How did it happen that a tiny Tatar horde invaded Crimea in the 13th century, and then kept half of Eastern Europe at bay for 500 years, engaging in only racketeering and the slave trade?
When, under Catherine II, after several centuries of almost continuous wars, Russian troops finally conquered Crimea, the population of the peninsula numbered only half a million people. In the "great" khan's capital Bakhchisarai lived fewer people than in the seedy present regional center - some 6 thousand.
Bakhchisarai / Carlo Bossoli
The khanate did not have any industry, with the exception of workshops for making saddles and knives. And he was not even going to start it, since his economy was built not on production, but on redistribution. For from the moment of its inception and almost to the very end, the "Crimean panstvo", as this power was called in the office of the Little Russian hetmans, was engaged in what is called racketeering in modern language.
Smithy in Bakhchisarai / Lithograph by August Raff, 1837
The whole policy of the khan boiled down to the fact that he terrorized the neighboring states with a monotonous annoying method: “We are wild people, hungry, but warlike, descendants of Genghis Khan himself. Give it for food, otherwise we'll kill you!"
But then the word “racketeering” was not known either in Moscow or in Warsaw, using the wonderful term “commemoration” instead. Today it is associated only with funerals. And in the 16th-17th centuries, the so-called compensation was also used, which paid the khan for good behavior so that he did not behave disgracefully - he did not steal cattle, people and those material values that could be dragged away on a shaggy Tatar horse.
Tatars were not an indigenous people in Crimea. Their ancestors appeared there only during the Mongol invasion - in the XIII century. Prior to this, the peninsula was inhabited by the descendants of the ancient Greeks, who created their cities on the coast, the Khazars and the Goths - a Germanic tribe that came there from Scandinavia during the era of the Great Nations Migration (3rd century AD). Nowadays it is hard to believe, but the Gothic speech sounded in the Crimea even at the beginning of the Khan's era.
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Crimean Goths
Travelers noted that it is very similar to other Germanic dialects. The Italian Josaphat Barbaro, who came to Crimea in the 15th century, wrote in his diary: “Behind Kafa, along the bend of the coast, there is Gothia. Goths speak German. I know this because my servant, a German, was with me. They spoke to him and fully understood each other."
And even at the end of the 19th century, the famous Kiev historian Yulian Kulakovsky, who left an interesting book about the antiquities of Taurida, noted that among the Tatar buildings in the mountainous area there are log cabins reminiscent of those that were erected in Scandinavia. The Crimean Tatars undoubtedly borrowed these building skills from the previous population.
Crimean Goths
Until now, two little-known peoples live in Crimea, who appeared here much earlier than the Tatars - the Krymchaks and the Karaites. In Kiev, there is the House of the Actor on Yaroslavov Val Street - an elegant building in the oriental style. This is a former Karaite church - kenassa. It was built, like many of the most beautiful buildings in Kiev, by the architect Gorodetsky. And the money was given by Solomon Cohen - a Karaite by origin and a tobacco king who owned two cigarette factories in Kiev.
Karaites
Karaites profess a kind of Judaism, but they do not consider themselves Jews and the Talmud do not recognize. They speak one of the Turkic dialects, close to the ancient Polovtsian language. Ethnologists see them as the descendants of the Khazars who once converted to Judaism and who owned not only Crimea, but before the Normans and Kiev. Now there are no more than 6 thousand Karaites living in Crimea. And several thousand more are scattered in different countries, from Turkey to Lithuania.
Krymchaks lived in compact communities in the region of Bakhchisarai, Feodosia, Evpatoria and the Old Crimea, and now they can, if you're lucky, meet in different parts of the peninsula. They also speak Turkic and practice Judaism, but its other kind is more orthodox. Their churches are called synagogues, and their spiritual mentors are called rabbis. They are also referred to as the descendants of the Khazars.
