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Crimean Goths. Crimean Goths: in search of history and language Crimean Goths

Τετραξϊται , Τραπεζϊται ) - an ethnic group of Goths, one of the Germanic tribes that migrated during the Great Migration of Peoples in the 3rd century to the Northern Black Sea region, and then to the Crimea. The latest epigraphic evidence of the existence of the Goths in Crimea dates back to the 9th century, however, according to a number of sources it is clear that the history of the Goths in Crimea lasted much longer; earlier the word “Goth” from an ethnonym turned into a personal name (found on one of the tombstones). They were probably gradually assimilated by the Greeks, preserving the Gothic language for quite a long time (for more details, see Crimean Gothic language). The distribution area of the Goths in Crimea is also not entirely clear. At different times they lived on the Kerch Peninsula and in the southern part of Crimea, which was later called Gothia (the medieval Christian principality of Theodoro).

The appearance and life of the Goths in Crimea[ | ]

The Goths ended up in Crimea during the migrations of late antiquity, in the 3rd century AD. Most likely, in terms of language and culture, the Crimean Goths were closer to their neighbors, the Ostrogoths, who lived in the northern Black Sea region, than to the Visigoths. In Crimea, the Goths quickly captured and assimilated the Alans who remained there, which is why they were also called Gotalans by the name of the former Crimean Alania they occupied, and occupied the entire peninsula except Chersonesus. At the end of the 3rd century, the Goths took control of the Bosporan kingdom and integrated into its elite, preserving the traditions of military democracy. Detachments of Goths were hired to serve the Roman Empire and participated in various military campaigns. Christianity (Arianism) quickly spread among the Goths. By the middle of the 4th century, after the decline of the Bosporan kingdom, the Goths became the main political force on the peninsula.

See the Gothic red maidens in a hurry on the breeze to the Blue Sea (i.e., the Azov Sea). Ringing with Russian gold, they sing the time of Busovo, cherish revenge on Sharukan.

Busbeck wrote. Based on the conversation-survey, Busbeck created a short dictionary of the Crimean-Gothic language (about 80 words). At the same time, Busbeck did not visit the Crimean peninsula directly, and the conversation took place in Istanbul. The interlocutors told Busbek that the Crimean khans were recruiting an infantry detachment of 800 people from among the Goths for their army.

In 1606, the Huguenot encyclopedist Joseph Just Scaliger wrote that the Crimean Goths read the Old and New Testaments "according to the letters of the Wulfila alphabet."

The Greek epigraphy of Crimea contains a few relict names of Germanic etymology.

The last mention of the descendants of the Goths dates back to the end of the 18th century. When the Catholic Archbishop Stanislav Bogush-Sestrentsevich, who visited Crimea and Mangup in 1780-1790, met several families there whose language, customs and appearance differed from the surrounding tribes, he came to the conclusion that they were Goths.

At the end of the 19th - first third of the 20th centuries, a number of works appeared that described the “Gothic historiography” of the late Middle Ages. Considering Busbeck's messages and meetings with blue-eyed Crimeans sufficient grounds for asserting the existence of a Gothic community in Crimea, these authors (A. A. Vasiliev and others) believed that the Christian population of Crimea in the Middle Ages was represented mainly by Goths or, at least, the Goths were the elite in these communities. These publications were used by the German Nazis to justify the historical belonging of Crimea and the Black Sea region to the “Aryan territory”; the Nazi leadership intended to create a German colony in Crimea called “Gotenland” (land of the Goths).

The question of the role of the Goths in the ethnogenesis of the Karaites, Crimean Tatars and Karachais is debatable. The Crimean Goths as a people merged with the Crimean Greek ethnic group.

Neither before nor after Busbeck were large written monuments of the Gothic language discovered in Crimea.

The Crimean Goths disappeared without a trace in the 17th century after the conquest of the peninsula by the Ottoman Turks. Where did the whole people go? What was his language like? The Crimean Goths left a lot of work for historians.

GOTHES AND GOTHIC. Some scientists believe that the Great Migration was provoked by the Goths, who ousted the Vandals and Rugs from their lands. The Goths spoke the Germanic language - Gothic, and in the 4th century the legendary Bishop Wulfila created the Gothic alphabet for them, and soon translated the Bible, since it was the Goths who became the first Germanic tribes to convert to Christianity.

The Goths became famous for crushing the Roman legions, capturing Rome and conquering many lands, for which the Renaissance, which reveres the ancient classics, took revenge on them by making the word “Gothic” synonymous with barbarian and stigmatizing the subsequent achievements of all Germanic peoples.

CRIMEA. STARTED. Having moved to the lower reaches of the Vistula, the Goths started a chain reaction. Under pressure from barbarian tribes, the Roman Empire quickly fell, and the Goths spread their influence from Eastern Europe to the Volga region and Crimea.

In Crimea, part of the Goths subjugate the Alans, one of the Sarmatian Iranian-speaking nomadic tribes, after which they jointly raid the peninsula. In historical sources of that time there is even a memory of such a close union of two peoples - the ethnonym “Goto-Alans”. The Goths settled in the southern part of Crimea and on the Kerch Peninsula.

Then Europe was shocked by the advance of the Huns, or Xiongnu, nomads from Asia. The Goths at this time were between the Byzantine possessions, in particular the largest city of Chersonesos, and the Huns. The stronghold of Gothia became the Doros fortress, after the conquest by the Khazars and to this day called Mangup-kale - a huge cave city, which is still a tourist mecca in Crimea.

The isolated mountain plateau was supplied with drinking water from mountain springs and was therefore a unique - half artificial, half natural - fortification.

The Crimean Goths had a reliable alliance with the Byzantine Empire, from which the intellectual elite of Byzantium, fleeing the persecution of the iconoclasts, flocked to the peninsula: educated monks, and once even the exiled Emperor Justinian II. Foreigners called their state “the land of forty castles.”

