Turkish, independent, Russian: Crimea in the 18th century
How the peninsula was annexed to the Russian Empire under Catherine II
"Yako, the king of Crimea, came to our land ..."
The first raid of the Crimean Tatars for slaves on the land of Moscow Russia took place in 1507 year. Before that, the lands of Muscovy and the Crimean Khanate were divided between the Russian and Ukrainian territories of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, so Muscovites and Krymchaks even sometimes united against the Litvinians who dominated the entire 15th century in Eastern Europe.
In 1511 — 1512, the “Crimeans”, as the Russian chronicles called them, twice ravaged the land of Ryazan, and the following year, Bryansk. Two years later, two new devastations of the Kasimov and Ryazan environs were committed, with a massive population withdrawal into slavery. In the 1517 year - the raid on Tula, and in 1521 - the first Tatars' raid on Moscow, the ruin of the neighborhood and the enslavement of many thousands. Six years later, the next big foray into Moscow. The crown of the Crimean raids on Russia - 1571 was the year when Khan Girey burned Moscow, sacked more than 30 Russian cities and enslaved about 60 thousands of people.
As one of the Russian chroniclers wrote: “Vesi, father, real trouble for us, as the king of Crimea came to our land, to the Oka river ashore, many hordes with them together.” In the summer of 1572 of the year in 50 kilometers south of Moscow, a fierce battle of Molodyah went on for four days - one of the largest battles in stories Moscow Rus, when the Russian army with great difficulty defeated the army of the Crimea.
In the years of the Time of Troubles, the Crimeans almost annually made major raids on Russian lands, they continued throughout the 17th century. For example, in 1659, the Crimean Tatars under Yelets, Kursk, Voronezh, and Tula burned 4674 at home and enslaved 25 448 people.
By the end of the XVII century, the opposition moves to the south of Ukraine, closer to the Crimea. For the first time, Russian armies are trying to attack directly the peninsula itself, which for almost two centuries, since the times of the raids on the Crimea by the Lithuanians, did not know foreign invasions and was a safe haven for slave traders. However, the XVIII century is not complete without the raids of the Tatars. For example, in 1713, the Crimeans rob Kazan and Voronezh provinces, and the following year, the neighborhood of Tsaritsyn. A year later - Tambov.
It is indicative that the last raid with a massive deportation of people into slavery took place only fourteen years before the Crimea joined Russia - the Crimean Tatar “horde” in 1769 year devastated the Slavic settlements between modern Kirovograd and Kherson.
The Tatar population of Crimea lived in fact subsistence agriculture, professed Islam and was not taxed. For several centuries, the economy of the Crimean Khanate consisted of taxes collected from the non-Tatar population of the peninsula - the trade and craft population of the Khanate was exclusively Greeks, Armenians and Karaites. But the main source of super-profits for the Crimean nobility was the “raiding economy” —the seizure of slaves in Eastern Europe and their resale to the Mediterranean regions. As a Turkish official explained to a Russian diplomat in the middle of the 18th century: “There are more than one hundred thousand Tatars who have neither farming nor trade: if they do not make raids, then what will they live?”
Tatar Kafa - modern Theodosia - was one of the largest slave markets of the time. Four centuries as a living commodity here were sold annually from a few thousand before — after the most “successful” raids - several tens of thousands of people.
“Crimean Tatars will never be useful subjects”
Russia launched a counteroffensive from the end of the 17th century, when the first Crimean campaigns of Prince Golitsyn followed. To the Crimea, the archers with the Cossacks on the second attempt reached, but Perekop did not overcome. For the first time, Russians took revenge for the burning of Moscow only in 1736, when Field Marshal Munnich’s troops broke through Perekop and captured Bakhchisarai. But then the Russians could not stay in Crimea because of the epidemics and the opposition of Turkey.
“Zatechnaya feature. Southern frontier ”Maximilian Presnyakov.
By the beginning of the reign of Catherine II, the Crimean Khanate posed no military threat, but remained a problematic neighbor as an autonomous part of the powerful Ottoman Empire. It is no coincidence that the first report on Crimea for Ekaterina was prepared exactly one week after she ascended the throne as a result of a successful coup.
