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Reference:

Northern Crimea in the late XIX – early XX centuries

Erdokesko Ekaterina Aleksandrovna

Postgraduate Student, Department of Russian History of the XIX – early XX centuries, M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University

119192, Russia, g. Moscow, ul. Lomonosovskii Prospekt, 27k4

erdokesko@list.ru
Other publications by this author
 

 

DOI:

10.7256/2454-0609.2023.5.43948

EDN:

RBVETW

Received:

03-09-2023


Published:

27-10-2023


Abstract: This article examines the territory of the Northern Crimea, which was part of the Perekopsky district of the Tauride province, in the late XIX – early XX centuries, the time when the province turned into one of the rapidly developing regions of the Russian Empire. The subject of this study is the economic development of the territory of the Northern Crimea, the northern border of which was the Perekop Isthmus, and the northeastern outskirts were washed by the waters of the Gulf of Sivash. At the same time, special attention is paid by the author to the development of the agricultural sector of the economy, first of all, the development of crop production and animal husbandry, as well as individual industries that have become widespread in the specified territory. The scientific novelty of the study is an attempt to give a more complete picture of the economic development of the northernmost Crimean district of the Tauride province, Perekopsky district, since this topic has not been widely studied in Russian historiography. To achieve this goal, the author has attracted a wide array of sources, represented by various statistical data and reference materials. As a result of this work, the author comes to the conclusion that in the late XIX – early XX centuries, the development of the agricultural sector of the economy prevailed on the territory of the Northern Crimea, represented primarily in the form of growing grain crops, which pushed the development of sheep breeding in this region into the background. At the same time, the industry was represented mainly only in the form of enterprises engaged in brick-tile and pottery production, flour milling and salt fishing.


Keywords:

the Tauride province, Northern Crimea, Perekop district, economy, agriculture, sheep breeding, cereal crops, industry, brick and tile production, salt industry

This article is automatically translated.

In the late XIX – early XX centuries, the territory of the Northern Crimea was part of the Perekop district and occupied an area of 5.111.9 square versts [1, p. 2], which in relation to the area of the entire Tauride province was only 9.7% [2, p. 9]. The northern and north-eastern borders of the county were the Perekop Isthmus and the Gulf of Sivash (for a short distance Dnieper County), the western – Evpatoria County and the south-eastern – the Salgir River (Simferopol and Feodosiya counties) [3, p. 1].

According to the data of the first general census in the Russian Empire in 1897, 51393 people lived on the territory of Perekopsky Uyezd, while the population density was only 10.05 people per square mile, which was due to natural and climatic factors, primarily clay-saline soil, on which it was difficult to cultivate crops. For example, a relatively high population density was observed in the adjacent chernozem counties of the Tauride province of Berdyansk (39.56 people) and Melitopol (33.01 people), as well as in Simferopol county (34.12 people), located on the Crimean Peninsula [1, p. 5-6].

There was almost no chernozem in the entire area of the Northern Crimea, "there is not even a shrub and there is almost no water; the steppe is covered only with grass, as a result of which the main occupation of the population is cattle breeding or, more precisely, sheep breeding" [1, p. 4]. The development of sheep breeding in the region under consideration in the second half of the XIX century . a number of factors contributed. Firstly, there is a great demand for wool on the domestic and world markets, secondly, government policy aimed at providing a number of benefits to persons who were engaged in sheep breeding, such as, for example: allocation of land plots, provision of cash loans, etc. And, thirdly, insignificant population density [4] and large plots of land. For example, there were over 40 sheep per square mile on the territory of Perekopsky Uyezd [5, p. 2].

In the first place in terms of the number and quality of sheep in Perekop county was the estate of Tashly-Kipchak A.D. Lustig, near the Kurman-Kemelchi station of the Lozovo-Sevastopol railway. Lustig's estate contained 28,000 sheep on 24,000 tithes [5, p. 27]. The direction of sheep breeding in this estate consisted in the production of worsted wool, "which had a normal tortuosity, sufficient fleece density and satisfactory overgrowth of both the belly and the front legs of the animals" [4].

In other estates located on the territory of the Northern Crimea, the number of sheep heads was less than in Lustig's estate. So, for example, in the estate of A. E. Kobets at the village of Teichlar there were about 8,500 heads of sheep, G. Moskovenko had 5,000 heads, I. V. Martens had 7000 heads. In addition to these sheep farms, the sheep farms of the Karmyakovs, Dick, Schroeder and Specht brothers were famous on the territory of the Northern Crimea [5, p. 27].

Another important branch of animal husbandry was the breeding of cattle, which was, in fact, the living inventory of farms. Horses and oxen served as representatives of working cattle on the territory of the entire Crimean Peninsula during the period under consideration, other animals were few in number and did not play any significant role as working cattle. The ratio between the number of horses and oxen in the steppe region, which was the territory of the Northern Crimea, was: 52% to 48% [6, pp. 178-181].

