For a long time, the peoples living on the territory of the Crimean peninsula participated in the formation of ethnic societies. These processes were counted for centuries. In the time before our era, this area was inhabited by the Taurus, nomadic Cimmerian, Scythian and Sarmatian tribes. In the Middle Ages, the Greeks, Tatars, Alans, Goths, Turks left their mark. The Tatar-Mongols, intertwining with the Greeks and Polovtsians, formed the nucleus of an ethnic group called the Crimean Tatars, which represented the main population of the Crimean Khanate, which existed from the 15th to the 18th centuries. After the conquest of Crimea, since 1783, there was a gradual resettlement to these lands of Russians, Ukrainians, Bulgarians, Greeks, Jews.
By our time, a modern multinational community of peoples has developed. This ethnic symbiosis includes representatives of about 125 nationalities. The largest groups are Russians (65%), Ukrainians (16%) and Crimean Tatars (12%). Taking into account such a structure of the population in Crimea, three languages are applied and enshrined at the legislative level: Russian, Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar. Other nationalities are not so widely represented, but they all take their place in the national palette and influence the culture of this region. According to the statistics of the population census, 2.3 million people permanently reside in Crimea (including the city of Sevastopol). The Russian language is the most widespread and used in all spheres of life, and is also universal for interethnic communication.
Russians
The representation of the Russian people in Crimea has been quite significant since ancient times. During the period of the Crimean Khanate, prisoners from Russia, Russian diplomats, merchants, and monks stayed there. They were part of the local population for centuries and after the conquest of Crimea remained there as Russian subjects. The mass settlement of the Russian people began after the annexation of the Crimea to Russia in 1783. The settlers were the military, who received preferences from the state for calling their relatives for permanent residence on the peninsula. Widows and unmarried girls came to create families. An additional impetus was the departure of the Crimean Tatars to the territory of modern Turkey and the liberation of fertile lands for the beginning of a new life for the settlers. The migration of Russians to Crimea continued throughout the 19th century. The favorable climate and nature of the southern coast attracted many tourists for treatment and recreation. It was at this time that magnificent palaces began to appear for reigning and influential persons, which today act as attractions and places of pilgrimage for vacationers. The result of these processes was the predominance of the Russian ethnos in the Crimea at the beginning of the last century.
Ukrainians
After the revolutions and wars in Russia in the 1920s and 1930s, Ukrainians also began to move to Crimea. The mass resettlement of Little Russians began after the annexation of Crimea to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954. Fulfilling the plans of the government, settlers from the western regions of Ukraine, officials and employees flocked to the collective farms of the Crimean region.
Crimean Tatars
Crimean Tatars are the third largest ethnic group on the Crimean peninsula. This is a people of complex and dramatic destiny, an ethno-cocktail from a mixture of different peoples, formed over several centuries. The emergence of a special Turkic ethnos was facilitated by living in a separate area, the predominance of Islam and a common language. Initially, the Tatars lived in the steppe Crimea, but the spread of Islam expanded their zone of influence. They were joined by the inhabitants of the mountainous regions and the southern coast, who adopted the new religion. The annexation of Crimea to Russia facilitated the outflow of indigenous people from the peninsula, and the resettlement of Slavic peoples reduced the share of Tatars in the population. Another dramatic exodus of the Crimean Tatars happened during their deportation from Crimea in 1944. But at the end of the twentieth century, the reverse process of the Tatars returning to their historical land began, and in recent years there has been a steady increase in the number of this ethnic group. The main population density of the Crimean Tatars is in the countryside in the steppe part of the peninsula.
Other peoples
In addition to these three large peoples, a large number of medium and small ethnic groups live on the territory of Crimea, whose roots have firmly grown together with the Crimean land. These are Crimean Greeks, Crimean Armenians, Jews, Karaites and Krymchaks, Gypsies, Azerbaijanis, Moldovans, Poles, Germans, Bulgarians. Crimea is a multinational, multilingual and professing many religions peninsula, so small in area and so large in warmth and friendship.
Before the seizure of Crimea by the Mongol-Tatars and the accession of the Golden Horde here, many peoples lived on the peninsula, their history goes back centuries, and only archaeological finds indicate that the indigenous peoples of Crimea inhabited the peninsula 12,000 years ago, during the Mesolithic period. The sites of ancient people were found in Shankobe, in the Kachinsky and Alim sheds, in Fatmakob and in other places. It is known that the religion of these ancient tribes was totemism, and they buried the dead in log cabins, piling high mounds on top of them.
