Split (1)

train · 25k rows

text stringlengths 13 991
The Qing counterinsurgency, led by General Zuo Zongtang began in September 1876 and concluded in December 1877, having completely retaken the lands that were lost. During this time, Russia had promised to return all occupied lands to China.
The Treaty of Livadia actually consisted of two separate agreements.
The first treaty consisted of eighteen articles, and stipulated that:
The second treaty contained seventeen articles that focused on the logistics of conducting trade, such as tax issues, passport requirements, and certification procedures, the total effect of which was very preferential to Russian commercial interests and represented unprecedented access to the Chinese interior. There was also an unrelated supplementary article that reaffirmed Russia's right to navigate the Songhua River as far as Tongjiang in Manchuria.
At the time of negotiations, China was in a strong position. Zuo's army was still in the region and far outnumbered the Russian troops that remained. Furthermore, Russia had recently concluded the Russo-Turkish War and the resulting Treaty of Berlin had not been particularly favorable to them. Military expenditures during that war had also drained the national treasury, so the fact that the terms of Livadia were so heavily in their favor came as quite a shock among government officials when they became widely known.
As the months passed, tensions between the two countries remained high and both sides prepared for war. China dispatched Zeng Jize as their new negotiator. The foreign emissaries in Beijing pleaded on behalf of Chonghou, and even Queen Victoria personally interceded. Finally, on 12 August 1880, it was announced that Chonghou would be freed, and negotiations resumed. The resulting Treaty of Saint Petersburg kept many of the same provisions as the Treaty of Livadia, with the major exceptions being that Russia would return almost all of Xinjiang, less a small area reserved for Dungans who wanted to become Russian citizens, and that the amount of the indemnity payment increased.
For many years, the story that Chonghou was solely responsible for the debacle was perpetuated by the Chinese government, and this was the view put forth by historians as well. Although Chonghou had survived, he was turned into a nonperson by the government; he was expunged from government records and his letters were not published posthumously, as was the custom for Chinese court officials. Furthermore, neither the Chinese nor Russian governments retained any documents from the negotiations, thus making it difficult to determine how China ended up with an unequal treaty despite being in the better negotiating position.
Historian S. C. M. Paine investigated the circumstances around the treaty and discovered that contrary to the official story, Chonghou was an experienced diplomat and had a career of over thirty years in negotiations with France, England, and the United States. In fact, he led the delegation to France to offer the Chinese apology after the Tianjin Massacre in 1870.
Instead, Paine believes blame should be laid on the Qing government as a whole. At the Zongli Yamen (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Prince Gong, who had founded the ministry, had plenty of experience dealing with Russia during negotiations for the Convention of Peking in 1860, and during the Russian occupation period, there was plenty of communication between the two countries that Russian territorial and commercial demands should have been known long before negotiations started. However, despite its charter, the Zongli Yamen was not the only agency that dealt with foreign affairs. Even within the ministry, there was a split between those who were open to foreigners (such as Prince Gong) and those were not.
Paine argues that given Chonghou's experience, because the terms were so unfavorable to China, it is unlikely that he would have made those concessions on his own, as evidenced from the subsequent outrage. It was only when Empress Dowager Cixi sought comment on the treaty from others that it turned into a scandal. Cixi's installation of her nephew as emperor also created a power struggle in the government between her and Prince Gong, whose son was also in contention to succeed the Tongzhi Emperor. Thus, Prince Gong may have been distracted and unable to apply his foreign affairs expertise. In addition, Wenxiang, another diplomat who was also experienced in negotiating with Westerners, had died in 1876.
In short, Paine believes that Chonghou was poorly advised by the Zongli Yamen and when the court became outraged by the treaty, he became the scapegoat, otherwise the ministry and by extension Manchus (who made up the majority of Zongli Yamen officials) would have to take the blame.
Suuksu or Suuk-su (, , ) is a cape on the southern coast of Crimea, Ukraine between the town Gurzuf and western slopes of Mount Ayu-Dag ("Bear Mountain"). On top of the cape is an early medieval cemetery. Excavation of the cemetery began in 1903 and turned up a variety of jewelry, dishes and weapons.
The cemetery was named for the cape, which it is located. In the Crimean Tatar language, it means "cold water" (suvuq - cold, suv - water).
