It is a well-known fact that the Crimean peninsula has a unique climate. Crimea, whose territory covers 26.9 thousand km
2 , is not only a well-known Black Sea health resort, but also a health resort of Azov. The waters of these two continental seas wash its shores. In addition, Crimea has significant potential for the development of irrigated agriculture: horticulture and viticulture.
The peninsula has a multilevel relief. In the north and in the center the steppe relief prevails, it occupies ¾ of the territory of Crimea, in the south it is limited to three ridges of gentle sedimentary Crimean mountains, stretching for a strip with a length of 160 km. The southern coast pleases with its resort opportunities. Accordingly, in the climatic plan, the area of the Crimean peninsula includes three recreational zones:
- the most popular - subtropical (southern coast of Crimea) ;
- steppe Crimea;
- mountain Crimea.
Millions of tourists in the summer become guests of its friendly cities: Simferopol, Sevastopol, Kerch, Feodosia. These are the largest cities of the peninsula, a brief description of some of them we will present below. According to statistics, currently 5-6 million tourists visit the peninsula during the season. Is it a lot or a little? For comparison, Turkey's resorts in 2011 were visited by 31.456 million tourists. It’s all about infrastructure and promotion. As we see, Crimea has something to strive for ...
Crimean population
The population of the Crimean peninsula, according to the Crimestat on 01.01.2014, is more than 2,342 million people and has a tendency to increase. The reason is the migration attractiveness of Crimea. At the same time, urban residents have a share on the peninsula of 62.7%, and rural residents, respectively, - 37.3%. In national terms, according to the 2001 census, the Crimean population is mainly represented by Russians (58.3%), Ukrainians (24.3%), Crimean Tatars (12.1%), Belarusians (1.5%). The remaining nationalities in the population of the peninsula occupy a much lower proportion - less than 1%.
By the way, the 2001 census of the Crimea showed an interesting fact: there are more Izhors (a small Finnish-Ugric people) living on its territory than in their historical homeland.
Cities of Crimea
The cities of the Crimean peninsula are not numerous. There are currently 18. There are brief characteristics of some of them.
The administrative, cultural and industrial center of Crimea is the 360 thousandth city of Simferopol. In Greek, its name sounds like a "city of good." This is the most important transportation hub. It is through it that roads lead to all the settlements of the peninsula.
The industry of Simferopol is significant: about 70 large enterprises, including the plants Photon, Pneumatics, Santekhprom, Krymprodmash, Fiolent and others. Accordingly, the population of the city is quite qualified. The city has the main universities of the peninsula, so it is called the scientific center of Crimea. Recall also that Simferopol is the small homeland of academician Igor Vasilievich Kurchatov, actor Roman Sergeyevich Filippov, singer Yuri Iosifovich Bogatikov.
The city of Sevastopol was built by decree of Empress Catherine II as a fortress. It has strategic importance in the Black Sea region as an ice-free port and sea base. Since 2014, according to the Russian Constitution, Sevastopol has been of federal importance, being the main location of the Black Sea Fleet.
In accordance with the Constitution of Ukraine, Sevastopol was endowed with special status. The industrial potential of the “city of Russian sailors” is determined by the local fishing port, fish cannery and plant, Inkerman winery, shipbuilding and ship repair plants. The city of Sevastopol, in addition, is a significant resort center of the southern Black Sea coast, with about 200 sanatoriums and 49 kilometers of beaches.
One of the oldest cities in the world is Kerch, in its place in the 7th century BC. e. the Greeks founded the city of Panticapaeum. Kerch industry is represented by mining, metal processing, shipbuilding, construction, fishing enterprises. The resort towns of Crimea with a population exceeding 100 thousand are Yevpatoriya and Yalta, more than 83 thousand inhabitants in Feodosia. A map of the cities of the Crimean peninsula indicates that most of them are on the coast. The exception is Simferopol, Belogorsk and Dzhankoy.
It should be noted that the existing urban structure of Crimea is historically balanced. Further urbanization of the peninsula is hampered by limited water resources.
The recent past. All-Union Health Resort
Crimea, the Black Sea ... these words were familiar to every Soviet person. How many people rested on the peninsula? It’s hard to find exact statistics. The official figure is 10 million. However, it has been compiled based on data from spa facilities.
