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Crimean War
Part of Ottoman wars in Europe
Detail of Franz Roubaud's panoramic painting The Siege of Sevastopol (1904)
Date October 1853 – February 1856 Location Crimean Peninsula, Caucasus, Balkans, Black Sea, Baltic Sea, White Sea, Far East Result Allied victory, Treaty of Paris
Belligerents
French Empire  British Empire  Ottoman Empire  Kingdom of Sardinia	Russian Empire
Commanders and leaders
Napoléon III Jacques Leroy de Saint Arnaud Maréchal Canrobert Aimable Pélissier François Achille Bazaine Patrice de Mac-Mahon Queen Victoria Earl of Aberdeen Sir James Graham, Bt Lord Raglan Sir James Simpson Sir William Codrington Abdülmecid I Omar Pasha İskender Pasha Victor Emmanuel II Conte di Cavour Alfonso La Màrmora	Nicholas I Alexander II Prince Menshikov Pavel Nakhimov † Vasily Zavoyko Nikolay Muravyov Yevfimy Putyatin Vladimir Istomin † Count Tolstoy
Strength
Total: 1,000,000 400,000 French 300,000 Ottoman 250,000 British 18,000 Sardinians [1] 4,250 German legion[citation needed] 2,200 Swiss legion[citation needed]   1,400 Slavic legion[citation needed]	Total: 720,000 700,000 Russians[2] 3,000 Bulgarian legion[citation needed] 2,000 Serbian-Montenegrin legion[citation needed] 22x20px 1,000 Greek legion
Casualties and losses
Total: 300,000–375,000 dead[3]  Ottoman Empire Total dead est. 175,300[2] French Empire Total dead: 95,000,[3] of which: 10,240 killed in action; 20,000 died of wounds; c. 60,000 died of disease  British Empire Total dead: 21,097 of which : 2,755 killed in action; 2,019 died of wounds; 16,323 died of disease  Kingdom of Sardinia 2,050 died from all causes[4] total dead est. 50,000[5]	Total: 220,000 dead: 80,000 killed in action 40,000 died of wounds 100,000 died of disease[6] Russian sources report 25,000 killed in action 16,000 died of wounds 89,000 died of disease[6]

The Crimean War (pronounced /kraɪˈmiːən/ or /krɨˈmiːən/) (October 1853 – February 1856)^[7][8] was a conflict between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining Ottoman Empire. Most of the conflict took place on the Crimean Peninsula, but there were smaller campaigns in western Anatolia, Caucasus, the Baltic Sea, the Pacific Ocean and the White Sea. In Russia, this war is also known as the "Eastern War" (Russian: Восточная война, Vostochnaya Voina), and in Britain it was also called the "Russian War" at the time.

The Crimean War is known for the logistical and tactical errors during the land campaign on both sides (the naval side saw a successful Allied campaign which eliminated most of the ships of the Russian Navy in the Black Sea). Nonetheless, it is sometimes considered to be one of the first "modern" wars as it "introduced technical changes which affected the future course of warfare," including the first tactical use of railways and the electric telegraph.^[9] It is also famous for the work of Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole, who pioneered modern nursing practices while caring for wounded British soldiers.^[10]

The Crimean War was one of the first wars to be documented extensively in written reports and photographs: notably by William Russell (for The Times newspaper) and Roger Fenton respectively. News correspondence reaching Britain from the Crimea was the first time the public were kept informed of the day-to-day realities of war.

Pre-battle tensions: "The Eastern Question"[link]

Conflict over the Holy Land[link]

As early as 1850, observers, including Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, had been predicting the outbreak of a Russo-Turkish War.^[11] Russia, as a member of the Holy Alliance, had operated as the "Policeman of Europe" maintaining the balance of power that had been established in the Treaty of Vienna in 1815 and suppressing all revolutionary uprisings in Europe. In exchange for providing the armies required to maintain that balance of power and suppress the revolutions of 1848 and 1849, Russia had expected Europe to allow it a free hand in settling its problems with the Ottoman Empire—the "sick man of Europe." However, Marx and Engels predicted that England and France could not allow Russia this freedom of action. Thus, any Russo-Turkish War would become a European War.^[12] The whole discussion over the future of the Ottoman Empire took on the name of "the Eastern Question"^[13]—a term that would continue in use with reference to the Ottoman Empire/Turkey until the beginnings of the twentieth century.

The immediate chain of events leading to France and Britain declaring war on Russia on 27 March and 28 March 1854^[7] can be traced to the coup d'état of 1851 in France. Napoleon III sent his ambassador to the Ottoman Empire to attempt to force the Ottomans to recognise France as the "sovereign authority" in the Holy Land.^[14] Russia disputed this newest change in "authority" in the Holy Land. Pointing to two more treaties, one in 1757 and the 1774 Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca, the Ottomans reversed their earlier decision, renouncing the French treaty and insisting that Russia was the protector of the Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire.

Napoleon III responded with a show of force, sending the ship of the line Charlemagne to the Black Sea, a violation of the London Straits Convention.^[14] France's show of force, combined with aggressive diplomacy and money, induced Sultan Abdülmecid I to accept a new treaty, confirming France and the Roman Catholic Church as the supreme Christian authority in the Holy Land with control over the Christian holy places and possession of the keys to the Church of the Nativity, previously held by the Greek Orthodox Church.^[15]

Tsar Nicholas I then deployed his 4th and 5th Army Corps along the River Danube, and had Count Karl Nesselrode, his foreign minister, undertake talks with the Ottomans. Nesselrode confided to Sir George Hamilton Seymour, the British ambassador in Saint Petersburg:

[The dispute over the holy places] had assumed a new character – that the acts of injustice towards the Greek church which it had been desired to prevent had been perpetrated and consequently that now the object must be to find a remedy for these wrongs. The success of French negotiations at Constantinople was to be ascribed solely to intrigue and violence – violence which had been supposed to be the ultima ratio of kings, being, it had been seen, the means which the present ruler of France was in the habit of employing in the first instance.^[16]

As conflict emerged over the question of the holy places, Nicholas I and Nesselrode began a diplomatic offensive which they hoped would prevent either Britain's or France's interfering in any conflict between Russia and the Ottomans, as well as to prevent their allying together.

Cornet assistant Surgeon Henry Wilkin, 11th Hussars. He survived the Charge of the Light Brigade. Photo: Roger Fenton.

Nicholas began courting Britain through Seymour. Nicholas insisted that he no longer wished to expand Imperial Russia, but that he had an obligation to Christian communities in the Ottoman Empire. The Tsar next dispatched a diplomat, Prince Menshikov, on a special mission to the Ottoman Sublime Porte. By previous treaties, the Sultan was committed "to protect the Christian religion and its churches". Menshikov attempted to negotiate a new sened, a formal convention with the power of an international treaty, under which the Ottomans would allow to Russia the same rights of intervention in the affairs of the Orthodox religion as recently allowed France in respect of Catholic churches and churchmen.^[17] Such a treaty would allow Russia to control the Orthodox Church's hierarchy in the Ottoman Empire. Menshikov arrived at Constantinople on 16 February 1853 on the steam-powered warship Gromovnik.^[18] Menshikov broke protocol at the Porte when, at his first meeting with the Sultan, he condemned the Ottomans' concessions to the French. Menshikov also began demanding the replacement of highly placed Ottoman civil servants.

The British embassy at Constantinople at the time was being run by Hugh Rose, chargé d'affaires for the British. Using his abundant resources within the Ottoman Empire, Rose gathered intelligence on Russian troop movements along the Danube frontier, and became concerned about the extent of Menshikov's mission to the Porte. Rose, using his authority as the British representative to the Ottomans, ordered a British squadron of warships to depart early for an eastern Mediterranean cruise and head for Constantinople.^[19] However, Rose's actions were not backed up by Whitley Dundas, the British admiral in command of the squadron, who resented the diplomat for believing he could interfere in the Admiralty's business. Within a week, Rose's actions were cancelled.^[20] Thus, only the French sent a naval task force to support the Ottomans.

First hostilities[link]

Battle of Sinope, by Ivan Aivazovsky

The British government of Prime Minister Lord Aberdeen sent Lord Stratford to replace Colonel Hugh Rose as envoy to the Ottoman Empire.^[21] Lord Stratford convinced the Sultan to reject the treaty as compromising the independence of the Turks. Benjamin Disraeli blamed Aberdeen and Stratford's actions for making war inevitable, thus starting the process by which the Aberdeen government would be forced to resign over the issue of the war. Shortly after he learned of the failure of Menshikov's diplomacy, the Tsar marched his armies into the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia.^[22] Wallachia and Moldavia were Turkish/Ottoman-controlled provinces on the banks of the Danube River. Russia had, previously, obtained from the Ottoman Empire/Turkey recognition of their role as special guardian of the Orthodox Christians in these two provinces. Now, Russia used the Sultan's failure to resolve the issue of the protection of the Christian sites in the Holy land as a pretext for their occupation of these Danubian provinces. Nicholas believed that the European powers, especially Austria, would not object strongly to the annexation of a few neighbouring Ottoman provinces, especially given Russia had assisted Austria's efforts in suppressing the Revolutions of 1848.