6 July 1762, Chancellor Mikhail Vorontsov, presented the report “On the Little Tataria”. The following was said about the Crimean Tatars: “They are very prone to abduction and misdeeds ... Russia has experienced sensitive harm and resentment with frequent raids, the capture of many thousands of inhabitants, the cattle’ back and robbery. ” And the key importance of the Crimea was emphasized: “The peninsula is so important with its location that it can really be honored with the key of the Russian and Turkish possessions; until he remains in Turkish nationality, it will always be terrible for Russia. ”
The discussion of the Crimean issue continued at the height of the Russian-Turkish war of 1768 — 1774. Then the actual government of the Russian Empire was the so-called Council at the highest court. 15 March 1770 year at the meeting of the Council considered the issue of the annexation of the Crimea. Companions of Empress Catherine judged that "the Crimean Tatars, by their nature and position, will never be useful subjects," besides, "no decent taxes can be collected from them."
But as a result, the Council made a cautious decision not to annex Crimea to Russia, but to try to isolate it from Turkey. “With such direct citizenship, Russia will arouse common and not unreasonable envy and suspicion of the infinite intention of multiplying its areas against itself,” said the Council’s decision on a possible international reaction.
France was the main ally of Turkey - it was her actions that were feared in St. Petersburg.
In her letter to General Peter Panin of 2 on April 1770, Empress Catherine summed up: “There is no our intention to have this peninsula and the Tatar hordes belonging to it, in our citizenship, and it is desirable only that they are rejected from the citizenship of Turetsky and remain forever in independence ... Tatars will never be useful to our empire. "
In addition to independence of the Crimea from the Ottoman Empire, the government of Catherine planned to obtain from the Crimean khan consent to giving Russia the right to have military bases in Crimea. At the same time, the government of Catherine II took into account such subtlety that all the main fortresses and the best harbors on the southern coast of Crimea belonged not to the Tatars, but to the Turks - and in the event that it was not too pitiful for the Tatars to give the Turkish possessions to the Russians.
During the year, Russian diplomats tried to convince the Crimean Khan and his divan (government) to declare independence from Istanbul. Tatars during the negotiations tried not to say yes or no. As a result, the Imperial Council in St. Petersburg at the 11 meeting of November 1770 of the year decided to exert strong pressure on the Crimea if the Tatars living on this peninsula still remain stubbornly and do not stick to the Ottoman ports that had already postponed.
Fulfilling this decision of St. Petersburg, in the summer of 1771, troops under the command of Prince Dolgorukov entered the Crimea and inflicted two defeats on the forces of Khan Selim III.
Regarding the occupation of Kafa (Theodosia) and the termination of the largest slave market in Europe, Catherine II 22 July 1771 wrote Voltaire to Paris: “If we took Kafa, the costs of the war are covered”. Regarding the policy of the French government, which actively supported the Turks and the Polish insurgents who fought with Russia, Catherine in a letter to Voltaire deigned to joke all over Europe: “In Constantinople, they are very sad about losing the Crimea. We should send them a comic opera to dispel their sadness, and a puppet comedy to Polish rioters; it would be more useful to them than a large number of officers whom France sends to them. ”
"The most amiable Tatar"
Under these conditions, the Crimean Tatars knew about temporarily forgetting about the Turkish patrons and quickly come to terms with the Russians. 25 June 1771 was a meeting of beys, local bureaucrats and clergy signed a preliminary act of commitment to declare the khanate independent from Turkey, and also to enter into an alliance with Russia, electing Khan and kalga (Khan’s successor) to Russia’s loyal descendants of Genghis Khan - Sahib Giray and Shagin-Giray. Former Khan fled to Turkey.
In the summer of 1772, peace negotiations began with the Ottomans, at which Russia demanded to recognize the independence of the Crimean Khanate. As an objection, the Turkish representatives spoke in the spirit that, having gained independence, the Tatars would start “doing stupid things”.
“View of Sevastopol from the Northern Forts” by Carlo Bossoli
The Tatar government in Bakhchisarai tried to evade signing a treaty with Russia, awaiting the outcome of the Russian negotiations with the Turks. At this time, an embassy led by Kalga Shagin-Giray arrived in St. Petersburg from the Crimea.
The young prince was born in Turkey, but he managed to travel around Europe, he knew Italian and Greek. The Empress liked the representative of the Khan's Crimea. Catherine II described her in a letter to one of her friends in a very feminine way: “We have here kalga-sultan, a genus of the Crimean dauphin. This, I think, is the most amiable Tatar who can be found: he is handsome, smart, educated more than these people ever are; writes poems; he is only 25 years old; he wants to see and know everything; everyone loved him. "
In St. Petersburg, the descendant of Genghis Khan continued and deepened his passion for modern European art and theater, but this did not strengthen his popularity among the Crimean Tatars.