In the areas where the development of agricultural crops was possible, mainly grain crops were grown. For example, the most significant part of the arable land area was occupied for winter wheat crops, the crops of which in the central part of the county were 54%. No more than 42-43% of the sown area was occupied for winter wheat in the Prisivash areas.

 The second place in sowing plants was occupied by spring barley, the crops of which were almost the same in all parts of the county: "from 35.9% in the southern part to 37.6% in the Prisivash II area." In general, winter wheat and spring barley crops accounted for 80 to 90% of the total sown area of Perekop County [3, p.39-40].

Winter rye and oats can be distinguished from other plants that have become widespread in the territory of the Northern Crimea. Winter rye crops were mainly found in the Prisivash areas, and oat crops – in the southern part of the county [3, p. 40].

The grain grown on the territory of Perekopsky Uyezd was used both for the own needs of the population of the uyezd and for sale. Grain buyers, on the one hand, were small buyers who bought bread in small batches for large trading firms; on the other hand, large traders who sent their agents directly to sellers and also had branches of their firms at railway stations, where bread was delivered both directly by sellers and bought by small buyers.

Speaking about the markets for grain products on the territory of the Northern Crimea, it is necessary, first of all, to highlight the railway stations that were located in this region. Of these, the most significant were Dzhankoy, Kurman (approx. author: now it is Krasnogvardeyskoye village in the Krasnogvardeysky district of the Republic of Crimea), Taganash (approx. author: now this is the village of Salt Lake in the Dzhankoy district of the Republic of Crimea) and Kolai (approx. author: now it is a vanished village in the Dzhankoy district of the Republic of Crimea). Among other grain markets, the city of Yevpatoria and the marina of Sary-Bulat should be noted (approx. author: now it is a Port village in the Razdolnensky district of the Republic of Crimea) [3, p. 50-52].

As for the cultivation of fruit trees and vineyards in the northern part of the Crimean peninsula, according to the data of the Tauride Governor for 1893: "Horticulture and viticulture in the Tauride province are making notable progress and the area of land occupied by plantations is rapidly increasing.

The cultivation of fruit trees in the steppe zone is much slower than viticulture, because fruit trees are difficult to tolerate droughts and strong winds, common in the steppes. But even in this respect, great successes are noticeable in some places of the Perekop and Melitopol counties, where artesian water was extracted" [7, l. 2].

The Russian scientist vintner and winemaker M. K. Ballas, speaking about the development of winemaking in the territory of Perekopsky district, noted that it had no industrial significance in this region. Vineyards in the county were bred from colonists in the Eigenfeld parish (about 15 dessiatines), as well as from individual landowners in the southern part of the county, "adjacent to the Salgir and Karasovka rivers." In general, according to M. K. Ballas, there were "up to 35 dessiatines of vineyards in Perekop county, bringing no more than 2,000 buckets of wine" [8, p. 78].

In the late XIX – early XX centuries, the situation in the economic life of the Northern Crimea changed, agriculture took the first place in its structure, which was caused, according to the Statistical Bureau of the Tauride provincial Zemstvo, by the fact that field farming was the only basis in the economic life of the agricultural population living here. The percentage of arable land became 89.3%, while the number of lands on which cattle were pastured was only 8.4% [9, p. 22].

Of the amount of sown area, most of it was occupied for winter wheat, which was 49.9% as a percentage. A slightly smaller percentage of the sown area on the territory of the Northern Crimea was occupied for the cultivation of spring barley, namely – 41.9% [9, p. 27].

According to the data presented in the guide to the Crimea by A. Ya. Beschinsky for 1904, it is said that the exclusive occupation of the population of the Perekop district is arable farming, the land for which was 99.9%. 0.1% of the total area of arable land was plots occupied for tobacco cultivation. At the same time, there is no information about the area occupied by gardens in the Perekop and Evpatoria counties, as A. Ya. Beschinsky notes, "there are absolutely no industrial gardens in these counties" [10, pp. 76-77].

Thus, it can be concluded that the main branch of the agricultural sector of the Northern Crimea in the post-reform era was the cultivation of grain crops, which was facilitated by a number of factors, including: market conditions, namely the demand for grain both in the Russian Empire itself and in Europe; the presence of sufficient acreage in the steppe part of the peninsula, the Lozovo-Sevastopol railway, built in 1872-1875, and the proximity of seaports for the export of crops. Sheep farming, which had previously played a significant role in the economy of the Crimea, gradually began to lose its position, and the volume of sheep breeding in the steppe part of the peninsula decreased by 17 times by the 1890s [11, pp. 255-256].