Russo-French skirmish during Crimean War

When on 2 July 1853^[23] the Tsar sent his troops into the Danubian Principalities, Britain, hoping to maintain the Ottoman Empire as a bulwark against the expansion of Russian power in Asia, sent a fleet to the Dardanelles, where it joined another fleet sent by France.^[24]

At the same time, however, the European powers hoped for a diplomatic compromise. The representatives of the four neutral Great Powers — Britain, France, Austria and Prussia — met in Vienna, where they drafted a note which they hoped would be acceptable to the Russians and Ottomans.^[25] The note met with the approval of Nicholas I; it was, however, rejected by Abdülmecid I, who felt that the document's poor phrasing left it open to many different interpretations. Britain, France and Austria were united in proposing amendments to mollify the Sultan, but their suggestions were ignored in the court of St Petersburg.

Britain and France set aside the idea of continuing negotiations, but Austria and Prussia did not believe that the rejection of the proposed amendments justified the abandonment of the diplomatic process. Nonetheless, the Sultan formally declared war on 23 October 1853^[7] and proceeded to the attack, his armies moving on the Russian army near the Danube later that month.^[26] Russia and the Ottoman empire massed forces on two main fronts, the Caucasus and the Danubian front. The Ottoman leader Omar Pasha managed to pull in some victories on the Danubian front. In the Caucasus, the Ottomans were able to stand ground with the help of Chechen Muslims, led by Imam Shamil.

Nicholas responded by dispatching warships, which in the Battle of Sinop on 30 November 1853 destroyed a patrol squadron of Ottoman frigates and corvettes while they were anchored at the port of Sinop in northern Anatolia.^[27] The destruction of the Ottoman ships provided Britain and France the casus belli for declaring war against Russia, on the side of the Ottoman Empire. By 28 March 1854, after Russia ignored an Anglo-French ultimatum to withdraw from the Danubian Principalities, Britain and France formally declared war.^[8][28][29]

Peace attempts[link]

Nicholas felt that because of Russian assistance in suppressing the Hungarian revolution of 1848, Austria would side with him, or at the very least remain neutral. Austria, however, felt threatened by the Russian troops. When Britain and France demanded the withdrawal of Russian forces from the principalities, Austria supported them and, though it did not immediately declare war on Russia, it refused to guarantee its neutrality.

Russia then withdrew its troops from the Danubian principalities, which were then occupied by Austria for the duration of the war. This removed the original grounds for war, but Britain and France continued with hostilities. Determined to address the Eastern Question by putting an end to the Russian threat to the Ottoman Empire, the allies proposed several conditions for a peaceful resolution, including:

1. Russia was to give up its protectorate over the Danubian Principalities;
2. It was to abandon any claim granting it the right to interfere in Ottoman affairs on behalf of Orthodox Christians;
3. The Straits Convention of 1841 was to be revised;
4. All nations were to be granted access to the River Danube.

When the Tsar refused to comply with these Four Points, the Crimean War commenced.

Battles[link]

Danube campaign[link]

Mahmudiye (1829), participated in numerous important naval battles, including the Siege of Sevastopol (1854–1855)

Map of Crimean War

French zouaves and Russian soldiers engaged in hand-to-hand combat at Malakhov Kurgan

The Danube campaign opened when the Russians occupied the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia in May 1853, bringing their forces to the north bank of the river Danube. In response, the Ottoman Empire also moved their forces up to the river. This established strongholds at Vidin in the west, and Silistra,^[30] which was located in the east, near the mouth of the Danube.

The Turkish/Ottoman move up the Danube River was also of concern to the Austrians, who moved forces into Transylvania in response. However, the Austrians had begun to fear the Russians more than the Turks. Indeed, like the British, the Austrians were now coming to see that an intact Ottoman Empire was necessary as a bulwark against the Russians.^[31] Accordingly, the Austrians resisted Russian diplomatic attempts to join the war on the Russian side. Austria remained neutral in the Crimean War.^[32]

Following the Ottoman ultimatum in September 1853, forces under the Ottoman general, Omar Pasha, crossed the Danube at Vidin and captured Kalafat in October 1853.^[33] Simultaneously, in the east, the Ottomans crossed the Danube at Silistra and attacked the Russians at Oltenitza. The resulting Battle of Oltenitza was actually the first engagement following the declaration war.^[34] The Russians counterattacked, but were beaten back. On December 31, 1853, the Ottoman forces at Kalafat moved against the Russian force at Chetatea or Cetate, a small village nine miles north of Kalafat.^[35] Occurring on January 6, 1854, the Battle of Chatatea was actually the second major battle of the Crimean War after Oltenitza.^[36] The battle began when the Russians made a move to recapture Kalafat. Most of the battle, however, took place in heavy fighting around Chatatea, the Russians were driven out of Chetatea.^[37] Nonetheless, the Russians began a siege of Kalafat on January 28, 1854. This was the last operation before the winter ended campaigning. However, the siege of Kalafat would continue until May 1854 when the Russians lifted the siege. The Ottomans also beat the Russians in a battle at Caracal.

In the spring of 1854 the Russians again advanced, crossing the Danube River into the Turkish province of Bulgaria.^[38] Soon they occupied the whole of the Bulgarian district of Dobruja.^[39] By April 1854, the Russians had reached the lines of Trajan's Wall where they were finally halted. In the centre the Russian forces crossed the Danube and began to lay siege to Silistra on April 14, 1854.^[40] The siege would last until June 23, 1854.^[41] In the east the Russians were dissuaded from attacking Vidin by the presence of the Austrian forces, which had swelled to 280,000 men. On May 28, 1854 a protocol of the Vienna Conference was signed by Austria and Russia.^[42]

One of the aims of the Russian advance was to encourage the Serbs and Bulgarians living under Ottoman rule to rebel; when they showed little interest in doing so, and faced with increasing pressure from Austria, the Russians raised the siege of Silistra on June 23, 1854, and began to abandon the Principalities.

In June 1854 the Allied expeditionary force landed at Varna, but made little advance from their base there. In July, 1854, the Turks under Omer Pasha crossed the Danube into Wallachia and on July 7, 1854 engaged the Russians in the village of Giurgevo and conquered that village.^[43] The capture of Giurgevo by the Turks, immediately threatened Bucharest in Romania with capture by the same Turk army. In September, following up on the Russian retreat, the French staged an expedition against the Russian forces still in Dobruja, but this was a failure.

By then Russian withdrawal was complete, except for the fortress towns of northern Dobruja, while their place in the Principalities was taken by the Austrians, as a neutral peace-keeping force. There was little further action on this front after the autumn of 1854 and in September the allied force at Varna moved on to the invasion of the Crimea.

Black Sea theatre[link]

The naval operations of the Crimean war commenced with the dispatch, in summer of 1853, of the French and British fleets sailed to the Black Sea region, in order to support the Ottomans and to dissuade the Russians from encroachment. By June 1853 both fleets were stationed at Besikas bay, outside the Dardanelles. With the Russian occupation of the Danube Principalities in October they moved to the Bosphorus and in November entered the Black Sea.

During this period the Russian Black Sea Fleet was operating against Ottoman coastal traffic between Constantinople and the Caucasus ports, while the Ottoman fleet sought to protect this supply line. The clash came on 30 November 1853 when a Russian fleet attacked an Ottoman force in the harbour at Sinop, and destroyed it.^[44] There was little additional naval action until March 1854 when on the declaration of war the British frigate Furious was fired on outside Odessa harbour. In response the British fleet bombarded the port, causing much damage to the town.

In June the fleets transported the Allied expeditionary forces to Varna, in support of the Ottoman operations on the Danube; in September they again transported the armies, this time to the Crimea. The Russian fleet during this time declined to engage the allies, preferring to maintain a "fleet in being"; this strategy failed when Sevastopol, the main port and where most of the Black Sea fleet was based, came under siege. The Russians were reduced to scuttling their warships as blockships, after stripping them of their guns and men to reinforce batteries on shore. During the siege, the Russians lost four 110- or 120-gun 3-decker ships of the line, twelve 84-gun 2-deckers and four 60-gun frigates in the Black Sea, plus a large number of smaller vessels.During the rest of the campaign the allied fleets remained in control of the Black Sea, ensuring the various fronts were kept supplied.

In April 1855 they supported an invasion of Kerch and operated against Taganrog in the Sea of Azov. In September they moved against Russian installations in the Dnieper estuary, attacking Kinburn in the first use of ironclad ships in naval warfare.

Crimean campaign[link]

The final assault of the French brought about the capture of Sevastopol after one of the most memorable sieges of the 19th century

The Russians evacuated Wallachia and Moldavia. With the evacuation of the Danubian Principalities the immediate cause of war was withdrawn. Nonetheless, allied troops landed in the Crimea and besieged the city of Sevastopol, home of the Tsar's Black Sea Fleet. The Russian fleet was a threat to the Mediterranean.