At the same time, very significant flows of tourists traveled to the Crimea on their own and organized their holidays themselves. However, they did not fall into official statistics. We are talking about the so-called "savages". One of the authors of Literaturnaya Gazeta in the 60s made a joke about them. He said that this way of relaxation became so popular in the USSR that the press began to use the word "savage" without quotation marks.
In their suitcases lay a map of the Crimean peninsula, and they chose the route and the place of rest themselves ... How to calculate them? To account for the number of citizens resting on their own, an informal "bread" technology was used. The calculation is simple: almost all citizens consume bread daily. On average, 200–250 grams per person per day. The increase in bread consumption in the holiday season and allowed to determine the number of "savages". It turned out impressive statistics: if in 1958 there were about 300 thousand, then in 1988 - 6.2 million people.
Thus, the Soviet Crimea in the holiday season (from May to September) provided its recreational resources for 16 million Soviet people. And if we take into account that the holiday season in Turkey is twice as long, then we come to the conclusion: Crimea in the 80s of the last century provided relaxation for the flow of people commensurate with modern Turkish, though, if we take into account the "savages".
Natural resources
Crimea is endowed with significant deposits of natural gas, oil, mineral salts, and iron ore. Preliminary estimates thus estimate the total volume of gas fields - more than 165 billion m 3 , oil - about 47 million tons, iron ore - more than 1.8 billion tons.
Despite effective mining, the Crimean Peninsula, according to experts, has much greater potential due to its unique natural resources, promising for creating a year-round base of international medical rehabilitation there.
Their fullest use is a strategic task for the entire economy of Crimea.
This peninsula is original and able to surprise. On 5.8% of its territory there are objects and lands related to conservation funds.
The freshwater reserves of Crimea are the subject of many discussions. Although the map of the Crimean peninsula shows the presence of 257 local rivers, the largest of which are Alma, Belbek, Kacha, Salgir, but almost all of them have limited food from the mountains and dry up in the summer. 120 Crimean rivers - no longer than 10 km, it is more likely mountain streams than rivers. The longest is Salgir (204 km).
There are many lakes on the peninsula, more than 80. However, these water bodies of marine origin, they are lifeless due to the high salinity of the water. Such lakes do not contribute to the development of agriculture, oppressing the soil.
On the one hand, the region’s significant climatic agricultural potential, and on the other hand, insufficient water, determined the need for human intervention in this imbalance. Crucial for water supply is the North Crimean Canal, which supplies Dnieper water to the peninsula. Its volume in 2003 amounted to 83.5% of the total water supply in Crimea.
Thus, the artificial construction of the three stages of the canal compensated for water shortages, which objectively could not be provided by either the rivers of the Crimean peninsula or its lakes. By the way, the share of rivers in the region’s water supply is only 9.5%.
The steppe part of Crimea extracts drinking water from artesian pools. Its specific gravity is also low - 6.6% of the total. Although they produce clean, high-quality water from wells.
Statistics show that per inhabitant of the Crimea there is an average daily volume of water 4.7 times less than for a resident of the middle lane. In addition, the cost of water in Crimea is also traditionally higher.
Flora of Crimea
If arable lands lie in the center and in the north of the peninsula, then in the mountains there is a riot of pristine flora. There, to the delight of specialists, 240 species of unique, endemic plants grow. The northern slopes of the Crimean mountains are covered with dense deciduous forest, oak groves grow below, oak and hornbeam grow above. The southern slopes of the mountains are covered with pine forests. Among conifers - endemic Crimean pine.
The nature of the Crimean peninsula is extremely favorable for creating cultivated arboretums of the southern coast, numbering hundreds and thousands of plants harmoniously planted by specialists. If wild vegetation is represented by shrubbery (shiblak), then cultivated coastal parks are man-made pearls of this ancient land. A special place among them belongs to the oldest Nikitsky Botanical Garden, which presents plants from all over the world to tourists. However, the Massandra, Livadia, Foros, Vorontsov parks also possess masterpiece dendrological collections of hundreds of plants. And this is far from a complete list of Crimean dendrological plantations.
History. Ancient world
The history of Crimea is attractive and eventful. Its territory has long attracted conquerors. One of the original inhabitants, the Cimmerians, who lived back in the XII century, was supplanted by the Scythians. Other indigenous people, Taurus, who lived in the foothills and mountains, assimilated with the conquerors. Crimea became a part of the Scythian state.
