Photographer Sergei Karpov and correspondent Sergei Prostakov asked the participants of the Russian March their opinion about Novorossiya.
“Russian March” is the largest action of nationalists, which is held annually on November 4th national unity, since 2005. The event changed its location in Moscow and the composition of participants. Deputies took part in the nationalist march State Duma, Eurasians of Alexander Dugin, National Bolsheviks of Eduard Limonov. In 2011, Alexei Navalny actively encouraged people to attend the Russian March. By 2013, the “Russian March” had finally turned into a subcultural phenomenon of Russian nationalists, who were united by anti-Caucasian and anti-migrant slogans.
But in 2014, the fragile “anti-immigrant” consensus came to an end. The entry of Crimea into Russia, the war in Donbass, and the formation of Novorossiya split the camp of Russian nationalists. Some of them supported the actions Russian authorities and Donetsk separatists, others sharply condemned them. As a result, on November 4, 2014, two “Russian Marches” took place in Moscow, one of which was directly called “For Novorossiya.”
But there was also no unity among those who attended the “classic” march in the Moscow district of Lyublino: slogans against the war with Ukraine and in support of Novorossiya were simultaneously heard in the crowd. The numbers speak even more eloquently about the crisis among Russian nationalists: in previous years, the “Russian March” in Lyublino gathered at least 10 thousand participants, and in 2014 no more than three thousand came to the action.
Photographer Sergei Karpov and correspondent Sergei Prostakov asked ordinary participants in the ninth “Russian March” in Moscow: what is “Novorossiya”? Its supporters are confident that a war for independence is currently taking place in Donbass; opponents believe that Novorossiya does not exist.
(Total 13 photos)
1. Sergey, 27 years old, forwarder(left): “Novorossiya” should be a white country with Russian orders, so today I only partially support this formation.”
Dmitry, 33 years old, entrepreneur(right): “Novorossiya” is a new territorial-administrative unit, which I categorically support.”
2. Ilya, 55 years old, unemployed(left): “I have no idea what Novorossiya is, so I don’t support it.”
Andrey, 32 years old, programmer(right): “Novorossiya” is still a mythical unification, which, I hope, will take place as a state.”
3. Yaroslav, 26 years old, engineer(left): “Novorossiya” is a Kremlin project that Russian nationalists cannot support.”
Nikita, 16 years old, Russian nationalist(right): “I cannot explain what Novorossiya is, but I support the idea itself.”
4. Alexander, 54 years old, journalist(left): “Novorossiya” today is an invented something that has nothing to do with Novorossiya, which existed under Catherine II. There's a war going on there now, so I can't support the loss of life. And you can’t support Novorossiya with the media that gives information from there.”
Tamara, 70 years old, women’s movement “Slavyanka”, Union of Native Muscovites(right): “Novorossiya” is part of historical Russia.”
5. Dmitry, 49 years old, freelancer
(left): “I have a rather complicated attitude towards Novorossiya - the more the Kremlin supports it, the less I support it.”
Vera, 54 years old, fitness club worker from Voronezh(right): “Novorossiya” is a part of Russia that wants to go back. I have relatives living there. IN Voronezh region, where I come from, there are a lot of refugees now. Therefore, I know what is going on there first-hand. This is why I support Novorossiya.
6. Lyubov, 33 years old, entrepreneur(left): “I hate Novorossiya.” This is part of the global struggle against the Russians."
Konstantin, 50 years old, auto electrician(right): “Novorossiya” is fighting against fascism today.”
7. Andrey, 48 years old, unemployed(left): “Novorossiya” consists of bandits and scoundrels.”
Alexander, 55 years old, unemployed(right): “Novorossiya” is a remake. This is the new Rus'. Russia, Ukraine, Belarus - this is all one Rus'. I support the Russian Empire until 1917. Ukraine needs to be fully returned to the empire, and not plucked off little by little. Besides, we don’t need to fight - the Ukrainians and I should be together.”
8. Vyacheslav, 25 years old, worker(left): “In Russia, it is difficult to be objective about Novorossiya, because the lying media talk about it. I try not to talk about it.”
Dmitry, 32 years old, salesman(right): “Novorossiya” is the LPR and DPR. I support their fight."
9. Vitaly, 16 years old, schoolboy(left): Novorossiya is led by bandits. No one recognizes her on the world stage. This formation does not have long to exist.”
Mikhail, 17 years old, schoolboy(right): “Novorossiya” is a part of Russia that is now fighting for independence from Ukraine.”
10. Natalya, 19 years old, works in production(left): “I have no idea what Novorossiya is.” What is this anyway? How can you support “nothing”?”
Sergey, 57 years old, artist(right): “After the referendum, Novorossiya is an independent state. I support this initiative."
11. Oleg, 25 years old, leader of the Russian United National Alliance(left): “Novorossiya” is a foreign entity for any Russian person. Just some wolf in sheep's clothing."
Alexander, 28 years old, worker(right): “Now Novorossiya is separate state. These territories never belonged to Ukraine. In addition, there is now a fascist junta in Kyiv.”
12. Denis, 39 years old, unemployed(left): “Novorossiya” is a fiction. I would support it if it were an independent project. It is necessary to maintain the territorial integrity of Ukraine, although I agree that Crimea was returned.”
Mikhail, 26 years old, member of the Central Committee of the National Democratic Party(right): “Novorossiya” today is the Russian regions of Ukraine that decided to declare their independence and exercise the right of nations to self-determination.”
13. Vasily, unemployed(left): “I can’t say that I support Novorossiya because I don’t know who really runs it.”
Dometius, 34 years old, member of the National Democratic Party(right): “Before 1917, Novorossiya was called southern Russia. In the early 1920s, the Bolsheviks reported that Novorossiya was destroyed because they gave it to Ukraine. Today, this is a movement that arose in the early 2000s, when pro-Russian forces in Ukraine realized that it would no longer be possible to revive the USSR, but that it was necessary to unite with modern Russia. Today's "Novorossiya" is pro-Russian circles in Ukraine that share different ideologies that vaguely represent life in modern Russia, but desiring Russian unity.”
The southeast of Ukraine is traditionally contrasted with the West of this republic. And this is no coincidence: history, language, and ethnic composition population, and the nature of the economy - everything here is decisively opposed to “Ukrainianism” with its farmhouse nationalism, Russian-Polish jargon (“Move”), the cult of traitor-losers, and finally, the impenetrable Western mentality of the “Selyuks”. Another thing is that eastern Ukraine itself is also heterogeneous, which is reflected in the specifics political struggle in Ukraine. And among the least “Ukrainian” regions of Ukraine, it is necessary to highlight Novorossiya.
These days, this geographical concept is unknown to most Russians. In the mass literature, and even in scientific literature, the concept of “Novorossiya” is practically not used, which is why this concept has been forgotten. Even the most educated people can usually only say that Novorossiya once, from the middle of the 18th century (more precisely, from 1764, when the province of the same name was created) and until 1917, meant the territory along the northern shore of the Black and Azov Seas. Due to this name of the region, one can recall that the city of Yekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk) under Emperor Paul was called Novorossiysk, and the university in Odessa before the revolution was officially called Novorossiysk. During the Soviet era, this region was called the Northern Black Sea Coast, and now it is usually called Southern Ukraine. However, due to its ethnic history, this region deserves special consideration. Novorossiya is not a part of “Ukraine”, but a completely special part of historical Russia, different from all other regions of the country. The history of the region differs sharply from the history of all regions of Russia, including the history of Ukraine.
It seems that the time has come to rehabilitate the good old name of the region.
Geographically, the territory of Novorossiya changed quite often. In the 18th century, when the very concept of “Novorossiya” appeared, it meant steppe territories with undefined borders in the south Russian Empire, the development of which has just begun. During the reign of Catherine II, when the Black Sea steppes and Crimea were annexed to Russia, these territories began to be called Novorossiya. In the first half of the 19th century, Bessarabia was also included in Novorossiya. For quite a long time, lands in the North Caucasus were also included in Novorossiya (this explains the name of the city of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus).
Pre-revolutionary scientists usually attributed Novorossiya to in a broad sense all the lands in the south of the empire annexed since the reign of Catherine II, but in a more common sense, Novorossiya meant the territories of the three Black Sea provinces - Kherson, Ekaterinoslav and Tauride, the Bessarabian province, which had a special status, and the region of the Don Army. Nowadays, the territories of these provinces correspond to the Odessa, Nikolaev, Kherson, Dnepropetrovsk, Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye, Kirovograd regions and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Transnistria, the Rostov region with the cities of Rostov-on-Don and Taganrog in the Russian Federation.
The natural conditions of the region are very favorable. The grain-growing steppe stretches to the Black Sea. It was this steppe, plowed up in the 19th century, that was the breadbasket of all of Russia, supplying grain to Europe as well. Wheat, soybeans, cotton, sunflowers, watermelons, melons, grapes and other products exotic for most of Russia were grown here. Coal, manganese, limestone, and iron ore are mined in the region. Novorossiya had a serious economic importance both in the Russian Empire and in the USSR.
Such significant rivers as the Dnieper, Dniester, Southern Bug, and Danube flow into the Black Sea. Convenient transport routes, favorable climate, abundant steppe, rich mineral resources - all this made Novorossia a desirable prey for many peoples in history. And it is no coincidence that the ethnic history of Novorossiya is perhaps the most complex among all regions of Russia. At the same time, individual parts of Novorossiya, such as Crimea, Bessarabia, and Donbass, are distinguished by their originality.
