Rare traditions. The most unusual superstitions and traditions of the peoples of the world

From time to time, so-called hot spots arise in world geopolitics. The history of such confrontations sometimes goes into such depth and is overgrown with myths and speculations, on which certain political forces begin all kinds of speculation.
The events that took place in Ukraine just a few days ago created another such pain point- Crimea.

Crimea in ancient and ancient times

Crimea - possession of Byzantium

Crimea and the Golden Horde

Crimea and the Ottoman Empire

Annexation of Crimea to Russia

Crimea as part of the RSFSR

The Russian Civil War makes Crimea a stronghold for the White Army and a territory where power periodically passes from one government to another.
In November 1917, the Crimean People's Republic was proclaimed.
It was replaced for only two months by the Soviet Socialist Republic of Taurida as part of the RSFSR.
In April 1918, German troops, parts of the UPR army, and Tatar police liquidated Soviet power.
During the occupation of Crimea by German troops, the autonomous Crimean regional government of Suleiman Sulkevich operated.
It was replaced by a government formed by the governments of the Entente.
The short-term Soviet government, just three months, created the Crimean Soviet Socialist Republic.
She was replaced from July 1919 to November 1920 by the Government of the South of Russia.
The victory of the Red Army in 1920 included Crimea into the RSFSR.
During the Great Patriotic War, Crimea was occupied German troops. After its liberation by the Red Army in 1944, interethnic contradictions sharply worsened. Crimean Tatars, Armenians, Greeks, Bulgarians were evicted due to the fact that a large number of representatives of these peoples participated voluntarily on the side of the German occupiers.

Ukrainian Crimea

Modern events

• On February 23, 2014, instead of the Ukrainian flag, the Russian flag was raised over the city hall of Kerch. This was followed by the massive removal of Ukrainian flags in other cities of Crimea.
• On February 26, a mass rally took place in Simferopol, which ended in a brawl between representatives of the Russian and Tatar communities of Crimea.
• The Cossacks of Feodosia sharply criticized the new government of Kyiv. They were supported by the residents of Evpatoria.
• The people's head of Sevastopol refused to comply with Kyiv's order to dissolve Berkut.
• On February 27, 2014, a meeting of the Crimean parliament was held, which dismissed former prime minister Anatoly Mogilev and elected the head of the Russian Unity party Sergei Aksenov as Prime Minister of Crimea.
• On February 28, 2014, the new government of Crimea was introduced. The government considers the main task to be holding a referendum on expanding autonomy.

You and I are accustomed to approaching the concept “ Crimea“as the name of a place where you can have a great summer vacation, have a good rest on the seashore, making a couple of trips to attractions located nearby. But if you approach the issue globally, look at the peninsula from the distance of centuries and knowledge, then it becomes clear that Crimea– a unique historical and cultural territory, striking in its antiquity and diversity of natural and “man-made” values. Numerous Crimean cultural monuments reflect religion, culture and historical events different eras and peoples. Story The peninsula is a plexus of West and East, the history of the ancient Greeks and the Golden Horde Mongols, the history of the birth of Christianity, the appearance of the first churches and mosques. They lived here for centuries, fought with each other, concluded peace and trade treaties different peoples, towns and cities were built and destroyed, civilizations appeared and disappeared. Inhaling the Crimean air, in addition to the notorious phytoncides, you can feel in it the taste of legends about life Amazons, Olympian gods, Tauri, Cimmerians, Greeks…

The natural conditions of Crimea and the geographical location, favorable for life, contributed to the fact that the peninsula became cradle of humanity. Primitive Neanderthals appeared here 150 thousand years ago, attracted by the warm climate and the abundance of animals, which were their main food supply. In almost every Crimean museum you can find archaeological finds from grottos and caves, which served as natural shelters for primitive man. The most famous sites primitive man:

• Kiik-Koba ( Belogorsky district);
• Staroselye ( Bakhchisaray);
• Chokurcho (Simferopol);
• Wolf Grotto (Simferopol);
• Ak-Kaya(Belogorsk).

Cimmerians

If before the first millennium BC historical data only lift the veil from different periods of human development, then information about a later time allows us to talk about specific cultures and tribes of the Crimea. In the 5th century BC, Herodotus, an ancient Greek historian, visited the Crimean shores. In his writings, he described the local lands and the peoples living on them. It is believed that among the first peoples who lived in the steppe part of the peninsula in the 15th-7th centuries BC were Cimmerians. Their warlike tribes were driven out of Crimea in IV - III centuries BC by no less aggressive Scythians and were lost in the vast expanses of the steppes of Asia. Only ancient names remind us of them:

• Cimmerian walls;
• Cimmerick.

Taurus

The mountainous and foothill Crimea in those days was inhabited by tribes brands, distant descendants of the Kizil-Koba archaeological culture. In the descriptions of ancient authors, the Tauri look bloodthirsty and cruel. Being skilled sailors, they traded in piracy, robbing ships passing along the coast. The prisoners were thrown into the sea from a high cliff from the temple, sacrificing to the Virgin goddess. Refuting this information, modern scientists have established that the Tauri were engaged in hunting, collecting shellfish, fishing, farming and raising livestock. They lived in huts or caves, but for protection from external enemies built fortified shelters. Taurus fortifications were discovered on the mountains: Cat, Uch-Bash, Castel, Ayu-Dag, on Cape Ai-Todor.

Another trace of the Tauri are numerous burials in dolmens - stone boxes consisting of four flat slabs placed on edge and covered with a fifth. One of the unsolved mysteries about the Tauri is the location of the cliff with the Temple of the Virgin.

Scythians

In the 7th century BC, Scythian tribes came to the steppe part of Crimea. In the 4th century BC, the Sarmatians push back Scythians to the lower Dnieper and Crimea. At the turn of the 4th-3rd centuries BC, a Scythian state was formed on this territory, the capital of which was Naples Scythian(in its place is modern Simferopol).

Greeks

In the 7th century BC, strings of Greek colonists reached the Crimean shores. Choosing places convenient for living and sailing, Greeks city-states were founded on them - “policies”:

• Feodosia ;
• Panticapaeum-Bosporus ( Kerch);
• (Sevastopol);
• Mirmekiy;
• Nymphaeum;
• Tiritaka.

The emergence and expansion of Greek colonies served as a serious impetus for the development of the Northern Black Sea region: political, cultural and trade ties between the local population and the Greeks intensified. The indigenous inhabitants of Crimea learned to cultivate the land in more advanced ways and began to grow olives and grapes. The influence was enormous Greek culture on the spiritual world of the Scythians, Taurians, Sarmatians and other tribes that came into contact with it. However, the relationship between neighboring peoples was not easy: periods of peace were followed by years of war. Therefore, all Greek city policies were protected by strong stone walls.

IV century BC became the time of the founding of several settlements in the west of the peninsula. The largest of them are Kalos-Limen (Black Sea) and Kerkinitida ( Evpatoria). At the end of the 5th century BC, immigrants from Greek Heraclea founded the polis of Chersonesos (modern Sevastopol). A hundred years later, Chersonesos became a city-state independent of the Greek metropolis and the largest polis in the Northern Black Sea region. In its heyday, it was a powerful port city, surrounded by fortified walls, a cultural, craft and trade center in the southwestern part of Crimea.

Around 480 BC, independent Greek cities united to form Bosporan Kingdom, whose capital was city ​​of Panticapaeum. A little later she joined the kingdom Feodosia.