The Evacuation of the Crimea (November 13–16, 1920) was an event in the Russian Civil War, in which the White Russian state evacuated over sea from the Crimean Peninsula, their last stronghold on the Southern Front, bringing an end to the fighting on that Front.
During the occupation of Crimea by the Crimean Soviet Army under the command of Pavel Dybenko in April 1919, the Entente troops were evacuated from Sevastopol, taking with them a number of refugees, including some of the leaders of the Second Crimean regional government of Solomon Crimea. White Army units retreated to the Kerch Peninsula and held it. Initially, the Crimean Socialist Soviet Republic and its leaders Dmitry Ulyanov pursued a relatively soft policy in comparison with the atrocities of the winter of 1917-1918 and were able to avoid mass terror.
However by the end of October 1920, the White Army had been driven out of Southern Russia and Ukraine, and only held the Crimean Peninsula, defended behind the narrow Perekop Isthmus. When this last defensive line was breached by the Red Army during the Siege of Perekop, the commander of the White Army, Pyotr Wrangel, decided to evacuate. The operation had been preliminarily worked out and planned by General Wrangel's staff, so its implementation was carried out in good order.
During the evacuation from the ports of the Crimean peninsula (Sevastopol, Yevpatoria, Kerch, Feodosia, Yalta) a total of 145,693 soldiers and civilians, not counting the crews, were taken on board on 126 ships and "sudenosheks" (small boats and tugs).
This fleet, known as Wrangel's fleet, and composed of ships of the Whites' Black Sea fleet, foreign ships and the temporarily mobilized ships of the Voluntary Fleet, first sailed to Entente-occupied Constantinople. A significant part of the passengers left the ships here, replenishing the ranks of White Russian emigrees. Between December 8, 1920 and February 1921, the reduced flotilla sailed to the Tunisian port of Bizerte.
The soldiers and civilians who were left behind in the Crimea, suffered under the Red Terror organised by Béla Kun and Rosalia Zemlyachka, under the general management of the representative of the Russian Soviet government Yuri Pyatakov and authorised by Vladimir Lenin. <br>
The estimated number of executions vary from minimum 12,000 over 50,000 to 120,000. The White Army soldiers had been falsely promised amnesty if they surrendered.
Several rare photographs of the moment of evacuation in Sevastopol and Yalta have been preserved. The Crimean Evacuation is also shown in Soviet feature films "Two Comrades Were Serving" (1968) and "The Flight" (1970), and also in the 2014 film "Sunstroke" .
Trebizond already had a long history of autonomous rule before it became the center of a small empire in the Late Middle Ages. Due to its natural harbours, defensible topography and access to silver and copper mines, Trebizond became the pre-eminent Greek colony on the eastern Black Sea shore soon after its founding. Its remoteness from Roman capitals gave local rulers the opportunity to advance their own interest. In the centuries before the founding of the empire the city had been under control of the local Gabras family, which – while officially still remaining part of the Byzantine Empire – minted its own coin.
The rulers of Trebizond called themselves "Megas Komnenos" ("Great Comnenus") and – like their counterparts in the other two Byzantine successor states, the Empire of Nicaea and the Despotate of Epirus – initially claimed supremacy as "Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans". However, after Michael VIII Palaiologos of Nicaea recaptured Constantinople in 1261, the Komnenian use of the style "Emperor" became a sore point. In 1282, John II Komnenos stripped off his imperial regalia before the walls of Constantinople before entering to marry Michael's daughter, accepting his legal title of despot. However, his successors used a version of his title, "Emperor and Autocrat of the entire East, of the Iberians and the Perateia" until the Empire's end in 1461.
Geographically, the Empire of Trebizond consisted of the narrow strip along the southern coast of the Black Sea and the western half of the Pontic Alps, along with the Gazarian Perateia, or southern Crimea (soon losing to Genoese Gazaria and Theodorite Gazaria).
The empire traces its foundation to April 1204, when Alexios Komnenos and his brother David took advantage of the preoccupation of the central Byzantine government with the encampment of the soldiers of the Fourth Crusade outside their walls (June 1203 – mid-April 1204) and seized the city of Trebizond and the surrounding province of Chaldia with troops provided by their relative, Tamar of Georgia. Henceforth, the links between Trebizond and Georgia remained close, but their nature and extent have been disputed. However some scholars believe that the new state was subject to Georgia, at least in the first years of its existence, at the beginning of the 13th century.
