Novorossiya

"New Russia" redirects here. For other uses, see New Russia (disambiguation).

A map of what was called New Russia during the time of the Russian Empire.

A map of what was called New Russia.

Novorossiya (Russian: Новоро́ссия, Ukrainian: Новоросія; literally New Russia) is a historical term that derived from the initial name of Dnipropetrovsk that became the administrative center of the Government of Novorossiysk and was a colony of the Russian Empire established in the Southern Ukraine after the annexation of the Crimean Khanate and destruction of the Zaporizhian Sich at the end of the 18th century. In the 19th century it was the name of a General Government centered in Odessa.

The area was completely devastated by the Russian Imperial Army and later completely rebuilt. Major Turkish fortresses of Ozu-Cale, Akkerman, Khadzhibei, Kinburn and many others were left in ruins and at their places grew new cities.

History

It started with the establishment of Novorossiysk Governorate administered from Kremenchuk city in the mid 18th century. Historically, the area was known as the Wild Fields for lack of scientific and historical information. It covers roughly the modern territories of southern Ukraine and southern Russia.

The western part of it (between the Dniester and the Dnieper rivers) was known as Dykra in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and subsequently the province of Yedisan, an autonomous region of the Ottoman Empire, and was previously inhabited mostly by ethnic Tatars Nogais who moved in the area during the Golden Horde conquest.

The Russian Empire gradually gained control over the area by peace treaties with Cossack Hetmanate and the Ottoman Empire at the conclusion of the Russo-Turkish Wars of 1735–39, 1768–74, 1787–92 and 1806–12. It also forcefully liquidated the Free lands of Zaporizhian Sich as they became inconvenient for Russian colonization. The colonization of the land at the end of 18th century was led by Prince Grigori Potemkin who was granted the powers of an absolute ruler over the area by Catherine the Great. The lands were generously given to the Russian dvoryanstvo (nobility), and the enserfed peasantry mostly from Ukraine and fewer from Russia were transferred to cultivate what was a sparsely populated steppe. Catherine the Great also invited European settlers to these newly conquered lands: Germans, Poles, Italians, Greeks, Serbs, and others. Over time the people living in eastern regions have developed a more pro-Russian orientation. In the former New Russia, the Russian language is common in cities and some areas outside, while Ukrainian is more prevalent generally in rural areas, smaller towns, and villages. With its history, the ethnic composition varies, including communities of Greeks, Bulgarians, Armenians, Tatars, and many others. In 1922 the region was made a part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic by the Bolsheviks.

In modern terms it encompasses Donetsk Oblast, Luhansk Oblast, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Zaporizhia Oblast, Mykolaiv Oblast, Kherson Oblast, Odessa Oblast and Crimea in Ukraine, Krasnodar Krai, Stavropol Krai, Rostov Oblast, and the Republic of Adygea in Russia.

In the 2006 Ukrainian parliamentary election, the Party of Regions, which often speaks out on behalf of protecting Russian language, gained a majority in the regions of southern Ukraine where the region of Novorossiya used to exist.

List of founded cities

A lot of cities that were founded during the colonial period today are major cities.

First wave

Yelisavetgrad (Kirovohrad) (1754)
Aleksandrovsk (Zaporizhia) (1770)
Yekaterinoslav (Dnipropetrovsk) (1776)
Kherson (1778)
Mariupol (1778)
Sevastopol (1783)
Simferopol (1784)
Melitopol (1784)
Pavlohrad (1784)

Second wave

Nikolaev (Mykolaiv) (1789)
Tiraspol (1792)
Odessa (1794)
Yekaterinodar (Krasnodar) (1794)

Third wave

Berdyansk (1827)
Novorossiysk (1838)

References

External links