Ethnic Cultural Codes in the Visual Semiosis of Crimea

The Soviet and Russian cultural critic and semiotic Yuri Mikhailovich Lotman (1922-1993) defined art – the language of images as one of the main forms of the embodiment of culture: "Art is a form of thinking, without which human consciousness does not exist" ^[13]. A visual manifestation of the uniqueness of the cultural area of the Crimea is folk decorative and applied art, which reflects the ancient elements of theology and folklore of each ethnic group, embodied in pictorial symbols ^[4]. A sign, a visual symbol is an archaic foundation in which the foundations of the culture of any ethnic group, its beliefs, traditions and main activities are laid. 

At present, in the period of universal globalization and the erasure of the facets of identity associated with active interaction through modern means of communication, the development of ethnic cultures both in multinational Russia and in the world as a whole is facing a number of problems. On the one hand, it is the problem of preserving identity and further development of national traditions concerning religion, language, folk art, and on the other – the problem of tolerance, constructive dialogue and interaction between representatives of different peoples, aimed not at the destruction of society due to ethnic differences, but at the creation and development of a modern society and state based on unity. the principles of humanistic morality, in which each ethnic group gets the opportunity for its own development.

 Ethnic culture is an integral phenomenon, the diversity of which is manifested both verbally, through language, and through auditory and audio-visual perception in folk religious and ritual practice, music, song, dance. One of the most visible and characteristic manifestations of folk culture is the visual embodiment of the traditional figurative and symbolic series through decorative and applied art.  The central problem in this context is the study of the peculiarities of each of the ethnocultures, the appearance of common features in the process of cultural interaction, the search for both common cultural origins and unique identity features of each ethnic group.

For many centuries, Crimea has been a crossroads of national cultures, the way "from the Varangians to the Greeks", the center of the intersection of cultures of the East and West. The uniqueness of the Crimean cultural ecumene is a synthesis of languages, traditions, theosophical views introduced by each of the ethnic groups during their migration. The peoples whose cultures have become milestones in the formation of the Crimean cultural landscape can be conditionally attributed to three groups. The first group includes ancient and non-existent ethnic groups that disappeared as a result of wars, or dissolved in the subsequent Crimean ethnic environment: Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans, Khazars, Pechenegs, Polovtsians, Goths, Huns, etc. The second, the most numerous group, includes peoples who have an ancestral territory, for some of whom Crimea later became a new homeland: these include, first of all, the Greeks, who appeared in antiquity, Italians (Genoese) and Armenians, whose periodization of the Crimean stage of culture dates back to the Middle Ages, as well as numerous peoples of Russia, Western and Eastern Europe – Russians, Ukrainians, Germans, Bulgarians, Czechs, Jews, Poles, Estonians, etc. – as a result of political and social migrations in Modern and Modern times, primarily in connection with the decrees of Catherine II and the development of the Crimea by the Russian Empire through external and internal colonization. As a third group of peoples, old-time ethnic groups that have no homeland other than the Crimea can be distinguished: Crimean Tatars, Crimean Gypsies (Krymurya), Karaites and Krymchaks. This distinction is conditional: the variegated diversity of the cultural landscape of Crimea has been formed over the centuries, each ethnic group, on the one hand, has contributed to the general Crimean culture, and on the other, the Crimean land has become the place of a new formation of the identity of each people ^[15].

The famous Russian culturologist and sociologist Nikolai Yakovlevich Danilevsky (1822-1885) in his program work "Russia and Europe" (1869) deduced a number of "cultural and historical types", one of the most important categories defining which is religion. "Religion is the moral basis of any activity" [Danilevsky, Russia and Europe, p. 157], "Religion is the predominant interest for the people at all times of their life" ^{[6, p. 225]}, "Religion was the most essential, dominant (almost exclusively) content of ancient (...) life, and (...) it also contains the prevailing spiritual interest of ordinary (...) people" ^{[6, p. 577]}. Ethnic identity, therefore, was based historically (before the globalization of the twentieth century), primarily on religious dogmas. This thesis is also confirmed by other ethnographers, in particular, V. V. Stasov.

