CLAIMING CRIMEA 061-70114_ch00_3P.indd 1 8/19/17 8:54 AM hn hk io il sy SY hn hk io il sy SY hn hk io il sy SY hn hk io il sy SY 061-70114_ch00_3P.indd 2 8/19/17 8:54 AM CLAIMING CRIMEA A HISTORY OF CATHERINE THE GREAT’S SOUTHERN EMPIRE KELLY O’NEILL New Haven and London 061-70114_ch00_3P.indd 3 8/19/17 8:54 AM hn hk io il sy SY hn hk io il sy SY hn hk io il sy SY hn hk io il sy SY Published with assistance from the foundation established in memory of Amasa Stone Mather of the Class of 1907, Yale College. Copyright © 2017 by Kelly O’Neill. All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced, in w hole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers. Yale University Press books may be purchased in quantity for educational, business, or promotional use. For information, please e- mail sales . press@yale . edu (U.S. office) or sales@yaleup . co . uk (U.K. office). Set in Sabon and Berthold City Bold types by Westchester Publishing Ser vices. Printed in the United States of Ameri ca. ISBN 978-0-300-21829-9 (hardcover : alk. paper) Library of Congress Control Number: 2017937440 A catal ogue rec ord for this book is available from the British Library. This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 061-70114_ch00_3P.indd 4 8/19/17 8:54 AM For my daughters, Saoirse, Aoibhin, and Fiona 061-70114_ch00_3P.indd 5 8/19/17 8:54 AM hn hk io il sy SY hn hk io il sy SY hn hk io il sy SY Petersburg, situated upon the Baltic, is Russ ia’s northern capital; hn hk io il sy SY Moscow is its central, and may Kherson or Akhtiar be my Sover- eign’s southern capital. Let them see which Sovereign made the best se lection. — Prince Grigorii Potemkin to Empress Catherine II, June 13, 1783 (translated by Douglas Smith) 061-70114_ch00_3P.indd 6 8/19/17 8:54 AM Contents Preface ix Acknowl edgments xvii Introduction: Locating Crimea in Russ ian History 1 1. Geographies of Authority 41 2. Elusive Subjects and the Instability of Noble Society 84 3. Military Ser vice and Social Mobility 124 4. The New Domain 164 5. Intimacies of Exchange 219 Conclusion: Rethinking Integration and Imperial Space 259 Notes 293 Bibliography 321 Index 347 061-70114_ch00_3P.indd 7 8/19/17 8:54 AM hn hk io il sy SY hn hk io il sy SY hn hk io il sy SY hn hk io il sy SY This page intentionally left blank 061-70114_ch00_3P.indd 8 8/19/17 8:54 AM Preface When I began this proje ct, the Russ ian annexation of Crimea was a sin- gular occurrence in world history, and very few of my friends, f amily members, or casual acquaintances could do more than feign interest in this unfamiliar and seemingly insignificant fragment of Eurasia. But in late February 2014, Rus sian forces seized the local parliament in Sim- feropol. In a m atter of days a new government took the reins, declared ind ep end ence from Ukraine, and held a referendum. Then, on March 18, 2014, President Vladimir Putin brought an end to months of po liti cal upheaval and controversial military intervention by formalizing the an- nexation of Crimea, an autonomous republic of Ukraine, to the Russ ian Federation. The move sent shock waves across Eu rope, waves that continue to ripple through deliberations over the value of Ukrainian sov- ereignty and the shape of geostrategic policies t oward a resurgent Rus sia. A nonbinding United Nations resolution was put in place, af- firming the territorial integrity of Ukraine and rejecting the legitimacy of the Rus sian move, yet interest in the fate of Crimea itself vanished from the front pages and blogrolls of Western media almost as quickly as it had materialized. With the peninsula safely ensconced within the federated structure of the Russ ian state, Putin has a f ree hand to deal with those who refuse to accept Rus sian rule. The most vocal re sis- tance has come from Crimean Tatars—an ethnic minority whose legis- ix 061-70114_ch00_3P.indd 9 8/19/17 8:54 AM