CRIMEA

CRIMEA (Rus. Krym or Krim ) (Heb. קְרִים), peninsula of South European Russia, on the Black Sea; from 1954 until 1991 an oblast of Ukrainian S.S.R. and from 1992 a repub lic of Ukraine.

Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages

Jews first settled in the southeastern area and a Jewish Hellenistic community existed there by the end of the first century c.e. (based on inscriptions). *Jerome (d. 420; on Zech. 10:11, Obad. 20) heard from Jews that the Jewish settlers by the Bosporus were descended from families exiled by the Assyrians and Babylonians, and from deported warriors of *Bar Kokhba; the Bosporus was called by the Jews "Sepharad." In ancient and medieval times southeastern Crimea was linked to the Taman Peninsula, across the Kerch Strait. In the seventh to tenth centuries the *Khazar conquerors maintained their regional center there, from which they ruled much of the Crimea and confronted the Byzantine coastal base of Cherson, near the present Sevastopol. The Arab geographers Idrīsī and Abu al-fidāʾ call the Khazar city merely Khazariyya (Khazaria); it was located on the site of the town Sennaya (formerly Phanagoria), adjacent to the Jewish settlement mentioned by the Byzantine historian Theophanes, and is probably identical to the port Samkush (Samkerch) "of the Jews," referred to by the Arabic geographer Ibn al-Faqīh. Tombstones of Jews and Khazar proselytes have Jewish Hellenistic ornamentation. Similar Jewish tombstones have been found in Kerch and Partenit (Parthenita), near Yalta. The Byzantine chronicler Cedrinus relates that in 1016 a Byzantine Russian-assisted fleet subdued the region of Khazaria ruled by Georgios Tzoulos. The Russians were henceforth represented by a prince at Tmutorokan (Taman), while the Byzantines overlooked most of the Crimea from Cherson. The Khazars served as the prince's military auxiliaries in an inner Russian conflict in 1023, and in 1079 intervened with Byzantium in the competition for the princely office; this led to their massacre in 1083. From the 9^th to 15^th centuries the terms "Gazaria" (as the territory) and "Gazari" (as the population) were understood in Western Europe as the Taman peninsula and the adjacent changeable Crimean area. Gazaria is, according to Poliak, the "Kazariyya" mentioned by the 12^th-century Jewish travelers *Benjamin of Tudela (in connection with the sea trade with Constantinople and Alexandria), and *Pethahiah of Regensburg (the Kuban delta). Isaac *Abrabanel commenting on Genesis 10:3 equates the "Qasari" in "Ashkenaz" with Gazaria, "below" (south of) the Azov Sea. In the 16^th to 17^th centuries "Gazaria" and "Crimea" were synonymous. This late usage led the Russian historian N.M. Karamzin (1816) to regard the Crimea as the ultimate domain of the Khazar kings, lost in 1016. After C.M.Y. Fraehn (1822) had dated the downfall of the Caspian Khazars to 969, the period 969–1016 was left for the duration of the mythical Crimean kingdom, considered from that point forward as Jewish. The early draft of H. *Graetz's "History of the Jews" (1860) included the history of the kingdom, written according to the manuscript discoveries claimed by the Karaite collector A. *Firkovich. After these claims had been attacked, the story was partly, but mechanically, deleted: in the late version

the Crimean kingdom has a beginning but no end (Eng. ed., 3 (1949), 222ff.). Graetz's original coherent description continued to influence Jewish historians, notably S. *Dubnow (History of the Jews in Russia and Poland, 1 (1916), 28ff.). Firkovich also is the source of the idea that the Crimea was the cultural center which influenced the conversion of the Khazar royalty to Judaism, and that the Crimean Karaites were descended from ancient Israelite settlers and Khazar converts. The rival Karaite historian M. Sultanski (d. 1862) regarded the Crimean Karaites as purely medieval Jewish immigrants from various parts, while later Karaite authors held that they were basically Khazars-Turks. The Rabbanite *Krimchaks (i.e., "Crimeans") were also sometimes considered basically Khazars. All these views are founded on the late meaning of "Gazaria." Foreign Karaites (contrary to Rabbanites) in Khazar times never claimed that the Khazars had converted to Judaism and sometimes displayed intense hatred toward them (even expecting them to fight the Messiah in Ereẓ Israel): the sect was then seeking to uphold the Palestinian descent of the Jews and Judaism. In late antiquity and the early medieval period, Crimean Jewish tradition and records indicate that Jewish settlement existed in the following units.

