In the article "Who are we and where are we from?", published in the Hellenes of Ukraine, the author noted that today "there is no substantiated theory of the origin of the Urums." In this connection, I propose one of the versions of the origin of the Urum people, substantiated on the basis of the latest works of Crimean historians.

Currently, on the basis of numerous studies, it is believed that somewhere in the 3rd century a new ethnic community appeared on the territory of Crimea, which archaeologists prefer to call the “Mountain Crimean people” or simply as “Crimean Christians”. In scientific circles, it is customary to also call this people "medieval Greeks." Unlike the "ancient Crimean Greeks", the "medieval Greeks" have their own peculiarities of formation, as well as the originality of their language and culture. If the “ancient Crimean Greeks” were from Hellas, then the Crimea was the birthplace of the “medieval Greeks”.

Specialists say that a rather rare process took place in the Crimea, the so-called "ethnogenetic mixing", during which a new ethnic group is formed by merging peoples not related by kinship. The main factor contributing to the merger that took place was the commonality of their religion, namely Greek Orthodoxy.

“There is no Hellene, no Jew, no barbarian, no Scythian, but everything and in everything is Christ” - this phrase from the New Testament perfectly characterizes the Urum people - the Christian Greeks - in contrast to the ancient Greek pagans. The medieval Greeks-Urums are the descendants of the Goths, Alans, ancient Greeks, Slavs and all those peoples who adopted Christianity and settled in the Crimea.

There is still a lot of controversy about the entry of Tatars into the ethnos of the Urums. Cases of the mass conversion of Tatars to Christianity are not recorded by written sources and are unlikely. Muslim laws, under pain of death, prohibit changing faith and marrying non-believers (only after they have converted to Islam). But no one persecuted the Urums for this, and the life of those who converted to Islam became much easier. That is why the Christian population of the mountainous Crimea decreased from 250,000 in the 15th century to 30,000 in the 18th century. During this period, the Tatar ethnos was greatly replenished at the expense of the Greeks, and not vice versa, as many researchers think. So it was not only in the Crimea, but throughout the Byzantine Empire. So, as a result of apostasy, a whole people appeared in modern Turkey - “kunaks”, they are, by the way, in the north of Greece. These fair-haired Muslims, former Orthodox, in comparison with them, remaining Christians, the Urums, are real heroes and keepers of the faith. It is not for nothing that on their coats of arms (and the Urums have several of them), the Urums tried to depict the victory of Christ over other religions. So the coat of arms of Mariupol (founded by the Urums), as well as the ancient coat of arms of the Urum princes Theodoro, found on the walls of the Crimean mountain fortress of Funa, symbolize this.

At first glance, one gets the impression that perhaps the Urums are not real Greeks. But let's not jump to conclusions. Because the Balkan and Cypriot Greeks themselves, in the same way as the Urums and Pontic Greeks, absorbed the ethnic groups of the peoples of Asia, Europe and even Africa, Christianizing them. All of them, like the Urums, are not 100% descendants of the ancient Greeks.

What is the native language of the Urums? Gothic? Turkish? Tatar? Or maybe now Russian? Not! There was a time when all the Urums spoke Greek. The language of the New Testament and Christian worship. This is the native Urum language.

Where is our homeland? In Greece? In Asia Minor? Not! Our homeland is the mountains of Crimea.From Inkerman to Demerzhi, from Demerzhi to Alushta, from Alushta - all the coast to Balaklava. The ancient country of Dori, the Principality of Theodoro, aka Crimean Gothia, was once fenced on all sides by Justinian's "long walls". There are our holy temples and mountain monasteries, cave cities and impregnable fortresses. That's where we come from.

Forty fortresses were counted in this area by a medieval Arab traveler. The name of one of the Urum cities was Kyrk-Or, which translates as 40 castles.Isn't it from here that the surname Kior, common among the Urums, originates?

Here, in the Crimean mountains, the Urum Greeks managed to create an independent state and maintain political independence for many centuries. "The last fragment of Byzantium on the Black Sea" called the Principality of Theodoro the famous American byzantologist of Russian origin A. A. Vasiliev. The main coat of arms of this principality was a double-headed eagle, the same as the Russian one, only without a crown. This is the emblem of the Byzantine emperors, with whom the Urum princes were related. A stone slab depicting this coat of arms, found on Mangup, can still be seen in the Simferopol Historical Museum. Unique written Urum documents have also been preserved. In Greek letters in Turkish, and not in Arabic, like the Tatars, all Urum written relics are written, which are still stored in Ukrainian and Russian archives. These documents, as well as tombstones from the medieval Urum cemeteries, are silent witnesses to the gradual loss of their native Greek language by the Crimean Greeks. Actually, because of the loss of their native language by the Greeks, the very name "Urum" appeared - which in Turkish simply means Greek. On this occasion, Genoese sources say that in the pre-Ottoman Crimea all the Greeks were called "Romans" and even the inhabitants of the Principality of Theodoro. It was only after the forced "obfuscation" by the Turks in the following centuries that the population began to be called - Urums. So in the late medieval Crimean legend "On the golden cradle and the golden anvil" the principality of Theodoro is no longer called the "Roman principality", but "Urum".

From all of the above, it follows that we - "Romans" and "Urums" - are really branches of one big tree more than we even think about it ourselves. As a prominent specialist in the history of the Crimean Greeks M. Arajioni notes: “The narrowing of the scope of the use of the Greek language in the southwestern Crimea and in the cities of Crimea led some of the Crimean “Romans” to the loss of their native language. Thus, "Urums" are Greeks who have undergone linguistic assimilation, and not "baptized Tatars", as some unscrupulous researchers write.

“Urums are former “Romans”.

