Novorossiya. Facts you didn't know. Lies of Putin or the History of "Novorossiya" and its Ethnic Composition in the 19th Century

"Originally Russian" Novorossiya in figures and facts.

Many large states are characterized by very significant regional differences, in other words, they consist of a number of historical and cultural regions that have their own specifics. Ukraine is often conditionally divided into 3 large regions, which in turn include a number of smaller regions. This is the so-called. Western Ukraine, Central Ukraine and Southeast Ukraine.

With the naked eye, you can see the difference between South-Eastern Ukraine and the first two regions: here they speak differently and vote differently. Many even wonder if this region was included in Ukraine by mistake, while others are even sure that the Soviet Union “gave” this land to Ukrainians, but in general they (the land) have nothing to do with Ukraine.

Here I will allow myself to quote the words of one author, which well illustrate the view of the South-East as "primordially Russian lands." Here it is:

“Meanwhile, for a normal person, such terms as Novorossiya are unifying for Russia and Ukraine. These lands were inhabited by people who spoke Russian and only Russian.[…] What is Novorossiya? This is the territory of the Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporozhye, Kherson, Nikolaev and Odessa regions, colonized by Empress Catherine the Great and called Novorossia, were annexed to Ukraine by the Bolshevik regime in a voluntaristic way.[...] territories."

I propose to find out who actually populated Novorossia, what language they spoke and what was the majority here.

Novorossiya - general information and a brief background

When we are dealing with historical-geographical regions, we need to understand two things: any zoning is conditional, historical-geographical regions in different time could have different boundaries.

Localization

Let's start with localization - where is Novorossiya located, what does it include and how does it compare with other regions, in particular with the modern Southeast.

The southeast of Ukraine, on the one hand, is its entire territory below the so-called. Voeikov's axis, in other words - steppe zone and Crimea. This is, as it were, based on the physical and geographical situation. And with reference to a modern administrative map, these are: Odessa, Nikolaev, Kherson, Zaporozhye, Dnepropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkov, Lugansk regions and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

What is Novorossiya? Its territorial boundaries according to different authors different. In a broad sense, it includes the southern lands of Ukraine and the south-west of Russia, which were entrenched in the Russian Empire at the end of the 18th century. In a narrow sense, and it is he who interests us, since the Russian lands do not interest us, this is the territory of the Yekaterinoslav and Kherson provinces (sometimes the northern (mainland) part of the Tavria province is also included in it). In general, Novorossia does not completely coincide with the modern region of South-Eastern Ukraine, either in a narrow or broad sense, since in a broad sense it includes Russian territories, and also does not include the northern parts of the South-East (Kharkov, northern part Lugansk region is the historical Slobozhanshchina, the extreme north of Dnepropetrovsk.)

So, in our article, Novorossiya is territorially Yekaterinoslav and Kherson provinces. (the map below shows the borders of Novorossiya in this sense).

Background of settlement

According to Maria Gimbutas with her mound hypothesis, the southeast of Ukraine is part of the ancestral home of the Proto-Indo-Europeans. Proto-Indo-Europeans are the speakers of a language from which almost all modern languages Europe, and many languages ​​​​of Asia (they are spoken by 2.5 billion people). The Indo-European population (Scythians, Sarmatians) lived here before the Great Migration of Peoples. Then the Turks come here. Different Turkic peoples succeeded each other (Huns, Avars, Khazars, Pechenegs, Cumans, Mongol-Tatars). For a thousand years, no one has passed through these lands, which are the outskirts of the large Eurasian steppes. However, the Indo-Europeans ("already in the person" of the Slavs) simply did not cede these lands to the Turkic world and periodically settled these territories. In the times of Russia, for example, Tivertsy and Ulichi settled in the right-bank Dnieper steppes. Already in the 14th-15th centuries, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania decided to take the steppes from the Turks, and not without success. In the 15-16 centuries, the almost uninhabited steppe was periodically visited by "goers", who were attracted by the wealth of these lands. By the 16th century, the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks were formed here. It was the Cossacks who mastered the northern lands of the future Novorossia, the main role was played by the territory of the modern Dnepropetrovsk region, on the territory of which most of the sichs were located. Below is a map of the lands of the Zaporizhian Army at the beginning of the 18th century.

As we can see, a significant part of New Russia long before Catherine was already part of Russia and settled by Zaporizhzhya Cossacks. Under Catherine, following the results of the Russian-Turkish wars, in which the Cossacks took an active part, the rest of the lands became part of Russia. Catherine thanked the Cossacks for their faithful service - she liquidated them, and the Cossacks and newly annexed lands began to be gradually developed.

And now we will actually figure out who settled and developed the Novorossiysk lands and what language they spoke.

National composition of New Russia 1719-1897

We will not reinvent the wheel, the national composition of the population according to the documents of the Russian Empire has long been studied in detail by historians, and we can only briefly acquaint the reader with the results.

We will present the results compactly - in tables, and then comment. We will take the tablets directly from the original source - the monograph by V. M. Kabuzan.(“Settlement of Novorossia (Ekaterinoslav and Kherson provinces) in the 18th - first half of the 19th centuries (1719-1858)”, 1976 (doctoral dissertation)).

For reference:

Vladimir Kabuzan

born in 1932 Doctor of Historical Sciences. Chief Research Fellow at the Institute of Russian History. Author of 15 monographs, including: "Russians in the World" (1996); "The population of the North Caucasus in the XIX-XX centuries." (1996); "The serf population of Russia in the XVIII - 50s of the XIX century" (2003)

So, the share of the Ukrainian population of Novorossia 1719-1850:

National composition by county:

As can be seen from the tables above, the population of Novorossiya in the 19th century was multinational. Ukrainians, Russians, Greeks, Jews, Germans, Moldavians and others lived here. However, in general, Ukrainians dominated the region all the time. Moreover, in such a multinational region, there were territories almost entirely populated by Ukrainians. Before the active settlement of the region by settlers, in most of the territory of the region, except for Ukrainians, there was no one at all. But even by the middle of the 19th century, when the region was already very densely populated, and total the population reached a million, there were territories with almost mono-ethnic Ukrainian composition, so in the 1850s Ukrainians accounted for 94.77% of the population of Novomoskovsky, 91.07% of Alexandria and 98.85% of Verkhnedneprovsky district.

Think about the figure of 98.85%! Even the modern Ternopil region will envy such a percentage. And what is interesting is that there were no Russians (Great Russians) here in 1857 at all, not a single person.

Thus, in the New Russia of the 18th-19th centuries there were lands almost completely or completely inhabited only by Ukrainians. The majority of the population (>50%) were always Ukrainians in the region as a whole, and almost always in specific counties. As can be seen from the table, in 1779 the Ukrainians did not constitute a majority in 3 counties: Rostov, Alexandrovsk and Slavyanoserbsky. In the Rostov uyezd (it is now Russia), the Armenians came out on top, in the Alexandria uyezd, the Greeks who moved from the Crimea, in the Slavyanoserb uyezd, the Ukrainians were in the first place, but there were more Russians along with the Moldavians. However, this was a temporary phenomenon, after a few years the situation changed. In the first half of the 19th century, Ukrainians made up more than 50% in all counties. The 1897 census also recorded the predominance of Ukrainians in almost all counties. Now they did not make up the majority in Odessa, where the Russians came first, and the Jews came second.

The Russians, on the other hand, played an important, but in comparison with the Ukrainians, a very modest role in the settlement of Novorossia. Their share in the 18th century was significant in the extreme eastern Bakhmut and Slavyanoserbsky districts, in the rest they either did not exist at all, or there were very few, for example, in the territory of the future Kherson province they were about 8% - this is the third place after Ukrainians and Moldovans . Subsequently, the share of Russians grew, but even in 1857 the share of Russians in Yekaterinoslav province was only 8%.

Thus, Ukrainians in Novorossiya:

1)They began to develop these lands before the Russians (Great Russians)

2)They have always been the majority in the region as a whole, and in all, with rare exceptions, counties in particular. They had the maximum share of the entire population of the region in 1745 - 96.86%, the minimum from 1719 to 1858 - in 1779 (64.76%).

Russians in Novorossiya:

1)They began to develop these lands later than the Ukrainians

2) In no county have they ever made up a majority (> 50%) (in Odessa in 1897 they were the most numerous ethnic group, but did not make up 50%)

3)In many counties they were not even the 2nd largest ethnic group, for example, in the middle of the 19th century in the Tiraspol county they occupied only the 5th place, in Aleksandrovsky - the third.

4)Absent in some counties at all!

Following the Russian Empire, the name Novorossiya has sunk into history for a long time. Now this name is again on everyone's lips, it is now known not only in Russia and neighboring countries, but all over the world. We will try to plunge into history and consider what this land was like, how it was mastered, what names are associated with it.

Of course, these places were inhabited many centuries ago, but they began to actively develop after the time of Peter the Great. Here, after all, access to the Black and Azov Seas, and hence the development of trade with European, and maybe other countries. Once, in the 13th-16th centuries, the Crimean Tatars ruled here. In the steppe for many miles there was not a single tree or village. Only robbers were enough - from among the Tatars.

There were few infertile soils and they were located closer to the sea. The most full-flowing rivers were the Dnieper, Dniester and Bug, the rest of the small rivers disappeared during frequent droughts. There was an abundance of fish in the rivers, on land - deer, fallow deer, saigas, wild boars and horses, foxes, badgers, many kinds of birds. “Wild horses were found here in herds of 50-60 heads, and it was extremely difficult to tame them; they were hunted, and horse meat was sold on a par with beef. The climate of the region is warmer than in many other areas of Russia. All together, this created favorable conditions for attracting Russian settlers.

However, the paths of history are not simple. Life in the steppe was associated with many inconveniences, and for a person of the 17th century. was extremely difficult. So, because of the dry continental climate, winters were severe, with winds and blizzards, and droughts often occurred in summer. The steppes were open on all sides to the action of the winds, the north wind brought cold with it, and the east wind brought terrible dryness and heat. The insufficient amount of river water and the rapid absorption of evaporation by the atmosphere due to dry winds led to the fact that in summer all the rich vegetation dried up.

Springs and wells in the southeastern part of the Novorossiysk Territory were located only near the banks of the rivers, and there was not a single one on the mountain in the steppe, so the roads were laid near the rivers. In addition to drought, swarms of locusts, as well as clouds of midges and mosquitoes, were a real misfortune. All this was a serious obstacle to the full-fledged occupation of cattle breeding and agriculture, not to mention the constant danger of an attack by the Tatars. Thus, the first colonists were forced to fight both with nature and with the Crimean Tatars, performing a defensive function.

The beginning of the settlement of the Novorossiysk steppes in the first half. 18th century

The first settlers of the Novorossiysk steppes were the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks, who founded their Sich behind the Dnieper rapids on the island of Khortitsa in the second half of the 16th century. Since that time, the places of the Sich have changed - either on the island of Tomakovka, then on Mikitin Rog, then on Chertomlytsky Rechishche, then on the river. Kamenka, then in the tract Oleshki, then over the Podpolnaya river. Resettlement from one place to another was due to many reasons, natural conditions played a big role.

At the first time of its historical existence in the XVI - early. 17th century The Zaporizhzhya Sich was a military brotherhood hiding from the Tatars on the Dnieper Islands, renouncing by necessity many forms of proper civilian life - family, personal property, agriculture, etc. The second goal of the brotherhood was the colonization of the steppe. Over time, the limits of Zaporozhye extended more and more to the account of the Wild Field, the Tatar steppe. In the XVIII century. Zaporizhzhya Sich was a small "enclosed city, containing one church, 38 so-called kurens and up to 500 kuren Cossack, trading and artisan houses."