From the 12th century, the Goths began to pay tribute to the Tatars and Polovtsians: even in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” the Crimean Goths are described as a people burdened by a foreign yoke. Despite difficult times, they continued to engage in trade, and even references to their trade contacts with Novgorod (12th century) have reached us. The global reshuffle of forces affects the good neighbors of the Crimean Goths, the Byzantines, with whom the Empire of Trebizond begins to compete.

Meanwhile, the lands from Kafa (modern Feodosia) are bought by Genoese colonists, and then, with the help of an agreement with Khan Mamai, they establish there the small principality of Theodoro, also called the “Principality of Gothia,” displacing the Goths themselves closer to the mountains.

From that moment on, the territory of the Crimean Goths extended from Balaklava to Alushta - ancient Yamboli and Aliston, and the most important fortresses passed into the hands of the Genoese. So Gothia was divided into two parts, but the stubborn Goths did not give up in this fight and continued to build fortresses - isars - and regain their lands.

The Crimean Goths also showed themselves as successful politicians by marrying the prince's daughter with the emperor of Trebizond. However, after a few victories, Gothia suffers a crushing defeat: the Turks take Kafa in 1475 (the fortress is currently preserved), and then besiege Mangup, which leads to the destruction of the state of the Crimean Goths.

The region falls into decay, finding itself on the outskirts of Turkish lands, and the Gothic princely family is preserved in the boyar family of the Golovins - Gothic emigrant princes who lived in Moscow. The Gothic peasants, meanwhile, continued to live isolated in the mountains and were assimilated only centuries later.

THE SECRET OF THE CRIMEAN GOTHS. Despite the fact that after the 9th century the word “Goth” became a personal name and archaeologists were unable to find any newer, directly Gothic sources, the Crimean Goths were known thanks to historical documents from neighboring countries.

But the fate of the Goths did not end with the fall of their state in the 15th century. The envoy of the Austrian Emperor Ferdinand, Baron Ogier Ghislain de Busbeck, at the end of the 16th century, mentions in his letter that once during a diplomatic mission to the Ottoman Empire he met a man in Istanbul who claimed to be a Crimean Goth. He forgot his native language, but his companion, a Greek, allegedly spoke the Crimean-Gothic language, and after a short conversation, Busbeck compiled a small Crimean-Gothic dictionary, which is the only written monument of this language, similar to the Gothic of the time of Wulfila.

Migrated during the Great Migration of Peoples in the 3rd century to the regions of the Northern Black Sea Coast, and then to the Crimea. The latest epigraphic evidence of the existence of the Goths in Crimea dates back to the 9th century, however, according to a number of sources it is clear that the history of the Goths in Crimea lasted much longer; earlier the word “Goth” from an ethnonym turned into a personal name (found on one of the tombstones). They were probably gradually assimilated by the Greeks, preserving the Gothic language for quite a long time (for more details, see Crimean Gothic language). The distribution area of the Goths in Crimea is also not entirely clear. At different times they lived on the Kerch Peninsula and in the southern part of Crimea, which was later called Gothia (the medieval Christian principality of Theodoro).

The appearance and life of the Goths in Crimea

See the Gothic red maidens in a hurry on the breeze to the Blue Sea (i.e., the Azov Sea). Ringing with Russian gold, they sing the time of Busovo, cherish revenge on Sharukan.

In 1606, the Huguenot encyclopedist Joseph Just Scaliger wrote that the Crimean Goths read the Old and New Testaments "according to the letters of the Wulfila alphabet."

The Greek epigraphy of Crimea contains a few relict names of Germanic etymology.

Literature

Vasiliev A.A. Goths in Crimea. News of GAIMK. 1921.
Pioro I. S. Crimean Gothia. Essays on the ethnic history of the population of Crimea in the late Roman period and the early Middle Ages. - Kyiv: Lybid, 1990. - 200 p.
Aibabin A. I. Ethnic history of early Byzantine Crimea /A. I. Aibabin. - Simferopol: Dar, 1999. - 475 p.
Zamoryakhin A. Goths of the Northern Black Sea region III-IV centuries. in pre-revolutionary domestic historiography // Issedon: an almanac on ancient history and culture. - Ekaterinburg: Ural Publishing House. state University, 2003. - T. 2. - P. 171-183.
Wolfram Herwig Goths. From the origins to the middle of the 6th century (experience of historical ethnography). - St. Petersburg: Yuventa, 2003. - 654 p.
Fadeeva T. M., Shaposhnikov A. K. The Principality of Theodoro and its princes. - Simferopol: Business-Inform, 2005. - 280 p.
From the Cimmerians to the Crimeans: Sat. Ed. I. N. Khrapunov, A. G. Herzen. - Simferopol: Share, 2006. - 288 p.
Shchukin M. B. Gothic way. Goths, Rome and Chernyakhov culture. - St. Petersburg: Faculty of Philology of St. Petersburg State University, 2006. - 576 p.
Ganina N. A. Crimean Gothic language. - St. Petersburg: “Aletheia”, 2011. - 288 p.
Scardigli P. Goths: language and culture. - St. Petersburg: Faculty of Philology of St. Petersburg State University, 2012. - 388 p.
Rich. Loewe Die Reste der Germanen am Schvarzen Meege. - Halle. 1896.
Heather, Peter J. The Goths. - Blackwell. 1998. pp. 52–55.
Heather, Peter J. The Goths in the Fourth Century. - Liverpool University Press, 1991.
Kulikowski, M. Rome's Gothic Wars: From the Third Century to Alaric. - Cambridge Univ. Press. 2006. pp. 111.
Wolfram, H. (Thomas J. Dunlop, tr) History of the Goths. - Univ. of California Press. 1988. pp. 261.

