It is generally accepted that the Russians left Crimea with the fall of the Tmutarakan principality at the beginning of the 12th century. In fact, the Orthodox principality of Theodoro existed on the peninsula for another three and a half centuries.
Rock shelter
In 1204, the crusaders captured Constantinople. The Trebizond Empire was formed on the ruins of Byzantium. It was she who got the Crimea. Theodore Gavras was sent there as governor.
He ordered to restore the ancient fortress on Mount Mangup-Kale and moved his residence there. The slopes there are either steep or difficult to access. For centuries, on the top of this mountain, the Taurus sheltered from the Scythians, the Scythians from the Sarmatians, the Sarmatians from the Goths and Huns, the Goths and the Russians from the Tatars.
Theodore erected a first-class fortress on Mangup, and the sprawling city was surrounded by a high wall with seven towers. The princely castle delighted travelers. In honor of Theodore, both the new capital and the entire principality began to be called Theodoro. There were up to 40 castles in the principality, representing a bizarre combination of Byzantine, Gothic and Old Russian defensive structures.
Gavras's successor assumed the title of aufent (temporary ruler) of Theodoro and Pomorie and became an independent monarch. The principality was divided into Turms, of which there were 11. Goths and Russians made up the aristocracy, army and administration. Armenians and Greeks are trade and craft class. The dominant religion was Orthodoxy.
At the call of the aufent, the vassals were obliged to come to war with their squads. Towns and rural communities formed militias. All the warriors took an oath forbidding them to surrender.
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In 1223, the Mongol-Tatars invaded Crimea and the peninsula became the ulus of the Golden Horde. But the Horde did not want to fight the Theodorites, and quite friendly relations were established between them.
Taunting the enemy
Soon the Genoese appeared in the Crimea. Gradually, they took over all the old cities, and erected new fortresses in convenient harbors. Aufent had at his disposal a small strip of the coast and part of the foothills.
The Genoese had their eyes on the last port of the Theodorites - Avlita (Inkerman). A series of wars began between the small principality and the powerful naval power.
Theodorites could rely on the help of the Crimean Tatars. But the Big Horde did not reckon with the Krymchaks, preferring to rob everyone in a row. The raid of Khan Edigey became especially ruinous. He took all the ports on the coast, but passed at Mangup. This fortress was nicknamed by the Tatars "Doshman kakh-kakha" ("Mocking the enemy").
In the middle of the XIV century, Theodoro reached its heyday. The principality was known far beyond the Black Sea region, the aufents became related to many of the reigning houses of Eastern Europe. In Moscow, the Feodorites created something like a trade representation - the "Courtyard of the guests-surrogates".
Under Dmitry Donskoy, the merchant Stefan Koverya moved from Mangup to Russia. He received the rank of boyar and a courtyard on the territory of the Kremlin. From him, by the way, came the Khovrins family, which played a prominent role in the Muscovite kingdom. Stefan achieved such honors after participating in the Battle of Kulikovo, as he arrived in Russia with a whole detachment of heavily armed horsemen.
Even earlier, in 1362, the Theodorites saved the Crimean Tatars, when the Lithuanian prince Olgerd on Blue Waters lured their army into a trap and almost surrounded it. Only the stubborn resistance of the rearguard, which consisted of the Gothic-Russian detachment of the commander Dmitry, helped the remnants of the Tatar horde to reach the saving Perekop.
Genoa on my knees
At the beginning of the 15th century, the principality became so strong that its rulers decided to start a serious war with the Genoese. Prince Alexei in 1434 signed a treaty with the Emir of the Crimea Tenige and gathered a large army.
The strength of the Genoese is evidenced by the fact that a hundred years earlier the great Khan Dzhanibek himself with an 80,000-strong army could not take the Kafa (Feodosia) belonging to them.
Tenige and Alexei could field no more than 7 thousand soldiers, of which about a thousand Feodorites were heavily armed. Nevertheless, Alexei began the war with great success, capturing Chembalo (Balaklava) by an unexpected assault. The Genoese garrisons requested assistance. And she came: a squadron of 20 ships and about 6 thousand soldiers.