It was the capital of the army, destroyed in 1775. The Zaporozhye lands occupied the territory on which the Yekaterinoslav and Kherson provinces were subsequently formed, with the exception of the Ochakov region, that is, the area lying between the Bug and the Dniester. They stretched mainly along the river. Dnieper.

Zaporizhzhya settlements were scattered over a vast area, the population was engaged in cattle breeding, agriculture, and other peaceful crafts. Exact data on the number of inhabitants is unknown. “According to the official statement compiled by Tevelius at the time of the destruction of the Zaporizhzhya Sich, there were (except for the Sich in the strict sense of the word) 45 villages and 1601 winter quarters, all the inhabitants were 59637 hours of both sexes.” The historian of the Novorossiysk Territory, Skalkovsky, counted 12,250 people on the basis of original documents from the Sich archive. The land of the Zaporizhian Army, which constituted most of Novorossiya, became part of Russia in 1686 under the "eternal peace" with Poland.

Russian state colonization of Novorossia in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Atlas of the Russian Empire. 1800 year. Sheet 38. Novorossiysk province of 12 counties

At the beginning of the reign of Catherine II, in 1770, the so-called Dnieper line was built, which was the result of victories in the Turkish war (the capture of Azov and Taganrog). This line was supposed to separate the entire Novorossiysk province, together with the Zaporizhzhya lands, from the Tatar possessions; from the Dnieper it went to the Sea of ​​Azov, passing along the rivers Berda and Horse Waters, and crossed the entire Crimean steppe. Her last fortress, St. Petra was located near the sea near modern Berdyansk. In total, there were 8 fortresses in this line.

In 1774, Prince Potemkin was appointed Governor-General of the Novorossiysk Territory, who remained in this position until his death in 1791. He dreamed of turning wild steppes into fertile fields, building cities, factories, factories, and creating a fleet on the Black and Azov Seas. The full implementation of the plans was hindered by the Zaporozhian Sich. After the Russian-Turkish wars, she found herself inside Russian possessions, and the Cossacks no longer had anyone to fight with. However, they owned a vast territory and were unfriendly to the new settlers.

Then Potemkin decided to destroy the Sich. In 1775, General Tekeli was ordered to occupy the Sich and destroy the Zaporozhye army. When the general approached the Zaporozhye capital, at the insistence of the archimandrite, the ataman surrendered, and the Russian troops occupied the Sich without a fight. Most of the Cossacks went to Turkey, others dispersed to the cities of Little Russia and New Russia. Thus ended the history of one city and began the history of many.

The lands of the Cossacks began to be distributed to private individuals who assumed the obligation to populate them with freemen or serfs. These lands could be received by officials, headquarters and chief officers and foreigners; only single-dvortsy, peasants and landowners were excluded. Thus, large-scale landownership was artificially created in that region, which until now had almost no landowner and serf element. The minimum plot was 1,500 acres of convenient land. The conditions for obtaining land were very favorable: for 10 years, a privilege was given from all duties; during this time, the owners had to populate their plots in such a way that for every 1,500 acres there were 13 households. The size of the plots ranged from 1,500 to 12,000 acres, but there were individuals who managed to get several tens of thousands of acres.

These lands, after 10 years, could become the property of these persons. After the destruction of the Sich, its entire military and senior treasury was confiscated and the so-called city capital (more than 120 thousand rubles) was formed from it for issuing loans to residents of the Novorossiysk province.

The accession of the Crimea in 1783 had a huge impact on the successful settlement of the Black Sea steppes. Together with the coasts of the Black and Azov Seas, Russia received access to the sea, and the value of the Novorossiysk Territory increased significantly. Thus, from the 2nd floor. 18th century active colonization of the region begins, which was divided into two types: state and foreign.

On the initiative of Potemkin, all military fortified lines were built, except for the last one, the Dniester. His main merit lies in the construction of new cities: Kherson, Yekaterinoslav and Nikolaev.

Construction of cities in the Novorossiysk Territory

Kherson. The first city built on the initiative of Prince Potemkin was Kherson. The decree of the empress on its construction dates back to 1778 and was caused by the desire to have a new harbor and shipyard closer to the Black Sea, since the former ones, for example Taganrog, presented significant inconvenience due to shallow water. In 1778, the Empress ordered to finally choose a place for a harbor and a shipyard on the Dnieper and call it Kherson. Potemkin chose the Alexander-Shanz tract.

The production of works was entrusted to the descendant of the famous Negro and godson of Peter V. Hannibal, 12 companies of craftsmen were given at his disposal. A rather large territory was allocated for the future city, and 220 guns were sent to the fortress. The leadership of this business was entrusted to Potemkin, who wanted to make the city as flourishing and famous as the ancient Tauric Chersonesus. He expected to arrange an admiralty, a warehouse in it - as Peter I did in St. Petersburg. The construction did not cause any difficulties: the quarry was located practically in the city itself, timber, iron and all the necessary materials were brought along the Dnieper. Potemkin distributed the lands lying around the city for the construction of country houses, gardens, etc. Two years later, ships with cargo under the Russian flag were already arriving in Kherson.

Industrialists rushed here from all sides. Foreigners brought commercial houses and offices in Kherson: French trading firms (Baron Antoine and others), as well as Polish (Zablotsky), Austrian (Fabry), Russian (merchant Maslyannikov). Baron Antoine played a very important role in expanding trade relations between the city of Kherson and France. He sent Russian grain bread to Corsica, to various ports of Provence, to Nice, Genoa and Barcelona.

Baron Antoine also compiled a historical outline of trade and maritime relations between the ports of the Black and Mediterranean Seas. Many Marseille and Kherson merchants began to compete with Baron Antoine in trade with southern Russia and Poland through the Black Sea: during the year, 20 ships arrived from Kherson to Marseille. Trade was conducted with Smyrna, Livorno, Messina, Marseille and Alexandria.

Faleev was an energetic collaborator of Potemkin. He offered the prince to clear the Dnieper channel at the rapids at his own expense in order to make the river route from the interior regions of the state to Kherson convenient. The goal was not achieved, but, according to Samoilov, already in 1783 barges with iron and cast iron passed directly to Kherson from Bryansk, and ships with provisions also passed safely. For this, Faleev received a gold medal and a diploma for nobility.

Many soldiers worked in Kherson, and shipbuilding also attracted many free workers here, so that the city grew rapidly. Food supplies were brought from Polish and Sloboda Ukraine. At the same time foreign trade began in Kherson. In 1787, Empress Catherine II, together with the Austrian emperor and the Polish king, visited Kherson and was satisfied with the newly acquired land. They carefully prepared for her arrival: they laid new roads, built palaces and even entire villages.

The city was built very quickly, since Potemkin did not lack material resources. He was granted emergency powers, and the prince disposed of large sums almost uncontrollably. In 1784, by the highest command, an extraordinary amount for that time in the amount of 1,533,000 rubles was released for the Kherson Admiralty. in excess of the amount that was previously issued and released by the state annually.

For 9 years, Potemkin achieved a lot, but the hopes placed on the new city still did not materialize: with the capture of Ochakov and the construction of Nikolaev, the importance of Kherson as a fortress and admiralty fell, and meanwhile, huge sums were spent on the construction of its fortifications and shipyards . The former admiralty buildings, made of wood, were sold for demolition. The place turned out to be not very successful, trade developed poorly, and soon Kherson lost in this respect to Taganrog and Ochakov. The hope of making the Dnieper navigable at the rapids did not come true, and the plague that broke out at the beginning of the settlement of the city almost ruined the whole thing: the settlers from the central provinces of Russia were sick from the unusual climate and marsh air.

Yekaterinoslav(now Dnepropetrovsk). Initially, Yekaterinoslav was built in 1777 on the left bank of the Dnieper, but in 1786 Potemkin issued an order to move the city upstream, since it often suffered from floods in its former place. It was renamed Novomoskovsk, and the new provincial city of Yekaterinoslav was founded on the right bank of the Dnieper in the place of the Zaporozhye village of Polovitsy. According to the project of Potemkin, the new city was supposed to serve the glory of the empress, and its size was assumed to be significant. So, the prince decided to build a magnificent temple, similar to the church of St. Peter in Rome, and dedicate it to the Transfiguration of the Lord, as a sign of how this land was transformed from barren steppes into a favorable human abode.

The project also included state buildings, a university with a music academy and an academy of arts, a court, made in the Roman style. Large amounts(340 thousand rubles) were allocated for the construction of a state-owned factory with cloth and hosiery departments. But of all these grandiose projects, very few came to fruition. The cathedral, university and academies were never built, the factory was soon closed.
Paul I decreed July 20, 1797 ordered to rename Yekaterinoslav to Novorossiysk. In 1802 the former name was returned to the city.

Nikolaev. Back in 1784, it was ordered to build a fortress at the confluence of the Ingul with the Bug. In 1787, the Turks of the Ochakovo garrison, according to legend, ravaged the one located on the river. Bug near the confluence of the river. Ingul the dacha of the foreigner Fabry. He asked the treasury to reward him for his losses. In order to calculate the amount of losses, an officer was sent, who reported that there was a place near Fabry's dacha convenient for the shipyard. In 1788, on the orders of Potemkin, barracks and a hospital were built in the small village of Vitovka, and on the river. A shipyard was opened in Ingule.

The very foundation of the city of Nikolaev dates back to August 27, 1789, since it was on this date that Potemkin's order addressed to Faleev was dated. The city got its name from the name of the first ship of St. Nicholas, built at the shipyard. In 1790, the Supreme Order followed on the establishment of an admiralty and a shipyard in Nikolaev. The Kherson shipyard, despite its convenience, was shallow for ships of high rank, and gradually the control of the Black Sea Fleet was transferred to Nikolaev.

Odessa. The decree of the empress on the construction of a military and merchant harbor and the city of Khadzhibey dates back to 1794, after the death of Potemkin. The construction was entrusted to de Ribas. Under the new city took more than 30 thousand. acres of land, about 2 million rubles were allocated for the construction of a port, admiralty, barracks, etc. An important point in the initial history of Odessa there was a settlement of Greek immigrants both in the city itself and in its environs.

In 1796 there were 2349 inhabitants in Odessa. On September 1, 1798, the coat of arms was presented to the city. Foreign trade was encouraged in Odessa, and soon the city received the status of a free port - duty-free port. It did not last long and was destroyed by a decree of December 21, 1799. By a decree of December 26, 1796, Paul I ordered “The Commission for the construction of southern fortresses and the port of Odessa, located in the former Voznesenskaya province, we order to be abolished; stop the very same buildings. After this decree, at the beginning 1797 the founder of Odessa and the chief producer of the southern fortresses, Vice Admiral de Ribas left the city, and handed over his command to Rear Admiral Pavel Pustoshkin, former commander Nikolaev port.

In 1800, construction was allowed to continue. To rebuild the harbor, the monarch ordered a loan of 250 thousand rubles to Odessa, sent a special engineer, and presented the city with an exemption from duties and a drinking sale for 14 years. As a result, trade in Odessa greatly revived. In 1800, the turnover of trade barely amounted to 1 million rubles, and in 1802 - already 2,254,000 rubles. .