Russo-British skirmish during Crimean War

The Crimean campaign opened in September 1854 with the landing of the allied expeditionary force at Eupatoria, north of Sevastopol. After crossing the Alma River on September 30, 1854,^[45] the allies moved on to invest Sevastopol. The Russian army retreated to the interior. A Russian assault on the allied supply base at Balaclava was rebuffed on October 25, 1854.^[46] The Battle of Balaclava is noteworthy to history because of the bravery of two British units. The 93rd Highlanders stood solidly against repeated attacks by a larger Russian force.^[47] This stand led the 93rd Highlanders to be remembered in history as the "Thin Red Line". The second British unit to gain immortality in the Battle of Balaclava was the Light Cavalry Brigade under the command of the Earl of Cardigan. An extremely ambiguous order sent the Light Brigade on a fruitless and suicidal "charge" into the South Valley of the Balaclava battlefield.^[48] The heights around the South Valley was brimming with Russian artillery which decimated the Light Brigade. Of the original nearly 700-man strength of the Light Brigade, fewer than 200 men survived the encounter.^[48] The Light Brigade was memorialised in the famous poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson called the "Charge of the Light Brigade".

The failure of the British and French to follow up on the Battle of Balaclava led directly to another and much more bloody battle—the Battle of Inkerman.^[49] On November 5, 1854, the Russians attempted to raise the siege at Sevastopol with an attack against the allies near the town of Inkerman which resulted in another victory for the allies.^[50]

Meanwhile at Sevastopol, the allies had surrounded the city with entrenchments and, in October 1854, unleashed an all–out bombardment (the first of many) against the city's defences. Winter, and a deteriorating supply situation on both sides, led to a halt in ground operations. Sevastopol remained invested by the allies, while the allied armies were hemmed in by the Russian army in the interior.

In February 1855 the Russians attacked the allied base at Eupatoria, where an Ottoman army had built up and was threatening Russian supply routes. The battle saw the Russians defeated, and led to a change in command. On the allied side the emphasis of the siege shifted to the right-hand sector of the lines, against the fortifications on Malakoff hill. In March there was fighting over the fort at Mamelon, located on a hill in front of the Malakoff. Several weeks of fighting saw little change in the front line, and the Mamelon remained in Russian hands.

In April the allies staged a second all-out bombardment, leading to an artillery duel with the Russian guns, but no ground assault followed. In May the allies landed a force at Kerch, to the east, opening another front in the Crimea in an attempt to outflank the Russian army. The landings were successful, but the force made little progress thereafter. In June a third bombardment was followed by a successful attack on the Mamelon, but a follow-up assault on the Malakoff failed with heavy losses. During this time the garrison commander, Admiral Nakhimov, suffered a fatal bullet wound to the head and died on 30 June 1855.

In August the Russians again made an attack on the base at Balaclava. The resulting battle of Tchernaya was a defeat for the Russians, who suffered heavy casualties. September saw the final assault. On 5 September another bombardment (the sixth) was followed by an assault on 8 September resulting in the capture of the Malakoff by the French, and the collapse of the Russian defences. The city fell on 9 September 1855, after about a year-long siege.

At this point both sides were exhausted, and there were no further military operations in the Crimea before the onset of winter.

Azov Campaign[link]

In spring 1855, the allied British–French commanders decided to send an Anglo-French naval squadron into the Azov Sea to undermine Russian communications and supplies to besieged Sevastopol. On May 12, 1855 British–French warships entered the Kerch Strait and destroyed the coast battery of the Kamishevaya Bay. On 21 May 1855 the gunboats and armed steamers attacked the seaport of Taganrog, the most important hub in proximity to Rostov on Don. The vast amounts of food, especially bread, wheat, barley, and rye that were amassed in the city after the outbreak of war were prevented from being exported.

Bombardment of Taganrog from a British raft during the first siege attempt

The Governor of Taganrog, Yegor Tolstoy, and lieutenant-general Ivan Krasnov refused the ultimatum, responding that "Russians never surrender their cities". The British–French squadron bombarded Taganrog for 6½ hours and landed 300 troops near the Old Stairway in downtown Taganrog, but they were thrown back by Don Cossacks and a volunteer corps.

In July, 1855 the allied squadron tried to go past Taganrog to Rostov on Don, entering the Don River through the Mius River. On 12 July 1855 HMS Jasper grounded near Taganrog thanks to a fisherman who repositioned the buoys into shallow waters. The Cossacks captured the gunboat with all of its guns and blew it up. The third siege attempt was made August 19–31, 1855, but the city was already fortified and the squadron could not approach close enough for landing operations. The allied fleet left the Gulf of Taganrog on September 2, 1855, with minor military operations along the Azov Sea coast continuing until late autumn 1855.

Caucasus theatre[link]

The Caucasus was already a scene of confrontation for the Russians and the Ottomans, as both had sought to extend their influence in the region.

Russian expansion into the region had been resisted by local peoples in Chechnya, Dagestan, and the other mountain areas. In the region the Russians were opposed by Muridists of the Caucasian Imamate, but were grudgingly supported by Circassians, Georgians and Kakhetians, who valued their independence, but were at odds with their neighbours.

In 1853 the leader of the mountain peoples, Imam Shamil, staged an insurrection against the occupying Russian forces. His forces fought the Russians at Zaqatala, and Meselderg, but were beaten back by the Russian forces. In 1854 he tried again, advancing on Tiflis before being defeated at Shulda.

In summer of 1853 the Ottoman forces held strongholds at Kars, Batum, and Erzerum, with lesser forts at Ardahan and Bayazid. The Ottoman forces planned an invasion of Georgia but after some initial success were unable to maintain this and were forced to retreat. Russian forces in the region were spread thinly, due to the demands of holding down the region against insurrection, but during 1853 were reinforced. In September 1853 there were a number of clashes between Russian and Ottoman forces. Additionally, there were later battles at Fort St. Nicolas in October 1853 and twice at Alexandropol in October 1853 and again in December 1853. On November 26, 1853, the Russians beat the Ottoman armed forces at the Battle of Akhatzikh.^[51]

In the spring of 1854 the Russians planned an invasion of Ottoman territory, fighting inconclusive battles at the Cholok river and Kurekdere. Following this the invasion came to nothing and there was little further action that year.

In 1855 both sides returned to the offensive; after initial manoeuvrings the Russians staged an assault on Kars, which was beaten back with losses. However they then settled down to a siege which was successful, Kars surrendering in November 1855. Meanwhile the Ottoman army at Batum invaded Georgia, but after an inconclusive clash at the Ingur river the offensive collapsed and they retreated to Batum.

In 1856 the Russians had plans to advance on Erzurum, but the peace of Paris in March 1856 put an end to further operations.

Baltic theatre[link]

The Baltic was a forgotten theatre of the Crimean War. The popularisation of events elsewhere had overshadowed the significance of this theatre, which was close to Saint Petersburg, the Russian capital. In April 1854 an Anglo-French fleet was sent into the Baltic to attack the Russian sea port of Kronstadt and the Russian fleet stationed there.^[52] In August 1854 the combined English and French fleet returned to Kronstadt for another attempt. However, from the beginning, the Baltic campaign remained a stalemate. The outnumbered Russian Baltic Fleet confined its movements to the areas around its fortifications. At the same time, British and French commanders Sir Charles Napier and Alexandre Ferdinand Parseval-Deschenes—although they led the largest fleet assembled since the Napoleonic Wars—considered the Sveaborg fortress too well-defended to engage. Thus, shelling of the Russian batteries was limited to two attempts in the summers of 1854 and 1855, and initially, the attacking fleets limited their actions to blockading the Russian trade in the Gulf of Finland.^[53] Naval attacks on other ports, such as the ones at Hogland were more successful.^[54] Additionally, they conducted raids on less fortified sections of the Finnish coast.

Bombardment of Bomarsund during the Crimean War, after William Simpson

Russia was dependent on imports for both the domestic economy and the supply of her military forces and the blockade seriously undermined the Russian economy. Raiding by allied British and French fleets destroyed forts on the Finnish coast including the newly constructed Bomarsund on the Åland Islands which was raided on July 3 through July 16, 1854,^[55] and Fort Slava. Other such attacks were not so successful, and the poorly planned attempts to take Hanko,^[56] Ekenäs, Kokkola, and Turku were repulsed.

The burning of tar warehouses and ships in Oulu and Raahe led to international criticism and, in Britain, MP Thomas Gibson demanded in the House of Commons that the First Lord of the Admiralty explain "a system which carried on a great war by plundering and destroying the property of defenceless villagers".

