1.
Republic of Crimea
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The Republic of Crimea is a federal subject of Russia that is located on the Crimean Peninsula. It has a population of 1,891, 465 , Russia then annexed the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol as federal subjects of Russia. Russia disputes this, citing the right of the people of Crimea to self-determination, in 1792, under the Russian Empress Catherine the Great, Crimea was ceded to Russia by the Ottoman Empire under the Treaty of Jassy, which formally ended the Russo-Turkish war of 1787-1792. From 1802, it constituted a part of the Taurida Governorate of the Russian Empire until the collapse thereof in 1917. The Crimean Tatars were allowed to return to Crimea in the mid-1980s under perestroika, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, Crimea became part of the newly independent Ukraine, which led to tensions between Russia and Ukraine. With the Black Sea Fleet based on the peninsula, worries of armed skirmishes were occasionally raised, Crimean Tatars began returning from exile and resettling in Crimea. Ukraine restored Crimeas autonomous status in 1991, the document specifically mentioned Kosovo as a precedent in the lead part. The available choices did not include keeping the status quo of Crimea, on 16 March 2014, according to statements of organizers of Crimean status referendum, a large majority voted in favour of independence of Crimea from Ukraine and joining Russia as a federal subject. The referendum was not recognized by most of the international community, the BBC reported that most of the Crimean Tatars that they interviewed were boycotting the vote. Reports from the UN criticised the circumstances surrounding the referendum, especially the presence of paramilitaries, self-defence groups, the European Union, Canada, Japan and the United States condemned the vote as illegal. After the referendum, Crimean lawmakers formally voted both to secede from Ukraine and applied for their admission into Russia, the Sevastopol City Council, however, requested the ports separate admission as a federal city. On 18 March 2014, the self-proclaimed independent Republic of Crimea signed a treaty of accession to the Russian Federation, the accession was only recognised internationally by a few states with most regarding the action as illegal. Though Ukraine refused to accept the annexation, the Ukrainian military began to withdraw from Crimea on 19 March. On 3 April 2014, Moscow sent a note to Ukraine on terminating the actions of agreements concerning the deployment of the Russian Federations Black Sea Fleet on the territory of Ukraine. As part of the agreements, Russia paid the Ukrainian government $530 million annually for the base, the Kremlin stated that as the base is no longer located in Ukraine, there were no legal grounds for the discount to be continued. On 3 April 2014, Crimea and the city of Sevastopol became part of Russias Southern Military District, on 11 April 2014, the parliament of Crimea approved a new constitution, with 88 out of 100 lawmakers voting in favor of its adoption. The constitution ensures the Republic of Crimea as a state within the Russian Federation and says that its territory is united. The Crimean parliament will become smaller and have 75 members instead of current 100, on 12 April 2014, the Constitution of the Republic of Crimea, adopted at the session of the State Council on 11 April entered into legal force
2.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
3.
Flag of Crimea
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The flag of Crimea is the flag of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea claimed by Ukraine and the Republic of Crimea claimed by Russia. The flag has been in use since 1992 and was adopted on April 21,1999. The flag is a triband, striped horizontally in blue–white–red, the blue stripe is located at the top edge and is 1/6 of the flags width. The white stripe is the largest of the three and is 2/3 of the width, and the red stripe is located at the bottom edge and is 1/6 of the flags width. When flown vertically, the blue stripe should be at the left, the white field in the center. The flags length is twice its width, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, many designs were used by separatists from Crimea. The most commonly used design in public was a flag with a blue outline map of Crimea. However, many Supreme Council of Crimea members had supported the version of a flag with seven rainbow colors at the top. Crimea proclaimed self-government on May 5,1992, but no flag was chosen. On June 5,1992, five proposals were submitted to the Crimean Parliament, Blue–white–blue triband with large space and narrow blue strips at the top. White flag with seven rainbow colors at the top, yellow–green–blue tricolor with a same size red vertical stripe at the hoist. The current blue–white–red design with the coat of arms in the center, proposal 5, designed by V. Trusov and A. Malgin, was selected to be the flag of Crimea. The coat of arms of G. Jefetov and V. Jagunov was recommended for display on the flag, the final design for the flag was submitted in the second session of the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea on September 24,1992. The flag was officially adopted on April 21,1999. Earlier rulers of Crimea, the Crimean Tatars, introduced their own flags under the Crimean Peoples Republic of 1917–1918, the light blue version is now used as ethnic flag. The Crimean Tatars independence was short-lived, and when Russia took control of Crimea in the beginning of 1918, the short-lived Crimean Regional Government, led by General Maciej Sulkiewicz, existed during the German occupation of Crimea, in which the Crimean government proclaimed a self-rule. Sulkiewiczs government adopted a flag which seemed to be a compromise between Crimean Tatars and the Russians and it was a traditional Crimean Tatar blue-colored banner, but it had the coat of arms of the Russian Empires Taurida Governorate instead of the Crimean Tatar damğa. When the Crimean ASSR was established as part of the Russian SFSR on October 18,1921, the flag was red, and spelled in golden letters were the Cyrillic letters КрССР and the Arabic alphabet ق س ش ج
4.
Coat of arms of Crimea
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The coat of arms has been in use since 1992 and was officially adopted on April 21,1999. The coat of arms consists of a red Varangian shield and a griffin passant facing to the heraldic right with an azure pearl in its right paw. On either sides of the shield are a white pillar, at the top of the shield sits the rising sun. Winding around both columns and under the shield rests the Flag of Crimea, a tricolor ribbon, unto which the Motto of Crimea. The Varangian shield is symbolic of the fact that the region of Crimea was for a time a crossing of major trade routes. The red field of the coat of arms symbolizes the heroic and dramatic history of Crimea, another variation in the symbolism is that the pearl is symbolic of Crimea as a part of Earth, and the griffin as the defender of the young republic. The pearls azure is reminiscent of the culture of Crimea. The white pillars are said to be reminiscent of the ancient civilizations which inhabited the peninsula, the rising sun is symbolic of prosperity and regeneration. Flag of Crimea Ukrainian heraldry — Coat of arms of Crimea
5.
Russian language
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Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi
6.
Hymn of Crimea
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Hymn of Crimea is the official anthem of the Crimea. The anthem was composed by Alemdar Karamanov, and the text was written by Olga Golubeva, the anthem was adopted after a contest held by the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea on February 26,1992. It was officially adopted on October 18,2000, the anthem is currently used by both the Republic of Crimea and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea claimed by Ukraine. Shche ne vmerla Ukrainy, the anthem of Ukraine Ant etkenmen
7.
Ukraine
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Ukraine is currently in territorial dispute with Russia over the Crimean Peninsula which Russia annexed in 2014 but which Ukraine and most of the international community recognise as Ukrainian. Including Crimea, Ukraine has an area of 603,628 km2, making it the largest country entirely within Europe and it has a population of about 42.5 million, making it the 32nd most populous country in the world. The territory of modern Ukraine has been inhabited since 32,000 BC, during the Middle Ages, the area was a key centre of East Slavic culture, with the powerful state of Kievan Rus forming the basis of Ukrainian identity. Following its fragmentation in the 13th century, the territory was contested, ruled and divided by a variety of powers, including Lithuania, Poland, the Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. A Cossack republic emerged and prospered during the 17th and 18th centuries, two brief periods of independence occurred during the 20th century, once near the end of World War I and another during World War II. Before its independence, Ukraine was typically referred to in English as The Ukraine, following independence, Ukraine declared itself a neutral state. Nonetheless it formed a limited partnership with the Russian Federation and other CIS countries. In the 2000s, the government began leaning towards NATO, and it was later agreed that the question of joining NATO should be answered by a national referendum at some point in the future. Former President Viktor Yanukovych considered the current level of co-operation between Ukraine and NATO sufficient, and was against Ukraine joining NATO and these events formed the background for the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014, and the War in Donbass in April 2014. On 1 January 2016, Ukraine applied the economic part of the Deep, Ukraine has long been a global breadbasket because of its extensive, fertile farmlands and is one of the worlds largest grain exporters. The diversified economy of Ukraine includes a heavy industry sector, particularly in aerospace. Ukraine is a republic under a semi-presidential system with separate powers, legislative, executive. Its capital and largest city is Kiev, taking into account reserves and paramilitary personnel, Ukraine maintains the second-largest military in Europe after that of Russia. Ukrainian is the language and its alphabet is Cyrillic. The dominant religion in the country is Eastern Orthodoxy, which has strongly influenced Ukrainian architecture, literature, there are different hypotheses as to the etymology of the name Ukraine. According to the older and most widespread hypothesis, it means borderland, while more recently some studies claim a different meaning, homeland or region. The Ukraine now implies disregard for the sovereignty, according to U. S. ambassador William Taylor. Neanderthal settlement in Ukraine is seen in the Molodova archaeological sites include a mammoth bone dwelling
8.