With the accession of Alexander I, the inhabitants of Odessa received many important privileges. By a decree of January 24, 1802, Odessa was granted a privilege from taxes for 25 years, freedom from camping troops, a large amount of land was allotted for distribution to residents for gardens and even agricultural dachas, and finally, to complete the harbor and other useful institutions, it was ceded to the city 10- I'm part of the customs fees of it. From now on, Odessa becomes important trading market and the main port for the sale of works of the southwestern part of the empire.

In 1802, there were already more than 9 thousand people in Odessa, 39 factories, plants and mills, 171 shops, 43 cellars. Further progress in the population and trade in Odessa is associated with the activities of de Richelieu, who took the post of mayor here in 1803. He arranged a port, quarantine, customs, a theater, a hospital, completed the construction of temples, established an educational institution, and increased the population of the city. up to 25 thousand people. Also, thanks to de Richelieu, trade has grown significantly. Being a passionate lover of gardening and tree cultivation in general, he patronized the owners of dachas and gardens in every possible way, and was the first to order from Italy the seeds of white acacia, which luxuriously took root on Odessa soil. Under Richelieu, Odessa became the center of trade relations between the Novorossiysk Territory and European coastal cities: its trade turnover in 1814 amounted to more than 20 million rubles. The main subject of the holiday trade was wheat.

Further settlement of Novorossiya

In addition to Kherson, Yekaterinoslav, Nikolaev and Odessa, several more important cities in the Novorossiysk Territory that also arose through colonization can be indicated: these are Mariupol (1780), Rostov, Taganrog, Dubossary. Taganrog (formerly the Trinity Fortress) was built during the reign of Peter I, but was abandoned for a long time and was resumed only in 1769. In the early 80s. it had a harbor, a customs house, an exchange, a fortress. Although its harbor was distinguished by many inconveniences, foreign trade still flourished in it. With the advent of Odessa, Taganrog lost its former importance as the most important trading point. An important role in the economic growth of the cities of the Novorossiysk Territory was played by benefits provided by the government to the population.

In addition to the construction of fortified lines and cities, the colonization activity of the Russian state and people was expressed even in the foundation of a number of different settlements - villages, villages, settlements, towns, farms. Their inhabitants belonged to the Little Russian and Russian people (not counting foreigners). In the Little Russian colonization, three elements are divided - Zaporizhzhya settlers, immigrants from the Zadneprovskaya (right-bank) Little Russia and immigrants from the left-bank and partly Sloboda Ukraine.

Russian villages were mixed with Little Russian ones. All lands intended for settlement were also divided into state, or state, and private, or landlords. Therefore, the entire Russian population of the Novorossiysk Territory can be divided into two large groups - free settlers who lived on state lands, and owner-occupied, landlord peasants who settled on the lands of private individuals and became dependent on them. Many people from the Hetmanate came to the villages founded by the former Cossacks.

As for the Russian colonists, they were state and economic peasants, single-palace residents, Cossacks, retired soldiers, sailors, deacons, and schismatics. From the Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Vladimir provinces, state-owned peasants who knew any skill were called. At the beginning of the XIX century. the state settlements were already quite numerous and very crowded.

By decree of 1781, up to 20,000 economic peasants were ordered to be resettled in Novorossia and up to 24,000 voluntary settlers were selected from among them. However, the first place among Russian settlers was occupied by schismatics. They began to settle in Novorossia as early as the reign of Anna Ioannovna, and even earlier in the Kherson province, near Ananyev and Novomirgorod, which later arose, but their number was small. Much more dissenters appeared in the 50s of the XVIII century, when the government itself summoned them from Poland and Moldavia with manifestos. They were given land in the fortress of St. Elisaveta (Elisavetgrad) and its environs, where they founded a number of villages, distinguished by their population and prosperity.

A special and extremely numerous group among the colonists were fugitives, both Russians and Little Russians. In order to quickly populate the Novorossiysk Territory, the government, one might say, sanctioned the right of asylum here. The local authorities did not disdain criminals either. Prisoners from the Moscow, Kazan, Voronezh and Nizhny Novgorod provinces were sent to Taganrog to settle.

After the war with Turkey 1787-1791. Russia received the Ochakiv region between the Bug and the Dniester, which later became the Kherson province. It also needed to be protected by a line of border fortifications. In the Ochakov region, before joining Russia, there were 4 cities - Ochakov, Adzhider (later Ovidiopol), Khadzhibey (Odessa) and Dubossary, about 150 villages inhabited by Tatars and Moldavians and Khan's settlements inhabited by runaway Little Russians. According to a map drawn up around 1790, there were about 20,000 males there.

The first measures taken by the government to populate the newly acquired Ochakiv region from Turkey were as follows. First of all, Catherine II instructed the governor Kakhovsky to inspect the new territory, divide it into districts, appoint places for cities and present a plan about all this. Then he had to distribute the lands both for state-owned settlements and for landowners, with the obligation to populate these lands and ensure that state-owned settlements did not mix with landowners.

Arranging new fortresses in the Novorossiysk Territory, the government had to take care of contingents in case of hostilities. For this purpose, it used ethnographically diverse elements - Russians and foreigners; such were the Cossack regiments located along the fortresses of the Dnieper line, the descendants of the Cossacks - the Black Sea Cossack troops, the Serbs who formed the hussar regiments and other foreign colonists. In the middle of the XVIII century. significant measures were taken to defend the region, but gradually they lost their significance, especially after the annexation of the Crimea.

Foreign colonization in the XVIII-XIX centuries.

A characteristic feature of the settlement of the Novorossiysk Territory was the use of foreign colonists, who played an extremely important role. Since in Russia itself at that time the population was not very large, it was decided to resort to the help of foreigners to populate the Novorossiysk Territory. This decision also included the expectation that among the foreigners there might be people with knowledge and skills that the Russian settlers did not have. Apparently, this is why the German holiday of BEER is so popular in the city of Odessa, and there are a lot of cities in Odessa in the world.

The resettlement began with a decree of December 24, 1751, then a number of decrees were issued on the placement of foreigners in the "Zadneprsky places" and on the creation of New Serbia there. On the territory of New Serbia, there were two regiments under the command of Horvath and Pandursky. In 1753, Slavic-Serbia was formed near this settlement, between the Bakhmut and Lugan rivers, where colonists under the command of Shevic and Preradovich settled. Among them were not only Serbs, but also Moldovans, Croats. By that time, the Tatar raids had almost ceased.

Anna Ioannovna also built a number of fortresses on the northern borders of Novorossia, the so-called Ukrainian Line, where almost only soldiers and Cossacks lived since 1731. The central points of the new settlements were Novomirgorod and the fortress of St. Elizabeth in Novoserbia, Bakhmut and Belevskaya fortress in Slavic Serbia. The new settlers were assigned comfortable lands for perpetual and hereditary possession, were given monetary salaries, and were provided with duty-free crafts and trade. However, the Serbian settlements did not justify the hopes placed on them for the colonization of the region.

“Over 10 years, about 2.5 million rubles of state money were spent on the Serbs, and for food they had to take everything they needed from other residents. Serbian settlements were poorly arranged, and between the Serbs themselves there were almost daily quarrels and fights, and knives were often used. The Serbs immediately fell into a bad relationship with their neighbors, the Cossacks.

With the beginning of the reign of Catherine II opens new era in the history of foreign colonization of the Novorossiysk Territory. In a manifesto of 1763, she urged foreigners to settle mainly for the development of our crafts and trade. The most important benefits granted to the new settlers were the following:

• they could receive money for travel expenses from Russian residents abroad and then settle in Russia or in cities, or in separate colonies;
• they were granted freedom of religion;
• they were released for a certain number of years from all taxes and duties;
• they were given free apartments for half a year;
• an interest-free loan was issued with its repayment in 10 years for 3 years;
• settled colonies were given their own jurisdiction;
• all moths to import property duty-free and for 300 r. goods;
• everyone was exempted from military and civil service, and if someone wanted to become a soldier, then in addition to the usual salary, he had to receive 30 rubles;
• if someone started a factory that did not exist in Russia before, he could sell the goods he produced duty-free for 10 years;
• duty-free fairs and auctions could be opened in the colonies.

Lands for settlement were indicated in the Tobolsk, Astrakhan, Orenburg and Belgorod provinces. Although this decree does not say anything about Novorossia, but on its basis, foreigners settled there as well until the beginning of the reign of Emperor Alexander I.

After the death of Catherine in 1796, Pavel Petrovich ascended the throne. This is an important era in the history of the Novorossiysk Territory, the time important events in all parts of the administration. By decree of November 14, Emperor Paul I ordered the Novorossiysk province to be divided into 12 counties:

1. The Yekaterinoslav uyezd was established from the former Yekaterinoslav uyezd and part of the Aleksandrovsky uyezd.
2. Elisavetgradsky - from Elisavetgradsky and parts of Novomirgorodsky and Alexandria counties.
3. Olviopolsky - from parts of Voznesensky, Novomirgorodsky and the region of Bogopolsky district, which was located on the Ochakov steppe.
4. Tiraspol - from Tiraspol and part of Elen (located on the Ochakov steppe) counties.
5. Kherson - from part of Kherson and Voznesensky.
6. Perekop - from Perekop and Dnieper (i.e., the northern part of Crimea) counties.
7. Simferopol - from Simferopol, Evpatoria and Feodosia.
8. Mariupol - from parts of Mariupol, Pavlograd, Novomoskovsk and Melitopol counties.
9. Rostov - from the Rostov district and the land of the Black Sea army.
10. Pavlogradsky - from Pavlogradsky and parts of Novomoskovsky and Slavyansky.
11. Constantinograd - from Constantinograd and parts of Aleksopol and Slavic.
12. Bakhmutsky - from parts of Donetsk, Bakhmut and Pavlograd counties

The decree of October 8, 1802 put an end to the Novorossiysk province, again dividing it into three: Nikolaev, Yekaterinoslav and Tauride. Also in this decree it was said that the port cities of Odessa, Kherson, Feodosia and Taganrog would be provided with special advantages in favor of trade and, moreover, in each of them, for the patronage of traders, a special chief from the highest state officials would be appointed, who would depend only from Supreme power and Ministers of Justice and the Interior.

Under Alexander I, foreign colonization within the Novorossiysk Territory begins to be conducted on different conditions. Decree of February 4, 1803: “For military officers who do not have a fortune and wish to start a farm in the empty lands of the Novorossiysk steppe, establish their own property, take it into eternal possession: for headquarters officers 1,000 acres, and chief officers 500 acres of land.” The seat of the main Novorossiysk chief was transferred from Nikolaev to Kherson, and the Nikolaev province itself was renamed Kherson.

In the manifesto of 20 Feb. 1804, it was said that only such foreigners should be accepted for resettlement who, by their occupations, can serve as a good example for the peasants. For them, it is necessary to allocate special lands - state-owned or bought from landowners; these should be family and wealthy owners engaged in agriculture, cultivation of grapes or silkworms, cattle breeding and rural crafts (shoemaking, blacksmithing, weaving, tailoring, etc.); do not accept other artisans.

Natives were granted freedom of religion and exemption for 10 years from all taxes and duties; after this period, they will be obliged to bear the same obligations as Russian subjects, excluding regular service, military and civil service, from which they were exempted forever. All colonists are given 60 acres of land per family free of charge. On these grounds, it was proposed to settle foreigners in various places in New Russia and in the Crimea. First of all, it was decided to give them land near harbors and ports, so that they could sell their products abroad.