In the 4th century BC, the Scythian king Atey united the Scythian tribes into a strong state that owned the territory from the Dniester and the Southern Bug to the Don. From the end of the 4th century BC and especially in the 3rd century BC Scythians and the Tauri, who were under their influence, exerted strong military pressure on the policies. In the 3rd century BC, Scythian villages, fortifications and cities appeared on the peninsula, including the capital of the kingdom - Naples Scythian. At the end of the 2nd century BC, Chersonesos, besieged by the Scythians, turned to the Pontic kingdom for help (located on the southern shore Black Sea). The troops of Pontus lifted the siege, but at the same time captured Theodosia and Panticapaeum, after which both Bosporus and Chersonesos became part of the Pontic kingdom.

Romans, Huns, Byzantium

From the middle of the 1st century to the beginning of the 4th century AD, the entire Black Sea region (including Crimea-Taurica) was part of the sphere of interests of the Roman Empire. The stronghold of the Romans in Taurica became Chersonesos. In the 1st century, on Cape Ai-Todor, Roman legionaries built the fortress of Charax and connected it by roads with Chersonesos, where the garrison was located. The Roman squadron was stationed in the Chersonesos harbor.

In 370, hordes of Huns came to the Crimean lands. They wiped out the Bosporan kingdom and the Scythian state from the face of the earth, destroyed Chersonesus, Panticapaeum and Scythian Naples. After the Crimea, the Huns went to Europe, bringing the death of the great Roman Empire. In the 4th century, the Roman Empire was divided into Western and Eastern (Byzantine). The southern part of Taurica entered the sphere of interests of the Eastern Empire. The main base of the Byzantines in Crimea became Chersonesus, which began to be called Cherson. This period became the time of penetration of Christianity into the peninsula. According to church tradition, its first messenger was Andrew the First-Called. The third bishop of Rome, Clement, exiled to Kherson in 94, also actively preached the Christian faith. In the 8th century, an iconoclasm movement appeared in Byzantium: all images of saints were destroyed - on icons, in temple paintings. The monks fled from persecution on the outskirts of the empire, including in the Crimea. In the mountains of the peninsula they founded cave monasteries and temples:

• Kachi-Kalyon;
• Chelter;
• Uspensky;
• Shuldan.

At the end of the 6th century, a flood of new wave invaders - the Khazars, the ancestors of the Karaites. They occupied all of Crimea, except Kherson. In 705, Kherson recognized the Khazar protectorate and separated from Byzantium. In response, Byzantium sent a punitive fleet in 710 with a small army on board. Kherson fell, and the Byzantines treated its inhabitants with unprecedented cruelty. But as soon as the imperial troops left the city, it rebelled: uniting with the Khazars and part of the army that changed the empire, Cherson captured Constantinople and installed its own emperor at the head of Byzantium.

Slavs, Mongols, Genoese, Principality of Theodoro

In the 9th century Crimean history a new force is actively interfering - Slavs. Their appearance on the peninsula coincided with the decline of the Khazar state, which was finally defeated in the 10th century by Prince Svyatoslav. In 988–989, Kherson was captured by the Kiev prince Vladimir. Here he accepted the Christian faith.

In the 13th century, the Tatar-Mongols of the Golden Horde invaded the peninsula several times, thoroughly plundering the cities. From the middle of the 13th century they began to settle in the territory of Taurica. At this time, they captured Solkhat and turned it into the center of the Crimean yurt of the Golden Horde. It received the name Kyrym, which was later inherited by the peninsula.

During these same years, an Orthodox church appeared in the mountains of Crimea. Principality of Theodoro with its capital in Mangupe. The Genoese had disputes with the Principality of Theodoro regarding the ownership of the disputed territories.

Turks

At the beginning of 1475, Kafa had a fleet Ottoman Empire. The well-fortified Kafa withstood the siege for only three days, after which it surrendered to the mercy of the winner. By the end of the year Turks captured all coastal fortresses: the rule of the Genoese in Crimea ended. Mangup held out the longest and surrendered to the Turks only after a six-month siege. The invaders treated the captured Theodorians cruelly: they destroyed the city, killed most of the inhabitants, and took the survivors into slavery.

Crimean Khan became a vassal Ottoman Empire and the conductor of Turkey’s aggressive policy towards Rus'. Raids on the southern lands Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and Rus' became permanent. Rus' sought to protect its southern borders and gain access to the Black Sea. Therefore, she fought with Turkey many times. The war of 1768–1774 was unsuccessful for the Turks. In 1774, a treaty was concluded between the Ottoman Empire and Russia. Kuchuk-Kainardzhi Treaty about peace, which brought independence to the Crimean Khanate. Russia received the fortresses of Kin-burn, Azov and the city of Kerch in Crimea, along with the Yeni-Kale fortress. In addition, Russian merchant ships have now received Free access to sail the Black Sea.

Russia

In 1783 Crimea was finally annexed to Russia. Most Muslims left the peninsula and moved to Turkey. The region fell into disrepair. Prince G. Potemkin, the governor of Taurida, began to resettle retired soldiers and serfs from neighboring areas here. This is how the first villages with Russian names appeared on the peninsula - Izyumovka, Mazanka, Chistenkoe... This move of the prince turned out to be correct: the economy of Crimea began to develop, agriculture was revived. The city was founded in an excellent natural harbor Sevastopol- base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Near Ak-Mosque, a small town, Simferopol was built - the future “capital” of the Tauride province.

In 1787, Empress Catherine II visited Crimea with a large retinue of high-ranking officials from foreign countries. She stayed in travel palaces specially built for this occasion.

Eastern War

In 1854 - 1855, Crimea became the scene of another war, called the Eastern. In the fall of 1854, Sevastopol was besieged by a united army France, England and Turkey. Under the leadership of Vice Admirals P.S. Nakhimov and V.A. Kornilov's defense of the city lasted 349 days. In the end, the city was destroyed to the ground, but at the same time glorified throughout the world. Russia lost this war: in 1856, an agreement was signed in Paris that prohibited both Turkey and Russia from having military fleets on the Black Sea.

Health resort of Russia

In the middle of the 19th century, the doctor Botkin recommended that the royal family purchase the Livadia estate as a place with an exceptionally healthy climate. This was the beginning of a new, resort era in Crimea. All along the coast, villas, estates, and palaces were built that belonged to the royal family, wealthy landowners and industrialists, and the court nobility. In a few years the village Yalta turned into a popular aristocratic resort. The railways, which connected the largest cities of the region, further accelerated its transformation into a resort and dacha health resort of the empire.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the peninsula belonged to the Tauride province and was economically an agricultural region with several industrial cities. These were mainly Simferopol and port Kerch, Sevastopol and Feodosia.

Soviet power established itself in Crimea only in the fall of 1920, after the German army and Denikin's troops were expelled from the peninsula. A year later, the Crimean Autonomous Socialist Republic. Palaces, dachas and villas were given over to public sanatoriums, where collective farmers and workers from all over the young state were treated and rested.

The Great Patriotic War

During the Second World War, the peninsula courageously fought the enemy. Sevastopol repeated his feat, surrendering after a 250-day siege. The pages of the heroic chronicle of those years are replete with such names as “Terra del Fuego Eltigen”, “Kerch-Feodosia Operation”, “Feat of Partisans and Underground Workers”... For their courage and perseverance, Kerch and Sevastopol were awarded the title of hero cities.

February 1945 gathered the heads of the allied countries in Crimea - USA, UK and USSR– at the Crimean (Yalta) conference in Livadia Palace. During this conference, decisions were made to end the war and establish a post-war world order.

