CRIMEA: THE FIRST EAST-WEST CONFRONTATION

Crimean War

Deep-Rooted Reasons for Hostility

Глубоко засевшие причины враждебности

Profonde ragioni di ostilità

Des raisons d'hostilité profondement enracinées.

Tiefgreifende Feindlichkeitsgruende.

The cultural confrontation among Slavophiles and Westerners, can be utilized as a background scenario of Russia’s cultural and political life up to the Soviet Revolution. The reformist “Russian Thinking” around Černyševskij and Herzen, comes out of a Westerner background, whereby the reforms are seen as a partial imitation of Western Europe or of America. On the contrary, most of the literary, and/or musical, and/or pictorial productions (such as Dostojevsk’s, Tolstoj’s, Ciaikowsky’s, Serov’s, Nestorov’s, Rerih’s, Malevič’s, Strawinsky’s) are deeply rooted in the Slavonic tradition.

The strengthening of the hold of the Russian Empire on its Asiatic territories (Caucasus, but also Central Asia and the Artic Regions) had increased the interest of Russian intellectuals for the Asiatic Roots of Russia (the Scythians, the Tatars, the Finns, the Persians, the Turks), but also their sympathies for the subjected peoples, whose origins, histories, traditions, languages, were investigated at that time.

Russia was defined more and more as a “Eurasiatic” reality. “Asiatic” subjects enter into the repertory of artists, such as Shagané, Hadij Murat, the Fire Bird, Shahrazade, the Finnish folklore of the North.This attention is not much different from the praise of Mohicans by Fenimore Cooper, or the one of "strong men" of East and west by Kipling, and, fimnally, the participation of Ann Besant both to the induistic revival and to the independence struggle of India.

But also the idea of a community of destinies between Russia and Europe remained at that times strong, albeit Russia felt not be  well understood , and even to be rejected, by Europeans.

Many made an effort to become more European, for being better accepted, as in the case of the Occidentalist, or of social reformers like Caadajen. Others, like Ivanov-Razumnik (who converted to Catholicism as suggested by De Maistre), stressed that Europe needed Russia. He launched the idea of “Europe’s two lungs”, an idea which will achieve so large a resound after having been adopted by John Paul II himself.

The conflict between “Slavophiles” and “Occidentalists” will be synthesized, finally, after the October Revolution, by Blok, who, in his Panmongolizm, will submit, to Europeans, a dramatic alternative: either to accept, brotherly, the Russian as a part of the European family of people, or to find them hostiles, allied with “the Mongolic World” (now, we could think of China and of Islam).

During the XIX Century, Russia did not abandon the “Greek Project” (i Megàli Idèa”), albeit the independence of Greece was not achieved thanks to Russia (or, at least, not thanks to Russia alone); the newly independent Greece became open, besides Russian influences, also German and English connections.

The peak of anti-Russian feelings was reached between the 1848 Revolution and the Crimea War. Russia had intervened, upon request of the Austrian Emperor, in Hungary, for stopping the liberal and nationalistic unrests.Moreover, the Croatian Ban Jelacic, the Ruthenian  peasants and the Bohemian Pan-Slavists    had all supported the Emperor against the revolutionary, so causing all together the suppression of the revolts in the Austrian Empire. From this fact, Marx and Engels draw the pretext for a violent attack against the "peoples without history", responsible, first of all, to have supported the Russian and Austrian Emperors against the revolutionary movements. In 1853, there were not only the left-wing extremists, but also the bourgeois liberals governments of France and of England to be worried of the momentum gained by Imperial Russia by its presence in the Balkans  (including the occupation of Wallachia and Moldavia) and its support to Balkanic nationhoods.

The "Crimean War" consisted, in reality, in a vast encirclement of Russia by British, Franch, Austrians Turks and Sardinians, which took place along the Danube, in Ucraine, Crimea, Caucasus, the Baltic, the White Sea and the Pacific Ocean. The adhesion of the Kingdom of Sardinia was unequivocally motivated by the will of the liberal Cavour Government to join the liberal cohalition of Western constitutional monarchies, abandoning the traditional Russian friendship. The conservative opposition, led by Count Thaon de Ravel, refused to vote in favour of the war. The latter contributed heavily to the self-consciuosness of Russia, to the weakening of Austria, to the assertiveness of the Balkanic countries and to the strenthening of national feelings in Caucasian nationalities.