Speaking about the industry of the region under consideration, the following can be noted: in the last quarter of the XIX century. there were 12 brick and tile factories and 2 lemonade factories on the territory of the Perekop district: one of which belonged to the Perekop philistine Naum Finkel and was located in the village of Kurman-Kemelchi (operated since 1880), the other belonged to the philistine Zelman Lutherstein and was located in the Armenian Bazaar (it has been functioning since 1878). The volume of production at lemonade factories was not very large and ranged from 3,000 to 5,200 bottles per year for 180-200 rubles [12].

In addition, since 1868, a small candle factory has been operating on the territory of the Armenian Bazaar, producing 48 pounds of candles for 250 rubles a year. This enterprise belonged to the philistine Lukyan Pakhalov [12].

By the beginning of the twentieth century, there were 12 brick, tile and pottery enterprises on the territory of the Northern Crimea; 5 steam-milling enterprises on the territory of the Perekop district and 2 directly in its center, the city of Perekop; one enterprise engaged in the production of artificial mineral waters, and one enterprise that manufactured carriages, agricultural implements, etc. In total, there were 22 factories and plants on the territory of Perekop county, including its county center, the city of Perekop, at the beginning of the twentieth century [13, p. 104].

At the same time, speaking about the Northern Crimea, it is impossible not to note the role of salt lakes and salt production in this region. Salt lakes, whose area reached 60,000 dessiatines, were located along the southern part of the Perekop Isthmus [14, p. 13]. Among them, the most important role in the life of the region was played by the Old and Red Lakes, the salt of which was considered the best in quality. As the children's writer and traveler A. A. Usov, who wrote under the pseudonym Cheglok, pointed out in his work "The Beauty of Taurida", "locals say that if you need to use 1 ? poods of salt for salting, then one pood is enough for red or old. They call this salt strong and tasty, and the rest weak, tasteless, pharmacy" [14, p. 13-14].

The number of workers on the Old and Red Lakes was no more than 200 people on both lakes, which was explained by the difficult working conditions, since the workers had to work under the scorching sun, in the absence of any shade and surrounded by brackish water.

As A. A. Usov noted, there were no doctors in the salt fields of the Northern Crimea, " – patients need to go 15 versts to Armyansk for medical help. The best remedies for such diseases are special sail boots and canvas or canvas trousers. But few workers are able to have them. Most of them wrap various rags on their feet, which does not protect them well from caustic brine.

Only recently have they begun to arrange booths for workers, where they can hide from the rain or put a patient. It didn't happen before either. We slept in good weather, and in the rain on the open steppe or in disgusting dugouts" [14, p. 18-21].

Summing up all of the above, it can be noted that the development of agriculture played an important role in the economic life of the Northern Crimea in the late XIX – early XX centuries. And if in the pre-reform period, the development of sheep breeding played an important role in the economic life of the region, then after that the development of grain crops took the leading positions, which was facilitated by a number of conditions, such as the demand for grain in the domestic and foreign markets, large spaces for crops, as well as improved transport accessibility of the region. At the same time, the industry on the territory of the Northern Crimea was represented primarily by the development of enterprises engaged in the production of bricks and tiles, as well as milling.