1. Ancient ethnic history
The Black Sea has been familiar to our ancestors since ancient times. Already during the times of the Cimmerians and Scythians, the Proto-Slavs, as can be judged from archaeological data, were among the original inhabitants of the northern coast of the Black Sea. This sea was very close to the East Slavic ancestral home. According to B. A. Rybakov, “here they fish, sail on ships, here is the maiden kingdom (of the Sarmatians) with stone cities; from here, from the sea shores, the Serpent Gorynych, the personification of the steppe inhabitants, goes on his raids on Holy Rus'. This is the real historical Black Sea-Azov Sea, which has long been known to the Slavs and even at times bore the name “Russian Sea”. From the forest-steppe outskirts of the Slavs... you can get to this sea by a “quick ride,” as they used to say in the 16th century, in just three days. In this sea there is the fabulous island of Buyan, in which one can easily guess the island of Berezan (Borisfen), which lay on the well-trodden path to the Greek lands; Russian merchant ships were equipped on this island in the 10th century. As we see, the Black Sea is not associated with cosmological ideas about the end of the earth; on the contrary, beyond this sea began everything “overseas,” attractive and only half unknown.”
However, a feature of the Black Sea was that the northern shore of the sea is a steppe, part of the Eurasian Great Steppe. The relationship between Russia and the steppe, as mentioned above, was directly reflected in the position of the sea, which periodically became either the truly Russian Sea or the lair of the Serpent Gorynych. Several times the pressure of the steppe inhabitants pushed the Slavs back from the shores of the sea to the protection of the forest. But every time, gathering strength, Rus' again and again sought to return to the Russian Sea. This was repeated too often, at the most different rulers, regimes, economic and social conditions to be an accident. There is some kind of mysticism in that majestic struggle between the Russian people and their desire for the sea.
However, the modern name of the sea, Black, was also given, apparently, by our ancestors. Among the many hypotheses about the origin of the name of the sea, the most convincing is the version of Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences O. N. Trubachev and Professor Yu. Karpenko. Back in the III-II millennium BC. on the northern shores Sea of Azov, lived the Aryan (Indo-European) tribes of the Sinds and Meotians, who called the sea “Temarun”, which literally means “Black”. The origin of this name is connected with purely visual perception the colors of the surface of two neighboring seas, now called the Black and Azov. From the mountainous shores of the Caucasus, the Black Sea actually seems much darker than the Sea of Azov. In other words, among the Aryans who lived in the Trans-Kuban and Don steppes before they left for India, accustomed to the light surface of “their” sea, the contemplation of the neighboring one could not evoke any other exclamation than the “Black Sea”. But it was at this time that the Proto-Slavs branched off from the pan-Aryan (Indo-European) ethno-linguistic family, so the Sindians and Meotians, in a certain sense, were also the ancestors of the Russian ethnos. The Sinds and Meotians were replaced by the Iranian-speaking Scythians, who also called the sea the word “Akhshaena”, that is, the “black or dark” sea. This name, as we see, has survived thousands of years and has survived to this day.
In ancient times, Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians, Goths, Huns, and Alans replaced each other on these steppes. The Tauri lived in the mountainous Crimea. Since the 7th century BC. happened Greek colonization. The Greeks founded many cities, some of which (albeit with a different ethnic population) still exist today.
But let's start in order. Ancient authors wrote that the vast steppe space from the Danube to the Volga was originally inhabited by nomadic Cimmerian tribes. The Cimmerians are mentioned by Assyrian authors under 714 BC, when these tribes penetrated into Asia Minor. In the next century, the Cimmerians also took part in wars in Western Asia. The Cimmerians probably belonged to the group of Iranian peoples. They wore pants, fitted shirts, and a hood on their heads. Russian Cossacks wore something similar even at the beginning of the twentieth century. As you can see, the steppe fashion turned out to be very conservative.
However, the Cimmerians disappeared from the Black Sea region in the 7th century. The Greeks no longer found them, but the nomadic Scythians who replaced the Cimmerians retained legends about their predecessors. According to the “father of history” Herodotus, the Cimmerians left the Black Sea region in fear of the Scythians. Be that as it may, what remained of the Cimmerians geographical concepts, like the Cimmerian Bosporus (now the Kerch Strait), the so-called. “Cimmerian crossings” across this strait, the city of Chimeric on the shore of this strait. The Scythians, by which the Greeks meant all the “barbarian” tribes of various ethnic origins who lived along the northern shores of the Black Sea, came to replace the Cimmerians for a long time. In a narrow sense, the Scythians are understood as Iranian-speaking nomadic tribes who lived in the steppes from the Danube to Altai, including the steppe Crimea. The nomadic Scythians ruled the region for more than five centuries (VIII - III centuries BC). The Scythians were known in antiquity as a nomadic pastoral people who lived in tents, ate milk and meat of cattle, and had cruel warlike morals, which allowed them to gain the glory of invincibility. The Scythians removed the scalp from their defeated enemies, from the skin torn off along with the nails. right hand They made covers for their quivers from the skins of enemy corpses; cups for wine were made from the skulls of the most worthy of their defeated enemies.
In the 7th century BC. The Scythians made long campaigns into Western Asia, and dominated the east for 28 years, until the Median king killed the Scythian leaders at a feast, and then the Scythian army that was left without commanders. But, having stopped long-distance campaigns, the Scythians still remained the masters of the Black Sea region. In 512 BC. The Scythians destroyed the huge Persian army of King Darius, which invaded their possessions.
The Scythians were tall (up to 172 cm) Caucasians. The Scythians, by the way, were carriers of haplogroup R1a, that is, very close relatives of the Slavs.
As Western researcher T. Rice notes, “from the images on vessels from Kul-Oba, Chertomlyk and Voronezh, it can be assumed that the Scythians had a stunning resemblance to the peasants of pre-revolutionary Russia... The external similarity of the Scythians, as can be seen from the works of Greek metal craftsmen, with the peasant population of pre-revolutionary central Russia can up to to a certain extent be a coincidence, resulting from the fact that both preferred to wear the same hairstyles and long beards. But there are other similarities that are much more difficult to explain. Thus, a stocky physique and large rounded noses were characteristic of both, and in addition, similar features are noticeable in the temperaments of both peoples. Both of them loved music and dancing; both were so passionate about art that they could admire, adopt and remake completely foreign styles into something completely new, national; Both peoples had a talent for graphic arts, and they can also note an almost universal love for the color red. Again, both peoples demonstrated a willingness to resort to a scorched earth policy in the event of an invasion. Mixed marriages could well have played a role in preserving Scythian features in Russia, which to this day continue to find expression in the national image.”
Russian anthropologist V.P. Alekseev, back in 1985, pointed out the significant similarity of the anthropological type of the Eastern Slavs, including Russians, “... with the anthropological variant that was recorded in the Scythian burial grounds of the Black Sea region,” adding: “there is no doubt that most of the population living in southern Russian steppes in the middle of the 1st millennium BC, is the physical ancestor of the East Slavic tribes of the Middle Ages.” At the same time, V.P. Aleksev also noted a change in the anthropological type Eastern Slavs, which occurred in the first centuries of the 2nd millennium AD. in favor of the West Slavic and connected this with the migrations of “new newcomers from the Carpathian regions - the ancestral homeland of the Slavs, and their marriage contacts with local populations.”
The ancient Greeks began to settle on the northern shore of the Black Sea, starting from the 7th century BC. In eastern Crimea, around the Cimmerian Bosporus, in the 5th century BC. it worked out Bosporan Kingdom. For its time it was a fairly large and rich kingdom. The capital of Bosporus, the city of Panticapaeum, had an area of about 100 hectares. At least 60 thousand city dwellers and approximately twice as many villagers lived in the kingdom. A considerable part of the population were Scythians, Sindians and Taurians.
Another significant center of Greek colonization was founded in 422 BC. Chersonesos, which had up to 100 thousand inhabitants.
To the east of the Scythians lived the Sauromatians related to them (later, from the 3rd century BC, the name changed to “Sarmatians”). They ousted the Scythians from the northern Black Sea region. However, most of the Scythians dissolved among the Sarmatians, who were related and had a similar way of life.
However, some of the Scythians remained in Crimea until the 3rd century, creating their own kingdom there. The Scythian state in Crimea turned into an agricultural country. Military defeats and the capture of most of the steppe nomads by the Sarmatians forced the Scythians to change their way of life. Most of the Crimean Scythians now lived sedentary lives, and only the aristocracy preserved nomadic traditions. Large agricultural settlements grew on the sites of old winter roads. The Scythians now sowed wheat, barley, millet, were engaged in viticulture and winemaking, and raised horses, small and cattle. Scythian kings built cities and fortresses. The capital of the kingdom was Scythian Naples, its ancient settlement is located next to modern Simferopol. The city was protected by a stone defensive wall with square towers. He stood at the intersection trade routes, which walked from the Crimean steppes to the Black Sea coast. The main source of state income was the grain trade. The Scythian kings minted coins, fought against piracy and sought to subjugate their trading rivals - the Greek colonies - to their power.
The Taurians lived in the mountains and on the southern coast of Crimea. It is no coincidence that the Greeks called Crimea Taurida or Tavrika. Unlike the mobile Scythians and Sarmatians, the Tauri were sedentary inhabitants. However, they did not disdain piracy, sacrificing captives to their goddess the Virgin.
The origin of the Tauri is unknown. Their self-name is also unknown; in Greek “taurus” means “bull”. Whether this name came from the cult of the bull, widespread among many ancient peoples, or simply from the consonance of words, or from the transfer by the Greeks of the name of the Taurus mountain range in Asia Minor, we will apparently never know. Living together with Greek colonists and Scythians, the Tauri were assimilated by the 2nd-3rd centuries. Archaeologists have excavated family burials in which a man was buried with Scythian weapons, and a woman with Taurus jewelry. In the 1st century, historians and geographers began to use the term “Tauro-Scythians” to designate the mixed non-Greek population of Crimea.