MEDIEVAL MANGUP - FORGOTTEN

PAGES OF HISTORY

Comparing the map of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov and Crimea, many paid attention to the similarities in the names of settlements. When settling the Sea of ​​Azov, the Greeks often tried to leave the old Crimean names to new villages. So there was another Yalta, Urzuf, Stary Krym - even Mariupol. Mangush also belongs to the settlement with the same name. The current indigenous Greeks of this village - the Urum Greeks - are the descendants of the Byzantines who once lived in the Crimean Mangup. They can rightfully be proud of the name of their village and its glorious history. And that's why…

Anyone who has been to the Crimea must have heard of the so-called "cave towns". In total, there are 14 of them in Crimea. Now "dead", they stretched out in a chain in hard-to-reach places in the inner ridge of the Crimean mountains. Once upon a time, these were well-fortified fortresses, which had the city of Mangup as their capital and together made up the principality of Theodoro. Before the Turkish occupation, Mangup itself was also called Theodoro, and even earlier in the era of late antiquity Doros.

Now Mangup "Feodoro" is located in an amazingly beautiful mountainous area, which in itself is worth visiting. It is one of the most interesting "cave cities" of Crimea. In 1996, as an archaeological monument, Mangup was included in the UNESCO list of unique world historical antiquities.

Today, the history of this glorious, once very famous city is undeservedly forgotten and needs to be restored. Mangup is not just a city, it is the former capital of a large medieval state. In the Middle Ages, the city bore the Greek name Theodoro, which means "Gift of God". It was a large Christian principality at that time, which occupied almost the entire mountainous southwestern part of Tavri and had access to the sea - the large port of Kalamitu (now Inkerman). During its heyday, the population of the principality was approximately 150-200 thousand people

The appearance of the Principality of Theodoro is associated with the active foreign policy of the Byzantine Empire, which sought to strengthen the borders of its territory with fortresses and fortified lines. So on the high plateaus of Taurica, at the end of the 5th century. and at the beginning of the 6th century, a whole network of cities appeared, surrounded by impregnable rocks and formidable defensive structures.

In the works of Byzantine authors, Theodoro was first mentioned under Emperor Justinian 1 (527-665). The historian Procopius of Caesarea wrote a treatise "On Buildings", which refers to the activities carried out in Taurica. Procopius reports the existence there of a certain country of Dori (in other sources Doros), "which is inhabited by the allies of Byzantium." To protect them from the attack of the barbarians, the emperor ordered to put up "long walls covering the mountain passes." Back in the 30s of the 19th century, Academician Koeppen saw the ruins of structures in the passes of the Main Range of the Crimean Mountains, in which the “long walls” of the Byzantines were easily guessed. These walls separating the mountainous part from the foothills and the steppe were once the border of the Byzantine Empire.

When the Mongol-Tatars first appeared in the Crimea in the 13th century, the rulers of Theodoro (Doros) managed to establish peaceful relations with them and stay in their possessions. The Theodorites also coped with the Polovtsians and Khazars, with the Genoese and Venetians, who in turn invaded the Crimea.

From the second half of the 14th century, a large construction began in the city of Theodoro: the fortifications of the upper castle, the princely palace, temples and bridges were erected. All this was done by high-class masters. The heyday of the principality falls on the reign of Prince Alexei (1420-1456). He laid new fortresses and ports, upset old cities and towns. In 1427 he rebuilt the fortress of the capital. Alexei not only maintained good relations with the Crimean Khanate, but also interfered in the struggle of the khans for the throne, supporting one or another pretender. There is a known case when one of the Crimean khans, namely Mengi Giray, was imprisoned by Prince Alexei in a Mangup prison.

When at the end of the 14th century the Genoese captured almost the entire coast of Crimea, they cut off the Principality of Theodoro from the sea. In an effort to reach the coast, the ruler Theodoro recaptured a small strip of coast and founded the port of Kalamita (now Inkerman) there, while he gave a worthy rebuff to the Genoese invaders. It has always been like this, the freedom-loving mountain people Theodorites successfully fought and defended themselves against all those peoples who invaded Taurica throughout the more than 1000-year history of the Principality of Theodoro. Having founded the port of Kalamita, the Theodorites became a rival of many states in maritime trade.

Many ships from Byzantium and the Mediterranean countries were sent to Kalamita. This port remained the sea gate of the Principality until the end of its existence.

The Principality of Theodoro played a significant role not only in Taurica, but also in the international life of the vast region. It was associated with many states of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The principality was ruled by the Govras dynasty, relatives of the Comnices of Trebizond and the Byzantine emperors of the Poleologists.

It is known that in 1472 the Mangup princess Maria, the daughter of Olubey, was married to the Moldavian ruler Stephen III. In 1475, the Grand Duke of Moscow instructed his ambassadors to negotiate the marriage of his son to the daughter of the Prince of Theodorites. The marriage did not take place due to the Turkish invasion of the Crimea. The year 1475 became fatal for Theodoro.

The first blow of the Turks fell on the possessions of the Genoese. Kafa, which seemed impregnable, on the sixth day of the siege, surrendered to the mercy of the victors. On the peninsula, only Mangup managed to put up a worthy resistance. For half a year of siege, the Turks made five assaults on it. Only at the end of 1475, when they removed the guns from the ships and transported them to Mangup, did they manage to break into the city.

Obviously, the majority of Theodorites knew only by hearsay about the new weapon - the almighty destroyer of the city walls. And yet, neither the roar of guns, nor their granite cores with a caliber of 40 cm. and weighing 100kg. did not shake the courage of the defenders of the city. When the outer walls of the fortress, erected almost a millennium before, collapsed under the blows of siege weapons, the last stronghold of Prince Alexander was his palace - the citadel. The besieged were in a desperate situation, but they were not going to capitulate. Evidence of this is the remains of the defenders found by archaeologists under the rubble of the walls, as well as the found forge, arranged near the very gates of the castle. Here, in the midst of the battle, they continued to forge swords and spearheads and arrows. To break into the citadel, the Turks were forced to use cunning. Ahmet Pasha, who commanded the Turkish troops, pretended to retreat from the fortress, but left a detachment in ambush. And when the exhausted defenders of the city went beyond the walls of the fortifications, the Turks unexpectedly hit them.