The Western alliance pretended from Russia the acceptance of some points, what Russia refused to do:

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.

At the end of the war, these points were accepted by Russia only partially, and never fully complied with.

Wallachia and Moldavia, formerly under a strong Russian influence, united under the name of Romania, into a new state, where French and Italian influences are decisive, up to the point that the same Rumanian language is “purified” from many of the preceding Slavonic influences, so that the heritage of the Romans is put in the forefront.

Russia interests concentrated on the Slavonic peoples of the Balkans, such as Bulgarians and Serbians, which Russia helped in their efforts to become independent from the Turkish Empire. These efforts, which were at the origin of the “Balkanic Wars”, contributed to creating the background for World War I. 

Of course, not just Russia, but the whole system of powers of the Europe of that time, are equally responsible for the Balkan Wars and for the subsequent World War II. It has to be remarked that the Russian Tsars were active in the diplomatic scene, for fostering a movement for Peace and Disarmament (the Hague Congress for Peace was promoted by Tsar Nicolas II).

The policy of the Russian Empire in that period is rather contradictory. In fact, it had to manage too many contradictory tendencies. From one side, Russia was a very powerful, cultivated, and even rich, country, whose rates of growths were higher than the ones of Western Europe. From another point of view, riches was very unequally distributed, and this created strong social contrasts. The land reforms carried out at the end of the XIX Century, whilst fostering industrialization,also as a consequence of the Crimean War, had not solved the problem of a sound farming class.

The Tsar swinged between the tough defense of traditional autocracy and timid tentatives of reforms in the direction of a parliamentary monarchy, from avant-garde initiatives in the field of internationalism, such as the Hague  Congress, to military escalations, such as the ones in the Balkans.

The policy of Russia-bashing from the side of western goverments and intellectuasls went on. The fact that, contrary to what happened in France, Italy and Austria, liberal reforms had not been implemented during the largest part of the XIX Century were explained, as always, by the innate autocratic spirit of Russians. However, as always, many of the faults identified by polemists in Russia were, or false, a shared with many other European countries.

As an example, the myth, according to which the Russian Empire had to be considered as the main enemy of nationalities in Eastern Europe is not correct. It is true that a strong conflict arose since the beginning with Poles, who did not accept the partial autonomy role of the Kingdom of Poland. It is also true that the Empire forbade the Ukrainian language and the transliteration, into Latin characters, of Baltic languages. However, also Prussia and Austria had annexed large parts of Poland, where they had suppressed any form of autonomy, whilst Russia had been even helpful with Belorussian and Lithuanians, for asserting their own nationhood, after long centuries of dominance of the Polish language, aristocracy and clergy.Not to speak of the violent repression, by England, of Irish autonomy.

BETWEEN RUSSIA AND EUROPE

Center-Eastern Europe at the Time of the Livonia War

Poland, Sweden,Belarus,Baltic States, Ukraine, Moldova, Turkey, had tight contacts among them in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.
По́льша,Шведска,Беларус,Приба́лтика,Украи́на,Молдова,Турция  были тесно связанные в XVII и XVIII веке
Nel XVII e XVIII Secolo, Polonia, Svezia, Bielorussia, Paesi Baltici, Ucraina, Moldova e Turchia erano strettamente interconnesse
Aux Siècles XVII et XVIII, la Pologne,  la Suède,la Biélorussie, les Pays Baltes, l'Ucraine, la Moldavie et la Turquie étaient étroitement enchevetrées
In den XVIIen und XVIII Jahrhundert, waren Polen,Schweden,Belarus,Baltikum, Ukraine, Moldova und die Tuerkei, dicht miteinander gebunden. 
 

During and after the Mongolian domination, different parts of the Russian territory were subjected to the determinant influences of other, European and Asiatic, Kingdoms, and, in particular,Tataria,  Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, Sweden and Turkey, so further increasing the cosmopolitan character of Russia.

