1.
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
2.
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
3.
Roman-Kosh
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Roman-Kosh is the highest peak of Crimean Mountains. List of European ultra prominent peaks Енциклопедія українознавства, — Париж, Нью-Йорк, Молоде життя, 1954—1989
4.
Summit
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A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. Mathematically, a summit is a maximum in elevation. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak, and zenith are synonymous, the UIAA definition is that a summit is independent if it has a prominence of 30 metres or more, it is a mountain if it has a prominence of at least 300 metres. This can be summarised as follows, A pyramidal peak is an exaggerated form produced by ice erosion of a mountain top, Summit may also refer to the highest point along a line, trail, or route. In many parts of the western United States, the term refers to the highest point along a road, highway. For example, the highest point along Interstate 80 in California is referred to as Donner Summit while the highest point on Interstate 5 is Siskiyou Mountain Summit, geoid Hill List of highest mountains Maxima and minima Nadir Summit accordance Peak finder
5.
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
6.
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
7.
Geologic time scale
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The table of geologic time spans, presented here, agrees with the nomenclature, dates and standard color codes set forth by the International Commission on Stratigraphy. Evidence from radiometric dating indicates that Earth is about 4.54 billion years old, the geology or deep time of Earth’s past has been organized into various units according to events which took place in each period. Older time spans, which predate the reliable record, are defined by their absolute age. Some other planets and moons within the Solar System have sufficiently rigid structures to have preserved records of their own histories, for example, Venus, Mars, dominantly fluid planets, such as the gas giants, do not preserve their history in a comparable manner. Apart from the Late Heavy Bombardment, events on other planets probably had little influence on the Earth. Construction of a scale that links the planets is, therefore, of only limited relevance to the Earths time scale. The existence, timing, and terrestrial effects of the Late Heavy Bombardment is still debated, the largest defined unit of time is the supereon, composed of eons. Eons are divided into eras, which are in turn divided into periods, epochs, the terms eonothem, erathem, system, series, and stage are used to refer to the layers of rock that correspond to these periods of geologic time in Earths history. Geologists qualify these units as early, mid, and late when referring to time, and lower, middle, for example, the lower Jurassic Series in chronostratigraphy corresponds to the early Jurassic Epoch in geochronology. The adjectives are capitalized when the subdivision is formally recognized, and lower case when not, thus early Miocene but Early Jurassic. Geologic units from the time but different parts of the world often look different and contain different fossils. For example, in North America the Lower Cambrian is called the Waucoban series that is subdivided into zones based on succession of trilobites. In East Asia and Siberia, the unit is split into Alexian, Atdabanian. A key aspect of the work of the International Commission on Stratigraphy is to reconcile this conflicting terminology, the term Anthropocene is used informally by popular culture and a growing number of scientists to describe the current epoch in which we are living. The term was coined by Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer in 2000 to describe the current time, others say that humans have not even started to leave their biggest impact on Earth, and therefore the Anthropocene hasnt even started yet. Whatever the case, the ICS has not officially approved the term, leonardo da Vinci concurred with Aristotles interpretation that fossils represented the remains of ancient life. The 11th-century Persian geologist Avicenna and the 13th-century Dominican bishop Albertus Magnus extended Aristotles explanation into a theory of a petrifying fluid. Avicenna also first proposed one of the principles underlying geologic time scales, the Chinese naturalist Shen Kuo also recognized the concept of deep time
8.
Cretaceous
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The Cretaceous is a geologic period and system that spans 79 million years from the end of the Jurassic Period 145 million years ago to the beginning of the Paleogene Period 66 Mya. It is the last period of the Mesozoic Era, the Cretaceous Period is usually abbreviated K, for its German translation Kreide. The Cretaceous was a period with a warm climate, resulting in high eustatic sea levels that created numerous shallow inland seas. These oceans and seas were populated with now-extinct marine reptiles, ammonites and rudists, during this time, new groups of mammals and birds, as well as flowering plants, appeared. The Cretaceous ended with a mass extinction, the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, in which many groups, including non-avian dinosaurs, pterosaurs. The end of the Cretaceous is defined by the abrupt Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary, the name Cretaceous was derived from Latin creta, meaning chalk. The Cretaceous is divided into Early and Late Cretaceous epochs, or Lower and Upper Cretaceous series, in older literature the Cretaceous is sometimes divided into three series, Neocomian, Gallic and Senonian. A subdivision in eleven stages, all originating from European stratigraphy, is now used worldwide, in many parts of the world, alternative local subdivisions are still in use. As with other geologic periods, the rock beds of the Cretaceous are well identified. No great extinction or burst of diversity separates the Cretaceous from the Jurassic and this layer has been dated at 66.043 Ma. A140 Ma age for the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary instead of the usually accepted 145 Ma was proposed in 2014 based on a study of Vaca Muerta Formation in Neuquén Basin. Víctor Ramos, one of the authors of the study proposing the 140 Ma boundary age sees the study as a first step toward formally changing the age in the International Union of Geological Sciences, due to the high sea level there was extensive space for such sedimentation. Because of the young age and great thickness of the system. Chalk is a type characteristic for the Cretaceous. It consists of coccoliths, microscopically small calcite skeletons of coccolithophores, the group is found in England, northern France, the low countries, northern Germany, Denmark and in the subsurface of the southern part of the North Sea. Chalk is not easily consolidated and the Chalk Group still consists of sediments in many places. The group also has other limestones and arenites, among the fossils it contains are sea urchins, belemnites, ammonites and sea reptiles such as Mosasaurus. In southern Europe, the Cretaceous is usually a marine system consisting of competent limestone beds or incompetent marls
9.