Krymchaks
Both the Karaites and the Krymchaks serve as a monument to the ancient religious war that once tore apart the Khazar Khaganate. They are the heirs of various Khazar "parties". With the Tatars, and with each other, they do not mix. And the Goths were mostly exterminated at the end of the 15th century, when the Turkish army took their fortress Theodoro (also called Mangup). Those who survived merged with the Tatars. The same Julian Kulakovsky was amazed at the "Nordic" appearance of some mountain Tatars, who apparently retained the northern genes.
And where did the descendants of the ancient Greeks go from Crimea? Catherine II moved them to Mariupol in the midst of the Russian-Turkish wars in order to protect this Christian people from extermination. It was not yet clear who Crimea would be left behind. The good empress did not want people who preserved the religion of their ancestors to die in vain. In addition, she wanted to weaken the Crimean Khan. After all, if anyone knew how to work in his country, it was the Greeks - good artisans, gardeners and fishermen.
Everyone knows about the Tatars 'raids on Ukraine, but they forget that they were preceded by the Tatars' raids on the Crimea itself. For the first time, their invasion of the peninsula was recorded in 1223, when the Russian princes were defeated at Kalka. Having defeated the Russians, the horde turned south and walked across the steppe Crimea. The first raid was followed by others, until in 1299 the army of the Tatar leader Nogai captured Chersonesos. The first Crimean khan was a certain Khadzhi-Girey - one of the Golden Horde separatists. He spent ten years in exile with the Polish king, and then with his help he seized the Crimea and founded a local dynasty. The king did not yet suspect what a foolishness he had committed.
Everyone knows about the Tatars 'raids on Ukraine, but they forget that they were preceded by the Tatars' raids on the Crimea itself. For the first time, their invasion of the peninsula was recorded in 1223, when the Russian princes were defeated at Kalka. Having defeated the Russians, the horde turned south and walked across the steppe Crimea. The first raid was followed by others, until in 1299 the army of the Tatar leader Nogai captured Chersonesos.
The first Crimean khan was a certain Khadzhi-Girey, one of the Golden Horde separatists. He spent ten years in exile with the Polish king, and then with his help he seized the Crimea and founded a local dynasty. The king did not yet suspect what a foolishness he had committed.
Here is how Guillaume de Beauplan describes a typical Tatar raid: “They rush to the villages in different directions, surround them with four guards, make strong fires so that none of the inhabitants can escape at night. Then they rob, destroy villages, kill all those who oppose them, take captives surrendering not only men, women, but even babies, take away cattle, horses, bulls, cows, sheep, goats."
There is a misconception that the addiction of today's Ukrainians to pork is due to the fact that the Tatars, who are prohibited by religion from eating this meat, did not touch the piglets. But this is not true either. They even genocided the handsome ones with the piglets. According to the same Boplan, after capturing a village, the Tatars "lock the pigs in a barn or other buildings and in the evening they light them out of disgust for these animals." In general, they did worse than in the well-known proverb: "I can do it, z'im, stop - get fed up."
The question arises: how could a small horde keep half of Eastern Europe at bay? But geography came to the rescue of the ludolphs! In a military sense, they captured a key point that controlled the steppe and forest-steppe zones from the Danube to the Caucasus. All the major rivers of this plain flow from north to south. Leaving the Crimea on a raid, the Tatars did not meet natural obstacles. And they themselves were reliably closed from retribution by the narrow neck of Perekop. In addition, no one could compare with them in mobility. Tatars could even sleep in the saddle. And each of them took three horses on the raid.
And so it went on for centuries. In 1482, the troops of Khan Menli-Girey burned Kiev together with the castle, and the inhabitants were taken prisoner together with the Kiev governor Ivan Chodkevich, his wife and son. Descriptions of the Kiev region show that from the end of the 15th to the middle of the 16th century, the population here sharply decreased. Whoever could, fled north - to White and Great Russia. The peak of the Tatars' successes was the campaign of Khan Devlet-Giray to Moscow in 1571. Then the khan burned the capital of Ivan the Terrible to the ground - only the Kremlin resisted, which turned out to be too tough for the nomads.