In 1855, the Western Allied Baltic Fleet tried to destroy heavily defended Russian dockyards at Sveaborg outside Helsinki. More than 1,000 enemy guns tested the strength of the fortress for two days. Despite the shelling, the sailors of the 120-gun ship Rossiya, led by Captain Viktor Poplonsky, defended the entrance to the harbour. The Allies fired over twenty thousand shells but were unable to defeat the Russian batteries. A massive new fleet of more than 350 gunboats and mortar vessels was prepared, but before the attack was launched, the war ended.

"Bombardment of the Solovetsky Monastery in the White Sea by the Royal Navy". A lubok (popular print) from 1868

Part of the Russian resistance was credited to the deployment of newly created blockade mines. Perhaps the most influential contributor to the development of naval mining was inventor and civil engineer Immanuel Nobel, the father of Alfred Nobel. Immanuel helped the war effort for Russia by applying his knowledge of industrial explosives such as nitroglycerin and gunpowder. Modern naval mining is said to date from the Crimean War: "Torpedo mines, if I may use this name given by Fulton to self-acting mines underwater, were among the novelties attempted by the Russians in their defenses about Cronstadt and Sevastopol", as one American officer put it in 1860.^[57]

White Sea theatre[link]

In autumn 1854 a squadron of three British warships led by HMS Miranda left the Baltic for the White Sea, where they shelled Kola (which was utterly destroyed) and the Solovki. Their attempt to storm Arkhangelsk proved unsuccessful.^{[citation needed]}

Pacific theatre[link]

Minor naval skirmishes also occurred in the Far East, where at Petropavlovsk on the Kamchatka Peninsula a strong British and French Allied squadron including HMS Pique under Rear Admiral David Price and a French force under Counter-Admiral Auguste Febvrier Despointes besieged a smaller Russian force under Rear Admiral Yevfimy Putyatin. In September 1854 an Allied landing force was beaten back with heavy casualties, and the Allies withdrew. The Russians escaped under the cover of snow in early 1855 after Allied reinforcements arrived in the region.

The Anglo-French forces in the Far East also made several small landings on Sakhalin and Urup, one of the Kuril Islands.^[58]

Sardinian involvement[link]

Camillo di Cavour, under orders by Victor Emmanuel II of the Kingdom of Sardinia (also known as Piedmont), sent an expeditionary corps of around 18,000 soldiers, commanded by General Alfonso La Marmora, to side with French and British forces during the war. This was an attempt at gaining the favour of the French especially when the issue of uniting Italy under the Sardinian throne would become an important matter. The deployment of Sardinian troops to the Crimea, and the gallantry shown by them in the Battle of the Chernaya (August 16, 1855) and in the siege of Sevastopol, allowed the Kingdom of Sardinia to be among the participants at the peace conference at the end of the war, where it could address the issue of the Risorgimento to other European powers.

Greek rebellions[link]

Greek battalion during the siege of Sevastopol

When the Crimean War broke out, many Greeks felt that it was an opportunity to regain Ottoman-occupied Greek territory to add to the recently liberated territory of the independent Kingdom of Greece. The Greek War of Independence (1821–1829) was still fresh in people's minds, as well as the Russian intervention that had helped secure Greek independence. Just before the Greek War of Independence a leader of Filiki Eteria, Alexander Ypsilantis, and his brother Demetrios Ypsilantis had led Russian troops in to Moldavia and Wallachia and co-ordinated the preparations for uprisings throughout Ottoman-occupied Greece which they later led. Moreover, Greeks have always considered Orthodox Christian Russia as an ally and viewed the Crimean War as a grave injustice against Russia and any support of the Ottoman Empire a grave threat to Greece's recent independence.

Although the official Greek state, under severe diplomatic and military pressure from the British and French (allies of the Ottomans), which included a naval blockade and the occupation of the country's main port of Piraeus, refrained from actively entering the conflict, a number of uprisings broke out in Albania in January 1854^[59] and soon spread to Epirus, Thessaly, and Macedonia.^[60] A revolt also broke out in Crete, with support from individuals and groups within independent Greece and Constantinople. However, all Greek revolts in the Turkish provinces were soon suppressed. A small Greek volunteer force under Colonel Panos Koronaios went to Russia and fought during the Siege of Sevastopol. However, more Greek nationals fought in the Crimean War with the "Greek Battalion of Balaklava" which had been in the ranks of the Russian army since the first Russo-Turkish war (1768–1774).

End of the war[link]

Dissatisfaction with the conduct of the war was growing with the public in Britain and in other countries. On Sunday, January 21, 1855, a "snowball riot" occurred in Trafalgar Square near St. Martin-in-the-Field in which 1,500 people gathered to protest the war by pelting busses, cabs and pedestrians with snow balls.^[61] When the police intervened, the snowballs were directed at them. The riot was finally put down by troops and police acting with truncheons.^[61] Public dissatisfaction with the conduct of the war was aggravated by reports of fiascoes like the Charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava led to questions being raised in parliament about the war. On Thursday, February 1, 1855, Edward Law, Earl of Ellenbrough, a Tory member of parliament, pushed the Aberdeen Coalition government for an accounting of all soldier, cavalry and sailors sent to the Crimea and accurate figures as to the number of casualties that had been sustained by all British armed forces in the Crimea.^[62] Following this two more Tory members of Parliament, Charles Gordon-Lennox, Duke of Richmond and Charles Philip Yorke, Earl of Hardwicke, raised questions about the war and about the Battle of Balaclava in particular. These Tory members were part of the protectionist wing of the Tory party and, thus, may have had ulterior motives for posing these embarrassing questions to the Aberdeen government. George Hamilton Gordon, Earl of Aberdeen was a leader of the Peelites. The Peelites had been Tories but had sided with the Whigs on free trade issues and especially the repeal of the protectionist "Corn Laws" which damaged the material interests of the landed aristocracy represented by the Tory party.^[63] The protectionist wing of the Tory party could not forgive the Peelites for this rank betrayal of their interests and now sought opportunities to bring down the Coalition (Whig-Peelite) government with the leading Peelite – Aberdeen – acting as prime minister. The war was to become the scapegoat in the continuation of the battle between free trade and protectionism.^[63]

A more sincere attempt to question British involvement in the war was introduced in Parliament on January 29, 1855, in the form of a bill authored by John Arthur Roebuck, a radical member of the Parliament, asking for an investigation by Parliament into the conduct of the war. Parliament passed this bill with 305 in favour and 148 against.^[64] Aberdeen chose to view the vote on this bill as a "vote of no confidence" on the Coalition government. Accordingly, Aberdeen resigned as prime minister on January 30, 1855, and Lord Palmerston was asked by Queen Victoria to form a new government. This time the Whigs formed a government with the help of the Irish members of Parliament. Roebuck eventually became the chairman of the select committee conducting the investigation.

Peace negotiations began in 1856 under Nicholas I's son and successor, Alexander II, through the Congress of Paris. Furthermore, the Tsar and the Sultan agreed not to establish any naval or military arsenal on the Black Sea coast. The Black Sea clauses came at a tremendous disadvantage to Russia, for it greatly diminished the naval threat it posed to the Ottomans. Russian protectorates of Moldavia and Wallachia acquired in the previous war were returned to Ottoman Empire. Moreover, all of the Great Powers pledged to respect the independence and territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire.

The Treaty of Paris stood until 1871, when France was defeated by Prussia in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871. While Prussia and several other German states united to form a powerful German Empire, the Emperor of the French, Napoleon III, was deposed to permit the formation of a Third French Republic. During his reign, Napoleon III, eager for the support of Great Britain, had opposed Russia over the Eastern Question. Russian interference in the Ottoman Empire, however, did not in any significant manner threaten the interests of France. Thus, France abandoned its opposition to Russia after the establishment of a republic. Encouraged by the decision of the French and supported by the German minister Otto von Bismarck, Russia renounced the Black Sea clauses of the treaty agreed to in 1856. As Great Britain alone could not enforce the clauses, Russia once again established a fleet in the Black Sea.

Having abandoned its alliance with Russia, Austria was diplomatically isolated following the war, which contributed to its defeat in the 1866 Austro-Prussian War and its loss of influence in most German-speaking lands. With France, now hostile to Germany, allied with Russia, and Russia competing with the newly renamed Austro-Hungarian Empire for an increased role in the Balkans at the expense of the Ottoman Empire, the foundations were in place for creating the diplomatic alliances that would lead to World War I.

Notwithstanding the guarantees to preserve Ottoman territories specified in the Treaty of Paris, Russia, exploiting nationalist unrest in the Ottoman states in the Balkans and seeking to regain lost prestige, once again declared war on the Ottoman Empire on 24 April 1877. In this later Russo-Turkish War the states of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro achieved independence and Bulgaria its autonomy.

The Crimean War was one of the main causes of the demise of The Concert of Europe, the balance of power that had dominated Europe since the Congress of Vienna in 1815, and which had included France, Russia, and The British Empire.