the chersonese

The Chersonese (Cherson) Jews were living there at least in the 9^th to 11^th centuries. Excavations have shown that the locality never recuperated from a devastation in the late 10^th century by the Russians (988?), and was ultimately destroyed at the end of the 14^th (by Tamerlane's raiders, 1395–96?). The Hebrew letter attributed to the Khazar King Joseph (long version) lists among his tributaries in the 950s localities from Samkerch to "Gruzin" (Cherson?), including Kerch and "Bartenit." The Hebrew "Cambridge Document" claims that under him "Shurshun" was made tributary by a counteroffensive against Byzantium after the Byzantine-instigated Russian raid on Samkerch.

"gothia"

This is the medieval name for the rugged mountains north of Cherson, so-called after a Teutonic tribe which had remained there following the great migrations. The city of Partenit was the coastal mart of Gothia; a Jewish tombstone inscription there mentioned "Her(i)f(r)idil [a Teutonic name] ha-kohen [priest]." Around 787 the Khazars placed their garrison in Doros, the capital of Gothia; the Life of Bishop John tells of the unsuccessful revolt he instigated. Doros is assumed (despite temporary doubts of archaeologists in 1928–38) to be the "eagle's nest" later called Mangup (first in Joseph's Letter, as his tributary). In Ottoman-Tatar times (1475–1783) it increasingly became an all-Jewish (mostly Karaite) town.

chufut-kale

More to the north, a similar fortress town, known under the Tatars as Qirqyer (Qirqer), became referred to more frequently as *Chufut-Kale ("the Jews' Fortress," Heb. Sela ha-Yehudim). Excavations of 1946–61 showed that it existed on the site from the 10^th or 11^th century; a Christian cemetery (late 5^th to early 9^th centuries) attests to the corresponding beginnings of the enormous Jewish cemetery. Here, also, it was under Tatar rule that the town definitely became all Jewish (mostly Karaite); it later had a Hebrew printing press (1734).

Tatar Times

The conquest of Eastern Europe by the Tatars (Mongols) in 1236–40 made the Crimea the foremost link for the trans-Asian caravans with the Mediterranean and Western trade. The Crimean Tatar center was Solkhat or Qyrym (from which the name "the Crimea" derives); now Stary Krym, inland near the port of Kaffa (now Feodosiya), the city was made by the Genoese the center of their activities in Gazaria and on the Black Sea. The contact of the Crimean Jews with the outside world grew. The Jew "Khoza Kokos" was Muscovy's representative there in 1472–75. According to a Russian tradition, Jews from Crimea were among the instigators of the movement of *Judaizers in 15^th-century Muscovy. There was a Jewish revival in Taman, by then ethnically Circassian and ruled by the Genoese Guizolfis (1419–82), who were considered Jews in modern Jewish historiography and Christians in Russian. In Muscovite documents the last ruler is called a "Jew" and "Hebrew" as well as "Italian" and "Circassian"; if so-called after the environment, this significantly emphasizes the Jewish resurgence. However the Tatar decline commenced early. The Karaites of Poland (western Ukraine) and Lithuania later considered that they had been deported from Solkhat by Lithuanian raiders under Witold (Vitort), 1392–1430. The Genoese extended their possessions from Kaffa, and their relatively mild attitude toward other communities (including the Jews) maintained prosperity in the area despite the shrinking geographical extent of trade. From around 1420 the Tatar realm of inner Crimea developed into a split kingdom. After the Ottomans conquered the Genoese possessions in 1475, they made the inland Tatars vassals, used them for raiding Muscovy and Poland-Lithuania, and protected them from reprisals by a vast belt of scorched earth (depopulated steppe). This led to a sharp economic decline and massive emigration. The remaining population was basically Tatar, which was then a Muslim Turkish-speaking blend under leadership of Mongol descent. The remaining Krimchaks and Karaites shared their tongue and many customs, though the two communities differed somewhat in these respects both from each other as well as from the Tatars. Their divergent existence is certain from Tatar times only. The Mongol influence, which made the Karaite anthropological type distinct, must be attributed to conversions, but of the early Tatar conquerors; a point unknown to former scholars who disputed the matter. Conversions to Judaism even took place at the home of Genghis Khan. Only this can explain the transfer of strategic strongholds to Jews (mainly Karaites), and the establishment by the Crimean Tatar kings of the unfortified valley suburb of the "Jews' Fortress" as the new capital Baghche-Saray (Bakhchisarai, 1454). It officially became a distinct town only in the 17^th century.

