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Ukrainian Toponyms of Crimea

The Ukrainian names of Crimean settlements are a material trace of the centuries-old presence of Ukrainians in Crimea and their permanent residence on the peninsula. The toponymy of Crimea is clearly divided into two historical groups — ancient names (before 1954) and new resettlement names (after Crimea's accession to the Ukrainian SSR).

Overview

According to the 1666 census cited by the Turkish traveller Evliya Çelebi, of the 1,120,000 inhabitants of the Crimean Khanate, almost 920,000 were Cossacks (i.e., Ukrainians). In the 14th century, an Orthodox church operated in Kaffa (Feodosia), and in the 17th–18th centuries about 50 Cossack wintering camps (zymivnyky) and other Ukrainian settlements existed on the khanate's lands. According to the 1897 census, Ukrainians were the dominant ethnic group in the Taurida Governorate.

The 1921 census had a political basis: all Ukrainians of Crimea were recorded as russians. Only in 1926 did Ukrainians reappear in statistics; in 1930 there were 10 Ukrainian village councils (silrady) in Crimea, and in 1939 over 150,000 Ukrainians were officially recorded (a deliberately understated figure). The 1989 census gave three different figures (625, 725, and 900 thousand), while in reality more than a million Ukrainians lived in Crimea. The permanent presence of Ukrainians left its mark on the peninsula's toponymy.

The Ukrainian toponymy of Crimea is divided into two historical groups: names that existed before 1954 (in particular, villages founded by Poltava settlers in the 19th century, such as the village of Novomykolaivka), and names that arose after Crimea's accession to Ukraine in 1954.

Key Details / Subtopics

  • Two historical groups of toponyms: before 1954 (ancient Ukrainian names) and after Crimea's accession to the Ukrainian SSR (new resettlement names).
  • Ancient Ukrainian toponyms: names indicating a locality — the villages of Hlybokyi Yar (Deep Ravine), Zelenyi Yar (Green Ravine, two villages), Bilohlynka, Levadky, Balky (Ravines), Karpova Balka (Karp's Ravine), Zatyshne (Sheltered), Vyshniakivka, Kopani (Diggings); the village of Mazanka (for almost two centuries, according to local tradition, founded by retired Cossacks of the Chernihiv Regiment); the traditionally Ukrainian villages Zoriane, Zoria (Star), Kolosky, Chobotarka (two villages), Chervone. A separate group consists of the farmsteads-wintering camps (Bashtanivka, Velykyi Kut, Kozachyi Yar, Zaporizke, Kozache, Krynychne, Khmelnytske, etc.) that survived from the former Cossack wintering camps, as well as 19th-century villages founded by settlers from the mainland (for example, Novomykolaivka on the Kerch Peninsula, founded by Poltava settlers after the Crimean War).
  • New resettlement toponyms: names in honor of prominent figures — Bohdanivka, Doroshenkove, Shevchenkove, Osypenko, Lytvynenkove, Babenkove, Bondarenkove; names reflecting the place of origin of the first settlers — Dniprovka, Vinnytske, Ukrainske, Ukrainka, Poltavka, Poltavske, Lebedynka, Shepetivka, Sumske, Nizhynske.
  • Demographic context: the data of Evliya Çelebi (1666, ~920,000 Ukrainian Cossacks), the censuses of 1897/1921/1926/1930/1939/1989, Ukrainians as the dominant group in the Taurida Governorate (1897). The vast majority of the new names are substantivized adjectives with possessive meaning (Shevchenkove, Doroshenkove) and attributive meaning (Vinnytske, Poltavske); the ancient names are toponymized common nouns (Balky, Kopani, Mazanka, Zoria) with specifying adjectives.
  • Author and source: an article by Yevhen Regushovskyi, Doctor of Philological Sciences, professor, in the newspaper "Krymska Svitlytsia" (2016, No. 38), based on materials of the publication "Kultura narodov Prichernomorya" ("Culture of the Peoples of the Black Sea Region", 1997, No. 1).