Crimea
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The peninsula is located south of the Ukrainian region of Kherson and west of the Russian region of Kuban. It is connected to Kherson Oblast by the Isthmus of Perekop and is separated from Kuban by the Strait of Kerch, the Arabat Spit is located to the northeast, a narrow strip of land that separates a system of lagoons named Sivash from the Sea of Azov. Crimea has historically been at the boundary between the world and the Pontic–Caspian steppe. Crimea and adjacent territories were united in the Crimean Khanate during the 15th to 18th century, in 1783, Crimea was annexed by the Russian Empire. It became the Autonomous Republic of Crimea within newly independent Ukraine in 1991, with Sevastopol having its own administration, within Ukraine, the ex-Soviet Black Sea Fleet and its facilities were divided between Russias Black Sea Fleet and the Ukrainian Naval Forces. The two navies shared some of the harbours and piers, while others were demilitarised or used by either country. Sevastopol remained the location of the Russian Black Sea Fleet headquarters with the Ukrainian Naval Forces Headquarters also based in the city, most of the international community does not recognize the annexation and considers Crimea to be Ukrainian territory. Russia currently administers the peninsula as two federal subjects, the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol. Ukraine continues to assert its right over the peninsula, the classical name Tauris or Taurica is from the Greek Ταυρική, after the peninsulas Scytho-Cimmerian inhabitants, the Tauri. In English usage since the modern period the Crimean Khanate is referred to as Crim Tartary. The Italian form Crimea also becomes current during the 18th century, the omission of the definite article in English became common during the later 20th century. The name Crimea follows the Italian form from the Crimean Tatar name for the city Qırım which served as a capital of the Crimean province of the Golden Horde, the name of the capital was extended to the entire peninsula at some point during Ottoman suzerainty. The origin of the word Qırım is uncertain, suggestions argued in various sources include, a corruption of Cimmerium. A derivation from the Turkic term qirum, from qori-, other suggestions that have not been supported by sources but are apparently based on similarity in sound include, a derivation from the Greek Cremnoi. However, he identifies the port, not in Crimea, no evidence has been identified that this name was ever in use for the peninsula. The classical name was revived in 1802 in the name of the Russian Taurida Governorate, in the 8th century BCE the Cimmerians migrated to the region and subsequently the Scythians as well it being the site of Greek colonies. The most important city was Chersonesos at the edge of todays Sevastopol, the Persian Achaemenid Empire expanded to Crimea. Later occupiers included the Romans, Goths, Huns, Bulgars, the Byzantine Empire, Khazars, the Kipchaks, the Golden Horde, consideration of the succeeding residents of the peninsula by their linguistic grouping is also of relevance
9.
Simferopol
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Simferopol is a city on the Crimean peninsula, the status of which is disputed between Ukraine and Russia. Archaeological evidence in Simferopol indicates the existence of an ancient Scythian city, the location was also home to a Crimean Tatar town, Aqmescit. After the annexation of the Crimean Khanate to the Russian Empire, the name comes from the Greek Sympheropolis, meaning city of common good. It is spelled Simferopol or Symferopil, in Crimean Tatar, the name of the city is Aqmescit, which means The white mosque. In English, the name was given as Akmechet or Ak-Mechet, a transliteration from Russian Акмечет, Ак-Мечеть. Archaeological evidence in the Chokurcha cave shows the presence of ancient people living in the territory of modern Simferopol, later, the Crimean Tatars founded the town of Aqmescit. For some time, Aqmescit served as the residence of the Qalğa-Sultan, the city was renamed Simferopol in 1784 after the annexation of the Crimean Khanate to the Russian Empire by Catherine II of Russia. The name Simferopol is in Greek, Συμφερόπολις, and literally means the city of usefulness, the tradition to give Greek names to places in newly acquired southern territories was carried out by Empress Catherine the Great as part of her Greek Plan. In 1802, Simferopol became the centre of the Taurida Governorate. During the Crimean War of 1854–1856, the Russian Imperial Army reserves, after the war, more than 30,000 Russian soldiers were buried in the citys vicinity. In the 20th century, Simferopol was once affected by wars. At the end of the Russian Civil War, the headquarters of General Pyotr Wrangel, on 13 November 1920, the Red Army captured the city and on 18 October 1921, Simferopol became the capital of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. During World War II, Simferopol was occupied by Nazi Germany from 1 November 1941 to 13 April 1944, retreating NKVD police shot a number of prisoners on 31 October 1941 in the NKVD building and the citys prison. Germans perpetrated one of the largest war-time massacres in Simferopol, killing in total over 22,000 locals—mostly Jews, Russians, Krymchaks, and Gypsies. On one occasion, starting 9 December 1941, the Einsatzgruppen D under Otto Ohlendorfs command killed an estimated 14,300 Simferopol residents, in April 1944, the Red Army liberated Simferopol. On 18 May 1944 the Crimean Tatar population of the city along with the whole Crimean Tatar nation of Crimea was forcibly deported to Central Asia in a form of collective punishment, an asteroid 2141 Simferopol discovered in 1970 by Soviet astronomer Tamara Mikhailovna Smirnova is named after the city. Following a referendum on 20 January 1991, the Crimean Oblast was upgraded an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic on 12 February 1991 by the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR, Simferopol became the capital of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Simferopol became the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea within newly independent Ukraine
10.
Ukrainian language
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Ukrainian /juːˈkreɪniən/ is an East Slavic language. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic script, historical linguists trace the origin of the Ukrainian language to the Old East Slavic of the early medieval state of Kievan Rus. After the fall of the Kievan Rus as well as the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, the Modern Ukrainian language has been in common use since the late 17th century, associated with the establishment of the Cossack Hetmanate. From 1804 until the Russian Revolution, the Ukrainian language was banned from schools in the Russian Empire and it has always maintained a sufficient base in Western Ukraine, where the language was never banned, in its folklore songs, itinerant musicians, and prominent authors. The Ukrainian language retains a degree of intelligibility with Belarusian and Russian. The first theory of the origin of Ukrainian language was suggested in Imperial Russia in the middle of the 18th century by Mikhail Lomonosov and this theory posits the existence of a common language spoken by all East Slavic people in the time of the Rus. Another point of view developed during the 19th and 20th centuries by linguists of Imperial Russia, like Lomonosov, they assumed the existence of a common language spoken by East Slavs in the past. This general point of view is the most accepted amongst academics worldwide, the supporters of this theory disagree, however, about the time when the different languages were formed. Soviet scholars set the divergence between Ukrainian and Russian only at time periods. During the time of the incorporation of Ruthenia into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and this point of view is, however, at variance with some historical data. In fact, several East Slavic tribes, such as Polans, Drevlyans, Severians, Dulebes, White Croats, Tiverians, notably, some Ukrainian features were recognizable in the southern dialects of Old East Slavic as far back as the language can be documented. In contrast, Ahatanhel Krymsky and Alexei Shakhmatov assumed the existence of the spoken language of Eastern Slavs only in prehistoric times. According to their point of view, the diversification of the Old East Slavic language took place in the 8th or early 9th century, Ukrainian linguist Stepan Smal-Stotsky went even further, denying the existence of a common Old East Slavic language at any time in the past. Similar points of view were shared by Yevhen Tymchenko, Vsevolod Hantsov, Olena Kurylo, Ivan Ohienko, according to this theory, the dialects of East Slavic tribes evolved gradually from the common Proto-Slavic language without any intermediate stages during the 6th through 9th centuries. The Ukrainian language was formed by convergence of tribal dialects, mostly due to a migration of the population within the territory of todays Ukraine in later historical periods. This point of view was supported by George Shevelovs phonological studies. During the 13th century, when German settlers were invited to Ukraine by the princes of Galicia-Vollhynia and their influence would continue under Poland not only through German colonists but also through the Yiddish-speaking Jews. Often such words involve trade or handicrafts, examples of words of German or Yiddish origin spoken in Ukraine include dakh, rura, rynok, kushnir, and majster
11.
Crimean Tatar language
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Crimean Tatar, also called Crimean Turkish or simply Crimean, is a language spoken for centuries in Crimea. It is a Turkic language spoken in Crimea and the Crimean Tatar diasporas of Uzbekistan, Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria, as well as communities in the United States. It should not be confused with Tatar proper, spoken in Tatarstan and adjacent regions in Russia, though only distantly related, it has been extensively influenced by nearby Oghuz Turkic languages such as Turkish, Turkmen, and Azerbaijani. Today, more than 260,000 Crimean Tatars live in Crimea, approximately 150,000 reside in Central Asia, where their ancestors had been exiled in 1944 during World War II by the Soviet Union. However, of all people, mostly the older generations are the only ones still speaking Crimean Tatar. In 2013, the language was estimated to be on the brink of extinction, Turkey has provided support to Ukraine, to aid in bringing the schools teaching in Crimean Tatar to a modern state. An estimated 5 million people of Crimean origin live in Turkey, descendants of those who emigrated in the 19th, of these an estimated 2,000 still speak the language. Smaller Crimean Tatar communities are found in Romania, Bulgaria. Crimean Tatar is one of the endangered languages in Europe. Almost all Crimean Tatars are bilingual or multilingual, using as their first language the dominant languages of their home countries, such as Ukrainian, Turkish, Uzbek. Each of the three groups of the Crimean Tatars has its own dialect. The dialect of the Nogays, the inhabitants of the Crimean steppe, is of Kypchak–Nogay origin. The Yalıboylus, who lived on the southern coast of Crimea before 1944, the Tat Tatars from the Crimean Mountains use a middle dialect of Kypchak–Cuman origin. The dialect is a descendant of the Cuman language. The modern Crimean Tatar written language is based on Tat because the Tats comprise about 55% of the total Crimean Tatar population, the forming of the Crimean Tatar spoken dialects began with the first Turkic invasions of Crimea and ended during the period of the Crimean Khanate. However, the written languages of the Crimean Khanate were Chagatai. After Islamization, Crimean Tatars wrote with an Arabic script, in 1876, the different Turkic Crimean dialects were made into a uniform written language by Ismail Gasprinski. A preference was given to the Oghuz dialect of the Yalıboylus, in 1928, the language was reoriented to the middle dialect spoken by the majority of the people
12.