Czarist Rule (1783–1917)

During the Russian conquest of the Crimea from the Turks the Jewish communities suffered severely. Many Jews left for Ottoman territory. In 1783, when the Crimea was annexed by Russia, there were 469 Jewish families (Rabbanite and Karaite) living in the peninsula. Tatar raids into the Ukraine and neighboring districts of Poland-Lithuania in the 16^th centuries, in particular during the Tatar alliance with *Chmielnicki in 1648, brought into Tatar hands many Jewish captives, who were usually ransomed by Jews. After the Russian annexation of the Crimea it was included in the *Pale of Settlement (1791), although the major centers of development were later excluded, among them the military port of Sevastopol (1829–59, later admitting wealthier Jews), and the resort of Yalta (1893). Jewish settlers from Russia soon outnumbered the small local communities (Krimchaks, Karaites). There were 2,837 Jews living in the Crimea in 1847. The Karaites' successful struggle for exemption from the anti-Jewish czarist legislation (1863), and the abandonment of the common fortress towns (now ruins) because of the economic revival in the lowlands, definitely estranged the Karaite society from the rest of Jewry. From 1867 to 1900 Ḥayyim Hezekiah *Medini officiated as chief rabbi of Crimean Jewry and did much to raise the level of the spiritual and cultural life of the community. Among the few scholars of Crimean Jewry notable were Abraham *Kirimi, author of Sefat Emet, a commentary on the Torah, in the 14^th century, and David *Lekhno, author of Mishkan David, in the 18^th century. In the 19^th century the archaeological discoveries of the Karaite scholar A. Firkovich, part of which were found to be forgeries, caused a sensation among scholars. There were 28,703 Jews living in the Crimea in 1897 (5.1% of the total population) and 5,400 Karaites. The Krimchak Jews numbered 3,300. The large communities were in *Simferopol (8,951 persons); *Kerch (4,774); Sevastopol (3,910); *Karasubazar (Belogorsk; 3,144, nearly all Krimchaks); *Feodosiya (3,109); and Yevpatoriya (Eupatoria).

[Abraham N. Poliak]