However, along with the Hellenization of barbarians in the Northern Black Sea region, the barbarization of Greek colonists also took place. Dion Chrysostom, who visited the Black Sea region around the year 100, noted that the inhabitants of Olbia already spoke unclean Greek, living among the barbarians, although they had not lost their Hellenic sense and knew almost the entire Iliad by heart, idolizing its heroes, most of all Achilles. They dressed in Scythian style, wearing trousers and black cloaks.
The Sauromatians, who became the masters of the Scythian steppes, were typical nomads. A feature of the Sauromats was the high position of women, their active participation in public life and military operations. Ancient writers often call the Sauromatians a woman-ruled people. Herodotus retold the legend about their origin from the marriages of Scythian youths with the Amazons, a legendary tribe of female warriors. This legend was intended to explain why Sauromatian women ride horses, own weapons, hunt and go to war, wear the same clothes as men and do not even get married until they kill the enemy in battle.
Among the Sarmatians, the tribes of the Roxolans, Aorses, Iazygs, Siracs, and Alans stood out. Over time, the Alans became the strongest of them, subjugating the rest of the Sarmatians. Together with the Goths, in the middle of the 3rd century, the Alans invaded Crimea. This blow finally crushed the ancient cities of the Black Sea region. True, city life does not stop here. Cities with Greek population, which is replenished by Byzantine Greeks, Armenians, and various tribes from the steppes, continue to exist.
Iranian-speaking Alans and Germanic Goths settled in the southwestern part of Crimea, which became known as Dori. Crimea itself was called Gothia for a long time. Orthodoxy spread among the Goths and Alans, and they gradually began to switch to a sedentary lifestyle. Since the Goths and Alans lived mixed, they had a common religion, culture and way of life, and used them as written language Greek, it is not surprising that in the 15th century the Italian Joseph Barbaro wrote about the people of the “Gotalans”.
However, in the steppes north of the Crimean Mountains, the ethnic picture changed endlessly. In the 4th century, the Huns dominated here, however, they quickly went west in search of the booty that the collapsing Roman Empire promised them. Then wave after wave of Avars, Bulgars, Khazars, Pechenegs, and Polovtsians are replaced here.
2. From Tmutarakan to Wild Field
Gradually, the Slavs began to stand out more and more in the region. They lived on the Black Sea shores long before our era. Even in ancient times, the Slavs were known as wonderful sailors who dominated the Black Sea. In 626, thousands of Slavs, allies of the Avar Kagan, besieged Constantinople, not only from land, but also blockading the royal city from the sea. Only with great difficulty did the Byzantines manage to fight back.
With the emergence of Kievan Rus, the period of Russian hegemony on this sea begins. Their maritime skills were significantly developed. The main vessel of the Russians was a sea boat, which was a single-tree deck with boards on its sides. The boat could row and sail. Regular permanent navy there was none in Ancient Rus'. For sea voyages, a boat fleet was created as needed. Each boat represented an independent combat unit, its personnel (40 people) were divided into dozens. The carrying capacity of these ships ranged from 4 to 16 tons, they had a length of at least 16, a width of at least 3, and a draft of about 1.2 m. The boats were united into detachments that made up the fleet led by the prince. However, there were ships that could accommodate up to 100 people.
It was these Russian squadrons that carried out the famous campaigns against Byzantium in 860, under Askold and Dir. In 907, Oleg the Prophet, with a fleet of 2 thousand ships, not only won a victory and gained fame and booty, but also achieved the signing of the first written Russian-Byzantine treaty in history. Prince Igor made two sea voyages - 941 and 944. Just in the 940s, the Arab scientist al-Masudi, mentioning the Black Sea, wrote: “... which is the Russian Sea; no one except them (Russians) swims on it, and they live on one of its banks.” Sea voyages Russov continued in later times. So, another Arab scientist Muhammad Aufi in early XIII century wrote about the Russians: “They make trips to distant lands, constantly travel the sea on ships, attack every ship they come across and rob it.”
After the victories of Svyatoslav over the Khazars and Vladimir over the Pechenegs, which gave Rus' a temporary advantage over the steppe, the Tmutarakan principality was formed in the northern Black Sea region. Tmutarakan as a fortress city arose on the site of an ancient settlement around 965, after Svyatoslav Igorevich’s campaigns to the south, the defeat of the Khazars and the annexation of this region to the ancient Russian state. In these places lived the Greeks (descendants of ancient colonists and Hellenized Tauri and Scythians), Kasogs (Circassians), Iranian-speaking Yasses (Alans), Turkic-speaking Khazars and Bulgars, Ugrians, Germanic Goths, and over time the Russian population gradually began to penetrate here. It is difficult to say exactly when the first Slavs appeared in Crimea. But, as academician B. A. Rybakov noted, “we can trace the penetration of the Slavs into Crimea and Taman almost a thousand years before the formation of the Tmutarakan principality.” On one of the Greek inscriptions in the Bosporus, dating back to the 3rd century, the name Ant is mentioned. In the 8th-10th centuries, eastern Crimea and the Azov coast of the North Caucasus were under the rule of the Khazars. It was probably during the Khazar era that the Slavic population of the northern Black Sea region increased significantly, since many Slavs, being dependent on the Khazar Kagan, could freely settle in his possessions. As Khazaria weakened, the Slavs themselves began to organize invasions of Crimea. Thus, from one Byzantine life it is known that a certain Novgorod prince Bravlin (who, however, is not mentioned in Russian chronicles) at the beginning of the 9th century plundered the entire coast of Crimea. By the end of the 10th century, at the time of the fall Khazar Khaganate, the Slavs already stood out noticeably in their numbers among the multi-ethnic population of the shores Kerch Strait. The appearance of the Slavic Tmutarakan principality along the shores of the Kerch Strait after the defeat of the Khazars becomes completely understandable.
The name Tmutarakan was formed from the distorted Khazar word “tumen-tarkhan”, which meant the name of the headquarters of Tarkhan - a Khazar military leader who had an army of 10 thousand soldiers (“tumen”). For the first time this name is mentioned in the “Tale of Bygone Years” in 988, when Vladimir Svyatoslavich formed a principality there and installed his son Mstislav in it.
The very fact of the emergence of the Tmutarakan principality, cut off from Kyiv by the steppe expanses, testifies not only to the power of Rus', but also to the fact that a significant Slavic population lived in the Crimea and the North Caucasus, and long before the creation of the state in Rus' (since there are no historical evidence about the organization by the Kyiv princes of the mass resettlement of Russians in the Black Sea region). As I wrote famous historian V.V. Mavrodin: “Rus of the Black Sea-Azov coast before the time of Svyatoslav, these are Slavic merchants and warriors who appeared in the cities and villages of Khazaria, Crimea, the Caucasus, the Lower Don, and individual colonies of settlers, and nests of Russified ethnic groups, reincarnated from the tribes of the Sarmatian world, socially and culturally-linguistically close to other tribes interbreeding in the northern and forest-steppe zones with genuine Slavs.” After the annexation of the region under Svyatoslav in 965, the ethnic composition of the population of Tmutarakan did not change.
The importance of Tmutarakan is evidenced by the following data: it was based on these lands that Prince Mstislav entered into the struggle for his father’s inheritance with his brother Yaroslav the Wise, and was able to conquer from him all the Russian lands along the left bank of the Dnieper. According to the researcher, “Tmutarakan was not a small principality remote from Rus', but a large political center that had the forces of almost the entire southeast of the European part of our country, relying on which Mstislav could not only defeat Yaroslav with his Varangians, but and take possession of the entire left-bank part of Dnieper Rus'.”
The Tmutarakan principality experienced rapid economic growth in the 10th-11th centuries. IN capital city Principality under Prince Vladimir Krasno Solnyshko (980-1015), the walls of a powerful fortress were built. As archaeologists noted, the construction techniques used in Tmutarakan were also used in the construction of fortresses on the Stugna River near Kiev. Tmutarakan Prince Oleg (1083-1094) issued his own silver coin with his portrait and the inscription “Lord, help.” His wife, Feofania Muzalon from Byzantium, had a seal where she was called "Archontess (Princess) of Rus'."
The fact that the Russian and Russified population predominated among the Tmutarakan residents is evidenced by numerous graffiti (wall inscriptions) in the Old Russian language, icons, and seals of the local mayor Ratibor. It is also significant that, although the majority of local settled residents have been Christians since the 4th century, since the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine, Tmutarakan became independent in church terms from the Byzantine clergy.
In addition to Tmutarakan and Korchev (Kerch), located in the same principality, other Russian cities are known on the Russian Sea or close to it: Oleshye (Aleshki, now Tsyurupinsk) in the lower reaches of the Dnieper, Belgorod-Dnestrovsky in the Dniester estuary, founded on the ruins of a city destroyed by the Goths. ancient city Thira, Small Galich (now Galati in Romania).
However, Rus''s dominant position on the Black Sea was short-lived. Between the main territory of Rus' and Russian settlements on the Black Sea lay hundreds of kilometers of sun-scorched steppe, which was impossible to plow with the agricultural technology of that time. When the Polovtsian onslaught began in the second half of the 11th century, coinciding with the time of the collapse of Kievan Rus into appanages, the connections between the Dnieper region and Tmutarakan were interrupted. Under the Polovtsian attacks, the Russian population of the Black Sea lands was mostly pushed north, and some died.