From the beginning of 1804, they actively engaged in organizing the life of the nomadic hordes of the Nogai. By decree of April 16, 1804, Alexander I ordered the organization of the hordes and the establishment of a special administration between the Nogais, with the removal of Bayazet Bey. Soon a special administration was established, called the Expedition of the Nogai Hordes. In place of Bayazet Bey, Rosenberg appointed Colonel Trevogin as head of the Nogai hordes.

By decree of February 25, 1804, Sevastopol was appointed the main military port on the Black Sea and the main part of the fleet. For this, customs was withdrawn from the city and merchant ships could no longer trade in this port. To facilitate overland trade with Western Europe, especially with Austria and other German manufacturing states, transit trade was established in Odessa (decree March 3, 1804).

Thanks to the strong support of the Russian government, the German colonies managed to gain a foothold on new and not always favorable ground for them. In 1845, there were 95,700 of all German settlers in Novorossiya. Romanesque colonization was quite insignificant: one village of Swiss, a few Italians and a few French merchants. Much more important were the Greek settlements. After Crimea gained independence from Ottoman Empire, in 1779 many Greek and Armenian families moved out of it (Greeks - 20 thousand).

On the basis of a letter of commendation, they were allotted land for settlement in the Azov province, along the coast Sea of ​​Azov. The letter of grant provided them with significant benefits - the exclusive right to fish, government houses, freedom from military service. Some of them died on the way from illness and deprivation, and the rest founded the city of Mariupol and 20 villages in its vicinity. In Odessa, the Greeks also enjoyed significant benefits and were in charge of local trade. Albanians settled in Taganrog, Krech and Yenikol, who were also well off.

Together with the Greeks, Armenians began to move to Novorossia, and in 1780 they founded the city of Nakhichevan. The beginning of the resettlement of Moldovans dates back to the reign of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna; they became part of Novoserbia in large numbers. Another batch of Moldovans in con. XVIII - early. 19th century founded cities and villages along the river. Dniester - Ovidiopol, New Dubossary, Tiraspol, etc. 75,092 rubles were spent on the transfer of Greeks and Armenians from Crimea. and, in addition, 100 thousand rubles. in the form of compensation "for the loss of subjects" received the Crimean Khan, his brothers, beys and murzas.

During 1779 - 1780. 144 horses, 33 cows, 612 pairs of oxen, 483 wagons, 102 plows, 1570 quarters of bread were distributed to Greek and Armenian settlers and 5294 houses and barns were built. In total, 24,501 people were dependent on the state out of a total of 30,156 migrants.

In 1769, the resettlement of Jewish Talmudists from western Russia and Poland to the Novorossiysk Territory began on the basis of a formal permit with the following conditions: they had to build their own dwellings, schools, but had the right to keep distilleries; they were given a benefit from camping and other duties for only a year, they were allowed to hire Russian workers, freely practice their faith, etc. Despite minor benefits, their resettlement in the cities was successful.

The situation with the organization of Jewish agricultural colonies was quite different. Their beginning dates back only to 1807, when the first batch of Jewish settlers formed colonies in the Kherson district. The government spent huge sums on their arrangement, but the results were deplorable: the agriculture of the Jews developed very poorly, and they themselves aspired to the cities and wanted to engage in petty trade, crafts, and brokerage. From the unaccustomed climate and bad water, epidemic diseases spread among them. Finally, the Gypsies completed the picture of the population of New Russia. In 1768, the total number of inhabitants in Novorossia was 100 thousand people, and in 1823 - 1.5 million people.

Thus, in 1776-1782. observed exceptionally high rates of population growth in Novorossiya. For a short period (about 7 years), the population of the region (within the boundaries of the beginning of the 19th century) almost doubled (increased by 79.82%). main role this was played by immigrants from neighboring Left-Bank Ukraine. The influx of new settlers from the Right-Bank Ukraine and the Central Black Earth region of Russia was not great. Resettlements from abroad were important only for certain local territories (Aleksandrovsky, Rostov and Kherson districts).

In the 70s, the northern and central regions of Novorossia were still predominantly settled, and since 1777, the privately owned migration movement came to the fore. During this period, the tsarist authorities did not take effective measures to transfer large groups of migrants from abroad and other regions of the country to Novorossia. They handed out vast tracts of land into the hands of private owners, giving them the right to take care of their settlement themselves. This right was widely used by the landowners of Novorossiya. By hook or by crook, they lured peasants from neighboring Left-Bank and Right-Bank Ukraine to their lands.

By the Manifesto of June 24, 1811, 4 customs districts were created in the Novorossiysk Territory: Odessa, Dubossary, Feodosia and Taganrog. In 1812, the region consisted of the Kherson, Yekaterinoslav and Tauride provinces, Odessa, Feodosia and Taganrog city administrations. He also owned the Bug and Black Sea Cossack troops and the Odessa and Balaklava Greek battalions.

The settlement of the developed regions of the country in the 30s of the XIX century. was carried out on the basis of a decree of March 22, 1824. Only on April 8, 1843, new rules on resettlement were approved. Lack of land was recognized as a legitimate reason for the resettlement of peasants, when a peasant family had less than 5 acres of convenient land per revision soul. Gubernias and counties were appointed for settlement, where there were more than 8 acres per revision soul, and in the steppe zone - 15 acres per revision soul.

The rules somewhat facilitated, in comparison with the regulation of 1824, the conditions for the settlement of settlers. In new places, food was prepared for them for the first time, part of the fields were sown, hay was accumulated to feed the cattle in the first winter, tools and draft animals were prepared. For all these purposes, 20 rubles were allocated for each family. Settlers were exempted from paying money for transportation across rivers and from other similar fees.

They were supposed to be released from their old places of residence at a convenient time of the year. The rules forbade the return of settlers back from the route or the place of new settlement. For the construction of dwellings, the peasants received forest in new places (100 roots per yard). In addition, they were given 25 rubles for each family irrevocably, and in the absence of a forest - 35 rubles. New settlers received a number of benefits: 6-year-old - from military billeting, 8-year-old - from the payment of taxes and other duties (instead of the previous 3-year-old), and also 3-year - from recruitment duty.

Simultaneously with these benefits, the regulation of 1843 abolished the right that existed until that year for the peasants themselves to choose for themselves suitable places for settlement. Based on these rules, the development of all regions of Russia was carried out in the 40s - 50s of the XIX century. The government, right up to the reform of 1861, tried to introduce Jews to agriculture and spent large sums of money on this.

In the second half of the 30-40s of the XIX century. Kherson province has lost its position as the leading populated region of Russia. The bulk of the settlers are foreign settlers, Jews and urban taxable estates. The role of the landowner resettlement movement is sharply reduced. Settled, as in earlier periods, mainly southern counties: Tiraspol (with Odessa separated from its composition) and Kherson.

In the second half of the 30s-40s of the XIX century. the pace of settlement of the Yekaterinoslav province is increasing (due to the sparsely populated Aleksandrovsky district) and it is significantly ahead of the Kherson province. Thus, the Yekaterinoslav province is temporarily turning into the leading populated region of Novorossia, although the value of the latter as the main populated territory of Russia is falling. The settlement of the province is carried out, as before, mainly by legal immigrants. Mainly state peasants and non-taxable categories of the population arrive in the province. The significance of the landlord resettlement of peasants is declining. The Alexandrovsky district is settled mainly, where in 1841-1845. more than 20,000 male souls arrived.

Odessa remained the largest city in Russia, second only to St. Petersburg and Moscow in terms of the number of inhabitants. Among other cities in Russia, only Riga had approximately the same population (60 thousand inhabitants). Nikolaev was also a large city of the country. In addition to the cities mentioned above, in terms of population it was second only to Kyiv, Saratov, Voronezh, Astrakhan, Kazan and Tula.

In the second half of the 30s-40s of the XIX century. the pace of economic development of Novorossia intensified, but the inhabitants of this region were under the influence of the forces of nature. Harvest years alternated with lean years, drought - with locust raids. The number of livestock either increased or decreased sharply as a result of starvation or an epidemic. The population of the region in these years was mainly engaged in cattle breeding.

Thus, in the 40s, both agriculture and animal husbandry in Novorossia were on the rise, but in 1848-1849. they were hit hard. The farmers were unable to collect even the sown seeds, and the livestock breeders suffered greatly from the extremely destructive deaths of livestock. Nevertheless, the economy of the region developed, overcoming the effects of climate. Industry in the 1830-1840s had not yet received development, so agriculture remained the main occupation of the region's population.
In the 50s of the XIX century. The resettlement of the peasantry was carried out on the basis of the provisions of April 8, 1843.

In 1850, an audit was carried out in Russia, which counted 916,353 souls in Novorossia (435,798 souls in Yekaterinoslav and 462,555 in Kherson province).

Thus, throughout its history, the Novorossiysk Territory was distinguished by a unique policy that was pursued in relation to it. Russian government. It can be summarized as follows:
1. Serfdom did not apply to these areas. The runaway serfs did not return from there.
2. Freedom of religion.
3. Liberation of the indigenous population from conscription.
4. Tatar murzas were equated with the Russian nobility (“Charter to the nobility”). Thus, Russia did not interfere in the conflict between the local aristocracy and the common people.
5. The right to buy and sell land.
6. Benefits for the clergy.
7. Freedom of movement.
8. Foreign settlers have not paid taxes for 5 years.
9. A city building program was planned, the population was transferred to a settled way of life.
10. The Russian political elite and the nobility were given lands with a term for development.
11. Resettlement of the Old Believers.
The Novorossiysk-Bessarabian general government was disbanded in 1873, and the term no longer corresponded to any territorial unit. After the 1917 revolution, Ukraine laid claim to Novorossiya. During civil war separate areas of Novorossia more than once passed from white to red, Nestor Makhno's detachments operated here. When the Ukrainian SSR was created, most of Novorossia became part of it.

territory, which included 20th century historical Russian provinces: Kherson, Yekaterinoslav and Tauride (except Crimea), - cut through by the lower course of the Dnieper, Dniester and Bug. This flat steppe space imperceptibly merges with the steppes of eastern Russia, passing into the Asian steppes, and therefore has long served as the dwelling of tribes moving from Asia to the West. On the same coast of the Black Sea, a number of Greek colonies were founded in antiquity. permanent shift population continued until Tatar invasion . In the XIII-XVI centuries. the Tatars dominated here, making it impossible for the peaceful colonization of the country by neighboring peoples, but in the middle. 16th century military colonization began. Below the rapids on the Dnieper island of Khortitsa was founded by the Cossacks Sich. All R. 18th century new settlers appear here - immigrants from the Slavic lands, Bulgarians, Serbs, Volokhi. The government, meaning to create a military border population, gave them benefits and various privileges. Two districts were formed in 1752: New Serbia and Slavic Serbia. At the same time, lines of fortifications were created. After the 1st Turkish War, fortified lines captured new spaces. The annexation of the Crimea in 1783, making Novorossia unsafe from the Tatars, gave a new impetus to the colonization of the region. The 2nd Turkish war gave the Ochakov region into the hands of Russia. (i.e. the western part of the Kherson province.). Since 1774, the head of the administration of the Novorossiysk Territory was placed Prince. G.A. Potemkin, who remained in this position until his death (1791). He divided the country into provinces: Azov to the east of the Dnieper and Novorossiysk to the west. Potemkin's concern was the settlement and comprehensive development of the region. In the types of colonization, privileges were given to foreigners - immigrants from Slavic lands, Greeks, Germans and schismatics, huge land holdings were distributed to dignitaries and officials with the obligation to settle them. Simultaneously with the government colonization, there was a free colonization from Great Russia and Little Russia. The Russian colonists, like foreigners, did not use 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 them to settle on it. They also condescendingly looked at the settlement of fugitive peasants in the region, the number of which, with the development of serfdom in the 18th and n. 19th century everything was growing. Under Potemkin, a number of cities were founded in Novorossia - Yekaterinoslav, Kherson, Nikolaev, etc. Odessa was later founded. Administratively, Novorossiya was redrawn several times. In 1783 it was named Yekaterinoslav viceroy. In 1784, the Tauride Region was formed, and in 1795, Voznesenskaya Province. Under Paul I, part of the Yekaterinoslav vicegerency was separated, and the Novorossiysk province was formed from the rest. Under Alexander I, the provinces of Yekaterinoslav, Kherson and Tauride were established here, which, together with the Bessarabian region annexed from Turkey, formed the Novorossiysk Governorate-General. The administrative center of Novorossia, as well as industrial and cultural, in the XIX century. became Odessa.