1.     German Knights

Simultaneously with the Mongolian attack, also the German Knights of the Holy Cross tried to subdue the Novgorod Republic. However, Alexander Nevsky succeeded to defeat and to expel them by the battle of the Peipüs Lake.

The contacts with Germany continued nevertheless, thanks to the membership of Novgorod and other Northern Towns in the Hansa, thanks also to the family connection between the Russian princes and German aristocracy, thanks to the presence of a German heritage in the Baltic States, and, finally, thanks to the important immigration into Russia of German settlers, especially under the kingdom of Catherine II.

2.     Lithuania

During the Mongolian invasions, towns in the Western part of Kievskaja Rus, such as Novohradec, Brest, Mogilev, Minsk, were exposed to the influence of the Lithuanian princes. The latter, being still heathen, were exposed to several pressures to convert. As a consequence, there is, in Lithuanian history, a long-lasting trend toward Christian influences. The latter found their expression, in a first step, in the adoption of Greek Orthodox Faith and of Church Slavonic; later on, in the adoption of Catholicism and of Latin.

In the same time, the South-Western territory of the Kingdom of Halić fell under the influence of the King of Poland.

During the XV and XVI Centuries, the whole territory of present-days Belarus and Ukraine became part of a “Lithuanian Great-Duchy”, which, with its Orthodox Faith and its Slavonic language, could be considered as a sort of replica of the previous Kievan Rus’(and in fact, was still denominated also al “Zemlia Russka”).

3.     Poland

However, the personal union (Polish-Lithiuanian Rzeczpospolita) which, in the form of Unia Lubelska, transformed itself into a Polish hegemony, substracted force to Lithuania, and, hence, also to its previous Orthodox character. Ukraine became a part of the Polish Crown; Catholicism, Latin and Polish gained momentum.

During the period of the “Riots” (“Smutnoe Vreme”, Poles tried even to subdue Russia, arriving at conquering the Moscow Kremlin.

During that period, the Orthodox part of the former Great-Ducky of Lithuania, presently part of the Polish Crown, fell under the control of the Cossacks (the Hetmanate). In a first stage, the Cossack Hetmans governed this region (which stretched between Ukraine and Belarus) on behalf of the Polish King. However, at a certain moment, Hetman Chmel’nicky pretended to get a full autonomy from Poland, and, therefore, was attacked by the same. Chmel’nicky tried to resist Poland with the support of the Tatar Crimea Khanate and of the Ottoman Empire, but the Khan allied with Poles, so that Chmel’nicky was obliged to address himself to Russia.

As a consequence of the lack of success of the Polish tentative, the Muscovite Prince gained further influence also in Ukraine, and, during the XVII Century, with the Jaslav Convention and the Andrusovo Treaty, Kiev became a part of the Muscovite State. This situation gave rise to a growing Ukrainian influence in Muscovy, thanks also to the high level of theological development reached in Kiev’s Seminary.

4.     Sweden

Once the Polish influence finished, another threat was felt by the fledging Russian State: the power of the Kingdom of Sweden.

Following to the Reform and the Religious Wars, Sweden, during the Thirty Years War, had become able to reunite around it all Scandinavian States, more the Baltic States and the North of Germany, becoming a European great power.

Within this framework, the Swedes tried also to extend their power, from the Baltic territories, to Ukraine, across the previous lands of the Lithuanian State, thanks to the alliance with Hetman Mazepa, who tried to become independent from Poland, Russia and Turkey.

Also this tentative was unsuccessful. On the contrary, Paul the Great succeeded in defeating  the Swedes in Poltava and even to conquer all the stretch of Swedish territories on the Baltic, presently corresponding to the St. Petersburgkaja Oblast, to Estonia and Latvia. However, the Swedish influence on Russia did not cease with the Nordic Wars, but, on the contrary, went on also in the following centuries. In fact, in the Baltic States, besides the previous German aristocracy, originating from the German Knights of the Holy Cross, also a Swedish upper class had been created, which influenced the cultural life of the country and of Russia in general. For instance, the Admiral Vrangel’, one of the leaders of the White Russian Army during civil war, was of recent Swedish origins. Later on, in 1809, one of the reasons for the secession of Finland from Sweden, and the accession of the same to Russia, had been that Count Bernadotte, which, under French influence, had been appointed, by Napoleon,  as the King of Sweden, did not guarantee to maintain, to Finnish aristocracy (which was, in fact, nationally Swedish), the privileged guaranteed, under the previous dynasty, as the outcome of the “Constitution” of the “Borga Estates”.

