Priazovskie Greeks: Crimeans mastered Novorossia
Haters of the Soviet past, that the monuments of V.I. For some reason, Lenin is forgotten that Ukraine itself, within the boundaries of 2013, is a product of Lenin's national policy, supplemented by a generous Khrushchev's gift. New Russia, claiming that the Kiev authorities did not stop before the almost one-year-long killing of the civilian population, the destruction of residential areas and the infrastructure of entire areas, mastered and settled exclusively due to the entry of this region into the Russian Empire. And from the very beginning of the development of Novorossiysk lands, the region was inhabited by a multinational population. Here, on the once practically empty territory, blooming Greek, Serbian, and German settlements appeared. We have already talked about the Serbian contribution to the development of Novorossia, and in this article we will discuss the Greeks, who made the second largest contribution to the settlement of Novorossiysk lands and their development after Great Russians and Little Russia.
Even now, the Azov Greeks remain the third largest ethnic group in the region. Greek settlements in the Azov Sea region are the largest area of compact residence of the Greek people in the post-Soviet space. As a matter of fact, in the region of the Northern Black Sea region the Greeks appeared in ancient times. Everyone knows about the existence of numerous Greek colonies in the Crimea, in the delta. Don (Tanais). That is, historically, the lands inhabited by the Iranian-speaking Scythian and Sarmatian tribes at that time were considered by the Greeks as a sphere of their economic interests. However, the Greeks began to fully develop the actual territory of the Donetsk region (DPR) only in the 18th century. Their appearance here was the result of the policy of the Russian Empire to weaken the Crimean Khanate and, at the same time, strengthen its southern sparsely populated areas.
Greeks in Crimea, Metropolitan Ignatius and the idea of resettlement
As you know, the Greeks were the most numerous part of the Christian population of the Crimean peninsula, where they lived for more than two and a half thousand years. Despite the gradual Islamization associated with more favorable living conditions of the Muslim population in the Crimean Khanate, by the second half of the 18th century, Christians still constituted the overwhelming majority of residents in various cities and settlements of Crimea. In addition to the Greeks, Armenians, Georgians, descendants of the Crimean Goths and Alans, Vlachs (Romanians) lived in Crimea. In the Crimean Khanate, non-Muslim communities had their own religious autonomies. In particular, the Orthodox population formed a separate community with its own government and judicial system. Since the language of worship was Greek, all the inhabitants of Crimea who professed Orthodoxy gradually acquired Greek identity, which was not so much ethnic as religious. Historian MA Aradzhioni believes that during two centuries of Ottoman domination in Crimea, the descendants of various Crimean Christian ethnic groups became so close to each other that they formed a single national community of the Crimean Greeks (Aradzhioni MA The Greeks of the Crimea and Azov region: story the study and historiography of ethnic history and culture (80-ies. XVIII - 90-ies. XX centuries.). - Simferopol, 1999.).
Strengthening the position of the Russian Empire in the Black Sea region led to the further growth of interest of the Russian government to the fate of the Christian population of Crimea. The success of the Russian Empire in the Crimean politics came in the years of the reign of Empress Catherine II. It was during this period that the Russian government became most concerned about the situation of the Crimean Christians. First of all, this was due to concerns about the gradual Islamization of the Christian population in the Crimea, which actually took place. Indeed, many of the modern Crimean Tatars are descendants of Islamized Greeks, Goths, Slavs, Armenians and other Christians who lived on the peninsula. Under direct or indirect pressure from the Muslim environment, the Crimean Christians adopted a large part of the customs, clothing of the Muslim Turks, and even, in part, their language. In the 18th century, almost all Crimean Greeks used the Crimean Tatar language in everyday life, and although the Greek language was still preserved by the Orthodox Church, under the influence of Turkic-speaking parishioners, the Crimean Tatar language gradually penetrated the church sphere. Thus, in the Crimean Tatar language, but in Greek letters, church books and business documents of the metropolis were written. Naturally, this situation did not please church circles and secular authorities.
At the beginning of 1771, Ignatius (1715-1786) was appointed as the new metropolitan of the Gotfey-Kefai diocese. As the historian G. Timoshevsky writes about him, “he was an energetic, independent, domineering man; a politician who understood the affairs of the Crimea and Russia well; patriot in the strictest sense; he decided, using the general state of affairs, to save his flock not only as Christians, but also as Greeks, in whose revival and future he obviously believed - this was the basic idea of his life ”(quoted in Yarutsky L. Mariupol antiquity. M., 1991. C. 24.). Ignatius Gozadinov (Khazadinov) was a native of the Greek island of Fermia. As a youth, he was raised on Mount Athos, where he received monastic tonsure, was ordained priest, then became bishop, archbishop, member of the Ecumenical Patriarchal Synclite in Constantinople. After the death of the previous Metropolitan Gideon, Ignatius became the Metropolitan of Gotfey and Kefai. After reviewing the deplorable situation of fellow believers in the Crimea, in September 1771, Metropolitan Ignatius sent a letter to the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, where he spoke about the misadventures of Crimean Christians. In November, 1771, the metropolitan appealed to Catherine II to accept the Crimean Christians in Russian citizenship. A repeated letter of the metropolitan was followed in December 1772. The letters of the metropolitan were carefully considered by the Russian government.
However, in reality, the situation began to change only in 1774, following the end of the next Russian-Turkish war. Under the terms of the Kyuchuk-Kaynardzhiy Treaty signed between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, the Russian Empire received the official right to control the position of the Christian peoples of the Ottoman Empire in order to protect their rights and interests. The political influence of Russia in the Eastern Christian world was expanding among the Balkan Slavs and Greeks, Armenians, Georgians, and Greeks of Constantinople. Of course, the sphere of interests of the Russian Empire included the expansion of influence on the numerous Christian population of the Crimean peninsula. The Russian Empire hoped, sooner or later, to finally subordinate the Crimean Khanate to its influence, and in solving this problem the Christian population of the Crimean peninsula could play a very important role.
At the same time, speaking of the socio-cultural crisis of the Christian Crimea, which is increasingly being subjected to Turkization and Islamization, it should not be confused with the socio-economic situation of the Christian population of the Crimean Khanate. Economically, the Greeks, Armenians and other Christians of Crimea did not live in misery. Moreover, they were one of the key actors of the Crimean economy - the main taxpayers, traders and artisans, farmers. This is evidenced by numerous historical studies devoted to the analysis of the socio-economic situation of the Crimean Christians in the period preceding their resettlement to the lands of the Russian Empire.
