The Northern Black Sea Region by Kerstin Susanne Jobst In historical studies, the Black Sea region is viewed as a separate historical region which has been shaped in particular by vast migration and acculturation processes. Another prominent feature of the region's history is the great diversity of religions and cultures which existed there up to the 20th century. The region is understood as a complex interwoven entity. This article focuses on the northern Black Sea region, which in the present day is primarily inhabited by Slavic people. Most of this region currently belongs to Ukraine, which has been an independent state since 1991. It consists primarily of the former imperial Russian administrative province of Novorossiia (not including Bessarabia, which for a time was administered as part of Novorossiia) and the Crimean Peninsula, including the adjoining areas to the north. The article also discusses how the region, which has been inhabited by Scythians, Sarmatians, Greeks, Romans, Goths, Huns, Khazars, Italians, Tatars, East Slavs and others, fitted into broader geographical and political contexts. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Space of Myths and Legends 3. The Northern Black Sea Region in Classical Antiquity 4. From the Khazar Empire to the Crimean Khanate and the Ottomans 5. Russian Rule: The Region as Novorossiia 6. World War, Revolutions and Soviet Rule 7. From the Second World War until the End of the Soviet Union 8. Summary and Future Perspective 9. Appendix 1. Sources 2. Literature 3. Notes Indices Citation Introduction With good reason, the Black Sea has come to be viewed in historical studies as a distinct historical region (➔ Media Link #ab) and thus as a space of concentrated communication, comparable with the Baltic region or the Mediterranean region.1 A perspective which focuses on nation-states appears inappropriate, as the region only came to be dominated by nation-states in the 20th century.2 The shoreline of the Black Sea, which connects southeastern Europe, eastern Europe and parts of the Middle East, has been shared by the following states since 1991: Ukraine, the Russian Federation, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria and Rumania. For a longue durée perspective, the nation-state frame of reference, which is historically comparatively recent, is of little use.3 Much more prominent and enduring than nation-states has been the influence of nomadic and sedentary cultures, and the waxing and waning of competing empires (➔ Media Link #ac). This history has included extensive migration processes – some of which proceeded peacefully, some of which were violent – which increased the ethnicity and religious diversity of the region. Viewed from this perspective, the chosen focus of this article on the northern Black Sea region, i.e., primarily on territories which belong to Ukraine at present, is arbitrary. On the other hand, this focus can be justified as it makes it possible to identify contexts and structures which are characteristic of the historical region as a whole. These include the importance of the region as a space of classical and modern myths, as an economic region (➔ Media Link #ad) and as a zone of contact between nomadic and sedentary cultures (➔ Media Link #ae), and between Islam and Christianity. The territory discussed in this article encompasses roughly the former imperial Russian administrative provinces of Novorossiia ("New Russia") and Tavriia (Tavricheskaia guberniia). This region, which is today referred to as southern Ukraine, roughly lies between the Danube Delta and the Kerch Strait (Kerch in Russian and Ukrainian), including the hinterland.4 ▲1 Space of Myths and Legends The region to the north of the Black Sea has been settled by humans since primitive times. It was part of the world of classical (Greek and Roman) antiquity, which makes it a complex space of myths and legends. The ancient tales connected with the region in some cases have a grain of historical reality in them, but this has been continuously distorted and adapted to fit the narratives which the various groups constructed. In the form of the biblical flood, which is frequently described as having occurred in the region, the Black Sea is also connected with a topos which is present across cultures.5 The "evidence" is hotly contested, however, and has not put an end to the search for the "real" site.6 Ultimately, the question of whether the biblical flood occurred in the Black Sea is of secondary importance for a cultural studies perspective on the space.7 Thanks to the narrative of Iphigenia, the northern coast of the Black Sea also has its place in the mythical world of classical antiquity.8 Having been interpreted by Euripides (480–406 BC) (➔ Media Link #ag), Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714–1787) (➔ Media Link #ah) and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) (➔ Media Link #ai), and more latterly by the Cypriot film director Michalēs Kakogiannēs (1922–2011) (➔ Media Link #aj),9 the