Visual semiosis is a subsection of semiotics, a science that analyzes sign systems and their connections. Visual semiosis is an important component of art, ranging from historical and ethnic to modern: fine and decorative arts, theater, cinema, ballet, television, Internet resources. In each of these types of communication, visual signs and allegorical (symbolic or allegorical) reading of certain visual elements that make up the texts of ethnic, historical and modern cultures are important ^[7].

The main functions of sign systems include: a) the transmission of a message or the expression of meaning; b) communication, human interaction, emotional impact. The implementation of these functions requires the presence of certain sign systems and the laws of their application. In accordance with this, there are three main sections of semiotics: 1) syntactics, which studies the internal structure of a sign system; 2) semantics, the subject of which is the meaning of signs; 3) pragmatics, which studies groups of people using certain sign systems.

Semiotics, as a philosophical trend, emerged at the end of the XIX century, simultaneously developing in two directions: semiology and pragmatics. The foundations of semiological research are contained in the works of the Swiss philosopher, linguist and semiotic Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913), who dealt with the semiotics of a linguistic sign and derived the concept of a "two-sided sign" consisting of a signifier (word) and a signified (form value) ^[18].  The connection of the signifier and the signified, according to Saussure, is conditional: the meanings of the sign may differ for different groups of people.

The founder of pragmatics was the American philosopher, mathematician and logician Charles Sanders Pierce (1839-1914), who considered signs (both artificial, for example, letters, and natural, for example, psychological reactions) from the point of view of logic. The scientist believed that the whole universe consists of signs, the decoding of which lends itself to logic. In other words, a sign can be called anything that means (for a certain person or group of people) a certain object. At the same time, Pierce called symbols signs that do not outwardly resemble the signified object, but have an arbitrary ratio adopted by a certain group of people ^[16].

The Belgian Association of Semiotic Authors Mu (transcription of the Greek letter ?) (founded in 1967), operating at the University of Liege, in the 70s– 80s, developed the structure of semiotics, according to which signs function on three levels: iconic, symbolic or index.

Italian philosopher, cultural theorist, specialist in semiotics and medieval aesthetics, writer Umberto Eco (1932 – 2016), relying in his research on the development of the concept of the sign of Ch. Pierce, developed the concept of a sign and a set of signs to codes that mean not a specific, but a generalized object. In his work on the theory of semiotics, published in 1976, U. Eco called a message transmitted by a sign or a series of signs a text.

One of the main goals of cultural science is to characterize the multidimensional essence of culture, the laws of its dynamics, the characteristics of the types and forms of its manifestation. Among these forms, a special place is occupied by national and ethnic self-identification in the process of philo- and ontogenesis, including moral and ethical, religious, aesthetic norms, features of the semiotic components of the culture of each ethnic group ^{[3, p. 6]}.

This issue becomes especially relevant at the turn of centuries and millennia, when, on the one hand, it is a question of preserving the "idea of culture" against the background of universal globalization, and, on the other, when there is a "clash of civilizations", national identity ^{[3, p. 4-6]}.

The founder of German classical philosophy Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) puts forward theses on the need to create a civil society, which determines the regularity of moral improvement of people who are different in their upbringing, abilities, and social status in his philosophical treatises. The idea of the "morality" of man and society becomes, in his opinion, the highest manifestation of human culture.

The ideas of the cultural unity of mankind were put forward by the outstanding academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, philologist, cultural critic and art critic Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev (1906-1999), who called culture a "home", an "organic whole", the concept of which includes everything that is created by man. ^{[12, p. 91]}.

Introducing the term ecology of culture into the scientific thesaurus, D. S. Likhachev put into it the idea of preserving the socio-cultural space by recognizing the intrinsic value of all its constituent types of culture, in particular, ethnic ones. These ideas follow from his "moral postulates", in particular, about interethnic tolerance: "Morality is what turns the "population" into an orderly society, humbles national enmity, forces the "big" nations to take into account and respect the interests of the "small" (or rather, the small)" ^{[12, p. 94]}.