In the V century BC e. the Greeks used the Crimean peninsula to establish their colony cities on the southern coast (Taurica, as they called it) of Khersones, Kafa, Panticapaeum. At this stage, it was not about the statehood of the peninsula, but rather about the Greek colonization of the coast. At the same time, the Scythians owned the steppes.
Recall that Crimea is also called the cradle of Russian Orthodoxy. It is here, on the land of Chersonesos, in the 1st century BC. e. Apostle Andrew the First-called landed, preaching to the Taurus and Scythians.
63 g. e. It was marked by the annexation of Crimea by the Roman Empire, which took control of the cities built by the Greeks. After the fall of this mighty power, the peninsula was subjected to several attacks. In the III century AD e. Crimeans were conquered by natives of Scandinavia - Goths, and in the 4th century BC e. they were replaced by later aggressors - the Huns, nomads from Asia.
Since the 6th century, Turkic tribes dominated the Crimean steppes, forming the Khazar Khaganate. We recall this fact again in this article.
Crimean city-colonies on the coast came under the jurisdiction of the heiress of Rome - Byzantium. Chersonesus strengthens by the Byzantines, new fortresses grow: Alushta, Gurzuf, Eski-Kermen, Inkerman and others. With the weakening of Byzantium on the coast, the Genoese form the Principality of Theodoro.
Middle Ages
Christianity developed on the peninsula and in the Middle Ages. In Chersonese, holy Prince Vladimir was baptized, subsequently spreading the Christian faith throughout Russia.
Since the eighth century e. Slavic colonization took place in the steppe part of the peninsula, which had a time-limited character, since the attention of Kievan Rus was given priority to the western borders, and the nomads conducted an active and aggressive policy of raids.
In the XII century, the Crimean peninsula becomes Polovtsian. This era is illustrated by individual Polovtsian names that have remained to our time: Ayu-Dag ("Bear Mountain"), Artek (name of the son of the Polovtsian khan).
After the conquest of the entire peninsula, including the Principality of Theodoro, in the 13th century the Tatar-Mongols became the center of the city of Solkhat (located on the territory of the modern small town of Old Crimea.). The peninsula is part of the huge Tatar-Mongolian state of the Golden Horde.
New story
At a time when peoples finally became sedentary and nations began to form, the indigenous nation of the peninsula - the Crimean Tatars - formed. In 1475, the peninsula was conquered by the Ottoman Empire, and Kafa became the capital of Crimea. The Turkish state of Porta became an ally of the Crimean Tatars, who were vassally dependent on it. The Ottoman Empire built its military bridgeheads on the peninsula. At Perekop, the conquerors erected the strategic fortress of Or-Kalu.
The history of the Crimean peninsula of modern times (it dates back to the Renaissance) is associated with the wars of Russia against the Crimean Khanate. In particular, in 1736 the army of Christopher Antonovich Minich, and in 1737 the army of Peter Petrovich Lassia, it was significantly weakened. Khan Kırım Gerai, politically trying to create an alliance with Western states, suddenly died in 1769.
The Second Army under the command of General-General Chef Vasily Mikhailovich Dolgorukov during the Russo-Turkish War on June 14, 1770 and July 29, 1770 won two strategic victories over the Crimean Tatars: on the Perekop line and at Cafe. The statehood of the indigenous inhabitants of this region was lost. A map of the Crimean peninsula since 1783, instead of the Crimean Khanate, depicted the Tauride province belonging to Russia.
Century scam. Crimean California
In the XX century, already in Soviet times, this region became the object of ambiguous geopolitics. 10/18/1921 the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was formed here - a component of the RSFSR.
Meanwhile, the Soviet government faced the problem of the development of the region. If the Black Sea coast of Crimea turned out to be quite densely populated, then this could not be said about its steppe part. In the Crimean steppe, obviously there were not enough human resources. The idea arose of creating Jewish agricultural settlements to turn the semi-desert steppes into cultivated lands. The history of the Crimean peninsula, as we see, had an alternative development perspective.
In 1922, the Jewish international organization “Joint” turned to the Soviet government with a favorable offer. She made a commitment to invest in agriculture on 375 thousand hectares of the Crimean peninsula, and for this the RSFSR, respectively, proposed realizing the long-standing dream of Jews looking for the promised land - to found a Jewish ASSR here.
This proposal had historical roots. In the 8th – 10th centuries, the Khazar Khaganate, which existed on the territory of the peninsula, professed Judaism.
