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Indigenous Ukrainian Population of Crimea

The indigenous Ukrainian population of Crimea is the aggregate of Ukrainian settlers, peasants, serfs, and artisans who en masse populated the Crimean Peninsula starting from the 18th century (following the annexation to the russian empire in 1783), as well as their descendants, who formed a stable Ukrainian ethnic layer in the rural areas of Crimea.

Overview

The historical presence of Ukrainians in Crimea dates back to the times of Kyiv Rus (military campaigns of Prince Volodymyr) and the Cossack era. After Turkish troops left Crimea in 1783, russian colonization began, during which Ukrainian peasant-settlers from Poltava, Voronezh, Chernihiv, and other Ukrainian lands became the main labor resource for developing the steppe and western Crimea. As early as 1864, the Yevpatoria district accounted for over 1,000 settler households. They created a network of Ukrainian villages, preserved their language, traditions, and culinary culture (borscht, holubtsi, varenyky), and formed the economic foundation of the peninsula (sheep farming, arable farming, vegetable growing).

Key Details / Subtopics

  • First Ukrainian settlers in Western Crimea: In the settlement of Ak-Mechet (modern Chornomorske) and the surrounding steppes in the late 18th — early 19th centuries, Ukrainian families of Ivan Sharpylo, the Peretiatkos, the Ikhnos, and others appeared. Exhibits of the Chornomorske Museum preserve the memory of the first white-walled clay-plastered cottages (khaty-mazanky).
  • Contribution to Crimea's economy: Through the labor of Ukrainian peasant-serfs on the estates of landlords V. S. Popov and Count M. S. Vorontsov, thousands of sheep herds were maintained. The dressing of sheep pelts (smushky) supplied up to 10,000 pieces annually to the market at a price of 2.5–3 silver rubles, funds from which were used, among other things, to build the Vorontsov Palace in Alupka.
  • Arable farming composition of collective farms (1940): According to archival records of 1940, the membership of collective farmers of the Chornomorske October Revolution Collective Farm consisted predominantly of Ukrainian families (Overchuk, Myronchuk, Tykhovod, Voronka, Milkevych, Kovalenko, Romaniuta, Lupynos, Pasichnyk, Vlasiuk, Yarmolenko, Stadnyk, Cherniavskyi, Kalenych, Babych).
  • Cultural life: Before World War II, amateur theaters functioned in Ukrainian villages (for instance, in the village of Olenivka they staged the play Courtship at Honcharivka by H. Kvitka-Osnovianenko).
  • Partisan movement and combat contribution: People of Chornomorske of Ukrainian origin constituted a significant portion of the local population that died on the fronts of World War II (lists of the fallen include the families of Bilotserkovskyi, Bohatskyi, Herashchenko, Koval, Kobzar, Sharpylo, etc.).
  • Transformation of ethnonymics: For a long time, this population referred to themselves as "Rus people" (ruski lyudy, in the sense of belonging to ancient Rus and the Orthodox population), which in Soviet times led to an erosion of identity and confusion with ethnic russians.
  • Rus People of Crimea — Primary source of the article by Olha Puhach in the newspaper Krymska Svitlytsia (2016, No. 33).
  • Origin of the Name "Rus" in Crimea — Research on ethnonymics and the folk self-appellation of the historical Ukrainian population of Crimea.
  • Chornomorske — Settlement in Western Crimea, a center for the preservation of Ukrainian clay-cottage architecture and landmarks of the early settlers.
  • Great Resettlement of Ukrainians to Crimea — Page about subsequent waves of post-war resettlement of Ukrainian collective farmers to Crimea.
  • Olha Puhach — Author of research on Ukrainians of Western Crimea.