Having captured Mangup in December 1475, the Turks plundered the city and carried out a merciless massacre of the inhabitants. Almost all of them were exterminated. Prince Alexander and all members of his family were sent to Istanbul, where the prince and the men (all his relatives) were executed, and the women ended up in the Sultan's harem. Only the young son of the prince survived, who later became the ancestor of a noble Turkish family.

With the capture of Mangup, the lands of the principality were declared the property of the Sultan, and his remaining inhabitants from other cities were his subjects. The principality itself turned into a Turkish kadylyk (district), and the dilapidated capital, called Mangup-Kale by the Turks, became its administrative center. Over time, the Mangup fortress was partially restored and adapted by the Turks for firing from cannons. It housed a large Turkish garrison until the end of the 18th century. The surviving Greeks, who lived near the old Mangup-Kale, soon founded another small village with the same name Mangup not far from it. Later, under the influence of the Turks, this name was transformed into the name Mangush, which migrated to the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov.

In this regard, we note that it is a mistake to consider the Urum Greeks, descendants of Theodorites, as Greek-Tatars. It was not the Tatars, but the Turks, who had the strongest influence on the culture of the Greeks of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov, the inhabitants of present-day Mangush. The Urums borrowed their cuisine, surnames, clothes and language directly from the Turks, which, by the way, can still be heard in the markets in Istanbul. With the fall of the Principality of Theodoro, his lands, as well as the entire coast of Crimea, went directly to the Sultan, and not to the Crimean Khan. And they have never been a territory subject to the Tatars. The Crimean Khan owned only the foothill and steppe parts of Crimea. The domination of the Turks over the Greeks of the Crimea lasted 300 years and, as we all know, ended with the arrival of the Russians in the Crimea.

Having fully tasted all the troubles of Turkish dependence, fearing the return of the Turks, in 1778 the last inhabitants left Mangup and its environs. At the same time, the once prosperous city finally ceased to exist. But the ancient Christian people did not cease to exist. Carefully keeping their faith - the most valuable thing they had left, the descendants of the Theodorites moved to the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov, where they gave one of their new settlements a borrowed old, slightly modified, Turkish name - Mangush.

Time erases a lot from memory, but the history of the harsh and majestic Mangup should not be forgotten. Because this is the story of a people who courageously lived, worked and fought against enemies, climbing to the clouds above others in the Crimea. A people that is still alive today.

The Urums are known as Greco-Tatars and are representatives of the Crimean peoples. This term includes Armenians who adopted the Chalcedonian faith, Tsalka Greeks who moved to the Russian Empire due to the attacks of the Ottomans.

Name

The ethnonym "Urum" comes from the Arabic word "Roman". Later, the word was transformed into a different concept. Under the Urums began to understand the Greeks. Initially, there was no vowel in the name of the people, however, due to the difficulty of pronouncing the word “room”, such a prefix appeared in Arabic.

Researchers emphasize the difference between the Urums and the Rumeians (Rameans), who are representatives of the Azov Greeks. Their main difference is the language. The Urums use Turkic dialects, while the Rumeans speak Middle Greek.

Language

Urum is related to the related Crimean Tatar. It has several dialects, namely:

• Kypchak;
• Oghuz;
• average.

This is the classification of S.N. Muratov. In addition to dialects, Urum has many dialects. There is also a very specific language related to folklore. The Urums rarely use it; Mariupol and Old Crimean dialects appear in it.

Story

Urums and Rameis are a single ethnic group with different languages. There are no exact versions of the origin of both representatives. There is an opinion according to which the Urums assimilated as Greeks among the Crimean Tatars.

The reason for the settlement of the territory of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov was the actions of the Russian government. There were fears of an attack by the Crimean Tatars and Nogais on the lands of the Russian Empire. By order of Empress Catherine II, the colonization of empty spaces began. By the end of the 18th century, the Greeks from the Crimea were resettled en masse, the task was given the highest priority, operations were led by such famous commanders as Suvorov and Rumyantsev. However, the Greeks were not forced captives of the Russian Empire. They were offered different lands.

The first in line was a site near modern Pavlograd. The Greeks did not agree to settle because of the small amount of forest and water. Catherine II hastened to give benefits that allowed immigrants to receive complete exemption from military duty, not pay taxes for 10 years and create their own self-government body. The measures taken by the empress kept the church administration in the hands of the current metropolitan. As a result, the Greeks were given the territory dedicated to the present Pavlovsk.
The pre-Soviet period was characterized for the Urums by the influence of the Ukrainian population. Living in the Mariupol Greek district, they inevitably came into contact with Russians and Ukrainians, which significantly influenced the cultural characteristics of the people. The Russian language began to prevail, and this concerned not only speech, but also writing. Many of the intelligent families studied in schools where they taught in Russian. However, due to the fact that the Greek community in the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov was quite large, the assimilation processes were suspended. This helped the Azov Greeks to preserve their identity.

The USSR contributed to the preservation of the culture of the Urums, popularizing theaters, schools, the press and literature in Greek in the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov. However, due to the lack of a sufficient number of teachers, the tendency of the native language to be replaced by the Crimean Tatar one was observed. As a result, the so-called New Greek was formed, which neither the teachers nor the students themselves knew, and this forced them to send their children to Russian schools.

Gradually, the Soviet Union began to curtail the policy of supporting the indigenous population of the Azov region, cultural institutions were closed along with Greek schools, and repressions intensified, including against the Greek embassy. Nevertheless, many of the Azov Greeks supported communism, which received a positive reaction from the Supreme Council. The Khrushchev thaw, which began in the 1950s, reduced the number of repressions, but further support for national minorities ceased. The policy of universal equality and brotherhood meant that any national differences were not significant. If at the beginning of the 1930s more than 80% of the 100,000 Greeks living in Ukraine considered Greek to be their native language, then by the end of the 80s there were less than 20% of them.

population

Almost all Urums live in Ukraine. The approximate number of representatives of the ethnic group is 250 thousand people. The bulk of the people are concentrated in the Donetsk region. In the census earlier, many indicated themselves as Ukrainians or Russians. Now the trend has begun to change in favor of originality.