The ideas of cultural unity, integrity, based not on synthetism, but on the interaction and integration of unique cultural subjects: ethnoses and civilizations, despite the isolation of individual "cultural and historical types", are contained in the work of the Russian culturologist and sociologist, one of the founders of the civilizational approach to history, Nikolai Yakovlevich Danilevsky (1882-1885): "Russia and Europe: A Look at the cultural and political relations of the Slavic world to the Germanic-Romance" ^[6]. Danilevsky called the cultural-historical type or civilization the totality of science, art, religion, political, civil, economic and social development of groups of ethnic groups in a certain territory, the main parameter of the association of which is the kinship of languages. Among the laws of the development of cultural and historical types put forward by the author, the following statement is contained: "A civilization peculiar to each cultural and historical type only reaches completeness, diversity and richness when the ethnographic elements that make up it are diverse - when they, without being absorbed into one political whole, using independence, form a federation or a political the system of states" ^{[6, p. 113]}.

Historically, from ancient times to the present, Crimea has been a multi-ethnic region, on the territory of which, due to constant migrations, the interaction of individual national cultures takes place, the formation of a special ethno-cultural field consisting of codes of many different cultures. "Crimea is a multicultural space, irreducible to one foundation, to ethnic one–dimensionality" ^{[3, p. 12]}. The history of Crimea, due to its geographical location on the way from East to West, the intersection of trade routes, has been associated since ancient times with numerous migrations of constantly changing ethnic groups, some of which disappeared, dissolved in the subsequent process of assimilation, the culture of others has been preserved, influenced by integration, in one form or another, however, each ethnic group or an ethnic group, even one that has completely disappeared, has left its mark on the culture of Crimea. Thus, an unconditional role in the formation of Crimean cultural texts (both mythological component and visual symbolism) belongs to the ancient cultures that replace each other: Cimmerians, Taurians, Alans; cultures that appeared in the Crimea in the era of antiquity: Scythians (Tavroskifs), Greeks, Jews, Sarmatians, Goths ^[9]; ethnoses that came or formed on the territory of Crimea in the Middle Ages: Armenians, Crimean Tatars, Turks, Karaites, Crimeans ^[8], Italians (Genoese); numerous peoples who came to Crimea in Modern Times, thanks to the development of the Crimean lands by the Russian Empire: first of all, Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, as well as peoples of Western and Eastern Europe: Moldovans, Germans, Czechs, Bulgarians, Ashkenazi Jews, Baltic peoples, etc. ^[15].

The large influx of carriers of various ethnic cultures to Crimea influenced the revival of crafts, brought a great variety both to the architectural environment and to the traditions of decorative and applied art, however, the main influence should be considered the traditional European Baroque in Russia (in decorative items), classicism and Rococo, as well as the introduction of Arabic elements from the East, and at the beginning of the twentieth century – the spread of the Art Nouveau style, in which ethnic ornamental elements and images, traditional for the Crimean decor, organically fit in.

Russian philosopher and political scientist Oleg Arshavirovich Gabrielyan (born 1956), considers the main characteristic of Crimea to be its autonomy, due not only to the peninsular nature of the place – topos, but also its inner essence, idea, stable structure of being – logos. Citing historical examples that testify to the logic of the autonomy of Crimea, O. A. Gabrielyan notes that the ontological essence of Crimea is polytextual, "this ecumene with its diversity of cultural worlds has given rise to various Crimean "texts": literary, architectural, toponymic, demographic and many others" ^{[3, p. 21]}. At the same time, the author emphasizes that none of these texts concerning both large cultural entities (Scythian, Crimean Tatar, Russian) and more modest ones (Greek, Jewish, Armenian, Bulgarian, German, etc.) has become the dominant cause of universal assimilation.