Post-war years

Crimea was liberated from the occupiers at the beginning of 1944, and the restoration of the peninsula immediately began - industrial enterprises, holiday homes, sanatoriums, agricultural facilities, villages and cities. The black page in the history of the peninsula at that time was the expulsion of Greeks, Tatars and Armenians from its territory. In February 1954, by decree of N.S. Khrushchev, the Crimean region was transferred to Ukraine. Today many believe that it was a royal gift...

During the 60-80s of the last century, the growth of Crimean agriculture, industry and tourism reached its climax. Crimea received the semi-official title of an all-Union health resort: 9 million people annually vacationed in its resort and health facilities.

In 1991, during the coup in Moscow, the arrest of the USSR General Secretary M.S. Gorbachev at the state dacha in Foros. After the collapse Soviet Union Crimea has become Autonomous Republic, which became part of Ukraine. In the spring of 2014, after the all-Crimean referendum, the Crimean peninsula seceded from Ukraine and became one of the subjects Russian Federation. Started modern history of Crimea.

We know Crimea as a republic of relaxation, sun, sea and fun. Come to the Crimean land - let's write the history of this resort republic of ours together!

History of Crimea

Since ancient times, the name Tavrika was assigned to the peninsula, which came from the name of the ancient Taurian tribes that inhabited the southern part of Crimea. The modern name “Crimea” began to be widely used only after the 13th century, presumably from the name of the city “Kyrym”, which, after the capture of the Northern Black Sea region by the Mongols, was the residence of the governor of the Khan of the Golden Horde. It is also possible that the name “Crimea” came from the Perekop Isthmus ( Russian word"perekop" is a translation of the Turkic word "qirim", which means "ditch"). Since the 15th century, the Crimean peninsula began to be called Tavria, and after its annexation to Russia in 1783 - Tavrida. The entire Northern Black Sea region - the northern coast of the Black and Azov Seas with the adjacent steppe territories - received this name.

History of Crimea

The oldest known population of the mountainous and southern coastal part of Crimea are the Taurians.

From the 12th century BC e. The steppe Crimea was inhabited by peoples conventionally called Cimmerians.

VIII-IV centuries BC e. - Penetration of Greek colonists into the Crimea, the founding of Panticapaeum (7th century BC), Feodosia, Chersonesus (5th century BC), the steppe part of the peninsula is populated by Scythians.

III-II centuries BC e. - The center of the Scythian state, under pressure from the Sarmatians who migrated from the east, moves from the Dnieper region to Crimea. The capital is Scythian Naples (in the territory of present-day Simferopol).

63 BC e. - The Pontic kingdom was conquered by the Roman Empire, the Crimean cities came under the control of the Romans. The beginning of the rule of the Roman Empire in Crimea.

257 - Subjugation of Crimea by the Goths, destruction of the Scythian state.

375 - Invasion of the Huns, their defeat of the Bosporan kingdom.

IV-V centuries - gradual restoration of the power of the Roman (Byzantine) Empire over the mountainous part of Crimea. The Goths who survived the invasion of the Huns accept the power of Byzantium.

At the end of the 7th century, almost the entire Crimea was captured by the Khazars, except for Chersonesos, which remained under Byzantine rule.

XIII century - weakening of the power of Byzantium. Part of its possessions passes to the Genoese, part becomes the independent principality of Gothia (Theodoro).

XII-XV centuries - settlement of several regions of Crimea by Armenians. Formation of the Armenian colony.

1239 - the conquest of Crimea by the Mongol army of Khan Batu. Steppe Crimea becomes part of the Golden Horde.

XIV - mid. XV century - the war of the Genoese with the Principality of Theodoro for the lands of the southern coast of Crimea.

XIV - mid. XV century - many Circassians settled in the eastern regions of Crimea during the Genoese period.

1441 - formation of the independent Crimean Khanate.

1475 - The Ottoman army under the command of Gedik Ahmed Pasha conquers the Genoese possessions and the Principality of Theodoro. The Crimean Khanate became a vassal of the Ottoman Empire. (see also: Crimean-Nogai raids on Rus')

1774 - According to the Kuchuk-Kainardzhi Peace Treaty, Crimea was declared an independent state led by its own khan.

1778 - Suvorov resettles Armenians and Greeks from Crimea to the Azov province.

April 19, 1783 - Empress Catherine II signed a Manifesto on the annexation of Crimea and the Taman Peninsula to the Russian Empire

1791 - Türkiye recognized the annexation of Crimea under the Treaty of Iasi.

1853-1856 - Crimean War (Eastern War).

1917-1920 - Civil War. On the territory of Crimea, “white” and “red” governments succeed each other several times, including the Soviet Socialist Republic of Taurida, the Crimean Soviet Socialist Republic, etc.

October 18, 1921 - The Autonomous Crimean Soviet Socialist Republic was formed as part of the RSFSR.

1921-1923 - famine in Crimea, which claimed more than 100 thousand lives (of which more than 75 thousand Crimean Tatars).

1941. In May-July, the 9th Separate Corps of the Odessa Military District was stationed in Crimea. Since September, troops of the 51st Separate Army took part in the fighting against the German occupiers in Crimea. The army's troops included the 9th Rifle Corps and the 3rd Crimean Motorized Rifle Division.

1941-1944 - occupation of Crimea by Nazi Germany and Romania.

June 25, 1946 - abolition of autonomy, renaming of settlements on the peninsula and adjacent areas, formation of the Crimean region.

1948 - by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR, the city of Sevastopol was allocated as a separate administrative and economic center (a city of republican subordination).

: Transfer of the Crimean region from the RSFSR to the Ukrainian SSR

1978 - the constitution of the Ukrainian SSR was adopted, in which the city of Sevastopol was indicated as a city of republican subordination of the Ukrainian SSR.

1987 - the beginning of the mass return of the Crimean Tatar people to Crimea from places of deportation.

February 12, 1991 - according to the results of the Crimean referendum, which was boycotted by Crimean Tatars returning to the peninsula from places of deportation (held on January 20, 1991), the Crimean region was transformed into the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within the Ukrainian SSR

On March 11, 2014, the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the Sevastopol City Council adopted a declaration of independence of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.

On March 18, 2014, an agreement was signed on the entry of the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol into the Russian Federation as subjects of the Russian Federation. Ukraine and the vast majority of UN member countries do not recognize either the separation of Crimea from Ukraine or its entry into Russia.

Sevastopol- a hero city in the southwest of the Crimean peninsula. Built by order of the Russian Empress Catherine II in 1783 as a fortress and, subsequently, a port. Sevastopol today is the largest ice-free sea trade and fishing port, industrial, scientific, technical, recreational and cultural-historical center of Crimea. The main base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet is located in Sevastopol.

Background

In antiquity, on the territory where part of modern Sevastopol is located, there was a Greek colony of Chersonesos, founded by immigrants from Heraclea Pontic in the 5th century BC. e.; later it was part of the Roman and Byzantine empires.

Chersonesos passed by St. Apostle Andrew the First-Called. In Chersonesus, the apostolic husband, St., suffered martyrdom. Clement, Pope of Rome. In Chersonesos, St. died of hunger in exile. Martin the Confessor, also Pope of the 7th century. In 861, in Chersonesus, on the way to Khazaria, St. [Equal to the Apostles Cyril (Constantine), found the relics of St. Clement. Here he learned the alphabet (Cyrillic alphabet).

In 988, Kherson (as the city began to be called in Byzantine times) was captured by the Kiev prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich, who, together with his retinue, converted to Orthodoxy here. Kherson was finally destroyed by the Golden Horde and its territory was first controlled by the Principality of Theodoro, and in 1475-1781 by the Ottoman Empire.