After 1094, Russian chronicles do not report anything about Tmutarakan, and the Tmutarakan chronicles have not survived to this day. Tmutarakan probably entered into vassal relations with Byzantium, since communicating with Constantinople by sea was easier and more convenient than going through the Polovtsian steppes to Rus'. However, dependence on Byzantium had the character of a military alliance, since Tmutarakan was ruled by local princes whose names are unknown. In addition, Tmutarakan paid tribute to one of the Polovtsian khans, who owned the steppe Crimea. The Russian population of Crimea and Taman continued to live here later. In any case, the Arab geographer Idrisi around 1154 called Tamatarkha (that is, Tmutarakan) a densely populated city, and called the Don River the Russian River. In the treaties of Byzantium with Genoa in 1169 and 1192 it was said that north of the Kerch Strait there was a market place with the name “Russia” (with one “s”)! Archaeologists have excavated a Slavic settlement on Tepsel Hill (Planernoe village), dating from the 12th to the beginning of the 13th centuries.
But still Rus' was cut off from the Russian Sea.
Of course, Rus' has not forgotten about the Black Sea lands. It is no coincidence that in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” Prince Igor was going to “look for the city of Tmutarakan” when setting off on a campaign against the Polovtsians. But Rus', divided into appanages, was not able to return to the shores of the Black Sea. The return occurred only after seven centuries!
About Tmutarakan, the Russians soon had nothing left in their memory except vague memories of something very far away. Even the location of Tmutarakan was completely forgotten, so in the 16th century Moscow chroniclers considered Tmutarakan to be the city of Astrakhan.
The Cuman invasions, the first of which occurred in 1061, took on the character of a massive invasion three decades later. In the 90s In the 11th century, the Polovtsians almost continuously invaded Rus'. The Russian princes, busy with strife, were not only unable to repel the Polovtsian onslaught, but often themselves invited the Polovtsians to plunder the possessions of their rivals. Among the Polovtsians, major commanders emerged: Tugorkan (in Russian epics he was called Tugarin Zmeevich) and Bonyak Sheludivy. In 1093, the Polovtsians defeated the squads of Russian princes near Trepol (on the Stugna River), and three years later they plundered the outskirts of Kyiv and burned the Pechersky Monastery.
The steppe border of Rus' now ran in an unstable broken line from Mezhibozhya to the lower reaches of the Rosi River, from where it turned sharply to the northeast to the upper reaches of the Sula, Psla, Worksla, Seversky Donets, Don and Pronya rivers.
The Russian princes, under pressure from the Polovtsian danger, began to unite. Already in 1096, Vladimir Monomakh defeated the Polovtsians on the Trubezh River. Under the leadership of Vladimir Monomakh, the united Russian squads made a number of successful campaigns against the Polovtsians in 1103, 1107, 1111. During the last campaign, the Polovtsians suffered a particularly severe defeat on the Salnitsa River. Monomakh managed to stop the Polovtsian invasions, thanks to which the authority of this prince rose very high. In 1113 he became the Grand Duke of Rus'. Vladimir Monomakh became the last prince, who ruled all of Russia. Paradoxically, it was precisely as a result of Monomakh’s victories and the weakening of the Polovtsian threat that the appanage princes no longer needed the single central power of the Grand Duke, and therefore, according to the chronicler, “the Russian land was torn.” Polovtsian raids on Russian lands continued, but not as large-scale as under Tugorkan and Bonyak. The Russian princes continued to “bring” the Polovtsians to the lands of their rivals.
Due to the Polovtsian invasions, the Slavic population from Transnistria and the Bug region (the middle and lower reaches of the Southern Bug River), where the Ulichs and Tivertsy once lived, was significantly pushed to the forest north. But in the 12th century, their fertile lands began to resemble a desert steppe. On the middle Dnieper, the “Polovtsian Field” was already approaching Kyiv itself. On the Don, the Slavic population remained only at the very sources of the river. In the steppes on the lower Don, there were still small towns where Slavs, Yasses (Alans), and remnants of the Khazars professing Orthodoxy lived. The chronicler described the town of Sharukan, whose residents came out to meet the Russian squads with an Orthodox spiritual procession.
You can accurately name the date when the Russians left the steppe territories. In 1117, the “Belovezhians”, that is, the inhabitants of Belaya Vezha, the former Khazar Sarkel, inhabited by Russians, came to Rus'. This is how the evacuation of the settled Christian Slavic population from the steppe zone took place.
True, there were still very numerous and warlike Slavs in the steppes. They were called wanderers. They are mentioned quite often in Russian chronicles, participating in civil strife between Russian princes, as well as in wars with the Polovtsians. Our chronicles first mention the Brodniks in 1146. During the fight between Svyatoslav Olgovich and Izyaslav Mstislavovich, Svyatoslav’s ally, Yuri Dolgoruky, sends him a detachment of “wanderers”. In 1147, “Brodniki and Polovtsi came (to Prince of Chernigov) many".
In 1190, the Byzantine chronicler Niketas Acominatus described how the Brodniki, a branch of the Russians, he said, participated in the attack on Byzantium. “People who despise death,” the Byzantine calls them. In 1216, the Brodniks took part in the battle on the Lipitsa River during the period of strife between the Suzdal princes.
The wanderers became “exiles,” that is, runaway slaves who preferred to “wander” the steppes rather than be in boyar bondage. “Exiles” from Rus' were attracted to the steppes by their rich “landscapes” - animal, fish and bee grounds. The wanderers were led by their chosen governors. Both the origin and lifestyle of the Brodniks are strikingly reminiscent of the later Cossacks.
Brodniki became so numerous that in one of the documents of Pope Honorius III, dated 1227, the southern Russian steppes are called brodnic terra - “land of brodniks”
However, wanderers played a not very plausible role in history. In 1223, during the Battle of Kalka, the Brodniki, led by Ploskina, found themselves on the side of the Mongol-Tatars. The Brodniks also took part in the Mongol-Tatar invasions of the southern lands of Rus' and Hungary. In any case, the Hungarian monks complained that there were many “most wicked Christians” in the Mongol army. In 1227, a papal archbishop was appointed to the “land of wanderers”. However, we do not know any information about the conversion of wanderers to Catholicism. In 1254, the Hungarian king Béla IV complained to the pope that he was being pushed out from the east, i.e. from the Carpathian-Dniester lands, Russians and Brodniks. As we see, the Hungarian monarchs distinguished the Brodniks from the bulk of the Russians. But, on the other hand, we were not talking about the wanderers as a separate people.
After the 13th century, information about wanderers disappeared from chronicles.
Almost simultaneously with the brodniks, chroniclers report about certain berladniks. Actually, the Berladniks were part of the Brodniks, who had their own center - the city of Berlad (now Barlad in Romania). The lands between the lower reaches of the Danube, the Carpathians and the Dnieper, which were previously inhabited by the Ulich and Tivertsi tribes, suffered greatly from the Polovtsian invasions at the turn of the 11th-12th centuries. The population decreased many times, some died, some fled to the north, under the protection of forests and the Carpathian Mountains. However, these lands were not completely deserted. There are still cities here - Berlad (which became the capital of the region), Tekuch, Maly Galich, Dichin, Derst, and a number of others. In 1116, Vladimir Monomakh sent Ivan Vojtisich here as a governor, who was supposed to collect tribute from cities on the Danube. After the collapse of Kievan Rus, these lands were recognized supreme power Galician prince, but on the whole they were quite independent. The Byzantine princess Anna Komnenos, in a poem dedicated to the life of her father, who ruled in 1081-1118, mentioned independent princes who ruled on the lower Danube. In particular, a certain Vseslav ruled in the city of Dichin. But then Berlad became the center of the region.
In fact, Berlad was a veche republic. Berlady was ruled by governors chosen by local residents, but sometimes Berladniks hosted individual Galician princes. One of these princes went down in history under the name of Ivan Berladnik.
The exact boundaries of Berlady are indefinable. Most likely, Berlad occupied the territory between the Carpathians, the lower Danube and the Dniester. Now this is the northeastern part of Romania, Moldova and Transnistria.
The population of Berladi was very mixed, including both Russians (apparently the predominant ones), and people from various tribes of the steppe, and Romance-speaking Vlachs (on the basis of which modern Romanian historians consider Berladi to be a “national Romanian state”). However, the Russian language and loyalty to the house of the Galician princes mean that Berlad was still a Russian political entity, combining the features of the Tmutarakan principality, just as cut off from the main territory and multilingual, as free as Mr. Velikiy Novgorod, who had “liberty in the princes,” and the structure of the future Cossack troops.
Berladniks also had a reputation as brave warriors. They captured the port of Oleshye in the South Bug Estuary, causing heavy losses to Kyiv merchants. The large number of Berladniks is evidenced by the fact that in 1159, while fighting with his own uncle, Prince Ivan Berladnik gathered 6 thousand soldiers from Berladnik. (For that era when the most powerful monarchs gathered several hundred warriors, the number of berladniks looks impressive).
The further history of Berlady is unknown to us.
However, in the same region at the turn of the XII-XIII centuries. chroniclers mention certain “Pondanubians”. Coming from the “vygontsy” (this ancient Russian term meant expelled or voluntarily left from their community), people from the southern Russian principalities who settled in the lower reaches of the Danube and Dniester, these “Podunaytsy” had their own cities - standing on the right bank of the Dniester Tismyanitsa (first mentioned under 1144) and Kuchelmin first mentioned in 1159. Probably, the “Podunaytsy” and the Berladniki are one and the same. The well-known governors of the Podunays are Yuri Domazhirovich and Derzhikrai Volodislavovich, who came from noble boyar Galician families. In 1223, the Danubian people made up the entire regiment of Mstislav the Udal in the Battle of Kalka. It is interesting that the “Galich expulsions” in the amount of 1 thousand lodiyas went along the Dniester to the Black Sea, and from there entered the Dnieper.