). The distribution area of the Goths in Crimea is also not entirely clear. At different times they lived on the Kerch Peninsula and in the southern part of Crimea, which was later called Gothia (the medieval Christian principality of Theodoro).

The appearance and life of the Goths in Crimea

The Goths ended up in Crimea during the migrations of late antiquity, in the 3rd century AD. Most likely, in terms of language and culture, the Crimean Goths were closer to their neighbors, the Ostrogoths, who lived in the northern Black Sea region, than to the Visigoths. In Crimea, the Goths quickly captured and assimilated the Scythians who remained there and occupied the entire peninsula except Chersonesos. At the end of the 3rd century, the Goths took control of the Bosporan kingdom and integrated into its elite, preserving the traditions of military democracy. Detachments of Goths were hired to serve the Roman Empire and participated in various military campaigns. Christianity (Arianism) quickly spread among the Goths. By the middle of the 4th century, after the decline of the Bosporan kingdom, the Goths became the main political force on the peninsula.

See the Gothic red maidens in a hurry on the breeze to the Blue Sea (i.e., the Azov Sea). Ringing with Russian gold, they sing the time of Busovo, cherish revenge on Sharukan.

Nevertheless, this time things did not come to complete enslavement. The Goths not only continued to engage in traditional activities, but also traded, often crossing the Polovtsian steppes with valuable goods. Thus, in the “Life of Anthony the Roman” we meet the news of his arrival in Novgorod in the first half of the 12th century. a certain Crimean Goth who spoke Greek and Russian (Novgorod Chronicles, 1879, 187-188), from which we can conclude that the guest visited the Russian lands more than once, that is, connections between the two states of the same faith were more or less constant.

In the XIII-XIV centuries. In the history of the Goths, the Genoese began to play an increasingly important role, having founded a colony in Cafe in 1266 and purchasing a vast adjacent territory from the Tatars. They advanced along the southern coast, and from 1365 they became unrivaled in trade and political influence in this part of Crimea. And in the 1380s. they agreed with Khan Mamai on the division of Crimea; the Goths received the territory from Balaklava to Alushta, with the exception of a number of fortresses: Fora (Foros), Khikhineo (Kikineiz), Lupiko (Alupka), Musakori (Miskhor), Oreanda, Jalita, Sikita (Nikita), Gorzovium, Partenite, Lambadie ( Biyuk-Lambat and Kuchuk-Lambat), Lusta (Alushta), remained with the Genoese (Malitsky N.V., 1933, 6). The new region began to be called “Captainship of Gothia” (Captainatus Gotie). It is clear that the Italians received only a narrow strip of shore; the mountains and forests north of Yalta, the heart of old Gothia, remained intact and independent. It was still headed by a prince (he could have been of Greek origin), who owed tribute to the Tatars and vassalage to Trebizond. His retention of power is evidenced by the inscription of 1427 on a slab from Kalamita: “Prince Alexei of Theodoro erected a fortress and the church of St. Constantine and Helena” (Malitsky N.V., 1933, 25 - 32). The same Prince Alexei later laid the foundation for the return of the coastal lands. An intelligent and energetic politician, he initiated the close cooperation of Theodoro with the Crimean Khan, who also feared both the Genoese and the Istanbul Turks. Under him, the port of Kalamite, which had fallen into disrepair, was restored to its former importance, and the city’s borders were expanded. A year before his death (1434), the prince returned to the Goths the Bay of Symbols (Balaklava) and the Chembalo fortress, which had been taken from them by the Genoese 66 years earlier. The struggle for the coast continued later, which was facilitated by the growing prestige of the princely house - the prince's daughter married David Komnenos, who soon became the emperor of Trebizond. The Italians began to call the son of Alexei, who took the throne of his father, “Senor Theodoro” (his name has not reached us, but the Tatars called the young ruler Olu-bey, that is, Grand Duke). The Russians also called him Prince. Marriage with a member of the princely house, closely related to the Palaiologans of Constantinople and the Komnenos of Trebizond, could henceforth be considered an honor for a representative of any Christian dynasty - and the Mangup princess, daughter of Olubey, became the wife of Stephen the Great, and Ivan III negotiated with Prince Isaiko, her brother, about the marriage of another princesses with the Moscow prince. Having thus strengthened their political positions, the princes of Theodoro could after the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks (1453). ) come into serious conflict with the Italians. The Genoese developed a plan for the complete subjugation of the Goths. The Germans won the conflict, and already in 1458, in an official document drawn up in the office of the Kafa Consulate, the Gothic prince (Dominus theodori) was recognized as one of the four “Black Sea sovereigns” (Braun F., 1890, 34). This also testified to the recognition of the important fact that, relying on a powerful army, the Goths, these born sailors, regained a significant part of the southern coastal fortresses and ports.

