
In order to improve something,
I would like to convince people
The world would be a little better,
We all just need to be friends together!!
Sites discovered by archaeologists on the Crimean Peninsula primitive people(Kiik-Koba, Staroselye, Chokurcha, Volchiy Grotto) indicate human settlement of the region already in the Stone Age.
The most ancient population of the Black Sea region and Crimea consisted of those who lived here at the turn of the 2nd-1st millennium BC. e. semi-sedentary and nomadic tribes known as common name Cimmerians. The memory of them was preserved in local toponyms mentioned in ancient Greek sources: Cimmerian Bosporus, Cimmeric, Cimmerium. The Cimmerians apparently inhabited all the Black Sea steppes, but in the Eastern Crimea, as well as on the Taman Peninsula, they lived longer.
In the 7th century BC e. The Cimmerians acted in alliance with the Scythians. There is information about a defeat in 652 BC. the Lydian capital Sardis by the Cimmerians and Scythians. The Cimmerian culture discovered by archaeologists is close to the Scythian and dates back to the end of the Bronze Age. This is evidenced by excavations on the Kerch and Taman peninsulas, where burials of the 8th-7th centuries were discovered. BC e., associated with the Cimmerians. According to the story of Herodotus, the Cimmerians were driven out of the Northern Black Sea region by the Scythians, who dominated here already in the 7th century. BC e.
The descendants of the Cimmerians are considered to be the Tauri, who already lived in the Scythian times in the mountains of Crimea. The mountain range on the south coast of the peninsula was also called Taurus. The Greek name of the Crimean Peninsula - Taurica, which was preserved in antiquity and the Middle Ages, is associated with this name.
The bulk of the Scythians were tribes that came in the 8th century. BC e. from Central Asia. Several Scythian tribes of the Northern Black Sea region are known: the royal Scythians, who also lived in the Crimea, the Scythian nomads, the Scythian ploughmen, the Scythian farmers, the Scythian Vonns. The social system of the Scythians in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. characterized by the gradual collapse of tribal lines and the emergence of class relations. Patriarchal slavery was already known among the Scythians. The change from Cimmerian culture to Scythian culture in the 8th-7th centuries. BC e. coincided with the transition from the Bronze Age to iron age. By the 4th century. BC e. The Scythian kingdom, which united individual tribes, turned into a strong military power that successfully repelled the Persian invasion. Remarkable monuments of the famous Scythian “animal” style were discovered by archaeologists in the burial mounds and mountainous mountains of Crimea - in the Kulakovsky Kurgans (near Simferopol, Ak-mosque), unique gold items with the image human figures, animals and plants were found in the famous Scythian mounds Kul-Oba, Ak-Burun, and the Golden Mound.
In the VIII-VI centuries. BC e. there is an intensive process of Greek colonization of the North Pontic coast, due to economic and social development Ancient Hellas. In the 7th century BC e. the west was colonized, and in the 6th century. BC e. - northern coast of the Black Sea.
First of all in Taurida, probably in the first half of the 6th century. BC e., on the site of modern Kerch on the shores of the Cimmerian Bosporus, the city of Panticapaeum was founded by the Milesians. The city itself was called by the Greeks and simply Bosporus. Around the middle of the 6th century. BC e. Tiritaka, Nymphaeum, and Cimmeric arose in Eastern Crimea. In the VI century. BC e. Theodosius was founded by the Milesian Greeks, as well as Myrmekium, located not far from Panticapaeum.
Around 480 BC e. In the Eastern Crimea, the previously independent Greek city-states (polises) are united into a single Bosporan state under the rule of the Archeanactids, immigrants from Miletus. In 438 BC. e. power in the Bosporus passes to the Spartokids, a dynasty possibly of Thracian origin.
Craft, Agriculture, trade, coin circulation of Panticapaeum, where from the middle of the 6th century. minted its own silver coin, were at a relatively high level development. There was an expansion of the external expansion of the Bosporan state. However, in the III-II centuries. BC e. The onslaught of the Scythians intensifies from the west, and the Sarmatians penetrate from the Kuban region.
