Greek diaspora of Russia and the Black Sea ( part 1)

The Greek population of Russia and the Ukraine can be subdivided into six distinct communities, each of whose origins can be traced back centuries.

Those currently living in the areas of Moscow, St Petersburg, and other regions of Russia and the Ukraine, who are culturally mixed with the Russian non Greek population, after having settled on the Black and Azov sea coast between the 17th and 19th centuries;
The Romei, or descendants of the Greek population of Crimea, who speak Modern Greek albeit with distinguishable Mariupol and Crimean-Tatar dialects;
the Ponti or Pontians, who are descendants from the settlements of the Ottoman Empire (Asia Minor) who speak the Pontian dialect;
The Ouroumi, versed in the Turkish language, who descended from 19th Century Turkish settlements; and finally,
The Greeks from Pont, exiled to Kazakhstan, the Kirghizia and Uzbekistan under the rule of Stalin;
Descendants of Greek political refugees, who resorted to the Soviet Union after the end of Civil War in Greece 1949, and who settled in Tashkent of Uzbekistan.
The pattern of Greek settlement around the North coast and the ex-USSR can be traced back to ancient times.

References from Homer tell us that Greeks were appearing on the Black sea coast as early as the 8th century BCE.

This is likely because of the rich gold mining opportunities available and other metal sources conducive to trade.

Nevertheless, the Greeks invaded the region during the period of colonisation (6-5 BCE).

The first settlements were founded by the migrants from the Asia Minor’s coast and the islands of Archipelagos.

In total, 75 Greek settlements were founded between the 8th and 5th centuries BCE, many of which (including Kherson and Theodosia) survived until the Byzantine period.

The subsequent invasion of nomads in this area minimised traces of Hellenic life, and the Russian prince Vladimir adopted Christianity from the Byzantine in 988 from where Christianity gradually became recognised as the state religion of Kiev princedom.

Despite this, waves of Greek settlements continued to manifest themselves in the 15th Century.

It is noted that after Constantinople and the Trabzon Empire were captured by Ottomans in the 15th century, Greeks found shelter in different towns on the Black Sea coast or established new ones in orthodox Russia and Georgia, especially in the regions of Middle Russia, Caucasus and Transcaucasia.

Large waves of Greeks settled in these areas in the second half of the 15th century, at the time when Armenia was inviting workers from Erzurum Pashalyk (Ottoman Empire) for mining.

The biggest migrant wave appeared at the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century, particularly during the Russian-Turkish wars of 1768-1774 and 1788-1792.

The outcome of this migration was the formation of the Greek settlement zone which stretched out from Ismail and Bessarabia on the West to Taganrog and Rostov-on-Don on the East.

In the early 19th century, the emigrant wave from the Ottoman Empire recommenced; at the end of Caucasus war, Greeks were removed to North Caucuses, Kuban and Stavropol, mainly as refugees of the Ottoman Empire.

They assumed the name Romei and spoke the modern Greek language, whereas the other part of the Greek population spoke the Turkish language and were called Ouroumi.