By the autumn of 1772, the Russians managed to finish off Bakhchisarai, and on November 1 an agreement was signed between the Russian Empire and the Crimean Khanate. It recognized the independence of the Crimean Khan, its election without any participation of third countries, and the cities of Kerch and Yenikale with their harbors and adjacent lands were assigned to Russia.
However, the Imperial Council in St. Petersburg experienced some confusion when Vice Admiral Aleksey Senyavin, who successfully commanded the Azov and Black Sea, arrived at his meeting fleet. He explained that neither Kerch nor Yenikale are convenient bases for the fleet, and new ships cannot be built there. According to Senyavin, the best place for the base of the Russian fleet was the Akhtiar harbor, now we know it as the harbor of Sevastopol.
Although the agreement with the Crimea was already concluded, but for luck for St. Petersburg, the main agreement with the Turks was still to be signed. And Russian diplomats were quick to include in it new requirements for new harbors in the Crimea.
As a result, some concessions had to be made to the Turks, and in the text of Kyuchuk-Kaynardzhi peace treaty 1774 of the year, in the paragraph on the independence of the Tatars, there was still a provision on the religious supremacy of Istanbul over the Crimea - a requirement that was persistently put forward by the Turkish side.
For the still-medieval society of the Crimean Tatars, the religious supremacy was weakly separated from the administrative one. The Turks also considered this clause of the treaty as a convenient tool for keeping the Crimea in the orbit of their policies. Under these conditions, Catherine II seriously thought about building a pro-Russian Kalgi Shagin-Giray on the Crimean throne.
However, the Imperial Council preferred to be cautious and decided that “with this change we could break our treaties with the Tatars and give the Turks a reason to bow them again to our side”. Khan remained Sahib-Giray, the elder brother of Shagin-Giray, ready to alternately fluctuate between Russia and Turkey, depending on the circumstances.
At that time, the Turks were brewing a war with Austria, and in Istanbul they hurried not only to ratify the peace treaty with Russia, but also in accordance with its demands to recognize the Crimean Khan elected under pressure from the Russian troops.
As envisaged by the Kuchuk-Kainarji Treaty, the Sultan sent his Caliph blessing to Sahib-Girey. However, the arrival of the Turkish delegation, the purpose of which was to present the sultan "firman" to the khan, confirmation of the board, had the opposite effect in the Crimean society. The Tatars took the arrival of the Turkish ambassadors for another attempt by Istanbul to return the Crimea to their usual power. As a result, the Tatar nobility forced Sahib-Giray to resign and quickly chose the new Khan Davlet-Giray, who never concealed his pro-Turkish orientation.
Petersburg was unpleasantly surprised by the coup and decided to bet on Shagin-Giray.
The Turks, meanwhile, suspended the withdrawal of their troops from the Crimea, stipulated by the peace treaty (their garrisons still remained in several mountain fortresses) and began hinting to Russian diplomats in Istanbul about the impossibility of independent existence of the peninsula. In St. Petersburg they understood that the problem could not be solved by diplomatic pressure and indirect actions.
After waiting for the beginning of winter, when the transfer of troops across the Black Sea was difficult and in Bakhchisarai could not count on an ambulance from the Turks, the Russian troops concentrated at Perekop. Here they waited for the news of the election of Khan of the Nogai Tatars Shagin-Girey. In January, 1777, the corps of Prince Prozorovsky, entered Crimea, accompanying Shagin-Giray, the legitimate ruler of the Nogai Tatars.
The pro-Turkish Khan Davlet-Girey was not going to surrender, he gathered a forty-thousand-strong militia and marched out of Bakhchisarai to meet the Russians. Here he tried to deceive Prozorovsky - he began negotiations with him and in their midst unexpectedly attacked the Russian troops. But the actual military leader of the expedition Prozorovsky was Alexander Suvorov. The future generalissimo repulsed an unexpected attack of the Tatars and defeated their militia.
Khan Davlet-Girey.
Davlet Girey fled under the protection of the Ottoman garrison in Cafu, from where it sailed to Istanbul in the spring. Russian troops easily occupied Bakhchisarai, and in March 28 1777, the Crimean sofa recognized Khan Shagin-Giray.
The Turkish Sultan, as the head of the Muslims of the whole world, did not recognize Shagin as a Crimean Khan. But the young ruler enjoyed the full support of St. Petersburg. Under an agreement with Shagin-Giray, Russia received the income of the Crimean treasury from salt lakes, all taxes levied from local Christians, as well as the harbor in Balaclava and Gezlev (now Yevpatoria) as compensation for their expenses. In fact, the entire economy of the Crimea came under Russian control.