Romanization of Ukrainian
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The romanization or Latinization of Ukrainian is the representation of the Ukrainian language using Latin letters. Ukrainian is natively written in its own Ukrainian alphabet, which is based on the Cyrillic script, methods of romanization include transliteration, representing written text, and transcription, representing the spoken word. In contrast to romanization, there have been several proposals for a native Ukrainian Latin alphabet, usually based on those used by West Slavic languages. Transliteration is the representation of text using another writing system. Also called scientific transliteration, this system is most often seen in publications on Slavic languages. It is purely phonemic, meaning each character represents one unit of sound. It was codified in the 1898 Prussian Instructions for libraries, or Preußische Instruktionen and it was later adopted by the International Organization for Standardization, with minor differences, as ISO/R9. Representing all of the diacritics on computers requires Unicode, Latin-2, Latin-4. Other Slavic based romanizations occasionally seen are those based on the Slovak alphabet or the Polish alphabet, the ALA-LC Romanization Tables, published by the American Library Association and Library of Congress. Used to represent bibliographic information by US and Canadian libraries, by the British Library since 1975, the latest 1997 revision is very similar to the 1905 version. Requires Unicode for connecting diacritics—these are used in bibliographies and catalogues, British Standard 2979,1958, from BSI, is used by the Oxford University Press. A variation is used by the British Museum and British Library, a modified version is also mentioned in the Oxford Style Manual. Requires only ASCII characters if optional separators are not used, the Soviet Unions GOST, COMECONs SEV, and Ukraines Derzhstandart are government standards bodies of the former Eurasian communist countries. They published a series of systems for Ukrainian, which were replaced by ISO9,1995. ISO9 is a standard from the International Organization for Standardization and it supports most national Cyrillic alphabets in a single transliteration table. Each Cyrillic character is represented by one unique Latin character. This was originally derived from the Scholarly system in 1954, and is meant to be usable by readers of most European languages, the 1995 revision considers only graphemes and disregards phonemic differences. So, for example, г is always represented by the g, ґ is represented by g̀
10.
Romanization of Russian
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Romanization of the Russian alphabet is the process of transliterating the Russian language from the Cyrillic script into the Latin alphabet. Scientific transliteration, also known as the International Scholarly System, is a system that has used in linguistics since the 19th century. It is based on the Czech alphabet and formed the basis of the GOST, OST8483 was the first Soviet standard on romanization of Russian, introduced in 16 October 1935. This standard is an equivalent of GOST 16876-71 and was adopted as a standard of the COMECON. GOST7. 79-2000 System of Standards on Information, Librarianship and it is the official standard of both Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Machine readable passports is an adoption of an ICAO stadards for travel documents and it was used in Russian passports for a short period during 2010–2013. The standard was substituted in 2013 by GOST R ISO/IEC 7501-1-2013, which does not contain romanization, ISO/R9, established in 1954 and updated in 1968, was the adoption of the scientific transliteration by the International Organization for Standardization. It covers Russian and seven other Slavic languages, ISO9,1995 is the current transliteration standard from ISO. It is based on its predecessor ISO/R9,1968, which it deprecates, for Russian, the UNGEGN, a Working Group of the United Nations, in 1987 recommended a romanization system for geographical names, which was based on the 1983 version of GOST 16876-71. It may be found in some international cartographic products, American Library Association and Library of Congress romanization tables for Slavic alphabets are used in North American libraries and in the British Library since 1975. The formal, unambiguous version of the system requires some diacritics and two-letter tie characters, British Standard 2979,1958 is the main system of the Oxford University Press, and a variation was used by the British Library to catalogue publications acquired up to 1975. The BGN/PCGN system is relatively intuitive for Anglophones to read and pronounce, the portion of the system pertaining to the Russian language was adopted by BGN in 1944 and by PCGN in 1947. In Soviet international passports, transliteration was based on French rules, in 1997, with the introduction of new Russian passports, a diacritic-free English-oriented system was established by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but this system was also abandoned in 2010. In 2006, GOST52535. 1-2006 was adopted, which defines technical requirements and standards for Russian international passports, in 2010, the Federal Migratory Service of Russia approved Order No. 26, stating that all names in the passports issued after 2010 must be transliterated using GOST52535. 1-2006. The standard was abandoned in 2013, finally in 2013, Order No.320 of the Federal Migratory Service of Russia came into force. It states that all names in the passports must be transliterated using the ICAO system. This system differs from the GOST52535. 1-2006 system in two things, ц is transliterated into ts, ъ is transliterated into ie, Scholarly ¹ Some archaic letters are transcribed in different ways
11.
Mountain range
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A mountain range is a geographic area containing numerous geologically related mountains. A mountain system or system of ranges, sometimes is used to combine several geological features that are geographically related. Mountain ranges are usually segmented by highlands or mountain passes and valleys, individual mountains within the same mountain range do not necessarily have the same geologic structure or petrology. They may be a mix of different orogenic expressions and terranes, for example thrust sheets, uplifted blocks, fold mountains, most geologically young mountain ranges on the Earths land surface are associated with either the Pacific Ring of Fire or the Alpide Belt. The Andes is 7,000 kilometres long and is considered the worlds longest mountain system. The Alpide belt includes Indonesia and southeast Asia, through the Himalaya, the belt also includes other European and Asian mountain ranges. The Himalayas contain the highest mountains in the world, including Mount Everest, mountain ranges outside of these two systems include the Arctic Cordillera, the Urals, the Appalachians, the Scandinavian Mountains, the Altai Mountains and the Hijaz Mountains. If the definition of a range is stretched to include underwater mountains. The mountain systems of the earth are characterized by a tree structure, the sub-range relationship is often expressed as a parent-child relationship. For example, the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the Blue Ridge Mountains are sub-ranges of the Appalachian Mountains, equivalently, the Appalachians are the parent of the White Mountains and Blue Ridge Mountains, and the White Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains are children of the Appalachians. The position of mountains influences climate, such as rain or snow, when air masses move up and over mountains, the air cools producing orographic precipitation. As the air descends on the side, it warms again and is drier. Often, a shadow will affect the leeward side of a range. Mountain ranges are constantly subjected to forces which work to tear them down. Erosion is at work while the mountains are being uplifted and long after until the mountains are reduced to low hills, rivers are traditionally believed to be the principle erosive factor on mountain ranges, with their ability of bedrock incision and sediment transport. The rugged topography of a range is the product of erosion. The basins adjacent to a mountain range are filled with sediments which are buried and turned into sedimentary rock. The early Cenozoic uplift of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado provides an example and this mass of rock was removed as the range was actively undergoing uplift
12.