“The promise of the future of Sevastopol is confined to the Inkerman Clement Monastery and is found in the distant past. This is “The story is known and worthy of wonder about the relics of an unknown saint, how it turned out and in which countries and in which city and at what time, written down by the much-sinful priest Jacob in the summer of 7431,” that is, in 1633/34. Father Jacob, being part of the Moscow embassy to the Khan's court, carefully examined Inkerman - “the stone town is not large and not crowded... and Tatars and Greeks and Armenians live in it, besides, the town is from the sea of ​​the strait, and through that strait from the sea ships come from many countries." Looking for traces of Christian shrines, Jacob discovers the miraculous relics of a nameless saint and plans to take them to Russia. But the saint appears to Jacob in a dream, still without identifying himself, and forbids this thought, saying: “But I want to create Rus' here as before.”

Sevastopol was founded in 1783, after the annexation of Crimea to Russia, as a base for the Russian Black Sea squadron. The founder of the city was Rear Admiral of Scottish origin Foma Fomich Mekenzie. But five years earlier, by the decision of Alexander Suvorov, the first earthen fortifications were built on the shores of Sevastopol Bay and Russian troops were stationed. Initially, the settlement was called Akhtiar, after the Crimean Tatar village of Ak-Yar that was on the site of the city, until February 10 (21), 1784, Catherine II by decree she ordered G. A. Potemkin to build a large fortress in its place and call it Sevastopol. The city was built with funds received by Potemkin from Novorossiysk lands. Administratively, Sevastopol became part of the Tauride region, formed as part of the Ekaterinoslav governorship. The first inhabitants of the city were mainly peasants from Southern Ukraine. The name of the city consists of two Greek words Σεβαστος (Sebastos) - “highly revered, sacred” and πολις (polis) - “city” Sebastos is the equivalent of the Latin title “August”, therefore Sevastopol also means “the most august city”, “imperial city” In literature Other translations were also given, for example, in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia the name is translated as “majestic city”, “city of glory”. In 1797, Emperor Paul renamed it Akhtiar. In 1826, by Senate decree, the city was returned to its former Greek name - Sevastopol. The implementation of the initial city construction scheme was undertaken by F. F. Ushakov, who was appointed commander of the port and the Sevastopol squadron in 1788. He built many houses, barracks, a hospital, roads, markets, wells

In 1802, Sevastopol became part of the newly formed Tauride province, and two years later it was declared the main military port of the Black Sea of ​​the Russian Empire. In the same year, 1804, the commercial port was closed, although it was opened in 1808, but closed again in 1809 until 1820, when a port for domestic Russian trade opened in the city. There was no international commercial port in Sevastopol until 1867. The town was a military town working for the Navy. In 1822, out of the 25 thousand population of Sevastopol, less than 500 people were civilians. But the initial period of the city’s history is associated not only with military affairs; for example, in 1827 archaeological excavations of Tauride Chersonesus began, ancient settlement within the boundaries of Sevastopol.

In 1830, a major uprising occurred in Sevastopol, provoked by quarantine measures during the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-1829, one of the first in a series of cholera riots of 1830-31. It began on June 3 (15) and quickly involved sailors, soldiers, and the lower classes of the city. On June 4, the rebels killed the city governor N.A. Stolypin and several officials, and until June 7 the city was in the hands of the rebels. After the suppression of the uprising, 1580 participants were put on trial by military court, 7 of them were shot.

The beginning of the rapid growth of Sevastopol is inextricably linked with the name of M. P. Lazarev. Appointed chief of staff of the Black Sea Fleet in 1832, and later commander-in-chief of the fleet and ports and military governor of the city, he built an admiralty with ship repair and shipbuilding enterprises on the shores of Korabelnaya and Yuzhnaya bays. Having thus created the production base of the fleet, Lazarev began to reconstruct and develop the city, for which on October 25, 1840 the first general plan of Sevastopol was developed and adopted. In particular, the one-story building of the Central Hill, called the “Ridge of Lawlessness,” was demolished, making way for buildings in the spirit of classicism. At the same time, the population of Sevastopol grew faster than in other cities of Crimea. As of 1850, it amounted to 45,046 people, of which 32,692 were lower military ranks. The further development of the city was provided for by the master plan of 1851, but its implementation was prevented by the Crimean War.

Crimean War; First defense of Sevastopol (1854-1855)

Sevastopol played a key role in Crimean War 1853-1856 On September 2 (14), 1854, a 62,000-strong united army of England, France and Turkey landed near Evpatoria and headed towards Sevastopol, which was defended by 25,000 sailors and a 7,000-strong garrison of the city. The advantage of the attacking fleet was also overwhelming, which is why a decision was later made to scuttle Russian ships to block the entrance to Sevastopol Bay.

Victor Hugo compared the siege of Sevastopol with the siege of Troy. The historian Camille Rousset explains Hugo’s metaphor this way: “All this also happened on a corner of the earth, on the border between Asia and Europe, where the great empires met... Ten years before Troy, ten months before Sevastopol”

On September 13 (25), the city was declared under siege, and the Heroic Defense of Sevastopol began, which lasted 349 days, until August 27 (September 8), 1855. Thanks to the unparalleled courage of the defenders, despite six massive bombings and two assaults, the Allies were never able to take the naval fortress of Sevastopol. Although as a result the Russian troops retreated to the North Side, they left the enemy only ruins.

Further development of Sevastopol

According to the Paris Peace Treaty (1856), Russia and Turkey were prohibited from having a navy in the Black Sea. The destroyed city lost its strategic importance for a time, but became a major tourism center. After the abolition of the military port, foreign merchant ships were allowed to enter Sevastopol. Built in 1875 Railway Kharkov-Lozovaya-Sevastopol.

The need to revive the Russian Black Sea Fleet arose again during the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-1878, when Turkey introduced an armored fleet into the Black Sea, and Russia was able to oppose only armed merchant ships and light ships.

In 1890, it was classified as a fortress, and the commercial port was moved to Feodosia.

Sevastopol at the beginning of the 20th century

In 1901, the first Social Democratic circles appeared in the city, in 1902 they united into the “Sevastopol workers’ organization”, on its basis in 1903 the Sevastopol Committee of the RSDLP was created.

On May 14, 1905, the world-famous panorama “Defense of Sevastopol 1854-1855” was opened, built according to the design of engineer O. I. Enberg and architect V. A. Feldman, artist F. A. Rubo.

During the years of the first Russian revolution (1905-1907), there was an uprising on the battleship Potemkin; its example caused protests by sailors on other ships of the Black Sea Fleet. In November 1905, the crews of 14 warships, workers of the port and the Marine Factory, and soldiers of the garrison took part in the armed uprising. On November 14, 1905, the red flag was raised on the cruiser Ochakov, and the first formation of ships of the revolutionary fleet was headed by Lieutenant P.P. Schmidt. The troops suppressed the rebellion, and its leaders P.P. Schmidt and others were shot

In 1917, after the October Revolution, power in the city passed to the Council of Military and Workers' Deputies. After a short period of power of the Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks in the Council, new elections were held, where the Bolsheviks received a majority. Soviet power was finally established after the armed capture of the city by the Bolsheviks and the retreat of Wrangel’s troops on November 15, 1920.

