The policy of the Russian tsarist state towards the Crimean Tatars. Travel accounts from the late eighteen century to the first half of the nineteenth century

Anna Hedo; Oleh Ivaniuk

doi:10.31648/ep.12877

Published: 2026-06-30

No. XXVII/1 (2026)

The policy of the Russian tsarist state towards the Crimean Tatars. Travel accounts from the late eighteen century to the first half of the nineteenth century

Anna Hedo

, Oleh Ivaniuk

Echa Przeszłości

Section: ARTICLES

https://doi.org/10.31648/ep.12877

Abstract

This study relies on travelers' notes, diaries, and letters to analyze the Russian imperial nationalities policy pursued by the tsarist government towards the Crimean Tatars in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Particular attention is drawn to the epistolary writings of travelers representing different nations, states and cultures, and holding diverse political and ideological views, which allows for an objective reconstruction of the processes taking place in the region. In the late eighteenth century, the Crimean Peninsula was visited by, among others, Gilbert Romme of France, Francisco de Miranda of Spain, Peter Sumarokov of Russia, and the English travelers Elizabeth Craven and Mary Holderness. Dubois de Montperreux and the German Baron A. Gaxthausen made several trips to the region in the 1830s and 1840s. The analysis demonstrated that the imperial nationalities policy towards the Tatars aimed at the physical extermination or forced displacement of the most influential and active members of the population to the Ottoman Empire, as well as the resettlement and assimilation of those who remained. The instruments of this policy included economic pressure, such as the deprivation of land ownership and the restriction of rights, as well as religious pressure, manifested in the destruction of mosques, their conversion into Orthodox churches, and forced conversion to Christianity. The Tatars' cultural and ethnic distinctiveness was preserved through the cultivation of historical memory. Bakhchysarai and Ak-Mechet (Simferopol) remained the last centers of Tatar culture

Keywords:

Russian Empire, Crimean Tatars, Crimean Peninsula, nationalities policy, travelers, travel accounts

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Hedo, A., & Ivaniuk, O. (2026). The policy of the Russian tsarist state towards the Crimean Tatars. Travel accounts from the late eighteen century to the first half of the nineteenth century. Echa Przeszłości, (XXVII/1), 49–65. https://doi.org/10.31648/ep.12877

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