Black Sea
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The Black Sea is a body of water between Eastern Europe and Western Asia, bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. It is supplied by a number of rivers, such as the Danube, Dnieper, Rioni, Southern Bug. The Black Sea has an area of 436,400 km2, a depth of 2,212 m. It is constrained by the Pontic Mountains to the south and by the Caucasus Mountains to the east, the longest east-west extent is about 1,175 km. The Black Sea has a water balance, that is, a net outflow of water 300 km3 per year through the Bosphorus. Mediterranean water flows into the Black Sea as part of a two-way hydrological exchange, the Black Sea drains into the Mediterranean Sea and then the Atlantic Ocean, via the Aegean Sea and various straits. The Bosphorus Strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and these waters separate Eastern Europe and Western Asia. The Black Sea is also connected to the Sea of Azov by the Strait of Kerch, the water level has varied significantly. Due to these variations in the level in the basin. At certain critical water levels it is possible for connections with surrounding water bodies to become established and it is through the most active of these connective routes, the Turkish Straits, that the Black Sea joins the world ocean. When this hydrological link is not present, the Black Sea is a basin, operating independently of the global ocean system. Currently the Black Sea water level is high, thus water is being exchanged with the Mediterranean. The Turkish Straits connect the Black Sea with the Aegean Sea, and comprise the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Black Sea as follows, On the Southwest. The Northeastern limit of the Sea of Marmara, a line joining Cape Takil and Cape Panaghia. Strabos Geographica reports that in antiquity, the Black Sea was often just called the Sea, for the most part, Graeco-Roman tradition refers to the Black Sea as the Hospitable sea, Εὔξεινος Πόντος Eúxeinos Póntos. This is a euphemism replacing an earlier Inhospitable Sea, Πόντος Ἄξεινος Póntos Áxeinos, strabo thinks that the Black Sea was called inhospitable before Greek colonization because it was difficult to navigate, and because its shores were inhabited by savage tribes. The name was changed to hospitable after the Milesians had colonized the southern shoreline and it is also possible that the epithet Áxeinos arose by popular etymology from a Scythian word axšaina- unlit, dark, the designation Black Sea may thus date from antiquity. A map of Asia dating to 1570, entitled Asiae Nova Descriptio, from Abraham Orteliuss Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, english-language writers of the 18th century often used the name Euxine Sea to refer to the Black Sea
13.
Steppe
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In South Africa they are referred to as Veld. The prairie is an example of a steppe, though it is not usually called such and it may be semi-desert, or covered with grass or shrubs or both, depending on the season and latitude. The term is used to denote the climate encountered in regions too dry to support a forest. The soil is typically of chernozem type, steppes are usually characterized by a semi-arid and continental climate. Extremes can be recorded in the summer of up to 45 °C and in winter, besides this huge difference between summer and winter, the differences between day and night are also very great. In the highlands of Mongolia,30 °C can be reached during the day with sub-zero °C readings at night, the mid-latitude steppes can be summarized by hot summers and cold winters, averaging 250–510 mm of precipitation per year. Precipitation level alone is not what defines a steppe climate, potential evapotranspiration must also be taken into account, the Eurasian Grass-Steppe of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands had a role in the spread of the horse, the wheel, and the Indo-European languages. The Indo-European expansion and diverse invasions of horse archer civilizations of the steppe eventually led to, the Pannonian Plain is another steppe region in eastern Europe, primarily Hungary. Another large steppe area is located in the central United States, western Canada, the shortgrass prairie steppe is the westernmost part of the Great Plains region. The Channeled Scablands in Southern British Columbia and Washington State is an example of a region in North America outside of the Great Plains. In South America, cold steppe can be found in Patagonia, relatively small steppe areas can be found in the interior of the South Island of New Zealand. In Asia, a subtropical steppe can be found in semi-arid lands that fringe the Thar Desert of the Indian subcontinent, in Australia, subtropical steppe can be found in a belt surrounding the most severe deserts of the continent and around the Musgrave Ranges. Ecology and Conservation of Steppe-land Birds by Manuel B. Morales, Santi Mañosa, Jordi Camprodón, international Symposium on Ecology and Conservation of steppe-land birds
14.
Highland
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The term highland or uplands is used to denote any mountainous region or elevated mountainous plateau. Generally speaking, upland tends to refer to ranges of hills, Highland is usually reserved for ranges of low mountains. Probably the most known highlands in the anglosphere are the Scottish Highlands in the United Kingdom, the Highland council area is a local government area in the Scottish Highlands and Britains largest local government area. Many countries have areas that are officially or unofficially referred to as highlands, other than Scotland, these include parts Ethiopia, Kenya, Eritrea, Yemen, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Syria, Cantabria and Nova Scotia. The highlands in Australia are often above the elevation of 500 metres and these areas often receive snowfalls through winter. Most of the lead up to large alpine or sub-alpine mountainous regions such as the Australian Alps, Snowy Mountains, Great Dividing Range, Northern Tablelands. The most mountainous region of Tasmania is the Central Highlands area, many of these areas are highly elevated alpine regions. A spine of mountains runs the length of the island of New Guinea, the highlands of Iceland cover about 40% of the country and are mostly inhospitable to humans. They are generally referred to as land above 500 meters, additionally, the mountainous natural region of the Thai highlands is found in Northern Thailand. The Cameron Highlands are an area and hill station in Northern Malaysia. Shillong in India in the state of Meghalaya is a station which is surrounded by highlands. Officers of the British Raj referred to Shillong as The Scotland of the East, Highland continents – or terrae – are areas of topographically unstable terrain, with high peaks and valleys. They resemble highlands on Earth, but the term is applied to larger areas on other planets. They can be found on Venus, Mercury, Mars and the Moon
15.
Yalta
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Yalta is a resort city on the south coast of the Crimean Peninsula surrounded by the Black Sea. It serves as the center of Yalta Municipality, one of the regions within Crimea. The city is located on the site of an ancient Greek colony and it is situated on a deep bay facing south towards the Black Sea, surrounded by the mountain range Ai-Petri. It has a humid subtropical climate and surrounded by numerous vineyards and orchards. The existence of Yalta was first recorded in the 12th century by an Arab geographer and it became part of a network of Genoese trading colonies on the Crimean coast in the 14th century, when it was known as Etalita or Galita. Yalta was annexed by the Russian Empire in 1783, along with the rest of Crimea, sparking the Russo-Turkish War, prior to the annexation of the Crimea, the Crimean Greeks were moved to Mariupol in 1778, one of the villages they established nearby is also called Yalta. In the 19th century, the became a fashionable resort for the Russian aristocracy. The town was closely associated with royalty. In 1889 Tsar Alexander III finished construction of Massandra Palace a short distance to the north of Yalta, during the 20th century Yalta was the principal holiday resort of the Soviet Union. Numerous workers sanatoria were constructed in and around Yalta and the surrounding district, there were, in fact, few other places that Soviet citizens could come for a seaside holiday, as foreign travel was forbidden to all but a handful. The Soviet elite also came to Yalta, the Soviet premier Joseph Stalin used the Massandra Palace as his summer residence, Yalta was occupied by the German Army from 9 November 1941 to 16 April 1944. The town came to attention in 1945 when the Yalta Conference between the Big Three powers – the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom – was held at the Livadia Palace. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Yalta has struggled economically, the towns transport links have been significantly reduced with the end of almost all passenger traffic by sea. The longest trolleybus line in Europe goes from the station in Simferopol to Yalta. Yalta is crowded in the season and prices for accommodation are very high. Most of the tourists are from countries of the former Soviet Union, in 2013, Yalta has a beautiful embankment along the Black Sea. People can be seen strolling there all seasons of the year, there are several beaches to the east and west of the embankment. The town has several theaters, a drama theater, plenty of restaurants
16.