A separate committee was created at the CEC of the USSR under the Council of Nationalities for the land employment of Jews. The committee developed a 10-year plan for the deployment of up to 300 thousand Jewish immigrants in the steppe of Crimea.
02/19/1929 between the Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR and "Joint" an agreement was signed on the development of the Crimean lands. In the world, this project is better known under the name "Crimean California." For its implementation, an international Jewish organization issued securities worth $ 20 million, bought by US and European private capital. A total of $ 26 million (at the current rate of approximately $ 1.82 billion) of investments went through the Agro-Joint Bank branch opened in Simferopol.
In 1938, Stalin turned off the project, but the question was raised during the Second World War. The shareholders of the Joint wanted compensation. At the Tehran Conference, they were expressed to Stalin by US President Roosevelt. However, during the Cold War, the dispute was resolved by Secretary General Khrushchev using the “Gordian knot” method. 02/19/1954 the Crimean region was transferred to the Ukrainian SSR from the RSFSR. The contract of the USSR with the Joint lost force: the subject of the dispute did not belong to the RSFSR.
Crimea as part of Ukraine
The territory of Crimea, having become part of the Ukrainian SSR, required significant resources for its development. About 300 thousand people were deported from this region the day before; there were clearly not enough workers. In the fighting of the Great Patriotic War, a significant part of the male population died. Peninsula agriculture alone could not get out of the crisis and reach the pre-war level. Not enough roads.
In 1958, the Ukrainian SSR allocated funds from its budget to lay the world's longest trolleybus route connecting Simferopol with Alushta and Yalta. In 1961-1971, a strategically important artificial canal was also built, irrigating the steppe lands of Crimea due to the water of the Kakhovka reservoir of the Dnieper. Since then, viticulture and gardening began to develop in a planned and progressive manner.
However, after 1991, a dangerous tendency toward recession emerged in the development of agriculture on the peninsula. The reason is the high cost of acquiring modern agricultural technologies for the peasants and the insufficient state support for the agro-culture of this problem region. As a result, the sown area has more than halved and, accordingly, the water supply to the North Crimean Canal has decreased.
Crimea today
The current political crisis in relations between Russia and Ukraine is largely reflected in the economy of the peninsula. Guided by the results of the referendum of the population of Crimea (2014), the RSFSR annexed it to itself as a subject of the federation. Ukraine, for its part, did not recognize the legitimacy of the referendum and considers Crimea annexed.
The imbalance of economic relations generated by the Russian-Ukrainian "trade wars" depresses the economy of the region. The holiday season is actually a failure. Agriculture suffers - due to inconsistency in its water supply. However, the population of the peninsula is waiting for these temporary difficulties to be overcome. The Russian Federation, for its part, is establishing its state infrastructure in Crimea. It is not enough that the map of Russia is replenished with a nominally new republic. The Crimean peninsula is currently going through a difficult path of economic, legal integration into Russian society.
Ukraine and the G7 countries, as already mentioned, did not recognize the legitimacy of the referendum. Hence the difficulties in obtaining the peninsula proper international status. There are also issues related to the position of the Crimean Tatars, that is, the indigenous population.
However, the story goes on, and the population of Crimea, of course, expects federal investment in the economy of its region. In many ways, his choice of statehood was determined by the expectations of the development of the region. What will be the future for a unique peninsula? The question is still open.
Output
What are the prospects for this amazing region? Recall the lessons of history. At a time when one of the last general secretaries of the USSR, Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov, was trying to "strengthen labor discipline" by intensifying control over absenteeism and preventing theft, more constructive processes were taking place in the country located on the other side of the Black Sea ... At that time, the Crimean peninsula had more powerful sanatorium base than Turkey.
In the 80s in Turkey, the international investment process in the resort industry was clearly planned, legally defined and launched by the entire state machine. The country, whose GDP fell by 10% during the global crisis, built a promising new budget revenue item - the resort business. International agreements were reached on a capital investment regime for private investors, equal in rights with residents.
At the same time, foreign investors were not only exempted (partially or fully) from taxes and duties when making capital investments in sanatoriums, but also received the right to unlimited share participation in them. They were also guaranteed a refund and repatriation of capital if the investment “failed.”
Obviously, the Crimean Peninsula should be economically developed in a similar way. Photos of such resorts after such investments will be able to compete with pictures taken in the sanatoriums and water parks of Turkish Antalya.