The decision to resettle itself, although officially pursued the goal of preserving the Christian identity of the Crimean population and freeing Christians from the yoke of the Crimean Khan, was in fact dictated by considerations of a political and economic nature. First of all, the Russian Empire hoped to undermine the economic base of the Crimean Khanate, resettling to its territory economically active Christians, who were the main taxpayers in the Khanate. Secondly, with the help of the settlement of southern and underdeveloped territories of the Russian Empire by Christians in the area of the former “Wild Field” in the South of Russia, tasks of a socio-demographic and economic nature were solved. Finally, as noted by E.A. Chernov, it is likely that the Russian Empire sought and secure in the future the Crimea annexed to Russia from the possibility of the development of autonomist movements of the Greeks and other local Christians who were indigenous here and in the event of the liquidation of the Crimean Khanate and the annexation of Crimea to Russia could well demand autonomy (Chernov EA Comparative analysis of the settlement of the Greeks in the Crimea and Azov region (http://www.azovgreeks.com/gendb/ag_article.cfm?artID=271#).
The idea of the resettlement of Greeks and other Christians of Crimea to the territory of the Russian Empire was supported by the majority of the highest church hierarchs of the peninsula. It should be noted that in the absence of secular sociopolitical movements, during the period described, it was the clergymen who played a key role in defining the worldview orientations of the Christian population of the peninsula and were the spokesmen of public interests. And, nevertheless, the idea of resettlement, supported by church hierarchs, required popularization among the common people. The nephew of Metropolitan Ignatius, Ivan Gosadinov, began to bypass the Christian villages of the Crimean peninsula, agitating residents for resettlement. Of course, this activity was secret and did not go public.
Path from the Crimea to Novorossia
In April and June 1778, the Ordinance of Crimean Christians was authored by Metropolitan Ignatius. Empress Catherine II determined, agreeing with this decree, the territory of residence of the Greek Christians - the area between the rivers Dnieper, Samara and Orel. The Russian Empire took upon itself the direct support of the process of the resettlement of the Greeks into Russian territory. For immigrants, a number of essential benefits were provided to help them adapt to the new place - exemption from taxes and recruitment for a period of ten years, granting territorial and religious autonomy. Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov was appointed the actual executor of the resettlement of the Christian population from the Crimea.
According to the commander, the Russian government had to: provide the displaced people with transportation to move; compensation for homes, property, and displaced goods left in Crimea; to build houses for immigrants in the new place of residence, at the same time providing them with temporary housing by the time of the resettlement; provide with provisions for the duration of the journey and the first time of residence at a new place; to ensure the protection of columns of immigrants during the passage through the steppe regions of the Crimea with places of Tatar nomads. The Russian government assumed the task of buying out those Christians who were in slavery and captivity from the Crimean Tatars. Former captives were to be released and also to join the rest of the settlers.
However, it should be noted that not all Crimean Christians accepted the idea of resettlement to the territory of the Russian Empire with enthusiasm. Like any settled residents, they absolutely did not want to leave the land inhabited during thousands of years, which became native and so familiar. Moreover, the economic situation of the Christian population in the Crimean Khanate was indeed quite good, except that the Christians paid a large tax. As for political and cultural issues, such as the transition to the Turkic language or the gradual Islamization of Christians, many ordinary people were not asked such problems — their own material well-being interested them much more.
Nevertheless, church hierarchs achieved their goal. 22 May 1778 The Crimean Khan Shagin Giray, in turn, issued a decree allowing the relocation of Christians without coercion. 16 July 1778 The Greek clergy published a Manifesto in which they called for a flock to move to Russia. 28 July 1778 The first group of Christian settlers, consisting of 70 Greeks and 9 Georgians, emerged from Bakhchisarai. Thus began the famous resettlement of Christians from the Crimea to the territory of the Russian Empire. The resettlement process itself lasted from July to September 1778. 18 September 1778. The last group of Christian settlers left the Crimea, with which Metropolitan Ignatius himself traveled.
In total, during the 1778 organized in July-September of the resettlement and the subsequent independent resettlement of individual Christian families after September, 31 386 Christians left the territory of the Russian Empire. By the time they arrived at the place of intended settlement, the number of immigrants was estimated at 30 233 people. The approximate national composition looked like this - 15 719 Greeks, 13 695 Armenians, 664 Georgians and 162 Volokh (Romanian). The bulk of the immigrants followed from the cities of Kafa, Bakhchisarai, Karasubazar, Kozlov, Old Crimea, Balbek, Balaklava, the villages of Aloati, Shapmari, Komari and others. Significant differences between the numbers of those who left the Crimea and the immigrants who arrived at the place of settlement are explained by the high mortality rate along the way. The resettlement process itself was rather weakly organized, primarily due to the unsatisfactory fulfillment of its obligations by the Russian government. The relocation took place in the fall and winter, and therefore the migrants experienced a serious lack of warm clothes. Catarrhal diseases began, mortality among old people and children increased. While traveling along the resettlement route, many displaced people expressed dissatisfaction, some preferred to simply flee back to Crimea. Historians estimate the loss of the Greeks during the resettlement in quite impressive numbers from 2 to 4 thousands of people. Difficulties waited for immigrants and when they arrived at the wintering place on the territory of modern Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions.
The immigrants arriving from the Crimea were registered in the Alexander Fortress (now the city of Zaporozhye). They were settled in villages and farms around the river Samara. In the same place, the leader of the resettlement, Metropolitan Ignatius, settled in the Desert-Nicholas Monastery. Living conditions in the new place left much to be desired. It turned out that the territory, on which the Crimean settlers originally counted, has already been developed and settled. On the land where the settlers still stopped, there were no sources of water or forests. Only 29 September 1779 was issued "Order of Prince G. Potemkin, General-Lieutenant Chertkov about the device of the Greeks in the Azov province", according to which new places were allocated for the settlement of people from the Crimea - on the coast of the Azov Sea. The immigrants received 12 ths. Dessiatines of land for each village and separately 12 ths. Dessiatines of land for the city. It was supposed that the inhabitants of the Crimean villages, accustomed to rural life, would settle in the newly created villages, and the townspeople would live in the city.