A life

Urums fall under the law of Ukraine "On National Minorities". It guarantees people the observance of rights and freedoms, including cultural, social, economic and political ones. Active social activities are carried out on the territory of Mariupol. The population receives the necessary medical services. A festival of Greek culture and song is regularly held. Public figures from Greece come here, and in 2008 the President of the Hellenic Republic visited Mariupol. In the same year, the educational center "Meotida" was opened. It studies the Greek language along with culture and history.

Famous people

Among the Urums and Greeks of the Azov region there are famous personalities.

1. Pasha Angelina became the first woman to create a tractor brigade, which consisted exclusively of women. She became a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union many times. Twice became a hero of socialist labor.
2. George Bakhchivandzhi, a well-known pilot who participated in the Great Patriotic War, received great fame. He was the first to test a jet aircraft and died in 1943. He was awarded the rank of captain.
3. Konstantin Chelpan is one of the most famous engineers of the Soviet Union. For a long time he was engaged in the development of the design of diesel engines. It was he who created the engine for the most famous Soviet tank T-34.

culture

The most important cultural phenomenon in the life of the Urums is folklore. There were several types of fairy tales:

• about animals;
• song tales;
• prosaic with ancient oriental motifs;
• diverse, arising on the basis of the assimilation of the cultures of other peoples.

A characteristic feature of all fairy tales is the upholding of power and wisdom.

Using the example of heroes, the reader can understand who is a coward, who is cunning, and who is a fool. All fairy tales are written in a simple language, they use a lot of everyday expressions. Stylistic language is neutral.

A clear example of fairy tales with ancient Eastern motifs is the legend “About mother and children”, which tells about two daughters and one son. The essence of her story comes down to the punishment of children for the fact that they refused to help their mother in difficult times. As a result, the eldest daughter turns into a turtle, the son becomes a hedgehog. Only the youngest daughter came to the rescue, although she also turns into a different creature, becoming a bee.

Traditions

During the wedding celebration, the songs practically do not subside. They accompany the entire process of the ceremony, telling stories about the bride and groom. Until the 19th century the practice of early marriages persisted. The girl's dowry was prepared from a young age. As a rule, carpets, silks, bed linen, tablecloths, clothes acted as his role. To show readiness for marriage, the girl had to demonstrate her ability in needlework. Embroidery and crocheting enjoyed special honor. A real craftswoman should have been able to knit lace. In the old days, the future bride or groom was chosen for the girl and the boy from the cradle. Young people were rarely introduced to each other. They received such an opportunity only during the engagement ceremony. Marriages have always been strong and rarely broke up.

Each wedding ceremony involved matchmaking. Matchmakers came to the girl and her parents in the house, handing a bottle of wine or vodka. Despite the fact that everything was predetermined in advance, the bride's relatives often refused, giving a tavern (pumpkin, zucchini). In addition to him, nuts and forks served as symbols of refusal. From the side of the groom, they gave fruits, silk scarves, jewelry and dresses.
The bride and groom were allowed to sit in a separate room together during the negotiations of their parents. The traditional gift of a girl for her future husband has always been a shirt. At the matchmaking, guests should be treated to fried fish and a puff pastry stuffed with rice and meat.

The godfathers must also come to the wedding celebration. The matchmaker took the lead over the process. Girlfriends from the side of the bride had to take a rooster with them to perform a dance with him. Then the bird was given to the groomsmen. Songs were sung not only by women, but also by men. Arriving at the groom's house, the young meet their parents. His mother must hold a plate in her hands, which was previously filled with grain and coins. The ritual has been preserved to this day. Approaching the mother, the bride and groom bow their heads, and the groom's mother raises the plate over their heads three times, wishing for long years and sweet bread.

The Panair holiday is very popular among the Urums. It is a whole feast, usually celebrated in June. Prepare for it in advance, calling people from all the surrounding villages. Only men come to the meeting, widowed women do not participate in the celebration. The headman of the village always took over the leadership of the holiday. Each household is required to prepare a dish to be served on the table. The richest present a ram. During the "Panair" races and wrestling are held. From each village, the strongest and most famous wrestler was selected. If he won, then his reward was truly great - to bring a ram to his native village meant to arrange a grand feast. Now horse races have become a rarity, but the tradition of wrestling (kuresh) is still preserved. The clashes of wrestlers are accompanied by songs and dances.

Another favorite holiday among many Urums is the “Mouse”. It competes in the art of performing music, using tambourines, zurna and violin. In the New Year, it is customary to congratulate the inhabitants of the whole village, bypassing each house. In the morning, the family eats a pie in which coins are placed. They eat the pie carefully, if a coin comes across, then a person will receive happiness in the new year.

Urums are familiar with Easter, before which they thoroughly clean the house. Nothing can be done on Good Friday, the next day it is customary to clean up the house and go to church in the evening. On Sunday morning it's time for a celebratory breakfast.

In the traditions of the Urums, the pronunciation of proverbs has been preserved, not only on holidays, but also in everyday life. The proverb helps a person to show himself wise, cultured and intelligent. In the vocabulary of the Urums, there are tens of thousands of proverbs, including Greek, Ukrainian, Russian. Many of them appeared under the influence of circumstances. There are 12 proverbs devoted to labor alone, 40 to stinginess, and more than 20 about life itself. Among the unique Urum proverbs, there is a rather interesting one that sounds like “If you get hit with a stone, hit with bread in response.” Literally, it should be understood as the expression "You cannot keep evil in yourself." This perfectly characterizes the Urums as positive and persistent people.