"Crimean Peter I"
Having spent most of his life in Europe and Russia, where he received an excellent modern education for those years, Shagin-Giray was very different from the entire upper class of his native country. The flatterers in Bakhchisarai even began to call him "the Crimean Peter I".
Khan Shagin began with the creation of a regular army. Prior to this, in the Crimea, there was only the militia, which was collected in case of danger, or in the preparation of the next raid on slaves. The role of standing troops was played by the Turkish garrisons, but they were evacuated to Turkey after the conclusion of the Kyuchuk-Kaynardzhi peace treaty. Shagin-Girey conducted a census of the population and decided to take one soldier from every five Tatar houses, and these houses should supply the soldier weapons, horse and all necessary. Such a costly measure for the population caused strong discontent and it was not possible to create a large army of the new Khan, although he had a relatively efficient Khan Guard.
Shagin is trying to transfer the capital of the state to the seaside Cafu (Feodosia), where the construction of a large palace begins. He introduces a new system of bureaucracy - following the example of Russia, a hierarchical service is created with a fixed salary issued from the Khan's treasury, local officials are deprived of the old right to take levies directly from the population.
The wider the reform activity of the “Crimean Peter I” unfolded, the more the discontent of the aristocracy and the entire Tatar population with the new khan increased. At the same time, the Europeanized Khan Shagin-Girey executed those suspected of disloyalty in an Asian way.
The young Khan was no stranger to both Asian pomp and a penchant for European luxury - he wrote expensive art objects from Europe, invited fashion artists from Italy. Such tastes shocked the Crimean Muslims. There were rumors spread among Tatars that Khan Shagin "is asleep on a bed, sits down on a chair and does not do the proper prayers".
Dissatisfaction with the reforms of the "Crimean Peter I" and the growing influence of St. Petersburg led to a mass uprising in the Crimea, which broke out in October of the 1777 year.
A riot, starting in the midst of the newly recruited troops, instantly swept the entire Crimea. The Tatars, having assembled the militia, managed to destroy a large detachment of Russian light cavalry in the area of Bakhchisarai. Khan Guard moved to the side of the rebels. The uprising was led by the Shagin-Giray brothers. One of them, the former leader of the Abkhazians and Circassians, was elected by the rebels as the new Khan of Crimea.
“We must think about the appropriation of this peninsula”
The Russians reacted quickly and harshly. Field Marshal Rumyantsev insisted on the toughest measures against the insurgent Tatars in order to "feel the brunt of the Russian weapons and bring them to the point of relief". Among the measures to suppress the uprising were the actual concentration camps of the 18th century, when the Tatar population (mainly the families of the rioters) were driven into the blocked mountain valleys and kept there without food supplies.
Off the coast of the Crimea appeared the Turkish fleet. In Akhtiar harbor entered the frigates that brought the landing and a note of protest against the actions of Russian troops in the Crimea. Sultan in accordance with the Kyuchuk-Kaynardzhiysky peace treaty demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from the independent Crimea. Neither the Russians nor the Turks were ready for a big war, but formally the Turkish troops could be present in the Crimea, since there were Russian units there. Therefore, the Turks attempted to land on the Crimean coast without using weapons, while the Russians tried to prevent them from doing so without shots.
Here the case of Suvorov helped the troops. A plague epidemic began in Istanbul and, under the pretext of quarantine, the Russians announced that they could not send the Turks ashore. In the words of Suvorov himself, they were "with complete tenderness denied." The Turks were forced to depart back to the Bosphorus. So the Tatar rebels were left without the support of Ottoman patrons.
After that, Shagin-Giray and the Russian units managed to quickly deal with the rebels. Controversy between the Tatar clans and contenders for the Khan's throne also contributed to the defeat of the uprising.
It was then that in St. Petersburg seriously thought about the full annexation of the Crimea to Russia. In the office of Prince Potemkin, a curious document appears - an anonymous "Discussing of one Russian Patriot, about wars with Tatars, and about the methods that serve to stop them forever." In fact, this is an analytical report and a detailed plan for joining from 11 points. Many of them were put into practice in the coming decades. For example, in the third article “Discourses” it is said about the need to provoke feuds among various Tatar clans. And indeed, from the middle of the 70 of the 18th century in the Crimea and in the nomadic hordes around him with the help of Russian agents riots and quarrels did not cease. The fifth article talks about the desirability of evicting unreliable Tatars from the Crimea. And after the annexation of the Crimea, the tsarist government actually encouraged the movement of "Muhajirs" - agitators for the resettlement of the Crimean Tatars to Turkey.
