Crimea in War and Transformation

Abstract

Crimea in War and Transformation examines the capacity of violence to permanently alter peoples and spaces.The war named for Crimea began as a border dispute between Russia and the Ottoman Empires in 1853, but transferred unexpectedly to Crimea in September 1854 after European Allies joined forces with the Sultan. In the course of one day, belligerent armies doubled the peninsula’s population and pressed the local population into labor. Within one month, ravenous men fell upon orchards like locusts, and slaughtered Crimean livestock. For more than one year, engineering brigades mowed down forests to build barracks. Both sides of the war used scorched earth tactics. At the apex of violence, desperate Russian officials scapegoated Crimea’s native Muslim population, accusing these and other civilians of hoarding food and collaborating with the enemy. Before humanitarian impulses prevailed, officials initiated a deadly deportation, forcing thousands of Tatars from their homes.