Cimerians (IX-VII centuries BC)
The first people, about which historians wrote, were the fierce Chimerians who inhabited the plains of the Crimean peninsula. The Cimerians were Indo-Europeans or Iranians and were engaged in agriculture; the ancient Greek geographer Strabo wrote about the existence of the capital of the Cimerians - Chimerida, which was located on the Taman Peninsula. It is believed that the Chimerians brought metalworking and pottery to the Crimea, their fat herds were guarded by huge wolfhounds. The Cimerians wore leather jackets and trousers, and their heads were crowned with pointed hats. Information about this people exists even in the archives of the king of Assyria Ashurbanipal: the Cimerians more than once invaded Asia Minor and Thrace. Homer and Herodotus, the Ephesian poet Callinus and the Milesian historian Hecateus wrote about them.
The Cimerians left the Crimea under the onslaught of the Scythians, part of the people joined the Scythian tribes, and part went to Europe.
Taurus (VI century BC - I century AD)
Taurus - this is how the Greeks who visited the Crimea called the formidable tribes living here. The name may have been associated with the cattle breeding they were engaged in, because "tauros" means "bull" in Greek. Where the Taurus came from is unknown, some scholars tried to associate them with the Indo-Aryans, others considered them Goths. It is with the Taurus that the culture of dolmens is associated - ancestral burials.
The Taurus cultivated the land and grazed livestock, hunted in the mountains and did not disdain sea robbery. Strabo mentioned that the Taurus gather in the Symbolon Bay (Balaklava), get lost in gangs and rob ships. The most vicious tribes were considered the Arihs, Sinhi, and Singhs: their battle cry made the blood of enemies freeze; opponents of the Taurus were stabbed to death, and their heads were nailed to the walls of their temples. The historian Tacitus wrote how the Taurus killed the Roman legionaries who survived the shipwreck. In the 1st century, the Taurus disappeared from the face of the earth, dissolving among the Scythians.
Scythians (VII century BC - III century AD)
The Scythian tribes came to the Crimea, retreating under the pressure of the Sarmatians, here they moved to settled life and absorbed part of the Taurus and even mixed with the Greeks. In the III century, a Scythian state appeared on the plains of the Crimea with the capital Naples (Simferopol), which actively competed with the Bosporus, but in the same century it fell under the blows of the Sarmatians. Those who survived were finished off by the Goths and the Huns; the remnants of the Scythians mixed with the autochthonous population and ceased to exist as a separate people.
Sarmatians (IV-III centuries BC)
The Sartmatians, in turn, supplemented the genetic heterogeneity of the peoples of the Crimea, dissolving in its population. Roksolans, Iazygs and Aorses fought with the Scythians for centuries, penetrating into the Crimea. With them came the warlike Alans, who settled in the south-west of the peninsula and founded a community of Goto-Alans, having adopted Christianity. Strabo in Geography writes about the participation of 50,000 Roxolans in an unsuccessful campaign against the Pontians.
Greeks (VI century BC)
The first Greek colonists settled on the Crimean coast during the Taurus times; here they built the cities of Kerkinitida, Panticapaeum, Chersonesos and Theodosia, which in the 5th century BC. formed two states: Bosporus and Chersonesos. The Greeks lived off horticulture and winemaking, fished, traded and minted their own coins. With the onset of a new era, the states fell into submission to Pontus, then to Rome and to Byzantium.
From the 5th to the 9th century A.D. in the Crimea a new ethnos "Crimean Greeks" arose, whose descendants were the Greeks of antiquity, Taurus, Scythians, Gotoalans and Turks. In the 13th century, the center of Crimea was occupied by the Greek principality of Theodoro, which was captured by the Ottomans at the end of the 15th century. Some of the Crimean Greeks who have preserved Christianity still live in Crimea.
Romans (1st century AD - 4th century AD)
The Romans appeared in the Crimea at the end of the 1st century, defeating the king of Panticapaeum (Kerch), Mithridates VI Eupator; soon Chersonesus, who suffered from the Scythians, asked for their protection. The Romans enriched Crimea with their culture, building fortresses on Cape Ai-Todor, in Balaklava, on Alma-Kermen and left the peninsula after the collapse of the empire - this is what Igor Khrapunov, a professor at the University of Simferopol, writes about in his work "Population of the Mountainous Crimea in Late Roman Time".