However, this surge of Gothia's former greatness was the last before its final fall. In 1475, Cafa was taken by the Turks; They also besieged Mangup. Having installed light and siege artillery on the heights adjacent to the main gate, they subjected the capital of the rebellious Goths to devastating fire - for the first time in its history. Nevertheless, she held out for about three months and gave up only when food ran out. The Turks, who promised to pardon the townspeople, carried out a wild massacre - this is evidenced by the mass graves of the executed Mangup residents. Nevertheless, the princely family survived; The old title of princes was also preserved. We meet their names among the vassals of the Sultan and the ambassadors of Istanbul to Moscow: Prince Kemalbi, his son Manuel, obviously a Christian (Karamzin N.M., vol. I, p. VII, note 105), but spends the last years of his life in Moscow Prince Skinder (Alexander) Mangupsky (ibid., p. VII, 115, note 233, 235, 236). But this was already the last prince mentioned in the sources known to us, although their line continued in the boyar families of the Golovins and Khovrins - the son of the Mangup prince Stefan Khovra (died in 1400), brother of the toparch Alexei (died in 1428), became a member of this family (Velvet Book, 1797, 270). The principality itself fell irrevocably; the cities of Mangup, Chembalo, Kalamita and all their lands were included in the Mangup Kadylyk of the Sultan; At the same time, Kalamita was renamed Inkerman, Chembalo - Balaklava, and the capital - Mangup-Kale. The latter retained its significance only as a fortress; trade and craft here quickly fell into decline. The reason for this was its new, peripheral position - far from Turkish trade routes. The city burned down twice - in 1493 and 1592. ... However, in the capital and other cities, the Gothic population by no means represented the entire people or even the majority of it. The bulk of the Gothic peasants, unlike the townspeople, were not subjected to violence in the 15th century. neither Hellenization nor Turkization, she continued to live in remote mountain villages, maintaining minimal connections with the outside world, preserving her ancient culture, her language. The process of assimilation of the Crimean Goths continued for several centuries. The latest epigraphic evidence of the Goths in Crimea dates back to the 9th century, by which time the word "Goth" had become a personal name (probably indicating origin). The name "Gothia" in relation to the southwestern Crimea lasted throughout the Middle Ages. In particular, in XIII-XIV the Genoese called their possessions in the western part of the southern coast of Crimea Maritime Gothia (Gothia Maritima), and Gothia was also often called the principality, better known in historical literature as Theodoro. According to the minorite William de Rubruk, who was traveling from Constantinople to the Tatars in 1253, he saw castles on the southern coast of Crimea in which “there were many Goths, whose language was Teutonic ( teutonicum)».

The Orthodox diocese of the Patriarchate of Constantinople located in Crimea was called Kafin-Gothic until 1798, when, after the eviction of the Greeks from Crimea to the northern Azov region (Mariupol region), the diocese was liquidated.

Crimean Goths as an object of cryptoethnology

- wrote Busbeck. Based on the conversation-survey, Busbeck created a short dictionary of the Crimean-Gothic language (about 80 words). At the same time, Busbeck did not visit the Crimean peninsula directly, and the conversation took place in Istanbul. The interlocutors told Busbek that the Crimean khans were recruiting an infantry detachment of 800 people from among the Goths for their army.

In 1606, the Huguenot encyclopedist Joseph Just Scaliger wrote that the Crimean Goths read the Old and New Testaments "according to the letters of the Wulfila alphabet."

Neither before nor after Busbeck were large written monuments of the Gothic language discovered in Crimea. The Greek epigraphy of Crimea contains a few relict names of Germanic etymology.

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Sources

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Literature

Vasiliev A.A. Goths in Crimea. News of GAIMK. 1921.
Pioro I. S. Crimean Gothia. Essays on the ethnic history of the population of Crimea in the late Roman period and the early Middle Ages. - Kyiv: Lybid, 1990. - 200 p.
Aibabin A. I. Ethnic history of early Byzantine Crimea /A. I. Aibabin. - Simferopol: Dar, 1999. - 475 p.
Zamoryakhin A.// Issedon: almanac on ancient history and culture. - Ekaterinburg: Ural Publishing House. state University, 2003. - T. 2. - P. 171-183.
Wolfram Herwig Goths. From the origins to the middle of the 6th century (experience of historical ethnography). - St. Petersburg: Yuventa, 2003. - 654 p.
Fadeeva T. M., Shaposhnikov A. K. The Principality of Theodoro and its princes. - Simferopol: Business-Inform, 2005. - 280 p.
From the Cimmerians to the Crimeans: Sat. Ed. I. N. Khrapunov, A. G. Herzen. - Simferopol: Share, 2006. - 288 p.
Shchukin M. B. Gothic way. Goths, Rome and Chernyakhov culture. - St. Petersburg: Faculty of Philology of St. Petersburg State University, 2006. - 576 p.
Ganina N. A. Crimean Gothic language. - St. Petersburg: “Aletheia”, 2011. - 288 p.
Scardigli P. Goths: language and culture. - St. Petersburg: Faculty of Philology of St. Petersburg State University, 2012. - 388 p.
Rich. Loewe Die Reste der Germanen am Schvarzen Meege. - Halle. 1896.
Heather, Peter J. The Goths. - Blackwell. 1998. pp. 52-55.
Heather, Peter J. The Goths in the Fourth Century. - Liverpool University Press, 1991.
Kulikowski, M. Rome's Gothic Wars: From the Third Century to Alaric. - Cambridge Univ. Press. 2006. pp. 111.
Wolfram, H. (Thomas J. Dunlop, tr) History of the Goths. - Univ. of California Press. 1988. pp. 261.

An excerpt characterizing the Crimean Goths

“He writes,” she said, showing her son Prince Andrei’s letter with that hidden feeling of ill will that a mother always has against her daughter’s future marital happiness, “she writes that she will not arrive before December.” What kind of business could detain him? Truly a disease! My health is very poor. Don't tell Natasha. Don’t look at how cheerful she is: this is the last time she’s living as a girl, and I know what happens to her every time we receive his letters. But God willing, everything will be fine,” she concluded every time: “he’s an excellent person.”