narrative has become a kind of timeless theme of the arts.10 The island of Tauris in the legend is often identified as the Crimean Peninsula.11 There Iphigenia, Agamemnon's daughter, as a priestess had to offer strangers as sacrifices to the goddess Artemis (Diana), until she was rescued by her brother Orestes. The idea that the northern Black Sea region is a shore from classical antiquity has also played an important role in Russian discourses on the region. From the famous journey of Empress Catherine II (1729–1796) (➔ Media Link #al) to the Crimea in 1787 – a few short years after the annexation of the region – which was not coincidentally known as the "Tauride Journey", reference was repeatedly made to the region's classical heritage and the world of the classical myths.12 From the Enlightenment onward, which also left its mark on the Russian elites, classical antiquity was considered a particularly significant era. With the annexation of the Crimean Khanate on the northern shore of the Black Sea, the Russian Empire had acquired its own piece of the territory of classical antiquity. ▲2 The space is also connected with religious myths and legends, which also played an important role in Russian imperial discourses. In addition to the supposed baptism of Grand Prince Vladimir I Sviatoslavich (956–1015) (➔ Media Link #am) in Chersonesus in the 10th century, which will be discusses again below, these myths also included the supposed Scythian mission of the apostle Andrew (known in Russian as Andrei Pervozvannyi, meaning "Andrew, the first called"). Andrew’s missionary activity is said to have taken him northward from the Black Sea along the Dnieper. In the form of the apocryphal text The Legend of the Journey of Saint Andrew to Russia, the story of this mission was included in the Nestor Chronicle (Povest vremennykh let). This text is viewed as the most important surviving sources for studying the Kievan Rus. The text itself only contains the following prosaic reference: "[a]ls Andreas in Sinopé lehrte und als er nach Korsun' [Chersonesus] gekommen war, sah er, daß von Korsun' aus die Mündung des Dnepr nahe ist".13 However, as the conquest of the region by the Russian Empire got underway in the last quarter of the 18th century, such narratives which seemed to prove an ancient connection between Christianity and the East Slavic territory played a significant role in efforts to justify the annexation. The expansion of Russia into the region at the expense of the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate could in this way be portrayed as returning the region to its prior state. Ukrainian nationalist narratives have also included this collection of myths, but have integrated them into a linear Ukrainian (not Russian!) history.14 ▲3 The northern Black Sea region is, however, not only a mythical and legendary place in the Russian and Ukrainian contexts, as demonstrated by the Sarmatian myth cultivated by the Polish nobility in the 16th century. The Polish aristocracy began to trace its heritage as well as its system of values and norms back to the Iranian nomadic people the Sarmatians, who played a very important role on the northern shore of the Black Sea for a period of time.15 German-speaking travellers and ideologues, on the other hand, attached significance to the Goths who had advanced to the Black Sea in the 3rd century AD, whom they viewed as their ancestors. During the German occupation of the Crimea during the Second World War, the Germanization plans of Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) (➔ Media Link #an) were also influenced by this supposed line of descent. The cruel attempts at so-called Umvolkung (re-peopling) in the peninsula were thus given the name "Gotenland".16 ▲4 The importance of the region for the imaginations and the collective memories of various nationalities and social groups can only be hinted at here. It is clear, however, that the Black Sea, and in particular its northern shore, have long been emotionally charged spaces of memory which in this regard no one nationality has exclusively claim to. ▲5 The Northern Black Sea Region in Classical Antiquity The great ethnic and cultural diversity of this region has existed since earliest times. In classical antiquity, Asiatic and Greek influences resulted in the formation of "mixed civilizations" here.17 As the region was inhabited by groups which engaged in different forms of economic activity and lived in complex and mutually dependent relationships, none of the groups was able to gain lasting dominance over the others. Consequently, no centre of power emerged to dominate the region. The culturally different groups alternated between phases of coexistence and confrontation. ▲6 Due to its advantageous location and climatic conditions, the Black Sea region was already settled before classical antiquity and it was the destination of the so-called "Ionian Colonization" (of the 11th/10th century BC) and the "Great Colonization" of the Greeks (from the 8th to the 6th century BC).