Ethnic group
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An ethnic group or ethnicity is a category of people who identify with each other based on similarities, such as common ancestral, language, social, cultural or national experiences. Unlike other social groups, ethnicity is often an inherited status based on the society in which one lives, in some cases, it can be adopted if a person moves into another society. Ethnic groups, derived from the historical founder population, often continue to speak related languages. By way of language shift, acculturation, adoption and religious conversion, it is possible for individuals or groups to leave one ethnic group. Ethnicity is often used synonymously with terms such as nation or people. In English, it can also have the connotation of something exotic, generally related to cultures of more recent immigrants, the largest ethnic groups in modern times comprise hundreds of millions of individuals, while the smallest are limited to a few dozen individuals. Conversely, formerly separate ethnicities can merge to form a pan-ethnicity, whether through division or amalgamation, the formation of a separate ethnic identity is referred to as ethnogenesis. The term ethnic is derived from the Greek word ἔθνος ethnos, the inherited English language term for this concept is folk, used alongside the latinate people since the late Middle English period. In Early Modern English and until the mid-19th century, ethnic was used to mean heathen or pagan, as the Septuagint used ta ethne to translate the Hebrew goyim the nations, non-Hebrews, non-Jews. The Greek term in antiquity could refer to any large group, a host of men. In the 19th century, the term came to be used in the sense of peculiar to a race, people or nation, the abstract ethnicity had been used for paganism in the 18th century, but now came to express the meaning of an ethnic character. The term ethnic group was first recorded in 1935 and entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 1972, depending on the context that is used, the term nationality may either be used synonymously with ethnicity, or synonymously with citizenship. The process that results in the emergence of an ethnicity is called ethnogenesis, the Greeks at this time did not describe foreign nations but had also developed a concept of their own ethnicity, which they grouped under the name of Hellenes. Herodotus gave an account of what defined Greek ethnic identity in his day, enumerating shared descent. Whether ethnicity qualifies as a universal is to some extent dependent on the exact definition used. Many social scientists, such as anthropologists Fredrik Barth and Eric Wolf and they regard ethnicity as a product of specific kinds of inter-group interactions, rather than an essential quality inherent to human groups. According to Thomas Hylland Eriksen, the study of ethnicity was dominated by two distinct debates until recently, one is between primordialism and instrumentalism. In the primordialist view, the participant perceives ethnic ties collectively, as a given, even coercive
13.
Russians in Ukraine
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Russians in Ukraine — the largest ethnic minority in the country, which community forms the largest single Russian diaspora in the world. They comprise a notable fraction of the population in the east and south, a significant minority in the center. The west and the center of the feature a higher percentage of Russians in cities and industrial centers. Traditionally mixed Russo-Ukrainian populated territories are mainly historic Novorossiya and Sloboda Ukraine - now both split between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, Russians constitute the majority in the Crimea, the southern peninsula which the Soviet government transferred from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954. One of the most prominent Russians in the Medieval Ukraine was Ivan Fyodorov who published the Ostrog Bible, in 1599 Tsar Boris Godunov ordered the construction of Tsareborisov on the banks of Oskol River, the first city and the first fortress in Eastern Ukraine. To defend the territory from Tatar raids the Russians built the Belgorod defensive line, more Russian speakers appeared in northern, central and eastern Ukrainian territories during the late 17th century, following the Cossack Rebellion led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky. Following the Treaty of Pereyaslav, Ukrainian Cossacks lands, including the northern and eastern parts of Ukraine became a protectorate of the into the Tsardom of Russia. This brought the first significant, but still small, wave of Russian settlers into central Ukraine, at the end of the 18th century, the Russian Empire captured large uninhabited steppe territories from the former Crimean Khanate. The systematic colonization of lands in what known as Novorossiya began. Migrants from many ethnic groups came to this area, at the same time the discovery of coal in the Donets Basin also marked the commencement of a large-scale industrialization and an influx of workers from other parts of the Russian Empire. Both Russians and Ukrainians made up the bulk of the migrants —31. 8% and 42. 0% respectively, the population of Novorossiya eventually became intermixed, and with Russification being the state policy, the Russian identity dominated in mixed families and communities. The first Russian Empire Census, conducted in 1897, showed extensive usage of the Little Russian, a term for the Ukrainian language, in the nine south-western Governorates. Thus, when the Central Rada officials were outlining the borders of the new Ukrainian state they took the results of the census in regards to the language. The ethnographic borders of Ukraine thus turned out to be almost twice as large as the original Bohdan Khmelnytsky State incorporated into Russian Empire during 17-18th centuries, during the World War I, strong national movement managed to obtain some autonomous rights from the Russian government in Saint Petersburg. However, the October Revolution brought big changes for the new Russian Republic, Ukraine became a battleground between the two main Russian war factions during the Russian Civil War, the Communist Reds and the Monarchist Whites. The Ukrainian SSR was de jure a separate state until the formation of the USSR in 1922, the new borders completely included Novorossiya and other neighboring provinces, which contained a substantial number of ethnic Russians. In his 1923 speech devoted to the national and ethnic issues in the party and state affairs, in Ukraines case, both threats came, respectfully, from the south and the east, Novorossiya with its historically strong Russian cultural influence, and the traditional Ukrainian center and west. Ukrainian language was mandatory for most jobs, and its teaching became compulsory in every school, by the early-1930s attitudes towards the policy of Ukrainization had changed within the Soviet leadership
14.
Ukrainians
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Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is by total population the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term Ukrainians to all its citizens, also among historical names of the people of Ukraine Rusyns, Cossacks, etc. can be found. According to some definitions, a descriptive name for the inhabitants of Ukraine is Ukrainian or Ukrainian people. Belarusians and Russians are considered among the bloodline of Ukrainians, while Rusyns are another closely related group, the ethnonym Ukrainians became widely accepted only in the 20th century after their territory obtained distinctive statehood in 1917. People of these territories were usually called Rus or Rusyns, the Ukrainian language appeared in the 14th – 16th centuries, but at that time, it was mostly known as Ruthenian, like its brothers. In the 16th – 17th centuries, with the establishment of the Zaporizhian Sich, however, the ethnonym Ukrainians and the linguonym Ukrainian were used only occasionally, and the people of Ukraine usually continued to call themselves and their language Ruthenian. This official name did not spread widely among the peasantry constituted the majority of the population. Ukrainian peasants still referred to their country as Ukraine and to themselves, in areas outside the control of the Russian/Soviet state until the mid-20th century, Ukrainians were known by their pre-existing names for much longer. The modern name derives from Ukrayina, a name first documented in 1187. Several scientific theories attempt to explain the etymology of the term, according to some new alternative Ukrainian historians such as Hryhoriy Pivtorak, Vitaly Sklyarenko and other scholars, translate the term u-kraine as in-land, home-land or our-country. The name in this context derives from the word u-kraina in the sense of domestic region, in the last few centuries the population of Ukraine experienced periods of Polonization and Russification, but preserved a common culture and a sense of common identity. Most ethnic Ukrainians live in Ukraine, where make up over three-quarters of the population. The inhabitants of the Kuban, for example, have vacillated among three identities, Ukrainian, Russian, and Cossack, approximately 800,000 people of Ukrainian ancestry live in the Russian Far East in an area known historically as Green Ukraine. According to some assumptions, an estimated number of almost 2.1 million people of Ukrainian origin live in North America. Large numbers of Ukrainians live in Brazil, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Poland, Argentina, Belarus, Portugal, there are also Ukrainian diasporas in the UK, Australia, Germany, Latvia, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Ireland, Sweden and the former Yugoslavia. Today, large ethnic Ukrainian minorities reside in Russia, Canada, Ukrainians have one of the largest diasporas in the world. The East Slavs emerged from the undifferentiated early Slavs with the Slavic migrations in the 6th and 7th centuries CE, the East Slavs were united in the Kievan Rus during the 9th to 13th centuries. East Slavic tribes cited as proto-Ukrainian include the Volhynians, Derevlianians, Polianians, and Siverianians and the less significant Ulychians, Tivertsians, the Gothic historian Jordanes and 6th-century Byzantine authors named two groups that lived in the south-east of Europe, Sclavins and Antes
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Crimean Tatars
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Crimean Tatars constituted the majority of Crimeas population from the time of its ethnogenesis until mid-19th century, and the relative largest ethnic population until the end of 19th century. Starting in 1967, some were allowed to return to Crimea, today, Crimean Tatars constitute approximately 12% of the population of Crimea. There remains a large diaspora of Crimean Tatars in Turkey and Uzbekistan, in the latest Ukrainian census,248,200 Ukrainian citizens identified themselves as Crimean Tatars with 98% of them living in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. An additional 1,800 citizens live in the city of Sevastopol, also on the Crimean peninsula, about 150,000 remain in exile in Central Asia, mainly in Uzbekistan. The official number of Crimean Tatars in Turkey is 150,000 with some Crimean Tatar activists estimating a figure as high as 6 million. The activists reached this number by taking one million Tatar immigrants to Turkey as a starting point, Crimean Tatars in Turkey mostly live in Eskişehir Province, descendants of those who emigrated in the late 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. In the Dobruja region straddling Romania and Bulgaria, there are more than 27,000 Crimean Tatars,24,000 on the Romanian side, and 3,000 on the Bulgarian side. However, the Cuman language is considered the ancestor of the current language of the Crimean Tatars with possible incorporations of the other languages like Crimean Gothic. Another theory suggests Crimean Tatars trace their origins to the waves of ancient people Scythians, Greeks, Goths, Italians and Armenians. Goths, Gypsies, and Greeks were assumed to be some of the ancestors of the Tatars on the coast of Crimea, while there were mixed hill Tatars, Italians and Greeks mixed with the coastal Crimean Tatars. The Crimean Tatars emerged as a nation at the time of the Crimean Khanate, the Turkic-speaking population of the Crimea had mostly adopted Islam already in the 14th century, following the conversion of Ozbeg Khan of the Golden Horde. Until the beginning of the 18th century, Crimean Tatars were known for frequent, at some periods almost annual, devastating raids into Ukraine and Russia. For a long time, until the late 18th century, the Crimean Khanate maintained a massive trade with the Ottoman Empire. One of the most important trading ports and slave markets was Kefe, slaves and freedmen formed approximately 75% of the Crimean population. Some researchers estimate that altogether up to 3 million people were captured and enslaved during the time of the Crimean Khanate, the Don Cossacks and Kalmyk Mongols also managed to raid Crimean Tatars land. The last recorded major Crimean raid, before those in the Russo-Turkish War took place during the reign of Peter the Great, however, Cossack raids continued after that time, Ottoman Grand Vizier complained to the Russian consul about raids to Crimea and Özi in 1761. In 1769 one last major Tatar raid, which took place during the Russo-Turkish War, after a period of political unrest in Crimea, Russia violated the treaty and annexed the Crimean Khanate in 1783. After the annexation, the wealthier Tatars, who had exported wheat, meat, fish and wine to other parts of the Black Sea, began to be expelled, further expulsions followed in 1812 for fear of the reliability of the Tatars in the face of Napoleons advance