Plans for the settlement of the peninsula by Christian nations (article 9 “Discourses”) were implemented by Potemkin very actively in the near future: Bulgarians, Greeks, Germans, Armenians were invited, Russian peasants resettled from the inner regions of the empire. Paragraph No. 10, in which it was supposed to return their ancient Greek names to the cities of Crimea, was also put into practice. In Crimea, already existing settlements were renamed (Kafa-Feodosiya, Gezlev-Evpatoria, etc.); and all newly formed cities received Greek names.
In fact, the annexation of the Crimea was held according to the plan, which is still preserved in the archives.
Catherine soon after the suppression of the Tatar rebellion wrote a letter to Field Marshal Rumyantsev in which she agreed with his proposals: “The independence of the Tatars in Crimea is unreliable for us, and we must think about the appropriation of this peninsula.”
Field Marshal Peter Alexandrovich Rumyantsev-Zadunaysky.
To begin, followed by measures to completely eliminate the economic independence of the Khanate. By September 1778, more than 30, thousands of local Christians, guarded by Russian troops, left the Crimea to settle on the northern coast of the Azov Sea. The main goal of this action was to weaken the economy of the khanate. In compensation for the loss of the most hard-working citizens, the Russian treasury paid the 50 to the Crimean Khan for thousands of rubles.
The rank and file of the Tatar population of Crimea lived in subsistence agriculture and cattle breeding — the Tatar lower classes were the source of the militia, but not the source of taxes. Almost all crafts, trade and art developed in the Crimea thanks to the Jews, Armenians and Greeks, who formed the tax base of the Khanate. There was a kind of “division of labor”: the Armenians were engaged in construction, the Greeks traditionally excelled in horticulture and viticulture, beekeeping and jewelry were entrusted to the Karaites. Armenians and Karaites prevailed in the trading environment.
During the recent anti-Russian insurrection 1777, the Christian communities of the Greeks and Armenians were supported by Russian troops, after which they were subjected to pogroms by the Tatars. Therefore, St. Petersburg has furnished the removal of the majority of the urban population of Crimea as a humanitarian action to save ethnic minorities.
Having deprived Tatar nobility of all sources of income (raids on slaves were no longer possible, and then taxes from local Christians disappeared), in St. Petersburg they pushed the Crimean aristocracy to a simple choice: either to emigrate to Turkey, or to go for a salary in the service of the Russian monarchy. Both decisions are quite satisfied with Petersburg.
"Your Crimea and there is no this warts on the nose"
10 March 1779 in Istanbul, Turkey and Russia signed a convention reaffirming the independence of the Crimean Khanate. Simultaneously with its signing, the Sultan finally recognized the legal Khan of the pro-Russian Shagin-Giray.
Here, Russian diplomats beat the Turks, recognizing once again the independence of the Khanate and the legitimacy of the current Khan, Istanbul thereby recognized their sovereign right to any decision, including the abolition of the Khanate and its annexation to Russia.
Two years later, another symbolic step followed - in 1781, Khan Shagin-Giray was accepted into the rank of captain for Russian military service. This further aggravated relations in the Crimean Tatar society, since most Tatars did not understand how an independent Islamic monarch could be in the service of the “infidel”.
Discontent led to another mass riot in the Crimea in May 1782, again led by numerous Khan brothers. Shagin Giray fled from Bakhchisarai to Cafu, and from there to Kerch under the protection of the Russian garrison.
Turkey tried to help, but in the summer Istanbul was almost destroyed by a terrible fire, and its population was on the verge of starvation riot. In such circumstances, the Turkish government could not actively intervene in the affairs of the Crimean Khanate.
10 September 1782, Prince Potemkin writes a note to Catherine "On the Crimea". It speaks directly about the annexation of the peninsula: "By the position of the Crimea, our borders are torn apart ... Put now that Crimea is yours and that this wart is no longer on the nose."
The revolt against Shagin-Giray became a convenient reason for a new entry into the peninsula of the Russian army. The soldiers of Catherine defeated the Tatar militia near Chongar, occupied Bakhchisarai and captured the majority of the Tatar nobility.
Shagin-Girey began to chop the heads of his brothers and other rebels. The Russians demonstratively restrained the Khan's anger and even took out a part of his relatives, who were doomed to execution, under protection in Kherson.