The creation of a Scythian state in Crimea and the aggravation of social contradictions in the Bosporan kingdom contributed to the weakening of the latter.
In the western part of Crimea important role played by Chersonese, founded in the 5th century. BC e. immigrants from the southern shore of the Black Sea (from Heraclea Pontic). Initially it was a trading post, which later became a center of agricultural and handicraft production. Trade also grew, the development of which was associated with the issuance of its own coins made of silver and copper. The remains of ancient Chersonesus have been preserved in western outskirts modern Sevastopol.
Chersonesos probably followed a hostile policy towards the Bosporus. However, by the end of the 2nd century. BC e. The onslaught of the Scythians on Chersonesos intensifies. The Pontic king Mithridates VI Eupator rendered military assistance Chersonese. Eastern Crimea and Chersonesus then came under the rule of the Pontic king. Perisad - the last king Bosporus from the Spartokid dynasty - renounced the throne in favor of Mithridates VI. But this only exacerbated the emerging social contradictions in the slave-owning Bosporus. In 107 BC. e. An uprising led by the Scythian Savmak took place here, but it was suppressed by the troops of the Pontic king.
The Pontic kingdom became the main obstacle to further expansion of the Romans to the East. This led to the wars of Mithridates with Rome, which lasted from 89 BC. e. until the death of the Pontic king in 63 BC. e. The death of Mithridates meant the actual loss of political independence by this part of the Black Sea region. By the end of the 1st century. BC e. A portrait of the Roman emperor and members of his family appears on Bosporan coins. True, in 25 BC. e. Rome confirms the independence of Chersonese, but this independence was largely nominal.
City-states of Taurica in the first centuries AD. were developed slave-owning policies. This opinion is supported by their administrative structure, as well as monuments of material culture discovered by archaeologists.
The dominant force in the steppe zone during this period were the Sarmatians, led by tribal nobility, surrounded by warriors. Several alliances of Sarmatian tribes are known - Roxolani, Aorsi, Siracs. Obviously, from the 2nd century. And. e. Sarmatians receive the general name Alans, probably from the name of one of their tribes. However, in Crimea, the Sarmatians, apparently, were inferior in number to the mass of Scythians who survived here, as well as the descendants of the ancient Tauri. In contrast to the Sarmatians, this old population is called Tauro-Scythians in ancient sources, which perhaps indicates the erasure of the differences between them.
The center of the Scythian tribes in Crimea was Scythian Naples, located on the site of present-day Simferopol. Scythian Naples was founded at the end of the 3rd century. BC e. and existed until the 4th century. n. e.
In the I-II centuries. The Bosporan kingdom is experiencing a new rise; it occupies approximately the same territory as under the Spartokids. Moreover, the Bosporus actually exercises a protectorate over Chersonesus. At the same time, Sarmatization of the population of the Bosporan cities occurs. In foreign policy, the Bosporan kings showed a certain independence, including in relations with Rome.
In the 3rd century. is becoming widespread in Crimea christian religion, which probably penetrated here from Asia Minor. In the 4th century. an independent Christian bishopric already existed in Bosporus.
Chersonesos at this time continued to develop as a slave-owning republic, but the previous democratic system (within the framework, of course, of the slave-owning formation) was now replaced by an aristocratic one. At the same time, the Romanization of the ruling city elite took place. Chersonesus becomes the main stronghold of the Romans in the Northern Black Sea region. It housed a Roman garrison and supplied food to the center of the empire.
In the middle of the 3rd century. n. e. The Bosporan state was experiencing economic and political decline, reflecting the general crisis of the ancient slave system. Starting from the 50-70s. in Crimea, the onslaught of the Borans, Ostrogoths, Heruls and other tribes that were part of
to the Gothic League. The Goths defeated the Scythians and destroyed their settlements in the Crimea. Having captured almost the entire peninsula, with the exception of Chersonesos, they established their dominance over the Bosporus. The Gothic invasion led to the decline Bosporan Kingdom, but the fatal blow was dealt to him in the 70s. IV century tribes of the Huns who appeared in Eastern Crimea. The Bosporus, destroyed by them, lost its former significance and gradually disappeared from the historical arena.
