Krymchaks are the smallest people of Crimea. Small nation - Krymchaks Krymchaks in Crimea

Krymchaks

The ethnic history of the Krymchaks as an ethno-confessional community goes back almost 500 years. This era is divided into a number of periods associated with statehood on the territory of the Crimean Peninsula, the policies of these states towards the Crimeans, the consequences of which affected ethnic processes in the history of this people.

The formation of the ethno-confessional community of the Crimeans is associated with the emergence of the Jewish diaspora on the territory of the peninsula in the first centuries of our era and the spread of Judaism among other ethnic groups living in Crimea.

The basis of the new community was the primacy of the secular community<джемаат>over religious -<Къаал акодеш>, and the consolidation of the emerging new ethnicity was strengthened with the transition to a new place of residence, where the Krymchak community finally turned into a closed community with consanguineous ties, a special Jewish ritual that made it possible to preserve the remnants of pagan beliefs and traditions, which turned this group of Jews into an ethno-confessional community.

During the period of the Crimean Khanate, the main place of residence of the Crimeans became the city of Karasubazar (Belogorsk). Krymchaks also lived in Kaffa (Feodosia) - according to the Russian gazette of 1783 there were<62 крымских еврея>.

By the time Crimea was included in Russia, there were 93 houses in Karasubazar belonging to the Krymchak community of up to 800 people. The first blow that destroyed the foundations of the ethno-confessional community of the Krymchaks was dealt by the administration of the Russian Empire after the annexation of Crimea to Russia in 1783, which extended discriminatory Russian legislation to the Krymchaks in relation to Jews.

The introduction of Crimea to the Russian market, changes in the former economic and political centers on the peninsula, and the influx of new population led to the exodus of a number of community members from Karasubazar and resettlement throughout Crimea (in the 19th century) and beyond its borders (late 19th - early 20th centuries). . The number of Crimeans according to the 1897 census was 4.5 thousand people. In 1913, an initiative group of Krymchaks undertook a community census of their people. According to this census, there were 5,282 people, of which 2,714 were male, 2,568 were female. Considering that at that time up to 1.5 thousand Krymchaks lived in Simferopol, one can estimate the number of the community to be up to 7,000 people. Outside the Crimean Peninsula, Krymchaks lived in the cities of Mariupol, Novorossiysk, Genichesk, Berdyansk, Odessa, Lugansk, and Sukhumi.

Arrival in Crimea at the beginning of the 19th century. a large number of ethnic Jews led to the active displacement of Krymchaks from their ancient houses of worship, forcing them to build new ones, which caused confrontation with the Jews and further consolidated their own ethnicity in self-awareness. Literary sources of this time note honesty, cleanliness and neatness in everyday life, and the intra-community isolation of the Crimeans.

The establishment of Soviet power and the implementation of a new national policy had irreversible consequences for the Crimeans: a cultural and educational society was formed as a replacement for the institution of a secular community; religion is declared a private matter for everyone; the school was separated from the church, and teaching until the mid-30s. It was conducted in the lower grades in the Krymchak language, and in the older grades in Russian. As a result of this, religious education was lost, the native language was replaced by Russian.

The 1926 census noted 6,400 Krymchaks. With the introduction of the passport system in the USSR, Crimeans began to have<крымчак>, <крымчачка>.

Nazi Germany, having occupied the Crimean peninsula, carried out genocide of the Crimeans, as adherents of Judaism. If before the Great Patriotic War there were about 9,000 representatives of this nationality, then the 1959 census noted about 2,000 people.

After the deportation of the Crimean Tatars from Crimea in 1944, the Crimeans were subjected to various oppressions from the state: their nationality was no longer assigned<крымчак>passports, refused to open their house of worship, offering to profess a cult together with the Jews, censorship did not allow publications on the topic of Crimeans. At the same time, the cultural and educational activities of E. I. Peisakh began to collect materials on Krymchak history and folklore and united around himself those who wanted to deal with these issues.

The state's attitude towards community changed in the late 1980s. In 1989, the Krymchaks created a national cultural society<Кърымчахлар>, which set as its goal the revival of national culture and the almost lost native language.

Despite the loss of their native language, confession, and a number of cultural and everyday features, the Crimeans living today retain their ethnic identity, separating themselves from representatives of other peoples and ethnic groups.

During the Karasubazar period of history, the Crimean community lived compactly in the eastern part of the city along the left bank of the Kara-su River. This area was still at the beginning of the 20th century. was called the "Krymchak side". The houses of the Krymchaks, according to the testimony of authors of the last century, were built from rubble stone with clay mortar. The walls of residential buildings on the outside and inside were coated with clay mortar and whitewashed with lime. The roofs were covered with “Tatarka” tiles (a type of tile shaped like a medieval kalipter). The windows of the houses faced the courtyard; a solid stone wall and a fence faced the street, hiding the life of the household from prying eyes.

The usual dwelling, characteristic of the average Krymchak family, was preserved by the Krymchaks of Karasubazar until the 40s. XX century Its description is presented in an unpublished ethnographic essay by I. S. Kay: “The houses of the Krymchaks were built in the same way as those of the Tatars, mainly with windows into the courtyard. The average housing consisted of a kitchen (ash-khan), an entrance hall (ayat) and one or two rooms.

The decoration of the rooms was distinguished by a special comfort: the earthen floors were covered with special soft felt - "kiiz" - and rugs - "kilim", mattresses - "minder" were laid around the walls, long pillows covered with chintz covers "yan yastikhlar" were placed around the walls. All these pillows were covered with long and narrow bedspreads woven by the housewife's hand - "yanchik".

In the middle of the room there was a low round table “sofra”, at which the family gathered for a meal. At night the room turned into a bedroom, mattresses were laid all over the floor. In the morning, all mattresses and blankets were folded in a niche specially adapted for this purpose. They were carefully covered with white “charchef” bedspreads, “bash yastykhlar” pillows were placed symmetrically on top and the so-called “yuk” was built, now “yuk” is replaced by beds, “sofra” by tables, “minderlik” by chairs, clothes and linen are folded in chests, Copper utensils are placed on shelves. There is always enough dishes in every Krymchak house: when parents marry their daughters, they provide them with all the necessary dishes, in accordance with the various types of Krymchak dishes."

The Krymchaks' diet was based on agricultural and livestock products. Not the least place was given to fish, mainly from the Black Sea and Azov. The first courses - such as soups (shorva) and borscht - were prepared either lean or based on meat broth with the addition of dough and vegetables.

"Bakla-shorvasy" - based on lean broth with the addition of speckled beans (bakla), fried onions and homemade noodles. The basis of "bakla-shorva" was beef or lamb broth, white beans, noodles and greens. Borscht was prepared in meat broth - (uchkundur) from beets and cabbage; "Akshli Ash" - made from sorrel and spinach. Often soups were seasoned with meat "ears", such as small dumplings. In the summer, cold borscht was served based on lean broth with vegetables and herbs, with sour cream or katyk (yogurt).

Second courses were usually meat. Stewed meat (kavurma) was served with a side dish of fried or boiled potatoes, boiled rice or homemade noodles (umech). From fatty beef or lamb they prepared: "tavete" - stewed meat with rice, "borana" - meat stewed with cabbage, "kartof-ashi" - stewed meat boiled with potatoes and other vegetables, etc. Meatballs were made from minced meat - "kafte", various stuffed vegetables - "tolma" - cabbage rolls, "yaproah-sarmasy" - grape leaves cabbage rolls, "buber-ashi" - stuffed bell peppers, "alma-tolmasy" - stuffed apples, etc.

Dough products (khamurdan) played a special role in the Crimean diet. A pie was made from puff pastry stuffed with meat, potatoes, onions, tomatoes and herbs - “kubete”; portioned pie with meat and vegetable filling - “pastel”; pies with various fillings - “choche” and others, including sweet cookies. Various dumplings were made from unleavened dough: “suzme” - small meat dumplings served in nut sauce; “Flyadnya” - semicircular dumplings with cottage cheese or feta cheese; dumplings with various fillings, ears, noodles and more. Among the fried products made from unleavened dough, the most popular were “chir-chir” - hemispherical chebureks with meat filling, “sutulyu tablyu” - round chebureks, flat cakes - “katlama”, “urchuk” - cookies - brushwood.

A variety of sweet pastries and sweets complemented the table on weekdays and holidays. Everyday bread flatbreads - “pte” (like pita bread) were baked from yeast dough.

Among the drinks served to the table were coffee (kara kave), tea, and “arle” - based on toasted flour and honey - had a ritual character. Intoxicating drinks included buza, made from wheat, grape wine (sharap), and grape vodka (raki).

NATIONAL COSTUME

The men's clothing of the Krymchaks, according to the description of the beginning of the current century, consisted of “a blue arkhaluk, tied with a wide belt with silver decorations, regardless of a small dagger or a copper inkwell with all writing utensils.” This appearance of a men's suit is significantly supplemented by the testimony of I.S. Kaya: “The characteristic clothing of the Krymchaks is a round lambskin hat, a knee-length black jacket or coat, wide trousers at the bottom, soft boots of “mesta”, over which they wear “katyr” - heavy hard leather galoshes.”

