Crimea In War And Transformation

The Crimean War, or the Eastern War, as the Russians called it, razed the countryside and cities of Crimea, leaving a devastated nation in its wake. The most costly war fought on Russian soil, losses exceeded even those of the Napoleonic War nearly half a century before. Sustained bycivilians, the conflict collapsed only when the violence had finally exhausted Crimean land and labor. Crimea in War and Transformation is the first exploration of the civilian experience during the Crimean War to appear in English.With limited options, the people of Crimea shaped their own destinies during the war. Whereas some chose to donate or to sell their agricultural produce to Russian and Allied armies, others resisted requisition. Many families welcomed soldiers into their homes, and in Sevastopol, locals helped buildcritical batteries, parapets and other defenses. Local Russian and Greek nationalists turned to religious patriotism and enlisted in community militias to fight a holy war for tsar and country. Some Crimean Tartars actively collaborated with the enemy, while others remained steadfastly loyal to thetsar. At the apex of violence, hungry soldiers and desperate officials scapegoated Crimea's native Muslim population, leading to a deadly population transfer. Unable to eke out survival in a hostile and war torn land, nearly 200,000 Crimean Tartars were driven from their homeland to the OttomanEmpire. Those inhabitants who remained--Tartars, Russians, Greeks, Bulgarians, German colonists, Jews, and others--participated in the largest war recovery program yet sponsored by the Russian government.Drawing from a wide body of published and unpublished material, including untapped archives, testimonies, and secret police files from Russia, Ukraine and Crimea, Mara Kozelsky details in readable and vivid prose the toll of war on the Crimean people from mobilization through recovery.