At first, Nikolai was serious and even boring. He was tormented by the impending need to intervene in these stupid household matters, for which his mother had called him. In order to get this burden off his shoulders as quickly as possible, on the third day of his arrival, he angrily, without answering the question of where he was going, went with frowning brows to Mitenka’s outhouse and demanded from him an account of everything. What these accounts of everything were, Nikolai knew even less than Mitenka, who was in fear and bewilderment. The conversation and consideration of Mitenka did not last long. The headman, the elective and the zemstvo, who were waiting in the front wing, with fear and pleasure at first heard how the voice of the young count began to hum and crackle as if ever rising, they heard abusive and terrible words pouring out one after another.
- Robber! Ungrateful creature!... I will chop up the dog... not with daddy... I stole... - etc.
Then these people, with no less pleasure and fear, saw how the young count, all red, with bloodshot eyes, pulled Mitenka out by the collar, with his foot and knee, with great dexterity, at a convenient time, between his words, pushed him in the butt and shouted: “Get out! so that your spirit, you bastard, is not here!”
Mityenka rushed headlong down six steps and ran into a flowerbed. (This flowerbed was a well-known place for saving criminals in Otradnoye. Mitenka himself, arriving drunk from the city, hid in this flowerbed, and many residents of Otradnoye, hiding from Mitenka, knew the saving power of this flowerbed.)
Mitenka's wife and sisters-in-law with frightened faces leaned out into the hallway from the doors of the room where a clean samovar was boiling and the clerk's high bed stood under a quilted blanket sewn from short pieces.
The young count, panting, not paying attention to them, walked past them with decisive steps and went into the house.
The Countess, who immediately learned through the girls about what had happened in the outbuilding, on the one hand, calmed down in the sense that now their condition should improve, on the other hand, she was worried about how her son would bear it. She tiptoed to his door several times, listening to him smoke pipe after pipe.
The next day the old count called his son aside and said to him with a timid smile:
– Do you know, you, my soul, got excited in vain! Mitenka told me everything.
“I knew, Nikolai thought, that I would never understand anything here, in this stupid world.”
– You were angry that he did not enter these 700 rubles. After all, he wrote them in transport, but you didn’t look at the other page.
“Daddy, he’s a scoundrel and a thief, I know.” And he did what he did. And if you don’t want to, I won’t tell him anything.
- No, my soul (the count was embarrassed too. He felt that he was a bad manager of his wife’s estate and was guilty before his children, but did not know how to correct this) - No, I ask you to take care of business, I’m old, I...
- No, daddy, you will forgive me if I did something unpleasant to you; I know less than you.
“To hell with them, with these men with money and transport all over the page,” he thought. Even from the corner of six jackpots, I once understood, but from the page of transport, I don’t understand anything,” he said to himself and since then he has not intervened in business anymore. Only one day did the countess call her son to her, inform him that she had Anna Mikhailovna’s bill of exchange for two thousand and asked Nikolai what he thought to do with it.
“That’s how it is,” answered Nikolai. – You told me that it depends on me; I don’t like Anna Mikhailovna and I don’t like Boris, but they were friendly with us and poor. So that's how it is! - and he tore the bill, and with this act he made the old countess cry with tears of joy. After this, young Rostov, no longer intervening in any matters, with passionate enthusiasm took up the still new business of hound hunting, which was started on a large scale by the old count.

It was already winter, morning frosts were binding the earth, wetted by autumn rains, the greenery was already flattened and brightly green separated from the stripes of browning, cattle-killed, winter and light yellow spring stubble with red stripes of buckwheat. The peaks and forests, which at the end of August were still green islands between the black fields of winter crops and stubble, became golden and bright red islands among the bright green winter crops. The hare was already half worn out (molted), the fox litters were beginning to disperse, and the young wolves were larger than the dogs. It was the best hunting time. The dogs of the ardent, young hunter of Rostov not only entered the hunting body, but also got beaten up so much that in the general council of hunters it was decided to give the dogs a rest for three days and on September 16 to leave, starting from the oak grove, where there was an untouched wolf brood.
This was the situation on September 14th.
All this day the hunt was at home; It was frosty and bitter, but in the evening it began to cool down and thaw. On September 15, when young Rostov looked out the window in the morning in his dressing gown, he saw a morning that nothing could be better for hunting: as if the sky was melting and descending to the ground without wind. The only movement that was in the air was the quiet movement from top to bottom of microscopic drops of mg or fog descending. Transparent drops hung on the bare branches of the garden and fell on the newly fallen leaves. The soil in the garden, like a poppy, was glossy and wet black, and at a short distance merged with the dull and damp cover of fog. Nikolai stepped out onto the wet, muddy porch: it smelled of withering forest and dogs. The black-spotted, wide-bottomed bitch Milka with large black protruding eyes, seeing her owner, stood up, stretched back and lay down like a hare, then suddenly jumped up and licked him right on the nose and mustache. Another greyhound dog, seeing its owner from the colored path, arched its back, quickly rushed to the porch and, raising its tail, began to rub against Nikolai’s legs.
- Oh goy! - at this time that inimitable hunting call was heard, which combines both the deepest bass and the most subtle tenor; and from around the corner came the arriving and hunting Danilo, a Ukrainian-style, gray-haired, wrinkled hunter with a cropped hair, a bent arapnik in his hand and with that expression of independence and contempt for everything in the world that only hunters have. He took off his Circassian hat in front of the master and looked at him contemptuously. This contempt was not offensive to the master: Nikolai knew that this Danilo, who despised everything and stood above all else, was still his man and hunter.
- Danila! - said Nikolai, timidly feeling that at the sight of this hunting weather, these dogs and the hunter, he was already seized by that irresistible hunting feeling in which a person forgets all previous intentions, like a man in love in the presence of his mistress.
-What do you order, your excellency? - asked the protodeacon's bass, hoarse from raking, and two black shining eyes glanced from under their brows at the silent master. “What, or won’t you be able to stand it?” as if those two eyes said.
- Nice day, huh? And the chase and the gallop, eh? - Nikolai said, scratching Milka’s ears.
Danilo did not answer and blinked his eyes.
“I sent Uvarka to listen at dawn,” his bass voice said after a moment of silence, “he said, he transferred it to the Otradnensky order, they were howling there.” (Translated meant that the she-wolf, about whom they both knew, moved with the children to the Otradnensky forest, which was two miles from the house and which was a small place.)
- But you have to go? - said Nikolai. - Come to me with Uvarka.
- As you order!
- So wait a minute to feed.
– I’m listening.
Five minutes later, Danilo and Uvarka stood in Nikolai’s large office. Despite the fact that Danilo was not very tall, seeing him in the room produced an impression similar to when you see a horse or a bear on the floor between the furniture and the conditions of human life. Danilo himself felt this and, as usual, stood at the very door, trying to speak more quietly, not to move, so as not to somehow damage the master’s chambers, and trying to quickly express everything and go out into the open space, from under the ceiling to the sky.
Having finished the questions and having elicited Danila’s consciousness that the dogs were okay (Danila himself wanted to go), Nikolai ordered them to saddle up. But just as Danila wanted to leave, Natasha entered the room with quick steps, not yet combed or dressed, wearing a large nanny’s scarf. Petya ran in with her.
- Are you going? - said Natasha, - I knew it! Sonya said that you won’t go. I knew that today was such a day that it was impossible not to go.
“We’re going,” Nikolai answered reluctantly, who today, since he intended to undertake a serious hunt, did not want to take Natasha and Petya. “We’re going, but only after the wolves: you’ll be bored.”
“You know that this is my greatest pleasure,” Natasha said.
“This is bad,” he rode himself, ordered him to saddle, but didn’t tell us anything.
– All obstacles to the Russians are in vain, let’s go! - Petya shouted.
“But you’re not allowed to: Mama said you’re not allowed to,” said Nikolai, turning to Natasha.
“No, I’ll go, I’ll definitely go,” Natasha said decisively. “Danila, tell us to saddle up, and for Mikhail to ride out with my pack,” she turned to the hunter.
And so it seemed indecent and difficult for Danila to be in the room, but to have anything to do with the young lady seemed impossible to him. He lowered his eyes and hurried out, as if it had nothing to do with him, trying not to accidentally harm the young lady.