The clothing of the Krymchaks consisted of underwear - bloomers of various colors, the lower part of which was secured to the ankles of the legs with garters (charaps) in the form of ribbons, decorated with ornamental embroidery of gold and silver threads. The outer clothing was a long caftan to the level of the ankles, usually in lilac tones, wrapped to the left, leaving a wide cutout on the chest (koklyuk), which was covered with a colored scarf.

The sides of the caftan and the cuffs of the sleeves were decorated with patterns of gold and silver embroidery. A black silk apron, often with lace, was usually worn over the caftan.

Old women wore a false headdress “bash bagi”, which consisted of several separate parts. The traditional shoes of the Crimean women were soft leather shoes - “papuchi”.

Young Crimean women rarely appeared on the street, “and then only covered from head to toe inclusive with white blankets.” The clothing of the Krymchaks was complemented by jewelry, among which a neck piece, such as a monist, was obligatory, consisting of silver and gold coins suspended on a cord. Other jewelry included rings, earrings and bracelets.

Belts, usually inlaid (filigree for the past - beginning of this century) - a mandatory gift from parents to their daughter-bride on her wedding day - were not worn every day.

TRADITIONS

Wedding ceremony

The age of marriage in the mid-19th - early 20th centuries for Crimean girls was usually 13-16 years old, for boys 16-18 years old. Even before the beginning of the 20th century. The custom of parents conspiring to marry their children was preserved, often when they were in infancy.

The future husband and wife could meet at some holiday or family celebration. The symbol of matchmaking was the girl's acceptance of an expensive gift ("Be"), usually a gold jewelry, which was presented by the matchmaker ("elchi") on behalf of the groom. This was followed by an enlistment - ("nyshan") - a meeting between the parents of the groom ("kuyiv") and the bride ("kelin") to determine the size of the dowry. Usually weddings were scheduled for the fall, less often they took place in the spring.

The wedding began on Sunday night (“yuh kun”). The bride's dowry was arranged and hung in one of the rooms of her parents' house ("dzheiz asmakh") for display to those wishing to inspect it ("dzheiz kormek"). On Tuesday (“ortakun”) there was a bachelorette party (“kyz kechesy”), on Wednesday (“kan kun”) there was a bachelor party (“yashlar kechesy”). On these evenings, the relatives of the bride and groom exchange scarves - ("marama sermek"), and the bride and groom present a traditionally obligatory gift to their "milk mothers" ("emchek ana"). The manager at the wedding (“Hitler agasy”) was one of the groom’s relatives or acquaintances. On Wednesday evening, invited guests and a clergyman ("rebs") came to the bride's house and took an inventory of the dowry. That same evening, the dowry was transported to the mother-in-law's house, where the women of the groom's family put things into chests, leaving only what was needed for the wedding - wedding attire, bed linen, pillows. They prepared a marriage bed for the newlyweds.

The wedding day - Thursday ("kichkene kun") began with the ritual bathing of the groom ("kuyiv amama") and the bride ("kelin amama") in the bathhouse. And in the dressing room an orchestra played, the ritual of bathing and combing the hair of the bride, bathing and cutting the groom's hair, seated in the central seats in the women's and men's sections of the bathhouse - "Orta Tash", was accompanied by dancing, songs, and a meal with new wine. Then the bride was taken home, where she was dressed for the wedding. The bride's clothes were white; a mandatory headdress for the wedding was the "ardor of chippers" - covering the face with tubes of bugles. The bride's mother put three gold monists on her - “yuzlik altyn”, “altyn”, “mamadyalar”. The father girdled the bride. After this, the mother, over her daughter’s head, broke into pieces a bread cake “pte”, sprinkled with a mixture of honey and butter, and distributed them to those present. All these actions were accompanied by ritual songs.

When the groom and his relatives came to pick up the bride, the “burst dust” was temporarily removed, and the bride’s head was covered with a special silk scarf, so that she could not see anything. The newlywed was taken out of the house by young married women (“sagdych”) appointed for this purpose, surrounded by children holding lighted candles in their hands. The bride's side gave gifts to those present and those who blocked the bride's path - scarves, handkerchiefs, capes, distributed wine and vodka, after which the road opened, and the newlyweds, surrounded by children with candles and relatives, went to the Crimean prayer house "Kaal".

On the way, the bride’s brother addressed her with a ritual song, the chorus of which “do, do, do:” was picked up by the children. According to Jewish religious ritual, in the courtyard of the "kaal" a canopy was installed on four pillars. The bride was again put on the “pool of burunchikhs”, and she went with the groom under the canopy, where they were married by a Krymchak clergyman - “rebs”. In addition to the usual prayers and blessings of the Jewish ritual, he took a rooster in his hands and circled it three times over the heads of the newlyweds. After the ceremony, the bride and groom, accompanied by songs and dances of the guests, went to the groom's house. In the groom's house, the wedding festivities took place separately in the men's and women's halves, where the tables were set. The meal was interrupted by songs and dances. In the women's quarters, the bride was seated in a niche for beds behind a wooden arch "krevet" - she had to fast. The guests left early Friday night.

On Friday ("ayne kun") morning, after the wedding night, the "khevra" women woke up the bride and groom and took the bride's underwear ("korymny"). From that moment on, the newlyweds were prohibited from intimacy for a week, and the young woman was not supposed to leave home. On Saturday (“Shabbat kun”) the wedding continued. In the morning the groom went to the "kaal", where he was entrusted with reading the Torah - the holy scripture. The bride received guests - women bringing gifts - "kelin kermek". To do this, she was dressed in all her wedding clothes, her mother-in-law tied a scarf on her head, obligatory for a married woman to wear - “kyih”, her face was hidden behind the “pool of burunchikhs”. The celebration continued at the set tables until the evening. In the evening, the young people left and the elderly came, for whom Shabbat food and sweets were served.

On Sunday, members of the funeral brotherhood "Chevra Akodesh" gathered in a separate apartment to examine the bride's "korymna". For them, the bride's relatives set tables with food, new wine and vodka, and they presented the "khevra" with gifts. For forty days after the wedding, the bride was not supposed to leave the house and show herself to strangers, observing the ritual of modesty. On the first Monday after the wedding, the newlyweds bought themselves a place in the cemetery.

Birth of a child

Even at the beginning of the 20th century, Crimean women gave birth to children at home. The birth was attended by the midwife "ebanai". A young nursing mother was always invited - one of the relatives or friends of the woman in labor. She was supposed to be the first to give her breast to the newborn and become his milk mother - “emchek ana”. On the eighth day, newborn boys were circumcised ("sunet"), and for girls, a name-giving celebration was held - "at koshmakh". On this day, guests came with gifts, “emchek ana” brought the drink “arle” and treated those present. This custom was called "kave ichmek."

Funeral rite

In the funeral rites of the Krymchaks, remnants of former pagan ideas reconciled with Judaism were preserved. This ceremony was carried out by the funeral society "Chevra Akodesh" - elderly men and women who voluntarily assumed these responsibilities. In Karasubazar until the early 1940s. the dead were buried with their heads oriented north-northwest in a rectangular grave with shoulders. At the level of the shoulders, the pit was covered with wooden planks or flooring and filled with earth. The cemetery was located on the opposite bank of the Kara-su River and women participating in the funeral procession were allowed to reach the bridge. On the way to the cemetery, the men sang a special hymn addressed to the god Tengri. At the cemetery, in a special chapel located at the entrance, the deceased was remembered with vodka, “choche” pies and hard-baked eggs - “amin yamyrta”. After returning from the cemetery, a wake (“Abel Ashi”) was held in the house of the deceased, separately for men and women, with food and alcoholic drinks brought by relatives of the deceased’s family. On the seventh and thirtieth days, as well as eleven months from the date of death, “tykun” was held - a wake with alcoholic drinks and a meal in the house of the deceased. Among the obligatory ritual foods at funerals were hard-baked eggs, which were sprinkled with a mixture of salt and pepper, and meat pies - “choche”, “cara alva” (black halva) and “arle”. The mourning of the deceased's family lasted 40 days. After 11 months, a monument was erected at the head of the grave.

The custom of a symbolic funeral service

Associated with funeral rituals was the custom of cutting funeral clothes and the symbolic funeral service for old people who had reached the age of sixty - “kefenlik bechmek”. Members of the funeral brotherhood, invited to perform the ceremony, cut trousers, a shirt and a cap, as well as a pillowcase, from white material, but did not sew them. Their work was accompanied by the singing of ritual songs, Jewish funeral prayers, the singing of secular songs, which were also sung at the request of the “funeral service,” and stories about various remarkable incidents and events of his life. At the same time, “azeken” - this is how the one over whom the ritual was performed was now called, lying on a felt carpet in the middle of the room, took an active part in the procedure of his “funeral service”. After finishing cutting the funeral clothes and presenting gifts to the representatives of "Chevra Akodesh", they began a festive meal with alcoholic drinks.