In the captured city, the Bolsheviks carried out mass terror on the inhabitants, especially on former soldiers and officers of the Russian army. During the first week of the Reds' stay in the city, more than 8,000 people were killed, and the total number of executed people was about 29 thousand people. According to the recollections of eyewitnesses, the city was literally “drowned in blood”: Istoricheskiy Boulevard, Nakhimovsky Prospekt, Primorsky Boulevard, Bolshaya Morskaya and Ekaterininskaya streets were literally hung with corpses swinging in the air. They were hung everywhere: on lanterns, poles, trees and even on monuments.

Second defense of Sevastopol (1941-1942)

On June 22, 1941, the city was subjected to the first bombing by German aircraft, the purpose of which was to mine the bays from the air and block the fleet. The plan was thwarted by anti-aircraft and naval artillery of the Black Sea Fleet. After the German army invaded Crimea, the second heroic defense of the city began (October 30, 1941-July 4, 1942), which lasted 250 days. On November 7, 1941, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command created the Sevastopol defensive region. Soviet troops The Primorsky Army (Major General I. E. Petrov) and the forces of the Black Sea Fleet (Vice Admiral F. S. Oktyabrsky) repelled two major offensives of Manstein’s 11th Army in November and December 1941, pinning down large enemy forces. The restructuring of the entire life of the city on a military basis, work for the front of Sevastopol enterprises was led by the City Defense Committee (GKO), chairman - the first secretary of the Sevastopol City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (Bolsheviks) B. A. Borisov. In June-July 1942, the garrison of Sevastopol, as well as troops evacuated from Odessa, heroically fought against superior enemy forces for four weeks. The city was surrendered only when the defense capabilities were exhausted. This happened on July 9, 1942. In 1942-1944, the Sevastopol underground was led by V.D. Revyakin, a participant in the heroic defense of the city. On May 7, 1944, the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front (Army General F.I. Tolbukhin), after an outstanding assault on the German defensive fortifications on Sapun Mountain, liberated the city on May 9, and on May 12, Cape Chersonese was cleared of German invaders.

Sevastopol in the post-war years

In the post-war years, the city was completely restored for the second time. In the 1950s, a ring of streets and squares around the main city hill was built up; in the 1960s and 1970s, a whole series of new residential areas were built; General Ostryakov Avenue was built in the area of ​​the former Kulikovo Field; neighborhoods were built on the shores of Streletskaya and Kamyshovaya bays, on Severnaya side. In 1954, the building of the panorama “Defense of Sevastopol 1854-1855” was recreated; in 1957, a new building of the city Sevastopol Russian Drama Theater named after Lunacharsky | Russian Drama Theater was built. In 1959, the diorama “Storm of Sapun Mountain on May 7, 1944” opened. The Memorial to the Heroic Defense of Sevastopol 1941-1942 was built on Nakhimov Square in 1964-1967. IN Soviet years the city was one of the cleanest and most comfortable in the USSR. A number of academic and industry research institutes are founded in the city: the Institute of Biology of the South Seas (based on the Marine Biological Station) and the Marine Hydrophysical Institute of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, the Sevastopol branch of the State Institute of Oceanology and Oceanography, the Black Sea branch of the Research Institute of Shipbuilding Technology and a number of others. Universities also appeared in Sevastopol: the Sevastopol Instrument-Making Institute, which quickly joined the ranks of the largest polytechnic universities in the country, and two higher naval schools: the Black Sea named after. P. S. Nakhimova (ChVVMU) in Streletskaya Balka and Sevastopol Engineering in Holland Bay (SVVMIU). In 1954, on the centenary of the first heroic defense, the city was awarded the Order of the Red Banner; on May 8, 1965, Sevastopol was awarded the title of Hero City, and in 1983 it was awarded the Order of the October Revolution.

Museum of the Heroic Defense and Liberation of Sevastopol (Historical Boulevard);

Panorama “Defense of Sevastopol 1854-1855” (museum department, Historical Boulevard);

Malakhov Kurgan;

Museum of the Underground Workers of 1942-1944 (Revyakina St., 46);

Sevastopol Art Museum named after M.P. Kroshitsky (Nakhimov Ave., 9)

Aquarium-Museum of the Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas (Nakhimov Ave., 2);

National Nature Reserve "Tavrichesky Chersonesos" (Ancient St.);

Military History Museum of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation (Lenin St., 11).

Simferopol (Ukrainian Simferopol, Crimean Catholicate. Aqmescit, Akmescit) is the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, as well as the center of the Simferopol region. Administrative, industrial, scientific and Cultural Center republics. Located in the center of the Crimean peninsula on the Salgir River. The name Simferopol (Greek: Συμφερουπολη) means “city of benefit” (lit. Polzograd) in Greek. The Crimean Tatar name Aqmescit is translated into Russian as “white mosque” (aq - white, mescit - mosque).

The official date of the founding of Simferopol is considered to be 1784, but some historians dispute the right of this date to be considered the year the city was founded.

The first human settlements on the territory of present-day Simferopol appeared in the prehistoric era, but the most famous of the ancient predecessors of the city is Naples-Scythian - the capital of the Late Scythian state, which arose around the 3rd century BC. e. and supposedly destroyed by the Goths in the 3rd century AD. e. The ruins of Naples are now located in the Petrovskaya Balka area on the left bank of the Salgir River.

For early Middle Ages there was no large urban settlement on the territory of Simferopol. During the period of domination of the Kipchaks and the Golden Horde, there was a small settlement called Kermenchik (translated from Crimean Tatar as a small fortress, fortress).

During the period of the Crimean Khanate, the small city of Akmescit arose (in Russian sources known as Akmechet, Ak-Mosque, Akmechit), which was the residence of the kalgi - the second person in the state after the khan. The Kalgi Palace was located on the territory of the current Salgirka Park (aka Vorontsov Park). The quarters built in those days are now called the Old Town. This area is roughly bounded by Lenin (before the revolution Gubernatorskaya), Sevastopolskaya, Krylova (Kladbischenskaya) and Krasnoarmeyskaya (Armeyskaya) streets. The old town has a layout typical of eastern cities with narrow, short and crooked streets.

After Crimea became part of the Russian Empire, it was decided to establish the center of the Tauride region formed on most of the lands of the Khanate ( later province) near Ak-Mosque. The minutes of the meeting of the Tauride regional board dated May 23, 1783 note that “from Akmechet there will be a provincial city of Simferopol.” In 1784, under the leadership of His Serene Highness Prince Grigory Potemkin-Tavrichesky, in the territory near Aqmescit, across the Sevastopol-Feodosia road (on the left bank of the Salgir, where the field camps of the commanders Vasily Dolgorukov-Krymsky and Alexander Suvorov had previously stood), the construction of administrative and residential buildings began And Orthodox church. Now this is a part of the city, bounded on three sides by the streets of Rosa Luxemburg (Alexandro-Nevskaya), Pavlenko (Inzhenernaya), Mayakovsky (Vneshnaya) and Karaimskaya, Kavkazskaya and Proletarskaya streets on the fourth. This area has a regular layout (straight streets intersecting at right angles) and is built mainly two-story houses. The border between the quarters of the Khan's time and the buildings of Catherine's era are Karaimskaya, Kavkazskaya and Proletarskaya streets. The city, which included both newly built neighborhoods and the territory of the Ak-Mosque, was named Simferopol - translated from Greek as “city of benefit”. The choice of the Greek name is explained by the trend that existed during the time of Catherine II to name new cities in the annexed southern territories Greek names, in memory of the Greek colonies that existed there in ancient times and in the Middle Ages. Since then, Simferopol has always been the administrative center of Crimea. Paul I, who ascended the Russian throne after Catherine II, returned the name Ak-Mosque to the city, but already at the beginning of the reign of Alexander I the name Simferopol was again introduced into official use. The decree on the formation of the Tauride province dated October 8, 1802 states: “Simferopol (Ak-Mosque) is designated as the provincial city of this province.” Throughout the 19th century, maps and official documents often showed both names of the city.