Goths (III-XVII centuries)
The Goths, a Germanic tribe that appeared on the peninsula during the Great Migration, lived in Crimea. The Christian saint Procopius of Caesarea wrote that the Goths were engaged in agriculture, and their nobility held military posts in the Bosporus, which the Goths took control of. Having become the owners of the Bosporan fleet, in 257 the Germans embarked on a campaign against Trebizond, where they captured untold treasures.
The Goths settled in the north-west of the peninsula and in the 4th century formed their own state - Gothia, which stood for nine centuries and only then partially entered the principality of Theodoro, and the Goths themselves were apparently assimilated by the Greeks and Ottoman Turks. Most of the Goths eventually became Christians, their spiritual center was the fortress Doros (Mangup).
For a long time, Gothia was a buffer between the hordes of nomads who pressed on the Crimea from the north, and Byzantium in the south, survived the invasions of the Huns, Khazars, Tatar-Mongols and ceased to exist after the invasion of the Ottomans.
Catholic priest Stanislav Sestrenevich-Bogush wrote that even in the 18th century the Goths lived near the Mangup fortress, their language was similar to German, but they were all Islamized.
Genoese and Venetians (XII-XV centuries)
Merchants from Venice and Genoa appeared on the Black Sea coast in the middle of the 12th century; having concluded an agreement with the Golden Horde, they founded trading colonies, which held out until the seizure of the coast by the Ottomans, after which their few inhabitants were assimilated.
In the IV century, the cruel Huns invaded Crimea, some of whom settled in the steppes and mixed with the Goto-Alans. And also Jews, Armenians who fled from the Arabs, moved to Crimea, the Khazars, Eastern Slavs, Polovtsians, Pechenegs and Bulgars visited here, and it is no wonder that the peoples of Crimea are not alike, because the blood of various peoples flows in their veins.
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Our Motherland - Crimea
... There is no other country within Russia that would have lived such a long and such an intense historical life, participating in the Hellenic Mediterranean culture in all the centuries of its existence ...
M. A. Voloshin
The Crimean peninsula is a "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 "The Great Silk Road"
passed through the Crimean peninsula and linked the Roman and Chinese empires.
Later, he connected together all the uluses of the Mongol-Tatar empire.
and played a significant role in the political and economic life of peoples,
inhabiting Europe, Asia and China.
Science claims that about 250 thousand years ago, humans first appeared on the territory of the Crimean peninsula. And from that time, in different historical epochs, different tribes and peoples lived on our peninsula, replacing each other, there were different state formations.
Many of us had to deal with the names "Tavrik", "Tavrida", which were and continue to be used in relation to the Crimea. The emergence of these geographical names is directly related to the people who can rightfully be considered a Crimean aborigine, since its entire history from beginning to end is inextricably linked with the peninsula.
The ancient Greek word "tauros" is translated as "bulls". On this basis, it was concluded that the Greeks gave this name to the local inhabitants, since they had a cult of the bull. It was suggested that the Crimean highlanders called themselves some unknown word, consonant with the Greek word "bulls". The Greeks called the Taurus the mountain system in Asia Minor. Mastering the Crimea, the Greeks, by analogy with Asia Minor, called the Crimean Mountains Taurus. The people who lived in them (Taurus), as well as the peninsula (Taurica), on which they were located, received their name from the mountains.
Ancient sources brought to us scanty information about the ancient inhabitants of the Crimea - Cimmerians, Taurus, Scythians, Sarmatians. The main population of the Crimea, especially the mountainous part, is called the Taurians by the ancient authors. 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 scholars consider the Taurians to be their direct descendants. Approximately in the VII-VI Art. BC. The Cimmerians were ousted by the Scythians, then the Scythians were ousted by the Sarmatians, while the remains of the Cimmerian, then Taurian and Scythian tribes, as researchers think, retreat to the mountains, where they keep their ethnocultural identity for a long time. Around 722 BC NS. the Scythians were expelled from Asia and founded a new capital, Scythian Naples, in the 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 the northwestern Crimea was made up of peoples who came from the Dnieper region. In the VI - V centuries BC. BC, when the Scythians ruled the steppes, the Greeks founded their trading colonies on the Crimean coast.
The settlement of the Black Sea region by the Greeks took place gradually. Inhabited mainly the sea coast, and in some places the density of the location of small settlements was quite high. Sometimes the settlements were in 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; in the region of Western Crimea - with the main center Chersonesos (Sevastopol).