Mariupol District
In the early summer of 1780, Greek settlers, under the leadership of Metropolitan Ignatius, began the construction of a city and villages in the territory of the Azov coast allocated to them. The city itself was built in the area of the Kalmius Palanka of Zaporizhzhya Sich (Zaporizhzhya Sich was divided into palankas - okrugs). Palanka occupied the territory from the headwaters of the Volchya River to the coast of the Azov Sea and served to protect the region from possible raids of the Crimean Tatars or Nogai. In terms of the number of Cossacks, it was the least large palank of the Zaporizhzhya Sich - its army numbered no more than 600-700 Cossacks. In 1776, on the site of the abolished Domakha fortress, Kalmiusskaya Sloboda was formed, inhabited by former Zaporizhia Cossacks, Little Russians, Great Russians and Poles. Its population was small and in 1778 there were 43 males and 29 females. In 1778, near the settlement Pavlovsk was founded, which was to become the center of the county. However, in 1780, it was in his place that it was decided to create a city for the Crimean immigrants. The few inhabitants who lived here were decided to be relocated to other settlements, compensating them for the cost of dwellings and property. 24 March 1780, the planned Greek city received the final name "Mariupol" - in honor of Maria Fedorovna, the wife of the heir to the imperial throne, Tsarevich Paul (the future emperor Paul I).
In July, 1780 settled in the city arrived Greeks - settlers from the Crimean Kafa (Feodosia), Bakhchisarai, Karasubazar (Belogorsk), Kozlov (Evpatoria), Belbek, Balaklava and Mariam (Mayrema). Twenty immigrant villages appeared around Mariupol. Nineteen villages were Greek, settled by settlers from the Crimean Greek villages. One village, Georgievka (later Ignatievka), was settled by Georgians and Vlachs (Romanians), who arrived with Greek settlers. As for the Crimean Armenians, the places for their compact settlement were identified in the lower reaches of the Don - this is how the city of Nakhichevan (now part of the Proletarsky district of Rostov-on-Don) and several Armenian villages that are now part of the Myasniki district of the Rostov region (Chaltyr, Sultan- Sala, Great Sala, Crimea, Nesvetay).
15 August 1780 in Mariupol, a solemn ceremony was held in honor of the completion of the resettlement of the Crimean Greeks, after which Metropolitan Ignatius consecrated the construction sites of the Orthodox churches of the city. Greek settlers settled in the homes of residents of the former Pavlovsk, who were bought out by the Russian government from their former owners. Thus, Mariupol became the center of the compact settlement of the Crimean Greeks. Metropolitan Ignatius, who entered the history of the church and country as Ignatius of Mariupol, managed to obtain permission for the separate living of the Greeks on the territory of Mariupol and the surrounding lands, and therefore the eviction from the section of the Azov coast allocated to the Greeks of the Great Russians, Zaporozhye Cossacks living earlier was made .
The city of Mariupol and the surrounding Greek villages became part of a special Mariupol Greek district, which, in accordance with the resettlement agreement, assumed a compact settlement of the Greeks with its own autonomy in the internal affairs of the community. Two groups of Greeks settled on the territory of the Mariupol Greek district - Greeks-Rumey and Greeks-Urum. Actually, they live in this territory at the present time, which does not allow us, despite the historical nature of the article, to speak in the past tense. It is significant that both ethnonyms go back to the same word “Rum”, that is, “Rome”, “Byzantium”. Both the Rumeans and the Urumas profess Orthodoxy, but the key differences between the two groups lie in a linguistic plane. The Greeks - the Rumeans speak the Rumian dialects of the modern Greek language, dating back to the Greek dialects of the Crimean peninsula, which were common during the times of the Byzantine Empire. Rumey settled a number of villages of the Azov coast, and in Mariupol settled in the urban suburb, called the Greek Rota. The number of Rumeans increased at the expense of later immigrants from the territory of Greece itself, which remained under the control of the Ottoman Empire during the period under review and, accordingly, was the source of Greek emigration to the Russian Empire — to the first Greek autonomous entity on the territory of New Russia.
The Urumas speak the Turkic Urumic language, which was formed as a result of the centuries-old Greeks living in the Crimea in the Turkic environment and going back to the Polovtsian dialects, which were then supplemented by the Oguz dialects related to the Turkish language. In the Urum language Kipchak-Polovtsian, Kypchak-Oguz, Oguz-Kypchak and Oguz dialects are distinguished. Oguz dialect was spread in Mariupol, which is explained by the settlement of the city by immigrants from the Crimean cities, who used Oguz dialects of the Crimean Tatar language very close to the Turkish language. The inhabitants of the countryside mostly spoke Kypchak-Polovtsian and Kypchak-Oguz dialects, since the Kypchak dialects of the Crimean Tatar language were used in the Crimea in the countryside.
It is significant that, despite the commonality of the Rumeans and the Urum as parts of the same people of the Crimean and later Azov Greeks, a certain distance was maintained between them. So, the Uruma preferred not to settle in the Rumeian villages, the Rumey in the Urumite ones. Perhaps it is not only a matter of language differences. Some researchers claim that the Urumas are not so much descendants of the Greek population of Crimea as descendants of other Crimean Christian communities — the Alans are ready and Alans, who simply lost their national languages and accepted the Turkic dialects, but retained the Orthodox religion. The Gothic and Alanian communities in Crimea were quite numerous and could hardly disappear without a trace, so this point of view seems to be, if not completely justified, then worthy of attention.
By 1782 in Mariupol there lived 2 948 residents (1 586 men and 1 362 women), there were 629 yards. The population of Mariupol County was 14 525 people. The local population is concentrated in the usual areas of activity. First of all, it was trade, leather dressing and candle making, production of bricks and tiles. One of the main sources of income for the local population was fishing, processing and selling fish. However, in 1783, when Crimea was annexed to Russia, some Greeks chose to return to their old place of residence. It was they who revived the traditions of Greek culture on the Crimean peninsula and re-formed the impressive Greek community of the Russian Crimea.
However, the majority of immigrants remained in the Mariupol district, since a sufficiently developed economic infrastructure began to take shape here and, accordingly, the well-being of the local population grew. October 7 1799 in Mariupol established a customs outpost, indicating that the city is becoming more important for the Russian Empire and its economic life. Administrative functions in Mariupol were performed by the Mariupol Greek Court, which was at the same time the highest administrative and judicial authority. The court was also in charge of law enforcement policing. The first chairman of the court was Mikhail Savelyevich Hadzhi. In 1790, the Mariupol City Council was created with a mayor and six vowels (deputies).
