Crimea became part of Russia in fact in 1783, and formally - on December 29, 1791 (January 9, 1792) under the Iasi Peace Treaty between the Russian and Ottoman empires. By the beginning of the 19th century Crimea has become an organic part of Russia and its prosperous region. The notorious Khrushchev’s decree has no international significance, since it is an interstate act of the USSR, so the people of Crimea had the full legal right to hold a referendum on secession from Ukraine and return to Russia.
Instruction manual
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The history of Crimea stands out for its diversity even against a global background. It was the center of the powerful Bosporus kingdom, arguing with Rome, and the camp of many barbarian tribes, and a distant province of Orthodox Byzantium, and then the Muslim Ottoman Empire. The name Kryry was given to him by the Polovtsy, who captured the Crimean peninsula in the 12th century. A bright trace in the history of Crimea was left by the ancient Greeks, and in the Middle Ages by the Genoese. Both founded trading trading posts and colonies, which later developed into cities that still exist today.
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Crimea first appeared in the Russian orbit in the 9th century, while still a Byzantine possession: one of the authors of the Slavic alphabet Cyril was sent here. The interdependence of Crimea and Russia becomes clearly visible in the 10th century: it was here, in Khersones, in 988 that Vladimir the Great was baptized, from whom the Russian land was baptized. Later, in the 11th century, Crimea for some time became part of the Russian Principality of Tmutarakan, its center was the city of Korchev, now - Kerch. Thus, Kerch is the first Russian city of Crimea, but it was founded in the Ancient World. Then Kerch was the Cimmerian Bosporus, the capital of the Bosporus kingdom.
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The Mongol invasion permanently separated Crimea from Russia politically. However, economic ties remained. Russian merchants regularly visited the Crimea, and a Russian colony constantly existed in Cafe (Feodosia) with small interruptions. In the last quarter of the 15th century, Athanasius Nikitin, returning from his “Walking Over Three Seas” completely devastated, robbed and ill, took gold in Trabzon (Trapezund) to cross the Black Sea so that he could later “give it back to Cafe”. The first Europeans who saw India did not have the slightest doubt that his fellow countrymen had not gone anywhere from Kafa and would help a relative who was in trouble.
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Russia's first attempts to establish itself firmly in the Crimea date back to the beginning of the reign of Peter the Great (Azov campaign). But the far more important Northern War was brewing, immediately cutting a window to Europe, and after rather sluggish negotiations in Istanbul over the Crimea, an agreement was concluded on the basis of: "Dnieper towns (strongholds of the Russian army) we will ruin as we talked about, but instead of Russian around Azov land on ten days of riding. " Crimea did not fall into this zone, and the Turks soon ceased to comply with the terms of the agreement.
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Finally, Crimea became part of Russia only in the reign of Catherine II: Generalissimo Suvorov, figuratively speaking, gave the Ottomans so that they were ready to give more, just to get rid of these crazy Russians. But to consider the time of its accession the date of the conclusion of the Kuchuk-Kainardzhi peace treaty (1774) is incorrect. According to him, an independent khanate was formed in Crimea under the patronage of Russia.
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Judging by what follows, the new Crimean khans were even independent of simple common sense: already in 1776, Suvorov personally had to lead a military operation to save the Orthodox Armenians and Greeks living in Crimea from the arbitrariness of Muslims. Finally, on April 19, 1783, Catherine, who had lost all patience, expressing herself, according to Trediakovsky’s recollections “completely in the guards of horses”, finally signed the Manifesto on the annexation of Crimea and Taman to Russia.
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Turkey did not like it, and Suvorov again had to smash the Basurmans. The war dragged on until 1791, but Turkey was defeated, and in the same year the Yassky world recognized the annexation of Crimea by Russia. The main principles of international law were established long before the 18th century, and Europe had no choice but to recognize Crimea as Russian, since both of the most interested parties agreed on this issue. From that day, December 29, 1791 (January 9, 1792), the Crimea became Russian de jure and de facto.
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Russian Crimea became part of the Tauride province. Back in the 70s of the last century, Western historians did not hesitate to write that the inclusion of Crimea in Russia was beneficial for him and was enthusiastically received by the local population. At least, our compatriots didn’t put on a stake for the slightest offense and didn’t break into the houses of citizens to check whether they comply with Sharia or not. And, just as importantly, winemaking, pig breeding and fishing from fishing vessels on the high seas were not prohibited. And the Orthodox Church, in contrast to Islam and the Catholic Church, never taxed the parishioners with mandatory fees in a strictly established amount.
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The contribution, which is difficult to overestimate, was made by the favorite of Catherine (and her last true love) Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin into the development of Taurida, for which he was elevated to princely dignity with the addition of the Tauride title. Inserts in his title "brightest", "magnificent", etc. - The fruit of servility of court sneaks, not officially confirmed. It is enough to say that under his leadership cities such as Yekaterinoslav (Dnepropetrovsk), Nikolaev, Kherson, Pavlovsk (Mariupol) were founded, and Odessa, under his successor, Count Vorontsov.
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The "Tauride miracle" struck the world, and not only poor immigrants, but also aristocrats with European names, pulled to New Russia from abroad. Russian Tauris turned into a blooming land: Vorontsov skillfully continued Potemkin's work. In particular, thanks to his efforts, the resort glory of Crimea was born and strengthened, starting from Yalta. Remember who founded Odessa? The Duke de Richelieu, a relative of the famous cardinal ruler, Marquis de Langeron and General Baron de Ribas. They were expelled from France by the revolution, but they did not submit to England, which was gathering the army and fleet of the royalists, but to New Russia. Probably because they wanted to stand and prosper, and not to kill compatriots.
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Historians still break spears: why did Khrushchev ascribe Crimea to the Ukrainian SSR? The wording of the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the USSR of February 19, 1954 "On the transfer of the Crimean region from the RSFSR to the Ukrainian SSR": "Given the commonality of the economy, territorial proximity and close economic and cultural ties between the Crimean region and the Ukrainian SSR" in the eyes of contemporaries looked clearly far-fetched, and Soviet citizens perceived it ironically among other Khrushchev's absurdities.
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However, a comparison of the by-laws to it and the decree of 1956 on the creation of economic councils (councils of the national economy) suggests that Crimea was used simply as a training ground for the preparation of one of the most famous and most failed reforms of Nikita Khrushchev. Any other version should be based on Khrushchev’s presence of either Ukrainophilia or Ukrainophobia, which no historian notes, and in the post-Stalin USSR this administrative arbitrariness was not the norm.
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One way or another, the decree of February 19, 1954 was just a domestic document, which did not and did not have any international significance. The abandonment of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea as part of Ukraine during the collapse of the USSR was exclusively an act of goodwill of the Russian Federation, as well as the fact that it assumed all the external debts of the Soviet Union. Therefore, the people of Crimea, stumbling upon attempts to quietly destroy its autonomy and reduce the Constitution of the Republic of Crimea to the level of an insignificant piece of paper, had full legal and moral right to hold a referendum on secession from Ukraine and return to Russia.