It is traditionally customary to oppose the southeast of Ukraine to the West of this republic. And this is no coincidence: history, language, the ethnic composition of the population, and the nature of the economy - everything here strongly opposes "Ukrainianism" with its peasant nationalism, Russian-Polish jargon ("Move"), the cult of traitor-losers, and finally, the impenetrable Western the 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 single out Novorossiya.

Today, this geographical concept is unknown to most Russians. In the mass and scientific literature, the concept of "Novorossiya" is practically not used, which is why this concept was forgotten. Even the most educated people can usually only say that Novorossia 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 coast of the Black and Azov Seas. By virtue of this name of the region, one can recall that the city of Yekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk) under Emperor Paul was called Novorossiysk, the university in Odessa was officially called Novorossiysk before the revolution. In the Soviet era, this region was called the Northern Black Sea region, and now it is usually referred to as Southern Ukraine. However, due to its ethnic history, this region deserves special consideration. Novorossia is not a part of "Ukraine", but a very 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 XVIII century, when the very concept of "Novorossia" appeared, it meant the steppe territories with indefinite boundaries in the south of the Russian Empire, the development of which was just beginning. In the reign of Catherine II, when the Black Sea steppes and the Crimea were annexed to Russia, these territories began to be called Novorossia. 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 attributed to Novorossia (this explains the name of the city of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus).

Pre-revolutionary scientists usually attributed to Novorossia 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, Novorossia meant the territories of the three Black Sea provinces - Kherson, Yekaterinoslav and Tauride, Bessarabia province, which had a special status, and the region of the Don Cossacks. Today, the territories of these provinces correspond to Odessa, Nikolaev, Kherson, Dnepropetrovsk, Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye, Kirovograd regions and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Transnistria, Rostov region with the cities of Rostov-on-Don and Taganrog in the Russian Federation.

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

Such significant rivers as the Dnieper, Dniester, Southern Bug, 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 Novorossia is perhaps the most complex among all regions of Russia. At the same time, individual parts of Novorossia, such as Crimea, Bessarabia, Donbass, are distinguished by their originality.

1. Ancient ethnic history

The Black Sea has been known to our ancestors since ancient times. Already in the time 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, “they fish here, sail on ships, here is the maiden kingdom (Sarmatians) with stone cities; from here, from the sea shores, the Serpent Gorynych, the personification of the steppes, is sent to his raids on Holy Russia. This is the real historical Black Sea-Azov Sea, which has long been known to the Slavs and even bore the name of the “Russian Sea” at times. To this sea from the forest-steppe outskirts of the Slavs ... you can ride "fast ride", as they used to say in the 16th century, in just three days. In this sea there is a fabulous island of Buyan, in which one can easily guess the island of Berezan (Borisfen), which lay on the well-worn path to the Greek lands; Russian merchant ships were equipped on this island in the 10th century. As you can see, the Black Sea is not associated with cosmological ideas about the end of the earth; on the contrary, everything “overseas”, attractive and only half unknown began beyond this sea.

However, the peculiarity of the Black Sea was that the northern coast 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 from time to time was either a truly Russian sea, or the lair of the Serpent Gorynych. Several times the pressure of the steppes threw the Slavs away from the shores of the sea under the protection of the forest. But each time, having gathered strength, Russia again and again sought to return to the Russian Sea. This has been repeated too often, under a variety of rulers, regimes, economic and social conditions to be a fluke. There is some kind of mysticism in that majestic struggle of the thrust of the Russian people to the sea.

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

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

But let's start in order. Ancient authors wrote that nomadic Cimmerian tribes originally lived in the vast steppe space from the Danube to the Volga. 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 the wars in Asia Minor. Probably, the Cimmerians belonged to the group of Iranian peoples. They wore trousers, fitted shirts, and a hood on their heads. Something similar was worn by Russian Cossacks even at the beginning of the 20th century. As you can see, the steppe fashion turned out to be very conservative.

However, the Cimmerians from the Black Sea region disappeared in the 7th century. The Greeks no longer found them, but the nomadic Scythians who replaced the Cimmerians preserved 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, geographical concepts remained from the Cimmerians, such as the Cimmerian Bosporus (now the Kerch Strait), the so-called. "Cimmerian crossings" through this strait, the city of Chimeric on the shore of this strait. The Scythians, by which the Greeks meant all the "barbarian" tribes of the most diverse ethnic origin, who lived along the northern shores of the Black Sea, came to the place of the Cimmerians for a long time. In a narrow sense, the Scythians are Iranian-speaking nomadic tribes who lived in the steppes from the Danube to the Altai, including the steppe Crimea. Nomadic Scythians ruled in 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 wagons, fed on milk and meat of cattle, and had cruel warlike customs, which allowed them to gain the glory of invincibility. From their defeated enemies, the Scythians removed the scalp, from the skin torn off together with the nails from the right hand of the enemy corpses, they made covers for their quivers, from the skulls of the most worthy of their defeated enemies they made bowls for wine.

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

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

As the Western researcher T. Rice notes, “from the images on the 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 outward similarity of the Scythians, as can be seen from the works of Greek metal craftsmen, with the peasant population of pre-revolutionary central Russia may, to a certain extent, be accidental, resulting from the fact that both preferred to wear the same hairstyles and long beards. But there are other similarities, which are much more difficult to explain. So, a stocky physique and large rounded noses were characteristic of both of them, 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 also have an almost universal love for red. And again, both peoples showed 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 the features of the Scythians in Russia, which to this day continue to find their expression in the national image.

Russian anthropologist V.P. Alekseev, back in 1985, pointed out a significant similarity of the anthropological type of the Eastern Slavs, including Russians, “... with the anthropological variant that is recorded in the Scythian burial grounds of the Black Sea region,” adding: “it is undoubted that most of the population living in southern Russian steppes in the middle of the 1st millennium BC, is the physical ancestors 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 II millennium AD. in favor of the West Slavic and associated this with the migrations of "a new alien population from the Carpathian regions - the ancestral home of the Slavs, and its marital contacts with local populations".

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

Another significant center of Greek colonization was founded in 422 BC. Chersonese, 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, the majority of the Scythians disappeared into the environment of the Sarmatians who were kindred and had a similar way of life.

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

Taurians lived in the mountains and on the southern coast of Crimea. It is no coincidence that the Greeks called Crimea Tauris or Taurica. Unlike the mobile Scythians and Sarmatians, the Taurians were settled inhabitants. However, they did not disdain piracy, sacrificing captives to their goddess Virgo.

The origin of the Taurus is unknown. Their self-name is also unknown, in Greek "taurus" means "bull". Whether this name came from the cult of the bull, common among many ancient peoples, or simply by the consonance of words, or from the transfer by the Greeks of the name of the Taurus mountain range in Asia Minor, we, apparently, will never know. Living together with the Greek colonists and the Scythians, the Taurians assimilated by the II-III centuries. Archaeologists have unearthed 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 refer to the mixed non-Greek population of Crimea.

However, along with the Hellenization of the barbarians in the Northern Black Sea region, the barbarization of the 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 did not lose their Hellenic feeling and knew almost the entire Iliad by heart, idolizing its heroes, most of all Achilles. They dressed in the Scythian style, wearing trousers and black cloaks.

The Savromats, who became masters of the Scythian steppes, were typical nomads. A feature of the Savromats was the high position of women, their active participation in public life and military operations. Ancient writers often refer to the Sauromatians as a woman-ruled people. Herodotus retold the legend of 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, wield 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 Roxolans, Aorses, Yazygs, Siraks, 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 the Crimea. This blow finally crushed the ancient cities of the Black Sea region. True, city life does not stop here. Cities with a Greek population, which is replenished by Byzantine Greeks, Armenians, and people from the steppes of different tribes, continue to exist.

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

However, in the steppes north of the Crimean mountains, the ethnic picture changed endlessly. In the 4th century, the Huns dominate here, however, they quickly went west in search of prey, which the crumbling Roman Empire promised them. Then, wave after wave, Avars, Bulgars, Khazars, Pechenegs, Polovtsy 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 coast long before our era. Slavs in ancient times were known as wonderful sailors, dominating the Black Sea. In 626, thousands of Slavs, allies of the Avar Khagan, besieged Constantinople, not only from land, but also blockaded 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 greatly developed. The main ship of the Russians was the sea boat, which was a one-tree deck, on the sides of which boards were stuffed. The boat could row and sail. There was no regular permanent navy in Ancient Russia. For sea voyages, as needed, a boat fleet was created. Each boat was an independent combat unit, its personnel (40 people) was divided into dozens. The carrying capacity of these vessels 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. However, there were ships that could accommodate up to 100 people.

It was precisely such squadrons of the Russians that made the famous campaigns against Byzantium in 860, under Askold and Dir. In 907, Oleg the Prophet, with a fleet of 2,000 ships, not only won and gained fame and booty, but also achieved the signing of the first written Russian-Byzantine treaty in history. Two sea campaigns - 941 and 944 were made by Prince Igor. Just in the 940s, the Arab scholar 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 shores. Sea campaigns of the Russians continued in later times. So, another Arab scholar Mohammed Aufi wrote about the Russians at the beginning of the 13th century: “They make trips to distant lands, constantly roam the sea on ships, attack every ship they meet and rob it.”

After the victories of Svyatoslav over the Khazars and Vladimir over the Pechenegs, which gave Russia a temporary advantage over the steppe, the Tmutarakan principality was formed in the northern Black Sea region. Tmutarakan as a city-fortress arose on the site of an ancient settlement around 965, after the campaigns of Svyatoslav Igorevich to the south, the defeat of the Khazars and the annexation of this region to the ancient Russian state. Greeks (descendants of ancient colonists and Hellenized Tauris and Scythians), Kasogs (Circassians), Iranian-speaking Yases (Alans), Turkic-speaking Khazars and Bulgars, Ugrians, Germanic Goths lived in these places, and over time, the Russian population began to gradually penetrate here. When exactly the first Slavs appeared in the Crimea, it is difficult to say. But, as academician B. A. Rybakov noted, “we can trace the penetration of the Slavs into the 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 VIII-X centuries, the eastern Crimea and the Azov coast of the North Caucasus were under the rule of the Khazars. Probably, it was during the Khazar era that the Slavic population of the northern Black Sea region increased significantly, since many Slavs, being dependent on the Khazar Khagan, could freely settle in his possessions. As the Khazaria weakened, the Slavs themselves began to organize invasions of the Crimea. So, from one Byzantine life it is known that a certain Novgorod prince Bravlin (who, however, there is no mention in the Russian chronicles) at the beginning of the 9th century plundered the entire coast of Crimea. By the end of the 10th century, by the time of the fall of the Khazar Khaganate, the Slavs were already noticeably distinguished by their numbers among the multi-ethnic population of the shores of the Kerch Strait. The appearance along the shores of the Kerch Strait after the defeat of the Khazars of the Slavic Tmutarakan principality becomes completely understandable.