Based on the theory of French structuralists, Y. M. Lotman put forward the theory of the semiosphere – a closed space consisting of separate cultural layers and texts expressed through symbols. According to Lotman, the semiosphere is distinguished by the existence of a continuum of different texts within common borders, however, these internal texts are either related or understandable from each other's point of view, unlike external texts, which require an additional translation mechanism. Thus, the internal diversity and heterogeneity of the semiosphere content constitute its unique integrity. Yu. M. Lotman also points to the algorithm for the formation of new texts within the semiosphere, which requires, on the one hand, some similarity of the original cultural codes, and on the other, certain differences between them. From this point of view, the cultures of the Crimean Tatars, Karaites and Krymchaks, as part of the Crimean semiosis, are very characteristic examples of such interaction.

O. A. Gabrielyan points out an important aspect of the development of the Crimean culture – the Crimean semiosis, i.e. the process of interpreting a sign or the process of generating meaning, indicating the development of numerous cultures on a single territory in conditions of autonomy. The origin of the term "semiosis" meaning "interpretation of symptoms" goes back to ancient Greek physiologists who used it to make a diagnosis. Thus, the analysis of the components of the Crimean culture allows us to conclude about the essential ontological feature of the Crimea – its isolation.

At the same time, the idea of cultural unity in a multinational society is impossible without a productive ethno-cultural dialogue, which in turn forms a unique semiotic space of the multinational Crimea. According to the Russian philosopher and culturologist D. S. Berestovskaya (1934-2020): "Spiritual comprehension of the essence of other cultural worlds, carriers of other cultural values, comprehension of the "codes" of diverse pictures of the world, cultural texts is the basis of mutual understanding, dialogue and polylogue of cultures" ^{[3, p. 12]}.

The formation of Crimean cultural texts was undoubtedly influenced by state entities that were fully or partially located on the territory of Crimea, and prompted certain integration processes among the ethnic groups that inhabited them. The codes of these cultures can be traced in the symbolism of images for a long time. The earliest of them is the Bosporan Kingdom (late V century BC–VI century AD), which included the cities of Myrmekium, Tiritaka, Nymphaeum, Ilurat, Feodosia, with its capital in Pantikapei (Kerch), which is characterized by the synthesis of Greek (Ionian) and "Barbarian" (ScythianSarmatian) cultures, in particular, the interweaving of mythology. Numerous objects of decorative and applied art became a vivid representation of this process: painted art ceramics, metal art products, bone and wood carvings, wall paintings.

The visual repertoire of the Bosporan masters included both codes of ancient Ionian myths, among which the cult of Apollo stood out, and images representing local cults, in particular, images of the "Great Mother of the Gods", the mistress of animals, whose names "Aphrodite Apatura" or "Artemis Agrotera" are evidence of the partial Hellenization of this Asia Minor cult. At the same time, the Scythian-Sarmatian code, linking with the Greek code in the decor and ornament, remains stable. So, in particular, the images of the Scythian "animal style", spiral Sarmatian "snails", polychromy in metal continue to be relevant for many centuries, subsequently becoming part of the repertoire of the ethnonational art of the Crimean Tatars, Karaites and Crimeans. The codes of the Bosporus culture, in particular, visual-figurative, had a significant impact on the formation of a multidimensional "Crimean style" in architecture and decorative and applied arts.

The second major center of Hellenic culture in the Crimea was the city-state of Chersonesos (V–IV century BC–V century AD (transition to the rule of Byzantium), whose culture, despite external influences, is distinguished by the preservation of Greek mainland cultural codes concerning both the system of governance – democracy, which has been preserved for a long time, and and religious and mythological representations corresponding to the Greek cult of the pantheon of gods. At the same time, in mythology, only the Chersonesites owned a unique cult of the goddess Parthenos (Virgo). The most important cultural center in Chersonesos was the theater, combining poetry, mythology and the spectacular art of acting reincarnation. The extant works of decorative, applied and monumental art of Chersonesos testify to the high artistic and aesthetic level of the masters, at the same time, it is impossible not to notice in them some influence of the stylistics of local (Scythian-Sarmatian) art, however, to a lesser extent than it is observed in Bosporan artifacts.