During the Middle Ages, a small Turkic people - the Karaites - appeared in Tavrika. Self-name: karai (one Karaite) and karaylar (Karaites). Thus, instead of the ethnonym "Karaim" it is more correct to say "Karai". Their material and spiritual culture, language, way of life and customs are of great interest.
Analyzing the available anthropological, linguistic and other data, a significant part of scientists sees the Karaites as descendants of the Khazars. This people settled mainly in the foothill and mountainous Taurica. The settlement Chufut-Kale was a peculiar center.
With the penetration of the Mongol-Tatars into Tavrika, a number of changes took place. First of all, this concerned the ethnic composition of the population, which was undergoing great changes. Along with the Greeks, Russians, Alans, Polovtsy, the Tatars appeared on the peninsula in the middle of the 13th century, and the Turks in the 15th century. In the 13th century, a mass resettlement of Armenians began. At the same time, Italians are actively rushing to the peninsula.
988 Prince Vladimir of Kiev and his retinue adopted Christianity in Chersonesos. On the territory of the Kerch and Taman peninsulas, the Tmutarakan principality was formed with a Kiev prince at its 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 to the Crimea ceased, and 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. They were merchants and artisans. The mass resettlement of serfs from central Russia began in 1783 after the annexation of the Crimea to the empire. Disabled soldiers and Cossacks received land for free settlement. Construction of the railway at the end of the 19th century. and the development of industry also caused an influx of the Russian population.
Now representatives of more than 125 nations and nationalities live in Crimea, the main part is made up of 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. Small in number, but still noticeable in the culture of the small peoples of the Crimea - the Karaites and Krymchaks.
The centuries-old experience of nationalities leads to the conclusion:
Let's live in peace!
Anatoly Matyushin
I will not reveal any secrets
There is no ideal society
If the world consisted of aesthetes,
Maybe there would be an answer.
Why is the world so restless
A lot of anger and all enmity,
We are neighbors in a huge apartment
We would not slide into trouble.
Taking up arms is not the case,
For all the oppressed sorrow,
Do not try to remake others,
Can you just improve yourself?
In order to improve something,
I would like to convince people
The world would have gotten a little better
You just have to be friends together !!.
Before the seizure of Crimea by the Mongol-Tatars and the accession of the Golden Horde here, many peoples lived on the peninsula, their history goes back centuries, and only archaeological finds indicate that the indigenous peoples of Crimea inhabited the peninsula 12,000 years ago, during the Mesolithic period. The sites of ancient people were found in Shankobe, in the Kachinsky and Alim sheds, in Fatmakob and in other places. It is known that the religion of these ancient tribes was totemism, and they buried the dead in log cabins, piling high mounds on top of them.
Cimerians (IX-VII centuries BC)
The first people, about which historians wrote, were the fierce Chimerians who inhabited the plains of the Crimean peninsula. The Cimerians were Indo-Europeans or Iranians and were engaged in agriculture; the ancient Greek geographer Strabo wrote about the existence of the capital of the Cimerians - Chimerida, which was located on the Taman Peninsula. It is believed that the Chimerians brought metalworking and pottery to the Crimea, their fat herds were guarded by huge wolfhounds. The Cimerians wore leather jackets and trousers, and their heads were crowned with pointed hats. Information about this people exists even in the archives of the king of Assyria Ashurbanipal: the Cimerians more than once invaded Asia Minor and Thrace. Homer and Herodotus, the Ephesian poet Callinus and the Milesian historian Hecateus wrote about them.
The Cimerians left the Crimea under the onslaught of the Scythians, part of the people joined the Scythian tribes, and part went to Europe.
Taurus (VI century BC - I century AD)
Taurus - this is how the Greeks who visited the Crimea called the formidable tribes living here. The name may have been associated with the cattle breeding they were engaged in, because "tauros" means "bull" in Greek. Where the Taurus came from is unknown, some scholars tried to associate them with the Indo-Aryans, others considered them Goths. It is with the Taurus that the culture of dolmens is associated - ancestral burials.
The Taurus cultivated the land and grazed livestock, hunted in the mountains and did not disdain sea robbery. Strabo mentioned that the Taurus gather in the Symbolon Bay (Balaklava), get lost in gangs and rob ships. The most vicious tribes were considered the Arihs, Sinhi, and Singhs: their battle cry made the blood of enemies freeze; opponents of the Taurus were stabbed to death, and their heads were nailed to the walls of their temples. The historian Tacitus wrote how the Taurus killed the Roman legionaries who survived the shipwreck. In the 1st century, the Taurus disappeared from the face of the earth, dissolving among the Scythians.