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Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
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Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of the Russian SFSR located in the Crimean Peninsula. It was created on October 18,1921 as the Crimean Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic of the Russian SFSR and it was renamed the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic on December 5,1936 by the VIII Extraordinary Congress of Soviets of the USSR. Crimea was under de facto control of Nazi Germany from September 1942 to October 1943, alfred Frauenfeld was appointed as General Commissar. The constitutional rights of the forcibly-resettled Tatars were restored with a decree dated September 5,1967, with the establishment of autonomous republic it was divided into seven okrugs from 1921 to 1923
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Constitution of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea
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The constitution of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea is the basic law of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, a republic on the Crimean peninsula as part of Ukraine. The constitution establishes the republics status and authority within Ukraine and it granted Crimea the right to draft a budget and manage its own property. The Ukrainian government has refused to recognize the annexation of Crimea by Russia, after a referendum on 20 January 1991, Crimea regained its status as an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In February 1992 the Crimean parliament transformed Crimea into Republic of Crimea, on 5 May 1992 parliament declared Crimea independent and passed the first Crimean constitution the same day. On 6 May 1992 the same parliament inserted a new sentence into this constitution that declared that Crimea was part of Ukraine, the Ukrainian parliament convened on May 15, annulled the Crimean declaration of independence and gave the Crimean parliament one week to cancel the referendum. In June 1992 the parties reached a compromise and Crimea was given the status of Autonomous Republic, in May 1994, the Crimean parliament voted to restore the May 1992 Constitution. In September 1994 President of Crimea Yuriy Meshkov and parliament decided to write a new Constitution, on 17 March 1995 the Verkhovna Rada abolished the May 1992 Constitution. From June till September 1995 Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma governed Crimea under a presidential administration decree. In October 1995 the Crimean parliament adopted a new Constitution which was not recognized by the authorities until April 1996 when significant amendments were suggested. A fifth draft law of the October 1995 constitution was ratified on 21 October 1998 at the session of the Crimean Verkhovna Rada. The Verkhovna Rada confirmed this constitution on 23 December 1998 and it came into effect on 12 January 1999. During the Crimean Crisis, the Crimean authority repealed the 1998 Crimean Constitution after the Crimean status referendum,2014, the Crimean parliament had no right of legislative initiative. Constitution of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea
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Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation
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The Ukrainian territory of Crimea was annexed by the Russian Federation on 18 March 2014. On 23 February 2014, pro-Russian demonstrations were held in the Crimean city of Sevastopol and it led to the other members of the then G8 suspending Russia from the group, then introducing the first round of sanctions against the country. The resolution calls upon all States and international organizations not to recognize or to imply the recognition of Russias annexation, the Russian Federation opposes the annexation label, with Putin defending the referendum as complying with the principle of self-determination of peoples. In July 2015, Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev said that Crimea had been integrated into Russia. Crimea became part of the Russian Empire in 1783, when the Crimean Khanate was annexed, initially it was incorporated into the Empire as Taurida Oblast but in 1795 it was merged into Novorossiysk Governorate and then, in 1802, transferred to the Taurida Governorate. A series of short-lived governments were established during first stages of the Russian Civil War, in October 1921, the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of the Russian SFSR was instituted. In 1954, the Crimean Oblast was transferred from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. In 1989, under perestroika, the Supreme Soviet declared that the deportation of the Crimean Tatars under Stalin had been illegal, in 1990, the Soviet of the Crimean Oblast proposed the restoration of the Crimean ASSR. The oblast conducted a referendum in 1991, which asked whether Crimea should be elevated into a signatory of the New Union Treaty, by that time, though, the dissolution of the Soviet Union was well underway. The Crimean ASSR was restored for less than a year as part of Soviet Ukraine before Ukrainian independence, newly independent Ukraine maintained Crimeas autonomous status, while the Supreme Council of Crimea affirmed the peninsulas sovereignty as a part of Ukraine. The autonomous status of Crimea was limited by Ukrainian authorities in 1995, on 24 August 2009, anti-Ukrainian demonstrations were held in Crimea by ethnic Russian residents. Sergei Tsekov said then that he hoped that Russia would treat Crimea the same way as it had treated South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Yanukovych won the 2010 presidential election with strong support from voters in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and southern and eastern Ukraine. The Crimean autonomous government strongly supported Yanukovych and condemned the protests, on 4 February 2014, the Presidium of the Supreme Council considered holding a referendum on the peninsulas status, and asked the Russian government to guarantee the vote. The Security Service of Ukraine responded by opening a case to investigate the possible subversion of Ukraines territorial integrity. The Euromaidan protests came to a head in late February 2014, arseniy Yatsenyuk was appointed by the Rada to serve as the head of a caretaker government until new presidential and parliament elections could be held. This new government was recognised internationally, though the Russian government said that these events had been a coup détat, in January 2014 the Sevastopol city council had already called for formation of peoples militia units to ensure firm defence of the city from extremism. Crimean parliament members called for a meeting on 21 February. Crimean Tatar Mejlis chairman Mustafa Dzhemilev said that he suspected that the meeting was arranged to call for Russian military intervention in Crimea
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Demographics of Crimea
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As of 2014, the total population of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol was at 2,248,400 people. This is down from the 2001 Ukrainian Census figure, which was 2,376,000, the interior was dominated by a succession of Scytho-Sarmatian, Gothic, Hunnic, Turkic, Mongol and Slavic conquests. Its south coast was Greek speaking under the Romans and their states, the Byzantine Empire, the Empire of Trebizond. In 1475 the region was conquered by the Ottoman Turks, during the late Middle Ages a few coastal cities were ruled by Italian city states. The colonization New Russia at the end of the 18th century was led by Prince Grigori Potemkin who was granted the powers of a ruler over the area by Catherine the Great. The lands were given to the Russian dvoryanstvo, and the enserfed peasantry mostly from Ukraine. Catherine the Great also invited European settlers to these newly conquered lands, Germans, Poles, Italians, Crimea is geographically and demographically divided into three regions, the steppe interior, the mountains, and the coast. The Tatars were the predominant portion of the population in the area and about half of the steppe population. Germans and Bulgarians settled in the Crimea at the beginning of the 19th century, receiving a large allotment, wealthy colonists later bought substantial portions of land, mainly in Perekopsky and Yevpatoria districts. The upheavals and ethnic cleansing of the 20th century vastly changed Crimeas ethnic situation, in 1944,200,000 Crimean Tatars were deported from Crimea to Central Asia and Siberia, along with 70,000 Greeks and 14,000 Bulgarians and other nationalities. By the latter 20th century, Russians and Ukrainians made up almost the entire population, however, with the fall of the Soviet Union, exiled Crimean Tatars began returning to their homeland and would become 10% of the population by the beginning of the 21st century. Other minorities are Black Sea Germans, Roma, Bulgarians, Poles, Azerbaijanis, Koreans, Greeks, the number of Crimea Germans was 45,000 in 1941. In 1944,70,000 Greeks and 14,000 Bulgarians from the Crimea were deported to Central Asia and Siberia, along with 200,000 Crimean Tatars and other nationalities. According to the 2001 census, 77% of Crimean inhabitants named Russian as their language,11. 4% – Crimean Tatar. Of the Ukrainians in Crimea, 40% gave Ukrainian as their native language, 93% of Crimean Tatars gave Crimean Tatar as their native language, 6% were Russophone. In 2013, however, the Crimean Tatar language was estimated to be on the brink of extinction, being taught in Crimea only in around 15 schools at that point of time. Turkey has provided the greatest support to Ukraine, which has been unable to resolve the problem of education in the tongue in Crimea. Ukrainian was until 2014 the single official language countrywide
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Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
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Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
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Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