The legacy of the state formations that existed on the territory of the peninsula is very uneven in scale and subsequent influence on the formation of the cultural landscape of the Crimea, for example, the Khazar Khaganate, of which the steppe regions of the Crimea and the Kerch Peninsula (late VII-X centuries) were part, formed by nomads whose ruling elite adopted Judaism, did not leave in history any significant trace.

The most important role in the formation of the cultural landscape of the Crimea was played by the Crimean ulus of the Golden Horde (Con. XIII–beginning. XV century.), during the existence of which the ethnic component has changed. In the XIII century, along with the Greeks, Slavs, Jews, Armenians, Alans, Goths and Kipchaks, Seljuks Turks appeared in Crimea, bringing to the peninsula a style of decoration called the Seljuq code, which was widely spread later and for many centuries became a kind of "calling card" of Crimean art. The appearance of Islam in Crimea dates back to the XIII century, the influence of which was observed both from the east, from the Volga basin and Central Asia, and from the south, from the territory of Asia Minor.  Solkhat (Old Crimea) becomes the cradle of Islam, where several mosques and madrassas were built. The appearance of Karaites and Krymchaks in Crimea also dates back to this time. During this period, crafts and decorative and applied arts flourished, represented by numerous works of metal (including jewelry), stone and wood carving, artistic sewing, artistic leather dressing. Ties with the Muslim world in the Golden Horde period were also expressed in the appearance in Crimea of facade decoration with glazed ceramic tiles, the development of fine patterned ceramic painting.

The influence of Islam is expressed in the almost complete disappearance or strong stylization of zoomorphic and anthropomorphic images, and the transition to phytomorphic and geometric ornaments. Also during this period, the principles and codes of Arabic calligraphy (in a handwritten book, the decoration of tombstones and some facades) and ornaments are converging. It was the Arabic inscriptions that were the first sign of the influence of Muslim visual culture in the Crimea.

This period also includes the appearance of the Little Asian Seljuk style in Crimea, introduced by the Seljuk Turks and Armenians to the Crimea and subsequently spread widely throughout its territory, regardless of religious affiliation. Characteristic Seljuk "chains", geometrization with the use of a "mesh" structure, multi-profile rosettes decorated both Christian churches and mosques, kenas (prayer houses of Karaites) and kaals (prayer houses of Crimeans), as well as tombstones, and this tradition was stable and subsequently, already in the twentieth century, was perceived as part of the "Crimean style" of architectural decoration and decorative and applied art. N. M. Akchurina-Muftieva notes: "Crimea has become a kind of reserve of the Seljuk style… Many ornaments have been so organically incorporated into the art of the peninsula over the centuries that they began to be perceived here as their own, existing since ancient times" ^{[2, p. 57]}. E. A. Aybabina points to the use of a continuous "carpet" principle of plant pattern, with inscribed inscriptions, characteristic of Armenian architecture of the XII–XIII centuries, in the Crimean decor of tympans arches, platbands of portals and window openings, side planes of tombstones. Such plant ornamentation was extremely popular in the XIII – XIV centuries in Transcaucasia, especially in Armenia, and in Seljuk Asia Minor, from where it came to Solkhat (Old Crimea) ^{[1, p. 25]}.

Genoese colonies (trading posts) on the Southern and Eastern shores of the Crimea (Con. XIII–Con. XV century.), were founded by Italian Catholic merchants. The centers of Genoese life were Kafa (Feodosia), Cembalo (Balaklava), Soldaia (Sudak), as well as a number of cities in the Northern Black Sea region outside the Crimean Peninsula. Due to the active trade, the population of these cities was distinguished by ethnic diversity: it consisted of Latins, Genoese, Ligurians, Greeks, Armenians, Tatars, Russians, Georgians, Jews, Karaites, Arabs, Persians, etc. The developed trade contributed to the spread of decorative and applied art objects, among which there are ceramic samples with realistic portrait images, reliefs and frescoes representing Christian symbols - crosses, images of saints, images of symbolic animals ^[17].