Scythians (VII century BC - III century AD)
The Scythian tribes came to the Crimea, retreating under the pressure of the Sarmatians, here they moved to settled life and absorbed part of the Taurus and even mixed with the Greeks. In the III century, a Scythian state appeared on the plains of the Crimea with the capital Naples (Simferopol), which actively competed with the Bosporus, but in the same century it fell under the blows of the Sarmatians. Those who survived were finished off by the Goths and the Huns; the remnants of the Scythians mixed with the autochthonous population and ceased to exist as a separate people.
Sarmatians (IV-III centuries BC)
The Sartmatians, in turn, supplemented the genetic heterogeneity of the peoples of the Crimea, dissolving in its population. Roksolans, Iazygs and Aorses fought with the Scythians for centuries, penetrating into the Crimea. With them came the warlike Alans, who settled in the south-west of the peninsula and founded a community of Goto-Alans, having adopted Christianity. Strabo in Geography writes about the participation of 50,000 Roxolans in an unsuccessful campaign against the Pontians.
Greeks (VI century BC)
The first Greek colonists settled on the Crimean coast during the Taurus times; here they built the cities of Kerkinitida, Panticapaeum, Chersonesos and Theodosia, which in the 5th century BC. formed two states: Bosporus and Chersonesos. The Greeks lived off horticulture and winemaking, fished, traded and minted their own coins. With the onset of a new era, the states fell into submission to Pontus, then to Rome and to Byzantium.
From the 5th to the 9th century A.D. in the Crimea a new ethnos "Crimean Greeks" arose, whose descendants were the Greeks of antiquity, Taurus, Scythians, Gotoalans and Turks. In the 13th century, the center of Crimea was occupied by the Greek principality of Theodoro, which was captured by the Ottomans at the end of the 15th century. Some of the Crimean Greeks who have preserved Christianity still live in Crimea.
Romans (1st century AD - 4th century AD)
The Romans appeared in the Crimea at the end of the 1st century, defeating the king of Panticapaeum (Kerch), Mithridates VI Eupator; soon Chersonesus, who suffered from the Scythians, asked for their protection. The Romans enriched Crimea with their culture, building fortresses on Cape Ai-Todor, in Balaklava, on Alma-Kermen and left the peninsula after the collapse of the empire - this is what Igor Khrapunov, a professor at the University of Simferopol, writes about in his work "Population of the Mountainous Crimea in Late Roman Time".
Goths (III-XVII centuries)
The Goths, a Germanic tribe that appeared on the peninsula during the Great Migration, lived in Crimea. The Christian saint Procopius of Caesarea wrote that the Goths were engaged in agriculture, and their nobility held military posts in the Bosporus, which the Goths took control of. Having become the owners of the Bosporan fleet, in 257 the Germans embarked on a campaign against Trebizond, where they captured untold treasures.
The Goths settled in the north-west of the peninsula and in the 4th century formed their own state - Gothia, which stood for nine centuries and only then partially entered the principality of Theodoro, and the Goths themselves were apparently assimilated by the Greeks and Ottoman Turks. Most of the Goths eventually became Christians, their spiritual center was the fortress Doros (Mangup).
For a long time, Gothia was a buffer between the hordes of nomads who pressed on the Crimea from the north, and Byzantium in the south, survived the invasions of the Huns, Khazars, Tatar-Mongols and ceased to exist after the invasion of the Ottomans.
Catholic priest Stanislav Sestrenevich-Bogush wrote that even in the 18th century the Goths lived near the Mangup fortress, their language was similar to German, but they were all Islamized.
Genoese and Venetians (XII-XV centuries)
Merchants from Venice and Genoa appeared on the Black Sea coast in the middle of the 12th century; having concluded an agreement with the Golden Horde, they founded trading colonies, which held out until the seizure of the coast by the Ottomans, after which their few inhabitants were assimilated.
In the IV century, the cruel Huns invaded Crimea, some of whom settled in the steppes and mixed with the Goto-Alans. And also Jews, Armenians who fled from the Arabs, moved to Crimea, the Khazars, Eastern Slavs, Polovtsians, Pechenegs and Bulgars visited here, and it is no wonder that the peoples of Crimea are not alike, because the blood of various peoples flows in their veins.