After marching from Georgia, and with the help of their paternal aunt Queen Tamar, Alexios and David occupied Trebizond in April 1204. That same month Alexios was proclaimed emperor at the age of 22, an act considered by later writers as the moment the Empire of Trebizond was founded. Alexios would then proceed to rule his new empire for the next twenty-two years, until his death in February 1222. The throne then passed to his son-in-law Andronikos I Gidos Komnenos.
For most of the 13th century Trebizond was in continual conflict with the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm and later with the Ottoman Turks, as well as Constantinople, the Italian republics, and especially the Republic of Genoa. It was an empire more in title than in fact, surviving by playing its rivals against each other, and offering the daughters of its rulers, who were famed for their beauty, for marriage with generous dowries, especially with the Turkish rulers of inland Anatolia. The common view is that the Empire of Trebizond relied heavily upon wealth gained from its trade with Genoese and Venetian merchants to secure for itself the resources necessary to maintain independence.
The second son of Alexios I, Manuel I (1238–1263), preserved internal security and acquired the reputation of a great commander. His accomplishments included capturing Sinope in 1254. He was the first ruler to issue silver coins, which were known as "aspers".
From the civil wars to the end of the 14th century.
Under the rule of Alexios III, Trebizond was considered an important trade center and was renowned for its great wealth and artistic accomplishment. It was at this point that their famous diplomatic strategy of marrying the princesses of the Grand Komnenos to neighboring Turkish dynasts began. However, Anthony Bryers has argued against thinking this empire was a wealthy polity, stating that while the income from taxes levied on this trade was "by Byzantine standards" substantial, as much as three quarters of the income of the Emperor came from land "either directly from the imperial estates or indirectly from taxes and tithes from other lands."
Alexios IV's eldest son, John IV (1429–1459), could not help but see that his Empire would soon share the fate of Constantinople. The Ottoman Sultan Murad II first attempted to take the capital by sea in 1442, but high surf made the landings difficult and the attempt was repulsed. While Murad's son and successor, Mehmed II, was away laying siege to Belgrade in 1456, the Ottoman governor of Amasya attacked Trebizond, and although defeated, he took many prisoners and extracted a heavy tribute. A Genoese document records the seizure of one of their ships at that port in 1437 by a military Galley on the orders of Emperor John IV.
After John's death in 1459, his brother David came to power. David intrigued with various European powers for help against the Ottomans, speaking of wild schemes that included the conquest of Jerusalem. Mehmed II eventually heard of these intrigues and was further provoked to action by David's demand that Mehmed remit the tribute imposed on his brother.
Mehmed's response came in the summer of 1461. He collected a sizable army at Bursa, and in a surprise move marched on Sinope, whose emir quickly surrendered. Then the Sultan moved south across eastern Anatolia to neutralize Uzun Hasan. Having isolated Trebizond, Mehmed quickly swept down upon it before the inhabitants knew he was coming, and placed it under siege. The city held out for a month before David surrendered on August 15, 1461. With the fall of Trebizond, the last independent remnant of the Byzantine Empire, as well as the Roman Empire from which the Byzantine Empire sprang, was the Empire of Trebizond's offshoot, the Principality of Theodoro. On December 5, 1475 it would also fall to Ottoman rule.
In the relatively limited territory of the kingdom of the Grand Komnenoi (known as the “Empire of Trebizond”) there was enough room for three dioceses: Trebizond, which was the only diocese established far in the past, Cerasous and Rizaion in Lazika, both formed as upgraded bishoprics. All three dioceses survived the Ottoman conquest (1461) and generally operated until the 17th century, when the dioceses of Cerasous and Rizaion were abolished. The diocese of Rizaion and the bishopric of Of were abolished at the time due to the Islamisation of the Laz and of the region respectively. Possibly the diocese of Cerasous was deactivated for the same reasons.
Christianity strongly influenced society in the Empire of Trebizond. According to the Acts of Vazelon, which were written by contemporary monks, most peasants in the Matzouka region of the Empire had first names relating to Christian religious figures. Last names often referred to Christian saints, trades, and place names.
In Italian, there exists the expression "to lose the Trebizond" ("perdere la Trebisonda") which means "to be bewildered". Trebizond was a port reachable by all the routes that crossed the Black Sea, and therefore a safe shelter in case of storms.