From the collection “Crimea: past and present", Institute of History of the USSR, USSR Academy of Sciences, 1988
We bring to the attention of the readers of our site an ethno-historical excursion by Igor Dmitrievich Gurov regarding the issue of the rights of a particular nationality to the Crimean peninsula. The article was published in 1992 in the small monthly "Politics", published by the deputy group "Union". However, it still remains relevant, especially now, when, during the period of the most acute political crisis in Ukraine, the issue of broad autonomy for Crimea, which was frozen in the same 1992, is being resolved.
Despite the fact that Kyiv and some Moscow newspapers and television programs today proclaim the Crimean Tatars as the “only indigenous” people of the Crimean peninsula, and the Russian Taurians are portrayed exclusively as invaders and occupiers, Crimea remains Russian.
Let's get real historical facts. In ancient times, Crimea was inhabited by tribes of Cimmerians, then Tauris and Scythians. From the middle of the 1st millennium BC. e. Greek colonies appear on the coast of Tavria. IN early middle ages The Scythians are replaced by German-speaking Goths (later mixed with the Greeks in the chronicles of the “Greek Gothfins”) and Iranian-speaking Alans (related to modern Ossetians). Then the Slavs also penetrate here. Already in one of the Bosporan inscriptions of the 5th century, the word “ant” is found, which, as is known, Byzantine authors used to call the Slavs who lived between the Dnieper and the Dniester. And at the very end of the 8th century, the “Life of Stefan of Sourozh” describes in detail the campaign of the Novgorod prince Bravlin to Crimea, after which the active Slavicization of Eastern Crimea began.
Arab sources of the 9th century report one of the centers of Ancient Rus' - Arsania, which, according to most scientists, was located on the territory of the Azov region, Eastern Crimea and North Caucasus. This is the so-called Azov, or Black Sea (Tmutarakan) Rus', which was the support base for the campaigns of Russian squads in the 2nd half of the 9th - early 10th centuries. on the Asia Minor coast of the Black Sea. Moreover, the Byzantine historian Leo the Deacon, in his story about the retreat of Prince Igor after his unsuccessful campaign against Byzantium in 941, speaks of the Cimmerian Bosporus (Eastern Crimea) as the “homeland of the Russians.”
In the 2nd half of the 9th century. (after the campaign of Prince Svyatoslav and his defeat of the Khazar Kaganate in 965), Azov Rus finally entered the sphere of political influence of Kievan Rus. Later, the Tmutarakan principality was formed here. Under the 980 goal in the "Tale of Bygone Years" the son of Grand Duke Vladimir the Saint is mentioned for the first time - Mstislav the Brave; It is also reported there that his father endowed Mstislav with the Tmutarakan land (which he owned until his death in 1036).
The influence of Rus' is also strengthening in Western Taurida, especially after Prince Vladimir in 988, as a result of a 6-month siege, took the city of Chersonesos, which belonged to the Byzantines, and was baptized there.
The Polovtsian invasion at the end of the 11th century weakened the Russian princes in Taurida. Last time In the chronicles, Tmutarakan is mentioned in 1094, when the prince who ruled here, Oleg Svyatoslavovich (who bore the official title of “Archon of Matrakha, Zikhia and all Khazaria”), in alliance with the Polovtsians, came to Chernigov. And at the beginning of the 13th century, the lands of the former Tmutarakan principality became easy prey for enterprising Genoese.
In 1223, the Mongols made their first raid on Taurica, and by the end of the 13th century, after the defeat of the Kirkel principality created by the Hellenized Alans, administrative center edge becomes the city of Crimea (now Old Crimea), which in 1266 became the seat of the Mongol-Tatar Khan.
After the Fourth Crusade (1202-1204), which ended with the defeat of Constantinople, first Venice, and then (from 1261) Genoa were able to establish themselves in the Northern Black Sea region. In 1266, the Genoese bought the city of Cafa (Feodosia) from the Golden Horde and then continued to expand their possessions.