References
1. Troynitsky, N. A. (Ed.). (1904). Первая всеобщая перепись населения Российской империи, 1897 г. XLI. Таврическая губерния. [The first general census of the population of the Russian Empire in 1897. XLI. The Tauride Province]. St. Petersburg: publication of the Central Statistical Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
2
Andrievsky, F. N. (1915). Статистический справочник Таврической губернии. Часть I-я Статистический очерк Таврической губернии. Часть II-я. Список населенных пунктов по уездам: Бердянскому, Днепровскому, Мелитопольскому, Перекопскому, Евпаторийскому, Симферопольскому, Феодосийскому и Ялтинскому. [Statistical guide to the Tauride province. Part I Statistical essay of the Tauride province. Part II. List of settlements by districs: Berdyansk, Dnieper, Melitopol, Perekop, Yevpatoria, Simferopol, Feodosiya and Yalta]. Simferopol: Printing house of the Tauride Provincial Zemstvo.
3. Сборник
по основной статистике. Оценочная часть. Перекопский уезд. Выпуск II. Симферополь: типография Таврического губернского земства. [Collection of basic statistics. Evaluation part. Perekop district. Issue II]. (1906). Simferopol: Printing house of the Tauride Provincial Zemstvo.
4. Ostapchuk, P. S., Yemelyanov, S. A., Reinstein, L. N. (2013). Овцеводство Таврической губернии во второй половине XIX в. [Sheep farming of Taurian province at the second half of the XIX century]. Agrarian education and science, 3. Retrieved from https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/ovtsevodstvo-tavricheskoy-gubernii-vo-vtoroy-polovine-xix-v/viewer.
5. Исследование современного состояния овцеводства в России. Выпуск
IV. [Research of the current state of sheep breeding in Russia. Issue IV]. (1884). St. Petersburg: Printing House of V. Kirshbaum.
6. Usov, S. A. (1925). Историко-экономические очерки Крыма: прошлое и настоящее крымского сельского хозяйства. [Historical and economic essays of the Crimea: the past and present of Crimean agriculture]. Simferopol: Crimean State Publishing House.
7. RGIA. F. 398. Inv. 75. File 25. The Russian State Historical Archive.
8. Ballas, M. K. (1895). Виноделие в России (Историко-статистический очерк). Часть I. Крым, степная часть Таврической губернии, Дон и Астрахань. [Winemaking in Russia (Historical and statistical essay). Part I. Crimea, the steppe part of the Tauride province, the Don and Astrakhan]. St. Petersburg: Printing House of V. Kirshbaum.
9. Сельскохозяйственный обзор Таврической губернии за 1910 год
. [Agricultural review of the Tauride province for 1910]. (1912). Simferopol: Printing house of the Tauride Provincial Zemstvo.
10. Beschinsky, A. Ya. (1904). Путеводитель по Крыму. [Guide to the Crimea]. Moscow: The I. N. Kushnerev & Co Partnership.
11. Kodzova, S. Z. (2015). История Крыма. [History of the Crimea]. Moscow: OLMA Media Group.
12. Marcinovsky, P. N. (2019). Промышленные предприятия в уездных городах, уездах и градоначальствах Крыма в последней четверти XIX века [Industrial enterprises in chief town of a district, districs and town governor's offices of the Crimea in the last quarter of the 19th century]. Scientific notes. Electronic scientific journal of Kursk State University, 1(49), 6-15. Retrieved from https://www.elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=37165586.
13. Календарь и памятная книжка Таврической губернии на 1900 год.
[Calendar and memorable book of the Tauride province for 1900]. (1900). Simferopol: Taurida Provincial Printing House.
14. Cheglok, A. A. (1910). Красавица Таврида [Beauty Tavrida]. Moscow: the publication of K.I. Tikhomirov.

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Review of the article "Northern Crimea in the late XIX – early XX centuries" The subject of the study is indicated in the title of the article and explained in the text of the article. The research methodology is based on the principles of scientific objectivity, consistency and historicism. The work uses historical-chronological and historical-genetic methods. The relevance of the study is due to the increased interest in the history of the Crimea as a whole. As well as an interest in its natural and climatic conditions, the history of the economic development of the region in the past and in the present. The study of the economic development of the region is important from the point of view of identifying cause-and-effect relationships in the field of economics, ecology, social development and management. Scientific novelty is determined by the formulation of the problem and the objectives of the study. This article examines how agriculture and crafts of the Northern Crimea developed in the late XIX- early XX century and what factors determined their development. Style, structure, content. The work style is academic, but has descriptive elements. The structure of the work is logically structured and aimed at solving the tasks set. The content of the work corresponds to its title. At the beginning of the article, the author characterizes the territory of the Northern Crimea and reveals what the natural and climatic characteristics of this region of Crimea were. The author writes that there was almost no chernozem in the region, and there were also big problems with water, and therefore the population density of the Northern Crimea was low. The article shows that climatic conditions did not contribute to the occupation of agriculture and therefore animal husbandry and especially sheep breeding were more developed. A number of factors contributed to the development of sheep farming: "high demand for wool on domestic and global markets, ... government policy aimed at providing a number of benefits to persons who were engaged in sheep farming, low population density and large tracts of land." There were fewer conditions for cattle breeding, but nevertheless this industry was also developing. The article shows which grain crops were widespread in the Crimea and how agriculture was developing, the author pays special attention to the production of grain crops (winter wheat, winter rye and oats, spring barley) and in which counties which crops were more developed. Grain markets were railway stations and the most famous of them were Dzhankoy and the city of Yevpatoria. During the period under study, the author of the article notes that grain production became prevalent in this region, that the main branch of the agricultural sector of the Northern Crimea in the post-reform era was the cultivation of grain crops, which was facilitated by a number of factors, including: market conditions, namely the demand for grain both in the Russian Empire itself and in Europe; the proximity of seaports for harvesting" and a number of other reasons. Horticulture and especially viticulture were developed in the region, which was better adapted to the climate of the Northern Crimea. The article contains interesting materials about the development of the Crimean industry, salt production, etc. The bibliography consists of 14 sources, the composition of these sources is diverse and they are devoted to the topic under study and related topics. The bibliography is designed according to the requirements of the journal. The appeal to the opponents is presented at the level of work on the topic and the results obtained, Conclusions, and the interest of the readership. The article is written on an interesting topic, and not only historians, but also a wide range of readers will pay attention to it.