Gurzuf
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It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea. The site of a 6th-century fortress built by Justinian I and called by Procopius the fortress of the Gorzoubitai, the fortress was later restored by the Genoese who called the place Garzuni, Grasni, and Gorzanium, and appointed it the seat of a chief magistrate. It was a former Crimean Tatar village, now a part of Greater Yalta, alexander Pushkin visited Gurzuf in 1821 and ballet master Marius Petipa died here. The International Children Center Artek is situated just behind the mount of Ayu-Dag, the World Organization of the Scout Movements Eurasian Region is headquartered in the town. Between Gurzuf and Mount Ayu-Dag is Cape Suuksu, at the top of the Cape is a tower, a medieval cemetery, and a small monument to Pushkin. Media related to Gurzuf at Wikimedia Commons Gurzuf travel guide from Wikivoyage
17.
Chatyr-Dag
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Chatyr-Dah is a mountainous massif in Crimea, near Simferopol-Alushta highway. In the Crimean Tatar language çatır means tent and dağ means mountain, the mountain consists of two plateaus, the lower and the upper. The lower plateau slopes gently down to its side, which is covered in steppe grass. On its southern end, the plateau is covered with beech forests. It has many hiking trails and several beautiful caves, on the east side of the lower plateau there is a grove of yews. The upper plateau has the shape of a giant bowl and on its rim, the upper plateau is covered with alpine meadows. Its slopes are steep and offer some routes for multipitch climbing. Marble Caves Emine Bair Hosar cave Fur-tree cave Obvalnaya cave Vyalova cave Artuch-Koba Vyalova cave system Mangup The Valley Of Ghosts Kara Dag Mountain
18.
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
19.
Demir-Kapu
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Demir-Kapu is the second highest mountain in Crimea. Its height stands 1540 meters above sea level, Географічна енциклопедія України, в 3-х томах / Редколегія, О
20.
Ai-Petri
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Ai-Petri, is a peak in the Crimean Mountains. For administrative purposes it is in the Yalta municipality of Crimea, the name has Greek origin, and is translated as St. Peter. Ai-Petri is one of the windiest places in Crimea, the wind blows for 125 days a year, reaching a speed of 50 m/s. The peak is located above the city of Alupka and the town of Koreiz, there is a cable car that takes passengers from a station near Alupka to the main area in Ai-Petri
21.
Angarskyi Pass
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The Angarskyi Pass is a mountain pass of the Crimean Mountains on the Crimean peninsula. The pass is the highest point on the Simferopol–Alushta roadway, at 752 metres above sea level and it takes its name from the Angara River, a tributary of the Salhir. During the Middle Ages, only a footpath ran through the pass. The first postal route going through the Angarskyi Pass was laid by Russian pioneers in 1824–26, the road was expanded two times, once in 1935 and in 1959, when the Crimean Trolleybus line opened. The road that runs through the pass currently contains a Government Automobile Inspection of Ukraine, a control post, the Angarskyi Pass is a popular winter tourist resort in Crimea. Skiing is popular in the area during the winter time, in the vicinity of the Angarskyi Pass, the sport of orienteering is popular
22.
Perevalne
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Perevalne is a village in Crimea, a disputed territory recognized by a majority of countries as part of Ukraine but administered by Russia as the Republic of Crimea. The village of Perevalne is administered by the Dobre Village Council, according to the 2001 Ukrainian census, its population was 3,660. The village is located in the middle of the Crimean Mountains, the Simferopol—Alushta—Yalta highway runs through the village, as well as the Crimean Trolleybus line, which has a stop in the settlement. There is a garrison in Pevevalne, former Soviet trainning center for special forces. The Ukrainian 36th separate machanised coastal infantry brigade is located there, media related to Category, Perevalnoe at Wikimedia Commons
23.
Alushta
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Alushta is a city of regional significance on the southern coast of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in Ukraine claimed by Russia as the Republic of Crimea. It serves as the center of Alushta Municipality, one of the regions Crimea is divided into. Founded in the 6th century AD by Emperor Justinian, today it is a resort town and it is situated at the Black Sea beach line on the road from Hurzuf to Sudak, as well as on the Crimean Trolleybus line. The area is notable for its arid, rocky terrain due to its proximity to Crimean mountains, during Byzantine times the town was called Alouston meaning Unwashed. Vestiges survive of a Byzantine defensive tower from a fortress of which the city name has derived, during the Genoese rule the name modified to Lusta. Adam Mickiewicz dedicated two of his Crimean Sonnets to Alushta and it is also the home of Seyit the Wolf in the Turkish drama Kurt Seyit ve Sura. In 1910,544 Jews lived in Alushta, consisting about 13% of the town population, in 1939, they consisted only 2. 3% of the town overall population, numbering 251 individuals. On 4 November 1941, the Germans occupied the town and on 24 November 1941, in early December 1941, about 250 Jews from Alushta were shot to death by sonderkommando 11b in the park of trade union sanatorium no. 7, which is today in the center for children. Alushta is twinned with, Santa Cruz, United States Dzierżoniów, Poland Äänekoski, Central Finland Jūrmala, Latvia
24.
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
25.
Baydar Gate
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The Baydar Gate is a mountain pass in the Crimean Mountains connecting the Baidar Valley with the Black Sea coast. It is enclosed by Mount Chelebi and Mount Ckhu-Bair, the old Yalta-Sevastopol highway, dating from the 1830s and seldom used today, passes through here. When the highway was completed in 1848, the so-called Propylaea were built of limestone to commemorate the event. This Neoclassical gate offers scenic views, including that of the picturesque Foros Church set atop a 400-metre cliff overlooking the sea coast, laspi Pass - a neighbouring mountain pass, the one normally used today Media related to Baydar Gate at Wikimedia Commons
26.