The name Tmutarakan was formed from the distorted Khazar word "tumen-tarkhan", which meant the name of the headquarters of the tarkhan - the Khazar commander, who had an army of 10 thousand soldiers ("tumen"). For the first time this name is mentioned in the "Tale of Bygone Years" under 988, when Vladimir Svyatoslavich formed a principality there and planted 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 Russia, 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 Russia (since there is no historical evidence of organization by the Kyiv princes of the mass resettlement of Russians in the Black Sea region). As the well-known historian V.V. Mavrodin wrote: “Rus of the Black Sea-Azov coast before the time of Svyatoslav, these were both Slavic merchants and warriors who appeared in the cities and villages of Khazaria, Crimea, the Caucasus, the Lower Don, and separate colonies of migrants, and nests of Russified ethnic groups reincarnated from the tribes of the Sarmatian world, close socially and culturally and linguistically to other tribes, interbreeding in the northern and forest-steppe zone already 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 significance of Tmutarakan is evidenced by the following data: it was precisely on the basis of these lands that Prince Mstislav entered into a struggle for his father's inheritance with his brother Yaroslav the Wise, and was able to win back all the Russian lands on the left bank of the Dnieper from him. According to the researcher, “Tmutarakan was not a small principality remote from Russia, but a major political center that disposed of 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 Vikings, but and take possession of the entire left-bank part of the Dnieper Rus.

The Tmutarakan principality in the 10th-11th centuries experienced a rapid economic upsurge. AT metropolitan city principalities 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 Kyiv. Prince Oleg of Tmutarakan (1083-1094) issued his own silver coin with his portrait and the inscription "God help me". His wife, Theophania Mouzalon from Byzantium, had a seal where she was called "archontess (princess) of Russia."

The fact that the Russian and Russified population prevailed among the Tmutarakans is evidenced by numerous graffiti (wall inscriptions) in the Old Russian language, icons, seals of the local posadnik Ratibor. It is also indicative that, although the majority of the local settled inhabitants were Christians from the 4th century, from 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 near it: Oleshye (Aleshki, now Tsyurupinsk) in the lower reaches of the Dnieper, Belgorod-Dnestrovsky in the Dniester estuary, based on the ruins of the Goths destroyed the ancient city of Tira, Small Galich (now Galati in Romania).

However, the dominant position of Russia on the Black Sea was short-lived. Between the main territory of Russia and the Russian settlements on the Black Sea lay hundreds of kilometers of steppe scorched by the sun, which could not be plowed with the then agricultural technology. 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 and Tmutarakan were interrupted. Under the Polovtsian blows, the Russian population of the Black Sea lands were mostly pushed to the north, and some died.

After 1094, the 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 it was easier and more convenient to communicate with Constantinople by sea than to go through the Polovtsian steppes to Russia. However, dependence on Byzantium was in the nature of a military alliance, since local princes ruled in Tmutarakan, whose names are unknown. In addition, Tmutarakan paid tribute to one of the Polovtsian khans, who owned the steppe Crimea. The Russian population of the 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 to the north of the Kerch Strait there was a marketplace with the name "rosia" (with one "s")! Archaeologists have unearthed a Slavic settlement on the Tepsel hill (Planernoe village), dating back to the 12th-beginning of the 13th centuries.

But still Russia was cut off from the Russian Sea.

Of course, Russia did not forget about the Black Sea lands. It is no coincidence that in The Tale of Igor's Regiment, Prince Igor was going to "search for the city of Tmutarakan", setting off on a campaign against the Polovtsians. But Russia, divided into appanages, was not able to return to the shores of the Black Sea. The return happened only after seven centuries!

About Tmutarakan in the memory of the Russians soon there was nothing left, except for 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 took place as early as 1061, took on the character of a massive invasion three decades later. In the 90s. In the 11th century, the Polovtsians almost continuously invade Russia. The Russian princes, occupied with strife, were not only unable to repulse the Polovtsian onslaught, but often they themselves invited the Polovtsians to plunder the possessions of their rivals. Among the Polovtsy, large commanders Tugorkan (in Russian epics he was called Tugarin Zmeevich) and Bonyak Sheludivy advanced. In 1093, the Polovtsy 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 Caves Monastery.

The steppe border of Russia now ran in an unstable broken line from Mezhibozhye to the lower reaches of the Ros River, from where it turned sharply to the northeast to the upper reaches of the Sula, Psla, Vorksla, Seversky Donets, Don and Prony rivers.

The Russian princes, under the pressure of the Polovtsian danger, began to unite. Already in 1096, Vladimir Monomakh defeated the Polovtsy on the Trubezh River. Under the leadership of Vladimir Monomakh, the united Russian squads made a number of successful campaigns against the Polovtsy in 1103, 1107, 1111. During the last campaign, the Polovtsy suffered a particularly heavy 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 Russia. Vladimir Monomakh became the last prince to rule over all of Russia. Paradoxically, it was precisely as a result of the victories of Monomakh and the weakening of the Polovtsian threat that the specific princes now did not need a single central authority of the Grand Duke, and therefore, according to the chronicler, "the Russian land was inflamed." Polovtsian raids on Russian lands continued, but not as large-scale as under Tugorkan and Bonyak. The Russian princes, as before, "brought" 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 streets and Tivertsy once lived, was significantly pushed to the forest north. But in the XII 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 source of the river. In the steppes on the lower Don, there were still small towns inhabited by the Slavs, the Yases (Alans), the remnants of the Khazars, who professed Orthodoxy. The chronicler described the town of Sharukan, whose inhabitants 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 “Belovezhs”, that is, the inhabitants of Belaya Vezha, the former Khazar Sarkel, inhabited by the Rus, came to Russia. This is how the settled Christian Slavic population was evacuated from the steppe zone.

True, there were still very numerous and warlike Slavs in the steppes. They were called wanderers. They are quite often mentioned in Russian chronicles, participating in the civil strife of Russian princes, as well as in wars with the Polovtsians. For the first time, our chronicles mention roamers under the year 1146. During the struggle between Svyatoslav Olgovich and Izyaslav Mstislavovich, Svyatoslav's ally, Yuri Dolgoruky, sends him a detachment of "wanderers". In 1147, "Brodniki and Polovtsi came (to the Chernigov prince) many".

In 1190, the Byzantine chronicler Nikita Acominatus described how the wanderers, a branch of the Russians, he said, participated in the attack on Byzantium. "People who despise death" - the Byzantine calls them. In 1216, wanderers participated in the battle on the Lipitsa River during the strife of the Suzdal princes.

Brodniki became "vygontsy", that is, runaway serfs who preferred to "wander" through the steppes than to be in boyar bondage. "Vygontsev" from Russia were attracted by the steppes with rich "goers" - animal, fish and bee lands. At the head of the roamers were the governors chosen by them. Both the origin and way of life of wanderers are strikingly reminiscent of 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 - “the land of wanderers”

However, wanderers have not played a very plausible role in history. In 1223, during the Battle of Kalka, wanderers led by Ploskinya ended up on the side of the Mongol-Tatars. Brodniks also participated in the Mongol-Tatar invasions of the southern lands of Russia and Hungary. In any case, the Hungarian monks complained that there were many "evil 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 roamers to Catholicism. In 1254, the Hungarian king Bela IV complained to the pope that he was being pressed from the east, i.e. from the Carpatho-Dniester lands, Russians and wanderers. As you can see, the Hungarian monarchs distinguished wanderers from the bulk of Russians. But, on the other hand, it was not about wanderers as a separate people.

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

Almost simultaneously with the roamers, the chroniclers report some berladniks. Actually, the Berladniks were part of the wanderers, who had their own center - the city of Berlad (now - Byrlad in Romania). The lands between the lower reaches of the Danube, the Carpathians and the Dnieper, which were previously inhabited by the tribes of the Ulich and Tivertsy, suffered greatly from the Polovtsian invasions at the turn of the 11th-12th centuries. The population decreased many times over, 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 preserved cities - Berlad (which became the capital of the region), Tekuch, Maly Galich, Dichin, Durst, and a number of others. In 1116, Vladimir Monomakh sent Ivan Voytishich as governor here, who was supposed to collect tribute from the cities on the Danube. After the collapse of Kievan Rus, these lands recognized the supreme power of the Galician prince, but on the whole they were quite independent. The Byzantine princess Anna Komnenos, in a poem dedicated to the life of her father, who ruled in 1081-1118, mentioned independent princes who ruled on the lower Danube. In particular, a certain Vseslav ruled in the city of Dichin. But then Berlad became the center of the region.

In fact, Berlad was a veche republic. Voevodas chosen by the locals ruled in Berladi, but sometimes the Berladians hosted individual Galician princes. One of these princes went down in history under the name of Ivan Berladnik.

The exact boundaries of Berlady are not defensible. Most likely, Berlad occupied the territory between the Carpathians, the lower Danube and the Dniester. Now it is the north-eastern part of Romania, Moldova and Transnistria.

The population of Berlad was very mixed, including both Russians (apparently prevailing), and people from various tribes of the steppe, and Romance-speaking Vlachs (on the basis of which modern Romanian historians consider Berlad 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 both the Tmutarakan principality, as cut off from the main territory and multilingual, as free as Lord Veliky Novgorod, who had "liberty in the princes", and the structure of the future Cossack troops.

Berladniks also had a reputation for brave warriors. They captured the port of Oleshye in the Yuzhno-Bug Estuary, inflicting heavy losses on Kyiv merchants. The large number of Berladniks is evidenced by the fact that in 1159, fighting with his own uncle, Prince Ivan Berladnik gathered 6 thousand soldiers from Berlady. (For an 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 some "Danubians". Descended from the "vygontsy" (this Old Russian term meant those expelled or voluntarily left their community), immigrants from the southern Russian principalities settled in the lower reaches of the Danube and the Dniester, these "Danubians" 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 “Danubians” and the Berladians are one and the same. The governors of the Danubians are known - Yuri Domazirovich and Derzhikray Volodislavovich, who came from noble Galician boyar families. In 1223, the Danubians made up a whole regiment of Mstislav the Udaly in the Battle of Kalka. It is interesting that the "Galician exiles" in the amount of 1 thousand boats went along the Dniester to the Black Sea, and from there entered the Dnieper.

According to some historians (V.T. Pashuto), the Brodniki, of which the Berladniks were a part, were actually on the way of becoming a separate nomadic people of Slavic origin. However, most scientists do not agree with this, believing that the roamers were about the same part of the Russian ethnos as the Cossacks later were.

On the southern, steppe border of Russia, a very militarized life of local residents developed. Most of the inhabitants of the border owned weapons and could stand up for themselves during separate, not as large-scale raids as during the time of Tugorkan and Bonyak. The life of the inhabitants of the steppe borderlands resembled the life of the Cossacks of the following centuries.