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The Republic comprised sixteen autonomous republics, five autonomous oblasts, ten autonomous okrugs, six krais, and forty oblasts. Russians formed the largest ethnic group, the capital of the Russian SFSR was Moscow and the other major urban centers included Leningrad, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara. The Russian Soviet Republic was proclaimed on November 7,1917 as a sovereign state, the first Constitution was adopted in 1918. In 1922 the Russian SFSR signed the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR, the economy of Russia became heavily industrialized, accounting for about two-thirds of the electricity produced in the USSR. It was, by 1961, the third largest producer of petroleum due to new discoveries in the Volga-Urals region and Siberia, trailing only the United States and Saudi Arabia. In 1974, there were 475 institutes of education in the republic providing education in 47 languages to some 23,941,000 students. A network of territorially organized public-health services provided health care, the effects of market policies led to the failure of many enterprises and total instability by 1990. On June 12,1990, the Congress of Peoples Deputies adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty, on June 12,1991, Boris Yeltsin was elected the first President. On December 8,1991, heads of Russia, Ukraine, the agreement declared dissolution of the USSR by its founder states and established the Commonwealth of Independent States. On December 12, the agreement was ratified by the Russian Parliament, therefore Russian SFSR denounced the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR and de facto declared Russias independence from the USSR. On December 25,1991, following the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev as president of the Soviet Union, on December 26,1991, the USSR was self-dissolved by the Soviet of Nationalities, which by that time was the only functioning house of the Supreme Soviet. After dissolution of the USSR, Russia declared that it assumed the rights and obligations of the dissolved central Soviet government, the new Russian constitution, adopted on December 12,1993 after a constitutional crisis, abolished the Soviet system of government in its entirety. Initially, the state did not have a name and wasnt recognized by neighboring countries for five months. Meanwhile, anti-Bolsheviks coined the mocking label Sovdepia for the nascent state of the Soviets of Workers, on January 25,1918 the third meeting of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets renamed the unrecognized state the Soviet Russian Republic. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on March 3,1918, on July 10,1918, the Russian Constitution of 1918 renamed the country the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic. By 1918, during the Russian Civil War, several states within the former Russian Empire seceded, internationally, in 1920, the RSFSR was recognized as an independent state only by Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania in the Treaty of Tartu and by the short-lived Irish Republic. On December 30,1922, with the creation of the Soviet Union, the final Soviet name for the republic, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, was adopted in the Soviet Constitution of 1936. By that time, Soviet Russia had gained roughly the same borders of the old Tsardom of Russia before the Great Northern War of 1700
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Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
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The Ukrainian SSR was a founding member of the United Nations, although it was legally represented by the All-Union state in its affairs with countries outside of the Soviet Union. From the start, the city of Kharkiv served as the republics capital. However, in 1934, the seat of government was moved to the city of Kyiv. Geographically, the Ukrainian SSR was situated in Eastern Europe to the north of the Black Sea, bordered by the Soviet republics of Moldavia, Byelorussia, the Ukrainian SSRs border with Czechoslovakia formed the Soviet Unions western-most border point. According to the Soviet Census of 1989 the republic had a population of 51,706,746 inhabitants, the name Ukraine, derived from the Slavic word kraj, meaning land or border. It was first used to part of the territory of Kievan Rus in the 12th century. The name has been used in a variety of ways since the twelfth century, after the abdication of the tsar and the start of the process of the destruction of the Russian Empire many people in Ukraine wished to establish a Ukrainian Republic. During a period of war from 1917-23 many factions claiming themselves governments of the newly born republic were formed, each with supporters. The two most prominent of them were the government in Kyiv and the government in Kharkiv, the former being the Ukrainian Peoples Republic and the latter the Ukrainian Soviet Republic. This government of the Soviet Ukrainian Republic was founded on 24–25 December 1917, in its publications it names itself either the Republic of Soviets of Workers, Soldiers, and Peasants Deputies or the Ukrainian Peoples Republic of Soviets. The last session of the government took place in the city of Taganrog, in July 1918 the former members of the government formed the Communist Party of Ukraine, the constituent assembly of which took place in Moscow. On 10 March 1919, according to the 3rd Congress of Soviets in Ukraine the name of the state was changed to the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic. After the ratification of the 1936 Soviet Constitution, the names of all Soviet republics were changed, transposing the second, during its existence, the Ukrainian SSR was commonly referred to as Ukraine or the Ukraine. On 24 August 1991, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic declared independence, since the adoption of the Constitution of Ukraine in June 1996, the country became known simply as Ukraine, which is the name used to this day. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, several factions sought to create an independent Ukrainian state, the most popular faction was initially the local Socialist Revolutionary Party that composed the local government together with Federalists and Mensheviks. The Bolsheviks boycotted any government initiatives most of the time, instigating several armed riots in order to establish the Soviet power without any intent for consensus, immediately after the October Revolution in Petrograd, Bolsheviks instigated the Kiev Bolshevik Uprising to support the Revolution and secure Kyiv. Due to a lack of support from the local population and anti-revolutionary Central Rada, however. Most moved to Kharkiv and received the support of the eastern Ukrainian cities, later, this move was regarded as a mistake by some of the Peoples Commissars
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Crimean sovereignty referendum, 1991
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A referendum on sovereignty was held in the Crimean Oblast of the Ukrainian SSR on 20 January 1991 two months before the 1991 All-Union referendum. Voters were asked whether they wanted to re-establish the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, the proposal was approved by 94% of voters. The Crimean ASSR was originally created in 1921, as part of the Russian SFSR in the Soviet Union, the ASSR was abolished and Crimea became an oblast. On 5 February 1954 it was transferred to the Ukrainian SSR, the Crimean ASSR implemented that right later in 1994 and 2014. Following the referendum, the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR passed the law On Restoration of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialistic Republic on 12 February 1991, by this law it became an autonomous republic within Ukraine
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2014 Ukrainian revolution
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After the breakup of the Soviet Union, Ukraine endured years of corruption, mismanagement, lack of economic growth, currency devaluation, and problems to secure funding from public markets. Successive Ukrainian governments in the 2000s sought a relationship with the European Union. One of the measures meant to achieve this was an agreement with the European Union. President Yanukovych announced his intention to sign the agreement, but ultimately refused to do so at the last minute and this sparked a wave of protests called the Euromaidan movement. During these protests Yanukovych signed a treaty and multibillion-dollar loan with Russia, the Ukrainian security forces cracked down on the protesters, further inflaming the situation and resulting in a series of violent clashes in the streets of Kiev. As tensions rose, Yanukovych fled to Russia and did not return, Russia refused to recognize the new interim government, calling the revolution a coup détat, and began a military intervention in Ukraine. The International Monetary Fund pledged more than $18 billion in loans contingent on Ukraines adopting those reforms, a period of relative calm in the anti-government demonstrations in Kiev ended abruptly on 18 February 2014, when protesters and police clashed. At least 82 people were killed over the few days, including 13 policemen. The confrontation turned violent, the BBC, citing correspondents, reported that each side blamed the other, the police fired guns with both rubber bullets and, later, live ammunition, while also using tear gas and flash grenades in an attempt to repel thousands of demonstrators. The protesters fought with weapons, firearms, and improvised explosives. Police officers stormed the main protest camp on Maidan Nezalezhnosti and overran parts of the square, the Trade Unions Building, which served as the Euromaidan headquarters, was burned down. Political commentators suggested that Ukraine was on the brink of a civil war, some areas, including Lviv Oblast, declared themselves politically independent of the central government. On 19 February, the authorities instituted police checkpoints, restrictions on public transportation, and school closures in Kiev, on 20 February, Internal Affairs Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko announced that he had signed a decree authorising the use of live ammunition against protesters. Central Kiev saw the worst violence yet, and the toll in 48 hours of clashes rose to at least 77. Parliament also suspended Zakharchenko from his duties, on 21 February, President Yanukovych signed a compromise deal with opposition leaders. It promised constitutional changes to certain powers to Parliament and called for early elections to be held by December. On 21 February, an impeachment bill was introduced in Parliament, on the same day, Yanukovych left for Kharkiv to attend a summit of southeastern regions, according to media reports. On 22 February, the protesters were reported to be in control of Kiev, the parliament, or Verkhovna Rada, voted 328–0 in favour of impeaching Yanukovych and scheduled new presidential elections for 25 May
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President of Ukraine
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The president of Ukraine is the Ukrainian head of state. The president represents the nation in international relations, administers the foreign political activity of the state, conducts negotiations, the president is directly elected by the citizens of Ukraine for a five-year term of office, limited to two terms consecutively. The presidents official residence is the Mariyinsky Palace, located in the Pechersk district of the capital Kyiv, other official residences include the House with Chimaeras and the House of the Weeping Widow, which are used for official visits by foreign representatives. Since the offices establishment on 5 July 1991, there have been five presidents of Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk was the inaugural president, serving three years from 1991 until his resignation in 1994. Leonid Kuchma was the president to have served two consecutive terms in office. Oleksandr Turchynov was the acting president in Ukraines modern history. On 18 June 2015, Yanukovych was officially deprived of the title of president of Ukraine, the current president is Petro Poroshenko who took the oath of office on 7 June 2014. The prime minister serves as the head of government, a role filled by Volodymyr Groysman who was appointed to the position in April 2016. As with the separation of powers, the president has checks on the authority of parliament, for instance, any law passed by the parliament can be vetoed by the president, however, parliament can override his veto with a 2/3 constitutional majority vote. The president has limited authority to disband the Verkhovna Rada, and nominates candidates for the Minister of Foreign Affairs, six out of eighteen of the Constitutional Court judges are appointed by the president. Decisions of the president are subject to review by Ukraines courts with the Constitutional Court having the sole authority, while in office, the president enjoys the right of immunity. By-passing local governments is a practice in Ukraine. With the proclamation of the last universal of the UPR dated 25 January 1918 due to a military aggression, the Central Rada of the UPR proclaimed its independence from the Russia. On 29 April 1918, the Rada elected Mykhailo Hrushevskyi as the first President of the Central Rada of the Ukrainian Peoples Republic, although a rather widespread misconception, the state leadership position title varied and none of them had an official presidential title. In November of the year the directorate government of the UPR was established as the opposition movement to the Skoropadskys regime. Although really the Directorate was the governing body until the new Ukrainian Constituent Assembly would elect its president. Symon Petliura assumed the representation of the state after Vynnychenkos resignation on 11 February 1919, after the Soviet offensive in 1920 and brought control of the Ukrainian territory under the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic, the Ukrainian Peoples Republic was forced into exile. Upon the assassination of Petliura, the control over the affairs were transferred to the former Prime Minister Andriy Livytskyi who in 1948 created the office of the President of Ukraine
27.