- November, 10th 2013In recent years, after the return of the Tatars from deportation, interethnic and interregional relations on the Crimean peninsula have escalated. The basis of the conflict is a dispute: whose land is this and who is indigenous to Crimea? To begin with, let's define who the historical and ethnographic sciences belong to the category of indigenous peoples. The encyclopedia gives this answer:
An indigenous people is an ethnos that has mastered a territory that had not been inhabited by anyone before.
And now let's trace the changes in the Crimean ethnogenesis (the appearance of various peoples), although this will not be a complete picture, but nevertheless it is impressive. So, they lived in Crimea at different times.
About 300 thousand years ago- primitive people (early Paleolithic); tools of labor and hunting were found in the campsites on the South Bank.
About 100 thousand years ago- primitive people (Middle Paleolithic); more than 20 human sites are known: Kiik-Koba, Staroselie, Chokurcha, Shaitan-Koba, Akkaya, Zaskalnaya, Prolom, Kobazi, Wolf Grotto, etc .; religion is animism.
40-35 thousand years ago- people of the Upper Paleolithic; religion - totemism; 4 sites were found, including Suren I.
12-10th millennium- people of the Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age); found more than 20 sites throughout the Crimea: Shankoba, Fatmakoba, Alimov canopy, Kachinsky canopy, etc .; religion is totemism.
8th millennium- people of the Neolithic (New Stone Age); Kemi-Obinskaya culture (Tashair); religion is totemism.
5th millennium(Bronze Age) - the arrival in the Crimea of the tribes of the "catacomb" and "log" cultures (burial in mounds).
The existence of different cultures did not pass without a trace for themselves - they undoubtedly influenced each other, changed and enriched, and possibly combined, giving rise to new cultures. Perhaps this was the beginning of the culture of the Cimmerians (alien tribes) and the culture of the Taurus (local tribes):
3rd millennium BC(Iron Age) - Cimmeria, Cimmerians - warlike people, Indo-Aryans - people of European type; the area of their settlement: the south of modern Russia, Ukraine, the North Caucasus, Crimea; religion is polytheism. They lived in the valleys. Most likely, they brought to the Crimea the ability to extract and process iron.
X century BC- Tavria, Tavrika, Tavrida, Taurus (they can be called a single people only with a certain stretch; rather, it is a conglomerate of various tribes: Arikhs, melodies, Sinkhs, etc.) They lived in the mountains, were engaged in agriculture, cattle breeding, hunting, fishing; preserved their burials - dolmens and fortifications: Uch-Bash, on Cape Kharax, on Mount Kastel Seraus, Koshka, Karaul-both, on the rocks of the Kachinsky 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 coast at that time. It has not been unequivocally clarified why they called them that: either for their fierce disposition, or for their countless herds ("tauros" - a bull from Greek), or whether this word meant "highlanders" (taur-tur-mountain) ...
VII-VI centuries BC- Greeks. Chersonesus Tauride, Bosporus Cimmerian on the shores of Pontus Euxin (Black Sea) and Meotida (Sea of Azov). The Greeks founded these two states, as well as hundreds of settlements along the coast; religion - polytheism, the Pantheon of the Olympic gods, headed by Zeus (Kronos); from the 1st century AD - gradual Christianization; The Greeks were the first in the Crimea to start selling slaves from the local “for export” (how, by the way, could the Taurus, and then the Scythians, treat them, after all, they did not even consider them as people?)
VIII-VII centuries BC- Scythia, Scythians (Cholots), Sindhs, Meots, Saks, Massagets and other Indo-Iranian nomadic tribes, who practically ousted 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 Crimea (Simferopol) - Scythian Naples, built in the III century BC) Religion - polytheism. The pantheon of gods led by Pope.
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 Taurs were no longer separated from the Scythians, but were called Tavro Scythians, and part of the Scythian settlements mixed with the Greek ones (for example, the Tatars already in the XIII century found a poor Greek village, which was named Kermenchuk). But let's continue the list.
2nd century BC Sarmatia. The Sarmatians drove the related-speaking Scythians from the Northern Black Sea region and the Azov region to the Crimea; religion is polytheism.
1st century BC- Jewish diaspora - Semites. Religion - monotheism (god Yahweh); gravestone slabs with seven-branched candlesticks and inscriptions in Hebrew were found on the Kerch and Taman peninsulas.