The Russo-Crimean Wars were fought between the forces of Russia and the Nogays of the Crimean Khanate during the 16th century over the region around the Volga River.
In the 16th century, the Wild Steppes in Russia were exposed to the Khanate. During the wars, the Crimean Khanate (supported by the Turkish army) invaded central Russia, devastated Ryazan, and burned Moscow. However, the next year they were defeated in the Battle of Molodi. Despite the defeat, the raids continued. As a result, the Crimean Khanate was invaded several times, conquered in the late 18th century. The Tatars eventually lost their influence in the regions.
The raids began shortly after the establishment of the Russian buffer state, Qasim Khanate, and the domination of Russia in the Russo-Kazan Wars of the late 15th century.
The Crimean invasions of Russia began in 1507, after the death of Moscow's grand duke Ivan III, with the Crimean Khanate attacking the Russian towns of Belev and Kozelsk.
Over the course of the 16th century, the outer border of the "Wild Steppes" was near the city of Ryazan, outside the Oka River. The main path for the invading forces to Moscow was the Muravsky Trail, running from the Crimean Isthmus of Perekop, between the basins of the Dnieper and Seversky Donets rivers, and finally up to Tula. The Tatars would turn back only after extensive looting and kidnapping, the Tartars usually managed to penetrate 100–200 kilometers into Russian territory. Captives were subsequently sent to the Crimean city of Caffa to be sold into slavery. As a result, the Russian population in the border regions suffered heavily.
Each spring, Russia mobilized up to several thousand soldiers for border service. The defensive lines consisted of a circuit of fortresses and cities.
To protect from invasions by the Nogai Horde in the region between the Volga and Irtysh rivers, the Volga cities of Samara (1586), Tsaritsyn (1589), and Saratov (1590) were founded.
The most damaging invasions occurred in 1517, 1521 (supported by the Khanate of Kazan), 1537 (supported by the Khanate of Kazan, the Lithuanians, and the Ottoman Empire), 1552, 1555, 1570–72 (supported by Sweden and the Ottoman Empire), 1589, 1593, 1640, 1666–67 (supported by Poland–Lithuania), 1671, and 1688.
In 1570 the Crimean Tatars' horde devastated the Ryazan borderland of Russia.
In May 1571, the 120,000-strong Crimean and Turkish army (80,000 Tatars, 33,000 irregular Turks, and 7,000 janissaries) led by the khan of Crimea Devlet I Giray, and Big and Small Nogai hordes and troops of Circassians, bypassed the Serpukhov defensive fortifications on the Oka River, crossed the Ugra River, and rounded the flank of the 6,000-man Russian army. The sentry troops of Russians were crushed by the Crimeans. Not having forces to stop the invasion, the Russian army retreated to Moscow. The rural Russian population also fled to the capital.
The Crimean army devastated unprotected towns and villages around Moscow, and then set fire to suburbs of the capital. Due to a strong wind, the fire quickly expanded. The townspeople, chased by a fire and refugees, rushed to the northern gate of the capital. At the gate and in the narrow streets, there was a crush, people "went in three lines went on heads one of another, and top pressed those who were under them". The army, having mixed up with refugees, lost order, and general prince Belsky died in a fire.
Within three hours, Moscow burnt completely. In one more day, the Crimean army, sated with its pillage, left on the Ryazan road to the steppes. Contemporaries counted up to 80,000 victims of the invasion in 1571, with 150,000 Russian taken as captives. Papal ambassador Possevin testified of the devastation: he counted in 1580 no more than 30,000 inhabitants of Moscow, although in 1520 the Moscow population was about 100,000.
After the burning of Moscow, Devlet Giray Khan, supported by the Ottoman Empire, invaded Russia again in 1572. A combined force of Tatars and Turks, however, this time they were repelled in the Battle of Molodi. In July–August, the 120,000-strong horde of Devlet I Giray of Crimea was also defeated by the Russian army, led by Prince Mikhail Vorotynsky and Prince Dmitriy Khvorostinin.
Later, the Russian expansion turned to the Black Sea region and the Crimean khanate was invaded several times in the 18th century and finally conquered during the Russo-Turkish Wars.
