Crimea has always been a cauldron of peoples, where the fate of peoples and entire states was decided. The ancient and modern history of the peninsula keeps many mysteries, some of which we still have to solve.
The origin of Crimea
The first mystery in the history of Crimea is the very formation of the peninsula. In 1996, American geologists William Ryan and Walter Pitman of Columbia University formulated the theory of the so-called "Black Sea Flood". According to it, until the sixth millennium BC, Crimea was not a peninsula, but was a fragment of a larger land mass, which included the territory of the modern Azov Sea. About 5500 BC, as a result of an earthquake and a shift of lithospheric plates, waters broke out from the Mediterranean Sea, the Bosphorus Strait was formed, the level of the Black Sea rose by 140 meters, its volume increased by one and a half times. There is a version that it was this event that served as the basis for the myth of the worldwide flood prevailing in many cultures. Some historians also associate Plato's account of Atlantis with the flooding of the Black Sea. The Ryan-Pitman theory has been criticized, but at the moment it is not refuted. Having explored the shores of the Black Sea in 2000, carrying out radiocarbon analysis of mollusks and changes in sedimentary rocks in the reservoir, the famous marinologist Ballard came to the conclusion that 7500 thousand years ago the Black Sea was absolutely fresh, which indirectly confirms the theory of the expansion of the Black Sea as a Flood …which indirectly confirms the theory of the expansion of the Black Sea as a Flood.which indirectly confirms the theory of the expansion of the Black Sea as a Flood.
Where did the Crimean Goths disappear to?
Since ancient times, Crimea has been a real ethnic cauldron, in which tribes, peoples and even entire states were melted. Crimea survived the Cimmerian period, the Scythian period, the Greek period, the Gothic period, the period of the invasion of the Mongol-Tatars, the period of the rule of the Genoese. For a long time the Goths ruled in Crimea. The fortress of Doros became the stronghold of the Crimean Gothia, after the conquest by the Khazars and until our time called Mangup-kale - a huge cave city, which is still a tourist mecca of Crimea.
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The isolated mountain plateau was supplied with drinking water from mountain springs, and therefore was a unique, half artificial and half natural fortification.
In 1475 the Ottomans defeated the Goths. The Turks took Kafa (a fortress is now preserved), laid siege to Mangup. The land falls into decay, finding itself on the outskirts of the Turkish lands, and the Gothic princely family survived in the Golovin boyar family - the Gothic princes-emigrants who lived in Moscow.
Where did the Crimean Goths themselves disappear? The question is not idle. At the end of the 16th century, the envoy of the Austrian emperor Ferdinand, Baron Ogier Ghislain de Busbeck, mentioned in his letter that once, during a diplomatic mission in the Ottoman Empire, he met a man in Istanbul who claimed to be a Crimean Goth. He forgot his native language, but his companion, a Greek, allegedly knew the Crimean Gothic language, and after a short conversation Busbek compiled a small Crimean Gothic dictionary, which is the only written monument of this language, similar to the Gothic of Wulfila's time.
In the 18th-19th centuries, among the Crimean Tatars, ethnographers discovered atypical-looking people who vaguely resemble the Crimean Goths in their anthropological characteristics, as a result of which the theory is born that the Goths continue to exist on the territory of Crimea. Nazi scientists are clinging to this theory, planning to annex Crimea to the Reich and create there "Gotenland", that is, the land is ready.
Megaliths of Crimea
The most mysterious ancient structures of the Crimea are megaliths. On the peninsula, they are represented by menhirs - vertical stone pillars, dolmens - stone crypts of five slabs, and cromlechs - circles of stones, most likely related to the solar cults of the ancient peoples inhabiting the peninsula.
The most famous menhir of Crimea is the Bakhchisarai menhir. Interest in it grew after, at the end of the last century, the engineer of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, Alexander Lagutin, suggested that the Bakhchisarai menhir was built as an astronomical observatory. Lagutin spent several years observing, determining the relationship of the menhir with solar cycles and came to the conclusion that the orientation of the menhir was carried out on the basis of the vernal equinox. It is not possible to establish the exact age of the menhir. Most likely, it dates back to the time of the Taurus rule of the Crimea.
Secret submarine base
Crimea has a truly heroic military history. And if a lot has been written about wars and battles on the territory of the peninsula, then for a long time the general public was not aware of one strategic object on the territory of Crimea. We are talking about a secret submarine base in Balaklava, also called "object 825 GTS". This base was built after the war on the personal instructions of Stalin. The project was originally supervised by Lavrenty Beria.
The construction of the facility was carried out by a specially created construction department No. 528. The base was built for 8 years, from 1953 to 1961, during this time about 120 tons of rock were removed. To ensure secrecy, the export was carried out at night on barges into the open sea. First, the object was built by the military, then by the metro builders.
Object 825 GTS was erected as a first category anti-nuclear defense structure (protection against a direct hit from a 100 kt atomic bomb). There was an underground water canal with a dry dock, repair shops, fuel and lubricants depots, a mine and torpedo unit.
The secret submarine base was designed to shelter, repair and maintain submarines of the 613th and 633th projects and store ammunition for these submarines. The channel (602 meters long) of the facility could accommodate 7 submarines of the indicated projects.
Why was Crimea transferred to Ukraine?
The main geopolitical mystery of the history of Crimea is the issue of its transfer to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954. Scientists are still debating the reasons for this historic decision. According to one of the versions, in this way the USSR avoided the transfer of Crimea to the Jewish Republic on the basis of "credit history" with American bankers (the "Joint" organization).
According to another version, it was a gift to Ukraine in honor of the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the Pereyaslav Rada. Among the reasons are also mentioned unfavorable conditions for farming in the steppe regions of the peninsula and the territorial proximity of Crimea to Ukraine. Many support the version according to which the “Ukrainization” of Crimea was supposed to contribute to the restoration of the destroyed national economy.