Foros, Crimea
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Foros is the southernmost resort in Crimea. The settlement was founded and named by medieval Greek merchants and it was rediscovered in the late 19th century by Alexander Kuznetsov, a Russian tea king who had his palace built on the sea shore. It was Kuznetsov who commissioned the towns landmark, the Resurrection Church. This ornate five-domed architectural extravaganza is sited on a 400-metre cliff overlooking Foros, the Soviet leaders had several state dachas built near Foros. Baydar Gate Church of the Resurrection, Foros Санатории Форос - Media related to Category, Foros at Wikimedia Commons
27.
Baydar Valley
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The Baydar or Baydari valley sprawls for 16 km north-east in the Balaklava Raion of Sevastopol, Crimea. It is the source of the Chernaya River and the location of the Chernaya River Reservoir, prehistoric menhir-statues still dot the landscape. A highway from Yalta to Sevastopol traverses the dale, the Baydar Pass connects the valley to the Black Sea coast. Most of the valley is protected as a national zakaznik, media related to Baydarskaya Valley at Wikimedia Commons
28.
Laspi Pass
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The Laspi Pass is the highest point of the Sevastopol-Yalta highway in the Crimea. The mountain pass offers views of Cape Aya and Laspi Bay of the Black Sea and it is dominated by a cliff named after Nikolai Garin-Mikhailovsky, a Russian writer who helped build the road. Another attraction is an Orthodox chapel commemorating the bimillennium of Christs birth, the pass is sometimes confused with the Baydar Gate, a mountain pass seldom used today. Media related to Laspi Pass at Wikimedia Commons
29.
Cape Aya
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Cape Aya is a rocky promontory jutting out into the Black Sea southeast of Balaklava. This 13-km-long offspur of the Crimean Mountains separates Laspi Bay from Balaklava Bay, the highest point, Kokiya-Kiya is 559 m. The headland is full of grottoes, it is protected as a national zakaznik, a storm off Cape Aya is the subject of one of Aivazovskys paintings. A Soviet guided missile system was located on Cape Aya, viktor Yanukovych, the former President of Ukraine, ordered the construction of a luxurious private residence on Cape Aya. The New Mezhyhyria was still unfinished when the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution ousted Yanukovych from his post
30.
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
31.
Salhir River
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The Salgir River is the longest river of the Crimean Peninsula. Its length is 204 km, and its basin is 3,750 km². The average discharge of the water is 2 m³/s and it is formed in the Chatyrdag mountains, and flows into the Syvash of the Azov Sea near Simferopol, the capital of the Republic of Crimea. Along the way, the passes through the North Crimean Canal. It is mainly used for hydroelectricity and agricultural usage
32.
Uchan-su (river)
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Uchan-su, is a river that flows in the South Coast of Crimea. The name translates from the Crimean Tatar language for swift water, the river runs into the Black Sea in the center city of Yalta. The river water is used extensively for water supply and irrigation
33.
Anatomically modern human
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Anatomically modern humans evolved from archaic humans in the Middle Paleolithic, about 200,000 years ago. The emergence of modern human marks the dawn of the species Homo sapiens. Other fossils include the proposed Homo sapiens idaltu from Herto in Ethiopia that are almost 160,000 years old and the Skhul hominids from Israel, which are 90,000 years old. The oldest human remains from which an entire genome has been extracted belongs to Ust-Ishim man, however, it can and has been argued that Homo sapiens have been fully capable of modern behavior from the time they first evolved. The binomial name for the species of the human population is Homo sapiens. The species is taken to have emerged from a predecessor within the Homo genus around 200,000 years ago. Generally, modern humans are more lightly built than archaic humans from which they have evolved, Humans are a highly variable species, modern humans can show remarkably robust traits, and early modern humans even more so. Despite this, modern humans differ from archaic people in a range of anatomical details, the cranium lacks a pronounced occipital bun in the neck, a bulge that anchored considerable neck muscles in Neanderthals. Modern humans, even the ones, generally have a larger fore-brain than the archaic people. This will usually give a higher forehead, and reduced brow ridge and this splits the ridge into a central part and two distal parts. In current humans, often only the section of the ridge is preserved. This contrasts with archaic humans, where the ridge is pronounced. Modern humans commonly have a steep, even vertical forehead whereas their predecessors had foreheads that sloped strongly backwards, according to Desmond Morris, the vertical forehead in humans not only houses larger brains, but plays an important role in human communication through eyebrow movements and forehead skin wrinkling. Compared to archaic people, anatomically modern humans have smaller, differently shaped teeth and this results in a smaller, more receded dentary, making the rest of the jaw-line stand out, giving an often quite prominent chin. The central part of the forming the chin carries a triangularly shaped area forming the apex of the chin called the mental trigon. Particularly in living population, the use of fire and tools require fewer jaw muscles, giving slender, compared to archaic people, modern humans have smaller, lower faces. The body skeletons of even the earliest and most robustly built modern humans were less robust than those of Neanderthals, particularly regarding the long bones of the limbs, the distal bones are nearly the same size or slightly shorter than the proximal bones. In ancient people, particularly Neanderthals, the bones were shorter
34.
Gravettian
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The Gravettian was an archaeological industry of the European Upper Paleolithic that succeeded the Aurignacian c.31,000 BC. It is archaeologically the last unified European culture, and lasted until c.22,000 BC, at this point it developed into the Epigravettian in Italy, the Balkans, and Russia, and was replaced abruptly by the Solutrean in France and Spain. The origins of the Gravettian people are not clear, they seem to appear all over Europe. Like their Aurignacian predecessors, they are well-known for their Venus figurines, the culture was first identified at the site of La Gravette in Southwestern France. One typical artefact of the industry, once considered diagnostic, is a pointed blade with a straight blunt back. These were used to hunt big game including bison, horse, reindeer, Gravettians also used nets to hunt small game. Archaeologists usually describe two regional variants, the western Gravettian, known namely from cave sites in France, Spain and Britain, and the eastern Gravettian in Central Europe and Russia. The eastern Gravettians — they include the Pavlovian culture — were specialized mammoth hunters, whose remains are found not in caves. The Aurignacian and Gravettian cultures are featured in Earths children, a series of set in prehistory. In this piece of fiction, the Venus figurines play an important role at the center of a fertility rite
35.
