History of Crimea

Early history to the Crimean War

The first settled occupation of Crimea was perhaps by the Cimmerians about 1000 bce. In the 7th century bce the Scythians conquered the steppe area, but the Bosporan kingdom survived in the Kerch Peninsula, where it came under strong Greek influence. From the 5th and 4th centuries bce, the Greeks established colonies along the Crimean coasts, the most important being at Chersonesus, near modern Sevastopol, and Panticapaeum, where Kerch now stands. These colonies, which came under Roman control in 15 bce, survived a series of attacks by eastern nomadic hordes who subsequently occupied the steppe region.

In the 10th century these coastal cities were claimed by Prince Vladimir I of Kievan Rus, but Kiev was unable to retain Crimea, which fell to the Kipchaks and later to the Tatars of the Golden Horde. In the 13th century the Genoese established commercial outposts along the coast, making their headquarters at Kaffa (modern Feodosiya) and eventually coming to dominate Black Sea trade. In the early 14th century, Islam made dramatic inroads among the Tatar population in the Crimean interior under Öz Beg, a khan of the Golden Horde who had converted to that faith. The remnants of the Golden Horde came to be known as the khanate of Crimea, which submitted to Ottoman suzerainty in 1475. Although their power had waned dramatically from the days of the Mongol conquests, the Tatars made frequent raids on the Muscovite state from their capital at Bakhchysaray in southern Crimea.

The Ottoman Empire was the dominant force in the region for several hundred years, but the expansion of Russia’s southern frontier, begun in earnest in the late 17th century by Peter I (the Great), frequently brought the two powers into conflict. Over the next two centuries, Russia and the Ottoman Empire engaged in a series of wars for control of the Black Sea region. One of those conflicts, fought from 1768 to 1774, concluded with the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca (1774), which ceded to Russia fortresses on the Kerch Peninsula and established an independent Crimean Tatar state. In 1783 Catherine II (the Great) annexed the peninsula, and it became Russian territory.

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The regional rivalry between the Russians and the Turks persisted, however, and in the Crimean War (1853–56) it expanded into a broader European conflict. Anglo-French armies, reacting to Russian encroachments in the Ottoman-held Danubian principalities (modern Romania), landed at Sevastopol in September 1854. Lacking the heavy artillery needed to reduce the fortified city’s walls, the British and French besieged Sevastopol for almost a year before Russian forces withdrew. Many Crimean Tatars were forcibly dispersed to other parts of Russia after the Crimean War.

Crimea in the Soviet Union and independent Ukraine

When the Revolution of 1917 led to the collapse of the Russian Empire, the remaining Crimean Tatars declared Crimea to be an independent democratic republic. During the Russian Civil War (1918–20), Crimea served as the final redoubt for White (anti-Bolshevik) forces, and their defeat spelled the end of the independent Crimean state. The peninsula was reorganized as the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1921. The Soviet collectivization process was especially harsh in Crimea, and tens of thousands of Crimean Tatars perished during Joseph Stalin’s suppression of the ethnic minorities. In May 1944 the remaining Crimean Tatars—some 200,000 people—were forcibly deported to Siberia and Central Asia for allegedly having collaborated with the Nazis during World War II.

After the war Crimea was downgraded from an autonomous republic to an oblast (region) of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, and in 1954 it was transferred to Ukraine to mark the 300th anniversary of the Pereyaslav Agreement, a treaty that had submitted Ukraine to Russian rule. With the death of Stalin and the ascent of Nikita Khrushchev as Soviet leader, other nationalities that had been subjected to internal deportation were eventually allowed to return to their native regions. Although legally rehabilitated in 1967, the Crimean Tatars were a notable exception to that rule.

In the late 1980s and early ’90s, as the Soviet Union disintegrated, many Tatars resettled in Crimea, their numbers swelling from some 38,000 in 1989 to roughly 300,000 at the turn of the 21st century. The legal status of Crimea was also clarified during that time. In 1991 it was once again made an autonomous republic within the Soviet Union, but, with the formal dissolution of the U.S.S.R. in December of that year, Crimea passed to the newly independent Ukraine. The relationship between Kiev and Crimea was a complex one. Ethnic Russians constituted a majority of the population in Crimea, and a short-lived independence movement in 1994 resulted in the abolition of the post of president of the autonomous republic. Moscow’s interests in Crimea further complicated matters, and negotiations over the disposition of the Black Sea Fleet and its base at Sevastopol were especially heated.

The Budapest Memorandum, signed by Russia, Ukraine, the United States, and the United Kingdom in December 1994, committed the signatories to respect Ukraine’s post-Soviet borders, while Ukraine pledged to transfer its massive stockpile of Soviet-era nuclear weapons to Russia for decommissioning. The question of the Black Sea Fleet was resolved by dividing it proportionally between the two parties; Russia was granted an extended lease on the port facilities at Sevastopol, and, with the signing of the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership (1997), Crimea was once again affirmed as Ukrainian territory. Its border questions seemingly settled, independent Ukraine delicately balanced its European aspirations with its lingering ties to Russia. The attempt by Russia to construct a dam in the Kerch Strait sparked a major diplomatic incident in 2003, and Ukrainian legislators characterized the move as an infringement on Ukrainian territorial integrity.