Video

In the 8th century, it arose as a settlement of Akrits, a settlement that already under the Tatars received the name Bashi Yeni-sala. Located on an elevated place at the crossroads leading to the modern villages of Polyana and Putilovka, it was in fact a small town with beautiful buildings, judging by the ruins. It is difficult to say the reasons, but during the late Middle Ages, the inhabitants of the settlement moved to the site of the present village of Novopole, which was quite significant in the 15th century.

Dermenskoy (Dermen-koy) is located on the southern slope of the main mountain range at an altitude of 200 - 250 meters above sea level. He was famous for fruit trees, especially walnut trees. Salgir is the most significant river on the Crimean peninsula. It originates on the slope of the Yaila, at the foot of the Chatyrdag and flows into the Sivash, on its banks the village of Salgir Yeni - sala was located.

The village of Cherkes-Kermen was located in the valley of Kara-Kuba, not far from Eski-Kermen (Dzhingiz-Kermen), founded in the 5th or 6th century, destroyed by the hordes of Nogai in 1299. Probably the inhabitants of Eski-Kermen, who survived the massacre, founded the village. Nearby is a large group of caves, located in four tiers, where the monks who fled from Byzantium during the period of iconoclasm settled. The settlement was called Shulya. Later, the Genoese settled here, planting beautiful vineyards. The settlement is also known for having a well with the coldest water in Crimea (6.5 degrees). The settlement of Karakuba must have been located in the same valley.

Yalta, also known as Yalita, Jalita, was first mentioned in 1145. under the name of Jalita; on geographical maps of the XIV century. she is designated as Kallita, Hyalita and Etalita. In the Middle Ages, the city came under the possession of the Genoese, who were forced out by the Turks.

In addition to the names of settlements, it is interesting to trace and analyze the names of the Mariupol Greeks. Of course, this kind of occupation is not only interesting, but also very painstaking. Some Greeks have purely Russian surnames: Konstantinov, Popov, Davydov, Ivanov. Of course, they were received during or after the resettlement. The other part has obvious Turkic linguistic roots (not only among the Greek-Tatars). For example, Pichakhchi: in any Turkic language "Pichakh"; - means "knife";; Yagmur - rain. The third part is mixed. Two words are easily guessed in the surname Megelbey: mega (Greek big) and bey (Turkic master). The fourth - has purely Greek linguistic roots: Khalaji - in Greek hail; Trandafilov - from the word "rose";. Part of the surnames, about which I. Dzhukha rightly writes , has very ancient roots. We spoke about the origin of the Akrytov surname earlier; the surname Archelaus, found among the Mariupol Greeks, is generally of ancient Macedonian origin . In addition to official surnames, the Mariupol Greeks had so-called street surnames. My maternal relatives, for example, had the surname Pichakhchi, and the street name was Chundukh (fat-tailed breed of sheep).

Let us return, however, to the process of resettlement itself. Despite the fact that the majority of the inhabitants of the listed points agreed to it, before leaving, and A.V. Suvorov reported to G.A. Potemkin about this, a small group of Greeks protested against the resettlement (perhaps at the instigation of the Tatars). Those leaving Bakhchisaray were escorted by Shagin Giray himself. According to the statement, 18391 people came out of 3736 households (9235 - males), Georgians - 219, Moldavians (Vlachs) - 161 people, one metropolitan, 83 priests, 3 monks. Together with them, the Armenians, who settled near Rostov-on-Don, came out. About 20 thousand Greeks, residents of Kapsikhora, Iskut, Tauk, Kuru-Ozen, Muskolmya and some others, decided to stay in the Crimea. The Greeks of the city of Kerch and the surrounding area, which entered in 1774, did not participate in the resettlement either. into the Russian Empire.

Crimean (Mariupol) Greeks, on the basis of language, are divided into Greek Hellenes and Greek Tatars. The latter use the Tatar dialect and are in the bulk, no doubt, fragments of various other peoples, for the most part, Alans. Even outwardly they subtly differ from the Greco-Hellenes. The Greek-Tatars probably also included those of the Greeks who, for one reason or another, had close contact with the Tatars and gradually mastered their customs and language. However, the Greek-Hellenics use the Dorian dialect, so spoiled by long communication with other peoples and separation from their ancestral home, that those who know modern Greek (Modern Greek) only hardly understand them. I don’t know the reasons, but the Greek-Hellenics for the most part, as noted even during the resettlement, knew the Greek-Tatar dialect, at the same time, the Greek-Tatars did not have a wide knowledge of Greek-Hellenic. Today, in the places where the Mariupol Greeks live, there is a widespread opinion that some of the Greeks allegedly compromised with the Tatars: in exchange for maintaining the Christian faith, they had to use the Tatar language. The idea is attractive to vanity, but does not stand up to scrutiny. For Muslims in general, and for Turks in particular, it was not language at all, but faith and only faith was the center of pressure. It doesn’t matter what language you speak, as long as you pray, the surah of the Koran was uttered in Arabic. In addition, how to trace what language a husband speaks with his wife in bed or with his sons in an open field? Who took upon himself the responsibility of translating church books from Greek (faith, according to legend, was preserved)? And most importantly: after all, the Greco-Tatars are still sometimes called (offensively) ";Alans";. I think the preserved insulting word solves the issue unambiguously. In this context, a difficult question arises: why did the name of the ancient people, the Alans, survive in the language of the Mariupol Greeks to this day? And ready, for example, no? Known that Baron Buebek, the ambassador of the German emperor in Turkey (the Great Porte) in 1557 - 1564. collected information about the Goths and their language in the Goth diocese of Crimea. At that time, he wrote down only 90 surviving Gothic words, but by the 18th century, at the time of the resettlement, all traces of the Gothic language disappeared, and the memory of the Goths was erased from the memory of the Crimean residents much earlier. The Greco-Hellenes call themselves "Romans", although the self-name of the Greeks, as you know, is Hellenes. The reason for this is that for more than a millennium they were citizens, first of the Roman, and then of the Byzantine, or, as the inhabitants themselves called it, Roman Empires. ";Romay"; means Roman, citizen of Rome. Even today one can hear the proud: ";Go rumeyka! (I'm a Greek!)"; This came from those distant centuries, when a citizen of Rome could not be sold into slavery, punished without trial, etc. As for the Greco-Tatars, they call themselves "Urum"; - the name applied in the Ottoman Empire to all Turkic-speaking Greeks.