BBC
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The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. It is headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, the BBC is the worlds oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. It employs over 20,950 staff in total,16,672 of whom are in public sector broadcasting, the total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, and fixed contract staff are included. The BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, and used to fund the BBCs radio, TV, britains first live public broadcast from the Marconi factory in Chelmsford took place in June 1920. It was sponsored by the Daily Mails Lord Northcliffe and featured the famous Australian Soprano Dame Nellie Melba, the Melba broadcast caught the peoples imagination and marked a turning point in the British publics attitude to radio. However, this public enthusiasm was not shared in official circles where such broadcasts were held to interfere with important military and civil communications. By late 1920, pressure from these quarters and uneasiness among the staff of the licensing authority, the General Post Office, was sufficient to lead to a ban on further Chelmsford broadcasts. But by 1922, the GPO had received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests, John Reith, a Scottish Calvinist, was appointed its General Manager in December 1922 a few weeks after the company made its first official broadcast. The company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of BBC wireless receiving sets from approved manufacturers, to this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to inform, educate and entertain. The financial arrangements soon proved inadequate, set sales were disappointing as amateurs made their own receivers and listeners bought rival unlicensed sets. By mid-1923, discussions between the GPO and the BBC had become deadlocked and the Postmaster-General commissioned a review of broadcasting by the Sykes Committee and this was to be followed by a simple 10 shillings licence fee with no royalty once the wireless manufactures protection expired. The BBCs broadcasting monopoly was made explicit for the duration of its current broadcast licence, the BBC was also banned from presenting news bulletins before 19.00, and required to source all news from external wire services. Mid-1925 found the future of broadcasting under further consideration, this time by the Crawford committee, by now the BBC under Reiths leadership had forged a consensus favouring a continuation of the unified broadcasting service, but more money was still required to finance rapid expansion. Wireless manufacturers were anxious to exit the loss making consortium with Reith keen that the BBC be seen as a service rather than a commercial enterprise. The recommendations of the Crawford Committee were published in March the following year and were still under consideration by the GPO when the 1926 general strike broke out in May. The strike temporarily interrupted newspaper production and with restrictions on news bulletins waived the BBC suddenly became the source of news for the duration of the crisis. The crisis placed the BBC in a delicate position, the Government was divided on how to handle the BBC but ended up trusting Reith, whose opposition to the strike mirrored the PMs own
36.
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
37.
Federal city of 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
38.
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
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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
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Bosporan Kingdom
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The Bosporan Kingdom was the longest surviving Roman client kingdom. The 1st and 2nd centuries BC saw a period of renewed golden age of the Bosporan state and it was a Roman province from 63 to 68 AD, under Emperor Nero. At the end of the 2nd century AD, King Sauromates II inflicted a defeat on the Scythians. The prosperity of the Bosporan Kingdom was based on the export of wheat, fish and these include gold work, vases imported from Athens, coarse terracottas, textile fragments and specimens of carpentry and marquetry. These Greek colonies were settled by Milesians in the 7th and 6th centuries BC. Phanagoria was a colony of Teos, and the foundation of Nymphaeum may have had a connection with Athens, at least it appears to have been a member of the Delian League in the 5th century. The Bosporan Kingdom was centred around the Kerch Strait between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, known in antiquity as the Cimmerian Bosporus from where the name derived. Spartocus founded a dynasty which seems to have endured until c.110 BC, surviving material do not supply enough information to reconstruct a complete chronology of kings of the region. Satyrus son Leucon eventually took the city and he was succeeded jointly by his two sons, Spartocus II, and Paerisades, Spartocus died in 342, allowing Paerisades to reign alone until 310. After Paerisades death, a war between his sons Satyrus and Eumelus was fought. Satyrus defeated his younger brother Eumelus at the Battle of the River Thatis in 310 BC but was killed in battle. Eumelus successor was Spartocus III and after him Paerisades II, succeeding princes repeated the family names, so it is impossible to assign them a definite order. Paerisades was killed by a Scythian named Saumacus who led a rebellion against him and they maintained close relations with Athens, their best customer for the Bosporan grain exports, Leucon I of Bosporus created privileges for Athenian ships at Bosporan ports. The Attic orators make numerous references to this, in return the Athenians granted Leucon Athenian citizenship and made decrees in honour of him and his sons. His eldest living son, Machares, regent of Cimmerian Bosporus, was unwilling to aid his father, so Mithridates had Machares killed, Mithridates then ordered the conscriptions and preparations for war. In 63 BC, Pharnaces, the youngest son of Mithridates, led a rebellion against his father, Mithridates VI withdrew to the citadel in Panticapaeum, where he committed suicide. Pompey buried Mithridates VI in a tomb in either Sinope or Amasia. Before the death of Pharnaces II, Asander had married Pharnaces II’s daughter Dynamis, Asander and Dynamis were the ruling monarchs until Caesar commanded a paternal uncle of Dynamis, Mithridates II to declare war on the Bosporan Kingdom and claimed the kingship for himself
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Roman Crimea
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The Crimean Peninsula was under partial control of the Roman Empire during the period of 47 BCE to c.340 CE. The territory under Roman control mostly coincided with the Bosporan Kingdom, Rome lost its influence in Taurica in the mid third century, when substantial parts of the peninsula fell to the Goths, but at least nominally the kingdom survived until the 340s. Byzantium, the continuation of the Roman Empire, later regained the Crimea under Justinian I. The Byzantine Greeks controlled portions of the well into the Late Middle Ages. Rome started to dominate the Crimea peninsula in the 1st century BCE, the initial area of their penetration was mainly in eastern Crimea and in the western Greek city of Chersonesos. The interior was only nominally under Roman rule, in ancient times Crimea was known as Chersonesus Taurica, from the name of the Tauri, who were descendants of the Cimmerians. Many Greek colonists settled in Taurica, their most renowned colony was Chersonesos, in 114 BCE the Bosporus kingdom accepted the overlordship of Mithridates VI Eupator, king of Pontus, as a protection from tribes of Scythians. For nearly five centuries after the defeat of Mithridates by the Roman Pompey, the main Roman settlement was Charax, a castrum probably built around 60–65, and the main naval Roman base was in Chersonesos. When the