The ethnic composition of the population of Crimea during this period was quite diverse. In the XIII-XV centuries. Greeks, Armenians, Russians, Tatars, Hungarians, Circassians (“Zikhs”) and Jews lived in the Cafe. The Kafa Charter of 1316 mentions Russian, Armenian and Greek churches located in the commercial part of the city, along with Catholic churches and a Tatar mosque. In the 2nd half of the 15th century. it was one of the largest cities in Europe with a population of up to 70 thousand people. (of these, the Genoese made up only about 2 thousand people). In 1365, the Genoese, having secured the support of the Golden Horde khans (to whom they gave huge cash loans and supplied mercenaries), captured the largest Crimean city of Surozh (Sudak), inhabited mainly by Greek and Russian merchants and artisans and maintaining close ties with the Moscow state.
From Russian documents of the 15th century. It is also known about close contacts between the Orthodox principality of Theodoro (another name is the Mangup principality) located in the southwest of Crimea, which arose on the ruins Byzantine Empire, with the Moscow state. For example, the Russian chronicle mentions Prince Stefan Vasilyevich Khovra, who emigrated to Moscow with one of his sons in 1403. Here he became a monk under the name Simon, and his son Gregory founded a monastery named Simonov in honor of his father. His other son, Alexei, ruled the principality of Theodoro at that time. From his grandson - Vladimir Grigorievich Khovrin - came famous Russian families - the Golovins, Tretyakovs, Gryaznys, etc. The connection between Moscow and Theodoro was so close that the Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III was going to marry his son to the daughter of the Theodorite prince Isaac (Isaiko), but This plan was not realized due to the defeat of the Principality of Theodoro by the Turks.
In 1447, the first attack of the Turkish fleet on the shores of Crimea took place. Having captured Cafa in 1475, the Turks disarmed its entire population, and then, according to the testimony of an anonymous Tuscan author, “On June 7 and 8, all the Wallachians, Poles, Russians, Georgians, Zichs and all other Christian nations, except the Latins, were captured, deprived clothes and partly sold into slavery, partly chained." “Turkova took Kafa and many of the Moscow guests, killed many of them, captured some, and robbed others to pay off the davash,” Russian chronicles report.
Having established their power over the Crimea, the Turks included into the Sultan’s lands only the former Genoese and Greek confluences, which they began to intensively populate with their fellow tribesmen - the Anatolian Ottoman Turks. The remaining areas of the peninsula went to the predominantly steppe Crimean Khanate, which was a vassal state of Turkey.
It is from the Anatolian Ottoman Turks that the so-called origins originate. “South Coast Crimean Tatars”, who determined the ethnic line of modern Crimean Tatars - that is, their culture and literary language. The Crimean Khanate, subordinate to Turkey, in 1557 was replenished with representatives of the Little Nogai Horde, who migrated to the Black Sea region and the Steppe Crimea from the Volga and Caspian Sea. The Crimean and Nogai Tatars lived exclusively by nomadic cattle breeding and predatory raids on neighboring states. The Crimean Tatars themselves spoke in the 17th century. to the envoys of the Turkish Sultan: “But there are more than 100 thousand Tatars who have neither agriculture nor trade. If they do not raid, then how will they live? This is our service to the padishah.” Therefore, twice a year they carried out raids to capture slaves and loot. For example, during the 25 years of the Livonian War (1558-1583), the Crimean Tatars made 21 raids on the Great Russian regions. The poorly protected Little Russian lands suffered even more. From 1605 to 1644 the Tatars carried out at least 75 raids on them. In 1620-1621 they managed to ruin even the distant Duchy of Prussia.
All this forced Russia to take retaliatory measures and fight to eliminate this constant source of aggression in its south. However, this problem was solved only in the 2nd half of the 18th century. During the Russian-Turkish war of 1769-1774. Russian troops captured Crimea. Fearing retaliatory religious pogroms, most of the indigenous Christian population (Greeks and Armenians), at the suggestion of Catherine II, moved to the area of Mariupol and Nakhichevan, Rostov. In 1783, Crimea was finally annexed to Russia and in 1784 it became part of the newly formed Tauride province. Up to 80 thousand Tatars did not want to stay in Russian Taurida and emigrated to Turkey. In their place, Russia began to attract foreign colonists: Greeks (from Turkish possessions), Armenians, Corsicans, Germans, Bulgarians, Estonians, Czechs, etc. Great Russians and Little Russians began to move here in large numbers.