So, Swedish-Finnish legal régime was “transferred” into Russia together with the Grand-Duchy of Finland, so constituting a basis for the reforms prompted later on, for the whole Empire, by Prince  Czartoryski.

This historical period had been also of paramount importance for the formation of the Finnish culture. At the moment of the passage of Finland from Sweden to Russia, and of the creation of the “Grand Duchy of Finland”, the need was felt to create a Finnish culture, instead of relying uniquely on the culture of Sweden, which had been, for the past, the almost sole culture of Finland. In fact, the ancient Ugro-Finnic population had been subjected to the Christian Swedes since the XIV Century, and did not have either a literary language, or a literary tradition.

At that moment in time, Lonnröth, going on the same path as Herder with Latvian ancient poetry, traveled intensively across Carelia, a Russian province inhabited by Finns, where he collected, from the voices of peasants, ancients legends, that he unified into the “Kalevala”, the national epos of the Finns. In so doing, he followed the same path of Macpherson, who, for his “Ossian”, collected Irish popular songs, unifying them into only one poem, and, then, pretending they were “Scottish”.

On the other side, the work of Lonnröth arouse an interest also on the other part of Botnia, in Estonia, where the Kalevi Poeg was composed, an epical cycle connected with the Kalevala.

5.     The Ottoman Empire

Whilst all these transformations were under way in the northern parts of Russia, in the South-Eastern part of it, and also in Ukraine, the influence of the Mongol and Tatar “Great Khans” had left place to the one of Turkey.

Both the Khanate of Crimea and the Nogai Horde had become vassals of the Ottoman Empire. This Turkish/Islamic influence is perceivable already now in those territories. In fact, all the Cis-Caucasian area was inhabited, together with Cossacks, by various smaller peoples, many of them, like the Daghestani and the Chechnyans, of Islamic faith. This area, formerly occupied by Tatars and by Mongols, Islam was often of recent date (like, for instance, in Ingushetia). For this reason, the cultural language was even Arabic, and the connections with Arabia were frequent.

These Islamic populations contributed heavily to revolts, including, i.a. to the one of Pugačiov, who, on the other side, had even an Arabic secretariate for drawing appeals and legislative instruments in that language.

ANOTHER GREECE AMONG TRANSDNISTRIA, UCRAINE,CRIMEA AND RUSSIA

From Jason to Angelopulos

Из Иасона до Ангелопулоса

Da Giasone a Angelopulos

De Jason à Angelopoulos

Von Jason bis zu Angelopulos

Greeks had always been present on the Northern sea shore of the Black sea. Somebody hints thay they may be originary from that area. However, since the “real” origin of the Greek people has not been explained up to now, also this fact has not been cleared.

It is a matter of fact that, in historical times, they owned a series of colonies from the Dniestr up to Georgia. These cities went on a long time under Roman and Byzantine leadership. Here the Myths of Jason and the Argonauts, of Hyphigenia in Tauris and of the Amazones were born.  In Olbia, the “Golden Orphic Leaves” were found, which enshrine the teachings of this ancient Greek-Eastern religion.

Later on, these Greek cities  were occupied by several states (Sarmatians,Romans, Huns, Goths).
A few centuries after the Hunnic invasion, the Bosporan cities seem to have enjoyed a revival, under Byzantine Empire (and Bulgarian) protection. Phanagoria was the capital of Old Great Bulgaria. From time to time Byzantine officers built fortresses and exercised authority at Bosporus, which constituted an archbishopric.

During the Russian Civil War, there have been several movements of Greeks up and down Ucraine, Russia and the Soviet Union. The Greek filmmaker Angelopulos is particularly interested to the story of this ethnic group, to which it has devoted several films.

 Still in recent periods there have been Greek colonies in Donetzk and Odessa.