In 1820, the tsarist government, in order to further expand the economic development of Azov region and increase the population of the region, decided to further settle the south-eastern part of Novorossia with German colonists and baptized Jews. This is how the Mariupol colonist and Mariupol Mennonite districts appeared, and German settlements appeared in the suburbs of Mariupol, in addition to Greek villages. In Mariupol itself, originally built as a purely Greek city, the Italians and Jews had the opportunity to settle, in accordance with the permission of the Russian government. This decision was also made for reasons of economic expediency - it was assumed that representatives of the two trade nations would make a major contribution to the development of trade and crafts in Mariupol and the surrounding area. Gradually, Mariupol was losing a purely Greek face - since 1835, the Great Russians and Little Russians got the right to settle in the city, and therefore the city began to change the national composition of the population. In 1859, the government decided on the final elimination of Greek autonomy. A Greek county was created as part of the Aleksandrovsky district of the Yekaterinoslav province, and in 1873 the Mariupol district of the Yekaterinoslav province was created.
According to the 1897 census, 254 056 lived in the Mariupol district. Little Russians numbered 117 206 people and made up 46,13% of the county population. The titular Greeks had once moved to the second position in number and numbered 48 290 people (19,01% of the county’s population). In third place were the great Russians - 35 691 people (14,05% of the population). To other more or less large national communities of Mariupol district at the turn of the XIX - XX centuries. the Tatars were 15 472 people (6,09% of the county’s population), the Jews 10 291 people (4,05% of the county’s population), and the Turks 5 317 (2,09% of the county’s population). The appearance on the territory of Mariupol Uezd of a significant number of Little Russians and Great Russians, which together made up the majority of the population, contributed to the strengthening of the processes of assimilation of the Azov Greeks in the Slavic environment. Moreover, the local Rumian and Urumian dialects were unwritten, and according to literacy representatives of the Greek population studied in Russian. However, even despite this factor, the Azov Greeks were able to preserve their own national identity and unique culture, moreover, carry it up to the present. This was due to the presence of a significant number of villages where the Greeks lived compactly - Roume and Urum. It was the countryside that became the “reserve” for the preservation of national languages, Greek culture and traditions.
Greeks in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods
Attitudes toward the Azov Greeks during the Soviet period of national history differed significantly, depending on its particular segment. Thus, in the first post-revolutionary years, the policy of “indigenization”, which provided for the development of national cultures and self-awareness among numerous national minorities of the country, contributed to the improvement of the position of the Azov Greeks. First of all, three Greek national regions were created - Sartansky, Mangushsky and Velikoyanisolsky, which received administrative-territorial autonomy. Secondly, work began on the creation of Greek-speaking schools, a theater, and the publication of periodicals in Greek. A Greek theater was created in Mariupol, and in rural schools teaching was carried out in Greek. However, a tragic mistake was made on the issue of school education, which had a negative impact on the problem of preserving the national culture of the Azov Greeks. Teaching in schools was conducted in modern Greek, while in families the children from the Greek families of the Azov region spoke Rumeian or Urumian. And if Rumean was related to modern Greek, then children from Urumian families simply were not able to understand teaching in modern Greek - they needed to learn it from scratch. Therefore, many parents chose to send their children to Russian-language schools. The majority (75%) of Greek children in the second half of 1920's - early 1930's. The region studied in Russian-speaking schools.
The second period of the Soviet-era national history was characterized by a change in attitude towards the Greek national minority. In 1937, the closing of national educational institutions, theaters, and newspapers began. Autonomous national areas were eliminated, repression began against representatives of the Greek intelligentsia, and then against ordinary Greeks. According to various sources, only from the Donetsk region were deported around 6 000 Greeks. The leadership of the NKVD of the USSR ordered to pay special attention to the Greek national minority living in the Donetsk and Odessa regions of Ukraine, the Crimea, the Rostov region and the Krasnodar Territory of the RSFSR, in Georgia and Azerbaijan. Mass arrests of representatives of the Greek community began, not only in the indicated regions of the country, but also in all large cities. Many Greeks were evicted to Siberia and Central Asia from their traditional places of residence.
The situation changed only in the Khrushchev period, but the linguistic and cultural assimilation of the Azov Greeks, despite their interest in the ethnographic features of this unique people, continued into the 1960-1980-s. However, the Soviet Greeks did not harbor evil on the USSR / Russia, which had long become their homeland, despite all the political upheavals and erroneous, sometimes, actions of the authorities. During the Great Patriotic War, a large number of Greeks fought in the ranks of the regular army, in partisan detachments in the Crimea and the Ukrainian SSR as a whole. From the territory of Priazovia, thousands of ethnic Greeks were drafted into the ranks of the Red Army 25. The Greek village of Laki in the Crimea was completely burned by the Nazis for supporting the partisans.
It is difficult to deny the great contribution of the Azov Greeks to the political history, economy and culture of the Russian state. Among the prominent representatives of the Azov Greeks, who have gained fame in various fields, it is necessary to name the artist Arkhip Kuindzhi, the first rector of Kharkov University Vasily Karazin, the designer of the legendary engine tank T-34 Konstantin Chelpan, the famous first woman - tractor driver Pasha Angelina, test pilot Grigory Bakhchivandzhi, major general - chief of the Military Communications Department of the Main Naval Headquarters of the USSR Navy during the Great Patriotic War Nikolay Kechedzhi, Hero of the Soviet Union platoon commander Ilya Takhtarov and many other amazing people.
Post-Soviet reality also turned out to be bleak for the Azov Greeks. Many emigrated to Greece, in which, as it was sung in the famous song, “everything is there”. However, the majority remained in post-Soviet Ukraine, with its growing nationalism and the policy of “Ukrainization” of the entire non-Ukrainian population. When in 2013-2014 there was a confrontation on the “Maidan”, which ended with the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych and the coming to power in Ukraine of pro-American politicians, posing as Ukrainian nationalists, the population of the eastern and southern regions of the country, speaking mainly in Russian and historically and politically alien to Galicians who became support of the new regime, expressed unwillingness to live under the rule of the Kiev government. The independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics was proclaimed, a bloody war began. In this tragic situation, many Azov Greeks recalled the long-standing religious, historical and cultural ties with Russia and the Russian world, about the rich traditions of the anti-fascist resistance of the Greek people. Many Greeks came to the militia DNI. Thus, the military correspondent Afanasy Kosse was in the ranks of the militia. Despite all the political differences, one thing is clear - no nation wants to live in a fascist state whose goal is to discriminate people of other nationalities and build their own identity by opposing neighboring countries and peoples.