FOLKLORE

The first recordings of the oral folk art of the Krymchaks were made by the Krymchaks themselves. From the middle of the 19th century, handwritten collections “Jonka” came into fashion, the form of which spread among Krymchak families. These were notebooks sewn from separate sheets of paper, in which prayers and songs were written in the Krymchak language, individual biblical texts, both in the Krymchak and Hebrew languages, proverbs and sayings, songs, fairy tales, riddles, and conspiracies.

THE EAGLE AND HER SONS

(Krymchak parable)

One night a terrible storm came. Trouble approached the eagle's nest, and she said to her sons: “We need to fly away from here. But you are still weak for such flights, I cannot carry both of them across the sea at once. One will have to stay in the nest and wait for me to return for him.”

The sons perceived this news differently. One screamed and cried, afraid of the storm. The other calmly told his mother that he would remain in the nest to wait for her. The eagle took the trembling, squeaking eaglet, put it on her back and flew through the storm to the ground. When they were already halfway there, she asked her moaning chick: “Son, I’m already exhausted saving you. What will you do when I become old and weak?”

“Mom,” the eaglet squeaked, “I will take care of you every day and carry you on my back!” - and out of fear he trembled again and screamed. “No,” said the eagle, “such a wimp will never become an eagle!” - threw the chick into the raging sea and flew back to the island. She barely had time to snatch the remaining chick from the nest when a wave swept over the rock. The bird flew heavily through the hurricane. Huge waves threatened to swallow her and the chick at any moment. Halfway to the ground, she asked her second son the same question as the first. “Mom,” the eaglet calmly answered, “I don’t know what my life will be like. I’ll probably have my own family, children who need my help. But I will always remember you and take care of you as much as possible.” “You will be an eagle "- said the eagle mother, taking her son to the ground.

Since then, the Krymchaks have said: “The bird acts as it was taught in the nest.”

HOW THE WISE GULUSH NYSYMAKA HELPED

(Krymchak fairy tale)

A long time ago in Karasubazar (present-day Belogorsk) there lived and there was an old jeweler - kuyumdzhi Nysymakai (Grandfather Nysym). When his wife died, he decided to leave his craft, pass on the workshop and his acquired property to his three adult sons, and start raising his grandchildren himself.

I did it as I intended.

Soon, when he was visiting his eldest son, Grandfather Nysym began to feel the dissatisfied glances of his son and daughter-in-law. And a few days later the eldest son asked her if he would like to stay with the middle one. And although the grandchildren were crying and did not want to let their grandfather go, Nysymakai collected his knapsack and went to his middle son. He did not live long in the family of his middle son and went to live with his youngest. But he very soon told his father that he was staying with them. Nysymakai did not answer, although his heart was torn with anger and sorrow. He collected his knapsack, went out the gate and walked wherever his eyes were looking.

Old man Nysymakai is walking along the Krymchak side of Karasubazar on his rainy day, tears flowing down his wrinkled cheeks. And towards you - the beautiful Gulyush. It’s not for nothing that the name “Gulyush” means “smile”: the girl’s smile and beauty made the day brighter, and people became kinder and more cheerful.

"Hello, grandfather Nysym!" - Gulush’s voice rang like a bell. She noticed tears on the old man’s face and immediately understood everything, but did not show it. She said: “Grandfather Nysym! Come to me for chebureks!” She took the old man by the hand and led him to her house. She seated the guest in a place of honor, poured him a delicious black bean soup - shorva, and placed a dish with delicious golden pasties. When Nysymakai had eaten, and grapes and fruits appeared on the low table - sofra, Gulyush began to ask him about his grandchildren. Nysymakai loved his grandchildren very much, was proud of them and told Gulyush for a long time about their tricks and pranks. But then the conversation turned to his sons, and Nysymakai told his sad story. Gulyush listened to him, thought about it, and when the first stars appeared in the sky and the silver moon hung over Mount Ak-Kaya, she gave Nysymakai wise advice...

In the morning, Nysymakai went to the Krymchaks’ prayer house “Kaal” to the main priest - the rebs, placed a carved chest at his feet and said: “Oh, wise rebs! You know that I was a good jeweler, and now I want to bequeath my treasure to the one who will finish me. Let it be kept in the temple until my death."

The news of Nysymakai's treasure and will quickly reached his sons. With sweet speeches, vying with each other, they began to turn to their father with a request to live in their houses, repenting of their callousness and stupidity. The old man forgave them and first went to live with his eldest son. He lived with honor and respect. A year later, he responded to the middle one’s entreaties, went to him, and then heeded the younger one’s request. Nysymakai lived out his life for many more years, surrounded by the care of his loved ones, to the delight of his grandchildren. But then the day came when he closed his eyes forever. The sons and their wives ran to the wise rabbi to receive the treasure promised as an inheritance. Each argued that he examined his father better. The rabbi took the chest and said that he considered it fair to divide the treasure equally between his sons.

He unlocked the lock on the chest and threw back the lid. The chest was empty, only a sheet of parchment lay at the bottom. He took it, unfolded it and read the words written by old Nysymakai: “I bequeath to you, my sons, and to all people a great treasure - wisdom. Raise your children so that in old age they do not fear for their last days.”

Photos of beautiful places in Crimea

It is generally accepted that the Jewish history of Ukraine is more about Odessa or, at most, about Lvov, Kyiv and Dnepropetrovsk. And also about Uman, where Hasidim come every year. But few people remember Crimea in the Jewish context. And in vain. Scientists believe that the first Jews appeared on this land at least two thousand years ago, and in the middle of the last century, Crimea had every chance of becoming Soviet Israel. A huge Karaite community arose in Crimea, scientists, poets and revolutionaries were born... and there was also one of the oldest synagogues in the Union (but, alas, it was destroyed during World War II).

Khazar Jews

There are countless theories trying to determine the true origin of the Karaites and Krymchaks. Whichever of these hypotheses prevails, one thing is certain: both the first and second groups are associated with. Encyclopedias note that in the spoken language of the Crimean Tatars, the Krymchaks were called zyuluflyu chufutlar (“Jews with sidelocks”), and the Karaites were called zyulufsyuz chufutlar (“Jews without sidelocks”). In official sources, the division of the Jewish population into Crimean Jews-Rabbanites, Karaites and Ashkenazis appeared only at the end of the 19th century.

It is difficult to say exactly when Jews settled in Crimea. Archaeologists have discovered Jewish inscriptions on the peninsula dating back to the 1st century. BC e., and this gives reason to assume that Jews came to this land more than two dozen centuries ago. In the 13th century, the first Jewish community appeared in modern Feodosia, and in 1309 they built a synagogue (one of the oldest in the territory of the former Union), which was destroyed during bombing during World War II.

If we talk about the size of the community, the first official figures appeared only after the second half of the 18th century. In 1783, 469 Jewish families (about 2.5 thousand people) lived in Crimea, and almost a century later, in 1863, the Jewish population of Crimea reached about 5 thousand people - but divisions into narrower groups even within the conventional Jewish There was no group then.

The Karaites insisted that there was nothing connecting them by blood with Jewry - and they were able to prove it. Because they were no longer considered part of the Jewish people, they received more freedoms than representatives of traditional Jewish communities. So in 1795 they were freed from the double tax imposed on Jews, and then the Pale of Settlement was abolished for them. Since 1863, they received all the same rights as other free subjects of the empire.

Crimean Israel

After the revolution, the new government faced an old question - how to solve the Jewish problem? Moreover, Jews were primarily engaged in “bourgeois” activities, and in the new state the course was taken to switch the population to blue-collar jobs and peasant labor.

In January 1918, the Jewish Commissariat was created under the People's Commissariat of Nationalities, which, among other things, was engaged in the search for free land for the resettlement of Jews. At that time, Crimea looked like the most convenient territory for Jewish resettlement. The director of the Russian department of the American charitable organization Joint, Joseph Rosen, formulated the idea of the agricultural colonization of this southern peninsula by Jews, and it was officially voiced by journalist Abram Bragin and Deputy People's Commissar for National Affairs Grigory Broido.

In order for this idea to be realized as quickly as possible, money was needed. The Soviets didn't have them, but the United States did. In 1924, the American Jewish Agronomic Corporation "Agro-Joint" was created, which aimed to help Jewish colonization - the company promised to allocate 15 million US dollars for the project, but in return demanded full support from the Soviet authorities, an end to the persecution of Zionism, Judaism and Hebrew culture in the Union. A “Crimean Israel”, an independent Jewish region, began to appear on the horizon, but it did not happen. The authorities decided that it was not entirely correct to help the Jews, give them southern land for free and provide them with agricultural machinery and excellent livestock, while other citizens were obliged to cope on their own and go to the virgin lands beyond the Urals.