Soviet Rule

There were 39,921 Jews living in the Crimea in 1926 (6.1% of the total population), of whom 17,364 lived in Simferopol (19.6%); 5,204 in Sevastopol; 3,248 in Feodosiya (11.3%); 3,067 in Kerch; and 2,409 in Yevpatoriya (10.6%). In 1939 there were 47,387 Jews (8.1% of the total population), of whom 22,791 (15%) lived in Simferopol; 5,988 (5.5%) in Sevastopol; 5,573 (5.3%) in Kerch; 4,249 (9%) in Yevpatoria; 2,922 (6.5%) in Feodosia; 2,060 (6.3%) in Yalta; and 1,397 (7.1%) in Dzhankoi. In the early 1920s a movement for Jewish agricultural settlement in the Crimea began, pioneered by members of *He-Haluz, who established the hakhsharah groups of Tel Hai (1922), Mishmar (1924), and Ma'yan (1925) in the Dzhankoi area. They were followed by numerous other Jewish groups. In 1924 the Soviet government initiated a large-scale settlement project to be implemented through *Komzet with aid from the *American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. A number of Soviet Jewish leaders who were concerned with this project, such as M.(Y.) *Larin and A. Bragin, regarded it as the nucleus for establishing a Jewish Soviet Socialist Republic in the Crimea. However, by the beginning of the 1930s, when it became clear that the unoccupied land available in the Crimea was not adequate for large-scale settlement, the movement concentrated mainly on promoting settlement in *Birobidzhan. The state allocated 342,000 hectares of land for Jewish settlement in the Crimea, on which 5,150 families had settled by 1931, including a commune, named Voya Nova, established by a group of the *Gedud ha-Avodah, who had returned from Palestine. Many of the settlers left the colonies when collectivization was introduced in the early 1930s and with increasing industrialization in the Soviet Union. Some of the settlements were organized in two Jewish national districts: Freidorf (in 1930) and Larindorf (1935). By 1938 there were 86 Jewish kolkhozes in the Crimea cultivating an area of 158,850 hectares with 20,000 inhabitants (one-third of the total number of Jews in the Crimea). With the German occupation in 1941 the Jewish settlement and colonies in the Crimea were annihilated. The Nazis organized the systematic liquidation of the Ashkenazi Jews and Krimchaks, but did not include the Karaites, who were recognized by the Germans as Jews by faith but not by race. According to a provisional report from the beginning of 1942, 20,149 Jews from western Crimea alone had already been "liquidated." On April 16, 1942, the Crimea was declared Judenrein.

After the war Jewish settlement in the Crimea was renewed. Efforts were made to resettle Jews as farmers, but these were quickly abandomed. In 1959, the Jewish population numbered 26,374 (2.2% of the total population), according to the official census, of whom 11,200 lived in Simferopol (6%) and 3,100 in Sevastopol. In 1970 the Jewish population of the Crimea was concentrated in Simferopol, with an estimated Jewish population of 15,000; Sevastopol, where there was one small synagogue in the Jewish cemetery; Yevpatoria, with an estimated Jewish population of 8,000–10,000; and in smaller communities, e.g., Kerch, Yalta, and Feodosia. (See the map "Jews in the Crimea.") Crimea was involved in the affair of the Jewish *Anti-Fascist Committee, which led to the execution of its members. In the 1990s many Jews immigrated to Israel and the West.

[Yehuda Slutsky]

bibliography:

A. Harkavy, Altjuedische Denkmaeler aus der Krim (1876); O. Lerner, Yevrei v novorossiyskom kraye (1901); A.N. Poliak, Kazariyyah (Heb., 1942); J. Golde, Di Yidishe Erdarbeter in Krim (1932); B. Nevelshtein, Freydorfskiy Yevreyskiy Natsionalny Rayon (1934); B. West (ed.), Be-Ḥevlei Kelayah (1963), 138–45.

CRIMEA

Russian hegemony was established over the Crimea region in 1783 when the Tsarist empire destroyed the Crimean Tatar state. By the second half of the nineteenth century the Crimean population had declined to 200,000, of which half were Tatars. This proportion continued to decline as Slav migration to the region continued in the next century through industrialization, the building of the Black Sea Fleet, and tourism. By the 1897 and 1926 censuses the Tatar share of the population had declined to 34 and 26 percent respectively.

During the civil war of 1917–1922, Crimea was claimed by the independent Ukrainian state, which obtained it under the terms of the 1918 Brest-Litovsk Treaty. But Crimea was also the scene of conflict between the Whites and Bolsheviks. In October 1921 Crimea was included within the Russian Federation (RSFSR) as an autonomous republic with two cities (Sevastopol and Evpatoria) under all-union jurisdiction.