Nerves of the young Khan could not stand it, and in February 1783 of the year he did what he was gently but persistently pushing the luminous Prince Potemkin - the autocratic monarch of Crimea, a descendant of Genghis Khan Shagin-Giray abdicated. It is known that Potemkin very generously paid the delegation of the Crimean Tatar nobility, which voiced before Shagin-Giray a proposal to renounce and annex the Crimea to Russia. Significant cash payments were also received by the Tatar Bei, who agreed to agitate the local population for joining the empire.
The manifesto of Catherine II of 8 on April 1783 of the year was announced about the entry of the Crimean peninsula, Taman and Kuban into the Russian Empire.
"They are not worth this land"
A year after the liquidation of the Crimean Khanate, 2 in February 1784, the imperial decree appears “On the formation of the Tauride region” - the administration and territorial division of the former Crimean Khanate is unified with the rest of Russia. The Crimean Zemstvo government of ten people was formed, headed by a representative of the most influential Tatar clan Bey Shirinsky, whose clan went back to the warlords of the Golden Horde heyday, and one of the ancestors burned Moscow in 1571 year.
However, the zemstvo Crimean government did not take independent decisions, especially without coordination with the Russian administration, and really managed the peninsula by the protege of Prince Potemkin, the head of the "main military apartment" Vasily Kakhovsky located in Karasubazar.
Potemkin himself spoke sharply about the population of the former khanate: “This peninsula will be better in everything if we get rid of the Tatars. I swear, they are not worth this land. ” In order to tie the peninsula to Russia, Prince Potemkin began a massive resettlement of Greek Christians from Turkey to the Crimea, in order to attract settlers, they were granted the right to free trade.
Four years after the liquidation of the Khanate, representatives of the Tatar nobility in the Russian service — the collegiate councilor Magmet-aga and the out-court adviser Batyr-aga — received from Potemkin and Kakhovsky the task of evicting all the Crimean Tatars from the southern coast of Crimea. Tatar officials zealously got down to business and within one year cleared the best, most fertile coast of Crimea from their relatives, resettling them in the interior of the peninsula. The tsarist government imported Greeks and Bulgarians to the place of the evicted Tatars.
Along with oppression, the Crimean Tatars, with the filing of the same “brightest prince”, received a number of benefits: by decree of February 2 of 1784, the upper classes of the Crimean Tatar society — Beyim and Murza — were granted all the rights of the Russian nobility, simple Tatars were not subject to recruitment and Moreover, the Crimean Tatar peasants were ranked as state, they were not subject to serfdom. By banning the slave trade, the tsarist government left all their slaves in the property of the Tatars, freeing only Russians and Ukrainians from Tatar slavery.
The only indigenous community of the former Crimean Khanate, which was not affected by the transformation of St. Petersburg, was the Karaite Jews. They were even given some tax breaks.
Potemkin had the idea to relocate the English convicts to the Crimea, buying from the British government those sentenced to exile in Australia. However, the Russian ambassador in London, Vorontsov, opposed this. He sent a letter to the Empress to St. Petersburg of the following content: “What could be the use of our extensive empire, buying annually 90 — 100 villains, fiends, you can say, the human race, who are unable to tillage or needlework, being all almost filled with all diseases, which koi usually follow their vile lives? They will be to the board and to the detriment of other inhabitants; in vain the treasury will spend a dependency on dwellings and on feeding these new Haidak. ” Ambassador Vorontsov managed to convince Catherine.
But from 1802, immigrants from various German monarchies began to arrive in the Crimea. Colonists from Württemberg, Baden, and the Zurich canton of Switzerland founded colonies in Sudak, and people from Alsace-Lorraine created a parish near Theodosia. Not far from Dzhankoy the Germans from Bavaria established the Neizatsky volost. Already by 1805, these colonies became quite large settlements.
The last Crimean Khan, the failed reformer Shagin-Giray, accompanied by a harem and a retinue of two thousand, lived in Voronezh and Kaluga for a few years, but soon wished to leave Russia. The queen did not hold him, the former Khan arrived in Istanbul, where he was very kindly met by the Turkish Sultan Abul-Hamid and sent a descendant of Genghis Khan, tired of the Russian winter, to the sunny island of Rhodes. When the next Russian-Turkish war began in 1787, Shagin-Girey was strangled on the orders of the Sultan just in case.
After the manifesto of Catherine II on the annexation of the Crimea to Russia, there were no open resistance actions of the Crimean Tatars for more than half a century, until the appearance of the Anglo-French landing force on the peninsula in 1854 year.
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