The article uses the map of the settlement of the Greeks in the Azov Sea region. By material: Chernov E.A. Comparative analysis of the settlement of the Greeks in the Crimea and Azov.
Even now, the Azov Greeks remain the third largest ethnic group in the region. Greek settlements in the Azov Sea region are the largest area of compact residence of the Greek people in the post-Soviet space. As a matter of fact, in the region of the Northern Black Sea region the Greeks appeared in ancient times. Everyone knows about the existence of numerous Greek colonies in the Crimea, in the delta. Don (Tanais). That is, historically, the lands inhabited by the Iranian-speaking Scythian and Sarmatian tribes at that time were considered by the Greeks as a sphere of their economic interests. However, the Greeks began to fully develop the actual territory of the Donetsk region (DPR) only in the 18th century. Their appearance here was the result of the policy of the Russian Empire to weaken the Crimean Khanate and, at the same time, strengthen its southern sparsely populated areas.
Greeks in Crimea, Metropolitan Ignatius and the idea of resettlement
As you know, the Greeks were the most numerous part of the Christian population of the Crimean peninsula, where they lived for more than two and a half thousand years. Despite the gradual Islamization associated with more favorable living conditions of the Muslim population in the Crimean Khanate, by the second half of the 18th century, Christians still constituted the overwhelming majority of residents in various cities and settlements of Crimea. In addition to the Greeks, Armenians, Georgians, descendants of the Crimean Goths and Alans, Vlachs (Romanians) lived in Crimea. In the Crimean Khanate, non-Muslim communities had their own religious autonomies. In particular, the Orthodox population formed a separate community with its own government and judicial system. Since the language of worship was Greek, all the inhabitants of Crimea who professed Orthodoxy gradually acquired Greek identity, which was not so much ethnic as religious. Historian MA Aradzhioni believes that during two centuries of Ottoman domination in Crimea, the descendants of various Crimean Christian ethnic groups became so close to each other that they formed a single national community of the Crimean Greeks (Aradzhioni MA The Greeks of the Crimea and Azov region: story the study and historiography of ethnic history and culture (80-ies. XVIII - 90-ies. XX centuries.). - Simferopol, 1999.).
Strengthening the position of the Russian Empire in the Black Sea region led to the further growth of interest of the Russian government to the fate of the Christian population of Crimea. The success of the Russian Empire in the Crimean politics came in the years of the reign of Empress Catherine II. It was during this period that the Russian government became most concerned about the situation of the Crimean Christians. First of all, this was due to concerns about the gradual Islamization of the Christian population in the Crimea, which actually took place. Indeed, many of the modern Crimean Tatars are descendants of Islamized Greeks, Goths, Slavs, Armenians and other Christians who lived on the peninsula. Under direct or indirect pressure from the Muslim environment, the Crimean Christians adopted a large part of the customs, clothing of the Muslim Turks, and even, in part, their language. In the 18th century, almost all Crimean Greeks used the Crimean Tatar language in everyday life, and although the Greek language was still preserved by the Orthodox Church, under the influence of Turkic-speaking parishioners, the Crimean Tatar language gradually penetrated the church sphere. Thus, in the Crimean Tatar language, but in Greek letters, church books and business documents of the metropolis were written. Naturally, this situation did not please church circles and secular authorities.
At the beginning of 1771, Ignatius (1715-1786) was appointed as the new metropolitan of the Gotfey-Kefai diocese. As the historian G. Timoshevsky writes about him, “he was an energetic, independent, domineering man; a politician who understood the affairs of the Crimea and Russia well; patriot in the strictest sense; he decided, using the general state of affairs, to save his flock not only as Christians, but also as Greeks, in whose revival and future he obviously believed - this was the basic idea of his life ”(quoted in Yarutsky L. Mariupol antiquity. M., 1991. C. 24.). Ignatius Gozadinov (Khazadinov) was a native of the Greek island of Fermia. As a youth, he was raised on Mount Athos, where he received monastic tonsure, was ordained priest, then became bishop, archbishop, member of the Ecumenical Patriarchal Synclite in Constantinople. After the death of the previous Metropolitan Gideon, Ignatius became the Metropolitan of Gotfey and Kefai. After reviewing the deplorable situation of fellow believers in the Crimea, in September 1771, Metropolitan Ignatius sent a letter to the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, where he spoke about the misadventures of Crimean Christians. In November, 1771, the metropolitan appealed to Catherine II to accept the Crimean Christians in Russian citizenship. A repeated letter of the metropolitan was followed in December 1772. The letters of the metropolitan were carefully considered by the Russian government.
However, in reality, the situation began to change only in 1774, following the end of the next Russian-Turkish war. Under the terms of the Kyuchuk-Kaynardzhiy Treaty signed between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, the Russian Empire received the official right to control the position of the Christian peoples of the Ottoman Empire in order to protect their rights and interests. The political influence of Russia in the Eastern Christian world was expanding among the Balkan Slavs and Greeks, Armenians, Georgians, and Greeks of Constantinople. Of course, the sphere of interests of the Russian Empire included the expansion of influence on the numerous Christian population of the Crimean peninsula. The Russian Empire hoped, sooner or later, to finally subordinate the Crimean Khanate to its influence, and in solving this problem the Christian population of the Crimean peninsula could play a very important role.
At the same time, speaking of the socio-cultural crisis of the Christian Crimea, which is increasingly being subjected to Turkization and Islamization, it should not be confused with the socio-economic situation of the Christian population of the Crimean Khanate. Economically, the Greeks, Armenians and other Christians of Crimea did not live in misery. Moreover, they were one of the key actors of the Crimean economy - the main taxpayers, traders and artisans, farmers. This is evidenced by numerous historical studies devoted to the analysis of the socio-economic situation of the Crimean Christians in the period preceding their resettlement to the lands of the Russian Empire.