Brodniki, of which the Berladniki were part, according to some historians (V. T. Pashuto), were actually on the path to becoming a separate nomadic people Slavic origin. However, most scientists do not agree with this, believing that the Brodniks were about the same part of the Russian ethnic group as the Cossacks were later.
On the southern steppe border of Rus' a very militarized way of life developed local residents. Most of the border residents owned weapons and could fend for themselves during individual raids, not as large-scale as during the times of Tugorkan and Bonyak. The life of the inhabitants of the steppe borderland was reminiscent of the life of the Cossacks of the following centuries.
In “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” Prince Igor proudly says: “And my Kuryans are a seasoned squad: they are wooed under the trumpets, nurtured under their helmets, nourished from the end of the spear; their paths are well-trodden, their ravines are known, their bows are drawn, their quivers are open, their sabers are sharpened; they jump like Gray wolves in the field, seeking honor for myself, and glory for the prince.” The inhabitants of Kursk (Kursk people) really were, having grown up in the eternal steppe war, as if they were fed from the end of a spear.
It is interesting that among the border warriors there were also women who were called Polenitsa, or Polenitsa. They fought bravely alongside the heroes and participated as equals in princely feasts.
One of the ancient Russian epics about Prince Vladimir the Red Sun says:
And Vladimir is the prince of Stolnya-Kyiv
He started a feast of honors and a feast
For many princes and all the boyars,
For all the strong Russians, for the mighty heroes,
Ay to the glorious glades and to the daring ones.
Polyanitsy are also mentioned in one of the epics about Ilya Muromets. According to one of the epics, in the duel Ilya almost lost to the Polenica.
The princes of the border territories began to widely use other, “their” steppe inhabitants in the fight against the steppe inhabitants. IN mid-XII century, around 1146, on the steppe border, along the Ros River, arose tribal union from Turkic nomadic tribes dependent on Rus'. Kyiv chroniclers called the steppe allies of Rus' “black hoods” (that is, black hats). This union included the remnants of the Pechenegs (in fact, the last time the Pechenegs appear on the pages of the chronicle was in 1168 precisely as “black hoods”), as well as the Berendeys, Torks, Kovuis, Turpeis, and other small Polovtsian tribes. Many of them for a long time preserved paganism, which is why the chroniclers called them “their filthy ones.” The cavalry of the “black hoods” faithfully served the Russian princes both in their confrontation with the steppe and in their civil strife. The center of the “black hoods” was the city of Torchesk, which stood on the Ros River, and was apparently inhabited by a tribe of Torks. The Torci themselves, who came from the Aral region, were first mentioned in chronicles back in 985, as allies of Rus', who fought with her against the Khazars and Volga Bulgarians. Under the blows of the Polovtsians, the Torci found themselves on the Russian border. In 1055 they were defeated by the son of Yaroslav the Wise, Vsevolod. Subsequently, some of the Torci submitted to the Polovtsians, others entered the service of old acquaintances of the Russian princes.
“Black Klobuks” not only defended the southern borders of Rus', but were also used as elite cavalry units in other Russian lands where they were needed. Names such as the Berendeevo swamp, where Evpatiy Kolovrat fought with the Mongol-Tatars, and a number of other names with the adjective “berendeevo” still exist in the Vladimir and Yaroslavl regions. In Ukraine, in the Zhitomir region, there is the city of Berdichev, which two centuries ago was called Berendichev.
So, the Russians were significantly pushed back from the Black Sea steppes, and were forced to stubbornly defend themselves against Polovtsian raids.
3. The era of the Crimean Khanate
The Mongol-Tatar invasion particularly devastated the southern steppes. The small Russian population that remained by the 13th century was partly destroyed, partly pushed even further from the sea to the north. A new ethnic group began to dominate in the Black Sea region - the Crimean Tatars, which included the Cumans, and the remnants of other steppe peoples. This blessed land was completely deserted, and only isolated fires of shepherds and traces of their herds testified that the human race still lives here. Only in Crimea, thanks to the mountains, were cities, crafts, and international trade still preserved, and even there the decline was noticeable.
Cities on south coast Crimea in the 1260s, the Genoese took possession, having achieved Golden Horde Khan the right to have their own trading posts. Gradually, by the middle of the 14th century, the Genoese became masters of the entire southern coast. This suited the Horde khans quite well, because the Genoese colonies became the main buyer of slaves stolen from Rus'.
In the mountains around the beginning of the 13th century, a small Christian principality of Theodoro arose, the main population of which were Greeks and descendants of the Hellenized Scythians, Goths and Alans. There were several other small feudal formations in the mountains, in particular, the Kyrk-Or and Eski-Kermen principalities with a mixed population.
This was a very strong enemy. Back in 1482, the Tatars burned and plundered Kyiv, which then belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
It is known that in the first half of the 16th century alone there were 50 “Crimean armies” in Moscow Rus', that is, military predatory incursions. A major invasion occurred in 1507. Five years later, two Crimean princes devastated the environs of Aleksin, Belev, Bryansk, and Kolomna, besieged Ryazan, capturing “full of many.” In 1521, the Crimeans, together with the Kazan people, besieged Moscow.
In the second half of the 16th century, the Moscow-Crimean wars assumed a grandiose scale. Almost the entire adult male population of the Khanate took part in major Crimean raids; tens of thousands of soldiers fought on the Moscow army’s side.
So, in 1555, near Tula at Sudbischi, the Crimeans suffered a setback from Russian troops. In 1564, the Tatars burned Ryazan. In 1571, Khan Devlet-Girey burns Moscow, and the following year a united army of zemstvo and oprichnina governors defeats the Crimeans at Molodi, halfway between Moscow and Serpukhov. But the raids did not stop. In 1591, a new Crimean army led by Khan Kazy-Girey was repulsed near the village of Vorobyovo (now within Moscow). The Donskoy Monastery was erected at the site of the battle. During the 16th century there is no information about raids for only 8 years, but eight times the Tatars made two raids a year, and once - three raids! Twice they came near Moscow and once they burned it, burned Ryazan, and reached Serpukhov and Kolomna.
In the 17th century, not a year goes by without a Crimean raid. The Tula serif line was destroyed in 1607-17. Especially during the Time of Troubles, when “the Tatars went to Rus' until they were tired,” and the Shah of Iran, familiar with the state of the eastern slave markets, expressed surprise that there were still inhabitants in Russia. Only in 1607-1617. The Crimeans drove away at least 100 thousand people from Russia, and in total in the first half of the 17th century - at least 150-200 thousand. The losses of the Russian population in the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth were no less, where 76 raids were carried out during the same time (1606-1649). Taking advantage of the lack of fortifications in the steppe “ukrainas” of the Moscow state, the Crimean Tatars again entered the interior of the country. In 1632, Crimean raids contributed to Russia's failure in Smolensk War 1632-34 In 1633, the Crimeans robbed in the vicinity of Serpukhov, Tula and Ryazan.
Only the construction of the Belgorod abatis line led to relative calm in the vicinity of Moscow. However, in 1644 the Tatars devastated the Tambov, Kursk and Seversk lands. The following year, a new invasion from Crimea was defeated, but the Tatars still took more than 6 thousand captives with them. The Crimean Tatars continued to systematically ravage the Russian lands, again sometimes reaching Serpukhov and Kashira. Total number those taken captive by the Tatars for sale in slave markets in the first half of the 17th century amounted to approximately 200 thousand people. Russia had to pay tribute (“wake”) to the Crimean Khan in the second half of the 17th century. - over 26 thousand rubles. annually.
In Ukraine, engulfed in civil strife between various hetmans who succeeded each other after the death of Bohdan Khmelnytsky, it was very easy for the Tatars to capture prisoners. In just 3 years, 1654-1657, over 50 thousand people were driven into slavery from Ukraine.
In the 18th century, it became more difficult for the Tatars to invade Russia, since they would have to overcome the fortifications of the Izyum Line. Nevertheless, the raids continued. So, in 1735-36. in the Bakhmut province, “a large number of ordinary people, male and female, were rounded up and beaten, and the standing and milked bread was burned without a trace, and the cattle were driven away.” The “trans-Dnieper places” (along the right tributary of the Dnieper Tyasmin) were also devastated.
In the first half of the 18th century, according to the testimony of the Catholic missionary K. Dubay, 20 thousand slaves were exported annually from Crimea. About 60 thousand slaves were used in the Khanate itself, mainly for agricultural work.
The last raid of the Crimean Khan occurred in the winter of 1768-69. In the Elisavetgrad province, as one eyewitness reported, the Tatars burned 150 villages, “a huge smoky cloud spread 20 miles into Poland,” and 20 thousand people were taken captive.
But all these grandiose invasions had only one goal - the capture of prisoners. Since hunting for live goods was the main branch of the Khanate's economy, and slaves were its main export product, it is not surprising that the organization of raids was worked out to perfection.
According to the number of participants, the raids were divided into three types: large (seferi) was carried out under the leadership of the khan himself, over 100 thousand people took part in it. Such a raid brought at least 5 thousand captives. A medium-scale campaign (chapula) involved up to 50 thousand soldiers under the command of one of the beys, and usually up to 3 thousand prisoners were captured. Small raids (“besh-bash”, literally “five heads”) were carried out by a murza, or a free fishing artel led by its own elected commander. Such a raid brought several hundred captives.