The Georgians, like the Moldavians, ended up in the Crimea as slaves and did not have their own separate villages; by the 17th century they already spoke Tatar, but were considered Greeks; Moldovans spoke their own language.

According to anthropological features, the bulk of the Greco-Hellenes belonged to the so-called Mediterranean race, the most important features of which are: dark wavy hair, dark skin, dark eyes, an elongated narrow skull, narrow face and nose with a straight back, somewhat thickened lips, medium height. I think that an unsurpassed artistic description of the Crimean-Mariupol Greeks was given by A.I. Kuprin, who wrote in the story "Listrigons"; that in them "you can feel, besides an admixture of later Genoese blood, and some other mysterious, ancient, ... maybe even Scythian blood ... Among them you will see many tall, strong and self-confident figures; you come across correct, noble faces; often there are blondes and even blue-eyed ";. They are "not greedy, not obliging, behave with dignity, ... brave, although without absurd risk, good comrades and firmly fulfill the given word. Positively - this is a special, exceptional breed of Greeks, preserved mainly because their ancestors not hundreds of generations were born, lived and died in their town, entering into marriages only between neighbors. However, it must be confessed that the Greek colonialists left in their souls their most typical feature, which they distinguished even under Pericles - curiosity and passion for news ";. And a little earlier: "... thin, dark-faced, big-eyed, long-nosed Greek women, so strangely and touchingly similar to the image of the Virgin on ancient Byzantine icons"; .

The settlers drove cattle with them - about 100,000 heads, i.e. about 5 heads per person. The figure, although not small, did not correspond to their abilities: in the new place, despite all the losses, ten years later they had several times more. The reason is freedom. Those who went out were subjected to humiliating customs inspection of the Tatars, which caused protests and even unrest. After giving a bribe of 5,000 rubles (that money is a huge amount!) From state funds to customs officers, the settlers continued their path unhindered to Perekop, then along the so-called Muravsky Way, which partially coincides with the modern Simferopol-Moscow highway, then across the Molochnaya and Konka rivers. They arrived at the place of the proposed settlement in September 1778, about which A.V. Suvorov joyfully and succinctly reported: "The departure of the Crimean Christians is over! ... Approximately 130,000 rubles were spent on this departure";. Some of the settlers began to settle down, while the majority were waiting for an answer to the request of July 16, to which there was no answer. A.V. Suvorov, who had already passed the case, but continued to monitor the resettlement, turned to Potemkin G.A. asking for a speedy response. But slowly, oh so slowly, especially for those who wait, the feathers creaked, the wheels turned. Only on May 21 (June 3, n.s.) 1779 did the Decree follow, signed by Catherine II, called the Great. This document, written in Greek and Russian, was known to the settlers under the name "privileged"; (distorted - "; privilege";) is of undoubted interest, therefore, the reader, I hope, will forgive for its full reproduction: "; Faithfully kind to Us, the Most-Enlightened Ignatius of Gotthia and Kafia and the entire community of Crimean Christians of the Greek law of any rank to everyone in general and to everyone especially, Our Imperial merciful word. May the right hand of the Most High bless your well-meaning universal enterprise. We, having considered the general petition sent to Us from you from Bakhchisaray dated July 16 of this year (or rather, of the last F.H.) and based on goodwill for deliverance from all of you from threatened by the yoke and disaster by accepting the eternal citizenship of the All-Russian Empire, we deign not only to accept all of you under Our Most Merciful protection, but also, like our beloved children, having calmed under it, to bring life so much prosperous, how great is the desire of mortals and Our unceasing care for this can extend.

By following it, we deign to enjoy in Our State not only all those rights and privileges that all Our subjects enjoy from Us and Our ancestors since ancient times, but in addition We have indicated:

1. During your real resettlement in the Azov province, to transport from the Crimea on Our dependence all that of your property that can only be transported, and especially the poor and indebted to the Khan and the local government to redeem from Our treasury, which from the amount determined from Us already and fulfilled.

2. For the most convenient settlement of your settlement, allocate in the Azov province a sufficient part of the land, special from other villages, along the Salt and other rivers and along the coast of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov, so that there abundant fishing in the dachas of your village We graciously favor forever in favor and benefit of the whole society without any in treasury of Our tribute. For the merchants, artisans and industrialists, we appoint the cities of Yekaterinoslav and Marianopolis to inhabit that province, as the most profitable places for trade.

3. After the division of state residents into classes, we most mercifully dismiss everyone from State taxes and services of whatever rank they are for 10 years, and after this time they have to pay to Our treasury annually, merchants from capitals, from the ruble, one percent, workshops, so is the philistinism from the yard for two rubles; and the uyezd villagers, namely: the farmers, not from their souls, but from the land, supposed for each thirty acres, will contribute 5 kopecks from each acre a year; the poor villagers will be supplied from Our treasury not only with food for the first year, but also for sowing land of any rank with grain seeds, cattle and everything belonging to the housekeeping institution, with a return for all of it to the treasury after 10 years; likewise, their houses will be built at the expense of the state; property owners, on the lands allotted to them, have to build houses, shops, barns, factories, and everything that they themselves wish from their dependency, using everything in general forever from any camps freely, except when military teams must pass by your villages. From the dacha to the army, you are a recruit forever, unless someone wishes to serve in Our service.

4. To His Eminence Metropolitan Ignatius, after his death, we most graciously entrust the flock of all these settlers who left the Crimea with him and continue to leave the Crimea; to which to be directly under Our Holy Synod. The priests who have now gone out, remaining to each with their own parish, depend on him, who will continue to ordain priests and other churchmen in his flock according to his own consideration and as needed.