During Civil War In Simferopol, there were several quickly successive Bolshevik and White governments, and after its end, the city became the capital of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1941-1944, Simferopol experienced German occupation and the destruction of the Jewish and Gypsy population remaining in Crimea. On April 13, 1944, the city was occupied by the Red Army without resistance. The German command planned to blow up the city along with the Red Army that had entered it, but the underground managed to create a mining map of the city several weeks before and at night destroy the cables to the mines and destroy the torchbearers.

In the spring and summer of 1944, the Crimean Tatar (194,111 people), Greek (14,368 people), Bulgarian (12,465 people), Armenian (8,570 people), German, Karaite population were deported from Crimea, including Simferopol, and resettled throughout the USSR . In 1945, after the liquidation of the Autonomous Republic, it became the center of the Crimean region of the RSFSR, which in 1954 was transferred to the Ukrainian SSR.

Simferopol is located in the foothills of Crimea, in a hollow formed by the intersection of an interridge valley between the Outer (lowest) and Inner ridges of the Crimean Mountains and the valley of the Salgir River. The Simferopol reservoir was created on the river near the city. Thanks to this location, the valley in which the city lies is blown by winds blowing from the mountains.

It is noteworthy that Simferopol is crossed by latitude 45. This suggests that Simferopol is equidistant from the equator and the North Pole.

Attractions

The gathering place for the participants of the first political demonstration in Simferopol (May 5, 1901) was on the street. K. Marx (formerly Catherine). In memory of this event on the building art exhibition a memorial plaque was installed.

Obelisk at the mass grave of Red Guards and underground fighters shot by White Guards (1918-1920) - in Komsomolsky Square, between Gogol and Samokish streets. Installed in 1957

Bust of D. I. Ulyanov - in the park on the corner of Zhelyabov and K. Liebknecht streets. Sculptors - V.V. and N.I. Petrenko, Architect - E.V. Popov. Installed in 1971

A memorial stele with a high relief of P.E. Dybenko, the first People's Commissar of Military Affairs of the Russian Soviet Republic, was installed where the headquarters of the Crimean Red Army was located in 1919 (corner of Kirov Avenue and Sovnarkomovsky Lane, Dybenko Square). Sculptor - N. P. Petrova. Installed in 1968

A tank monument erected in Victory Square on June 3, 1944 in memory of the liberation of Simferopol on April 13, 1944 by units of the 19th Red Banner Perekop Tank Corps.

The fraternal cemetery of Soviet soldiers, partisans and underground fighters of the Great Patriotic War - on the street. Starozenitnaya. At various times, the commander of the partisan movement in Crimea A.V. Mokrousov, Aviation Major General I.P. Vilin, Heroes of the Soviet Union Lieutenant General V.A. Gorishny, Major General S.V. Borzilov, Captain V. S. Novikov, captain V. P. Trubachenko. In total there are 635 single and 32 mass graves in the cemetery.

1st Civil Cemetery - st. Bypass. The academician of battle painting N. S. Samokish, Archbishop Luka (Voino-Yasenetsky), the famous Bolshevik L. M. Knipovich, the commissar of the fire brigade of the 51st division I. V. Gekalo, underground fighters V. K. Efremov, I. A. are buried here. Baryshev, A.F. Peregonets, Igor Nosenko, Zoya Rukhadze, Lenya Tarabukin, Vladimir Datsun and many other participants in the struggle against the Nazi invaders. Participants of the Russian-Turkish wars, brave defenders of Sevastopol in 1854-1855, were buried here at different times.

The house where the Simferopol Bolshevik organization took shape (1917) is st. Bolshevikskaya, 11.

The building where the Revolutionary Committee and the first Simferopol Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies were located (1918) - st. Gogol, 14.

The building where the Council of People's Commissars of the Republic of Taurida was located (1918) - st. R. Luxembourg, 15/2.

The house where the headquarters of the Southern Front headed by M.V. was located. Frunze (November 1920), - st. K. Marx, 7.

The building where the Crimean Revolutionary Committee headed by Bela Kun (1920-1921) was located - st. Lenina, 15, now - Institute for Advanced Training of Teachers.

Obelisk in memory of the liberation of Crimea from Turkish invaders - st. K. Liebknecht, on the square near Victory Square. In 1771, at this place there was the headquarters of the commander of the Russian troops, General V. M. Dolgoruky. Installed in 1842

Monument to A.V. Suvorov - on the bank of the Salgir River (R. Luxemburg St., Hotel "Ukraine"). In 1777 and 1778-1779. a fortified camp of Russian troops under the command of A.V. Suvorov was located here. The monument (bust) was erected in 1951, in 1984 it was replaced by a monument depicting Suvorov in full height on the edge of the redoubt.

Monument to A.S. Pushkin - on the corner of Pushkin and Gorky streets. In September 1820, the great Russian poet, returning from the South Bank, visited Simferopol. Sculptor - A. A. Kovaleva, architect - V. P. Melik-Parsadanov. Installed in 1967

Monument to K. A. Trenev - in the park named after him (corner of Gogol Street and Kirov Avenue). Sculptor - E. D. Balashova. Installed in 1958

Kebir-Jami Mosque, oldest building city, - st. Kurchatova, 4. Built in 1508, rebuilt in 1740 and later.

Shopping row of the late 18th - early 19th centuries. (benches with columns) - st. Odesskaya, 12.

The house that belonged to the doctor F.K. Milgausen (1811-1820) - st. Kyiv, 24. The only house preserved in Crimea in the “rural Empire” style, characteristic of the early 19th century.

The former country house of Count M. S. Vorontsov - Vernadsky Avenue, 2 (Salgirka Park). Empire style house with interesting interior painting. Nearby is a kitchen building, stylized as the Bakhchisarai Palace. Architect - F. Elson. Both buildings were built in 1827.

The estate of academician Peter Simon Pallas - Salgirka Park. The one-story building with a separated two-story center and a colonnade was built in 1797 in the style of Russian provincial classicism.

Monument to Stevens on the site of the house where X. X. Steven, an outstanding Russian botanist, founder of Nikitsky, lived and worked botanical garden(1820-1863), - st. Gurzufskaya, on the right bank of the Salgir, in the Salgirka park.

The house in which A. S. Griboedov lived (1825) is st. Kirova, 25.

The house where L.N. Tolstoy lived (1854-1855) - st. Tolstoy, 4.

The building of the former Simferopol men's gymnasium, where D. I. Mendeleev began his teaching career in 1855, in 1912-1920. studied by I.V. Kurchatov, - st. K. Marx, 32. Pupils of the gymnasium in different years were: G. O. Graftio, N. S. Derzhavin, E. V. Wulf, N. P. Trinkler, M. I. Chulaki, V. V. Kenigson, I. K. Aivazovsky, A. A. Spendiarov, D. N. Ovsyaniko-Kulikovsky, G. A. Tikhov, B. V. Kurchatov.

The house where N. S. Samokish lived (1922-1944) is st. Zhukovsky, 22.

Paleolithic site in the Chokurcha cave - st. Lugovaya. The site of a primitive man who lived 40-50 thousand years ago.

The ancient settlement of Scythian Naples, the capital of the Late Scythian state, is on the Petrovsky Rocks, in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe street. Tarabukina and st. Vorovsky.