This project contributed to the growth of anti-Semitism in the USSR, the pace of resettlement was high, but the Jews were given the most difficult, poorly populated lands, and gradually Agro-Joint began to curtail funding. After the war, the idea of forming a Jewish state in Crimea became completely criminal - in 1944, Solomon Mikhoels, Itzik Fefer and Shakhno Epstein sent a letter to Stalin in which they proposed creating a Jewish Soviet Socialist Republic in Crimea. This was perceived as another attempt to sell itself to the Americans. Solomon Lozovsky, who edited the letter, was expelled from the party for “conspiring behind the back of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks with the anti-fascist Jewish committee on how to fulfill the plan of American capitalist circles to create a Jewish state in Crimea,” and other authors of this idea Over time, they passed away into another world - Mikhoels “got under a car” (1948), Epstein died his own (?) death (1945), and Fefer was shot by the verdict of a special judicial panel in the JAC case (1952).

How Mayakovsky campaigned to move to Crimea

In the late 20s - when plans to create a Jewish Crimea were not yet seditious - the Soviet government wanted Jews to begin to move en masse to Crimea, and any project of such a scale requires good propaganda. The mouthpiece of this campaign was Vladimir Mayakovsky, who, together with Lilya Brik and Abram Room, made the silent film “Jews on Earth.”

In 1927, Briki and Mayakovsky traveled around the Crimea, and it was then, apparently, that the idea of making a propaganda film appeared. Mayakovsky was the author of the script (and “author of the credits”) together with Viktor Shklovsky. The essence of the film is that Jews who live in cities and suffer from unemployment are invited to move to the difficult but wide Crimean lands and begin to develop them. Either hunger and lack of prospects in the capitals - or hard work, but with a bright future in Crimea. And then the picture describes all the benefits of this proposal.

The phrases of the film's characters, written by Mayakovsky, convey to the viewer a short and simple idea: there (in the cities) it is hungry and cold, here (in the virgin lands) it is difficult, but satisfying. “Before, the ox did not understand the Jew, and the Jew did not understand the ox. And now the Jew understood the bull, and the bull understood the Jew,” Mayakovsky’s credits say. And one of the characters, an old man (also in the credits) adds: “What didn’t I see in the town? I didn't see any bread! And here there will be bread. Because there is water and there is earth!” At the end of the 17-minute film it is written: “In total, about 100,000 Jews were resettled to the land. Much more remains to be done." Now no one can say to what extent these figures corresponded to the truth.

Ganna Rudenko

Additional facts:

Krymchaks

Krymchaks (kyrymchakhlar, singular - kyrymchakh; self-names before 1917 - eudiler - “Jews” and srel balalar - “sons of Israel”) - a small (today several hundred people) ethnic group, whose representatives traditionally professed Orthodox Judaism, lived in Crimea and spoke the Krymchak language, closely related to the Crimean Tatar language. Two views on the Krymchaks are widespread: some consider them an independent Turkic ethnic group, while others consider them an ethnolinguistic group of Jews. Among the Krymchaks themselves there are supporters of both points of view.
The Krymchak language is close to the Crimean Tatar language and belongs to the Kipchak-Polovtsian subgroup of Turkic languages. However, in modern spoken and especially written speech there are many Oguz elements, so the Krymchak language can rightfully be considered a mixed Kipchak-Oguz language. The Krymchak language has retained ancient archaic features, which, despite the noticeable influence of the Ottoman or Oguz language, make it strikingly similar to the Karachay-Balkar language, more even than to Karaite. At the same time, speaking about the Ottoman influence, it should be noted that this influence is manifested only in phonetics and some vocabulary, but not in morphology, which is very important when classifying the Krymchak language into the same group with the Karachay-Balkar and Karaite languages. Until the end of the 19th century, the Krymchaks called their language “Chagatai”. Structurally, the Krymchak language is a dialect of the middle dialect of the Crimean Tatar language, distinguished mainly by the presence of Hebraisms and some archaic features associated with the closed residence of the Krymchaks in a separate settlement of Karasubazar. Today only older people speak this language, and the rest of the Crimeans consider Russian their native language.
Some Krymchaks consider themselves an ethnolinguistic group of Jews and currently live in Israel, as well as in some former Soviet republics. In the early 1920s, the famous Turkologist A. N. Samoilovich, who studied the vocabulary of the Krymchaks, believed that they belonged to the Khazar culture. V. Zabolotny conducted blood tests, hoping to confirm the assumption of the non-Semitic origin of the Krymchaks. In Russian documents until 1917, they were called Crimean Jews. Analysis of Crimean surnames, along with Turkic ones, reveals Ashkenazi and Sephardic ones. According to one version, after the Roman Emperor Hadrian suppressed the Bar Kokhba uprising, some of the Jews who escaped execution were expelled to the Crimean Peninsula. The Krymchak enlightener E.I. Peisakh believed that the Krymchaks are the descendants of proselytes who accepted the Jewish faith at the beginning of our era from the few Jews who settled in Crimea.
The Krymchaks had a legend according to which the Krymchaks came to Crimea in the 8th century from Kyiv in a small number of families. There was also a handwritten prayer book from the 9th century. Taking into account the version that Kyiv may have been founded by the Khazars, who, being of Turkic origin, professed Judaism from the second half of the 8th century, we can conclude that this legend may contain a historical core.
Anthropologist S. Weissenberg noted: “The origin of the Krymchaks is lost in the darkness of centuries. One thing can only be said that they have less Turkic blood than the Karaites, although the well-known kinship of both peoples with the Khazars can hardly be denied. But the Crimeans during the Middle Ages and modern times constantly mixed with their European counterparts. Since the time of the Genoese, the surnames Lombroso, Piastro and others have been used for the admixture of Italian-Jewish blood. Cases of mixing with Russian Jews have become more frequent recently.”
Unfortunately, there are no generalizing works on the ethnography of the Krymchaks. The existing summary of folklore materials is far from complete. The anthroponymic data are somewhat more extensive, although they reflect the situation of the late 19th - early 20th centuries, without affecting the earlier period for which archival materials are available. The study of each of the listed groups of sources can shed light on the ethnogenesis of the small ethnic community of Crimeans.
The ancestors of the Krymchaks probably arrived in Crimea in ancient times and settled in Greek colonies. Recent archaeological excavations have uncovered Jewish inscriptions in Crimea dating back to the first century BC. e.
It is assumed that in the 13th century a Jewish community appeared in Kafa. In 1309, one of the oldest synagogues in the former USSR was built there (destroyed as a result of German bombing during the Great Patriotic War). One of the representatives of the Jewish community of Kafa, the merchant Khozya Kokoz, participated in 1472-1486 negotiations between Ivan III and the Crimean Khan Mengli I Giray. It is known that part of their correspondence was conducted in Hebrew. In addition to Kafa and Solkhat-Kyrym, the largest center of the Turkic rabbis (Rabbanites) in Crimea was the city of Karasubazar, where a synagogue was also built in 1516. The Crimean Rabbanite community also existed in Mangup.
At the end of the 15th century, the Jewish community of Crimea increased significantly due to Jewish exiles from Byzantium, Spain, Italy, the Caucasus and Rus'. Soon the Krymchaks began to be slightly assimilated by the Jews and they all began to merge into a single whole based on belonging to the Talmudic (that is, non-Karaite) model. An important factor in the process of this unification was the borrowing of spoken language, clothing and everyday customs from their Tatar neighbors. However, at the beginning of the 16th century, the Rabbanite community of Kafa was divided into communities that preserved the prayer ritual of the communities from which they came - Ashkenazi, Romaniot or Babylonian. Moshe HaGole developed a prayer book common to the Crimean Jewish communities, called the “Prayer Book of the Kafa Ritual” (Makhzor Minhag Kafa). But during the same period, the dominant role in the Jewish community of Crimea passed from the Rabbanites to the Karaites, who from that moment began to occupy a number of responsible positions in the Crimean Khanate. The Rabbanite community remains to live mainly in the eastern part of Crimea, in Kafa and Karasubazar. The Karaites also exceeded the Rabbanites-Krymchaks in number. According to some statistical estimates, by the end of the 18th century, Rabbanites made up only 25% of the total number of Jewish subjects of the Crimean Khanate, and Karaites - 75%. The relationship between the Crimean Rabbanites and Karaites, despite religious contradictions, was generally quite good neighborly, and these communities often helped each other.
In the 18th century, the community of Karasubazar was led by David ben Eliezer Lehno (died 1735), the author of the introduction to the “prayer book of the Kafa ritual” and the work “Mishkan David” (“Abode of David”), dedicated to Hebrew grammar. He is also the author of the monumental historical chronicle “Devar Sefataim” (“Speech of the Mouth”) in Hebrew, dedicated to the history of the Crimean Khanate.
By the time of the annexation (1783) of Crimea to Russia, the Turkic rabbinic Krymchak community of Crimea numbered about 800 people. Around the second half of the 19th century, Crimean Jewish rabbis also began to call themselves “Krymchaks.”
According to the 1897 census, 3345 Crimeans were recorded. Before World War II, about 6 thousand Krymchaks lived in Crimea. After the Germans captured Crimea, all Krymchaks were shot in the fall of 1941 along with other Jews. After the war, about 1,000 people remained alive - male front-line soldiers, and a few families who managed to evacuate.
Some of the surviving Crimeans were deported by the Soviet authorities to Central Asia along with the Crimean Tatars in 1944.
During the 1990s, several dozen Crimean families moved to Israel. Krymchaks profess Judaism and have the right to repatriation to Israel, since, according to the Israeli “Law of Return,” they are part of the Jewish people. The last Crimean synagogue in Tel Aviv closed in 1981.
The total number today is about 1.5 thousand people, including 600-700 in Israel, 406 people. in Ukraine (2001) (including 204 people in Crimea), 90 people. in Russia (2010), 173 people. in Uzbekistan (1989).