5. To have court and reprisals and the entire internal police on the basis of general laws in Our state by chiefs chosen from you by free vote, who will use the ranks and salaries of the staff of the Azov province under the appeal of the vicegerent government. In the villages and villages, for protection in all necessary cases, special police officers from Russia are appointed, to whom in the legal proceedings of these villagers and without interfering in anything to be only guards and intercede. However, upon the entry of each into the genus of state residents chosen by him, we allow to use forever and hereditarily all that which, according to Our general laws, each genus of state residents uses, somehow: free trade outside and within the state, and for the greater benefit of this, it is allowed to build from merchant seagoing ships of your own capital, to plant necessary and useful factories, mills and orchards, for the cultivation of which all sorts of grape wines in your villages in small measures, exported to inner cities of Russia by barrels, you can sell, in a word: to distribute crafts of any rank at your own will and the prosperity of everyone, and all those under Our Autocratic Scepter and enjoy the protection of the laws. Granting all these advantages, We solemnly and hereditarily to the whole society for all eternity, signed with our own hands for a greater power and commanded to strengthen Our State seal ";.

Catherine's decree was subsequently confirmed by Emperor Paul I, and Emperor Alexander I signed another Decree essentially no different from Catherine's Decree with omitted benefits, which had expired. Both Decrees were kept in a silver gilded ark, first in the Mariupol Greek court, and then in the city government. It would seem that having received such privileges on magnificent lands, the issue of resettlement can be considered safely over. But Metropolitan Ignatius was not satisfied with this, probably because of the harsh climate compared to the Crimean climate, and therefore twice during the summer of 1779 he went to St. Petersburg to visit his old friend and patron G.A. Potemkin. As a result, a "Map representing part of the Azov province of the Mariupol district, lands that are determined by the Greeks who left the Crimea" was approved. In the middle of her inscription: "Be on this. Ekaterina";; below: ";Confirmed October 2, 1779";; below the signature: "Prince Potemkin";. On the map, the boundaries of the allocated lands were marked, which did not coincide with the Decree of May 21, 1779, but coincided with the Kalmius plank, the place for the city of Mariupol was indicated, but the locations of the villages were not indicated. Before the 1917 revolution the card was kept in the Mariupol administration.

Legally, the resettlement ended with order N 1817 of March 24, 1780 of the Azov provincial office. Here are some excerpts from it:

"; By decree of Her Imperial Majesty, the Azov Provincial Chancellery, in pursuance of the received from His Grace the Sovereign Viceroy Prince G.A. Potemkin on September 29 (1779), under No. capable places of the land of an order, with which and an application to his lordship for the signing of his Grace the Greek Metropolitan and deputies, a certificate of which the examination is prescribed, transmitted at the same time in the original, filed by His Eminence Metropolitan Ignatius of Gotthia and Kafiya, signed by him and the deputies who left the Crimea Greeks, an obligatory certificate that they recognize lands and places sufficient and capable for establishing a city and a settlement of cultivators: from the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov and the mouth of the Berda River, where the Petrovskaya fortress (leaving in that fortress, as indicated on the map, 12,000 acres of the district), on its left bank to the mouth of the Karatysh River, along the left bank of the Karatysh to the top, from it straight to the top the Kobloi beam and along its right bank to the mouth of the river flowing into the Mokrye Yaly, along the right bank of the Mokryye Yala to the mouth of the Volcha, from there along the bank of the Volchya to the mouth of the Osikova beam, along its left bank to the top from that peak directly to the top of the Beresnegovata river , along its right bank to the mouth of the river Kalmius, along the right bank of the Kalmius to its mouth, which flows into the Sea of ​​​​Azov, from here along the coast of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov to the above-mentioned district of the Petrovsky fortress, offers:

1. Those lands, as there are nowhere sufficient either state-owned or landowner establishments, are yet to be given to the Greeks who left the Crimea to settle and build their city especially without exception, and where they themselves choose villages from these convenient places, cut off their districts for each , even if there was not in it the full number of 200 households of 12,000 tithes, believing both in them there is an excess, and that the district will remain in the future after the separation of those. If, after the expiration of the granted 10 grace years, any land will not be inhabited, and remain empty, then taking away from them to distribute to those who wish, on an equal footing with other lands throughout the province; and when the natives of the Greeks multiply, then add them according to the number of those natives and also from empty places not assigned to anyone.

2. Name their city Mariupol, which, having a decent location, build either on the shores of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov at the mouth of the Kalmius River, or at the mouth of the Salt River, also called Kalets, which flows into the Kalmius River; and all those lands granted to the Greeks, according to the above-written borders, have to form the Mariupol district, the zemstvo government of this district to establish in the Petrovsky fortress; and in this county, excluding the fortress of Petrovsky with the district, except for the Greeks, until the end of 10 grace years, no other nations should allocate any land for the settlement of houses and other things, and by fishing against the dachas of those Greeks on the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov, exactly and in all the rivers of this county, except for them no one to use; and the city by the Volcha River, which was previously determined for those Greeks, to be called Pavlograd and, according to it, the local district of Pavlogradsky.

3. Due to the lack of forest land in these places, not only the construction of houses for which the poorest can deliver it from the treasury, but also for other household needs to allow them free access to the forests along the Mius River ...

4. As those Greeks, in the approaching autumn time and winter, cannot manage to build houses for themselves, then order them to take apartments in advance in the Bakhmut district, in Tora (Slavyansk), Mayaki (on the Donets River) and Raygorodok, wherever property on their dependency, and the rest on the state oxen given to them, without wasting time and moved over, without forbidding those who wished to stay in the places where they are now, or to go to the land near the Kamenka River, where some of them had spent the past winter, about which from His Eminence Metropolitan Ignatius was also notified of the governor of this province, with a reminder to him of the indispensable fulfillment of this, and that he would incline the cultivators to the unfailing sowing of winter bread this autumn, either in the places where they now stand, or in the newly determined for them, only so that time was by no means wasted in acquiring bread for the next year...