Scythian settlement Kermen-Kyr - on the territory of the state farm named after. F. E. Dzerzhinsky.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is in the park of culture and recreation named after. Yu. A. Gagarin. Lit at the grave Eternal flame. The monument was opened on the 30th anniversary of the Victory - May 8, 1975. The author of the project is architect E.V. Popov.

Former house of Taranov-Belozerov - st. K. Marx, 28/10 (“hospital home for lonely and sick soldiers”, now the medical school named after D. I. Ulyanov). Built in 1826. Architectural monument.

The five-hundred-year-old oak tree “Hero of Taurida” is in the Children’s Park. The trunk circumference of this tree is about 6 meters, the diameter of the crown is 30 meters. Nearby are several smaller 300-500 year old oak trees.

Two two-hundred-year-old London plane trees are in Salgirka Park. Planted by P. S. Pallas in late XVIII century.

Five-trunk horse chestnut - planted by the doctor F. K. Mühlhausen in 1812.

“Transformer substation node and electric poles of the Simferopol tram line” - on the corner of Pushkin and Gogol streets.

The Savopulo Fountain is a Simferopol spring ennobled in 1857 by the Greek Savopulo near the Salgir River.

Abrikosov, Andrey Lvovich (November 14, 1906 - October 20, 1973) - theater and film actor, National artist USSR (1968).

Arendt, Andrei Fedorovich (September 30, 1795 - February 23, 1862) - staff doctor, inspector of the medical board of the Tauride province, active state councilor.

Arendt, Nikolai Andreevich (October 1, 1833 - December 14, 1893) - pioneer of domestic aeronautics, theorist and founder of planned flight, inventor of a non-motorized aircraft.

Bogatikov, Yuri Iosifovich (February 29, 1932 - December 8, 2002) - Soviet singer, baritone, People's Artist of the USSR (1985).

Voino-Yasenetsky, Valentin Feliksovich (St. Luke) - (April 27 (May 9) 1877 - June 11, 1961) - doctor of medicine, professor of surgery and spiritual writer, Archbishop of Simferopol and Crimea (1946-61). Canonized in 1995

Voroshilov (Kalmanovich), Vladimir Yakovlevich (December 18, 1930 - March 10, 2001) - author and host of the program “What? Where? When?".

Vygranenko, Rostislav (born 1978) - Polish organist.

Deryugina, Evgenia Filippovna (October 26, 1923 - May 7, 1944) - participant in the heroic defense of Odessa and Sevastopol. In the Marine Corps battalion she fought on Malaya Zemlya near Novorossiysk and landed with troops in Crimea. As part of the Primorsky Army, she distinguished herself in the battles for the liberation of Simferopol and Sevastopol. She died during the assault on Sapun Mountain.

Zhitinsky, Alexander Nikolaevich (1941) - Russian writer, playwright, screenwriter, journalist, head of the Helikon Plus publishing house.

Kazaryan, Andranik Abramovich (May 14, 1904 - January 18, 1992) - Hero of the Soviet Union, Major General, author and compiler of the book “Heroes of the Battles for the Crimea.”

Kamenkovich, Zlatoslava Borisovna (March 1, 1915 - February 8, 1986) - Soviet writer, publicist, journalist.

Kenigson, Vladimir Vladimirovich (October 25 (November 7) 1907 - November 17, 1986) - Soviet actor, People's Artist of the USSR (1982).

Kotov, Oleg Valerievich (born October 27, 1965) - 100th cosmonaut of Russia, 452nd cosmonaut of the world, commander of the Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft, flight engineer of the ISS-15, commander of the Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft, instructor-cosmonaut - tester at the Yu. A. Gagarin Training Center. Hero of the Russian Federation.

Kurchatov, Igor Vasilievich - Russian Soviet physicist, “father” of the Soviet atomic bomb.

Kushnarev, Khristofor Stepanovich (1890-1960) - composer.

Maurach, Reinhart (1902-1976) - German lawyer, scientist. One of the founders of the Institute of East European Law in Munich.

Papaleksi, Nikolai Dmitrievich (1880-1947) - prominent Soviet physicist, academician, Mendeleev Prize 1936, State Prize 1942, Order of Lenin.

Selvinsky, Ilya Lvovich (October 12 (24), 1907 - March 22, 1968) - Soviet writer, poet and playwright (constructivism).

Filippov, Roman Sergeevich - (1936-1992) - Soviet theater and film actor, People's Artist of the RSFSR.

Khristoforov, Georgy Nikolaevich (18?? - 1902) - Member of the City Duma, merchant I guild, wine merchant, philanthropist.

Shakhrai, Sergei Mikhailovich (born April 30, 1956) - Russian statesman and political figure, Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation in 1991-1992.

Bakhchisaray (Ukrainian Bakhchisaray, Crimean tat. Bağçasaray, Bagchasaray) is a city in Crimea, the center of the Bakhchisaray district, the former capital of the Crimean Khanate and the Crimean People's Republic. The name is translated from Crimean Tatar as “garden-palace” (bağça - garden, saray - palace). Located in the foothills, on the slope of the Inner Ridge of the Crimean Mountains, in a forest-steppe area, in the valley of a tributary of the Kacha - the Churuk-Su River, 30 km southwest of the Crimean capital Simferopol.

Several settlements have long existed on the territory of present-day Bakhchisarai. By the time the city was formed in the first half of the 16th century, there were three main ones: the fortress city of Kyrk-Er on a mountain cape (now known as Chufut-Kale), the village of Salachik in the gorge at the foot of Kyrk-Era and the village of Eski-Yurt at the exit from valleys. Since the time of the Golden Horde, administrative centers have existed in Salachik and Kirk-Era. At the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, Khan Mengli I Giray launched urban construction in Salachik, planning to turn it into a large metropolitan center. The village of Salachik retained its status as the capital of the Crimean Khanate until 1532, when the son of Mengli Giray, Sahib I Giray, founded a new khan's residence two kilometers from Salachik, calling it Bakhchisarai. Subsequently, the capital city grew around the new khan's residence.

In the middle of the 17th century, Bakhchisarai consisted of 2,000 houses, about a third of which belonged to the Greeks. In 1736 the city was completely burned Russian army under the command of Christopher Minich. Extant up to today The buildings of the Khan's palace were built during the restoration of the city in the 1740s - 1750s. In 1794 (11 years after Crimea joined the Russian Empire) in Bakhchisarai there were 5 mills, 20 bakeries, 13 tanneries, 6 forges, tailoring, shoe and weapon workshops, 2 wine rows (Georgian and Moldavian) in the place where the summer cinema “Rodina”, numerous trading houses and shops, and 17 caravanserais for visitors were later built.

During the Crimean War, Bakhchisarai found itself at the center of military events - the first battle took place not far from the city on the Alma River, in which Russian troops under the command of A.S. Menshikov were defeated. During the defense of Sevastopol, the city received convoys with provisions, equipment and the wounded - the Khan's Palace and the Assumption Monastery turned into hospitals.

Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries the city was the center of cultural and public life Crimean Tatars. Until the deportation of the Crimean Tatars on May 18, 1944, Bakhchisarai was one of three (along with Karasubazar and Alushta) cities of Crimea in which the Crimean Tatar population predominated.

Main historical monument and the tourist attraction of Bakhchisaray is the palace of the Crimean khans - Khansaray. The Fountain of Tears in the Khan's Palace was glorified in Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin's romantic poem “The Bakhchisarai Fountain” (1822). During the fascist occupation by German-Romanian troops, 283 items from the rich collection of exhibits of the Palace and Museum of Turkic-Tatar Culture were stolen from the Khan's Palace. After the deportation of the Crimean Tatars, almost 2000 exhibits were stolen or transferred to other museums of the USSR. However, the current exhibition consists of 90% of items collected in the “pre-war” period.