The Principality of Feodoro with its capital Mangup, which occupied part of the mountainous Crimea and the territory of the southern coast from Chembalo (Balaklava) to Aluston (Alushta) in the XIV–XV centuries, left a significant mark in history and influenced the further development of the artistic culture of the peninsula. The population of the principality consisted mainly of Crimean Goths, Greeks, Alans who professed Orthodoxy, Armenians, as well as Crimeans and Karaites. Based on the artifacts that have come down to us, containing pictorial symbols, including architectural elements and samples of stone-cutting art, as well as decorative sewing, metal art products, painted ceramics, etc., Feodoro's pictorial repertoire is a unique synthesis of Christian and Asia Minor cultural codes. Christian (Byzantine) ones include both iconographic images of saints and early Christian symbols of the cross, fish, bowls, etc. The famous Seljuk style was also a stable feature of Feodoro's decor ^[14].

A unifying role in the development and integration of cultures of various ethnic groups on the territory of the Crimean Peninsula was played by large empires, of which it became a part in different periods. So, in the I–III century. The Crimean peninsula was under the protectorate of the Roman Empire. The centers of Roman culture in the Crimea were located in Chersonesos, on the territory of modern Balaklava and on Cape Ai-Todor, where the Roman fortress Charax was located. The archaeological evidence of the presence of Rome on the Crimean peninsula includes the remains of a water pipe for the baths of the Roman garrison, the Chersonese theater rebuilt for gladiatorial fights, a Roman temple in Balaclava with inscriptions-dedications on the altars to Jupiter Dolichen, Hercules and Vulcan. The Roman legionaries built the Kalend Trail, a road connecting the fortress of Charax with Chersonesos. The culture of Rome in Crimea was also manifested in the appearance of statues of emperors equated with gods, as well as the minting of coins with their recognizable portraits endowed with individual features. Thus, samples of an individual physiognomic portrait also belong to the Roman period on the territory of Crimea. The time of Rome refers to the emergence in the Crimean cities of the production of glass, polychrome tableware, as well as the production of mosaic smalt, thanks to which the art of mosaic was developed and improved, the material for which was previously multicolored pebbles.

However, due to the remoteness from the center of Rome and the short stay under its protectorate, the culture of the Crimea did not experience significant Roman influence.

In the V–XII century. Crimea became an outpost of the Byzantine Empire in the Northern Black Sea region. The traditions of Byzantium largely influenced the formation of the culture of the Crimean peoples, the flourishing of crafts and the formation of the all-Crimean style. The centers of Byzantine culture in Crimea were Bosporus (renamed Pantikapei), Kherson (renamed Chersonese), the fortified Gothic settlement of Mangup, as well as Byzantine fortresses on the southern coast of Crimea, on the site of modern Alushta and Gurzuf.

The most important difference of the Byzantine presence in Crimea was the adoption of Christianity, and the spread of Christian culture and art, in particular, the formation of iconographic traditions that influenced the development of the style of Crimean decorative and applied art. Unconditional continuity from the ancient era is also observed in the development of crafts, in particular, there is a proliferation of mosaics, frescoes, stone-carving relief, artistic metalworking, painted ceramics, artistic sewing. A special feature of the Byzantine era was the widespread use of gilding, found in metal, mosaic, sewing.

 Along with the iconographic elements in the Crimean pictorial tradition of the Byzantine period, there is the presence of the Gothic code, as well as the penetration of the eastern Asian-Syrian code, which later became part of the all-Crimean style.

In the middle of the XV century, after the collapse of the Golden Horde into separate khanates, the Crimean Khanate, after a short period of independence, became a vassal of the Ottoman Porte, i.e. part of the Ottoman Empire (from 1475 to 1779). The Muslim culture of the Crimean Tatars was the main one in the Crimean Khanate, (with the predominance of the Turkic component of Islam), however, the share of the non-Muslim population (Greeks, Armenians, Turks, Karaites, Crimeans) was also quite high ^[19].