1st century BC - 1st century AD- Pontians (Pontic Bosporus); settled on the site of the Bosporus Cimmerian kingdom headed by Mithridates VI Eupator (Kerch); religion is polytheism. Together with the Pontians, the Armenians appeared on the peninsula.
1st century BC - III century AD- the Romans and Thracians, after the defeat of the Pontic kingdom, capture the Crimea (now it is the most eastern outskirts of the Roman Empire); religion - polytheism, and since 325. - Christianity; the Romans introduced the locals to their culture, introduced them to the merits of Roman law.
Until the 4th century AD.- Eastern Slavs: Antes, Tivertsy (Artania) - since ancient times have been known in the Northern Black Sea region; pushed back to the north during the Great Migration of Peoples, partially preserved in Taman - the future Tmutarakan; religion is polytheism.
III century AD- Germanic tribes: Goths and Heruls (Gotia, Captaincy Gotia); 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 to the 7th century. The Goths were the impetus for the unification of the Slavs; religion - polytheism, and later - Christianity.
III century AD- Alans-Yases, related to the Sarmatians (distant ancestors of the Ossetians); together with the Sarmatians they settled among the Scythians; the most famous in Crimea for their settlement Kyrk-Ork (before the XIV century, then - Chufut-Kale), when they were pushed into the mountains by the Huns; religion - Christianity.
IVc.- Huns, Xiongnu (Huns principality) - ancestors of today's Tuvans; invaded from the Trans-Altai limits, dealt a powerful blow to the Goths, drove away a significant part of the population, thereby initiating the Great Migration of Peoples; religion - paganism, later - Christianity.
IVc.- Byzantium (Eastern Roman Empire), Kherson fema; after the collapse of the Roman Empire, Taurica, as it were, "inherited" Byzantium; strong points in the Crimea - Kherson, Bospor (Kerch), Gurzuvity (Gurzuf), Aluston (Alushta) and others. accept Christianity.
VI century- the Turks (Turkets-Mongoloids) raided the Crimea from Siberia, setting up their dynasty of Ashins in the Khazaria (the lower reaches of the Volga and Terek), they 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.
VIIc.- Bulgars (Bulgarians). Some of them settle in the Crimea, becoming sedentary from nomadic, settling in the foothill valleys and engaging in agriculture (in general, the Volga Bulgars-Turks moved to the West; their other wave went further north, creating the Kazan Khanate; in the Balkans they assimilated with the southern Slavs, founding Bulgaria and adopting Christianity ); pagans, and from the IX century. - Orthodox Christians.
VIIc.- the Greekized superethnos (Gotia, Doros) - made up the Greek-speaking basis of the population of the Mangup principality (Dori); Byzantium is strengthening, uniting the peoples of different languages who lived in the mountainous Crimea and along the South Coast; religion - Christianity, as well as other denominations.
VIII-X centuries- Khazar Kaganate, Khazars (Turkic-speaking peoples of the Dagestan type); religion - paganism, later part adopted Islam, part - Judaism, and part - Christianity. Power in the Kaganate was first seized by the Ashins-Turquets, then by the Jews; Judean Khazaria captures part of the steppe and coastal Crimea, competes with Byzantium, seeks to subjugate Russia (defeated by Prince Svyatoslav in 965).
VIII-X centuries- Karaites; came to Khazaria from Israel through Persia and the Caucasus; met with the Khazars; ousted by the Rohdanite Jews to the outskirts of Khazaria, including the Crimea; language - the Kynchak dialect of the Turkic language, close to the Crimean Tatar; religion - Judaism (only the Pentateuch - Torah is recognized).
VII-I centuries- Krymchaks (Crimean Jews) - remained in the 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.
End IX - early X century.- Pechenegs-Bedzhany (Turkmens) - Turks from the Baraba steppes; defeated by the Polovtsy and the Guzes; some dispersed to the Crimea, some to the Lower Dnieper region (Karakalpaks); were assimilated by the Eastern Slavs; religion is paganism.
X-XI centuries- Guzy-Oghuz (Turkmens) - Turks. Leader - Oguz Khan; drove the Pechenegs out of the Crimea and the Northern Black Sea region, and then, together with the Pechenegs, opposed the Rus (Rugs), Slavs and Polovtsians; religion is paganism.
X-XIII centuries- Eastern Slavs (the Tmutarakan principality as part of Kievan Rus). This is a principality (Taman and Korchev-Kerch), founded by Prince Vladimir in 988, in 1222. together with the Polovtsy they fought off the Turks; at the Battle of Kalka in 1223. the ataman of Tmutarakan Plaskinya took the side of the Mongol-Tatars; religion - Christianity.