In “The Tale of Igor's Campaign,” Prince Igor proudly says: “And my Kursk people are an experienced squad: they are twisted under the pipes, cherished under helmets, fed from the end of the spear; their paths are trodden, the ravines are guided, their bows are stretched, their quivers are open, their sabers are sharpened; they themselves gallop like gray wolves in the field, seeking honor for themselves, and glory for the prince. The inhabitants of Kursk (Kuryans) really were, who grew up in the eternal steppe war, as if fed from the end of a spear.

It is interesting that among the soldiers of the border there were also women who were called Polanitsy, or Polenitsy. They bravely fought together with the heroes and, as equals, participated in princely feasts.

In one of the ancient Russian epics about Prince Vladimir Krasno Solnyshko it is said:

And Vladimir is the prince of the capital of Kyiv

Started a feast and even a feast

On many princes and on all boyars,

On all the strong Russian mighty heroes,

Ay to glorious clearings and to remote ones.

Polyanytsy are also mentioned in one of the epics about Ilya Muromets. According to one of the epics, in a duel Ilya almost lost to a meadow.

The princes of the border territories began to widely use other, “their own”, steppe inhabitants in the fight against the steppes. In the middle of the XII century, around 1146, on the steppe border, along the river Ros, a tribal union was formed from the Turkic nomadic tribes dependent on Russia. The Kievan chroniclers called the steppe allies of Russia "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 in 1168 was precisely as “black hoods”), as well as Berendey, Torki, Kovui, Turpei, and other small Polovtsian tribes. Many of them retained paganism for a long time, so the chroniclers called them "their nasty ones." The cavalry of the "black hoods" faithfully served the Russian princes both in their opposition to the steppe and in their civil strife. The center of the "black hoods" was the city of Torchesk, which stood on the river Ros, and apparently inhabited by the tribe of Torks. The Torks themselves, who came from the Aral Sea region, were first mentioned in the annals back in 985 as allies of Russia, who fought with her against the Khazars and the Volga Bulgarians. Under the blows of the Polovtsians, Torks found themselves on the Russian border. In 1055 they were defeated by the son of Yaroslav the Wise Vsevolod. In the future, part of the Torks submitted to the Polovtsy, the other entered the service of old acquaintances of the Russian princes.

The "Black Hoods" not only defended the southern borders of Russia, but were also used as elite cavalry units in other Russian lands where they were needed. Names such as the Berendeevo swamp, where Yevpaty Kolovrat fought the Mongol-Tatars, and a number of other names, with the adjective "Berendeevo", still exist in Vladimirskaya and Yaroslavl regions. In Ukraine, in the Zhytomyr region, there is the city of Berdichev, which was called Berendichev two centuries ago.

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

3. The era of the Crimean Khanate

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

In the 1260s, the Genoese took possession of the cities on the southern coast of Crimea, having achieved the right of the Golden Horde Khan to have his trading posts. Gradually, by the middle of the XIV century, the Genoese became the masters of the entire southern coast. This suited the Horde khans quite well, because the Genoese colonies became the main buyers of slaves driven from Russia.

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

It 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 only in the first half of the 16th century there were 50 “Crimean troops”, that is, military predatory invasions of Moscow Russia. A major invasion took place in 1507. Five years later, two Crimean princes devastated the environs of Aleksin, Belev, Bryansk, and Kolomna, laid siege to Ryazan, capturing "many". In 1521, the Crimeans, together with the Kazanians, besieged Moscow.

In the second half of the 16th century, the Moscow-Crimean wars took on a grandiose scale. Almost the entire adult male population of the khanate participated in the large raids of the Crimeans, tens of thousands of soldiers fought on the part of the Moscow armies.

So, in 1555, not far from Tula at the Fates, the Crimeans failed from the Russian troops. In 1564, the Tatars burned Ryazan. In 1571, Khan Devlet-Girey burnt Moscow, and the following year, the combined army of zemstvo and oprichnina governors defeated 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 repelled near the village of Vorobyevo (now within Moscow). On the site of the battle, the Donskoy Monastery was erected. For the 16th century, there is no information about raids only for 8 years, but eight times the Tatars made two raids a year, and once - three raids! Twice they came near Moscow and once burned it, burned Ryazan, reached Serpukhov and Kolomna.

In the 17th century, not even a year passes without a Crimean raid. The Tula notch line was destroyed in 1607-17. Especially during the Time of Troubles, when "Tatars went to Russia to the point of exhaustion," and the Shah of Iran, who was familiar with the state of the eastern slave markets, expressed surprise that there were still inhabitants in Russia. Only in 1607-1617. At least 100 thousand people were driven away from Russia by the Crimeans, and in total for the first half of the 17th century - at least 150-200 thousand. No less were the losses of the Russian population in the territory of the Commonwealth, where during the same time (1606-1649) 76 raids were made. Taking advantage of the lack of fortifications in the steppe "Ukraines" of the Moscow state, the Crimean Tatars again went deep into the country. In 1632, the Crimean raids contributed to Russia's failure in the Smolensk War of 1632-34. In 1633, the Crimeans robbed in the vicinity of Serpukhov, Tula and Ryazan.

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

In Ukraine, engulfed in civil strife by various hetmans who succeeded each other after the death of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, it was quite easy for the Tatars to capture captives. In just 3 years, 1654-1657, more than 50 thousand people were driven into slavery from Ukraine.

In the XVIII century, it became more difficult for the Tatars to invade Russia, since they would have to overcome the fortifications of the Izyum line. However, the raids continued. So, in 1735-36. in the Bakhmut province, “many inhabitants of the male and female sex were taken into captivity and beaten, and all standing and threshed bread was burned without a trace, and the cattle were driven away.” The “zadneprovsky 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. Dubai, 20,000 slaves were exported from the Crimea every year. About 60 thousand slaves were used in the khanate itself, mainly for agricultural work.

The last raid of the Crimean Khan took place in the winter of 1768-69. In the Elisavetgrad province, as one of the eyewitnesses reported, the Tatars burned 150 villages, "a huge smoky cloud spread 20 miles into Poland", 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 economy of the khanate, 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: a large one (seferi) was carried out under the leadership of the khan himself, more than 100 thousand people participated in it. Such a raid brought at least 5 thousand prisoners. Up to 50,000 warriors under the command of one of the beys participated in a medium-scale campaign (chapul), and up to 3,000 prisoners were usually captured. Small raids (“besh-bash”, literally “five heads”) were led by a murza, or a free fishing artel led by their own elected commander. Such a raid brought several hundred prisoners.

It is interesting that usually the Tatars 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 prisoners. The Tatars strove not to engage in battle with the Russian military detachments, moving deep into foreign territory extremely carefully, confusing the tracks like an animal. Capturing a village or town by surprise, the Tatars captured prisoners, killing those who resisted, after which they quickly left for the steppe. In the event of persecution, the Tatars dispersed into small groups, then gathered in a designated place. Only in the event of their overwhelming numerical superiority did the Crimeans enter the battle

The slaves captured in the raids were mostly immediately bought by merchants of predominantly Jewish origin, who later resold their “goods” at a big profit to all those in need of slaves, who were ready to generously pay for them.

The buyer of slaves was mainly the Ottoman Empire, which widely used the labor of slaves in the spheres of economic life. However, in the XIV and XV centuries. Slavic slaves were bought by the merchants of the Italian city republics that were going through the Renaissance period, which had no effect on the fate of the Russian slaves. Slaves of Slavic origin are noted as something ordinary in the XIV 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 southern 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 recalls, “I hope it is now clear to everyone why so many blondes divorced on the canvases of the then Italian artists. With a chronic shortage of them among the natives of Italy ... ".

Later, France became one of the most important buyers of the "live goods" delivered from the Crimea. During the reign of the "Sun King" Louis XIV, Russian slaves were widely used as galley rowers. Neither the "most Christian" monarchs, nor the pious bourgeois, nor the humanists of the Renaissance saw anything shameful in buying Christian slaves from Muslim lords through Jewish intermediaries.

It is characteristic that the Crimean Khanate itself, located in the fertile Crimea with its most fertile soils and the most advantageous geographical position, was a completely primitive state structure. Even such an author as V. E. Vozgrin, the author of the book “The Historical Fates of the Crimean Tatars”, devoting his entire work of 450 pages to “evidence” that the innocent Crimean Tatars became victims of the aggression of tsarism, nevertheless admitted: “the fact of a completely unique (if not on a global scale, then at least for Europe) stagnation of the entire Crimean economy 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, therefore Greeks, Armenians, Karaites, as well as slaves captured in raids, were engaged in crafts, trade, gardening and other types of economic activity in the khanate. When Catherine II decided to finally 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, free Cossacks glorified themselves. The Zaporozhian Sich stood up as a powerful barrier to the invasions of the Tatar hordes. In response to the Tatar raids, the Cossacks and the Don people organized retaliatory campaigns against the Crimea and Turkish fortresses on the Black Sea, freeing the captives. On their light boats "seagulls" the Cossacks crossed the Black Sea, attacking even the outskirts of Istanbul. The Cossacks sometimes interrupted Turkish voyages on the Black Sea for years, sinking or capturing even large Turkish ships for boarding. Only from 1575 to 1637. the Cossacks made up to twenty campaigns along the Black Sea, often engaging in naval battles with the Turkish fleet. In 1675, Ivan Serko, the Zaporizhzhya ataman, invaded the Crimea, devastating the peninsula, freeing 7,000 captives. Finally, during the Russian-Turkish war of 1735-40, Russian troops under the command of Field Marshal I.Kh. Minikha invaded the Crimea, defeating the capital of the Khanate Bakhchisaray.

Mavrodin V.V. Slavic-Russian population of the Lower Don and the North Caucasus in the X-XIV centuries / / Scientific notes of the Leningrad State Pedagogical Institute im. A. I. Herzen. T. 11.1938, p. 23

Ibid, p. 106

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

What was Novorossia like a century ago? In 1910, a 14-volume edition was published under the editorship of V.P. Semenov-Tian-Shansky “Russia. A complete geographical description of our society." We have collected unique facts from the volume "Crimea and Novorossiya", the reissue of which we are preparing.

"New Byzantium"

1. The lands liberated from the Turks and Crimean Tatars in the 18th century, it was decided to call Novorossia, by analogy with Little Russia and Great Russia. The accession of these lands in the era of Catherine was part of the "Greek project": the advance to the south and the revival of Byzantium with a center in New Rome (Constantinople).

2. At the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, Novorossia included modern Moldova, Stavropol, Donbass, Rostov, Odessa, Kherson, Nikolaev, Kirovograd and Dnepropetrovsk regions.

3. A lot of cities in New Russia had Greek names - Stavropol, Simferopol, Sevastpol, Nikopol, Olviopol, Kherson, Balaklava, Alexandria, Tiraspol, etc. This indirectly reflected the "Byzantine idea" of the Russian rulers.

Novorossiya and Novorossiysk

4. The modern city of Novorossiysk in the Krasnodar Territory, despite its name, was located a little south of the provinces, which it was customary to associate with Novorossia at the end of the 19th century.

5. Novorossiysk from 1796 to 1802 was called Dnepropetrovsk, a city on the Dnieper with a rich history. In 1776, the city of Yekaterinoslav (as it was called in 1776-1796 and 1802-1926) became the center of Novorossia - the then Azov province.