It is interesting that the Tatars usually did not take weapons on a campaign, limiting themselves to a saber, a bow and several dozen arrows, but they certainly stocked up on belts to tie up prisoners. The Tatars tried not to engage in battle with the Russian military detachments, moving deeper into foreign territory extremely carefully, confusing their tracks like an animal. Having taken a village or city by surprise, the Tatars captured prisoners, killing those who resisted, after which they quickly retreated into the steppe. In case of persecution, the Tatars scattered into small groups, then gathered in an appointed place. Only in case of their overwhelming numerical superiority did the Crimeans enter into battle
Slaves captured in raids were mostly immediately bought by merchants Jewish origin, who subsequently resold their “products” at a great profit to everyone in need of slaves who were willing to pay generously for them.
The buyer of slaves was mainly the Ottoman Empire, which widely used slave labor in economic spheres. However, in the XIV and XV centuries. Slavic slaves were bought by merchants of the Italian urban republics that were experiencing the Renaissance, which did not in any way affect the fate of Russian slaves. Slaves of Slavic origin are noted as something common in the 14th century in the notarial deeds of some Italian and southern French cities. In particular, one of the main buyers of Russian slaves was the Roussillon region in the south of France. The famous poet Petrarch mentions the “Scythian” slaves in his letter to the Archbishop of Genoa Guido Setta. As the modern Ukrainian author Oles Buzina sarcastically reminds, “I hope it is now clear to everyone where so many blondes appeared on the canvases of Italian artists of that time. Given their chronic deficit among native women of Italy...”
Later, France became one of the most important buyers of “live goods” delivered from Crimea. During the reign of the "Sun King" Louis XIV Russian slaves were widely used as rowers on galleys. Neither the “most Christian” monarchs, nor the pious bourgeoisie, nor the humanists of the Renaissance saw anything wrong with buying Christian slaves from Muslim rulers through Jewish intermediaries.
It is characteristic that Crimean Khanate, located in the fertile Crimea with its the most fertile soils and an advantageous geographical position, was a completely primitive state structure. Even such an author as V.E. Vozgrin, the author of the book “Historical Fates of the Crimean Tatars,” having devoted his entire work of 450 pages to “evidence” that the innocent Crimean Tatars became victims of tsarism’s aggression, nevertheless admitted: “the fact of a completely unique (if not on a global scale, then at least for Europe) stagnation of the entire economy of Crimea in the 13th-18th centuries.” . Indeed, by the end of its history, fewer people lived in the Crimean Khanate than at its inception, and the economy remained at the level of 500 years ago.
The reason for the stagnation is clear: the Crimean Tatars themselves considered any work other than robbery to be a disgrace, so crafts, trade, gardening and other types of economic activity in the Khanate were carried out by Greeks, Armenians, Karaites, as well as slaves captured in raids. When Catherine II decided to completely undermine the economy of the Crimean Khanate, she ordered the eviction of the Greeks and Armenians living on the peninsula. This was enough to make the Khanate defenseless and the Russians were able to take it with their bare hands in 1783
In the fight against Turkish aggressors and Tatar predators, the free Cossacks glorified themselves. The Zaporozhye Sich stood as a powerful barrier to the invasion of the Tatar hordes. In response to the Tatar raids, the Cossacks and Donets organized retaliatory campaigns against the Crimea and Turkish fortresses on the Black Sea, freeing prisoners. On their light boats “seagulls” the Cossacks crossed the Black Sea, even attacking the outskirts of Istanbul. The Cossacks sometimes interrupted Turkish voyages in the Black Sea for years, sinking or boarding even large Turkish ships. Only from 1575 to 1637. Cossacks made up to twenty trips across the Black Sea, often entering into naval battles with the Turkish fleet. In 1675, the Zaporozhye ataman Ivan Serko invaded Crimea, devastating the peninsula and freeing 7 thousand captives. Finally, during the Russian-Turkish War of 1735-40, Russian troops under the command of Field Marshal I.Kh. Minikha invaded Crimea, defeating the capital of the Khanate, Bakhchisarai.
Mavrodin V.V. Slavic-Russian population of the Lower Don and the North Caucasus in X-XIV centuries// Scientific notes of Leningrad State Pedagogical Institute named after. A. I. Herzen. T. 11.1938, p. 23
There, p. 106
Vozgrin V. E. Historical destinies of the Crimean Tatars. M., 1992, p. 164
The term "Novorossiya" was officially enshrined in legal acts Russian Empire in the spring of 1764. Considering the project of Nikita and Peter Panin for the further development of the province of New Serbia, located in the Zaporozhye lands (between the Dnieper and Sinyukha rivers), the young Empress Catherine II personally changed the name of the newly created province from Catherine to Novorossiysk.
Catherine the Great
What guided the ruler of Russia when choosing this name is not yet known for certain. Perhaps this is a tribute to the administrative fashion of that era, when such provinces of European metropolises as New England, New Holland and New Spain were popular. It is possible that the Novorossiysk region was considered Catherine II as the “alter ego” of the Russian Empire - a territory that, being connected with the rest of the country, will simultaneously become a platform for working out socio-political and economic transformation. In any case, this majestic name obliged a lot. A province with such a name simply did not have the right to remain a sparsely populated and economically backward backwater of the empire.
Before joining Russia, the region of the Northern Black Sea region - the future Novorossiya - was often called the Wild Field. Back in the beginning In the 18th century, the lands from the southern suburbs of Poltava and Kharkov to Perekop itself were one continuous steppe. It was untouched virgin soil with black soil more than one meter deep. The sparse population of the region consisted mainly of Crimean Tatars and Cossacks. Tatar hordes wandered with their herds and herds along the Black Sea coast, regularly raiding the lands of Russia and Poland.
Trade in slaves captured during raids remained an important source of income for the Crimean Khanate. Cossacks settled along the banks of rivers, engaged in hunting, fishing, farming and various crafts. They were at enmity with the nomads, attacked Tatar troops, and stole herds. Often the Cossacks undertook expeditions to the Crimean coast, ravaging Tatar villages and freeing Christian slaves there.
The permanent steppe war went on for centuries. Serious changes in the appearance of the Black Sea region began to occur only in the middle. XVIII century, when, by decision of the empress Elizaveta Petrovna in the Russian part of the Black Sea steppes, the Novoserbsk and Slavyanoserbsk colonies were established. The Russian authorities tried to organize a mass resettlement of immigrants from the Balkan Peninsula to the created provinces: Serbs, Bulgarians, Moldovans, Volokhs and others. Colonists were attracted by the generous distribution of land, payment of “lifting” benefits, compensation for moving expenses, and benefits on taxes and duties. The main responsibility of the settlers was to perform military service to protect the border of the Russian state.
Russian settlers from Poland (especially Old Believers) were attracted to New Serbia. In the newly built fortress of St. Elizabeth (near which the city of Elisavetgrad, now Kirovograd, later arose), a large community of merchants-Old Believers was formed, who were allowed to freely worship and conduct very profitable internal trade. A special decree prohibited local authorities from forcibly shaving beards and preventing the Old Believers from wearing traditional clothing.
The resettlement campaign of the 50s of the 18th century contributed to the formation of a multinational composition of the population of the Novorossiysk region. The control of the Russian authorities over the Zaporozhye Sich increased, and the economic development of the region received a tangible impetus. Balkan colonists developed animal husbandry, gardening, and viticulture. Among the desert steppes, more than 200 new villages, strongholds and fortresses grew up in a short time, strengthening the defense of the southwestern borders of the Russian Empire.
At the same time, this stage of development of the Northern Black Sea region showed that it was impossible to solve the problem of settlement and economic development of a vast region only at the expense of immigrants. Attracting foreign immigrants was too expensive (it took an astronomical sum of almost 700 thousand rubles for the development of the provinces over 13 years). Many people from the Balkan Peninsula were unprepared for the hardships of life in an undeveloped region and returned to their homeland.
Catherine II noticeably intensified the process of development of the Black Sea steppes. In the apt expression of one of the first researchers of the history of the Novorossiysk region Apollo Skalkovsky, “34 years of Catherine’s reign is the essence of 34 years of Novorossiysk History.”
The fragmentation and lack of control in the actions of local civil and military authorities was eliminated. For this purpose, the position of Novorossiysk governor (chief commander) was introduced. In the summer of 1764, in addition to the Novoserbsk province, which had lost its autonomous status, he was subordinated to Slavic-Serbia (the region on the southern bank of the Northern Donets), the Ukrainian fortified line and Bakhmutsky Cossack regiment. To ensure better control of the province, it was divided into 3 provinces: Elisabeth, Catherine and Bakhmut. In September 1764, at the request of local residents, the Little Russian town of Kremenchug was included within the boundaries of Novorossiya. The provincial office later moved here.
Lieutenant General became the first governor of Novorossiya Alexander Melgunov. It was under his leadership that land management work began in the province. The entire land of the former New Serbia (1,421 thousand dessiatines) was divided into sections of 26 dessiatines (on land with forest) and 30 dessiatinas (on treeless land). “People of any rank” could receive land as hereditary possession, provided they entered military service or were enrolled in the peasant class. The land plots were assigned to eight local regiments: the Black and Yellow Hussars, the Elisavetgrad Pikemen (on the right bank of the Dnieper), the Bakhmut and Samara Hussars, as well as the Dnieper, Lugansk, Donetsk Pikemen Regiments (on the left bank of the Dnieper). Later, on the basis of this regimental division, a district structure was introduced.
In the 60s of the 18th century, the settlement of the Novorossiysk province began at the expense of internal Russian settlers. This was greatly helped by the permission for residents of Little Russia to move to the new province (previously, the resettlement of Little Russians to New Serbia was not welcomed). The migration of peasants from the central provinces of Russia was facilitated by the distribution of land to military and civil officials - nobles. To develop their new possessions, they began to transport their serfs to the south.