Viktor Yanukovych
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Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych is a Ukrainian politician who served as the fourth President of Ukraine from February 2010 until his removal from power in February 2014. He is currently in exile in Russia and wanted by Ukraine for high treason, Yanukovych served as the governor of Donetsk Oblast, a province in eastern Ukraine, from 1997 to 2002. He was Prime Minister of Ukraine from 21 November 2002 to 31 December 2004, Yanukovych first ran for president in 2004, he advanced to the runoff election, and initially defeated his opponent. However, the election was fraught with allegations of fraud and voter intimidation and this caused widespread citizen protests and Kievs Independence Square was occupied in what became known as the Orange Revolution. The Ukrainian Supreme Court nullified the election, and ordered a second runoff. Yanukovych lost this second election to Viktor Yushchenko. Yanukovych served as Prime Minister for a time from 4 August 2006 to 18 December 2007. Yanukovych was elected President in 2010, defeating Yulia Tymoshenko, November 2013 saw the beginning of a series of events that led to his ousting as President. Yanukovych rejected a pending EU association agreement, choosing instead to pursue a Russian loan bailout and this led to popular protests and the occupation of Kievs Independence Square, a series of events dubbed the Euromaidan by young pro-European Union Ukrainians. In January 2014, this developed into deadly clashes in Independence Square and in areas across Ukraine, as Ukrainian citizens confronted the Berkut. In February 2014, Ukraine appeared to be on the brink of civil war, on 21 February 2014, Yanukovych claimed that, after lengthy discussions, he had reached an agreement with the opposition. Later that day, however, he fled the capital for Kharkiv, travelling next to Crimea, on 22 February, the Ukrainian parliament voted to remove him from his post, on the grounds that he was unable to fulfill his duties. Parliament set 25 May as the date for the election to select his replacement. After his departure, Yanukovych conducted several press conferences, in one of these, he declared himself to remain the legitimate head of the Ukrainian state elected in a free vote by Ukrainian citizens. On the same day, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that he didnt know anything about this, on 18 June 2015, Yanukovych was officially deprived of the title of President of Ukraine by the Supreme Rada of Ukraine. Viktor Yanukovych was born in the village of Zhukovka near Yenakiieve in Donetsk Oblast, Ukrainian SSR and he endured a very hard childhood about which he has stated, My childhood was difficult and hungry. I grew up without my mother who died when I was two, I went around bare-footed on the streets. I had to fight for every day
28.
Russian Armed Forces
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The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are the military service of the Russian Federation, established after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces is the President of Russia, the Russian Armed Forces were formed in 1992. These are not normally included as branches of the Armed Forces but are used in armed conflicts. The number of personnel is specified by decree of the President of Russia, on 1 January 2008, a number of 2,019,629 units, including military of 1,134,800 units, was set. In 2010 the International Institute for Strategic Studies estimated that the Russian Armed Forces numbered about 1,027,000 active troops and in the region of 2,035,000 reserves. As opposed to personnel specified by decree, actual personnel in the forces are paid was reported by the Audit Chamber of Russia as 766,000 in October 2013, as of December 2016, the armed forces are at 93 percent of the required manpower. According to SIPRI, Russia spent $66.4 billion on arms in 2015, between the years 2005-2009 and 2010-2014, Russian exports of major weapons increased by 37 percent according to SIPRI. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, share of weapons in the Armed Forces reached from 26 to 48% among different kinds of troops in December 2014. This was raised to 30. 5–70. 7% as of July 2015, average was 48 per cent over the first half of 2016. The Soviet Union officially dissolved on 31 December 1991, leaving the Soviet military in limbo, for the next year and a half various attempts to keep its unity and to transform it into the military of the Commonwealth of Independent States failed. Until 1995, it was planned to form at least 11 brigades numbering 3,000 to 5,000 each, National Guard military units were to be deployed in 10 regions, including in Moscow, Leningrad, and a number of other important cities and regions. By the end of September 1991 in Moscow the National Guard was about 15,000 strong, in the end, President Yeltsin tabled a decree On the temporary position of the Russian Guard, but it was not put into practice. On 14 February 1992 Shaposhnikov formally became Supreme Commander of the CIS Armed Forces, finally, on 7 May 1992 Yeltsin signed a decree establishing the armed forces and Yeltsin assumed the duties of the Supreme Commander. In May 1992 General Colonel Pavel Grachev became the Minister of Defence, by August or December 1993 CIS military structures had become CIS military cooperation structures with all real influence lost. In the next few years, Russian forces withdrew from central and eastern Europe, the Armed Forces have several bases in foreign countries, especially on territory of the former Soviet Republics. A new military doctrine, promulgated in November 1993, implicitly acknowledged the contraction of the old Soviet military into a military power without global ambitions. Such change proved extremely difficult to achieve, under Pavel Grachev little military reform took place, though there was a plan to create more deployable mobile forces. Later Defence Minister Rodionov had good qualifications but did not manage to institute lasting change, only under Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev did a certain amount of limited reform begin, though attention focused upon the Strategic Rocket Forces
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Crimean status referendum, 2014
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The referendum asked local population whether they wanted to join Russia as a federal subject, or if they wanted to restore the 1992 Crimean constitution and Crimeas status as a part of Ukraine. The March 16 referendums available choices did not include keeping the status quo of Crimea, the final date and ballot choices were set only ten days before the plebiscite was held. Thirteen members of the United Nations Security Council voted in favor of a resolution declaring the referendum invalid, the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People called for a boycott of the referendum. Russia officially recognized the results of the Crimean referendum and states that unilateral Kosovo declaration of independence has set a precedent, such parallels, however, are disputed by legal scholars. The official result from the Autonomous Republic of Crimea was a 96.77 percent vote for integration of the region into the Russian Federation with an 83.1 percent voter turnout. The Mejlis Deputy Chairman Akhtem Chiygoz felt that the actual turnout could not have exceeded 30–40 percent, following the referendum, The Supreme Council of Crimea and Sevastopol City Council declared the independence of the Republic of Crimea from Ukraine and requested to join the Russian Federation. On the same day, Russia recognized the Republic of Crimea as a sovereign state. According to the 2014 Ukrainian population census,65. 3% of the population of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea are ethnic Russians,15. 7% are ethnic Ukrainians and 12. 2% are Crimean Tatars. In Sevastopol,71. 6% are ethnic Russians and 22. 4% are ethnic Ukrainians, 77% of Crimeas and 94% of Sevastopols population are native speakers of Russian. Crimea and Sevastopol are neighboring subdivisions of Ukraine located in the Crimean peninsula, following the Tatar deportation, large numbers of ethnic Russians and ethnic Ukrainians settled in the region. During the period of the Soviet Union, the Crimean Oblast was a subdivision of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic until the 1954 transfer of Crimea into the Ukrainian SSR. Crimea became part of independent Ukraine after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Ukrainian parliament abolished the 1992 Crimean Constitution and the office of President of Crimea in 1995. In 1998, Crimea gained a new constitution, which granted it autonomy, notably. Razumkov characterized Crimeans views as controversial and unsteady, and therefore vulnerable to internal and external influences, the survey showed widespread support for Crimea’s decision to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation one year ago. Overall, the found that 84% of Crimeans felt that the choice to secede fro Ukraine. Russian president Vladimir Putin has an experience with similar referendums, the Narva referendum was not backed by Moscow. Cossacks were amassed on the side of the Narva River before the referendum. Putin and St. Petersburg mayor Anatoly Sobchak managed to prevent Cossacks from crossing the border, the interim government in Kiev and the pro-Russian Crimean faction do not recognize each other as legitimate
30.
Federal subjects of Russia
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Since March 18,2014, the Russian Federation constitutionally consists of 85 federal subjects, although the two most recently added subjects are internationally recognized as part of Ukraine. Three Russian cities of importance have a status of both city and separate federal subject which comprises other cities and towns within federal city keeping old structure of postal address. In 1993, there were 89 federal subjects listed, by 2008, the number of federal subjects had been decreased to 83 because of several mergers. In 2014, Sevastopol and the Republic of Crimea became the 84th and 85th federal subjects of Russia, every federal subject has its own head, a parliament, and a constitutional court. Federal subjects have their own constitution and legislation, subjects have equal rights in relations with federal government bodies. The federal subjects have equal representation—two delegates each—in the Federation Council and they do, however, differ in the degree of autonomy they enjoy. Composition of post-Soviet Russia was formed during the history of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic within the USSR, the Federation Treaty was included in the text of the 1978 Constitution of the Russian SFSR. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the system became de jure closer to other modern federal states with a republican form of government in the world. There are several groupings of Russian regions, Federal subjects should not be confused with the eight Federal districts which are not subdivisions of Russia, are much larger and each encompass many federal subjects. Federal districts were created by Executive Order of the President of Russia specially for presidential envoys, an official government translation of the Constitution of Russia in Article 5 states,1. Another translation of the Constitution of Russia gives for article 65, each federal subject belongs to one of the following types, b. ^ According to Article 13 of the Charter of Leningrad Oblast, however, St. Petersburg is not officially named to be the administrative center of the oblast. ^ According to Article 24 of the Charter of Moscow Oblast, however, Moscow is not officially named to be the administrative center of the oblast. ^ Not recognized internationally as a part of Russia, the merging process was finished on March 1,2008. No new mergers have been planned since March 2008, Федерального конституционного закона №7-ФКЗ от30 декабря2008 г. Вступил в силу со дня официального опубликования, Опубликован, Российская газета, №237,25 декабря1993 г
31.