Criticisms and reform[link]

A tinted lithograph by William Simpson illustrating conditions of the sick and injured in Balaklava

The Crimean War was notorious for the military and logistical immaturity of the British army.^{[citation needed]} However, it highlighted the work of women who served as army nurses. War correspondents for newspapers reported the scandalous treatment of wounded soldiers in the desperate winter that followed and prompted the work of Florence Nightingale, Mary Seacole, Frances Margaret Taylor and others and led to the introduction of modern nursing methods.

The Crimean War also saw the first tactical use of railways and other modern inventions such as the electric telegraph, with the first 'live' war reporting to The Times by William Howard Russell. Some credit Russell with prompting the resignation of the sitting British government through his reporting of the lacklustre shape of the British forces deployed to the Crimea. Additionally, the telegraph reduced the independence of British overseas possessions from their commanders in London due to such rapid communications. Newspaper readership informed public opinion in the United Kingdom and France as never before.^[65] It was the first European war to be photographed.

The war also employed modern military tactics, such as trenches and blind artillery fire. The use of the Minié ball for shot, coupled with the rifling of barrels, greatly increased Allied rifle range and damage.

The British Army system of sale of commissions came under great scrutiny during the war, especially in connection with the Battle of Balaclava, which saw the ill-fated Charge of the Light Brigade. This scrutiny eventually led to the abolition of the sale of commissions.

The Crimean War was a contributing factor in the Russian abolition of serfdom in 1861: Alexander II saw the military defeat of the Russian serf-army by free troops from Britain and France as proof of the need for emancipation.^[66] The Crimean War also led to the eventual realisation by the Russian government of its technological inferiority, namely in its military practices as well as its military weapons.^[67]
Meanwhile, the Russian military medicine saw dramatic progress: N. I. Pirogov, known as the father of Russian field surgery, developed the use of anaesthetics, plaster casts, enhanced amputation methods and five-stage triage in Crimea, among other things.

The war also led to the establishment of the Victoria Cross in 1856 (backdated to 1854), the British Army's first universal award for valour.

Chronology of major battles of the war[link]

• Battle of Sinop, 30 November 1853
• Siege of Petropavlovsk, 30–31 August 1854, on the Pacific coast
• Battle of Alma, 20 September 1854
• Siege of Sevastopol, 25 September 1854 to 8 September 1855
• Battle of Balaclava, 25 October 1854 (see also Charge of the Light Brigade)
• Battle of Inkerman, 5 November 1854
• Battle of Eupatoria, 17 February 1855
• Battle of Chernaya River (aka "Traktir Bridge"), 25 August 1855
• Sea of Azoff naval campaign, May to November 1855
• Siege of Kars, June to 28 November 1855

FitzRoy Somerset, Omar Pasha and Marshal Pélissier

Chapel in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, commemorating the Siege of Petropavlovsk in 1854

Prominent military commanders[link]

• Russian commanders
  • Prince Mikhail Dmitriyevich Gorchakov
  • Count and Namestnik Ivan Feodorovich Paskevich
  • Admiral Pavel Stepanovich Nakhimov
  • General Eduard Ivanovich Totleben
  • Prince Aleksandr Sergeyevich Menshikov
• French commanders
  • Marshal Jacques Leroy de Saint Arnaud
  • Marshal François Certain Canrobert
  • Marshal Aimable Pélissier
• British commanders
  • James Thomas Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan
  • Fitzroy Somerset, 1st Lord Raglan
  • Sir Thomas James Harper
  • Sir Edmund Lyons (later 1st Lord Lyons)

• Ottoman commanders
  • General Abdülkerim Nadir Pasha
  • General Omar Pasha
• Kingdom of Sardinia commander
  • General Alfonso Ferrero La Marmora

Last veterans[link]

• Yves Prigent (1833–1938). Was in French Navy.^[68]
• Charles Nathan (1834–1934). Last French soldier, also saw action in Italy, Syria, Mexico and the Franco-Prussian War.^[68]
• Edwin Hughes (1830–1927). Last survivor of the Charge of the Light Brigade.^[69]
• Colonel Rookes Evelyn Bell Crompton (1845–1940). Repeatedly claimed that he was a cadet on HMS Dragon during the siege of Sevastopol, earning two campaign medals before his twelfth birthday. This is absolutely untrue, because he was never enrolled in the Navy and only visited the Crimea in mid-May to mid-July, 1856, when nobody was entitled to the award of the British Crimea Medal.^[70]
• Timothy the Tortoise (1839–2004). The naval mascot of HMS Queen^[71]

In culture[link]

• "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson depicted a brave but disastrous cavalry charge during the Battle of Balaclava.
• Iron Maiden song "The Trooper" is about the Battle of Balaclava in 1854 during the Crimean War, and is at least partially based upon Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade."
• Leo Tolstoy wrote a few short sketches on the Siege of Sevastopol, collected in The Sebastopol Sketches. The stories detail the lives of the Russian soldiers and citizens in Sevastopol during the siege. Because of this work, Tolstoy has been called the world's first war correspondent.
• Jack Archer: A Tale of the Crimea by G.A. Henty, 1883, a historical novel, details the adventures of two British midshipmen in the Crimean War.
• The events of the Crimean War are depicted in the 1973 novel Flashman at the Charge in which the eponymous antihero participates in the battles of Sevastopol and Balaclava.

See also[link]

• Anglo-Russian War (1807–1812)
• Crimean War medals
• Crimean War Memorial
• Crimean War Research Society
• Roger Fenton, Crimean War photographer (the first war photographer)
• Brison D. Gooch, historian of the Crimean War
• Fort Queenscliff
• History of the Balkans
• Internationalization of the Danube River
• List of Crimean War Victoria Cross recipients
• Florence Nightingale, Crimean War nurse
• Peace Concluded (painting)
• Mary Seacole, Crimean War nurse
• Timothy (tortoise), naval mascot

Military history of the Ottoman Empire portal

References[link]

Notes[link]

This article uses bare URLs for citations. Please consider adding full citations so that the article remains verifiable. Several templates and the Reflinks tool are available to assist in formatting. (Reflinks documentation) (November 2011)

Bibliography[link]

• Bridge and Bullen, The Great Powers and the European States System 1814–1914, (Pearson Education: London), 2005
• Bamgart, Winfried The Crimean War, 1853–1856 (2002) Arnold Publishers ISBN 0-340-61465-X
• Figes, Orlando, Crimea: The Last Crusade (2010) Allen Lane. ISBN 978-0-7139-9704-0
• Ponting, Clive The Crimean War (2004) Chatto and Windus ISBN 0-7011-7390-4
• Pottinger Saab, Anne The Origins of the Crimean Alliance (1977) University of Virginia Press ISBN 0-8139-0699-7
• Puryear, Vernon J. "New Light on the Origins of the Crimean War," Journal of Modern History Vol. 3, No. 2 (Jun., 1931), pp. 219–234 in JSTOR
• Rich, Norman Why the Crimean War: A Cautionary Tale (1985) McGraw-Hill ISBN 0-07-052255-3
• Royce, Simon The Crimean War and its place in European Economic History (2001) University of London Press ISBN 0-382-52868-6
• Royle, Trevor Crimea: The Great Crimean War, 1854–1856 (2000) Palgrave Macmillan ISBN 1-4039-6416-5
• Schroeder, Paul W. Austria, Great Britain, and the Crimean War: The Destruction of the European Concert (1972) Cornell University Press ISBN 0-8014-0742-7
• Schmitt, Bernadotte E. "The Diplomatic Preliminaries of the Crimean War," American Historical Review, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Oct., 1919), pp. 36–67 in JSTOR
• Taylor, A.J.P. The Struggle for Master in Europe: 1848-1918 (1954)
• Wetzel, David The Crimean War: A Diplomatic History (1985) Columbia University Press ISBN 0-88033-086-4

Historiography and memory[link]

• Gooch, Brison D. "A Century of Historiography on the Origins of the Crimean War," American Historical Review Vol. 62, No. 1 (Oct., 1956), pp. 33–58 in JSTOR
• Markovits, Stefanie. The Crimean War in the British Imagination (Cambridge University Press: 2009) 287 pp.
• Russell, William Howard, "The Crimean War: As Seen by Those Who Reported It". (Louisiana State University Press, 2009) ISBN 978-0-8071-3445-0

Contemporary sources[link]

• The Annual register of world events: Volume 96 (1855), highly detailed coverage of events in British Empire and worldwide full text online

• Kinglake, The Invasion of the Crimea, (nine volumes, London, 1863–87)
• Russell, The War in the Crimea, 1854–56, (London, 1855–56)

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Crimean War

• A small peace celebration: 29 May 1856
• Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University Library Prints, drawings, and watercolours
• Austria Chronology Crimean War
• Commander W. Gordon, R.N. (H.M.S Sansapareil). Balaclava and the Sevastopol Inquiry, 1855
• Crimean War Research Society.
• France Chronology Crimean War
• Great Britain Chronology Crimean War
• Immediate causes of the War detailed in context.
• Italy Chronology Crimean War
• Loading and Firing British Muskets in the Crimean War 1854–1856
• Punch Sketches on Crimean War
• Russia Chronology Crimean War
• The Army Service of Hastings McAllister
• The Baltic Campaign of the Crimean War
• The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968 Movie)
• The Tunisian Army in the Crimean War: A Military Mystery by Dr. Andrew McGregor
• Turkey Chronology Crimean War
• The Crimean War