Karaites

Karaites (Karaite Crimean dialect: singular karai, plural karajlar; Trakai dialect: singular karaj, plural karajlar; from ancient Hebrew קָרָאִים‎ - “Karaite”, lit. reading) - a small ethnic group originating from Turkic-speaking followers of Karaiteism in Eastern Europe.
The traditional places of residence of the Karaites are Crimea, some cities of Western Ukraine (Galich, Lutsk) and Lithuania (Trakai, Panevezys).
The Karaite community in the capital of the Crimean Khanate, Solkhat (now Old Crimea) and Kafe (now Feodosia), existed in the 13th century.
At the beginning of the 15th century, the Karaites were mentioned by Johann Schiltberger from Munich in his description of Kafa. According to Garkavi, the Karaites settled in Crimea “in the 13th century. together with Eastern Jews, Talmudists (Crimeans)… [Firkovich collected] many manuscripts and documents… [and sought to prove] that the Karaites lived in Crimea even before the crucifixion of Christ.”
The main center of the Crimean Karaites was Chufut-Kale; Even in the 19th century, its population consisted almost exclusively of Karaites.
According to Karaite tradition, the Lithuanian prince Vytautas resettled 383 Karaite families from Crimea to Trakai, and later to Lutsk and Galich after the Crimean campaign in 1218/1392/1397. From there, the Karaites later settled in other cities of Lithuania, Volyn and Podolia.
The Karaite language belongs to the Kipchak group of Turkic languages. There are northern (Trakai), southern (Galich) and Crimean dialects. The lexical composition of the Karaite language is distinguished by the borrowing of a number of religious terms from the Hebrew language. The Crimean dialect of the Karaite language (traditional Karaite name - Leshon Tatar (Hebrew לשון טטר‎ - "language of the Tatars")) is noticeably different from the dialects of the Karaites of Lithuania and Western Ukraine, called Karaites Lashon Kedar (Hebrew לשון קדר - "language of the nomads") "). Currently, all dialects of the Karaite language, with the exception of Trakai, have practically disappeared.
The word "Karaite" came into use in the 9th century and was originally used to designate a religious group. In the Russian Empire, religion was indicated regardless of nationality. In the USSR, instead of religion, nationality was indicated. Accordingly, in Soviet Turkology the term “Karaites” was assigned to the name of the Karaite ethnic group. In modern Russian, this word defines ethnic affiliation regardless of religion, and much less often, religious affiliation regardless of nationality.
Being a Turkic people in language, folklore, traditions and a number of other characteristics, the Karaites nevertheless traditionally professed Karaism - a religion related to or interpreted as a sect. In this regard, there are two main versions of the origin of the Karaites: Semitic and Khazar. Both are still the subject of scientific debate and are not completely mutually exclusive, which is supported by a number of anthropological studies that prove, on the one hand, the difference between Jews and Karaites, but on the other hand, a similar difference between the Crimean and Lithuanian Karaites, as well as similarities between European and Mediterranean Karaites.
Semitic (Jewish) theory. According to this theory, Karaites descend from an ethnolinguistic or ethnoconfessional group of Jews who practiced pre-Talmudic Judaism. This theory was completely shared by the Karaites themselves until the end of the 19th century. Currently, the Jewish theory is sharply criticized by Karaite leaders, and numerous contemporary Karaite publications emphasize its rejection by the Karaite community. At the same time, some Karaite authors adhere to this theory. In addition, there is evidence that some of its supporters are forced to refrain from expressing their opinions publicly. Recently, supporters of this version have emerged in both Crimea and Ukraine.
Khazar (Turkic) theory. According to this theory, the Karaites are the descendants of the Khazars, a Turkic nomadic people of the 7th-10th centuries who adopted Judaism and among whose settlement areas was Crimea. According to a number of anthropologists of the 30s of the 20th century, there are similarities between the Chuvash and Karaites and, thus, with the Khazars. According to the Turkologist N.A. Baskakov, “the Karaites were part of the Bulgaro-Khazar, Uzo-Pechenezh, and only later - into the Kipchak-Polovtsian tribal union with the dominant Kipchak language.” Anthropological studies show differences between Jews and Karaites.
For much of their history, the Karaites at least did not separate themselves from the Jewish cultural sphere. However, after the annexation of territories inhabited by Karaites to the Russian Empire, a tendency arose among the Karaites to oppose themselves to the Jews. Since the 20th century, this trend has intensified even more.
Crimean Karaites and specialists in the history of Crimea recognize numerous facts of deliberate distortion of the history and religion of the Karaites. At the same time, both sides accuse each other of personal interest. The key question is the ethnogenesis and self-identification of the Karaite people. The relevance of the topic is explained by the political consequences.

Krymchaks, according to the definition of the TSB (1973 edition), are “small people...”, which, “apparently, formed on the basis of the ancient local population...”
Anthropologist V.D. Dyachenko writes: “The ethnogenesis of the Krymchaks is not clear. They were formed, obviously, on the basis of the local population, which adopted the Jewish religion, with a later mixture, probably, of Khazar, Jewish, Italian and part of the Tatar elements ... "
Krymchaks claim that they belong to an independent nationality. Orthodox Judaism, professed by the Krymchaks in the past, often led many researchers to a free interpretation of the ethnic group and confession (religion). However, it is common knowledge that ethnicity and religious affiliation often do not coincide.
Krymchaks, according to the office description of Crimea in 1783, lived compactly in Karasubazar, as well as in Kef (Feodosia), Mangup (a medieval settlement in the southwestern part of Crimea), Eski-Crimea (Old Crimea), Bakhchisarai, and in separate families in the cities of Temryuk and Taman. Their total number at that time did not exceed 800 people.

For the first time, the term “Krymchak” appeared in official documents of Tsarist Russia in 1859. Novorossiysk Governor-General Vorontsov, presenting some materials about the Krymchak to the Minister of Internal Affairs, indicated: their place of residence is the city of Karasubazar, one of the main occupations is gardening, crafts are hat making , leather; language is an adverb of the Tatar language (i.e. Krymchak, which differs from Crimean Tatar and Karaite in its lexical and phonetic features); the Hebrew script is used in writing.

Some scientists usually date the appearance of the Krymchaks in Crimea to the 6th-9th centuries. n. e., although there is evidence of Jewish monuments (Inscriptions on stones) of the first and subsequent centuries in Kafa, Sugdey, Partenit... The 9th century is indirectly confirmed by a handwritten prayer book, carefully preserved by the Krymchaks, with the date of writing or acquisition - 847. In 1930 The prayer book was handed over to V.L. Dashevsky, a researcher at the Asian Museum of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Leningrad.

Currently, this manuscript with biblical square script on specially dressed calfskin with one wooden cover is the oldest manuscript monument stored in Russia, and is located in the manuscript department of the library of the Institute of Oriental Studies of Russia in St. Petersburg. According to the 1897 census, which for the first time recorded the Krymchaks as a separate ethnic community, there were 3,466 of them. They mainly lived on the territory of the Tauride province in the cities of Simferopol (there was even a Krymchaksky lane here, which existed until 1944, now it is the Vostochny lane), Feodosia, Kerch and some others.

Ilya Selvinsky, poet, Krymchak

In 1913, a community census was carried out by the Krymchak community. According to this census, 5,288 people lived in 19 cities of Crimea and the Caucasus. Another 2,500 people lived in 14 settlements not covered by the census, including Simferopol. The total number of Krymchaks was close to 8 thousand people.
The surnames of the Krymchaks are specific and, with only rare exceptions, are found among some other nationalities (Tats of the Caucasus, Karaites, Gagauz, etc.). More than 30% of surnames reflect professions, crafts (Atar - pharmacist, Kolpakchi - hat maker), physical appearance (Kose - beardless, Chubor - pockmarked), ethnicity (Gurdzhi - Georgian), as well as places of residence in the past (Mangupli - from Mangup, Suruzhii - from Surozh).
The names of Krymchak men, as a rule, are biblical; for women, Persian (Guli, Gulyush), Arabic (Melek, Dunya), Bulgarian (Pyrva), Latin (Victoria, Dona) and others are often found. Nowadays, children are usually given Russian names.

A small number of surnames (about 120) and given names led the Krymchaks to the need to give nicknames (lagap), and, admittedly, they succeeded in this, since they used them widely in everyday life. Nicknames became an integral part of almost every Crimean family and very accurately characterized a person. Here are some of them: Ara-baji Mnemakai - Uncle Mnem the cab driver; Amamji Sterapay - Aunt Stera the bathhouse attendant; Balykhchi Nisim - Anisim fishmonger; Kok'ov Sakh - Isaac the stutterer and others. To this day, Crimeans of the older generation, thanks to nicknames, quickly and accurately determine family ties.

