Crimea became part of Russia in fact in 1783, and formally - on December 29, 1791 (January 9, 1792) under the Yassy Peace Treaty between the Russian and Ottoman Empires. Already by the beginning of the 19th century. Crimea has become an organic part of Russia and its prosperous region. The notorious Khrushchev decree has no international significance, since it is an internal act of the USSR, therefore the people of Crimea had the full legal right to hold a referendum on secession from Ukraine and return to Russia.
Instructions
Step 1
The history of Crimea stands out for its diversity even against the global background. It was both the center of the powerful Bosporus kingdom, which argued with Rome, and the camp of many barbarian tribes, and a distant province of Orthodox Byzantium, and then the Muslim Ottoman Empire. The name Kryrym was given to him by the Polovtsy, who captured the Crimean peninsula in the 12th century. The ancient Greeks left a bright trace in the history of Crimea, and the Genoese in the Middle Ages. Both of them founded trading posts and colonies, which later developed into cities that still exist today.
Step 2
Crimea first appeared in the Russian orbit in the 9th century, while still being a Byzantine possession: one of the authors of the Slavic alphabet, Cyril, was sent here to exile. The mutual significance of Crimea and Russia becomes clearly visible in the 10th century: it was here, in Chersonesos, that Vladimir the Great was baptized in 988, from whom the Russian land was baptized. Later, in the 11th century, Crimea for some time was part of the Russian Tmutarakan principality, its center was the city of Korchev, now Kerch. Thus, Kerch is the first Russian city of Crimea, but it was founded in the Ancient World. Then Kerch was the Cimmerian Bosporus, the capital of the Bosporus kingdom.
Step 3
The Mongol invasion separated Crimea from Russia for a long time politically. However, economic ties remained. Russian merchants regularly visited Crimea, and a Russian colony constantly existed in Cafe (Feodosia) with short interruptions. In the last quarter of the 15th century, Afanasy Nikitin, returning from his "Voyage across the Three Seas" completely ruined, robbed and sick, took a gold one in Trabzon (Trebizond) to cross the Black Sea, so that later "in the Cafe to give it". The first Europeans to see India did not have the slightest doubt that his fellow countrymen had not disappeared from Kafa and would help out a relative in trouble.
Step 4
The first attempts of Russia to firmly establish itself in the Crimea date back to the beginning of the reign of Peter the Great (the Azov campaign). But a much more important Northern War was brewing, which immediately cut a window to Europe, and after rather sluggish negotiations in Istanbul on the Crimea, an agreement was concluded on the basis of: “We will ruin the Dnieper towns (strongholds of the Russian army), as agreed, but instead be around Azov Russian land for ten days of riding. Crimea did not fall into this zone, and the Turks soon ceased to comply with the terms of the agreement.
Step 5
Finally, Crimea became part of Russia only during the reign of Catherine II: Generalissimo Suvorov, figuratively speaking, slapped the Ottomans so that they were ready to give even more, just to get rid of these crazy Russians. But it is incorrect to consider the date of the conclusion of the Kuchuk-Kainardzhiyskiy peace treaty (1774) as the time of its annexation. According to him, an independent khanate was formed in the Crimea under the patronage of Russia.
Step 6
Judging by what happened next, the new Crimean khans turned out to be independent even from simple common sense: already in 1776, Suvorov personally had to lead a military operation to save the Orthodox Armenians and Greeks living in Crimea from the tyranny of Muslims. Finally, on April 19, 1783, Catherine, who had lost all patience, expressed herself, according to Trediakovsky's recollections, “in a completely horse guards manner”, and finally signed the Manifesto on the annexation of Crimea and Taman to Russia.
Step 7
Turkey did not like this, and Suvorov had to smash the basurmans again. The war dragged on until 1791, but Turkey was defeated, and in the same year, according to the Yassy Peace Treaty, it recognized the annexation of Crimea by Russia. The main principles of international law were formed long before the 18th century, and Europe had no choice but to also recognize Crimea as Russian, since both of the most interested parties came to an agreement on this issue. It was from that day, December 29, 1791 (January 9, 1792), that Crimea became Russian de jure and de facto.
Step 8
Russian Crimea became part of the Tauride province. Back in the 70s of the last century, Western historians did not hesitate to write that the inclusion of Crimea in Russia was beneficial for him and was received with enthusiasm by the local population. At least our compatriots did not impale for the slightest offense and did not break into the houses of citizens to check whether they were observing Sharia or not. And, no less important, they did not ban winemaking, pig breeding and fishing from fishing vessels on the high seas. And the Orthodox Church, unlike Islam and the Catholic Church, has never imposed obligatory levies on parishioners in a strictly established amount.
Step 9
The contribution, which is difficult to overestimate, was made by Catherine's favorite (and her last true love) Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin to the development of Taurida, for which he was elevated to princely dignity with the addition of the title of Tauride. Insertions into his titles "the most luminous", "magnificent", etc. - the fruit of servility of court sycophants, not officially confirmed. Suffice it to say that under his leadership, cities such as Yekaterinoslav (Dnepropetrovsk), Nikolaev, Kherson, Pavlovsk (Mariupol) were founded, and under his successor, Count Vorontsov, Odessa.
Step 10
The "Tauride miracle" struck the world, and not only poor immigrants, but also well-born aristocrats with European names flocked to Novorossiya from abroad. Russian Taurida turned into a flourishing land: Vorontsov skillfully continued Potemkin's work. In particular, thanks to his efforts, the resort glory of the Crimea was born and strengthened, starting with Yalta. Remember who founded Odessa? Duke de Richelieu, relative of the famous cardinal ruler, Marquis de Langeron and General Baron de Ribas. The revolution drove them out of France, but they moved not to England, which was gathering the army and fleet of the royalists, but to New Russia. Probably because they wanted to stand and prosper, and not kill their compatriots.
Step 11
Historians are still breaking their spears: why did Khrushchev ascribe Crimea to the Ukrainian SSR? The wording of the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of February 19, 1954 "On the transfer of the Crimean region from the RSFSR to the Ukrainian SSR": "Considering the common economy, territorial proximity and close economic and cultural ties between the Crimean region and the Ukrainian SSR" in the eyes of contemporaries looked clearly far-fetched, and Soviet citizens took it ironically along with other Khrushchev nonsense.
Step 12
However, a comparison of the bylaws to it and to the decree of 1956 on the creation of economic councils (councils of national economy) suggests that Crimea was simply used as a testing ground for the preparation of one of the most famous and most failed reforms of Nikita Khrushchev. Any other version should proceed from the presence of either Ukrainophilia or Ukrainophobia in Khrushchev, which none of the historians notes, and in the post-Stalinist USSR even such administrative arbitrariness was not the norm.
Step 13
One way or another, the decree of February 19, 1954 was just an internal state document, which did not have and does not have any international significance. The abandonment of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea as part of Ukraine during the collapse of the USSR was exclusively an act of goodwill of the Russian Federation, as well as the fact that it took upon itself all the external debts of the Soviet Union. Therefore, the people of Crimea, faced with attempts to surreptitiously destroy their autonomy and reduce the Constitution of the Republic of Crimea to the level of an insignificant piece of paper, had the full legal and moral right to hold a referendum on secession from Ukraine and return to Russia.