The decision to resettle itself, although officially pursued the goal of preserving the Christian identity of the Crimean population and freeing Christians from the yoke of the Crimean Khan, was in fact dictated by considerations of a political and economic nature. First of all, the Russian Empire hoped to undermine the economic base of the Crimean Khanate, resettling to its territory economically active Christians, who were the main taxpayers in the Khanate. Secondly, with the help of the settlement of southern and underdeveloped territories of the Russian Empire by Christians in the area of the former “Wild Field” in the South of Russia, tasks of a socio-demographic and economic nature were solved. Finally, as noted by E.A. Chernov, it is likely that the Russian Empire sought and secure in the future the Crimea annexed to Russia from the possibility of the development of autonomist movements of the Greeks and other local Christians who were indigenous here and in the event of the liquidation of the Crimean Khanate and the annexation of Crimea to Russia could well demand autonomy (Chernov EA Comparative analysis of the settlement of the Greeks in the Crimea and Azov region (http://www.azovgreeks.com/gendb/ag_article.cfm?artID=271#).
The idea of the resettlement of Greeks and other Christians of Crimea to the territory of the Russian Empire was supported by the majority of the highest church hierarchs of the peninsula. It should be noted that in the absence of secular sociopolitical movements, during the period described, it was the clergymen who played a key role in defining the worldview orientations of the Christian population of the peninsula and were the spokesmen of public interests. And, nevertheless, the idea of resettlement, supported by church hierarchs, required popularization among the common people. The nephew of Metropolitan Ignatius, Ivan Gosadinov, began to bypass the Christian villages of the Crimean peninsula, agitating residents for resettlement. Of course, this activity was secret and did not go public.
Path from the Crimea to Novorossia
In April and June 1778, the Ordinance of Crimean Christians was authored by Metropolitan Ignatius. Empress Catherine II determined, agreeing with this decree, the territory of residence of the Greek Christians - the area between the rivers Dnieper, Samara and Orel. The Russian Empire took upon itself the direct support of the process of the resettlement of the Greeks into Russian territory. For immigrants, a number of essential benefits were provided to help them adapt to the new place - exemption from taxes and recruitment for a period of ten years, granting territorial and religious autonomy. Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov was appointed the actual executor of the resettlement of the Christian population from the Crimea.
According to the commander, the Russian government had to: provide the displaced people with transportation to move; compensation for homes, property, and displaced goods left in Crimea; to build houses for immigrants in the new place of residence, at the same time providing them with temporary housing by the time of the resettlement; provide with provisions for the duration of the journey and the first time of residence at a new place; to ensure the protection of columns of immigrants during the passage through the steppe regions of the Crimea with places of Tatar nomads. The Russian government assumed the task of buying out those Christians who were in slavery and captivity from the Crimean Tatars. Former captives were to be released and also to join the rest of the settlers.
However, it should be noted that not all Crimean Christians accepted the idea of resettlement to the territory of the Russian Empire with enthusiasm. Like any settled residents, they absolutely did not want to leave the land inhabited during thousands of years, which became native and so familiar. Moreover, the economic situation of the Christian population in the Crimean Khanate was indeed quite good, except that the Christians paid a large tax. As for political and cultural issues, such as the transition to the Turkic language or the gradual Islamization of Christians, many ordinary people were not asked such problems — their own material well-being interested them much more.
Nevertheless, church hierarchs achieved their goal. 22 May 1778 The Crimean Khan Shagin Giray, in turn, issued a decree allowing the relocation of Christians without coercion. 16 July 1778 The Greek clergy published a Manifesto in which they called for a flock to move to Russia. 28 July 1778 The first group of Christian settlers, consisting of 70 Greeks and 9 Georgians, emerged from Bakhchisarai. Thus began the famous resettlement of Christians from the Crimea to the territory of the Russian Empire. The resettlement process itself lasted from July to September 1778. 18 September 1778. The last group of Christian settlers left the Crimea, with which Metropolitan Ignatius himself traveled.
In total, during the 1778 organized in July-September of the resettlement and the subsequent independent resettlement of individual Christian families after September, 31 386 Christians left the territory of the Russian Empire. By the time they arrived at the place of intended settlement, the number of immigrants was estimated at 30 233 people. The approximate national composition looked like this - 15 719 Greeks, 13 695 Armenians, 664 Georgians and 162 Volokh (Romanian). The bulk of the immigrants followed from the cities of Kafa, Bakhchisarai, Karasubazar, Kozlov, Old Crimea, Balbek, Balaklava, the villages of Aloati, Shapmari, Komari and others. Significant differences between the numbers of those who left the Crimea and the immigrants who arrived at the place of settlement are explained by the high mortality rate along the way. The resettlement process itself was rather weakly organized, primarily due to the unsatisfactory fulfillment of its obligations by the Russian government. The relocation took place in the fall and winter, and therefore the migrants experienced a serious lack of warm clothes. Catarrhal diseases began, mortality among old people and children increased. While traveling along the resettlement route, many displaced people expressed dissatisfaction, some preferred to simply flee back to Crimea. Historians estimate the loss of the Greeks during the resettlement in quite impressive numbers from 2 to 4 thousands of people. Difficulties waited for immigrants and when they arrived at the wintering place on the territory of modern Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions.
The immigrants arriving from the Crimea were registered in the Alexander Fortress (now the city of Zaporozhye). They were settled in villages and farms around the river Samara. In the same place, the leader of the resettlement, Metropolitan Ignatius, settled in the Desert-Nicholas Monastery. Living conditions in the new place left much to be desired. It turned out that the territory, on which the Crimean settlers originally counted, has already been developed and settled. On the land where the settlers still stopped, there were no sources of water or forests. Only 29 September 1779 was issued "Order of Prince G. Potemkin, General-Lieutenant Chertkov about the device of the Greeks in the Azov province", according to which new places were allocated for the settlement of people from the Crimea - on the coast of the Azov Sea. The immigrants received 12 ths. Dessiatines of land for each village and separately 12 ths. Dessiatines of land for the city. It was supposed that the inhabitants of the Crimean villages, accustomed to rural life, would settle in the newly created villages, and the townspeople would live in the city.
