The steppe and forest-steppe of Ukraine and southern Russia is good agricultural land, but it was traditionally held by pastoral nomads. Any state that could drive off the nomads and fill the land with tax-paying peasants would expand its power enormously. In 1500–1800 this land fell to Russia.
"The history of Russia is the history of a country being colonized....migration and colonization of the country have been fundamental facts of our history.." Vasily Klyuchevsky, Kurs russkoy istorii, I, 20-21.
In the absence of a good map, locations will be given as approximately so many kilometers directly south of Moscow, and then so many kilometers east or west of that line. Thus, Kiev is about 600 south and 500 west, while Perekop at the head of the Crimean peninsula is 1100s and 250w. For contrast, France is not quite 1,000 kilometers from north to south and Moscow is about 1,000 kilometers south of the White Sea. Since these numbers are estimates, they should not be cited or copied.
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[hide]Pre-History[edit]
The steppe first appears in written history about 600 BC with the founding of Greek colonies along the north coast of the Black Sea. These cities traded Greek goods for Scythian grain. The Scythians were replaced as a ruling group by the Sarmatians, Goths, Avars, Petchenegs, Cumans and Khazars. At some point the language shifted from the Iranian of the Scythians to Kipchak Turkic. About 860 Vikings entered what is now Russia and established trade routes to Persia and Byzantium. They adopted the local language and formed a state (Kievan Rus) which gradually broke up into a set of linked principalities. About 1240 the whole area was conquered by the Mongols. Much of the Slavic population was driven north and west into the forested lands where they were relatively safe from Mongol raiding. As the Mongol Empire broke up, its western part became the Golden Horde with its capital on the lower Volga. These people adopted Islam about 1315. At the start of our period, the Golden Horde was breaking up.
The Players[edit]
The steppe nomads lived on the steppe north of the Black and Caspian Seas and raided north into the forest-steppe. It was their constant raiding the kept the southern lands free of peasants. With the end of theGreat Horde in 1502 they were organized as the independent Nogais north of the Caspian and those north of the Black Sea who were more or less subjects of the Crimean Khan.
The Cossacks: The Slavs who lived on the frontier became known as Cossacks. By about 1500 they had formed two military polities: the Ukrainian Zaparozhian Sich on the Dnieper bend and the Russian Don Cossacks on the Don River bend. There is a good reason why these two communities were so far from the settled lands. Many of the Cossacks on the upper Don had recently left the settled lands and were still in reach of the Russian government. Most of those on the lower Don had been on the steppe for generations, knew no other way of life and were out of reach of the government. The same applies to the Zaporozhians in respect to Poland.
The Khanate of Crimea: This new Khanate quickly became a vassal or ally of the Turks. The Khan had limited control over his nobles and even less over his Nogai vassals. Crimea could put up to 80,000 horsemen into the field and could conduct large-scale raids into Russia and Poland, especially with Nogai assistance. Many Crimean wars were largely slave raids. The export of captives to Turkey was a major factor in the Crimean economy. For a list of raids see Russo-Crimean Wars.
The Turks: This was a peripheral area for the great Ottoman Empire. The Turks had some control over Moldavia and Crimea, held a southern strip of the Crimean peninsula including the great slave port of Kaffa and held a fort at Azov. Turkish armies entered the steppe only twice during our period, although janissaries would sometimes accompany the Crimean Khan. The Turks were important because of their partial control of Crimea, their wars with Poland in the west, their implied threat to Russia if it moved too far south, and because they were the ultimate destination of slaves captured in Russia and Poland.
The Poles: The Poles, who expanded from the west, had a number of disadvantages. The core of the Polish state was in the west and Poland was often distracted by wars with western powers, especially Sweden. Poland was almost an aristocratic republic. Its nobles sought to protect their liberty by weakening the king, which also weakened the Polish army and made a consistent frontier policy difficult. Their main problem was the alienation of the eastern population. The core of Poland was Catholic, but the eastern lands were mostly Orthodox. Society in the Polish core was based on serfdom, but there was greater freedom in the east. Lords with land grants in the east would offer easy terms to attract peasants. Many people in the Polish east were runaway serfs or adventurers who had reason to distrust a strong state. By the 1500s, Polish claims extended east of the Dnieper to a point south of Moscow, although the area was thinly settled and barely administered.
The Russians: In the early 15th century, 'Russia' was a group of minor principalities north of the Oka River which were gradually falling under the rule of Moscow. Its Orthodox religion allowed it to claim the heritage of Kievan Rus. Its autocracy gave it a fairly effective army. Russia also had a conflict between serfdom and frontier liberty, but its political consequences turned out to be less important. Also like Poland, Russia was frequently distracted by unprofitable wars in the west. Brian L. Davis [1] suggests that Moscow's ultimate advantage was the comparative absence of restraints on its ability to command resources for war.
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