The revolution made a radical change in the life of the Krymchaks. Actively involved in building a new life, the Krymchaks organized educational programs, clubs, women’s departments, and youth organizations. Cultural and educational societies of Crimeans were created in cities.

Krymchaks, according to the 1897 census, were the most illiterate people. Only 35% of men knew Russian literacy; among women this percentage was even lower - 10. According to the All-Union Census of 1926, 6,383 Crimeans lived in the USSR. After the census, for the first time, nationality began to be indicated in passports: Krymchak, Krymchak.

The attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR brought untold disasters to all peoples. Those who lived in the territories temporarily occupied by the Nazis suffered especially. The racist policies of Hitler's Germany and genocide against entire peoples especially affected the Crimeans and some other national minorities living in Crimea.

The Crimeans of Simferopol, who had previously been registered allegedly to be sent to work in Moldova, were shot on December 11 - 13, 1941 in the Dubki ravine on the 10th kilometer of the Simferopol-Feodosia highway. But miraculously surviving witnesses to this barbaric action remained (R. Gurji and some others). They talked about the death of their fellow tribesmen after the liberation of Crimea in 1944.

By 1959, i.e., the first post-war census of the USSR, there were about 1,500 Krymchaks. But this number did not correspond to reality, since after the war the Crimeans were not issued passports indicating their nationality, but mostly they wrote: Jew, Karaite, Georgian...

This injustice was eliminated only after 1965, when the Crimean Regional Executive Committee decided to replace the passports of Crimeans if they had documents confirming their belonging to this nationality. However, not everyone was able to provide such documents; many of them did not survive after the war. Therefore, previously recorded nationalities often remained in the Crimean passports.

Censuses of recent years have recorded the number of Crimeans living in different regions of the country, but, as a rule, they have not published statistical data. Therefore, it is difficult to answer the question about the number of Crimeans at present. According to rough, unofficial estimates, their number ranges from 2.5 to 3.5 thousand people. They chose to live in small groups in the private sector in Sevastopol, Simferopol, Kerch, Feodosia, Yevpatoria, as well as outside Crimea.
The brutal extermination of the people during the war years and the process of assimilation (in the post-war period, more than 60% of marriages were mixed) led to the erosion of the ethnic group, the loss of the native language, and the weakening of national identity.

And yet I want to believe that this small nation, which has passed through centuries, will not disappear, will be able to preserve itself...

In modern ethnography, Crimeans are an ethnic group formed from several groups of Jewish origin who settled on Crimean soil in the medieval period and early modern times. “Krymchaks” is a late and rather conventional term, which arose only after the annexation of Crimea to Russia, in the first half of the 19th century, to designate local Turkic-speaking Talmudic Jews, who were sharply different from the rest of the Jewish population that began to settle in Crimea after 1783. One of the Krymchak enlighteners, I.S. Kaya, briefly defined the historical content of this concept as follows: “The Crimeans are a special group of Jews who have long lived on the Crimean peninsula and have largely adopted the Tatar culture.”

What were the Krymchaks called in sources of the 18th – 19th centuries?

In documents of the 18th – 19th centuries, the Krymchaks call themselves in Tatar “srel balalary” or in Hebrew “bnei Yisrael”, i.e. "sons of Israel". In addition, in various sources of an earlier period in Hebrew or Tatar, the Krymchaks are called “egudim”, “yagudiler” or “chufutlar” (all these terms should be translated as “Jews”, with the exception that the latter term was somewhat contemptuous in nature). For the first time, the term “Jews of Krimchak” (i.e., Jews of the Crimean sense) appears in the highest regulation on the box collection of 1844. This is, apparently, how local officials could introduce Turkic-speaking Crimean Jewish Talmudists to the Russian administration. Later, in the second half of the 19th century, the term “Krymchaks” became the main term to designate this ethnic community. However, the history of the ancestors of modern Krymchaks goes back to a much more distant past.

History of the formation of the community

So, let's start in order. In our opinion, the key time in the development of the Crimean Jewish community is the period of Genoese colonization and the establishment of Tatar-Ottoman rule in Crimea in the 13th–15th centuries. The year 1278 dates back to the message of the Karaite author Aaron ben Joseph about the calendar dispute between the community of Karaites and Talmudic Jews (rabbinists, or Rabbanites), then living in the city of Solkhat (otherwise: Kyrym, later Eski Kyrym, modern Old Crimea). This was the first mention of the ancestors of the Krymchaks. In the same 13th century, a Jewish community appeared in the city of Kaffa (Feodosia). In 1309, a large synagogue was built there, one of the oldest in the territory of the former USSR. In addition to Kaffa and Solkhat-Kyrym, the city of Karasubazar (Belogorsk) became the largest Jewish center in Crimea, where a synagogue was also built in 1516. It was these Jewish settlers who formed the basis of the community that later became known as “Krymchaks.”

In addition, small Jewish communities appeared no later than the 17th century in Mangup, Chufut-Kale and Bakhchisarai. According to some statistical estimates, by the end of the 18th century, rabbis made up only 25% of the total number of Jewish subjects of the Khanate (about 800 people), and Karaites - 75% (about 2,600 people).

Composition of the community

In the XIII-XVII centuries, a large number of Jews from other countries of the world arrived in Crimea. Among them were Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazi (European) Jews, Greek-, Ladino-, Tato- and Arabic-speaking Jews from Byzantium, Spain, Italy, the East, the Caucasus and Rus'. The surnames of modern Krymchaks irrefutably testify to the heterogeneity of the Jewish community. Thus, the surnames Berman, Gutman and Ashkenazi (Achkinazi) will indicate Yiddish-speaking emigrants from Europe and Russia; Abraben, Piastro, Lombroso and Trevgoda - for Sephardi immigrants from Italy and Spain; Bakshi, Stamboli, Izmirli, Tokatli and Mizrahi - to Turkey and the Muslim East; Lechno and Warsaw - to Poland; Gotha and Weinberg - to Germany; Gurji - to the Caucasus, etc. Finally, all the above-mentioned movements and communities merged into a single whole in the 17th–18th centuries. Like the Karaites, Crimean Jewish rabbis find themselves under the strong cultural influence of the Tatars, which, however, never went beyond the scope of cultural, linguistic and everyday borrowings. A particularly important part of this influence was the transition of all the above-mentioned Jewish communities from different countries from their native languages to the spoken Krymchak dialect (or, more precisely, ethnolect) of the Crimean Tatar language.

At the time of the annexation of Crimea to Russia, the Turkic-speaking rabbinic community of Crimea numbered about 800 people. In the 19th century, apparently due to the low economic condition, the Krymchak community was in a state of severe cultural decline. As the Krymchaks themselves testify in a petition to Alexander I in 1818, there was not a single person among them who spoke Russian!

In 1912, there were 7,500 Krymchaks in the Russian Empire, and shortly before the start of World War II there were about 10,000, with most of them living in Simferopol, Karasubazar, Kerch, Feodosia and Sevastopol. Simferopol became the main center of residence of the Crimeans at this time; In addition, in the late 20s - early 30s, two Krymchak collective farms were founded - “Krymchakh” and “Yeni Krymchakh”.

The heyday of the Krymchak community in Crimea was interrupted by the German occupation of the peninsula. During the extermination of the Jewish population of Crimea, about 70-80% of the Krymchak population were brutally killed - perhaps no other people of the Soviet Union suffered as seriously as the Krymchak people in percentage terms.

The blow dealt to the community was so strong that it was never able to recover from it. After the war, there were about 700-750 Krymchaks in Crimea, in 1959 in the entire Soviet Union - two thousand, in 1989 - 1448.

Nowadays

As a result of the tragic events of the twentieth century, the community was actually on the verge of extinction. None of the Krymchaks now living in Crimea speak Hebrew, very few speak the Turkic Krymchak ethnolect, and the religious tradition has been almost completely lost. During the years of Soviet power, cemeteries and prayer houses of the Krymchaks were destroyed, modern youth mainly emigrate to Israel. Currently, the Krymchak population of Crimea is only 228 people. This is the smallest people in the republic. The life of the Krymchak community of the peninsula is led by the cultural and educational society “Krymchakhlar”.

Krymchaks are a small part of the Crimean population, formed into a small nationality (ethno-confessional community) in the medieval period of Crimean history. According to the last census of the USSR in 1989, there were 1,448 Krymchaks, of whom 604 lived in Crimea.

