Taurida: Encyclopedia II - Taurida - History

Taurida - History

Named for the ancient Tauris, land of the Tauri, Taurida was a part of the Mongol Empire in the 13th century and its successor state, the Kipchak Khanate of the Golden Horde. The region was the center of the nomadic Nogai Tatars and was sometimes known as "Little Tartary." In the 15th century, Taurida became the locus of the Crimean Khanate which was under the suzerainty of the expanding Ottoman Empire. In 1783, the Khanate was annexed by Catherine the Great’s Russia and this was recognized by the Ottomans in the Treaty of Jassy that concluded the Russo-Turkish War of 1787-1792. Taurida constituted a governorate (guberniya) of Russia (Russian: Таврическая губерния [Tavričeskaja gubernija]; Ukrainian: Таврійська губернія [Tavrijs’ka hubernija]) until 1918.

Following the 1917 October Revolution, Taurida was reformed as the Taurida Soviet Socialist Republic (Russian: Советская Социалистическая Республика Тавриды [Sovetskaja Socialističeskaja Respublika Tavridy] or Таврическая Советская Республика [Tavričeskaja Sovetskaja Respublika]) briefly in early 1918 before being overrun by the World War I Central Powers. After the reassertion of Soviet control in 1921, Taurida was divided between the peninsular Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic under the Russian SFSR and the mainland portions which accrued to the Ukrainian SSR and were divided between what would become (in 1932) the Kherson and Dnepropetrovsk Oblasts. Today the mainland portion forms parts of Kherson and Zaporizhia Oblasts while Crimea is the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, all subdivisions of Ukraine.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki