A History of Crimea

From Antiquity to the Present

Kerstin S. Jobst

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2024
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781350328020
• Topic: Histoire
• Subtopic: Histoire de l'Europe de l'Est

Since the Russian Federation's illegal annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 – 160 years after the Crimean War – the peninsula has returned to the fore on the global geopolitical stage. This book provides a comprehensive history of the peninsula that was previously lacking, one that stretches from ancient times to the present and explores various aspects and inhabitants through the ages.

Kerstin S. Jobst examines the complex history of multi-ethnic and pluri-religious Crimea – not only from a political perspective, but also considering the manifold cultural and historical interdependencies that are central to the territory. The book examines myths and legends about Crimea, as well as the various peoples for whom it has been a settlement and transit area and who have shaped the fate of the peninsula: Greek, Genoese and Venetian colonists, Eurasian nomads, Crimean Tatars, Germans, Russians, Ukrainians and others. A History of Crimea shows the importance of Crimea as a site of early Christianity, but also as a contact zone between different religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It also emphasizes the role of the peninsula as a peripheral space of various great powers – the Roman Empire, Byzantium, the Golden Horde, the "Third Reich" and the Ottoman, Russian and Soviet empires.

With this detailed overview of 2,000 years of Crimea's history, Kerstin S. Jobst debunks the narratives around the most recent explosive events in the peninsula by examining the full historical context. In doing so, she de-mythologizes simplified claims to historical legitimacy that, rooted in Russian emotional attachment and geopolitical ambitions, ignore the cultural complexities of the previous centuries. This important work thus rebalances skewed narratives that continue to prevail even among seasoned observers of developments in Crimea.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• List of Abbreviations
• Maps
• A Note on the Translation
• Orientation: Terminology and Spelling
• Introduction
• 1 Crimea in Myth and Legend
• 2 Greeks, Scythians and Others
• 3 New Actors: Sarmatians and Others
• 4 The Mithridatic Wars: Crimea under Roman Rule
• 5 Goths, Huns, the “Great Migration” and Its Impact on Crimea
• 6 Crimea as a Site of Early Christianity
• 7 Crimea between the Eastern Roman Empire, Crimean Gothia and the Khazar Empire
• 8 Crimea between Kyivan Rus’, Byzantium and Eurasian Semi-Nomadic Groups
• 9 Kumans, Polovtsians and Kipchaks
• 10 The Fourth Crusade (1202–04) and Its Consequences for Crimea
• 11 The Pax Mongolica, Trade, Slavery and the “Black Death”
• 12 The Principalty of Theodoro and a Lithuanian Intermezzo
• 13 The Crimean Khanate: The Beginnings
• 14 The Establishment of the Crimean Khanate
• 15 The Crimean Khanate: Ottoman Suzerainty and the Balance of Power in Eastern Europe
• 16 Slavery and the Topos of the Crimean Tatar Warrior
• 17 The Nogai as a Factor in Early Modern Crimean History
• 18 Cossacks as a Factor in Early Modern Crimean History
• 19 Inside the Crimean Khanate
• 20 The Lead-Up to Annexation: The Strengthening of the Russian Empire, the “Greek Plan” and the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca of 1774
• 21 The ‘Independent’ Crimean Khanate and Russian Annexation (1774–83)
• 22 The First Decades of Russian Rule in Crimea
• 23 Multiethnic and Multireligious Crimea under Tsarist Rule: The Tatar Population – Gender Relations
• 24 Multiethnic and Multireligious Crimea under Tsarist Rule: ‘Old’ and ‘New’ Inhabitants – Economic Development
• 25 The Crimean War: A ‘Modern’ War?
• 26 The Crimean War: The Events in the Peninsula
• 27 After the War: Crimea between 1856 and 1905
• 28 The Crimean Tatar Population after the Crimean War
• 29 The Revolution of 1905 and its Impact in Crimea
• 30 The First World War and the Revolution on the Periphery: The Crimean Peninsula, 1917–20
• 31 The Crimean Peninsula, 1920–41
• 32 Crimea in the Second World War
• 33 The Deportations of 1944/45 and Their Background
• 34 Crimea after the Second World War
• 35 After the Dissolution of the Soviet Union: Crimea as Part of Independent Ukraine
• 36 Russian Again?! Crimea after the Annexation of 2014
• Postscript
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index: People
• Index: Places
• Copyright