Crisis in Crimea

In the early 21st century, as Ukraine’s political landscape was shaken by the Orange Revolution, Crimea’s predominantly Russian population remained staunch supporters of Viktor Yanukovych and his pro-Russian Party of Regions. When Yanukovych became president in 2010, he extended Russia’s lease on the port at Sevastopol until 2042. The agreement allowed Russia to base as many as 25,000 troops at Sevastopol and maintain a pair of air bases in Crimea. In February 2014 Yanukovych fled Kiev after months of popular protests toppled his government. Within days, unidentified masked gunmen (later identified as Russian troops) seized the Crimean parliament building and other key sites, effectively internationalizing the crisis in Ukraine. Pro-Russian legislators convened a closed session of the parliament to elect Sergey Aksyonov, the leader of the Russian Unity Party, as prime minister. The Russian Unity Party had previously had minimal representation in the parliament; indeed, it had received less than 5 percent of the vote in the 2010 regional election. Pro-Russian demonstrations were commonplace throughout Crimea, but equally visible were rallies by Crimean Tatars, who overwhelmingly supported continued association with Ukraine. In March Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin received the Russian parliament’s approval to dispatch troops to Crimea, ostensibly to protect the ethnic Russian population there, and within days Russian forces and local pro-Russian paramilitary groups were in de facto control of the peninsula. As Russian and Ukrainian forces maintained a delicate standoff, the Crimean parliament voted unanimously to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation.

A popular referendum on the matter was held in Crimea on March 16, 2014, although the interim government in Kiev characterized the proposal as unconstitutional. Crimean Tatar leaders called for a boycott of the vote, which they criticized as having been predetermined, and journalists were barred from observing the count. The result was an overwhelming 97 percent in favour of joining Russia, although numerous irregularities were reported. The poll was not recognized by Kiev, and the United States and the European Union immediately moved to impose sanctions on a list of high-ranking Russian officials and members of the self-declared Crimean government.

On March 18 Putin signed a treaty incorporating Crimea into the Russian Federation, a move that was formalized days later after the treaty’s ratification by both houses of the Russian parliament. Only a handful of countries recognized the legitimacy of the Russian annexation, and the United Nations repeatedly affirmed that Crimea remained an integral part of Ukraine. In the eyes of international law, Russia was designated the “occupying power” in Crimea, and Moscow was not regarded as having any legal claim to the peninsula. The annexation of Crimea—as well as the West’s response to it—became a point of pride in Russia; Putin’s domestic popularity soared, and international condemnation only served to stoke Russian nationalism.

Although the Ukrainian government continued to assert that Crimea was Ukrainian territory, it initiated the evacuation of the tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops and their dependents from the peninsula. Russian troops had seized the bulk of the Ukrainian fleet while it was in port, and the headquarters of Ukraine’s navy was hastily relocated from Sevastopol to Odessa. Although some of the ships were later returned to Ukraine, others, including the Ukrainian navy’s sole submarine, were incorporated into the Russian Black Sea Fleet. In May 2014 a report from the Russian Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights estimated that the actual turnout for the Crimean independence referendum may have been as low as 30 percent and that, of those voters, between 50 and 60 percent chose union with Russia.

Russia’s covert military operation in Crimea would provide the model for its thrust into eastern Ukraine, where Russian troops and pro-Russian militia asserted control of Donetsk and Luhansk in April 2014. While the takeover of Crimea was nearly bloodless, the situation in eastern Ukraine quickly descended into a state of open warfare that claimed more than 10,000 lives over the next four years. Tensions remained high between Ukraine and Russia, which continued to deny that it was waging a proxy war against its neighbour despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

The Kerch Strait Bridge

In May 2018 Russia opened a bridge spanning the Kerch Strait, providing a direct link between Russia and Crimea. Upon its completion, its 12-mile (19-km) span made it the longest bridge in Europe. Western countries responded to its construction by imposing sanctions on companies associated with the project. The bridge represented the most visible aspect of Russian force projection in the seas around Crimea, and its opening was accompanied by a significant increase in Russian naval activity. Russian ships routinely detained commercial vessels traveling to Ukrainian ports on the Sea of Azov, and in November 2018 a clash between Russian and Ukrainian naval vessels left several Ukrainian sailors injured. Russia captured three Ukrainian ships and their crews and effectively closed the Sea of Azov by parking a tanker under the Kerch Strait Bridge. The incident led the Ukrainian government to declare a 30-day period of martial law.

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Kerch Strait Bridge became a key supply route for war matériel into Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. Because of its significant strategic and symbolic value, the bridge became an obvious target as Ukrainian forces launched their 2022 summer counteroffensive. On October 8, 2022, Ukraine carried out a spectacular truck bomb attack that destroyed a 900-foot (275-metre) section of the road bridge and ignited a fuel tanker train that was traveling on the adjacent rail bridge. The damage took months to repair, and the attack was a massive morale boost for Ukraine. Ukrainian forces struck again on July 17, 2023, inflicting significant damage to the bridge with a pair of naval drones that were packed with explosives.