Mariupol District
In the early summer of 1780, Greek settlers, under the leadership of Metropolitan Ignatius, began the construction of a city and villages in the territory of the Azov coast allocated to them. The city itself was built in the area of the Kalmius Palanka of Zaporizhzhya Sich (Zaporizhzhya Sich was divided into palankas - okrugs). Palanka occupied the territory from the headwaters of the Volchya River to the coast of the Azov Sea and served to protect the region from possible raids of the Crimean Tatars or Nogai. In terms of the number of Cossacks, it was the least large palank of the Zaporizhzhya Sich - its army numbered no more than 600-700 Cossacks. In 1776, on the site of the abolished Domakha fortress, Kalmiusskaya Sloboda was formed, inhabited by former Zaporizhia Cossacks, Little Russians, Great Russians and Poles. Its population was small and in 1778 there were 43 males and 29 females. In 1778, near the settlement Pavlovsk was founded, which was to become the center of the county. However, in 1780, it was in his place that it was decided to create a city for the Crimean immigrants. The few inhabitants who lived here were decided to be relocated to other settlements, compensating them for the cost of dwellings and property. 24 March 1780, the planned Greek city received the final name "Mariupol" - in honor of Maria Fedorovna, the wife of the heir to the imperial throne, Tsarevich Paul (the future emperor Paul I).
In July, 1780 settled in the city arrived Greeks - settlers from the Crimean Kafa (Feodosia), Bakhchisarai, Karasubazar (Belogorsk), Kozlov (Evpatoria), Belbek, Balaklava and Mariam (Mayrema). Twenty immigrant villages appeared around Mariupol. Nineteen villages were Greek, settled by settlers from the Crimean Greek villages. One village, Georgievka (later Ignatievka), was settled by Georgians and Vlachs (Romanians), who arrived with Greek settlers. As for the Crimean Armenians, the places for their compact settlement were identified in the lower reaches of the Don - this is how the city of Nakhichevan (now part of the Proletarsky district of Rostov-on-Don) and several Armenian villages that are now part of the Myasniki district of the Rostov region (Chaltyr, Sultan- Sala, Great Sala, Crimea, Nesvetay).
15 August 1780 in Mariupol, a solemn ceremony was held in honor of the completion of the resettlement of the Crimean Greeks, after which Metropolitan Ignatius consecrated the construction sites of the Orthodox churches of the city. Greek settlers settled in the homes of residents of the former Pavlovsk, who were bought out by the Russian government from their former owners. Thus, Mariupol became the center of the compact settlement of the Crimean Greeks. Metropolitan Ignatius, who entered the history of the church and country as Ignatius of Mariupol, managed to obtain permission for the separate living of the Greeks on the territory of Mariupol and the surrounding lands, and therefore the eviction from the section of the Azov coast allocated to the Greeks of the Great Russians, Zaporozhye Cossacks living earlier was made .
The city of Mariupol and the surrounding Greek villages became part of a special Mariupol Greek district, which, in accordance with the resettlement agreement, assumed a compact settlement of the Greeks with its own autonomy in the internal affairs of the community. Two groups of Greeks settled on the territory of the Mariupol Greek district - Greeks-Rumey and Greeks-Urum. Actually, they live in this territory at the present time, which does not allow us, despite the historical nature of the article, to speak in the past tense. It is significant that both ethnonyms go back to the same word “Rum”, that is, “Rome”, “Byzantium”. Both the Rumeans and the Urumas profess Orthodoxy, but the key differences between the two groups lie in a linguistic plane. The Greeks - the Rumeans speak the Rumian dialects of the modern Greek language, dating back to the Greek dialects of the Crimean peninsula, which were common during the times of the Byzantine Empire. Rumey settled a number of villages of the Azov coast, and in Mariupol settled in the urban suburb, called the Greek Rota. The number of Rumeans increased at the expense of later immigrants from the territory of Greece itself, which remained under the control of the Ottoman Empire during the period under review and, accordingly, was the source of Greek emigration to the Russian Empire — to the first Greek autonomous entity on the territory of New Russia.
The Urumas speak the Turkic Urumic language, which was formed as a result of the centuries-old Greeks living in the Crimea in the Turkic environment and going back to the Polovtsian dialects, which were then supplemented by the Oguz dialects related to the Turkish language. In the Urum language Kipchak-Polovtsian, Kypchak-Oguz, Oguz-Kypchak and Oguz dialects are distinguished. Oguz dialect was spread in Mariupol, which is explained by the settlement of the city by immigrants from the Crimean cities, who used Oguz dialects of the Crimean Tatar language very close to the Turkish language. The inhabitants of the countryside mostly spoke Kypchak-Polovtsian and Kypchak-Oguz dialects, since the Kypchak dialects of the Crimean Tatar language were used in the Crimea in the countryside.
It is significant that, despite the commonality of the Rumeans and the Urum as parts of the same people of the Crimean and later Azov Greeks, a certain distance was maintained between them. So, the Uruma preferred not to settle in the Rumeian villages, the Rumey in the Urumite ones. Perhaps it is not only a matter of language differences. Some researchers claim that the Urumas are not so much descendants of the Greek population of Crimea as descendants of other Crimean Christian communities — the Alans are ready and Alans, who simply lost their national languages and accepted the Turkic dialects, but retained the Orthodox religion. The Gothic and Alanian communities in Crimea were quite numerous and could hardly disappear without a trace, so this point of view seems to be, if not completely justified, then worthy of attention.
By 1782 in Mariupol there lived 2 948 residents (1 586 men and 1 362 women), there were 629 yards. The population of Mariupol County was 14 525 people. The local population is concentrated in the usual areas of activity. First of all, it was trade, leather dressing and candle making, production of bricks and tiles. One of the main sources of income for the local population was fishing, processing and selling fish. However, in 1783, when Crimea was annexed to Russia, some Greeks chose to return to their old place of residence. It was they who revived the traditions of Greek culture on the Crimean peninsula and re-formed the impressive Greek community of the Russian Crimea.
However, the majority of immigrants remained in the Mariupol district, since a sufficiently developed economic infrastructure began to take shape here and, accordingly, the well-being of the local population grew. October 7 1799 in Mariupol established a customs outpost, indicating that the city is becoming more important for the Russian Empire and its economic life. Administrative functions in Mariupol were performed by the Mariupol Greek Court, which was at the same time the highest administrative and judicial authority. The court was also in charge of law enforcement policing. The first chairman of the court was Mikhail Savelyevich Hadzhi. In 1790, the Mariupol City Council was created with a mayor and six vowels (deputies).