This list does not include raids into Poland-Lithuania (75 raids during 1474–1569)
Crimean Regional Government ( "Krymskoe kraevoe pravitel'stvo") refers to two successive short-lived regimes in the Crimean Peninsula during 1918 and 1919.
Following Russia's 1917 October Revolution, an ethnic Tatar government proclaimed the Crimean People's Republic. The republic was soon overrun by Bolshevik forces in early 1918 who established the Taurida Soviet Socialist Republic and then by the forces of the Ukrainian People's Republic with a military assistance from the German Empire in the Crimean Offensive at the end of April 1918.
The first Crimean Regional Government was established on 25 June 1918. It was formed under German protection with Lipka Tatar General Maciej (Suleyman) Sulkiewicz as prime minister, minister of interior and military affairs. There were efforts by Ukraine to exert control over Crimea but, with German support, the regional government remained separate from Ukraine though, in September and October, there were talks to effect a federation of the two.
Following the withdrawal of German troops from Crimea, the unpopular Sulkiewicz fell from power on 25 November 1918 and was succeeded by Crimean Karaite politician and former "Kadet" member Solomon Krym. This liberal, anti-Bolshevik regime included fellow former "Kadet" member Maxim Vinaver as foreign minister and Vladimir D. Nabokov as minister of justice. In late November 1918, troops of the Allies of World War I, mainly French and Greek, landed in Crimea but they withdrew in April 1919, after the loss of Odessa.
The Krym government, also called the Crimean Frontier Government, began to crumble in early 1919 due to tensions with the Russian White movement's Volunteer Army under Anton Denikin which suspected the loyalty of its main figures. The collapse of the World War I Central Powers and the withdrawal of the Allies had made the Crimea again fully dependent on Russia.
On 2 April 1919, the Soviet Red Army occupied Simferopol and the second Crimean Regional Government was dissolved. The Crimean Socialist Soviet Republic was then established only to be retaken by White forces in June 1919. The Whites under Denikin and later Pyotr Wrangel held Crimea until November 1920.
The Yalta Raion (; ) was an administrative division (a district) of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and later the Crimean Oblast as part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic until it was reorganized into the Yalta municipality in 1948.
About 50 years later, students from Moscow created a monument of remembrance for the battle.
In November 1920, immediately prior to the main attack on Perekop, the balance of forces was as follows:
The construction of fortifications on the isthmus of Perekop began in the autumn of 1919. The White Army defense system consisted of two strips of defense: The Perekop (founded on the Turkish Wall with a total length of 11 km, it included a ditch, barbed wire in 3-5 rows and three lines of trenches) and Ishun (20–25 km from the first line).
There were also fortifications to strengthen the Chonhar Peninsula and the Arabat Spit - up to 5-6 lines of trenches and trenches with barbed wire.<br>
Relatively weak defended was the Lithuanian Peninsula with only one line of trenches and barbed wire.
Approximately 10,000 White Army soldiers defended Perekop and Ishun while 3,000 defended the Syvash, the Chongar Strait and Arabat Spit, a strong reserve. Just over 14,000 were located in the rear.
Initially, Frunze had planned to deliver the main blow toward Chongar but due to the ice holding back the Azov flotilla, the main attack was transferred on toward Perekop.
The assault on Perekop was executed by the 6th Army, 1st Cavalry Army and 2nd Cavalry Army.<br>
Communists and Komsomol members were sent to strengthen the troops. Just before the operation began, 8,000 Communists and 2,500 Komsomol members were added to the Army.
On the night of November 8, 1920, the striking force of the 6th Army, in adverse weather conditions (strong winds and minus 11-12 degrees Celsius), crossed the 7-kilometer water obstacle (Syvash), and captured the Lithuanian Peninsula on that day.
At the same time, the 51st Rifle Division undertook a frontal attack at the Turkish Redoubt. For the purpose of the concentration of forces in the attack, the division was reorganized into six waves - the first component grenade launchers and wire cutters, second - attack aircraft; third - reserve; fourth - "cleaners", and the fifth and sixth - reserve. The attack was not successful.
After back-and-forth fighting, complicated by fluctuating water levels in Syvash bay, the Red Army achieved a breakthrough on November 12, 1920, sending the opposition in general retreat.<br>
General Wrangel had no other option than to evacuate his army from the Crimea to Constantinople.
A popular uprising in Sevastopol in 1830 in response to strict quarantine measures imposed upon the city to combat the spread of the plague.