In 1763–1764, special laws were issued to regulate the situation of foreign settlers. They received permission to settle in cities or rural areas, individually or in colonies. They were allowed to establish manufactories, factories and factories, for which they could buy serfs. The colonists had the right to open trades and fairs without imposing duties. To all this were added various loans, benefits and other incentives. An office of guardianship of foreigners was specially established.
The “Plan for the distribution of state-owned lands in the Novorossiysk province for their settlement,” approved in 1764, solemnly announced that settlers, regardless of where they came from, would enjoy all the rights of “ancient Russian subjects.”
Nevertheless, during this period the conditions were formed for the predominantly Great Russian-Little Russian colonization of Novorossiya. The result of this policy was rapid population growth in southern limits European Russia. Already in 1768, excluding regular troops stationed in the region on a temporary basis, about 100 thousand people lived in the Novorossiysk Territory (at the time of the formation of the province, the population of Novorossiysk was up to 38 thousand people).
The conclusion of the Kyuchuk-Kainardzhi Peace Treaty in 1774 led to a significant expansion of the Novorossiysk region. Its territory was expanded by the Bug-Dnieper interfluve, Azov and Azov lands, as well as the fortresses of Kerch, Yenikale and Kinburn in the Crimea.
Grigory Potemkin
Shortly before the conclusion of peace (by decree of March 31, 1774), he was appointed governor of Novorossiya Grigory Potemkin. In the beginning. In 1775, the staff of Potemkin's office was equal in number to the staff of the Little Russian governor. This indicated an increase in the status of the young province.
In February 1775, the Azov province was separated from it, which included part of the Novorossiysk province (Bakhmut district), new acquisitions under the Kyuchuk-Kainardzhi Treaty and “all the dwellings” of the Don army, which actually retained its autonomy. However, this administrative division of the region was softened by the appointment of Grigory Potemkin as governor-general of the formed administrative units. At the same time, he became the commander of all troops settled in the Novorossiysk, Azov and Astrakhan provinces.
Russia's advance along the Black Sea coast led to the fact that the Zaporozhye Sich was not on the external borders, but inside Russian territory. Together with the weakening of the Crimean Khanate, this made it possible to abolish the restless Cossack freemen. On June 4, 1775, the Sich was surrounded by troops under the command of Lieutenant General Petra Tekeli, and she surrendered without resistance.
After this, a census of Sich people was carried out in settlements; for those wishing to settle in the Dnieper province (as the Zaporozhye Sich began to be called), places for further residence were assigned. The funds remaining after the liquidation of the Sich (120,000 rubles) were used for the improvement of the Black Sea provinces.
In 1778, Grigory Alexandrovich presented to Catherine II the “Establishment for the Novorossiysk and Azov provinces.” It consisted of seventeen chapters with approximate staff of provincial institutions.
In the Novorossiysk province it was planned to rebuild the cities of Kherson, Olga, Nikopol, and Vladimir; fortresses Novopavlovskaya, Novogrigorievskaya along the Bug. In addition to those mentioned, there remained the provincial city of Slavyansk (Kremenchug), New Sanzhary, Poltava, Dneprograd; Fortress of St. Elizabeth, Ovidiopolskaya. Cities were to appear in the Azov province: Ekaterinoslav, Pavlograd and Mariupol. Among the old ones, the fortresses of Aleksandrovskaya and Belevskaya are mentioned; cities of Tor, Bakhmut and others.
The resettlement policy in the 70–80s of the 18th century is often called the landowner colonization of Novorossiya. At this time, the state not only generously distributed land for estates, but also in every possible way encouraged landowners to populate their estates with tax-paying people.
On July 25, 1781, a decree was issued that ordered the transfer of economic (state) peasants to Novorossiya “voluntarily and at their own request.” The settlers received in the new places “a benefit from taxes for a year and a half, so that during this time the taxes would be paid for them by the residents of their former village,” who in return received the land of those leaving. Soon, the period of relief from paying taxes on land was significantly extended. This decree ordered the transfer of up to 24 thousand economic peasants. This measure encouraged migration primarily of middle and wealthy peasants who were able to organize strong farms on the lands being populated.
Long-time Governor-General of Novorossiya Count Mikhail Vorontsov
Along with the legal resettlement sanctioned by the authorities, people's unauthorized resettlement movement from the central provinces and Little Russia. B O The majority of unauthorized migrants settled on landowners' estates. However, in the conditions of New Russia, serf relations took the form of so-called submission, when peasants living on the land of the landowners retained personal freedom, and their responsibilities to the owners were limited.
In August 1778, the transfer of Christians (Greeks and Armenians) from the Crimean Khanate to the Azov province began. IDPs were freed for 10 years from all state taxes and duties; all their property was transported at the expense of the treasury; each new settler received 30 acres of land in a new place; the state built houses for poor “villagers” and supplied them with food, seeds for sowing and draft animals; all settlers were forever freed “from military posts” and “dachas for recruiting into the army.” According to the decree of 1783, in “villages under Greek, Armenian and Roman law” it was allowed to have “courts of Greek and Roman law, an Armenian magistrate.”
After Crimea was annexed to the empire in 1783, the military threat to the Black Sea provinces weakened significantly. This made it possible to abandon the military-settlement principle of the administrative structure and extend the effect of the Institution on Governorates of 1775 to Novorossia.
Since the Novorossiysk and Azov provinces did not have the required population, they were united into the Yekaterinoslav governorship. Grigory Potemkin was appointed its governor-general, and the immediate ruler of the region was Timofey Tutolmin, soon replaced Ivan Sinelnikov. The territory of the governorship was divided into 15 counties. In 1783, 370 thousand people lived within its borders.
Administrative changes contributed to the development of the region's economy. Agriculture spread. A review of the state of the Azov province in 1782 noted the beginning of agricultural work on “a vast expanse of fertile and rich lands, which had previously been neglected by the former Cossacks.” Land and government money were allocated for the creation of manufactories; the creation of enterprises that produced products in demand by the army and navy was especially encouraged: cloth, leather, morocco, candle, rope, silk, dyeing and others. Potemkin initiated the transfer of many factories from the central regions of Russia to Ekaterinoslav and other cities of Novorossiya. In 1787, he personally reported to Catherine II about the need to move part of the state-owned porcelain factory from St. Petersburg to the south, and always with craftsmen.
In the last quarter XVIII century in the Northern Black Sea region (especially in the Donetsk basin), active searches for coal and ores began. In 1790, the landowner Alexey Shterich and mining engineer Carl Gascoigne entrusted the search for coal along the Northern Donets and Lugan rivers, where the construction of the Lugansk foundry began in 1795. A village of the same name arose around the plant. To supply this plant with fuel, the first mine in Russia was founded, in which coal was mined on an industrial scale. The first mining settlement in the empire was built at the mine, which laid the foundation for the city of Lisichansk. In 1800, the first blast furnace was launched at the plant, where cast iron was produced using coke for the first time in the Russian Empire.
The construction of the Lugansk foundry was the starting point for the development of southern Russian metallurgy, the creation of coal mines and mines in the Donbass. Subsequently, this region will become one of the most important centers of economic development in Russia.
Economic development strengthened trade ties between individual parts of the Northern Black Sea region, as well as between Novorossiya and the central regions of the country. Even before the annexation of Crimea, the possibilities of transporting goods across the Black Sea were intensively studied. It was assumed that one of the main export items would be bread, which would be grown in large quantities in Ukraine and the Black Sea region.
To stimulate the development of trade, in 1817 the Russian government introduced a “porto-franco” (free trade) regime in the port of Odessa, which at that time was the new administrative center of the Novorossiysk General Government.
Free and duty-free import of foreign goods, including those prohibited for import into Russia, was allowed into Odessa. The export of foreign goods from Odessa into the country was allowed only through outposts according to the rules of the Russian customs tariff with the payment of duties on a general basis. The export of Russian goods through Odessa was carried out in accordance with existing customs rules. In this case, the duty was collected at the port when loading onto merchant ships. Russian goods imported only to Odessa were not subject to duty.
The city itself received enormous opportunities for its development from such a system. Buying raw materials duty-free, entrepreneurs opened factories within Porto Franco that processed these raw materials. Since finished products produced at such factories were considered manufactured in Russia, they were sold within the country without duties. Often, products made from imported raw materials within the Odessa borders of the free port did not leave the customs posts at all, but were immediately sent abroad.
Quite quickly, the Odessa port turned into one of the main transshipment points for Mediterranean and Black Sea trade. Odessa grew rich and expanded. By the end of the free port, the capital of the Novorossiysk General Government became the fourth largest city in the Russian Empire after St. Petersburg, Moscow and Warsaw.
The initiator of the experiment to introduce porto-franco was one of the most famous governor-generals of Novorossiya - Emmanuel Osipovich de Richelieu. He was the great-great-great-nephew of the French Cardinal Richelieu. It was this official who made the decisive contribution to the mass settlement of the Black Sea region. In 1812, through the efforts of Richelieu, the conditions for resettlement of foreign colonists and internal migrants to the region were finally equalized. Local authorities received the right to issue cash loans to needy settlers from other provinces of the empire “from the amounts for wine farming” and bread for crops and food from bread stores.
In the new places, food was prepared for the settlers for the first time, part of the fields were sown, and tools and draft animals were prepared. To build houses, peasants received building materials in new places. In addition, they were given 25 rubles for each family free of charge.
This approach to resettlement stimulated the migration to Novorossiya of economically active and enterprising peasants, who created a favorable environment for the spread of wage labor and capitalist relations in agriculture.