Another emigration of Tatars and Nogais from Crimea and the Northern Black Sea region (up to 150 thousand people) occurred during the Crimean War of 1853-1856, when many Tatar murzas and beys supported Turkey.
By 1897, there had been significant changes in the ethnic composition of the population of Taurida: Tatars made up only about 1/3 of the population of the peninsula, while Russians made up over 45 percent. (of which 3/4 are Great Russians and 1/4 are Little Russians), Germans - 5.8 percent, Jews 4.7 percent, Greeks - 3.1 percent, Armenians - 1.5 percent. etc.
After the February Revolution of 1917, the nationalist pro-Turkish party “Milli Firka” (“national party”) arose among the Crimean Tatars. In turn, the Bolsheviks held a Congress of Soviets and in March 1918 proclaimed the creation of the Taurida SSR. Then the peninsula was occupied by the Germans, and the Millifirka Directory gained power.
At the end of April 1919, the Crimean soviet republic", but already in June it was liquidated by units of General Denikin's Volunteer Army.
From that time on, Russian Taurida became the main base of the White Movement. Only on November 16, 1920, Crimea was again captured by the Bolsheviks, knocking out the Russian Army of General Wrangel from the peninsula. At the same time, the Crimean Revolutionary Committee (Krymrevkom) was formed under the leadership of the “internationalists” Bela Kun and Rosalia Zemlyachka. On their instructions, a bloody massacre was organized in Crimea, during which the “fiery revolutionaries” exterminated, according to some information, up to 60 thousand Russian officers and soldiers of the White Army.
On October 18, 1921, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars published a decree on the formation of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic as part of the RSFSR. At this time, 625 thousand people lived in Crimea, of which Russians made up 321.6 thousand, or 51.5% (including Great Russians - 274.9 thousand, Little Russians - 45.7 thousand, Belarusians - 1 thousand .), Tatars (including Turks and some Gypsies) - 164.2 thousand (25.9%), other nationalities (Germans, Greeks, Bulgarians, Jews, Armenians) - St. 22%.
From the beginning of the 1920s, in the spirit of the Bolshevik-Leninist national policy, organizations of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) began to actively pursue a course towards the Turkification of Crimea. Thus, in 1922, 355 schools were opened for the Crimean Tatars, and universities were created with teaching in the Crimean Tatar language. Tatars were appointed to the posts of chairmen of the Crimean Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic - Veli Ibraimov and Deren-Ayerly, who pursued a nationalist policy covered by communist phraseology. Only in 1928 were they removed from their posts, but not for nationalism, but for connections with the Trotskyists.
By 1929, as a result of the campaign to disaggregate village councils, their number increased from 143 to 427. At the same time, the number of national village councils almost tripled (these were considered village councils or districts in which the majority national population was 60%). In total, 145 Tatar village councils were formed, 45 German, 14 Jewish, 7 Greek, 5 Bulgarian, 2 Armenian, 2 Estonian and only 20 Russian (since Russians during this period were classified as “great-power chauvinists”, during administrative demarcation it was considered normal to give advantage to others nationalities). A system of special courses for training national personnel at government agencies was also created. A campaign was launched to translate office work and village councils into “national” languages. At the same time, the “anti-religious struggle” - including against Orthodoxy and Islam - continued and intensified.
In the pre-war years, there was a significant increase in population (from 714 thousand in 1926 to 1,126,429 people in 1939). By national composition the population was distributed in 1939 as follows: Russians - 558,481 people (49.58%), Ukrainians, 154,120 (13.68%), Tatars - 218,179 (19.7%), Germans 65,452 (5.81%), Jews - 52093 (4.62%), Greeks - 20652 (1.83%), Bulgarians - 15353 (1.36%), Armenians - 12873 (1.14%), others - 29276 (2.6%).