In the XVII–XVIII century. in the Crimean Khanate there is a cultural upsurge, history, philosophy, poetry, astrology, architecture are developing. Trade relations and related ethnic migration influenced the spread of traditions of various peoples in the art of the Crimean Khanate, which was experiencing a flourishing era. Among the crafts, lush stone carvings of tombstones, portals and mihrabs with a floral theme of ornament spread. Similar ornamentation was characteristic of artistic metal and embroidery, and faience painting. In general, this era is characterized by a "luxurious style", distinguished by a kind of synthesis of the "hatai" style (lush, almost realistic plant elements close to the Western European Baroque code), and Seljuk motifs.

During the Crimean Khanate, the influence of the Ottoman code of culture on the urban life of not only Crimean Tatars, but also other residents of Crimea, in particular, Karaites, Crimeans, Greeks, Armenians, is observed, as a result of which the external boundaries of differences in ethnic material culture are largely erased. There is also an influence of Western European trends in architecture and art, associated with both trade and the work of invited masters in the Crimea. So, in particular, the work in the Crimea at the beginning of the XVI century by the famous Italian architect Aleviz Novy brought Renaissance traditions to decorative and applied art. The style of Western European Baroque flowed into the Crimea in the XVII and XVIII centuries. in connection with the relationship of the Crimean khans with Western European countries, mainly with France and Italy. In general, it can be stated that, despite some eclecticism of the decorative art of the Crimean Khanate period, it retained at the same time a unique local flavor based on the centuries-old cultural traditions of the region.

Since 1783, the Crimea became part of the Russian Empire, the Taurida region of the Novorossiysk province was formed under the leadership of Governor-General G. A. Potemkin. The administrative center of the province was the city of Simferopol, founded in 1784 near the settlement of Akmesdzhit. The coat of arms of the Tauride region depicted a double-headed eagle and a cross as a symbol of the origins of the baptism of Rus in Chersonesos.

An important role in the economic development of the region was the migration policy introduced by Ekaterina, when, under the leadership of G. A. Potemkin, large groups of the population were resettled from the mainland to the Crimea for the purpose of land development, among which were retired soldiers with families, Old Believers, Greeks, Poles, Bulgarians, Italians, Romanians, etc. Thanks to the benefits provided by the government Ashkenazi Jews, Germans, representatives of various religious trends and sects, state peasants also moved to the Crimea. This process was called "internal and external colonization".

In the XIX century, the development of the Crimea continued. The development of the peninsula's economy was influenced by the construction of the road to Yalta (1824-1826), the construction of the railway (1874), and the development of the Tauride province as a resort, which began in the second half, was of absolute importance. XIX century., which entailed the general cultural development of the Crimea: the expansion and improvement of the cities of Simferopol as an administrative center, as well as Sevastopol, Yevpatoria, Yalta, Feodosia, etc., the opening of numerous schools and gymnasiums, the construction of public buildings – hospitals, sanatoriums, theaters, libraries, as well as widely developing private construction palaces, dachas (villas) royal and noble nobility.

The large influx of carriers of various ethnic cultures to Crimea influenced the revival of crafts, brought a great variety both to the architectural environment and to the traditions of decorative and applied art, however, the main one should be considered the influence of European Baroque (in decorative items), classicism and Rococo, which has become traditional in Russia, as well as the introduction of Arabic elements from the East, and at the beginning of the twentieth century – the spread of the Art Nouveau style, in which ethnic elements, traditional for the Crimean decor, organically fit in.

In the period of the late XIX – early XX century. in Western and Eastern Europe, as well as in Russia, the Art Nouveau style was widely spread. Modern architecture as a whole is characterized by stylistic eclecticism, the presence of curved forms of pediments, silhouettes, stucco, an abundance of decor in the interior and exterior. In Crimea, Art Nouveau architecture has absorbed the diverse codes and ethnic traditions of the peoples who have lived on the territory of the peninsula since ancient times ^[10].

Later, the traditions of Art Nouveau organically merged into the style of postmodern buildings, however, postmodern did not make any significant changes to the architecture of the Crimea. It should be said that in Crimea during this period, the construction was mainly subordinated to the general southern palace style, with its predominantly white or light beige buildings standing out in contrasting silhouettes against the blue sky. If we talk about the general proportions of Crimean buildings, they are generally close to classicism, but they look more elegant due to the color contrast and stucco.