Romans arrived at Taurica, they set up their camp and built a fortress, Tiberius Julius Aspurgus founded a line of Bosporan Kings which endured with some interruptions until 341. Originally called Aspurgus, he adopted the Roman names Tiberius Julius because he received Roman citizenship, all of the following kings adopted these two Roman names followed by a third name, mostly of Pontic, Thracian or Sarmatian origin. Bosporan kings struck coinage throughout the period, which included gold staters bearing portraits of the respective Roman Emperors. For this reason he probably put Taurica under direct Roman rule and he extended the Roman province of Lower Moesia to Tyras, Olbia and Taurica. Taurica enjoyed a golden period under Roman leadership during the 2nd century CE, with huge commerce of wheat, clothing, wine. The prosperous merchant-towns, permanently in need of military protection amidst a flux of barbaric peoples, the region was temporarily conquered by the Goths in 250. The last client king of the Roman Empire in Taurica was Tiberius Julius Rhescuporis VI, Rhescuporis seems to have minted coins as late as 341, indicating that there was some extent of political control over the remnants of the kingdom at this point. The remnants of the Bosporan kingdom were finally swept away with the invasion of the Huns in 375/6, the largest Roman military settlement in Crimea was Charax. It was sited on an area at the western ridge of Ai Todor. When in 62–66 CE the Roman garrisons were installed in Taurica, the Romans built a fortress and stationed a sub-unit of the Ravenna squadron
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Cherson (theme)
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The Theme of Cherson, originally and formally called the Klimata was a Byzantine theme located in the southern Crimea, headquartered at Cherson. The theme was established in the early 830s and was an important centre of Black Sea commerce. The region had been under Roman and later Byzantine imperial control until the early 8th century, Byzantine authority was re-established by Emperor Theophilos, who displayed interest in the northern littoral of the Black Sea and especially his relations with the Khazars. Traditional scholarship dates the establishment of Cherson as the seat of a theme in ca. The new province was at first called ta Klimata, the regions/districts, the province played an important role in Byzantine relations with the Khazars and later, after the Khazar Khaganates collapse, with the Pechenegs and the Rus. Its weakness is underlined by the stipulation, in the Byzantine treaties with the Rus of 945 and 971, Cherson prospered greatly during the 9th–11th centuries as a centre of Black Sea commerce, despite the citys destruction by Vladimir of Kiev in 988/9. The city recovered quickly, the fortifications were restored and extended to the harbour in the early 11th century. The region however was lost again in the late 11th century to the Cumans, almost nothing is known of Cherson in the 12th century, pointing to a rather tranquil period. Cherson also retained the right to issue its own coins, having resumed minting under Emperor Michael III, in the late 11th century, the theme was governed by a katepano
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Kipchaks
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The Kipchak were a Turkic nomadic people. The Cuman-Kipchak confederation was a predecessor of the Kazakh Khanate and, later, the Kipchaks described their name as meaning hollow tree, as it was, according to them, inside a hollow tree that their original human ancestress gave birth to her son. They are called Polovtsy in Russian and Ukrainian and similar names in other Slavic languages, the Kipchaks were a tribal confederation that originally settled on the River Irtysh, possibly connected to the Kimäks. According to Ukrainian anthropologists, Kipchaks had racial characteristics of Caucasians and Mongoloids, namely a broad flat face, researcher E. P. Alekseeva drew attention to the fact that European Kipchak stone images have both Mongoloid and Caucasoid faces. However, in her opinion, Kipchaks, who settled in Georgia in the first half of the 12th century, were predominantly Caucasoid in appearance with some admixture of Mongoloid traits and they were already joined by Cumans. In the course of the Turkic expansion they migrated into Siberia, eventually they occupied a vast territory in the Eurasian steppe, stretching from north of the Aral Sea westward to the region north of the Black Sea, establishing a state known as Desht-i Qipchaq. Cumans expanded further westward, by the 11th century reaching Moldavia, Wallachia, in 1089, they were defeated by Ladislaus I of Hungary, and again by Knyaz Vladimir Monomakh of the Rus in the 12th century. They were finally crushed by the Mongols in 1241, after the fall of the Mongol Empire, the Golden Horde rulers continued to hold Saraj until 1502. The Cumans fled to Hungary, and some of their warriors became mercenaries for the Latin crusaders, members of the Bahri dynasty, the first dynasty of Mamluks in Egypt, were Kipchaks/Cumans, one of the most prominent examples was Sultan Baybars, born in Solhat, Crimea. Some Kipchaks served in the Yuan dynasty and became the Kharchins, the Kipchaks and Cumans spoke a Turkic language whose most important surviving record is the Codex Cumanicus, a late 13th-century dictionary of words in Kipchak, Cuman, and Latin. The presence in Egypt of Turkic-speaking Mamluks also stimulated the compilation of Kipchak/Cuman-Arabic dictionaries, some Kipchaks and Cumans are also known to have converted to Christianity, around the 11th century, at the suggestion of the Georgians as they allied in their conflicts against the Muslims. A great number were baptized at the request of the Georgian king David IV, from 1120, there was a Kipchak national Christian church and an important clergy. Following the Mongol conquest, Islam rose in popularity among the Kipchaks of the Golden Horde, during the 16th and 17th centuries the Turkic language among the Armenian communities of the Kipchak people was Armeno-Kipchak. They were settled in the Lviv and Kamianets-Podilskyi areas of what is now Ukraine, the modern Northwestern branch of the Turkic language is often referred to as the Kipchak branch. The languages in this branch are considered to be descendants of the Kipchak language. Some of the traditionally included are the Karachays, Siberian Tatars, Nogays, Bashkirs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Volga Tatars. There is also a village named Kipchak in Crimea, kypshak is one of the constituent tribes of the Middle Horde confederation of the Kazakh people. The name Kipchak also occurs as a surname in Kazakhstan, some of the descendants of the Kipchaks are the Bashkirian clan Qipsaq
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Khazars