The Crimean believers are Jews, but their liturgy differed from both Sephardic and Ashkenazi rituals, since at the beginning of the 16th century. The Crimean liturgy itself was created - the “Ritual of Kafa”, which made it possible to unite representatives of the multi-ethnic Jewish communities of the peninsula, on the basis of the old-time Turkic-speaking Jewish community. Until the beginning of the 20th century, researchers noted the cult syncretism of the Krymchaks, the presence of numerous surviving elements of Turkic pagan cults, and archaisms in the vocabulary of the Turkic language. This can be explained by the fact that the Turkic-speaking old-timer community until the 16th century. had its own long history. Judaism on the territory of the Crimean Peninsula already at the very beginning of its appearance here in the 1st centuries. AD acquired a peculiar ethnic connotation, using forced proselytism (conversion to Judaism) as a means of involving slaves - representatives of other ethnic groups - into the community. This is evidenced by the manumissions of the Bosporan kingdom - legal acts on the release of slaves, subject to their transfer under the protection of the Jewish community. In the VIII - X centuries. the arrival of the Turkic-speaking Khazars, whose state and ideology became Judaism, further influenced the consciousness of representatives of the Jewish ethno-confessional community and revived former pagan ideas and cults. From the period of the Khazar Kaganate, in the Crimean community of Karasubazar, a relic was preserved “The Book of Great and Minor Prophets” (kept in the funds of the St. Petersburg part of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences), dated by an epigraph-postscript - 847. Another postscript of this book reads: “I wrote this Ishak the clerk of the Kagan.” . Even in the 12th century. Messianic unrest (waiting for a savior - the Messiah) was noted among the Khazar Jews of Crimea.

During the Crimean Khanate, the main Crimean communities lived in Karasubazar and Kafa (it was directly subordinate to the Ottoman Empire). There were small communities organized like the Karasubazar ones in other cities of Crimea. The Krymchaks were mainly artisans - tanners, saddlemakers, saddlers, shoemakers, etc., but they had the skills of gardening, viticulture and vegetable gardening.

The arrival of the Russian Empire on the territory of Crimea changed the path of the ethnic history of many peoples who lived here since the 1st millennium AD. For the Krymchaks, the period from 1783 to the beginning of the 20th century became a transitional milestone on the path to European culture and education, sometimes cruel in the irreversible changes they did not understand regarding their traditional way of life.

During the years of Soviet power and the national corrections and leveling carried out in the field of culture, life and language, the Crimeans became similar to representatives of other national minorities. Having gained access to education and participating in the formation of a new Soviet culture, representatives of various professions emerged from among the Krymchaks, and a layer of intelligentsia emerged. An example of this is the poets Ilya Selvinsky and Yakov Chapichev.

The German occupation of Crimea (1941-1944) dealt an irreparable blow to the Crimeans - up to 80% of the people were destroyed by fascist genocide. In essence, the community was in danger of extinction.

The absurdity of the national policy towards many small nations in the post-war period of the USSR, which also affected the Crimeans, intensified consolidation processes within the community and contributed to the strengthening of self-awareness.

In 1989, the cultural and educational society of the Krymchak Krymchakhlar was created with the goal of reviving the national culture of this small, endangered people.

Ethnonym

<Крымчаки> (<кърымчах>) is the self-name of representatives of a small people (according to the 1989 census, there were 1,448 people in the territory of the former USSR, of which 604 lived in Crimea), which formed in the medieval period on the territory of the Crimean peninsula as an ethno-confessional community of multi-ethnic admirers of the reformed Jewish ritual.

In various documents on historiography of the late XVIII - XIX centuries. stands out as the official name -<крымские евреи>, and in the literary version -<крымчаки>, <евреи-крымчаки>, <константинопольские евреи>, <турецкие евреи>, <татарские евреи>, <крымские раббаниты>, <крымские раввинисты>. In scientific literature from the second half of the 19th century. ethnonym used<крымчаки>.

The Crimean community with the transition to a new place of residence - Karasubazar (now Belogorsk) at the first stage was formed from the community of Solkhat (Crimea). Perhaps the group's self-name is<крымчаки>, came to us from the name of the former place of residence of the settlers.

The ethnic history of the Krymchaks as an ethno-confessional community goes back almost 500 years.

Krymchaks of Karasubazar

Krymchaks are a small ethnic group that formed on the territory of Crimea many centuries ago. The history and ethnography of this people are still waiting for their researchers. But, unfortunately, the number of Crimeans is catastrophically decreasing. According to the 1989 census, 1,148 people lived on the territory of the USSR, of which 604 were in Crimea...

Along the left bank of the Kara-su River, immersed in the greenery of fruit trees, stretch the streets of the Krymchak community -<Кърымчахлар джамаат>. At the beginning of our century, this part of Karasubazar (today's Belogorsk) was called the Krymchak side. In one-story mud hut houses lived large families of Crimeans, mainly artisans - tanners, saddlers, shoemakers, blacksmiths, tinsmiths, jewelers, whose work was so necessary both for the residents of Karasubazar and its environs, and for the caravans passing through the city.

A very long time ago, when the Crimeans lived under the protection of the Khazar Kaganate - a powerful state stretching from the Caspian to the Black Sea - together with other peoples inhabiting Crimea, they adopted the ancient religion - Judaism. When the Khazar power perished in the 10th century, the Krymchaks remained faithful to their religion. True, in the old fashioned way, they still offered prayers to the supreme pagan God of all Turkic tribes - Tangra.

In order to practice their religion and survive among Christians and Muslims, the Crimeans united into a community of relatives. It was led by especially wise old men. They made sure that the laws and traditions of their fathers were followed, and that poverty did not affect Krymchak families. On holidays, a small sealed box with a slot was passed from hand to hand -<къумбара>, and people donated money to public causes. From the funds collected, the necessary amounts were allocated to support widows, orphans, and poor families.

In the houses of the Krymchaks there was a large stove, similar to a Russian stove - from floor to ceiling. Its inner chamber often turned into a bathhouse for one person.

Clothes were stored in separate chests. The men's suit consisted of tight trousers, boots,<мест>made of soft leather and a long caftan, belted with a sash - a wide belt on which hung a small Tatar knife.

Women also wore kaftans, and on their feet - shoes with curved toes -<папучи>. Women's jewelry was very diverse: earrings, rings, rings, breast necklaces made of gold and silver coins, a silver or gilded belt. The children's clothing was similar to their parents'. True, the girls' headdress was a fez - a cylindrical cap embroidered with silver and gold threads and small coins. From under the chamfer, many braided braids fell onto the shoulders.

The children of the Krymchaks got used to work early. Girls studied home economics and from an early age prepared their dowry for the wedding by embroidering patterns on various things. The boys spent several years mastering mental arithmetic, learning biblical stories and prayers, and learning the craft of their fathers and grandfathers.

The life of the Krymchaks has developed differently in the last five hundred years. There were weekdays, there were holidays, there were happy times, but there were also times full of grief and suffering.

Ethnic history of the Krymchaks

The 1926 census noted 6,400 Krymchaks. With the introduction of the passport system in the USSR, Crimeans began to have<крымчак>, <крымчачка>.

From publications about Krymchaks of the 19th - 20th centuries

From the publications of Pyotr Moiseevich Lyakub about the Krymchaks of the 1860s-1890s.

The entire number of Krymchaks extends to 800 male souls. Between them there are believed to be up to 200 merchants, who conduct a fairly extensive trade in all Crimean products in general. They mainly sell leather goods, such as saddles, shoes, ichigs, morocco of different colors, leather, leather balls, embroidered belts, suspenders, etc. Moreover, grain and wool are included in large quantities among the articles of their trade. They sell their goods at fairs in Kharkov, Poltava, Kremenchug, Elisavetgrad and Kursk.

Residents of these cities, who have never been to Crimea, do not distinguish Crimeans from Tatars in any way. The stamp of Tatarism is even more reflected on the wives and daughters of the Krymchaks. Young women are rarely shown on the street, and then only covered from head to toe, inclusive, with white blankets. Only in small shops here and there you will see old ones selling during the absence of the owner.

In addition to trade, Krymchaks also engage in crafts. Among them you can find excellent saddle makers, saddlers, upholsterers and, in particular, many hat makers. The latter will be numbered in Karasubazar up to forty or more.

The mental education and development of the Krymchaks is at the lowest level. All their knowledge (and that only of the wealthy and merchant class) is limited to the ability to read and write Tatar and bookkeeping; the poor class doesn't even know this. Despite the fact that their prayer book is written in ancient biblical language, they absolutely do not understand it. The Tatar language, one might say, is their national language; They do not study any other languages at all.

It is difficult to determine the time when the Krymchaks will completely awaken from their apathy and from their mental slumber... This unenviable position of them can be explained by the fact that, firstly, in their dialect, clothing and rights - Tatar, so to speak, they have completely merged with the Tatars and distanced themselves from rapprochement with their more educated co-religionists; secondly, that they are trying with all their might to elude the watchful gaze of our government, avoiding the opportunity to show any slightest sign of their existence. The most obvious proof of this is that even for many residents of Crimea the name<крымчак>known only by hearsay; outside the Tauride Province, one can say positively, they have no idea about them and do not even suspect their existence. In a word, the Crimeans (forgive me for the expression!) were constantly hiding under the skirt of the Tatar caftan...

Almost all Krymchaks are tall, dark-skinned, stately and slender. Directness is expressed in their gaze and posture. They are polite and affectionate. Their way of life is extremely simple and abstinent. Their attachment to the family hearth is extremely strong. Purity of morals is exemplary everywhere. The Krymchak family is, in the literal sense of the word, a patriarchal family in which the father, as its head, enjoys unlimited power: his wife and children obey him unquestioningly. In general, respect for elders is sacred and unshakable.