After a month's siege and several assaults, the Genoese recaptured Cembalo. When the lower city fell, the son of Alexei, who commanded the defense, gathered the remains of the Theodorites and took refuge in the castle of St. Nicholas. In a fierce battle, all of its defenders were killed. Then it was Avlita's turn, left without a fight.
Soon, the Genoese army of 9 thousand people launched an offensive on Solhat, the capital of Tenige. The Theodorites set up an ambush, and the Krymchaks struck with cavalry from the flanks. The Genoese lost about two thousand killed and a thousand prisoners. They still had a lot of forces, but the Genoese traders asked for peace, and the military began negotiations.
Tenige and Alexei invited the envoys to inspect the battlefield, where they laid two giant pyramids of the heads of the dead. The Genoese were shocked, agreed to pay a huge ransom and no longer obstruct Theodoro's maritime trade. Later, Alexei continued the war with Genoa, but died in 1449 under the walls of Cembalo from an accidental crossbow shot.
Last Stand
Meanwhile, the Ottoman Turks, having seized all the possessions of Byzantium, began to think about new conquests. In response, the Theodorites, Krymchaks, Genoese and the ruler of Moldova, Stephen the Great, concluded a defensive alliance.
Aufent Isaac tried to attract distant Muscovy to his side. It was planned that his daughter would marry the widowed Ivan III. The parties exchanged embassies, agreed on details. The Moscow prince was attracted by the prospect of becoming related with the descendants of the Byzantine emperors. But the Theodorites were not up to the wedding - they were mired in wars with Turkey.
The first Turkish landing appeared at Kafa in 1469. However, the city could not be taken, and the Ottoman soldiers, who scattered around the surroundings, were killed by the Theodorites.
In 1475, a fleet of 400 ships with 45 thousand soldiers of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror anchored off the coast of Crimea. The walls of Kafa were destroyed by artillery, the cities of Avlita, Sugdeya, Funa were killed in the fire. It took the Turks only half an hour of battle to compel the Krymchaks to surrender and capture their Khan Mengli Girey.
The enemy approached the steep cliffs of Mangup. All the remaining forces of the Theodorites (about 5 thousand soldiers), 300 Moldovan soldiers and several dozen Genoese gathered there. The siege lasted six months, the fortress withstood several assaults.
Isaac, who wanted to surrender the city to the Ottomans, was killed by the military leaders, and his relative Alexander stood at the head of the defense.
The Turks went for a trick. They pretended to retreat and left the camp. However, the Janissary corps was left in ambush. The Theodorites, exhausted by a six-month siege and hunger, left the fortress hoping to profit from food. Then the Turkish cavalry went on the attack, and the janissaries cut off the soldiers who had left the fortress from Mangup.
The battle continued for several hours. Theodorites managed to break into the fortress, while almost the entire body of the Janissaries was killed. One Genoese officer who miraculously survived, who later returned to his homeland, said that it was on that day that he understood the meaning of a book he had read about the ruler of the Huns Attila: “The Goths fought with such fury that it became scary. This is probably how Attila's warriors fought. The Genoese, apparently, was not too educated and confused the Goths with the Huns.
Unfortunately for the Feodorites, the Turks rushed into the city on the shoulders of the squad. The last defenders of Mangup took refuge in the prince's castle, where they died, having fulfilled the oath of the fighters of Theodoro. "The fearless warriors of Allah attacked the enemies from all sides, shedding the blood of the infidels with rain … forcing them to swim in seas of blood," boasted the Turkish commander Gedik Ahmed Pasha. In his homeland, because of this boasting, he gained the reputation of a liar.
Only Alexander and a few wounded soldiers were captured and taken to Constantinople, where they were subsequently executed. Seven years later, another sultan, Bayazid, learned that Gedik Ahmed Pasha promised to save Alexander's life, but in Constantinople he did not tell anyone about this promise. For this they cut off his head. And the glorious history of the small principality of Theodoro, which for many years successfully fought with much stronger opponents, ended there.
Artem PROKUROROV