In 1820, the tsarist government, in order to further expand the economic development of Azov region and increase the population of the region, decided to further settle the south-eastern part of Novorossia with German colonists and baptized Jews. This is how the Mariupol colonist and Mariupol Mennonite districts appeared, and German settlements appeared in the suburbs of Mariupol, in addition to Greek villages. In Mariupol itself, originally built as a purely Greek city, the Italians and Jews had the opportunity to settle, in accordance with the permission of the Russian government. This decision was also made for reasons of economic expediency - it was assumed that representatives of the two trade nations would make a major contribution to the development of trade and crafts in Mariupol and the surrounding area. Gradually, Mariupol was losing a purely Greek face - since 1835, the Great Russians and Little Russians got the right to settle in the city, and therefore the city began to change the national composition of the population. In 1859, the government decided on the final elimination of Greek autonomy. A Greek county was created as part of the Aleksandrovsky district of the Yekaterinoslav province, and in 1873 the Mariupol district of the Yekaterinoslav province was created.
According to the 1897 census, 254 056 lived in the Mariupol district. Little Russians numbered 117 206 people and made up 46,13% of the county population. The titular Greeks had once moved to the second position in number and numbered 48 290 people (19,01% of the county’s population). In third place were the great Russians - 35 691 people (14,05% of the population). To other more or less large national communities of Mariupol district at the turn of the XIX - XX centuries. the Tatars were 15 472 people (6,09% of the county’s population), the Jews 10 291 people (4,05% of the county’s population), and the Turks 5 317 (2,09% of the county’s population). The appearance on the territory of Mariupol Uezd of a significant number of Little Russians and Great Russians, which together made up the majority of the population, contributed to the strengthening of the processes of assimilation of the Azov Greeks in the Slavic environment. Moreover, the local Rumian and Urumian dialects were unwritten, and according to literacy representatives of the Greek population studied in Russian. However, even despite this factor, the Azov Greeks were able to preserve their own national identity and unique culture, moreover, carry it up to the present. This was due to the presence of a significant number of villages where the Greeks lived compactly - Roume and Urum. It was the countryside that became the “reserve” for the preservation of national languages, Greek culture and traditions.
Greeks in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods
Attitudes toward the Azov Greeks during the Soviet period of national history differed significantly, depending on its particular segment. Thus, in the first post-revolutionary years, the policy of “indigenization”, which provided for the development of national cultures and self-awareness among numerous national minorities of the country, contributed to the improvement of the position of the Azov Greeks. First of all, three Greek national regions were created - Sartansky, Mangushsky and Velikoyanisolsky, which received administrative-territorial autonomy. Secondly, work began on the creation of Greek-speaking schools, a theater, and the publication of periodicals in Greek. A Greek theater was created in Mariupol, and in rural schools teaching was carried out in Greek. However, a tragic mistake was made on the issue of school education, which had a negative impact on the problem of preserving the national culture of the Azov Greeks. Teaching in schools was conducted in modern Greek, while in families the children from the Greek families of the Azov region spoke Rumeian or Urumian. And if Rumean was related to modern Greek, then children from Urumian families simply were not able to understand teaching in modern Greek - they needed to learn it from scratch. Therefore, many parents chose to send their children to Russian-language schools. The majority (75%) of Greek children in the second half of 1920's - early 1930's. The region studied in Russian-speaking schools.
The second period of the Soviet-era national history was characterized by a change in attitude towards the Greek national minority. In 1937, the closing of national educational institutions, theaters, and newspapers began. Autonomous national areas were eliminated, repression began against representatives of the Greek intelligentsia, and then against ordinary Greeks. According to various sources, only from the Donetsk region were deported around 6 000 Greeks. The leadership of the NKVD of the USSR ordered to pay special attention to the Greek national minority living in the Donetsk and Odessa regions of Ukraine, the Crimea, the Rostov region and the Krasnodar Territory of the RSFSR, in Georgia and Azerbaijan. Mass arrests of representatives of the Greek community began, not only in the indicated regions of the country, but also in all large cities. Many Greeks were evicted to Siberia and Central Asia from their traditional places of residence.
The situation changed only in the Khrushchev period, but the linguistic and cultural assimilation of the Azov Greeks, despite their interest in the ethnographic features of this unique people, continued into the 1960-1980-s. However, the Soviet Greeks did not harbor evil on the USSR / Russia, which had long become their homeland, despite all the political upheavals and erroneous, sometimes, actions of the authorities. During the Great Patriotic War, a large number of Greeks fought in the ranks of the regular army, in partisan detachments in the Crimea and the Ukrainian SSR as a whole. From the territory of Priazovia, thousands of ethnic Greeks were drafted into the ranks of the Red Army 25. The Greek village of Laki in the Crimea was completely burned by the Nazis for supporting the partisans.
It is difficult to deny the great contribution of the Azov Greeks to the political history, economy and culture of the Russian state. Among the prominent representatives of the Azov Greeks, who have gained fame in various fields, it is necessary to name the artist Arkhip Kuindzhi, the first rector of Kharkov University Vasily Karazin, the designer of the legendary engine tank T-34 Konstantin Chelpan, the famous first woman - tractor driver Pasha Angelina, test pilot Grigory Bakhchivandzhi, major general - chief of the Military Communications Department of the Main Naval Headquarters of the USSR Navy during the Great Patriotic War Nikolay Kechedzhi, Hero of the Soviet Union platoon commander Ilya Takhtarov and many other amazing people.
Post-Soviet reality also turned out to be bleak for the Azov Greeks. Many emigrated to Greece, in which, as it was sung in the famous song, “everything is there”. However, the majority remained in post-Soviet Ukraine, with its growing nationalism and the policy of “Ukrainization” of the entire non-Ukrainian population. When in 2013-2014 there was a confrontation on the “Maidan”, which ended with the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych and the coming to power in Ukraine of pro-American politicians, posing as Ukrainian nationalists, the population of the eastern and southern regions of the country, speaking mainly in Russian and historically and politically alien to Galicians who became support of the new regime, expressed unwillingness to live under the rule of the Kiev government. The independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics was proclaimed, a bloody war began. In this tragic situation, many Azov Greeks recalled the long-standing religious, historical and cultural ties with Russia and the Russian world, about the rich traditions of the anti-fascist resistance of the Greek people. Many Greeks came to the militia DNI. Thus, the military correspondent Afanasy Kosse was in the ranks of the militia. Despite all the political differences, one thing is clear - no nation wants to live in a fascist state whose goal is to discriminate people of other nationalities and build their own identity by opposing neighboring countries and peoples.
The article uses the map of the settlement of the Greeks in the Azov Sea region. By material: Chernov E.A. Comparative analysis of the settlement of the Greeks in the Crimea and Azov.
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