It was he who was planned to be made in 1784 the "third capital" of the Russian Empire, after Moscow and St. Petersburg. The city has changed many names, having managed to visit even Samara (or rather Samar, a Cossack town on the Samara River, which flows into the Dnieper).

living conditions

6. At the turn of the XIX-XX centuries, about 12.5 million people lived in Novorossia:

32% - Great Russians, 42% - Little Russians (they lived mainly on the right bank of the Dnieper and Konka);

91% Christians (84.7% Orthodox), 6% Jews, 2% Mohammedans.

7. Novorossiya was a multinational territory. Greeks, Armenians, Jews, Germans, Serbs, Bulgarians, Moldavians, Crimean Tatars, Rusyns, Great and Little Russians lived here. In Stavropol there are Kalmyks, Nogais and Turkmens.

8. The warmest winters are in the Crimea, where the temperature is above zero. The least hot summer by the sea is in Taganrog and Mariupol.

9. The population was mostly rural (over 80%). The smallest number of peasants is in the Kherson and Bessarabian provinces, and the largest number of townspeople are in the Kherson and Taurida provinces.

10. The largest number of schools and students was noted in the Crimea and the southwestern regions.

11. Half of the land was in private hands. The most expensive land was in the Bessarabian province - 90 rubles per hectare.

12. Kherson province surpassed many others in terms of productivity, provision of bread and arable land

13. Novorossia was not only a new agricultural, but also an industrial region of Russia. The main labor market was located in Kakhovka, a city on the lower reaches of the Dnieper. Women, teenagers and children worked in the industry.

14. The number of teenagers in the shell production was about 80% and about 13% of children. Children were widely employed in the tobacco industry, and teenagers in the rope and iron-tinning industries.

River routes and land roads

15. Before the end of the 15th century, there were no permanent land roads. Temporary steppe roads, portages between rivers and horse trails are known.

16. One of the most ancient routes of New Russia were: the caravan route from Kyiv to Kafa (Feodosia) (XV century), Muravsky Way (from Perekop through the Konka and Samara rivers to Orel and Tula), Mikitinsky, Kizekermensky and Kryukovsky Ways (along the Dnieper) , Cherny Shlyakh (from Ochakov to the depths of Poland).

17. Under Nicholas I, the first highway- from Simferopol to Sevastopol.

18. First Railway in Novorossia was supposed to replace the never-built Volga-Don Canal and went from the Volga settlement of Dubovka to the Kachalinskaya village on the Don.

19. The most important Russian rivers - the Dniester, the Dnieper and the Don - were located in Novorossia. At the same time, river navigation was poorly developed.

20. Navigation was best developed on the Don, but shallow water prevented the widespread use of the river fleet. The Don fleet was one of the most expensive.

21. The Dnieper was torn into two parts by rapids, overcoming which was an extremely dangerous business. Attempts to deepen the bottom in these areas did not bring a serious effect.

22. The Dniester suffered from shallow water and easy rapids and rifts. In addition, cargo traffic along it fell by the end of the 19th century.

Cities of Novorossiya

23. Stavropol belonged to Novorossia, but not Kharkov.

24. Most major city Novorossiya was Odessa. Rostov and Yekaterinoslav (Dnepropetrovsk) competed for second and third place at the turn of the century. Krivoy Rog, one of the largest modern cities in Ukraine, was a small town near a post station.

25. Odessa and Rostov were the main trading cities, which enjoyed a certain freedom. Where there is trade, there are scammers. That is why the cities became the most famous "thieves' capitals". Since those times, there has been a saying "Odessa-mother, Rostov-dad."

26. More than Odessa in the Russian Empire were only Warsaw, St. Petersburg and Moscow. Rostov is already in 14th place, and Yekaterinoslav is 17th (1st, 2nd and 3rd in Novorossia, respectively).

27. Odessa was the largest seaport and railway junction. The convenient location on the Black Sea and between the mouths of two major rivers in Europe (Dnieper and Dniester) ensured the wealth of the city. From her to European capitals(Vienna and Rome) was closer than to Moscow and St. Petersburg.

28. The Armenians founded several cities in New Russia - Nakhichevan-on-Don (now the Rostov region), Grigoriopol (on the banks of the Dniester) and the Holy Cross (modern Budyonnovsk in Stavropol). .Contemporaries noted that Nakhichevan, thanks to its gardens, was superior in beauty to neighboring Rostov. By the end of the 19th century, they merged into a single city.

29. The most important cities of the Greeks were Balaklava (in the Crimea) and Mariupol (previously called Kalmius in Greek). Near Mariupol, on the Kalka River (modern Kalmius or Kalchik, which flows into it), a tragic battle took place between the troops of ancient Russian princes and the Mongol conquerors.

30.Bendery is not only the colloquial name of Ukrainian radical nationalists, but also the oldest city in Transnistria. The name most likely comes from the Persian "harbour, port". The Moldavian rulers called the city Tyagyankyachya, Tigina or Tungati. The Turks renamed it Bendery.

31. The modern city of Zaporozhye did not arise from scratch. Numerous Dnieper rapids ended here. Even before the appearance of the Zaporozhian Sich, there was a Scythian town on the island of Khortytsya (the largest on the Dnieper). The island is mentioned in ancient Russian chronicles as a place of battles and a gathering of princes; it is possible that the “capital” of chronicle roamers was located here - Protolcha, a trade and craft settlement named after the famous ford.

32. In 1552, the Volyn prince Dmitry Vishnevetsky built the first Cossack town here, in 1756 the Zaporizhzhya shipyard was laid here, and later the Alexander Fortress. Aleksandrovsk became the most important transport hub of Novorossiya.

Excursion into history

33. The ancient Greek names of the Don, Dnieper, Southern Bug and Dniester are Tanais, Borisfen, Gipanis and Tiras.

34. In the steppe and along the lower reaches of the great rivers, the Scythians roamed, in the Crimea from ancient times lived the Tauri, after whom the peninsula was named, as well as the remnants of the Cimmerians. To the west of Borisfen lived farmers - Allazons and Callipids, beyond Tanais - Sarmatians. The Allazons and Callipids were involved in trade with the ancient Greeks, who had a rich colony, Olbia, at the mouth of the Borysthenes. The Greeks called them the Hellenic-Scythians.

35. Thracian tribes lived in Bessarabia - the Getae and Dacians, from whom, together with the Roman colonists, the Romanians and Moldavians originated.

36. There are still many ancient ramparts in Novorossia, the origin of which is still controversial. Obviously only them ancient origin. These are the Serpent's ramparts, the Trajan's ramparts and the Perekop rampart.

37. On the territory of New Russia were located: the Scythian kingdom, the Bosporus kingdom, colonies of Greeks, Italians, Byzantine lands, the Empire of the Huns, the state of the Goths Oyum, the Avar Khanate, Great Bulgaria, the Khazar Khaganate, Kievan Rus, the Golden Horde, the Crimean Khanate, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the lands of the Ottoman Empire, the Commonwealth, the Zaporizhian Army (Hetmanate).

38. southern part Bessarabia - the interfluve of the lower reaches of the Dniester and the Prut was called the Angle. From it came the name of the Slavic tribe of streets.

39. The word Bessarabia comes from the name of the Wallachian prince Basarab I (1319 - 1352).

40. The “List of Russian cities far and near” (beginning of the 15th century) mentions the old Russian cities in Bessarabia: Belgorod, Yassky Torg on the Prut, Khoten on the Dniester, and Pereseken (according to another version, it was located on the Dnieper near modern Dnepropetrovsk).

41. The coastal towns of Novorossiya also have a long history. On the site of Odessa, there was a city of Istrian sailors - Istrion (VI century AD). Nearby was a whole constellation of ancient Greek colonies: Odessos, Olbia, Tyra, Nikonion, Isakion, Skopelos, Alektos.

42. Even before our era, Greeks and Scythians chose Novorossia. Large trading cities were located here. On the site of Azov - Tanais, Taganrog - Kremny, Kerch - Mirmekiy, Tiritaka and Panticapaeum, Feodosia retained its name, on the site of Sevastopol - Chersonese, Evpatoria - Kerkintida, Simferopol - Scythian Naples, the ancient capital of the Scythian kingdom.

43. Another oldest city of the Scythians was located near the modern city of Zaporozhye (until 1921 - Aleksandrovsk).

44. From the Greek colonies and settlers, we got the word "estuary" (in translation - harbor, bay).

45. The cities of Crimea and the Black Sea coast lost by Byzantium were quickly mastered by Italians (Venetians and Genoese), Turks and Crimean Tatars. The Crimean Khanate and Gazaria (Genoese colonies) owned the cities of Crimea. The chronicle Surozh (Sudak) became the Italian Soldaya, Balaklava was called in Italian Cembalo, Yalta - Dzhialita, Alushta - Alusta, Feodosia - Kaffa. Ak-mosque, Akkerman, Achi-Kale are Turkish cities on the site of Simferopol, Belgorod-Dnestrovsky and Ochakov.

46. ​​In the Crimea, descendants of the Goths are still found among the Greeks and Crimean Tatars. Basically, these are people with blue eyes and blond hair, who have completely switched to a foreign language. However, according to the surviving descriptions of medieval historians, the Crimean language existed until the end of the 18th century.

47. In Southern Crimea there was the legendary Gothia, which later became the Orthodox Principality of Theodoro with the Greek-Gotho-Alanian population, already in 1475 was captured by the Turks. The capital of Theodoro - Mangup, was deserted and completely disappeared as a settlement today.

48. The city of Stary Krym has changed about 22 names throughout its history. The most famous are: Taz, Kareya, Trakana, Solkhat, Levkopol.

49. The Perekop Isthmus, which separates the Crimea from the mainland, has been the most important place, the “gateway” to big land. According to Ptolemy and Pliny the Elder, for some time there even existed a canal connecting the Sea of ​​Azov and the Black Sea. On the site of Perekop, there was an ancient Greek trading city of Tafros. Here is the Perekop shaft, which is already about 2 thousand years old.

50. Russian cities existed in Novorossia as early as the 10th century (Belgorod at the mouth of the Dniester and Oleshye at the mouth of the Dnieper). With the weakening of the Golden Horde, new cities appear. They belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, in which, as you know, Russian was the official language and the language of the majority of the population.

After the death of Vitovt in 1430, a list of castles is given: Sokolets (now the city of Voznesensk in the Nikolaev region), Black City (the city of Ochakov in the Nikolaev region), Kachuklenov (Odessa).

Cossacks and border guards

51. Serbs-borderiers (Austrian "Cossacks") asked the Russian government to settle them in Russia. Thus, a whole region was born - New Serbia on the territory of the modern Kirovograd region. Its capital was the city of Novomirgorod. More than ten years later, New Serbia became part of the Novorossiysk province.

52. Another area where Serbs and other Balkan settlers lived was Slavic Serbia (on the territory of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions), the center of which was the city of Bakhmut (modern Artyomovsk).

53. The Cossacks in New Russia were mostly part of the Don Army and the Zaporizhzhya Army. The Cossacks settled "beyond the rapids" in the lower reaches of the Dnieper on numerous islets and capes. History remembers successive sichs: Khortitsa (on Khortitsa Island), Tokmakovskaya (on Tokmakovka Island), Nikitinskaya (near the Nikitinsky Horn), Chertomlykskaya (along the river), Bazavalukskaya (on Bazavluk Island), Pidpilnyanskaya, Kamenskaya and Aleshkovskaya ( by the name of the flowing rivers).

54. Don Cossacks had towns along the Don and Medveditsa. The most famous are Cherkassky, Monastyrsky, Tsimlyansky.