In 1828, there was a plague in the southern part of the Russian Empire, which was then at war with The Ottoman Empire. Even though there was no plague in Sevastopol, a quarantine was called as a preventative measure, likely due to the city's strategic importance as a port for the Russian Navy.
In May 1828, a quarantine cordon was built around Sevastopol, and all traffic into and out of the city had to pass through a checkpoint. In the summer of 1829, the quarantine was made stricter, such that anyone travelling to the city had to spend 2–3 weeks in the quarantine zone. Anybody suspected of illness had to be put into isolation. This dissuaded local farmers from entering the city with goods. This led to a shortage of rations, which was compounded by hoarding of goods by quarantine officials.
The deficit and poor quality of the goods in the city contributed to illness and death amongst the population, and the effects were the most pronounced in the poorer parts of the city.
Matters got so bad that an official commission was ordered from St. Petersburg to investigate the situation. Mass abuses were found, but no officials were punished and the commission was disbanded in November of that same year.
In March 1830, the quarantine was toughened further when all of the residents were ordered not to leave their homes. This ban was lifted in May, except for those residents of the poorer Korablenaya neighborhood, who were ordered to remain in quarantine for another 7 days, and upon passage of this week, for another 2 weeks. This enraged those residents, as well as their relations outside of the neighbourhood, and they refused the orders - despite the urging of Counter admiral Ivan Skalovsky and others in the military and religious establishment.
The quarantine was enforced by the infantry, and the desperate residents began planning an armed resistance, led by retired military amongst them. Many within the infantry sympathised with the residents. The two sides managed to avoid the outbreak of an armed confrontation.
On the 3rd of June, Lt. General and Military Governor of Sevastopol, Nikolai Stolypin, in response to the growing instability, positioned troops in the streets and around the governor's mansion. This further incensed the revolting residents, who descended upon the governor's mansion in an angry mob and murdered Stolypin.
They were supported by the military garrisons deployed to enforce the quarantine, some of these soldiers tore down the quarantine cordon around the neighbourhood. The revolting citizens and soldiers held control of the city for 22 hours, during which time they ordered 'plague' officials to sign written documents stating that there was no plague in the city.
The next day Lt. Gen. Andrei Turchaninov replaced the murdered Stolypin and signed a decree ordering the end of the quarantine.
Despite accomplishing their immediate goal, the revolters did face repercussions when a division under Timofeyev arrived to regain control of the city. A committee under the governor of Novorossiya, Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov, considered the cases of about 6,000 people. 7 people were executed for leading the uprising and about 1,000 residents and sailors were sent to hard labor. Approximately 4,200 civilians were deported to other cities. The officers received disciplinary punishment.
The Government of South Russia ( ) was a White movement government established in Sevastopol, Crimea in April 1920.
It was the successor to General Anton Denikin's South Russian Government (Южнорусское Правительство "Yuzhnorusskoye Pravitel'stvo") set up in February 1920.
General Pyotr Wrangel was the "pravitel"' (правитель, "ruler") while the head of the government itself was the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Alexander Krivoshein, with Peter Berngardovich Struve serving as foreign minister. The government officially adopted the name "Government of South Russia" on 16 August 1920, and it controlled the area of the former Russian Empire's Taurida Governorate, i.e., the Crimean Peninsula and adjacent areas of the mainland.
The Government of South Russia received assistance from the Allied Powers including France (which recognized it in August 1920) and the United States, as well as from the newly independent Poland. However, foreign support gradually dried up so offensives of the former Armed Forces of South Russia and the Volunteer Army, now called the Russian Army, had failed in Northern Taurida.
In early November with the Perekop–Chongar operation, the Bolsheviks won decisive victories and entered Crimea proper. Between 7 and 17 November it broke through Russian Army defenses on the Isthmus of Perekop, crossing the Sivash and capturing the Lithuanian Peninsula, the fortified , Yushun, and Chongar positions. After breaking through at Perekop, the front advanced into Crimea. Wrangel initiated an evacuation of 146,000 people to Constantinople with the last boats departing on 16 November. With this withdrawal, the final remnants of the White forces in European Russia were defeated.