The Nazis, having occupied Crimea in the fall of 1941, skillfully played on the religious feelings of the Tatars and their dissatisfaction with the militant atheism of the Bolsheviks. The Nazis convened a Muslim congress in Simferopol, at which they formed the Crimean government ("Tatar Committee"), headed by Khan Belal Asanov. During 1941-1942. they formed 10 Crimean Tatar SS battalions, which, together with police self-defense units (created in 203 Tatar villages), numbered over 20 thousand people. Although there were Tatars among the partisans - about 600 people. In punitive operations with the participation of Crimean Tatar units, 86 thousand civilians of Crimea and 47 thousand prisoners of war were exterminated, about 85 thousand more people were deported to Germany.
However, measures of retribution for crimes committed by the Crimean Tatar punitive forces were extended by the Stalinist leadership to the entire Crimean Tatar ethnic group and a number of others Crimean peoples. On May 11, 1944, the State Defense Committee of the USSR adopted a resolution according to which from Crimea to Central Asia During May 18-19, 191,088 Tatars, 296 Germans, 32 Romanians and 21 Austrians were resettled. On June 2, 1944, another GKO resolution followed, according to which 15,040 Greeks, 12,422 Bulgarians and 9,621 Armenians were evicted from Crimea on June 27 and 28. At the same time, foreign nationals living in Crimea were expelled: 1,119 Germans, Italians and Romanians, 3,531 Greeks, 105 Turks and 16 Iranians.
In July 1945, by Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet, the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was transformed into the Crimean region within the RSFSR, and on February 19, 1954, N. S. Khrushchev donated Crimea to Radyanskaya Ukraine, apparently in memory of his many years of secretaryship in the Communist Party (b)U .
With the onset of "perestroika" Moscow and Kyiv funds mass media They began to portray the Tatars as the only “indigenous” inhabitants of the peninsula, its “original” owners. Why? The “Organization of the Crimean Tatar National Movement” declared its goal not only to return up to 350 thousand Tatars - natives of sunny Uzbekistan and other Central Asian republics to Crimea, but also to create their own “national state” there. To achieve this goal, they convened a kurultai in July 1991 and elected a “majlis” of 33 people. The actions of the OKND, led by the ardent Turkophile Mustafa Dzhamilev, were enthusiastically greeted by the Kyiv “Rukhovite” and former communist leadership, acting on the principle “everyone who is against the damned Muscovites is good.” But why did Dzhamilev need to create his own “national state” in Crimea?
Of course, the thirst for revenge among the Tatar new settlers offended by Stalin is understandable. But still, the OKND gentlemen, who so diligently call for the Turkification of Crimea, should remember their Anatolian and Nogai origins: after all, their true ancestral home is Turkey, Southern Altai and the hot steppes of Xinjiang.
And if you create some kind of “national states” in Taurida, you will have to satisfy the aspirations of the Great Russians, Ukrainians, Karaites, Greeks, and all other indigenous inhabitants of the peninsula. The only real prospect for Crimea is the peaceful coexistence of the ethnic groups living here. Dividing the population into “indigenous” and Russian is a historically untenable and politically dangerous task.
Igor Gurov
Newspaper "Politics", 1992, No. 5
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Before the capture of Crimea by the Mongol-Tatars and the reign 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 period. Sites of ancient people were found in Shankob, in the Kachinsky and Alimov canopies, in Fatmakoba and in other places. It is known that the religion of these ancient tribes was totemism, and they buried their dead in log houses, placing high mounds on top of them.
Chimerians (9th–7th centuries BC)
The first people that historians wrote about were the ferocious Chimerians who inhabited the plains of the Crimean Peninsula. The Chimerians were Indo-Europeans or Iranians and practiced agriculture; The ancient Greek geographer Strabo wrote about the existence of the capital of the Chimerians - Kimeris, which was located on the Taman Peninsula. It is believed that the Chimerians brought metal processing and pottery to the Crimea; their fat herds were guarded by huge wolfhounds. The Chimerians wore leather jackets and trousers, and pointed hats crowned their heads. Information about this people exists even in the archives of the king of Assyria, Ashurbanipal: the Chimerians more than once invaded Asia Minor and Thrace. Homer and Herodotus, the Ephesian poet Callinus and the Milesian historian Hecataeus wrote about them.
The Chimerians left Crimea under the pressure of the Scythians, part of the people joined the Scythian tribes, and part went to Europe.