Autonomous Republic of Crimea Автономна Республіка Крим Автономная Республика Крым Qırım Muhtar Cumhuriyeti
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: Процветание в единстве  (Russian) Protsvetanie v yedinstve  (transliteration) "Prosperity in unity"
Anthem: Нивы и горы твои волшебны, Родина  (Russian) Nivy I gory tvoi volshebny, Rodina  (transliteration) Your fields and mountains are magical, Motherland
Location of Crimea (red) with respect to Ukraine (light blue).
Location of Crimea (dark green) with respect to Ukraine (light green) on a map of Europe.
Capital (and largest city)		Simferopol 44°56′N 34°6′E / 44.933°N 34.1°E / 44.933; 34.1
Official language(s)		Ukrainian1
Recognised regional languages		Russian, Crimean Tatar
Ethnic groups (2001)		58.32% Russians 24.32% Ukrainians 12.10% Crimean Tatars
Government		Autonomous republic within Ukraine
-	Presidential Represetative	Viktor Plakida[1][2]
-	Prime Minister of Crimea	Anatolii Mohyliov[3]
-	Speaker of the Parliament	Volodymyr Konstantinov[4][5]
Legislature		Verkhovna Rada (Crimea)
Autonomy from the Russian Empire / Soviet Union
-	Declared	October 18, 1921
-	Abolished	June 30, 1945
-	Restored3	February 12, 1992
-	Constitution	October 21, 1998
Area
-	Total	26,100 km2 (148th) 10,038 sq mi
Population
-	2007 estimate	1,973,185 (148th)
-	2001 census	2,033,700
-	Density	75.6/km2 (116th) 29.3/sq mi
Currency		Ukrainian hryvnia (UAH)
Time zone		EET (UTC+2)
-	Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Internet TLD		crimea.ua4
Calling code		+3805
1	Because Ukrainian is the only state language in Ukraine, no other language may be official, although according to the Constitution of Crimea, Russian is the language of interethnic communication. However, government duties are fulfilled mainly in Russian, hence it is a de facto official language. Crimean Tatar is also used.
3	The Crimean Oblast's autonomy was restored into the Autonomous Republic of Crimea as a part of independent Ukraine.
4	Not officially assigned.
5	+380-65 for the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, 380–692 for the administratively separate City of Sevastopol.

Crimea ( /kraɪˈmiːə/), or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (Ukrainian: Автономна Республіка Крим, Avtonomna Respublika Krym; Russian: Автономная Республика Крым, Avtonomnaya Respublika Krym; Crimean Tatar: Qırım Muhtar Cumhuriyeti, Къырым Мухтар Джумхуриети), is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name.^[6][7][8] It was often referred to with the definite article, as the Crimea, until well into the 20th century.

The territory of Crimea was conquered and controlled many times throughout its history. The Cimmerians, Greeks, Scythians, Goths, Huns, Bulgars, Khazars, the state of Kievan Rus', Byzantine Greeks, Kipchaks, Ottoman Turks, Golden Horde Tatars and the Mongols all controlled Crimea in its early history. In the 13th century, it was partly controlled by the Venetians and by the Genovese; they were followed by the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire in the 15th to 18th centuries, the Russian Empire in the 18th to 20th centuries, Germany during World War II and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and later the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, within the Soviet Union during most of the rest of the 20th century.

Crimea is now an autonomous parliamentary republic which is governed by the Constitution of Crimea in accordance with the laws of Ukraine. The capital and administrative seat of the republic's government is the city of Simferopol, located in the center of the peninsula. Crimea's area is 26,200 square kilometres (10,100 sq mi) and its population was 1,973,185 as of 2007.

Crimean Tatars, an ethnic minority who now make up about 13% of the population, formed in Crimea in the late Middle Ages, after the Crimean Khanate had come into existence. The Crimean Tatars were forcibly expelled to Central Asia by Joseph Stalin's government. After the fall of the Soviet Union, some Crimean Tatars began to return to the region.^[9] However, a majority of the population consists of Russians, and the Russian language has official status in the autonomous republic.

Etymology of the name[link]

The name Crimea takes its origin in the name of a city of Qırım (today's Stary Krym) which served as a capital of the Crimean province of the Golden Horde. Qırım is Crimean Tatar for "my hill" (qır – hill, -ım – my). Russian Krym is a Russified form of Qırım. The ancient Greeks called Crimea Tauris (later Taurica), after its inhabitants, the Tauri. The Greek historian Herodotus mentions that Heracles plowed that land using a huge ox ("Taurus"), hence the name of the land, and thereby asserting that these people named their land, and hence themselves, after an ox used by a mythical, Greek figure. Herodotus also refers to a nearby region called "cremni or 'the Cliffs" which may also refer to the Crimean peninsula, notable for its cliffs along what is otherwise a flat northern coastline of the Black Sea.

In English, much as with Ukraine itself, Crimea is sometimes referred to with the definite article, the Crimea, as in the Netherlands, the Gambia, etc.; but usage without the article has become more frequent in journalism since the years of the Soviet Union.

History[link]

Early history[link]

Chersonesos near modern Sevastopol

Taurica was the name of Crimea in antiquity. Taurica was inhabited by a variety of peoples. The inland regions were inhabited by Scythians and the mountainous south coast by the Taures, an offshoot of the Cimmerians. Greek settlers inhabited a number of colonies along the coast of the peninsula, notably the city of Chersonesos near modern Sevastopol. In the 2nd century BCE the eastern part of Taurica became part of the Bosporan Kingdom, before being incorporated into the Roman Empire in the 1st century BC. During the 1st, 2nd and 3rd centuries CE, Taurica was host to Roman legions and colonists in Charax, Crimea. Taurica was eventually renamed by the Crimean Tatars, from whose language Crimea's modern name derives. The word "Crimea" comes from the Crimean Tatar name Qırım, via Greek Krimea (Κριμαία).

Throughout the later centuries, Crimea was invaded or occupied successively by the Goths (AD 250), the Huns (376), the Bulgars (4th–8th century), the Khazars (8th century), the state of Kievan Rus' (10th–11th centuries), the Byzantine Empire (1016), the Kipchaks (Kumans) (1050), and the Mongols (1237). In the 13th century, the Republic of Genoa seized the settlements which their rivals, the Venetians, had built along the Crimean coast and gained control of the Crimean economy and the Black Sea commerce for two centuries.^{[citation needed]}

A number of Turkic peoples, now collectively known as the Crimean Tatars, have been inhabiting the peninsula since the early Middle Ages. After the destruction of the Golden Horde by Timur in 1441, the Crimean Tatars founded an independent Crimean Khanate under Hacı I Giray, a descendant of Genghis Khan. The Crimean Tatars controlled the steppes that stretched from the Kuban and to the Dniester River, however, they were initially unable to take control over commercial Genoese towns. After the capture of Genoese towns, the Ottoman Sultan held Meñli I Giray captive,^[10] later releasing him in return for accepting Ottoman sovereignty above the Crimean Khans and allowing them rule as tributary princes of the Ottoman Empire.^[11]:78[12] However, the Crimean Khans still had a large amount of autonomy from the Ottoman Empire. In 1774, The Crimean Khans fell under Russian influence with the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca and, in 1783, the entire Crimea was annexed by the Russian Empire.^[11]:176

The Crimean Khan's Palace in Bakhchysaray

Crimea became part of Russia's Taurida Governorate and was the site of much of the fighting in the Crimean War (1853–1856), which devastated much of the economic and social infrastructure of the peninsula.

Crimea in the 20th and 21st centuries[link]

In the Soviet Union[link]

During the Russian Civil War following the overthrow of the Russian Empire, Crimea changed hands a number of times and was a stronghold of the anti-Bolshevik White Army. It was in Crimea that the White Russians led by General Wrangel made their last stand against Nestor Makhno and the Red Army in 1920. Approximately 50,000 White prisoners of war and civilians were summarily executed via shooting or hanging after the defeat of general Wrangel at the end of 1920.^[13] This is considered one of the largest massacres in the Civil War.^[14]

On 18 October 1921, the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was created as part of the Russian SFSR which, in turn, became part of the Soviet Union.^[12] Crimea experienced two severe famines in the 20th century, the Famine of 1921–1922 and the Holodomor of 1932–1933.^[15]

During World War II, Crimea was a scene of some of the bloodiest battles. The Germans suffered heavy casualties in the summer of 1941 as they tried to advance through the narrow Isthmus of Perekop linking Crimea to the Soviet mainland. Once the German army broke through, they occupied most of Crimea, with the exception of the city of Sevastopol, which held out from October 1941 until 4 July 1942 when the Germans finally captured the city. From 1 September 1942, the peninsula was administered as the Generalbezirk Krim (general district of Crimea) und Teilbezirk (and sub-district) Taurien. In spite of heavy-handed tactics by the Nazis and their allies, the Crimean mountains remained an unconquered stronghold of the native resistance until the day when the peninsula was freed from the occupying force in 1944.