Chersonesus (; ; modern Russian and Ukrainian: Херсоне́с, "Khersones"; also rendered as "Chersonese", "Chersonesos"), in medieval Greek contracted to Cherson (Χερσών; Old East Slavic: Корсунь, "Korsun") is an ancient Greek colony founded approximately 2,500 years ago in the southwestern part of the Crimean Peninsula. Settlers from Heraclea Pontica in Bithynia established the colony in the 6th century BC.
The ancient city is located on the shore of the Black Sea on the outskirts of present-day Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula, where it is referred to as "Khersones" (). The site is part of the "National Preserve of Tauric Chersonesos". The name "Chersonesos" in Greek means "peninsula" and aptly describes the site on which the colony was established. It should not be confused with the "Tauric Chersonese", a name often applied to the whole of the southern Crimea.
During much of the classical period Chersonesus operated as a democracy ruled by a group of elected Archons and a council called the "Demiurgoi". As time passed, the government grew more oligarchic, with power concentrated in the hands of the archons. A form of oath sworn by all the citizens from the 3rd century BC onwards has survived to the present day.
In 2013 UNESCO listed Chersonesus as a World Heritage Site.
In the late 2nd century BC Chersonesus became a dependency of the Bosporan Kingdom. It was subject to Rome from the middle of the 1st century BC until the 370s AD, when it was captured by the Huns.
It became a Byzantine possession during the Early Middle Ages and withstood a siege by the Göktürks in 581. Byzantine rule was slight: there was a small imperial garrison more for the town's protection than for its control. It was useful to Byzantium in two ways: it was an observation point to watch the barbarian tribes, and its isolation made it a popular place of exile for those who angered the Roman and later Byzantine governments. Among its more famous "inmates" were Pope Clement I and Pope Martin I, and the deposed Byzantine Emperor Justinian II.
According to Theophanes the Confessor and others, Chersonesus was the residence of a Khazar governor ("tudun") in the late 7th century. Between approximately 705 and 840, the city's affairs were managed by elected officials called "babaghuq", meaning "father of the city".
In 833, Emperor Theophilus sent the nobleman Petronas Kamateros, who had recently overseen the construction of the Khazar fortress of Sarkel, to take direct control over the city and its environs, establishing the theme of Klimata/Cherson. It remained in Byzantine hands until the 980s, when it reportedly fell to Kiev. Vladimir the Great agreed to evacuate the fortress only if Basil II's sister Anna Porphyrogeneta would be given him in marriage. The demand caused a scandal in Constantinople. As a pre-condition for the marriage settlement, Vladimir was baptized here in 988, thus paving the way to the Baptism of Kievan Rus'. Thereafter Korsun' was evacuated.
Since this campaign is not recorded in Greek sources, historians have suggested that the account actually refers to the events of the Rus'–Byzantine War (1043) and to a different Vladimir. In fact, most valuables looted by the Slavs in Korsun' made their way to Novgorod (perhaps by way of Joachim the Korsunian, the first Novgorodian bishop, as his surname indicates ties to Korsun), where they were preserved in the Cathedral of Holy Wisdom until the 20th century. One of the most interesting items from this "Korsun Treasure" is the copper Korsun Gate, supposedly captured by the Novgorodians in Korsun' and now part of the St. Sophia Cathedral.
After the Fourth Crusade (1202–04), Chersonesus became dependent on the Byzantine Empire of Trebizond as the Principality of Theodoro. After the Siege of Trebizond (1461) the Principality of Theodoro became independent. The city fell under Genoese control in the early 13th century. In 1299, the town was sacked by the Mongol armies of Nogai Khan's Golden Horde. Byzantine sources last mention Chersonesus in 1396, and based on archaeological evidence the site is presumed to have been abandoned in the following decades.
Chersonesus had been a Roman pre-Great Schism, later Greek/Orthodox, episcopal see for centuries, elevated early to the rank of archbishopric, since it is mentioned as such in the "Notitiae Episcopatuum"; it disappeared after the Turkish conquest in 1475 and the destruction of the city.
In the late 19th century, the grand Russian Orthodox St Vladimir's Cathedral (completed 1892) was built on a small hill overlooking the site; designed in Byzantine style, it was intended to commemorate the site of Vladimir's baptism.
In 1333, a Latin Church diocese of Chersonesus was established, but it appears that it had only a bishop, a Dominican called Richard the Englishman.

Subsets and Splits

No community queries yet

The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.