Taurus (VI century BC, - 1st century AD)
Tauris - this is what the Greeks who visited Crimea called the formidable tribes living here. The name may have been related to the cattle breeding in which they were engaged, because “tauros” means “bull” in Greek. It is unknown where the Taurians came from; some scientists tried to connect them with the Indo-Aryans, others considered them Goths. The culture of dolmens – ancestral burial grounds – is associated with the Tauri.
The Tauri cultivated the land and grazed livestock, hunted in the mountains and did not disdain sea robbery. Strabo mentioned that the Tauri gathered in Symbolon Bay (Balaklava), formed gangs and robbed ships. The most evil tribes were considered the Arikhs, Sinkhs and Napei: their war cry made the blood of their enemies freeze; The Taurus stabbed their opponents and nailed their heads to the walls of their temples. The historian Tacitus wrote how the Tauri killed the Roman legionnaires who had escaped from a shipwreck. In the 1st century, the Tauri 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 settled down and absorbed part of the Tauri and even mixed with the Greeks. In the 3rd century, a Scythian state with its capital Naples (Simferopol) appeared on the plains of Crimea, 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 Huns; the remains of the Scythians mixed with autochthonous population and ceased to exist as a separate people.
Sarmatians (IV-III centuries BC)
The Sartmats, in turn, replenished the genetic diversity of the peoples of Crimea, dissolving into its population. The Roksolani, Iazyges and Aorses fought with the Scythians for centuries, penetrating into the Crimea. With them came the warlike Alans, who settled in the southwest of the peninsula and founded the Goth-Alans community, converting to Christianity. Strabo in his “Geography” writes about the participation of 50,000 Roxolani in an unsuccessful campaign against the Pontic people.
Greeks (VI century BC)
The first Greek colonists settled the Crimean coast during the time of the Tauri; here they built the cities of Kerkinitis, Panticapaeum, Chersonesos and Theodosius, which in the 5th century BC. formed two states: Bosporus and Chersonesos. The Greeks lived by gardening and winemaking, fishing, trading and minting their own coins. With the coming new era the states fell under the control of Pontus, then to Rome and Byzantium.
From the 5th to the 9th century AD In Crimea, a new ethnic group “Crimean Greeks” arose, whose descendants were the Greeks of antiquity, Taurians, Scythians, Goto-Alans 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 – 4th century AD)
The Romans appeared in Crimea at the end of the 1st century, defeating the king of Panticapaeum (Kerch) Mithridates VI Eupator; Soon Chersonesus, which had suffered from the Scythians, asked to come under 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 - professor of Simferopol University Igor Khrapunov writes about this in his work “The Population of Mountain Crimea in Late Roman Times.”
Goths (III–XVII centuries)
The Goths lived in Crimea, a Germanic tribe that appeared on the peninsula during the Great Migration. The Christian saint Procopius of Caesarea wrote that the Goths were farmers and their nobles held military positions in the Bosporus, which the Goths took control of. Having become the owners of the Bosporan fleet, in 257 the Germans launched a campaign against Trebizond, where they captured countless treasures.
The Goths settled in the north-west of the peninsula and in the 4th century formed their own state - Gothia, which lasted for nine centuries and only then partially became part of the Principality of Theodoro, and the Goths themselves were obviously assimilated by the Greeks and Ottoman Turks. Most of the Goths eventually became Christians; their spiritual center was the Doros (Mangup) fortress.
For a long time, Gothia was a buffer between the hordes of nomads pressing 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.
Catholic priest Stanislav Sestrenevich-Bogush wrote that back 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 a treaty with the Golden Horde, they founded trading colonies that lasted until the Ottomans captured the coast, after which their few inhabitants were assimilated.
In the 4th century, the cruel Huns invaded the Crimea, some of whom settled in the steppes and mixed with the Goth-Alans. Jews and Armenians who fled from the Arabs also moved to Crimea, Khazars, Eastern Slavs, Polovtsians, Pechenegs and Bulgars visited here, and it is absolutely no wonder that the peoples of Crimea are not similar to each other, because the blood of a variety of peoples flows in their veins.