The Art Nouveau style and the postmodern style that follows it in terms of architectural elements are characterized by the presence of a large number of borrowings from previous codes: this is the antique order system; spires, lancet windows and buttresses of Gothic; aqueducts and Renaissance patios; Baroque sculptural reliefs; Rococo openwork stucco; elements of Oriental architectural styles, for example, the Asia Minor Seljuk style, etc. In fact, the architectural structures of modernity were a kind of mosaic, an eclecticism of codes, while each architect created his own unique work from previously existing elements of historical styles ^[11].

As for the Crimea, the most common borrowing in modern architecture were elements of the Rococo palace code, as well as elements of national codes, of which the Seljuk code became especially common. Many Art Nouveau buildings in Crimea were oriented to the existing style of the south-coast palaces of the royal family and nobility, where the "official" rococo style was complemented by local ethno-national flavor (for example, the Livadia Imperial Palace of Alexander II, the palace "Dulber" of Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich (the architect of both palaces was N. P. Krasnov). Such a synthesis of the codes of ancient classicism, Rococo and Seljuk motifs becomes a kind of visiting card of the Crimean buildings of the modern and postmodern period. It is worth noting the huge role of the works of the imperial "architect of the highest court" Nikolai Petrovich Krasnov (who built not only palaces in the Crimea, but also a bank building, a cinema, apartment buildings, private mansions) in the formation of the subsequent stylistics of modern and postmodern in the Crimea ^[3].

Since Crimea in its historical development has always been distinguished by ethnic diversity, there are a great many such codes on its territory. Moreover, some of these codes are unique and inherent in the Crimea (such as, for example, the images of the ancient vase painting of the polises of the Northern Black Sea region, which traces the synthesis of Greek and Scythian-Sarmatian styles, as well as symbolism).

In the architectural decor of modernity (and postmodern), one can trace a fairly large number of symbols borrowed from ethnic cultures, which was connected not only with the concept of modernity as eclecticism, but also with the task of architects to show the unique face of the customer, including his belonging to a certain national culture, or his personal taste preferences in relation to or a different style. For example, in the decor of the villa "Victoria" in Theodosius Solomon Samuilovich of Crimea, its architect N. P. Krasnov used Jewish (Karaite) symbols: the image of a lion symbolizing the biblical family of Judah, an eagle – a symbol of power, a six–pointed star - a symbol of the seal of David and Solomon, etc. ^[11].

The stylistics and symbolic number of elements of mansions and public buildings of modernity were also influenced by the architecture of temples and prayer houses, so, in particular, in the mansion of Y. M. Gelelovich in Yevpatoria, architect A. L. Heinrich applied elements of the Moorish mudekhar style (which was typical for the prayer houses of the Jews of the Crimea). Many other structures were built in the Moorish key, for example, the already mentioned Dulber Palace, the Golden Calf National Bank (architect N. P. Krasnov), the Choral Synagogue in Simferopol, etc. ^[6]. The ornate porticos in these structures were part of the traditional temple architecture and symbolized the entrance to the Temple as a kind of sacred space, separated from the rest of the world.

Based on the indicated examples, it can be stated that the main ethnic cultural codes participating in the unified Crimean style are isolated not only from the cultures of individual ethnic groups that have historically lived and now live on the territory of Crimea, but also more globally, from the general cultural types of state associations that Crimea has belonged to throughout its history. The most significant of them are: the ancient (Greek) code (including the Renaissance code), the Scythian-Sarmatian code, the Seljuk code, the Ottoman (Asia Minor) code. Codes are also associated with the world's most common styles of architecture: these are the Mudekhar code and the Baroque code. The synthesis of these codes forms the uniqueness of the unified style of architecture and decor of the Crimea of the modern and postmodern period. Further research in this topic will allow not only to characterize the general style on the basis of historical knowledge about the cultures of ethnic groups in this territory, but also, on the contrary, by highlighting and identifying individual codes in stylistics, to draw conclusions about the presence or influence of one or another ethnic culture on the formation of a single style.