The old count, who had always kept a huge hunt, but had now transferred the entire hunt to the jurisdiction of his son, on this day, September 15th, having fun, got ready to leave too.
An hour later the whole hunt was at the porch. Nikolai, with a stern and serious look, showing that there was no time to deal with trifles now, walked past Natasha and Petya, who were telling him something. He inspected all parts of the hunt, sent the pack and hunters ahead to the race, sat down on his red bottom and, whistling the dogs of his pack, set off through the threshing floor into the field leading to the Otradnensky order. The old count's horse, a game-colored mering called Bethlyanka, was led by the count's stirrup; he himself had to go straight in the droshky to the hole left for him.
Of all the hounds, 54 dogs were bred, under which 6 people went out as handlers and catchers. In addition to the masters, there were 8 greyhound hunters, who were followed by more than 40 greyhounds, so that with the master's packs about 130 dogs and 20 horse hunters went out into the field.
Each dog knew its owner and name. Each hunter knew his business, place and purpose. As soon as they left the fence, everyone, without noise or conversation, stretched out evenly and calmly along the road and field leading to the Otradnensky forest.
The horses walked across the field as if walking on a fur carpet, occasionally splashing through puddles as they crossed the roads. The foggy sky continued to descend imperceptibly and evenly to the ground; the air was quiet, warm, soundless. From time to time one could hear the whistling of a hunter, the snoring of a horse, the blow of an arapnik, or the yelp of a dog that was not moving in its place.
Having ridden about a mile away, five more horsemen with dogs appeared from the fog to meet the Rostov hunt. A fresh, handsome old man with a large gray mustache rode ahead.
“Hello, uncle,” Nikolai said when the old man drove up to him.
“It’s a real march!... I knew it,” said the uncle (he was a distant relative, a poor neighbor of the Rostovs), “I knew that you couldn’t stand it, and it’s good that you’re going.” Pure march! (This was my uncle’s favorite saying.) - Take the order now, otherwise my Girchik reported that the Ilagins are standing in Korniki with pleasure; You have them - pure march! - they will take the brood under your nose.
- That's where I'm going. What, to bring down the flocks? - Nikolai asked, - get out...
The hounds were united into one pack, and uncle and Nikolai rode side by side. Natasha, wrapped in scarves, from under which a lively face with sparkling eyes could be seen, galloped up to them, accompanied by Petya and Mikhaila, the hunter who was not far behind her, and the guard who was assigned as her nanny. Petya laughed at something and beat and pulled his horse. Natasha deftly and confidently sat on her black Arab and with a faithful hand, without effort, reined him in.
Uncle looked disapprovingly at Petya and Natasha. He did not like to combine self-indulgence with the serious business of hunting.
- Hello, uncle, we're on our way! - Petya shouted.
“Hello, hello, but don’t run over the dogs,” the uncle said sternly.
- Nikolenka, what a lovely dog, Trunila! “he recognized me,” Natasha said about her favorite hound dog.
“Trunila, first of all, is not a dog, but a survivor,” thought Nikolai and looked sternly at his sister, trying to make her feel the distance that should have separated them at that moment. Natasha understood this.
“Don’t think, uncle, that we will interfere with anyone,” said Natasha. We will remain in our place and not move.
“And a good thing, countess,” said the uncle. “Just don’t fall off your horse,” he added: “otherwise it’s pure marching!” – there’s nothing to hold on to.
The island of the Otradnensky order was visible about a hundred yards away, and those arriving were approaching it. Rostov, having finally decided with his uncle where to throw the hounds from and showing Natasha a place where she could stand and where nothing could run, set off for a race over the ravine.
“Well, nephew, you’re becoming like a seasoned man,” said the uncle: don’t bother ironing (etching).
“As necessary,” answered Rostov. - Karai, fuit! - he shouted, responding with this call to his uncle’s words. Karai was an old and ugly, brown-haired male, famous for the fact that he single-handedly took on a seasoned wolf. Everyone took their places.
The old count, knowing his son’s hunting ardor, hurried not to be late, and before those who arrived had time to arrive at the place, Ilya Andreich, cheerful, rosy, with trembling cheeks, rode up on his little black ones along the greenery to the hole left for him and, straightening his fur coat and putting on his hunting clothes, shells, climbed onto his smooth, well-fed, peaceful and kind, gray-haired Bethlyanka like him. The horses and droshky were sent away. Count Ilya Andreich, although not a hunter by heart, but who firmly knew the laws of hunting, rode into the edge of the bushes from which he was standing, took apart the reins, adjusted himself in the saddle and, feeling ready, looked back smiling.
Next to him stood his valet, an ancient but overweight rider, Semyon Chekmar. Chekmar kept in his pack three dashing, but also fat, like the owner and the horse - wolfhounds. Two dogs, smart, old, lay down without packs. About a hundred paces further away in the edge of the forest stood another of the Count's stirrups, Mitka, a desperate rider and passionate hunter. The Count, according to his old habit, drank a silver glass of hunting casserole before the hunt, had a snack and washed it down with a half-bottle of his favorite Bordeaux.
Ilya Andreich was a little flushed from the wine and the ride; his eyes, covered with moisture, shone especially, and he, wrapped in a fur coat, sitting on the saddle, had the appearance of a child who was going for a walk. Thin, with drawn-in cheeks, Chekmar, having settled down with his affairs, glanced at the master with whom he lived for 30 years in perfect harmony, and, understanding his pleasant mood, waited for a pleasant conversation. Another third person approached cautiously (apparently he had already learned) from behind the forest and stopped behind the count. The face was that of an old man with a gray beard, wearing a woman's bonnet and a high cap. It was the jester Nastasya Ivanovna.