The "Big Three" at the Yalta Conference in Crimea: Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin

On 18 May 1944, the entire population of the Crimean Tatars was forcibly deported in the "Sürgün" (Crimean Tatar for exile) to Central Asia by Joseph Stalin's Soviet government as a form of collective punishment on the grounds that they had collaborated with the Nazi occupation forces.^[11]:483 An estimated 46% of the deportees died from hunger and disease. On 26 June of the same year, the Armenian, Bulgarian and Greek population was also deported to Central Asia. By the end of summer 1944, the ethnic cleansing of Crimea was complete. In 1967, the Crimean Tatars were rehabilitated, but they were banned from legally returning to their homeland until the last days of the Soviet Union. The Crimean ASSR was abolished in 30 June 1945 and transformed into the Crimean Oblast (province) of the Russian SFSR.

On 19 February 1954, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union issued a decree on the transfer of the Crimean Oblast from the RSFSR to the Ukrainian SSR.^[16] In post-war years, Crimea thrived as a prime tourist destination, built with new attractions and sanatoriums for tourists. Tourists came from all around the Soviet Union and neighbouring countries.^[12] Crimea's infrastructure and manufacturing also developed, particularly around the sea ports at Kerch and Sevastopol and in the oblast's landlocked capital, Simferopol.

Following a referendum held on January 20, 1991 the Crimean Oblast was upgraded to that of an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic on February 12, 1991 by the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR.^[17]

In independent Ukraine[link]

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Crimea became part of the newly independent Ukraine which led to tensions between Russia and Ukraine. With the Black Sea Fleet based on the peninsula, worries of armed skirmishes were occasionally raised. Crimean Tatars began returning from exile and resettling in Crimea.

On 26 February 1992, the Verkhovna Rada (the Crimean parliament) renamed the ASSR the Republic of Crimea and proclaimed self-government on 5 May 1992^[18][19] and passed the first Crimean constitution the next day.

Crimea's southernmost point is the Cape of Sarych on the northern shore of the Black Sea, currently used by the Russian Navy.

On 19 May, Crimea agreed to remain part of Ukraine and annulled its proclamation of self-government but Crimean Communists forced the Ukrainian government to expand on the already extensive autonomous status of Crimea.^[11]:587 In the same period, Russian president Boris Yeltsin and Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk agreed to divide the former Soviet Black Sea Fleet between Russia and the newly formed Ukrainian Navy.^[20]

On 14 October 1993, the Crimean parliament established the post of President of Crimea and agreed on a quota of Crimean Tatars represented in the Council of 14. However, political turmoil continued. Amendments^{[clarification needed]} to the constitution eased the conflict^{[citation needed]}, but on 17 March 1995, the parliament of Ukraine intervened, scrapping the Crimean Constitution and removing Meshkov along with his office for his actions against the state and promoting integration with Russia.^[21] After an interim constitution, the current constitution was put into effect, changing the territory's name to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

Following the ratification of the May 1997 Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership on friendship and division of the Black Sea Fleet, international tensions slowly eased off. However, in September 2008, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Volodymyr Ohryzko accused Russia of giving out Russian passports to the population in the Crimea and described it as a "real problem" given Russia's declared policy of military intervention abroad to protect Russian citizens.^[22]

On 24 August 2009, anti-Ukrainian demonstrations were held in Crimea by ethnic Russian residents. Sergei Tsekov (of the Russian Bloc^[23] and then deputy speaker of the Crimean parliament^[24]) said then that he hoped that Russia would treat the Crimea the same way as it had treated South Ossetia and Abkhazia.^[25] Chaos in the Ukrainian parliament during a debate over the extension of the lease on a Russian naval base erupted on 27 April 2010 after Ukraine’s parliament ratified the treaty that extends Russia's lease on a military wharf and shore installations in the Crimean port Sevastopol until 2042. Along with Verkhovna Rada, the treaty was ratified by the Russian State Duma as well.^[26]

Government and politics[link]

The Massandra Palace near Yalta is one of the official residences of Ukraine.

Crimea is an autonomous republic within the unitary state of Ukraine with the Presidential Representative serving as a governor and replacing once established a post of president. The legislative body is a 100-seat parliament, the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea.^[27]

The executive power is represented by the Council of Ministers, headed by a Chairman who is appointed and dismissed by the Verkhovna Rada, with the consent of the President of Ukraine.^[5][28] The authority and operation of the Verkhovna Rada and the Council of Ministers of Crimea are determined by the Constitution of Ukraine and other the laws of Ukraine, as well as by regular decisions carried out by the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea.^[28]

Justice is administered by courts that belong to the judicial system of Ukraine.^[28]

Elections and parties[link]

While not an official body controlling Crimea, the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People is a representative body of the Crimean Tatars, which could address grievances to the Ukrainian central government, the Crimean government, and international bodies.^[29]

During the 2004 presidential elections, Crimea largely voted for the presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych. In both the 2006 Ukrainian parliamentary elections and the 2007 Ukrainian parliamentary elections, the Yanukovych-led Party of Regions also won most of the votes from the region. So did they in the 2010 Crimean parliamentary election.^[30]

Crimea – United States relations[link]

On 18 February 2009 the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea sent a letter to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the President of Ukraine in which it stated that it deemed it inexpedient to open a representative office of the United States in Crimea and it urged the Ukrainian leadership to give up this idea. The letter had passed in the Crimean parliament by a 77 to 9 roll-call vote with one abstention.^[31] The letter would also be sent to the Chairman of the UN General Assembly.

Administrative divisions[link]

Crimea is subdivided into 25 regions: 14 raions (districts) and 11 city municipalities, officially known as "territories governed by city councils".^[32] While the City of Sevastopol is located on the Crimean peninsula, it is administratively separate from the rest of Crimea and is one of two special municipalities of Ukraine. Sevastopol, while having a separate administration, is tightly integrated within the infrastructure of the whole peninsula.

Raions[link]

City municipalities[link]

Simferopol

Major cities[link]

Geography and climate[link]

Sevastopol sunset.

Burun mountains.

Yalta cliff.

Map of Crimea with major cities.

Sevastopol sunset.

The Crimean Mountains near the city of Alushta.

Crimea is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea and on the western coast of the Sea of Azov, bordering Kherson Oblast from the North. Although located in the southwestern part of the Crimean peninsula, the city of Sevastopol has a special but separate municipality status within Ukraine. Crimea's total land area is 26,100 km² (10,077 sq mi).

Crimea is connected to the mainland by the 5–7 kilometres (3.1–4.3 mi) wide Isthmus of Perekop. At the eastern tip is the Kerch Peninsula, which is directly opposite the Taman Peninsula on the Russian mainland. Between the Kerch and Taman peninsulas, lies the 3–13 kilometres (1.9–8.1 mi) wide Strait of Kerch, which connects the waters of the Black Sea with the Sea of Azov.

The Crimean coastline is broken by several bays and harbors. These harbors lie west of the Isthmus of Perekop by the Bay of Karkinit; on the southwest by the open Bay of Kalamita, with the ports of Eupatoria and Sevastopol; on the north by the Bay of Arabat of the Isthmus of Yenikale or Kerch; and on the south by the Bay of Caffa or Feodosiya, with the port of Feodosiya.

The southeast coast is flanked at a distance of 8–12 kilometres (5.0–7.5 mi) from the sea by a parallel range of mountains, the Crimean Mountains.^[33] These mountains are backed by secondary parallel ranges. Seventy-five percent of the remaining area of Crimea consists of semiarid prairie lands, a southward continuation of the Pontic steppes, which slope gently to the northwest from the foot of the Crimean Mountains. The main range of these mountains shoots up with extraordinary abruptness from the deep floor of the Black Sea to an altitude of 600–750 metres (1,969–2,461 ft), beginning at the southwest point of the peninsula, called Cape Fiolente. It was believed that this cape was supposedly crowned with the temple of Artemis, where Iphigeneia is said to have officiated as priestess.^[34] Uchan-su waterfall on the south slope of the mountains is the highest in Ukraine.

Numerous kurgans, or burial mounds, of the ancient Scythians are scattered across the Crimean steppes.

The terrain that lies beyond the sheltering Crimean Mountain range is of an altogether different character. Here, the narrow strip of coast and the slopes of the mountains are smothered with greenery. This "riviera" stretches along the southeast coast from Cape Sarych, in the extreme south, to Feodosiya, and is studded with summer sea-bathing resorts such as Alupka, Yalta, Gurzuf, Alushta, Sudak, and Feodosiya. During the years of Soviet rule, the resorts and dachas of this coast served as the prime perquisites of the politically loyal. In addition, vineyards and fruit orchards are located in the region. Fishing, mining, and the production of essential oils are also important. Numerous Crimean Tatar villages, mosques, monasteries, and palaces of the Russian imperial family and nobles are found here, as well as picturesque ancient Greek and medieval castles.