Among the Crimeans you can often meet quite attractive and even beautiful women, but they have no coquetry, no desire to please. This is because they constantly live in a close circle and very rarely meet strangers. Apart from their native colloquial Tatar dialect, they know nothing; Few of them speak Russian, and even then very poorly. They are extremely shy when dealing with strangers; Even with close acquaintances, they are reluctant to enter into conversations that do not concern them. They consider themselves only called to manage the household.

To the credit of the Krymchaks, it must be said that they are generally very fond of cleanliness and neatness - qualities that the poor class of Jews can hardly boast of. The poorest Krymchak’s home is whitewashed inside and out; everything in this home is in its place, everything has been swept, cleaned and put away; the floor is covered with carpets, and around the walls there are sofas, etc. In almost all Krymchak dwellings you will find some kind of ventilation. That is why the Crimeans, in general, are people who can boast of their health: among them we have not met any consumptives, anemic people, or nervous people, with whom modern humanity is swarming...

Religion alone connects Crimeans with Jews. They perform its rituals strictly. Twice a day, morning and evening, a Krymchak visits his synagogue and prays with extreme reverence. And in this regard, the Tatar influence left its mark on the Krymchaks.

Jews, as you know, read their prayers mostly out loud, and often go into some kind of ecstasy, especially Hasidim, while even making various kinds of gestures that make a not entirely pleasant impression on outside visitors to the synagogue; The Krymchaks do not have this: they read their prayers quietly and calmly, using a purely Tatar chant.

The sense of patriotism is highly developed among the Crimeans. Imbued with this feeling, they never shied away from various duties, including military ones.

From an essay by O.M. Lerner (1901):

<...крымчаки, или так называемые турецкие евреи, занимают совершенно изолированное место и если чем-нибудь выделяются, то только тем, что они с особым упорством отстаивали свою самобытность и поныне ведут замкнутую жизнь, чуждую всем преобразовательным течениям первой половины истекшего века>.

From the ENCYCLOPEDIC DICTIONARY of the Russian Bibliographical Institute GRANAT

KRYMCHAK, living since ancient times in the Crimea (mainly in Karasubazar and Simferopol) Talmudic Jews, like the Karaites / see. XXIII, 445/ speaking the Turkish-Tatar dialect, close to the Tatars in type and partly in customs and way of life, but religiously completely aligned with the Jews and, in contrast to the Karaites, completely sharing all the legal restrictions that weigh on Jews in Russia. According to the 1897 correspondence there were 3,466.

From ethnographic notes by S.A. Weissenberg (1912)

There are now about 1,500 families of Krymchaks; 500 each in Simferopol and Karasubazar, 150 in Feodosia, 100 in Kerch, 75 in Sevastopol. They are all very poor, engaged almost exclusively in crafts, mainly shoemaking. Recently, some of them, however, have emerged as major businessmen (Kerch, Odessa).

Jewish education, with the departure 12 years ago of the outstanding Rabbi Hezekiah Medini, who was invited by them from Turkey and lived among them for 33 years, greatly declined; the desire for general education is noticed only now, when for obvious reasons it has become inaccessible. It should be noted, however, that two Piastro brothers, violinists, have recently emerged in the musical field. In general, recently in the small world of the Krymchaks a certain desire for amateur activity has been noticed: schools, benefit societies for the poor, etc. are being established.

From the book of the state rabbi of Feodosia G.A. Farfel about the ancient Crimean synagogue (1912)

Due to the fault of Polish and Russian Jews, who failed to appreciate the memorial relics of this synagogue, in the place where the stones with carved words were located, a stage was erected, along which they ascend to the women’s department on especially solemn occasions, and thus part of the inscription disappeared. In general, the Jews who arrived worked hard to change the appearance of the synagogue and destroy all valuable things. Thus, thanks to them, a gallery for women was erected inside the building, which is why the synagogue on the inside acquired a completely alien character, reminiscent of the newest type of synagogues in other large Russian cities.

From a scientific article by academician A.N. Samoilovich, 1924.

The most complex is the pagan-Jewish-Christian-Muslim system of names (days of the week A.I.), uniting to one degree or another the Chuvash, Karachays, Balkars, Karaites, Krymchaks, and partly also the Kumyks, Bashkirs, Meshcheryaks and some Finnish peoples of the Volga region . We tend to trace this system back to the time of the Khazar state, i.e. to the VIII-XI centuries AD>.

Housing

Kitchen

The Krymchaks' diet was based on agricultural and livestock products. Not the least place was given to fish, mainly from the Black Sea and Azov.

The first courses - such as soups (shorva) and borscht - were prepared either lean or based on meat broth with the addition of dough and vegetables.

A variety of sweet pastries and sweets complemented the table on weekdays and holidays. Everyday bread flatbreads - “pte” (like pita bread) were baked from yeast dough.

Classes

Elements of the traditional everyday culture of the Crimeans, characteristic of the community during the Crimean Khanate period, were preserved in the middle of the last century.

In the 19th century The main occupations of the Krymchaks were crafts related to leather production. Among them are the production of leather and morocco, various footwear, saddle and saddlery, and the manufacture of hats. Onomastic information allows us to talk about blacksmithing and jewelry production. Crafts often coexisted with small trade. A small part of the representatives of the community of the 19th century. was quite prosperous and was engaged in various trading operations. Sources report their participation in various fairs held in the south of Russia during this period.

Authors of the last century noted gardening, horticulture and viticulture as auxiliary activities that coexisted with crafts and trade. At the same time, some Krymchaks traditionally produced wine and grape vodka. The subsidiary farm of the Krymchak family had both large and small livestock and poultry.

Shortly before the start of the Crimean War, part of the Karasubazar Krymchaks received permission to move to the northwestern Crimea, to the area of Lake Donuzlav, to engage in farming, however, after the end of the military campaign, they were forced, in connection with the royal decree, to return to their previous place of residence.

Currently, Crimeans work in various industries and are represented by a wide variety of professions, no different in this from representatives of other peoples of the former USSR.

National Costume

The Crimean headdress corresponded to the age and social category of the wearer. Girls wore fezzes of lilac tones, decorated with patterns of gold and silver threads; they were often decorated by sewing on small gold or silver coins. Young married women were required to wear “kyyikh” - a large colored scarf folded at an angle. Old women wore a false headdress “bash bagi”, which consisted of several separate parts. The traditional shoes of the Crimean women were soft leather shoes - “papuchi”. Young Crimean women rarely appeared on the street, “and then only covered from head to toe inclusive with white blankets.” The clothing of the Krymchaks was complemented by jewelry, among which a neck piece, such as a monist, was obligatory, consisting of silver and gold coins suspended on a cord. Other jewelry included rings, earrings and bracelets. Belts, usually inlaid (filigree for the past - beginning of this century) - a mandatory gift from parents to their daughter-bride on her wedding day - were not worn every day.

Traditional rites and customs: Wedding ceremony

Birth of a child

Funeral rite

The custom of a symbolic funeral service

Gender and age groups

Within the Krymchak community, various age and gender groups were distinguished, which were assigned a certain role in social, religious and family life. During the holidays, tables were set for men and women in different rooms; women could not leave the house without covering their faces. There was a division of men into four categories: boys - up to 13 years old; unmarried men - from 13 years to marriage; married men; The most honorable group was the group of old men "azeken", who underwent the ritual of cutting the shroud. The head of the family was the father, and in his absence, the eldest son. The female half of the family was subordinate to the wife of the head of the family. Before the birth of children, daughters-in-law often suffered humiliation in the family, performing the most difficult housework. They were forbidden to come to their mother's house on their own.

Secular community

The Krymchak secular community "Jemaat", which was led by old people from various social strata, monitored the observance of the rights and responsibilities of their fellow tribesmen. To resolve a number of issues, the head of the religious brotherhood “Kaal Akodesh” - “Rebs”, as well as other representatives of the cult, were involved.

According to information from the last century, the community monitored the property status of its members. At various obligatory holidays held by the wealthiest Crimeans, amounts were collected that went into the public treasury. The money from these fees could be used for the construction of various apartment buildings and enterprises, given as loans at interest to fellow tribesmen who decided to start some profitable business, and went to purchase what was necessary to support the poor, widows and orphans.

The Council of Old Men, led by the "Rebs", resolved various litigations between fellow tribesmen, while customary law was on the side of the poor.

Folklore

Holidays

Even at the beginning of the 20th century, all Crimeans observed obligatory Jewish holidays: Prym, Passover, Matyn Torah, Nam kun, Reshoshona, Kypyr kuny, Suka, Symkhas Torah, Tym Shabbat, Hannukah. Traditional rituals and food prepared by the Crimeans on holidays had their own characteristics.

In memory of the Crimeans killed during the Second World War, every year, starting from 1944, at the beginning of the second ten days of December, a general commemoration is held - “Takun” with a ritual feast, gathering the majority of representatives of the community in Crimea.

Achkinazi Igor Veniaminovich, researcher at the Crimean branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.