Sevastopol
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Sevastopol or traditionally Sebastopol is a city located in the southwestern region of the Crimean Peninsula on the Black Sea. Sevastopol has a population of 393, 304 , concentrated mostly near the Bay of Sevastopol, the location and navigability of the citys harbours have made Sevastopol a strategically important port and naval base throughout history. The city has been a home to the Russian Black Sea Fleet, although relatively small at 864 square kilometres, Sevastopols unique naval and maritime features provide the basis for a robust economy. The city enjoys mild winters and moderate summers, characteristics that help make it a popular seaside resort and tourist destination. The city is also an important centre for marine biology, in particular, the name of Sevastopolis was originally chosen in the same etymological trend as other cities in the Crimean peninsula that was intended to reflect its ancient Greek origins. It is a compound of the Greek adjective, σεβαστός and the noun πόλις, Σεβαστός is the traditional Greek equivalent of the Roman honorific Augustus, originally given to the first emperor of the Roman Empire, Augustus and later awarded as a title to his successors. Despite its Greek origin, the name itself is not from Ancient Greek times, the city was probably named after the Empress Catherine II of Russia who founded Sevastopol in 1783. She visited the city in 1787 accompanied by Joseph II, the Emperor of Austria, in the west of the city, there are well-preserved ruins of the ancient Greek port city of Chersonesos, founded in the 5th century BC by settlers from Heraclea Pontica. This name means peninsula, reflecting its location, and is not related to the ancient Greek name for the Crimean Peninsula as a whole. In English the current spelling has the pronunciation /səˈvæstəˌpoʊl/ or /ˌsɛvəˈstoʊpəl/, whilst the spelling has the pronunciation /sᵻˈbæstəpəl, -pɒl/ or /səˈbæstəˌpoʊl. Ukrainian, Севастополь, Russian, Севастополь, pronounced in Ukrainian, in the 6th century BC a Greek colony was established in the area of the modern-day city. The Greek city of Chersonesus existed for almost two years, first as an independent democracy and later as part of the Bosporan Kingdom. In the 13th and 14th centuries it was sacked by the Golden Horde several times and was totally abandoned. The modern day city of Sevastopol has no connection to the ancient and medieval Greek city, five years earlier, Alexander Suvorov ordered that earthworks be erected along the harbour and Russian troops be placed there. In February 1784, Catherine the Great ordered Grigory Potemkin to build a fortress there, the realisation of the initial building plans fell to Captain Fyodor Ushakov who in 1788 was named commander of the port and of the Black Sea squadron. It became an important naval base and later a commercial seaport, in 1797, under an edict issued by Emperor Paul I, the military stronghold was again renamed to Akhtiar. Finally, on 29 April,1826, the Senate returned the name to Sevastopol. One of the most notable involving the city is the Siege of Sevastopol carried out by the British, French, Sardinian, and Turkish troops during the Crimean War
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Political status of Crimea
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The status of Crimea is the subject of a political and territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia. Despite international opinion however, the currency, tax and legal system are all operational under Russian jurisdiction, Ukraine has there applied for multiple litigations through international crime, water resources, the European Union and other courts. In 1920, immediately after the RSFSR recognized the independence of the Ukrainian SSR, in 1994 Russia signed the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances, which states that it would Respect Belarusian, Kazakh and Ukrainian independence and sovereignty and the existing borders. A detailed status of Crimea at that time was not described nor mentioned in the Budapest Memorandum, the Crimean Oblast council became Supreme Council of Crimea and, on 4 September 1991, passed the Declaration of state sovereignty of Crimea. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the autonomy renamed itself the Republic of Crimea, the Ukrainian government initially accepted its name, but not its claims to be a state. A similar resolution was adopted for Sevastopol a year later, both moves were condemned by Ukraine and resulted in no changes to the Russian Constitution. In 1994, after parliamentary and presidential elections in the Republic, the Supreme Council, following a referendum, held in same year, the Supreme Council of Crimea restored the 1992 Constitution to its original revision. Another Constitution was passed by Crimean parliament in 1995, but many parts of it were rejected by the Ukrainian parliament, among them were Republics name and citizenship. Ultimately, the new Constitution of Ukraine adopted neither extreme and reiterated the autonomous status of the republic, the Republic was declared to be the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, but also an inseparable constituent part of Ukraine. A new Crimean constitution, complying with provisions of the Ukrainian one, was adopted in 1998, before the 1954 transfer of Crimea, Sevastopol was elevated into a city of republican subordination of the Russian SFSR. Nevertheless, in practice it was governed as a part of Crimean Oblast. The Ukrainian Constitution of 1978 listed Sevastopol as one of its cities of republican subordination, three years later, the State Duma declared that Russia has a right to exercise sovereignty over Sevastopol, but this resolution went without any actual effect. An agreement was concluded in 1997 by the Russian and Ukrainian governments, amidst rising tension in the region as part of the Crimean crisis, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol held a referendum to join the Russian Federation. The referendum took place on 16 March 2014 with 97% of voters choosing to leave Ukraine and join Russia, for this purpose, the Autonomous Republic and Sevastopol joined together as a single united nation under the name of Republic of Crimea. This nation then was annexed by Russia where it was converted into a district under the name of Crimean Federal District. The European Union, United States, Canada and several other nations condemned the decision to hold a referendum, in addition, the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People—the unofficial political association of the Crimean Tatars—called for a boycott of the referendum. Russia recognized the short-lived Republic of Crimea as a country shortly before concluding the treaty of accession. Russia claims the Republic of Crimea as a district, the Crimean Federal District, on the grounds of historical control of the area
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History of Crimea
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The recorded history of the Crimean Peninsula, historically known as the Tauric Chersonese, begins around the 5th century BC when several Greek colonies were established along its coast. In the 13th century, some cities were controlled by the Venetians. In the medieval period, it was acquired partly by Kievan Rus and they were followed by the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire, which conquered the coastal areas as well, in the 15th to 18th centuries. After two centuries of conflict, the Russian fleet had destroyed the Ottoman navy and the Russian army had inflicted heavy defeats on the Ottoman land forces, the ensuing Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca forced the Sublime Porte to recognize the Tatars of the Crimea as politically independent. Catherine the Greats incorporation of the Crimea in 1783 from the defeated Ottoman Empire into the Russian Empire increased Russias power in the Black Sea area, the Crimea was the first Muslim territory to slip from the sultans suzerainty. The Ottoman Empires frontiers would gradually shrink for two centuries, and Russia would proceed to push her frontier westwards to the Dniester. In 1921 the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was created and this republic was dissolved in 1945, and the Crimea became an oblast first of the Russian SSR and then the Ukrainian SSR. Since 1991 the territory was covered by the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, during the 2014 Crimean crisis, the peninsula was taken over by pro-Russian forces and a referendum on whether to join Russia was held. Shortly after the result in favour of joining Russia was announced, archaeological evidence of human settlement in Crimea dates back to the Middle Paleolithic. Neanderthal remains found at Kiyik-Koba Cave have been dated to about 80,000 BP, late Neanderthal occupations have also been found at Starosele and Buran Kaya III. Archaeologists have found some of the earliest anatomically modern human remains in Europe in the Buran-Kaya caves in the Crimean Mountains, the fossils are about 32,000 years old, with the artifacts linked to the Gravettian culture. Human site occupation density was high in the Crimean region. Proponents of the Black Sea deluge hypothesis believe Crimea did not become a peninsula until relatively recently, in the early Iron Age, Crimea was settled by two groups, the Tauri in southern Crimea, and the East Iranian-speaking Scythians north of the Crimean Mountains. The origins of the Tauri, from which the name of Crimea as Taurica arose, are unclear. They are possibly a remnant of the Cimmerians displaced by the Scythians, alternative theories relate them to the Abkhaz and Adyghe peoples, which at that time resided much farther west than today. The Greeks, who established colonies in Crimea during the Archaic Period, regarded the Tauri as a savage. Even after centuries of Greek and Roman settlement, the Tauri were not pacified and continued to engage in piracy on the Black Sea, by the 2nd century BC they had become subject-allies of the Scythian king Scilurus. The Crimean Peninsula north of the Crimean Mountains was occupied by Scythian tribes and their center was the city of Scythian Neapolis on the outskirts of present-day Simferopol
34.
1954 transfer of Crimea
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On 19 February 1954 the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union issued a decree transferring the Crimean Oblast from the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic to the Ukrainian SSR. According to the Soviet Constitution, the borders of a republic within the Soviet Union could not be re-drawn without the agreement of the republic in question. The transfer was approved by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, however, according to article 33 of the constitution, the constitutional change to accommodate the transfer was made several days after the decree issued by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. The decree was first announced, on the front page of Pravda, the full text of the decree was, Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet transferring the Crimea Province from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR. According to Russian website Pravda. ru the Presidium of the Supreme Council gathered for a session on February 19,1954 when only 13 of 27 members were present, there was no quorum, but the decision was adopted unanimously. The proceedings of the USSR Supreme Soviet Presidium meeting indicate that both the Russian SFSR and the Ukrainian SSR had given their consent via their republic parliaments. The transfer of the Crimean Oblast to Ukraine has been described as a symbolic gesture and that symbolic gesture came out as a post factum and was never discussed as one of the reason prior to the transfer. It was also attributed to Nikita Khrushchev, although the person who signed the document was Kliment Voroshilov and he was ethnically Russian, but he really felt great affinity with Ukraine. Other reasons given were the integration of the economies of Ukraine and Crimea, there was also a desire to repopulate parts of the Crimea which had suffered large-scale expulsions of its native Tatars to Central Asia in 1944. The transfer increased the ethnic Russian population of Ukraine by almost a million people, prominent Russian politicians such as Alexander Rutskoy considered the transfer to be controversial. However, in a 1997 treaty between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, Russia recognized Ukraines borders, and accepted Ukraines sovereignty over Crimea, in 1994 a Russian nationalist administration took over in Crimea with the promise to return Crimea to Russia, although these plans were later shelved. The annexation was condemned by most of the UN members and international supranational bodies, why Did Russia Give Away Crimea Sixty Years Ago
35.
Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Empire
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The territory of Crimea, previously controlled by the Crimean Khanate, was annexed by the Russian Empire on 19 April 1783. The period before the annexation was marked by Russian interference in Crimean affairs, a series of revolts by Crimean Tatars, the annexation began many years of Russian rule in Crimea, which ended with the transfer of the territory to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1954. Russia annexed Crimea for a time in March 2014. Before Russia defeated the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–74, Tatars in Crimea had no desire for independence, and held a strong emotional attachment to the Ottoman Empire. Within two months of the signing of the treaty, the government of the Khanate sent envoys to the Ottomans, the envoys said that as Russian troops remained stationed in Crimea at Yeni-Kale and Kerch, the Khanate could not be considered independent. Nevertheless, the Ottomans ignored this request, not wishing to violate the agreement with Russia, in the disorder that followed the Turkish defeat, Tatar leader Devlet Giray refused to accept the treaty at the time of its signing. Having been fighting Russians in the Kuban during the war, he crossed the Kerch Strait to Crimea, Devlet subsequently seized the Crimean throne, usurping Sahib Giray. Despite his actions against the Russians, Russian Empress Catherine the Great recognised Devlet as Khan, at the same time, however, she was grooming her favourite Şahin Giray, who resided at her court, for the role. As time went on, the rule of Devlet became increasingly untenable, in July of 1775, he sent a group of envoys to Constantinople to negotiate a reentry of the Crimean Khanate into the Ottoman Empire. This action was in defiance of the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca. Famed diplomat Ahmed Resmî Efendi, who had helped draft the treaty, refused to provide any assistance to the Khanate, Empress Catherine gave an order to invade Crimea in November 1776. Her forces quickly gained control of Perekop, at the entrance to the peninsula, in January 1777, Russian-supported Şahin Giray crossed into Crimea over the Kerch Strait, much as Devlet had done. Devlet, aware of his defeat, abdicated and fled to Constantinople. Şahin was installed as a puppet Khan, infuriating the Muslim population of the peninsula, when he heard this news, Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid I noted Şahin Giray is a tool. The aim of the Russians is to take Crimea, Şahin, a member of the ruling House of Giray, attempted a series of reforms to modernise the Khanate. These included attempts to power in the hands of the Khan, establishing autocratic rule. Previously, power had been distributed between the leaders of different clans, called beys and he attempted to institute state taxation, a conscripted and centralised army, and to replace the traditional religion-based Ottoman legal system with civil law. These reforms, aimed at disrupting the old Ottoman order, were despised by the Crimean populace, at the behest of Empress Catherine, Şahin allowed Russians to settle in the peninsula, further infuriating Crimeans
36.
Crimean Khanate
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The Crimean Khanate was a Turkic vassal state of the Ottoman Empire from 1478 to 1774, the longest-lived of the Turkic khanates that succeeded the empire of the Golden Horde. The khanate was located in present-day Russia and Ukraine, Ottoman forces under Gedik Ahmet Pasha conquered all of the Crimean peninsula and joined it to the khanate in 1475. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the Crimean Khanate was an important center of the slave trade. In 1774, it was released as a independent state, following the Russo-Turkish Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca. English-speaking writers during the 18th and early 19th centuries often called the territory of the Crimean Khanate, the name Little Tartary distinguished the area from Tartary - those areas of central and northern Asia inhabited by Turkic peoples or Tatars. The Khanate included the Crimean peninsula and the adjacent steppes, mostly corresponding to the parts of South Ukraine between the Dnepr and the Donets. The Crimean Khanate originated in the early 15th century when certain clans of the Golden Horde Empire ceased their nomadic life in the Desht-i Kipchak and decided to make Crimea their yurt. At that time, the Golden Horde of the Mongol empire had governed the Crimean peninsula as an ulus since 1239, the local separatists invited a Genghisid contender for the Golden Horde throne, Hacı Giray, to become their khan. Hacı Giray accepted their invitation and traveled from exile in Lithuania and he warred for independence against the Horde from 1420 to 1441, in the end achieving success. But Hacı Giray then had to fight off internal rivals before he could ascend the throne of the khanate in 1449, the khanate included the Crimean Peninsula as well as the adjacent steppe. The sons of Hacı I Giray contended against each other to succeed him, the Ottomans intervened and installed one of the sons, Meñli I Giray, on the throne. Menli I Giray, took the imperial title Sovereign of Two Continents, in 1475 the Ottoman forces, under the command of Gedik Ahmet Pasha, conquered the Greek Principality of Theodoro and the Genoese colonies at Cembalo, Soldaia, and Caffa. Thenceforth the khanate was a protectorate of the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman sultan enjoyed veto power over the selection of new Crimean khans. The Empire annexed the Crimean coast but recognized the legitimacy of the rule of the steppes. In 1475, the Ottomans imprisoned Meñli I Giray for three years for resisting the invasion, after returning from captivity in Constantinople, he accepted the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire. Nevertheless, Ottoman sultans treated the khans more as allies than subjects, the khans continued to have a foreign policy independent from the Ottomans in the steppes of Little Tartary. The khans continued to mint coins and use their names in Friday prayers and they did not pay tribute to the Ottoman Empire, instead the Ottomans paid them in return for their services of providing skilled outriders and frontline cavalry in their campaigns. Later on, Crimea lost power in this relationship as the result of a crisis in 1523, during the reign of Meñlis successor and he died that year and beginning with his successor, from 1524 on, Crimean khans were appointed by the Sultan
37.
Russian Empire
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The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until it was overthrown by the short-lived February Revolution in 1917. One of the largest empires in history, stretching over three continents, the Russian Empire was surpassed in landmass only by the British and Mongol empires. The rise of the Russian Empire happened in association with the decline of neighboring powers, the Swedish Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Persia. It played a role in 1812–14 in defeating Napoleons ambitions to control Europe. The House of Romanov ruled the Russian Empire from 1721 until 1762, and its German-descended cadet branch, with 125.6 million subjects registered by the 1897 census, it had the third-largest population in the world at the time, after Qing China and India. Like all empires, it included a large disparity in terms of economics, ethnicity, there were numerous dissident elements, who launched numerous rebellions and assassination attempts, they were closely watched by the secret police, with thousands exiled to Siberia. Economically, the empire had an agricultural base, with low productivity on large estates worked by serfs. The economy slowly industrialized with the help of foreign investments in railways, the land was ruled by a nobility from the 10th through the 17th centuries, and subsequently by an emperor. Tsar Ivan III laid the groundwork for the empire that later emerged and he tripled the territory of his state, ended the dominance of the Golden Horde, renovated the Moscow Kremlin, and laid the foundations of the Russian state. Tsar Peter the Great fought numerous wars and expanded an already huge empire into a major European power, Catherine the Great presided over a golden age. She expanded the state by conquest, colonization and diplomacy, continuing Peter the Greats policy of modernisation along West European lines, Tsar Alexander II promoted numerous reforms, most dramatically the emancipation of all 23 million serfs in 1861. His policy in Eastern Europe involved protecting the Orthodox Christians under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and that connection by 1914 led to Russias entry into the First World War on the side of France, Britain, and Serbia, against the German, Austrian and Ottoman empires. The Russian Empire functioned as a monarchy until the Revolution of 1905. The empire collapsed during the February Revolution of 1917, largely as a result of failures in its participation in the First World War. Perhaps the latter was done to make Europe recognize Russia as more of a European country, Poland was divided in the 1790-1815 era, with much of the land and population going to Russia. Most of the 19th century growth came from adding territory in Asia, Peter I the Great introduced autocracy in Russia and played a major role in introducing his country to the European state system. However, this vast land had a population of 14 million, grain yields trailed behind those of agriculture in the West, compelling nearly the entire population to farm. Only a small percentage lived in towns, the class of kholops, close to the one of slavery, remained a major institution in Russia until 1723, when Peter I converted household kholops into house serfs, thus including them in poll taxation
38.
Ottoman Empire
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After 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe, and with the conquest of the Balkans the Ottoman Beylik was transformed into a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended the Byzantine Empire with the 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed the Conqueror, at the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32 provinces and numerous vassal states. Some of these were later absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries. With Constantinople as its capital and control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, while the empire was once thought to have entered a period of decline following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, this view is no longer supported by the majority of academic historians. The empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society, however, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, the Ottoman military system fell behind that of their European rivals, the Habsburg and Russian Empires. While the Empire was able to hold its own during the conflict, it was struggling with internal dissent. Starting before World War I, but growing increasingly common and violent during it, major atrocities were committed by the Ottoman government against the Armenians, Assyrians and Pontic Greeks. The word Ottoman is an anglicisation of the name of Osman I. Osmans name in turn was the Turkish form of the Arabic name ʿUthmān, in Ottoman Turkish, the empire was referred to as Devlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿOsmānīye, or alternatively ʿOsmānlı Devleti. In Modern Turkish, it is known as Osmanlı İmparatorluğu or Osmanlı Devleti, the Turkish word for Ottoman originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century, and subsequently came to be used to refer to the empires military-administrative elite. In contrast, the term Turk was used to refer to the Anatolian peasant and tribal population, the term Rūmī was also used to refer to Turkish-speakers by the other Muslim peoples of the empire and beyond. In Western Europe, the two names Ottoman Empire and Turkey were often used interchangeably, with Turkey being increasingly favored both in formal and informal situations and this dichotomy was officially ended in 1920–23, when the newly established Ankara-based Turkish government chose Turkey as the sole official name. Most scholarly historians avoid the terms Turkey, Turks, and Turkish when referring to the Ottomans, as the power of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum declined in the 13th century, Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as the Anatolian Beyliks. One of these beyliks, in the region of Bithynia on the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, was led by the Turkish tribal leader Osman, osmans early followers consisted both of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, many but not all converts to Islam. Osman extended the control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along the Sakarya River and it is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbours, due to the scarcity of the sources which survive from this period. One school of thought which was popular during the twentieth century argued that the Ottomans achieved success by rallying religious warriors to fight for them in the name of Islam, in the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over Anatolia and the Balkans. Osmans son, Orhan, captured the northwestern Anatolian city of Bursa in 1326 and this conquest meant the loss of Byzantine control over northwestern Anatolia. The important city of Thessaloniki was captured from the Venetians in 1387, the Ottoman victory at Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe
39.
Treaty of Jassy
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The treaty was signed on 9 January 1792 by Grand Vizier Koca Yusuf Pasha and Prince Bezborodko. List of treaties This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh
Ukraine
Simferopol: capital
Kerch: Hero City, important industrial, transport and tourist centre
Yevpatoria: major port, a rail hub, and resort city
Feodosiya: port and resort city
Yalta: one of the most important resorts in Crimea
Dzhankoy: important railroad connection
Bakhchisaray: historical capital of the Crimean Khanate
Krasnoperekopsk: industrial city
Armyansk: industrial city
Alushta: resort city
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Crimea". Encyclopædia Britannica. 7 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 449–450.
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "
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