The Novorossiysk General Government lasted until 1874. During this time, it absorbed the Ochakov region, Taurida and even Bessarabia. Nevertheless, the unique historical path, combined with a number of other factors, continues to determine the general mentality of the inhabitants of the Northern Black Sea region. It is based on a synthesis of various national cultures (primarily Russian and Ukrainian), love of freedom, selfless work, economic entrepreneurship, rich military traditions, and the perception of the Russian state as a natural defender of its interests.
Igor IVANENKO
Novorossiya(Novorossiysk region, New Russia, New Rus') - a synonym for the Novorossiysk province and the Novorossiysk General Government, in a broad sense - historical territories Northern Black Sea region, annexed to the Russian Empire as a result Russian-Turkish wars in the second half of the 18th century. They included Kherson, Ekaterinoslav, Tauride, Bessarabia provinces, as well as the Kuban region. The term was used until the beginning of the 20th century, but after the revolution it was practically banned, while a significant part of the lands of New Russia was included by the Bolsheviks in the Ukrainian SSR. The term gained new currency in 2013-2014, as a result of events that occurred in Ukraine, which led to protests in the South-East of Ukraine.
History of development
The Russian Empire gradually annexed this territory during the wars with the Crimean Khanate and Ottoman Empire. Before these lands were included in Russia, there was the Crimean Khanate here, in the west - Moldova, in the northern part - the lands of the Zaporozhye Cossacks, who had a special status in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. After Pereyaslavl Rada and the entry of the Zaporozhye Army into the Russian Kingdom, the latter intensified the process of colonization of the territory. The settlement of the region began with the creation of small settlements founded by Zaporozhye Cossacks and Russian settlers. In the first half of the 18th century, the border between Russia and Turkey was clearly defined here for the first time.
In 1752, the first military-agricultural settlement of Serbs and Hungarians from Austria-Hungary was formed, called New Serbia, later followed by the Bulgarians and Volokhs. Subsequently, the region was divided into New Serbia (from Polish lands to the Dnieper) and Slavyanoserbia (east of the Dnieper along the Ukrainian border line).
In 1764, the territory of deployment of the hussar regiments of the Novoserbian military corps, which included the entire local male population, was transformed into the Novorossiysk province, which included Slavyanoserbia and the Ukrainian line. Initially, Novorossiya covered the territory of the Bakhmut district (formerly part of the Voronezh province), the Mirgorod and Poltava regiments (from the Hetmanate). Since 1765, the center of the province was Kremenchug (Poltava region).
The development of Novorossiya became widespread with late XVIII century under the leadership of Prince Potemkin, who was given almost unlimited powers for this. Under him, Zaporozhye (Dnepropetrovsk region) was annexed to Novorossiya, and a new center, Ekaterinoslav, was built (1776). In 1778, Kherson became the most southwestern city of Novorossiya. In 1783, Novorossiya was annexed by Crimea.
Administratively, the Novorossiysk province existed during the time of Catherine II, from 1764 to 1775, and during the time of Paul I, from 1796 to 1802, when it was divided into Nikolaev, Ekaterinoslav and Tauride provinces. The center was initially located in Kremenchug, then from 1783 in Yekaterinoslav. In 1803, the Nikolaev province was renamed Kherson. The Novorossiysk-Bessarabian General Government lasted until 1873.
In the Russian Empire, Novorossiya stood out for the high level of European culture of the first governors and mayors, who had great organizational abilities and state initiative (G. A. Potemkin, I. N. Inzov and others).
According to Professor Dergachev, Novorossiya, and in particular the territory of the Ukrainian Black Sea region, can be considered as an example of the most successful European regional integration in the Russian Empire. In Novorossiya, lands were distributed to Russians, Germans, Serbs, Bulgarians, Armenians, Greeks, etc. An attempt was also made to settle Jewish colonists on the land. European liberalism, traditions of economic freedom and multi-ethnicity provided its residents high quality life.
On the site or near small Cossack and Tatar settlements, many new cities were founded, such as Ekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk), Nikolaev, Kherson, Elisavetgrad, Odessa, Tiraspol, Sevastopol, Simferopol, Mariupol.
As a result, the population here acquired a motley composition: Ukrainians - especially in rural areas the western part of Novorossiya, Russians (everywhere in the cities and eastern part of Novorossiya, as well as in many rural areas of western Novorossiya) and Jews (mainly in the cities). Bulgarians made up a significant percentage of the population in the Berdyansk district and in the south of Bessarabia, the Greeks - in the villages of the Mariupol district (descendants of immigrants from the Crimea), the Germans made up almost a quarter of the population of the Perekop district.
Novorossiya after 1872
After the dissolution of the Novorossiysk-Bessarabian General Government, the term ceased to correspond to any specific territorial unit. On January 22, 1918, the Ukrainian Central Rada laid claim to Novorossiya. However, the region resisted coming under Ukrainian ownership. Under Soviet slogans, the Odessa Soviet Republic and the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic appeared in 1918, which were then united into the Ukrainian Soviet Republic. However, these ephemeral Soviet republics of Novorossiya were eliminated as a result of the German offensive. During the return of these lands to Russia in 1919-1920. The Novorossiysk region was again recreated with its center in Odessa. In 1919, Makhnovist detachments operated on the territory of Novorossiya.
When the Ukrainian SSR was created, most of Novorossiya was included in it.
During the Civil War urban population New Russia was mainly on the side of the whites, and the wealthy peasantry supported local rebel groups. For this reason, after the establishment of Soviet power in Novorossiya, mass repressions swept across the region, especially in Crimea and Odessa, and the name of the region was dropped from use.
In the territories of Novorossiya with a predominant non-Russian population in the 1920-1930s. a policy of indigenization was pursued, during which elements of the language and culture of the nationalities living on these lands (Ukrainians, Germans, Greeks, Bulgarians, etc.) were promoted and introduced. At the end of the 1930s, indigenization was curtailed, and Russification came in its place. During the Great Patriotic War and after its end, German settlers and Crimean Tatars in their entirety were evicted to Siberia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, Greek and others - partially.
In 1932, during industrialization, the first unit of the Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Station was commissioned.
Modern use of the term
Since March-April 2014, the term “Novorossiya” has been actively used by supporters of the federalization of Ukraine and the secession of the eastern regions from its composition.
In March, a street “people’s referendum” was held on the entry of the Nikolaev region into the federal district of Novorossiya. In April, a massive pro-Russian rally took place in Odessa, the participants of which voted for the creation of the Odessa People's Republic of Novorossiya (ONRN).
On April 17, Russian President V.V. Putin, during the traditional “straight line,” called the South-East of Ukraine Novorossiya:
The southeast of Ukraine is Novorossiya: Kharkov, Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson, Nikolaev, Odessa were not part of Ukraine in tsarist times, these are all territories that were transferred to Ukraine in the 20s by the Soviet government.
Counting on repeating the precedent of Crimea and Sevastopol joining Russia, after the referendums on May 11 and the declaration of sovereignty on May 12, the self-proclaimed authorities of the Donetsk and Lugansk “people’s republics” expressed a desire to join Russia and unite into Novorossiya.
territory, which included XX century historical Russian provinces: Kherson, Ekaterinoslav and Tauride (except Crimea) - cut through by the lower reaches of the Dnieper, Dniester and Bug. The flat steppe space imperceptibly merges with the steppes eastern Russia, passing into the Asian steppes, and therefore has long served as the home of tribes moving from Asia to the West. On the same Black Sea coast in ancient times a number of Greek colonies. The constant change of population continued until the Tatar invasion. In the XIII-XVI centuries. the Tatars dominated here, making the peaceful colonization of the country by neighboring peoples impossible, but in the middle. XVI century Military colonization began. Below the rapids on the Dnieper island of Khortitsa, the Cossacks founded the Sich. All R. XVIII century New settlers appear here - people from Slavic lands, Bulgarians, Serbs, Volokhs. The government, intending to create a military border population, gave them benefits and various privileges. In 1752 two districts were formed: New Serbia and Slavyanoserbia. At the same time, fortification lines were created. After the 1st Turkish War, fortified lines captured new spaces. The annexation of Crimea in 1783, making Novorossiya unsafe from the Tatars, gave new push colonization of the region. The 2nd Turkish War gave the Ochakov region into the hands of Russia. (those. western part Kherson province). From 1774, the prince was placed at the head of the administration of the Novorossiysk region. G.A. Potemkin, who remained in this position until his death (1791). He divided the country into provinces: Azov to the east of the Dnieper and Novorossiysk to the west. Potemkin's concern was the settlement and comprehensive development the edges. In types of colonization, benefits were given to foreigners - immigrants from Slavic lands, Greeks, Germans and schismatics; huge land holdings dignitaries and officials with the obligation to populate them. Simultaneously with government colonization there was free colonization from Great Russia and Little Russia. Russian colonists did not, like foreigners, benefit from help from the treasury, but they did not encounter any obstacles to settling in new places; there was a lot of land, and its owners willingly allowed people to settle on it. They also looked condescendingly at the settlement of runaway peasants in the region, the number of whom, with the development of serfdom in the 18th century and AD. XIX centuries everything increased. Under Potemkin, a number of cities were founded in Novorossiya - Ekaterinoslav, Kherson, Nikolaev, etc. Later Odessa was founded. Administratively, Novorossiya was reshaped several times. In 1783 it was named the Ekaterinoslav governorship. In 1784 the Taurida region was formed, in 1795 - Voznesensk province. Under Paul I, part of the Ekaterinoslav governorship was separated, and the Novorossiysk province was formed from the rest. Under Alexander I, the provinces of Ekaterinoslav, Kherson and Tauride were established here, which, together with the Bessarabian region annexed from Turkey, formed the Novorossiysk General Government. The administrative center of Novorossiya, as well as industrial and cultural, in the 19th century. Odessa became.
