Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
This began in 1240, when Mongols conquered Crimea. Two centuries later control
passed to their descendants, the Tatars, who held it for centuries. The Crimean Khanate
became an independent political entity under Haci Giray in 1428, and after an invasion in
1475 it became a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire. Although advanced in culture and
the arts, its main economic activity was trading in slaves, captured during raids into Rus-
sian, Ukrainian or Polish territory.
While a Turkish vassal state, Crimea enjoyed much autonomy. The same was not true
when the Russians arrived in 1783 and began a campaign of assimilation. Three-quarters
of Crimean Tatars fled to Turkey, while Russians, Ukrainians, Greeks, Bulgarians, Ger-
mans and even some French were invited to resettle Crimea.
Such Russian expansionism soon began to worry the great powers, Britain and France.
As Russia tried to encroach into the lands of the decaying Ottoman Empire, the Crimean
War erupted in 1854.
With close ties to the monarchy, Crimea was one of the last White Russian (pro- Tsar-
ist ) bastions during the Russian revolution, holding out till November 1920. It was occu-
pied by German troops for three years during WWII and lost nearly half its population.
In the war's aftermath, Stalin deported all remaining Crimean Tatars and most other eth-
nic minorities.
In 1954 Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, a self-styled Ukrainian, created the
Autonomous Crimean Soviet Socialist Republic and transferred legislative control to the
Ukrainian SSR from the Russian Federation.
When the USSR disintegrated, Russia and Ukraine wrestled over the region. They
came to a temporary compromise over Russia's Black Sea Fleet, allowing it to stay in
Crimea until 2017. Soon after being elected in 2010, President Viktor Yanukovych exten-
ded this lease until 2035.
Over 60% of the Crimean population are ethnic Russians and most of the others are
Russian speakers. Russian is an official language in Crimea, along with Ukrainian and
Crimean Tatar. Locals weren't particularly chuffed by Ukrainian independence, even less
so by the Orange Revolution (
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)
.
Crimean Tatars started returning from Central Asian exile in the late 1980s. Restitu-
tion of the property lost in 1944 was out of the question. Penniless and unwelcome by the
Russian majority, they resorted to grabbing unused land. Pro-Russian 'Cossack' vigil-
antes launched a series of violent attacks on Tatar squatters, but by the time of writing
tensions have largely subsided.