Crimea's ethnic composition changed in May 1944 when nearly 200,000 Tatars and 60,000 other minorities were deported to Central Asia. It is estimated that up to 40 percent of the Tatars died during the deportation. A year later Crimean autonomy was formally abolished, and the peninsula was downgraded to the status of oblast (region) of the Russian Federation. All vestiges of Tatar influence were eradicated.

Crimea's status was again changed in 1954 when Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev transferred it to the Ukrainian SSR. It remained an oblast until 1991, when a popularly supported referendum restored its status to an autonomous republic within Ukraine. Tatars began to return to Crimea in the Gorbachev era, but they still only accounted for 15 percent of the population, with the remainder of the population divided between Russians (two-thirds) and russified Ukrainians.

The status of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, and the division of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet stationed on the peninsula, were the object of acrimonious dispute between Ukraine and Russia in the post-Soviet era. The Russian parliament repeatedly voted to demand that Ukraine return both Crimea and Sevastopol. Furthermore, the parliament argued that legally they were Russian territory and that Russia, as the successor state to the USSR, had the right to inherit Sevastopol and the Black Sea Fleet.

This dispute was not resolved until May 1997, when Ukraine and Russia signed a treaty that recognized each other's borders. The treaty was quickly ratified by the Ukrainian parliament (Rada ), but both houses of the Russian parliament only ratified it after intense lobbying from Ukraine in October 1998 and February 1999.

The resolution of the question of the ownership of Crimea and Sevastopol between 1997 and 1999 also assisted in the division of the Black Sea Fleet. Russia inherited 80 percent of the fleet and obtained basing rights scheduled to expire in 2017. The situation was also stabilized by Crimea's adoption in October 1998 of a constitution that for the first time recognized Ukraine's sovereignty.

Within Crimea the Tatars have been able to mobilize large demonstrations, but their small size has prevented them from having any significant influence on the peninsula's politics. Between 1991 and 1993 the former communist leadership of Crimea, led by Mykola Bagrov, attempted to obtain significant concessions from Kiev in an attempt to maximize Crimea's autonomy. This autonomist line was replaced by a pro-Russian secessionist movement that was the most influential political force between 1993 and 1994; its leader Yuri Meshkov was elected Crimean president in January 1994. The secessionist movement collapsed between 1994 and 1995 due to internal quarrels, lack of substantial Russian assistance, and Ukrainian economic, political, and military pressure. The institution of a Crimean presidency was abolished in March 1995. From 1998 to 2002 the peninsula was led by Communists, who controlled the local parliament, and pro-Ukrainian presidential centrists in the regional government. In the 2002 elections the Communists lost their majority in the local parliament, and it, like the regional government, came under the control of pro-Ukrainian presidential centrists.

See also: black sea fleet; crimean khanate; crimean tatars; crimean war; sevastopol; tatarstan and tatars; ukraine and ukrainians

bibliography

Allworth, Edward, ed. (1988). Tatars of the Crimea: Their Struggle for Survival. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Kuzio, Taras. (1994). "The Crimea and European Security." European Security 3(4): 734–774.

Kuzio, Taras. (1998). Ukraine: State and Nation Building (Routledge Studies of Societies in Transition, 9). London: Routledge.

Lazzerini, Edward. (1996). "Crimean Tatars." In The Nationalities Question in the Post-Soviet States, ed. Graham Smith. London: Longman.

Taras Kuzio

Crimea (Krym) Peninsula in s Ukraine that extends into the Black Sea, w of the Azov Sea and joined to the mainland by the Perekop Isthmus. Simferopol is the capital. The Crimea was inhabited from the 10th to 8th centuries bc by the Cimmerians. During the 5th century, it was colonized by the Greeks and then by Romans, Ostrogoths, Huns, Mongols, Byzantines and Turks, before being annexed to Russia in 1783. In 1921 it became an autonomous republic of Russia, and in 1954 was transferred to the Ukraine as the Krymskaya oblast. In 1991 it was made an autonomous republic of an independent Ukraine. The region has many mineral resources, notably iron and gypsum, and intensive agriculture. Area: c.27,000sq km (10,425sq mi). Pop. (2002 est.) 2,073,100.