Goths in Crimea: history of penetration. Dory Country

The Goths came to Crimea from the lower reaches of the Vistula. According to the ancient historian Jordan, they came from Scandinavia. The Greek Posedonius called the Goths “Germans,” and Cornelius Tacitus wrote that they had “hard blue eyes, brown hair, tall bodies.”

The Goths began to invade the Crimean Peninsula in the 3rd century. Historical sources claim that the penetration took place in the areas of modern Kerch and Perekop, near the capital of the Bosporus Kingdom and on the northwestern coast (from the Dnieper side). Having defeated Scythian Naples, partially destroyed and assimilated the inhabitants of Scythia Minor, the Germans became one of the main forces of Crimea.

At first they exterminated part of the Alans, but very soon they began to coexist peacefully with the rest of the Sarmatian tribe. The Goths living in the Crimea were neither Visigoths nor, probably, Ostrogoths. However, they had much more in common with the latter. The Germans gradually settled the Kerch Peninsula, the southern coast and southwestern Crimea.

Towards the end of the 3rd century, the Crimean Goths conquered the Bosporan kingdom and the rest of the peninsula. Some of the barbarians managed to occupy important government posts in the Bosporus and influenced the politics of the kingdom. Warlike by nature, the Crimean Goths took part in campaigns against the Roman army. The first clash with Rome occurred in 238 AD. e. Later wars were regular. The Bosporan state was forced to provide its fleet to the Crimean Goths, and after the decline of the Greek kingdom, in the middle of the 4th century, the Germans concentrated in their hands all power on the peninsula. It is known that during fierce battles with the Roman Empire, part of the Goths settled in the South-Western Crimea. The only city that did not recognize the newcomer Germans was Chersonesos.

Near Crimea in the second half of the 4th century. A Gothic state arose, headed by Germanarich, the capital of this power was the city of Danprstadirno. Soon political education ceased to exist, after in the 70s. In the same century, the Huns came to the Northern Black Sea region. Having withstood the enemy onslaught, the Crimean Goths continued to live on the territory of the peninsula.

Byzantium sought to control the territory of Taurica and did so as best it could. The Goths were a warlike people and the emperor hired them as a military force. After in the VI century. The position of the Byzantine state in Crimea strengthened, the Germanic tribes actively collaborated with its authorities and even became the military-administrative unit of their state.

The history of Crimea of that period is a story of friendly relations. To protect Chersonese, fortresses such as Mangup and Eski-Kermen were built in Crimea.

With the support of the Byzantines, Aluston and Gorzuvites appeared. The Federal Goths served in these fortifications.

The Byzantine Procopius of Caesarea wrote that somewhere in the north-west of Crimea “on a hill” there is a country called Dori, in which the Goths have long lived. The ancient historian claimed that there were no fortresses there and these people preferred to live in open areas. The same source says that the inhabitants of the country of Dori were protected by a wall built by Justinian I, took part in Roman campaigns and there were about 3,000 soldiers in one of the settlements. Historians do not know what kind of walls they were talking about, and only assume that it could be a series of fortresses located on the approaches to territories controlled by the empire.

The country of Dori survived the invasions of the Avars, Khazar aggression, and was under the protectorate of the Khazar Kaganate. The dependence continued until the 9th century, until Gothia became part of the theme of Cherson. From the 11th century to the 13th century the Goths paid taxes to Byzantium. The Bosporus at that time was already part of the Tmutarakan Principality.