XI century- Cumans (Kypchaks, Cumans, Komans). The state of Ojaklar was created in the Black Sea region and in the Crimea, with the capital Sarkel (on the Don). With Russia, they alternately fight, then conclude alliances; together with four Russian princes Mstislavs and Khan Katyan, they were defeated on the Kalka River in 1223; part went to Hungary and Egypt (Mamluks), the rest were assimilated by Tatars, Slavs, Hungarians, Greeks, etc. Religion - paganism.
XI century- it is possible that Armenians were settling in Crimea at this time (their homeland is being tormented by the Persians and Seljuk Turks). Mountain Tavrika east of present-day Belogorsk has been called Primorskaya Armenia for some time; in a wooded tract, the Armenian monastery Surb-khach (holy cross) appears, known even outside the Crimea; Belogorsk itself is a large and rich city - Solkhat (it is inhabited by the Kipchaks, Alans and Rus, as well as Soldaiya, Surozh (Sudak).
The ancient authors have a lot of reports about dews (Rus) that lived from the first centuries of our era in the Northern Azov region, the Black Sea region and the Crimea. In Byzantine documents slipped: “ Scythians, who are Russians". In the IX century. The Black Sea was called the Russian Sea by the Arabs (earlier it was the Rum Sea - "Byzantine"). In the IX century. the enlightener Kirill saw in Tavrika books "written in Russian letters." The word "ros" means "light, white". The Tarkhankut peninsula was designated as the "white coast", and dew lived there. The Arabs called the Rus Slavs, the Greeks called the 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, Tavro-Scythian leader, and the "Russian new city" is most likely Scythian Naples. In the XI century. The Kerch Strait is called the Russian River, and on its Crimean coast, opposite Tmutarakan, there is the city of Rosia - the White City (Kerch?). The Russian merchant Afanasy Nikitin in 1474, when he was returning from Zamorye, visited the Crimea, where he saw many Russians and people of the Orthodox faith in general, as well as baptized Tatars (which he wrote about in his diaries).
XII-XV centuries- Venetians, Genoese, Pisans founded trading posts in the Crimea: Kafa, Soldaya, Vosporo, Chembalo. They appeared in the Crimea during the time of Byzantium, in the army of Mamai they participated in the Battle of Kulikovo. In 1475. Kafa (modern Feodosia) fell under the blows of the Turks and Tatars. Religion - Catholicism.
XII-XV centuries- in the Crimea, a multi-ethnic Mangup principality of Theodoro appears, which has connections with Constantinople, Europe, Moscow and numbering 200 thousand. people of the population (most of them are Greeks). It stretched from Balaklava to Alushta, was located in the mountainous Crimea; defeated by the Turks and Tatars in 1475. After 300 years, only 30 thousand remained in the Crimea. Greeks, half of them are Urum (Tatarized). In 1778 the Greeks left for the Azov region (Mariupol).
The beginning of the XIII century.- Crimea is inhabited by Tatars - Ulus of the Golden Horde. The capital becomes Eski-Crimea - Old Crimea (formerly Solkhat). The Trans-Baikal tribes of Tatars and Mongols, led by Genghis Khan, captured the Yenisei and Ob Kirghiz, conquered the peoples of Central Asia. At the beginning of the XIII century. Genghis Khan moved westward to the Kipchaks and Kievan Rus. In Crimea - from 1239; pagans, and since the XIV 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 - have been known in Crimea since the time of the Crimean Khanate. Perhaps they first appeared in Khazar times; religion - paganism, and then partly Christianity, partly - Islam.
XV century - 1475-1774.- Turks, the Ottoman Empire (the first attempt to establish itself in the 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, Moldavians, Karsk Greeks, Vlachs, 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 leave for Turkey, and the settlement of the Crimea and the Novorossiysk Territory by Slavic and other peoples (including from abroad) begins. Religion - various denominations and denominations.
Afterword
The article uses data from the article "Indigenous and Possessed" (newspaper "Krymskaya Pravda" dated January 27, 2004), written by Vasily Potekhin, Ph.D.
None of the peoples living in Crimea today is indigenous - autochthonous, that is, indigenous. The principle of our peaceful multiethnic 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 will inevitably lead to national fascism... Crimea was, is and will be a historical testing ground for the creation of a multinational Eurasian culture.