Most of Crimea has a temperate continental climate, except for the south coast where it experiences a humid subtropical climate, due to warm influences from the Black Sea. Summers can be hot (28 °C/82.4 °F Jul average) and winters are cool (−0.3 °C/31.5 °F Jan average) in the interior, on the south coast winters are milder (4 °C/39.2 °F Jan average) and temperatures much below freezing are exceptional. Precipitation in the interior is low with only 400 mm (15.7 in) a year. On the south coast precipitation is more than double of that, Yalta annually receives about 1,050 mm (41.3 in). Because of its climate, the southern Crimean coast is a popular beach and sun resort for Ukrainian and Russian tourists.

Duvan house

Livadia Palace

Places of interest[link]

• Livadia Palace
• Mount Mithridat
• Scythe's Treasure
• Swallow's Nest
• Tauric Chersonesos
• Vorontsov's Palace (Alupka)

Economy[link]

Sevastopol, heart of Crimean economy

The main branches of the Crimean economy are tourism and agriculture. Industrial plants are situated for the most part in the northern regions of the republic. Important industrial cities include Dzhankoy, housing a major railway connection, Krasnoperekopsk and Armyansk, among others.

The most important industries in Crimea include food production, chemical fields, mechanical engineering and metal working, and fuel production industries.^[28] Sixty percent of the industry market belongs to food production. There are a total of 291 large industrial enterprises and 1002 small business enterprises.^[28]

The main branches of vegetation production in the region include cereals, vegetable-growing, gardening, and wine-making, particularly in the Yalta and Massandra regions. Other agricultural forms include cattle breeding, poultry keeping, and sheep breeding.^[28] Other products produced on the Crimea Peninsula include salt, porphyry, limestone, and ironstone (found around Kerch).^[35]

Transport[link]

Public transportation

Almost every settlement in Crimea is connected with another settlement with bus lines. Crimea contains the longest (96 km or 59 mi) trolleybus route in the world, stretching from Simferopol to Yalta.^[36] The trolleybus line starts in near Simferopol's Railway Station through the mountains to Alushta and on to Yalta. Railroad lines running through Crimea include Armyansk—Kerch (with a link to Feodosiya), and Melitopol—Sevastopol (with a link to Yevpatoria), connecting Crimea to the Ukrainian mainland.

Highways

• E105/M18 - North-Crimean Channel (bridge, starts), Dzhankoy, Simferopol, Alushta, Yalta (ends)
• E97/M17 - Perekop (starts), Armyansk, Dzhankoy, Feodosia, Kerch (ferry, ends)
• H05 - Krasnoperekopsk, Simferopol (access to the Simferopol International Airport)
• H06 - Simferopol, Bakhchisaray, Sevastopol
• H19 - Yalta, Sevastopol
• P16
• P23 - Simferopol, Feodosia
• P25 - Simferopol, Yevpatoria
• P27 - Sevastopol, Inkerman (completely within the city of Sevastopol)
• P29 - Alushta, Sudak, Feodosia
• P34 - Alushta, Yalta
• P35 - Hrushivka, Sudak
• P58 - Sevastopol, Port "Komysheva Bukhta" (completely within the city of Sevastopol)
• P59 (completely within the city of Sevastopol)

Sea transport

The cities of Yalta, Feodosiya, Kerch, Sevastopol, Chornomorske and Yevpatoria are connected to one another by sea routes. In the cities of Yevpatoria and nearby townlet Molochnoye are tram systems.

Demographics[link]

Native Crimean Tatars per cent

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As of 2005, the total population of Crimea is 1,994,300.

From 1989 to 2001, Crimea's population declined by 396,795 people, representing 16.33% of the 1989 population, despite the return of displaced groups such as Crimean Tatars. From 2001–2005 the population declined by another 39,400 people, representing a decline from 2001 of another 2%.

According to 2001 Ukrainian Census, the population of Crimea was 2,033,700.^[37] The ethnic makeup was comprised the following self-reported groups: Russians: 58.32%; Ukrainians: 24.32%; Crimean Tatars: 12.1%; Belarusians: 1.44%; Tatars: 0.54%; Armenians: 0.43%; and Jews: 0.22%.^[38]

Other minorities are Black Sea Germans, Romani people, Bulgarians, Poles, Azerbaijanis, Koreans, Greeks and Italians. The number of Crimea Germans was 45,000 in 1941.^[39] In 1944, 70,000 Greeks and 14 000 Bulgarians from the Crimea were deported to Central Asia and Siberia,^[40] along with 200,000 Crimean Tatars and other nationalities.^[41]

Ukrainian is the single official state language countrywide, and is the sole language of government in Ukraine. According to the census mentioned, 77% of Crimean inhabitants named Russian as their native language; 11.4% – Crimean Tatar; and 10.1% – Ukrainian.^[42] In Crimea government business is carried out mainly in Russian. Attempts to expand the usage of Ukrainian in education and government affairs have been less successful in Crimea than in other areas of the nation.^[43] Another language widely spoken is Crimean Tatar.

Currently two thirds of the migrants into Crimea are from other regions of Ukraine; every 5th migrant is from the former Soviet Union and every 40th from outside of it. Three quarters of those leaving Crimea move to other areas in Ukraine. Every 20th migrates to the West.^[42]

The number of Crimean residents who consider Ukraine their motherland increased from 32% to 71.3% from 2008 through 2011; according to a poll by Razumkov Center in March 2011.^[44] This is the lowest number in all Ukraine (93% on average across the country).^[44] Surveys of regional identities in Ukraine have shown that around 30% of Crimean residents claim to have a "Soviet identity".^[45]

Demographic trends[link]

The population of the Crimean peninsula has been consistently falling at a rate of 0.4% per year.^[46] This is particularly apparent in both the Russian and Ukrainian ethnic populations, whose growth rate has been falling at the rate of 0.6% and 0.12% annually respectively. In comparison, the overall growth rate of the ethnic Crimean Tatar population has been growing at the rate of 0.9% per annum.^[47]

The growing trend in the Crimean Tatar population has been explained by the continual Crimean Tatar repatriation (mainly from Uzbekistan), the high birth rate amongst the resettlers, and the low death rate as few senior citizens have resettled back into their ancestral home.

Culture[link]

Sport[link]

Crimea is a prominent figure in Ukrainian sports, especially the most popular: Association football. The most successful Crimean football club is Tavriya Simferopol in the Ukrainian Premier League possessing one championship title. In the Ukrainian First League Crimea is represented by a few other clubs such as FC Krymteplitsia Molodizhne (from Simferopol suburbs) and PFC Sevastopol. Among other football clubs there is FC Tytan Armyansk.

Crimea has a bandy federation. Their chairman is Vice president of Ukrainian Bandy and Rink-bandy Federation.^[48]

See also[link]

	Geography portal
	Europe portal
	Ukraine portal
	Crimea portal

• Outline of Ukraine
• Artek
• Black Sea Fleet
• Seven Wonders of Ukraine

Further reading[link]

• (Russian) Bazilevich Basil Mitrofanovich. (1914) From the history of the Moscow-Crimea relations in the first half of XVII century (Из истории московско-крымских отношений в первой половине XVII века) at Runivers.ru in DjVu and PDF formats
• (Russian) Bantysh-Kamensky Nikolay. (1893) Register of cases of Crimean court with 1474 to 1779 (Реестр делам крымского двора с 1474 по 1779 год) at Runivers.ru in DjVu and PDF formats
• (Russian) Berg Nikolai. (1858) Sevastopol album by N. Berg (Севастопольский альбом Н. Берга) at Runivers.ru in DjVu and PDF formats
• (Russian) Berezhkov Michael N.Plan for the conquest of the Crimea compiled during the reign of Emperor Alexis of Russia Slav scholar Yuri Krizhanich (План завоевания Крыма составленный в царствование государя Алексея Михайловича ученым славянином Юрием Крижаничем) at Runivers.ru in DjVu and PDF formats
• (Russian) Berezhkov Michael N. (1888) Russian captives and slaves in the Crimea (Русские пленники и невольники в Крыму) at Runivers.ru in DjVu and PDF formats
• (Russian) Bogdanovich Modest I. (1876) Eastern War 1853-1856 (Восточная война 1853-1856 гг.) at Runivers.ru in DjVu format
• (Russian) Dubrovin Nikolai Fedorovich. (1900) History of the Crimean War and the defense of Sevastopol (История Крымской войны и обороны Севастополя) at Runivers.ru in DjVu format
• (Russian) Dubrovin Nikolai Fedorovich. (1885–1889) Joining the Crimea to Russia (Присоединение Крыма к России) at Runivers.ru in DjVu format

Footnotes and references[link]