The Goths in Crimea suffered greatly as a result of Turkish expansion. The Ottomans first massacred the inhabitants of Mangup, and then created their own Kadylyk on the site of the Gothic principality. With the gradual decline of Mangup-Kale, the descendants of representatives of the German tribes who came to the peninsula many centuries ago disappeared from the Crimean lands. However, small settlements of the Goths remained in the surrounding area, which kept the traditions of their ancestors for several hundred years. Researchers of the 18th century wrote about a phenotype unusual for Crimea, which occurs among residents of certain villages. At the end of the same century, the Gothic Greeks of Alushta and Gurzuf were resettled to Novorossiya. However, fair-haired Crimean Tatars with eyes the color of the sky are still found in Crimea today. They live in the Bakhchisarai region and on the southern coast of the peninsula. Scientists consider them descendants of the Goths.

It turns out that the Goths lived in Crimea longer than all other ethnic groups. During World War II, Nazi Germany took advantage of this fact, proving that many representatives of the Aryan race lived on the peninsula and Crimea should become part of the German state. The peninsula, together with other territories of the Northern Black Sea region, even came up with a name - “Gotengau”. It was planned that by 1960 5 million Germans would live in Crimea.

Goths in Crimea: agriculture, crafts, trade

We know practically nothing about the types of plants that the Goths cultivated in Crimea. However, Procopius of Caesarea argued that the inhabitants of the country of Dori were successfully engaged in agriculture. It can be assumed that, like their predecessors who previously lived on the peninsula, the Germans sowed grain crops.

Once in Crimea, the Goths came into close contact with the Sarmatians. It was from them that representatives of the German tribes adopted the experience of horse breeding. Later, the Crimean Goths actively used horses raised by themselves during hostilities and in peaceful life.

Among other things, the Germans of Crimea were skilled artisans. They were engaged in weaving, leatherworking, making ceramics and glass. Among them lived good carpenters and stone cutters. From the Romans, the Crimean Goths borrowed metalworking technology, with the help of which excellent weapons and beautiful jewelry appeared. During excavations at the Gothic burial ground of Suuk-Su, double-plate brooches, beads made of glass and stone, silver earrings, and torches were found. In the crafts of the Crimean Goths, scientists have discovered features characteristic of products from the Roman Empire and things made by representatives of other peoples of the Black Sea region.

The Crimean Goths were also engaged in trade. Tacitus also wrote that they know the value of gold and silver coins, but in remote areas commodity exchange prevails. Jewelry and wardrobe items made by Roman craftsmen were considered more sophisticated in the Gothic environment. Over time, high-ranking Crimean Goths and their wives increasingly began to buy luxury goods from their more civilized neighbors. Among the goods that came from Rome were silks, purple dye and jewelry.

Life, religion and culture of the Goths in Crimea

The Crimean Goths were unspoiled peoples. They wore straight clothes made of linen or woolen fabrics. However, from the 4th century. they have a concept of prestige. The nobility had to dress according to their status, otherwise they could be subject to ridicule. A similar case is described by Procopius of Caesarea. When the need arose to stand out, Goth women began to decorate themselves with massive pendants, earrings, and beads. Brooches were used not only as decoration, they fastened parts of clothing. Men preferred small jewelry and wore narrow belts and sword belt buckles for weapons.

Boys were taught to fight from childhood and they often used these skills in adulthood. During the campaigns in the Caucasus and Trebizond, which took place in 256-257, the Crimean Goths acquired slaves. Such slaves often professed Christianity, which provoked the penetration of a new faith into the peninsula. Despite the gradual Christianization, the Goths in Crimea did not forget the traditions of their ancestors. It is possible that they still believed in the forces of nature, in trolls, elves, gnomes and water nixes, and worshiped tribal patron gods.

Christianity could not please the tribal nobility, because its spread testified to the emergence of a connection with Rome. However, after a short period of persecution, it established itself on the peninsula in the form of Arianism. In the 8th century The Gothic diocese operated in Crimea, which in the 14th century. was transformed into a metropolitanate, which existed until the eviction of Crimean Christians in the 18th century.

The level of cultural development of the Crimean Goths lagged behind Roman civilization. However, scientists say that Gothic culture should not be underestimated. She was multifaceted and bright. The warlike people could not imagine life without competitions, horse riding, and soldier games. Preparing for battles was part of their mentality. The artistic crafts of the Germans are also a distinctive feature of their culture, although they did not always meet the needs of the elite of society. The oral folk art of the Crimean Goths existed not only for entertainment. With the help of epic songs, they remembered the history of their people and passed it on from generation to generation.

The religious views and cultural features of the warlike people can be traced in the burials of the Goths. In Crimea there are Gothic graves with ashes. The goths were burned and then placed in special vessels. Together with the corpse of a person, a horse belonging to him was sometimes cremated. There were cases when the weapons of a deceased warrior were also burned. Next to the remains of the body of the Goths they placed things that they used during life. Sometimes they were buried in Sarmatian burial grounds. With the advent of Christianity, they stopped burning the dead.

So, the Goths lived in Crimea longer than all other nationalities - from the 3rd to the 18th centuries. Perhaps their heirs still live on the peninsula. The Goths destroyed many Scythian villages and began the defeat of Scythian Naples, which ceased to exist under the Huns. The Germans conquered the Kerch Peninsula, Southern and Southwestern Crimea.

At the end of the 3rd century, they controlled the politics of the Bosporan kingdom and fought with Rome. In the middle of the 4th century, of all the settlements on the peninsula, only Tauride Chersonesus did not belong to them. In the 6th century, the position of Byzantium in Crimea strengthened. Since then, the Goths collaborated with representatives of the empire and served as federates in the newly built Byzantine fortresses.

Relations with representatives of the Sarmatian tribe of Alans among the Goths were rather friendly. This is evidenced by the appearance of the ethnonym Gotalans. It is possible that the Goths managed to create their own state, Dori. From the 7th to the 9th centuries it was under Khazar dependence, and then became part of the Byzantine theme.

In the 13th century, the Gothic lands became part of the Principality of Theodoro. And after the arrival of the Ottomans, the Crimean Germans almost disappeared from the peninsula.

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