An important historical monument of Bakhchisaray is the Zyndzhirli madrasah - after restoration, the museum opened its hospitable doors to tourists. There are many mosques in the city, among them Khan-Jami and Takhtaly-Jami. The Holy Dormition Monastery is also located near the city.

Holy Dormition Cave Monastery is an Orthodox monastery in Crimea. Located in the Mariam-Dere tract (Maria's Gorge) near Bakhchisarai. Subordinate to the Simferopol and Crimean diocese of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate). In addition to the monastery complex, on the adjacent territory there is a cemetery for soldiers who died during the Crimean War of 1853-1856.

History of the monastery

The monastery was founded by Byzantine icon-worshipping monks no later than the 8th century. In the XIII-XIV centuries it ceased its activity for some time, then in the XIV century it was revived. Having escaped defeat during the Turkish invasion in 1475, the Assumption Monastery became the residence of the Gottsf metropolitans. However, the financial situation of the monastery was disastrous, which forced them to seek help from the Moscow Grand Dukes and Tsars. From the 15th to the 18th centuries, the Assumption Monastery was the main stronghold of the religious life of the Orthodox population of Crimea.

In 1778 the Greek population left Crimea. People from the Greek village of Mariampol, which existed at the foot of the Assumption Monastery, moved to the city later known as Mariupol. Since 1781, the monastery acted as a parish church, headed by a Greek priest.

In 1850, the monastic community was resumed with the establishment of the Assumption Cave Skete. By the beginning of the 20th century, there were five churches on the territory of the monastery: the Assumption Cave Church, the Cave Church of the Evangelist Mark, the Church of Constantine and Helen, the cemetery Church of St. George the Victorious, the Church of Saint Innocent of Irkutsk. In addition, several fraternal buildings, a rector's house, houses for pilgrims were built, fountains and an orchard were built, where the Gethsemane Chapel was built in 1867. More than 60 monks and novices lived in the monastery. There was a courtyard in the city of Simferopol and a monastery of St. Anastasia, located in the valley of the Kacha River.

During the First Defense of Sevastopol in the Crimean War in 1854-1855, a hospital was located in the cells, pilgrims' house and other buildings of the monastery. Those who died from wounds were buried in the monastery cemetery.

In 1921, the monastery was closed by the Soviet authorities. The property of the monastery was looted, the monks were shot.

In the post-war period, a psychoneurological dispensary was located on the territory of the monastery.

Panorama of the Maryam-Dere gorge (modern construction to expand the monastery can be seen below)

In 1993 it was returned to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church(MP). Four of the five monastery churches, cell buildings, the abbot's house, and the bell tower were restored, a water source was installed, and the staircase was reconstructed. New churches are also being built (St. Martyr Panteleimon; St. Spyridon of Trimifuntsky).

The rector of the monastery since June 13, 1993 is Archimandrite Silouan. Currently, the monastery is the largest in Crimea in terms of the number of inhabitants.

Legends of the monastery

There are three legends regarding the founding of the monastery. According to the first, an icon of the Mother of God was found by a shepherd on the site of the monastery, which, when transferred to a new place, each time returned to the rocks where it was found. People realized that it was necessary to build a temple here and, since the discovery took place on August 15 (the feast of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary), they called it Dormition.

The second legend says that the inhabitants of the area were attacked by an evil serpent. One day, after fervent prayers to the Mother of God, people noticed a burning candle on one of the rocks. Having cut steps to it, the residents found an icon of the Mother of God and a dead serpent lying in front of it.

The third legend believes that the icon of the Mother of God, discovered on the rocks of the gorge, was transferred there from a Byzantine monastery near Trebizond and medieval fortress(often called the cave city) Chufut-Kale.

Chufut-Kale (Ukrainian Chufut-Kale, Crimean Catholicate. Çufut Qale, Chufut Kaale) is a medieval fortified city in Crimea, located on the territory of the Bakhchisaray district, 2.5 km east of Bakhchisaray.

Chufut-Kale: the name is translated from the Crimean Tatar language as “Jewish fortress” (çufut - Jew, qale - fortress), the same name is used in Soviet scientific literature, as well as in Russian-language works of Karaite authors from the second half of the 19th century to the post-Soviet era.

Juft-Kale (translated from Turkic as “double (pair) fortress”, juft - pair, kale - fortress) - was used by the “Crimean-Karaite” leaders of the post-Soviet era.

Kyrk-Er, Kyrk-Or, Gevkher-Kermen, Chifut-Kalesi - Crimean Tatar names during the Crimean Khanate;

Kale (Karaite Crimean dialect: קלעה k'ale - fortress), Kala (Karaite Trakai dialect: kala - fortress, fortification, brick wall).

The village of Yuhudim (Hebrew: “Rock of the Jews” (in Karaite pronunciation)) was used in Karaite literature until the second half of the 19th century;

Sela ha-Karaim (Hebrew: סלע הקראים - “rock of the Karaites”) was used by the Karaites from the second half of the 19th century.

The city supposedly arose in the 5th-6th centuries as a fortified settlement on the border of Byzantine possessions. It is likely that in that era it was called Fulla. A city with this name appears in various sources, but historians cannot definitely determine which of the currently known settlements corresponds to it. The population of the city during this period consisted mainly of Alans.

During the era of Kipchak domination in Crimea, the city came under their control and received the name Kyrk-Er.

In 1299, Kirk-Er was stormed and plundered by the Horde army of Emir Nogai. In the XIII-XIV centuries, the city was the center of a small principality, which was in vassal dependence on the rulers of the Crimean Yurt of the Golden Horde. Starting from the 14th century, Karaites began to settle in the city, and by the time the Crimean Khanate was formed, they most likely already made up the majority of the city’s population. This was facilitated by restrictions on their residence in other cities of the Crimean Khanate

Kyrk-Er was the residence of the first khan of independent Crimea, Hadji I Giray. Mengli I Giray founded new town on the site of the current Bakhchisarai suburb of Salachik, and the khan’s capital was moved there. Only Karaites and a small number of Krymchaks remained to live in the fortress. In the 17th century, the toponym “Kyrk-Er” was replaced by “Chufut-Kale” (translated as “Jewish / Jewish fortress” with a negative, contemptuous semantic connotation). During the Crimean Khanate, the fortress was a place of detention for high-ranking prisoners of war, and the state mint was also located there.

After Crimea became part of the Russian Empire, restrictions on the residence of Karaites and Krymchaks were lifted, and they began to leave the fortress and move to other Crimean cities. TO end of the 19th century century, Chufut-Kale was completely abandoned by its inhabitants. Only the caretaker's family remained to live in the fortress.

In its western, most ancient part, numerous utility rooms carved out of caves, the ruins of a mosque and the mausoleum of the daughter of the Golden Horde Khan Tokhtamysh Dzhanyke-Khanym, built in 1437, have been preserved. Also well preserved are two kenassas (Karaite temples) and one residential estate, consisting of two houses. Kenassi is now being restored by the Karaite community, and in the residential estate there is an exhibition telling about the culture of the Karaites. In the eastern part of the city there were many residential buildings, as well as a mint that has not survived to this day, where Crimean coins were minted. In one of the estates, built in the 18th century, the famous Karaite scholar Abraham Samuilovich Firkovich (1786-1874) lived until the end of his days.