Since the Russian Federation’s illegal annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 – 160 years after the Crimean War – the peninsula has returned to the fore on the global geopolitical stage. This book provides a comprehensive history of the peninsula that was previously lacking, one that stretches from ancient times to the present and explores various aspects and inhabitants through the ages. Kerstin S. Jobst examines the complex history of multi-ethnic and pluri-religious Crimea – not only from a political perspective, but also considering the manifold cultural and historical interdependencies that are central to the territory. The book examines myths and legends about Crimea, as well as the various peoples for whom it has been a settlement and transit area and who have shaped the fate of the peninsula: Greek, Genoese and Venetian colonists, Eurasian nomads, Crimean Tatars, Germans, Russians, Ukrainians and others. A History of Crimea shows the importance of Crimea as a site of early Christianity, but also as a contact zone between different religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It also emphasizes the role of the peninsula as a peripheral space of various great powers – the Roman Empire, Byzantium, the Golden Horde, the “Third Reich” and the Ottoman, Russian and Soviet empires. With this detailed overview of 2,000 years of Crimea’s history, Kerstin S. Jobst debunks the narratives around the most recent explosive events in the peninsula by examining the full historical context. In doing so, she de-mythologizes simplified claims to historical legitimacy that, rooted in Russian emotional attachment and geopolitical ambitions, ignore the cultural complexities of the previous centuries. This important work thus rebalances skewed narratives that continue to prevail even among seasoned observers of developments in Crimea.

Table of Contents:
Preface 1. Introduction 2. Crimea as a Space of Myths and Legends 3. On Greeks, Scythians, and Others 4. New Actors: Sarmatians and Others 5. The Mithridatic Wars: Crimea under the Rule of Rome 6. On Goths, Huns, the ‘Migration Period’ and Its Impacts on Crimea 7. Crimea as a Place of Early Christianity 8. Crimea between the Eastern Roman Empire, the Crimean Gothia, and the Khazar Empire 9. Crimea between the Kievan Rus’, Byzantium, and Semi-Nomadic Groups from Eurasia 10. On Cumans, Polovtsians, and Kipchaks 11. The Fourth Crusade (1202-1204) and its Impact on Crimea 12. Pax Mongolica, Trade, Slavery, and the ‘Black Death’ 13. The Principality of Theodoro and a Lithuanian Intermezzo 14. The Crimean Khanate: The Beginnings 15. The Establishment of the Crimean Khanate 16. The Crimean Khanate: Ottoman Suzerainty and an Eastern European Equilibrium 17. Slavery and the Topos of the Crimean Tatar Warrior 18. The Nogays as a Factor in the Early Modern Crimean History 19. The Cossacks as a Factor in the Early Modern Crimean History 20. Internal Conditions in the Crimean Khanate 21. In the Run-Up to the Annexation: The Strengthening of the Russian Empire, the ‘Greek Plan’, and the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca of 1774 22. An ‘Independent’ Crimean Khanate and the Russian Annexation, 1774-1783 23. The First Decades of Russian Rule in Crimea 24. The Multi-Ethnic and Multi-Religious Crimea under Tsarist Rule: The Tatar Population and Gender Relations 25. The Multi-Ethnic and Multi-Religious Crimea under Tsarist Rule: ‘Old’ and ‘New’ Inhabitants 26. The Crimean War: A ‘Modern’ War? 27. The Crimean War: The Developments on the Peninsula 28. After the War: Crimea Between 1856 and 1905 29. The Crimean Tatar Population after the Crimean War 30. The Revolution 1905 and Its Consequences in Crimea 31. World War I and the Revolution in the Periphery: The Crimean Peninsula, 1917-1920 32. The Crimean Peninsula, 1920-1941 33. Crimea during World War II 34. The Deportations 1944/45 and Their Background 35. Crimea after World War II 36. The Dissolution of the Soviet Union: Crimea as Part of Independent Ukraine 37. Russian Again?! Crimea after the Second Annexation of 2014 Bibliography Index