It would be wrong to portray the Crimean Khanate as a completely backward society. It just specialized in the slave trade and produced only what was needed for this. Crimean pichak knives were really famous for their quality. In peacetime, they were exported to Moscow and even to Western Europe. In Istanbul, they were forged, putting the Crimean hallmarks on ordinary blades.
The herds of horses reached enormous sizes. The entire population of Crimea, together with the Greeks, Karaites, Jews and Christian captives, did not exceed half a million. And there were at least 300 thousand horses there. In addition to cavalry, the khan also had infantry. The rifles for them - long carbines with ultra-precise combat - were produced in the workshops of Bakhchisarai.
The Zaporozhye Cossacks called these carbines "Turks", like all the guns of eastern origin that they used. But most of them were made not in Turkey, but in the Crimea. If a good horse cost 30 piastres, then a Crimean carbine could cost two hundred. Up to two thousand guns were exported annually. The Tatars also made gunpowder themselves. The Crimean leather became famous - the famous morocco and shagreen. In a word, the Crimea produced everything necessary for the war and the gratification of its nobility. The rest did not interest him.
Soon the borders of the strengthened Crimean Khanate spilled out beyond the peninsula. Old maps show that his possessions also occupied the territory of the present Odessa, Kherson, Nikolaev, Donetsk and half of the Kharkov regions.
Khan was the supreme ruler. His first heir was called Kalga Sultan. The second heir is Nureddin Sultan. Council of State - Divan (there really were sofas, lying on which they decided political issues). And the top of society was made up of beys - the heads of the most important clans.
Shirin, Baryn, Argyn and Kipchak were considered the oldest clans. The Shirinskys were considered the first among the beys. And the presence of the Kipchak clan testifies that some of the Polovtsians also became part of the new people. After all, they called themselves the Kipchaks. The entire state state of Crimea, which received a salary, numbered only 152 people. The rest had to get food as best they could, but do not forget to share with the top.
The main striking force of the khanate was the Nogai Horde, which roamed the steppes north of Perekop. Moreover, she remained the poorest. Anthropologically they have retained the ancient Mongoloid type. And the Tatars, who settled directly in the Crimea, as a result of mixing, poured into themselves the blood of the ancient pre-Tatar population of the peninsula.
The slave trade is not an invention of the Crimean Khan. Long before him, Italians who lived in Sudak and Cafe were engaged in the same craft. The khan only took this trade from them. And ordinary nomads and enlightened Europeans who were going through the Renaissance, and the wild descendant of Chingiz, who replaced them, were used as a tool - like hounds.
It was such a strong state that even the Zaporizhzhya Sich was at times in its power. Many people know that the Cossacks lived under the rule of the khan after foolishly supported Karl XII. But there was an even more shameful page in the history of the Sich. And at the very time of its heyday, when Ivan Sirko lived - "Urus-Shaitan", who inspired fear in Muslims. By the way, his Tatar nickname, translated as “Russian devil,” proves that in the 17th century the population of Ukraine called themselves Russians.
Sirko was a consistent enemy of Crimea, except for those moments when he negotiated with him for political reasons and because of enmity towards the Poles, continuing the course of Khmelnitsky. But there was one more party in the Sich - the pro-Tatar party.
In August 1668, she won and pushed Peter Sukhovey to the post of koshevoy. And he recognized the protectorate of the Crimean Khan over the Sich - paraphrasing the Soviet formula about the Pereyaslavl Rada, "realized the age-old dream of submission to the Tatar people." Alas, there is no chapter on this shame in Ukrainian textbooks.
Once again, I gratefully remember the names of the glorious "Catherine's eagles" - Rumyantsev, Suvorov and Potemkin, who have put an end to what, until recently, proudly called himself "The Great Khan of the Great Horde and Throne of Crimea and the Kypchak Steppes", which in the original sounded: " Ulug Yortning, ve Tehti Kyryining, ve Deshti Kypchak, ulug khani. Do not understand? But if it weren't for the Russian Empire, it could well be your state language.
Oles Buzina