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The Khazars were a semi-nomadic Turkic people, who created what for its duration was the most powerful polity to emerge from the break-up of the Western Turkic Kaganate. For some three centuries the Khazars dominated the vast area extending from the Volga-Don steppes to the eastern Crimea, the alliance was dropped around 900. Between 965 and 969, the Kievan Rus ruler Sviatoslav I of Kiev conquered the capital Atil, the native religion of the Khazars is thought to have been Tengrism, like that of the North Caucasian Huns and other Turkic peoples. The polyethnic populace of the Khazar Khaganate appears to have been a multiconfessional mosaic of pagan, Tengrist, Jewish, Christian and this theory still finds occasional support, but most scholars view it with scepticism. The theory is associated with antisemitism and anti-Zionism. Gyula Németh, following Zoltán Gombocz, derived Xazar from a hypothetical *Qasar reflecting a Turkic root qaz- being an hypothetical velar variant of Common Turkic kez-, louis Bazin derived it from Turkic qas- on the basis of its phonetic similarity to the Uyğur tribal name, Qasar. András Róna-Tas connects it with Kesar, the Pahlavi transcription of the Roman title Caesar, D. M. Dunlop tried to link the Chinese term for Khazars to one of the tribal names of the Uyğur Toquz Oğuz, namely the Gésà. One method for tracing their origins consists in analysis of the possible etymologies behind the ethnonym Khazar itself. The tribes that were to comprise the Khazar empire were not a union, but a congeries of steppe nomads and peoples who came to be subordinated. They appear to stem from Mongolia and South Siberia in the aftermath of the fall of the Hunnic/Xiōngnú nomadic polities, moving west, the confederation reached the land of the Akatziroi, who had been important allies of Byzantium in fighting off Attilas army. An embryonic state of Khazaria began to form sometime after 630, Göktürk armies had penetrated the Volga by 549, ejecting the Avars, who were then forced to flee to the sanctuary of the Hungarian plain. The Āshǐnà clan whose tribal name was Türk appear on the scene by 552, by 568, these Göktürks were probing for an alliance with Byzantium to attack Persia. Both briefly challenged Tang hegemony in eastern Turkestan, to the West, two new nomadic states arose in the meantime, Old Great Bulgaria under Kubrat, the Duōlù clan leader, and the Nǔshībì subconfederation, also consisting of five tribes. The Duōlù challenged the Avars in the Kuban River-Sea of Azov area while the Khazar Qağanate consolidated further westwards, led apparently by an Āshǐnà dynasty. The Qağanate of the Khazars thus took out of the ruins of this nomadic empire as it broke up under pressure from the Tang dynasty armies to the east sometime between 630–650. According to Omeljan Pritsak, the language of the Onoğur-Bulğar federation was to become the lingua franca of Khazaria as it developed into what Lev Gumilev called a steppe Atlantis, Khazaria developed a Dual kingship governance structure, typical among Turkic nomads, consisting of a shad/bäk and a qağan. The emergence of this system may be deeply entwined with the conversion to Judaism, particularly elaborate rituals accompanied a royal burial. At one period, travellers had to dismount, bow before the rulers tomb, such a royal burial ground is typical of inner Asian peoples
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Crimean campaigns of 1687 and 1689
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The Crimean campaigns of 1687 and 1689 were two military campaigns of the Russian army against the Crimean Khanate. They were a part of the Russo-Turkish War and Russo-Crimean Wars and these were the first Russian forces to come close to Crimea since 1569. They failed due to planning and leadership and the practical problem of moving such a large force across the steppe. Having signed the Eternal Peace Treaty with Poland in 1686, Russia became a member of the anti-Turkish coalition, Russias role in 1687 was to send a force south to Perekop to bottle up the Crimeans inside their peninsula. On 2 May,1687, a Russian army of about 132,000 soldiers, led by knyaz Vasily Golitsyn, on 30 May they were joined by 50,000 Left Bank Cossacks under hetman Ivan Samoilovich at the mouth of the Samora River where the Dnieper turns south. In the heat of summer,180,000 men,20,000 wagons and 100,000 horses set out down the east bank of the Dnieper. The huge force, which started too late and was not well organized. When the Russians reached the Konskiye Vody river on the part of the Dnieper. On 17 June they decided to turn back, in February 1689,112,000 Muscovite troops and 350 guns set out. On 20 April they were joined at Novobogoroditskoye by 30-40,000 Cossacks under Mazepa and they followed the 1687 route, but marched in six separate columns and made much better time. By 3 May they were at the point where the 1687 expedition had turned back, on 15 and 16 May they were attacked by Crimean Tatars near Zelenaya Dolina and Chernaya Dolina. The Crimeans did fairly well but were back by the Russians tabor defense. On 20 May they reached the isthmus of Perekop, further on, the Tatars had dug a 7km ditch which made moving the artillery forward impossible. The next day, Golitsyn ordered his army to turn back, the Crimean campaigns of 1687 and 1689 diverted some of the Ottoman and Crimean forces in favor of Russias allies. However, the Russian army didnt reach the goal of stabilizing Russias southern borders, the unsuccessful outcome of these campaigns was one of the reasons the government of Sophia Alekseyevna collapsed. Brian L Davies, Warfare, State and Society on the Black Sea Steppe 1500-1700, Routledge,2007
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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
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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
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Crimean Goths
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Crimean Goths were those Gothic tribes who remained in the lands around the Black Sea, especially in Crimea. They were the least-powerful, least-known, and almost paradoxically, the longest-lasting of the Gothic communities. At the time, it was customary to refer to a range of Germanic tribes as Goths. The Ostrogoths became vassals of the Huns until the death of Attila, like the Huns, the Goths in Crimea never regained their lost glory. According to Peter Heather and Michael Kulikowski, the Ostrogoths did not even exist until the 5th century, other Gothic groups may have settled in the Crimea. It has also speculated that the Crimean Goths were in fact Saxons escaping Christian persecution from the west. Either way, the existence of Goths in Crimea is first testified from around the 3rd century, during the late 5th and early 6th century, the Crimean Goths had to fight off hordes of Huns who were migrating back eastward after losing control of their European empire. In the 5th century, Theodoric the Great tried to recruit Crimean Goths for his campaigns in Italy, the Principality of Gothia or Theodoro formed after the Fourth Crusade out of parts of the Byzantine thema of Klimata which were not occupied by the Genoese. Its population was a mixture of Greeks, Crimean Goths, Alans, Bulgars, Kipchaks and other nations, the principalitys official language was Greek. The territory was initially under the control of Trebizond, and possibly part of its Crimean possessions, many Crimean Goths were Greek speakers and many non-Gothic Byzantine citizens were settled in the region called Gothia by the government in Constantinople. There is a theory that some Anglo-Saxons who left England after the Battle of Hastings in 1066 arrived in Constantinople in time to help the Byzantines repel an invasion. As a reward, the Byzantine emperor granted them lands near the Sea of Azov in what may have been the Crimean Peninsula, by the 16th century, the existence of Goths in the Crimea had become well known to European scholars. Many travelers visited the Crimea and wrote about the Goths, one romantic report appears in Joachimus Cureus Gentis Silesiae Annales in which he claims that during a voyage in the Black Sea, his ship was forced ashore by storms. There, to his surprise, he found a man singing a song in which he used German words, when he asked him where he was from, he answered that his home was nearby and that his people were goths. Several inscriptions from the early 9th century found in the use the word Goth only as a personal name. Meanwhile, some legends about a Gothic state in Crimea existed in Europe throughout the Middle Ages, in the 16th century, an Imperial envoy in Suleimans court Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq reported having had a conversation with two Goths in Constantinople. He also left the Gothic-Latin dictionary with about a hundred Germanic words that some traits in common with the ancient Gothic language. The first report of the Crimean Goths appears in the Vita of Saint Cyril and he lists Goths as people who read and praised the Christian God in their own language