... Tell the Greek Metropolitan Ignatius that all the Greeks in the Mariupol district of this year are farmers, from the first of April, and the merchants and the townspeople from the fifth to the tenth day entered the settlement; send a decree to the overseer ensign Gorlensky and order the residents of all ranks living on the lands assigned to the Greeks to be resettled to the mouth of Salt, to Pavlograd ... all orders for the zemstvo and payment of taxes will be released"; .

Thus, Ensign Gorlensky was the superintendent, and since 1780 he was also assigned "to the charity of different Christian nations who left the Crimea"; Prime Major Prince Shakhmatov; from 1781 Second-major Mikhail Safkov was engaged in the arrangement of the settlers in the new place. There were probably many problems... Who were these people? I managed to find a description of Second Major M. Safkov, signed by the Governor of Azov, Lieutenant General V. Chertkov. Here are the extracts: “From 1780 he was appointed provincial zemstvo commissar, moreover, in 1781 he was sent to the Mariupol district to settle the Greek colony withdrawn from the Crimea ... After one year of his stay there, he settled them both in the city of Mariupol and in 21 settlements " ; .

A new movement began - the torment of the settlers. The only consolation and example for them was the biblical story about the Jews wandering for forty years in the desert before coming to Palestine. Here is how, after almost 40 years, the migrants themselves describe their wanderings in a petition to the Minister of the Interior Lansky: “We are not able to describe in detail everything that happened during our resettlement, and how the diseases that came from climate change, water, from cramped apartments acted and for the most part from the lack of them ... let's not hypocritically say, and by the very truth, that entire families suffered with their lives, and many lost even half of them, and not a single family was left without the loss of a father, mother, brother, sister and children, in a word, out of 9 thousand ...there were not even a third of the male souls of the natives, and at the age of 15 it could hardly be recruited with newborns ... up to seven thousand souls ";. During the two-year wanderings, many fought off their loved ones: some settled in the dethroned Princess of Azov - Taganrog, where the Greeks already lived, some in the east of the Yekaterinoslav region, where they quickly assimilated with the local population, leaving no trace, and some returned to the Crimea to abandoned villages , for example, in Autka, Karan. The Samara Monastery (near Novomoskovsk) rendered great assistance to the settlers, having treated a significant number of the sick and infirm. Probably no one counted those who died, those who straggled, those who returned, but, judging by the letter to the minister quoted, these or those losses amounted to 60% - a monstrously high figure, showing, among other things, the degree of their oppression in the Crimea: even following on the heels the insatiable old woman with a scythe was not shaken by the desire of the majority for freedom.

Based Documents on storiesGreeks Sea of ​​Azov S.Kaloerov, the 1st volume of which “From the Crimea to Mariupol... professional purpose on the cultural field, and grains ... more winners for a long time remain on the hearing. ...

Chapter 1 The education system in Mariupol after the abolition of serfdom and the introduction of state reforms in the Mariupol district 4-6

Dissertation abstract

... on the construction in Mariupol of a school for Greeks. Greeks... publications « Brief review Mariupol county": " Story such... on thefield public education. At the beginning of the 20th century, one school in Mariupol county accounted for on the... sacredly fulfilled debt and...

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Here is another example of establishing the identity of the Modern Greek studied at school with the native language, although at another point in the interview the informant notes the difference in idioms.

Collector. Do you think it is right to learn Greek (that is, modern Greek) at school?

Informant. Certainly! How is it to live and not know the Greek language?! Well, this is how to grow up among the Greeks, both father and mother ...

(Information about the informant: VKG, Rumeika, 1939, Maly Yanisol.)

The informant transfers to the Modern Greek studied at school the notion of blood, kinship between the carrier and the idiom, which is usually used when describing the mother's language.

The homonymy of linguonyms facilitates the change of one "Greek" language - Rumeian, marking the ethnic identification of the group, to another "Greek" idiom - Modern Greek. Nominally, both idioms correspond to the requirement often mentioned in interviews to "understand at least some of your native (Greek) language." For a language in the function of a group identity marker, it is not so important whether the term "Greek" always denotes the same idiom; the informant may equate his own mother tongue with the Greek of his grandchildren. It is possible that as the number of children who studied Modern Greek at school but do not speak Rumean increases, the number of informants whose Greek identity is symbolized by the Modern Greek language will increase. At present, the identification of Rumean and Modern Greek and the adoption of the latter as a marker of Greek identity are found only in isolated cases.

Major groups and community boundaries

I do not consider interaction with individual groups, however, the real self-identification of the community always takes place taking into account the boundaries with all neighbors. Although the need to describe all neighbors may be difficult for informants 79
“In an interview ... the informant finds himself in a very difficult situation, which he never encounters in daily practice. He, sometimes for the first time in his life, is forced tell about relationships not with any one, but immediately with everyone groups (and not to carry out these relationships in practice, which, of course, is much more familiar to him)" [Bakhtin, Golovko, Schweitzer, 2004, p. 121].

Ideas about other groups and relationships with them constitute the context of interaction, defining contacts with a particular community and individual. The boundary is not only drawn between itself and the second group, its individual representative, but its characteristics are always correlated with other, parallel existing boundaries, and a change in the relationship with one community will inevitably entail a revision of the definitions of the other neighbors and the group itself.

The interview indicates the possibilities of uniting with each of the groups, manifesting certain aspects of the culture of the Rumeans. If we summarize the oppositions that are not usually formulated by the carriers, then the Rumeians and Russians are opposed to the Urums as owners of a more eastern appearance, that is, as non-Tatars - Tatars. In turn, the Rumeians and Urums constitute a group of Greeks (Priazovye), separated from the Russians by Greek way of life and origin, and from the external group, the Greeks from Greece, as "local Greeks." The Rumeans and the Greeks from Greece, who speak related idioms/the same language, are opposed to the Urums, who speak the Tatar language.

The system of nominations adopted by the community allows you to oppose any of the groups at any time and unite with your neighbors. The Greeks (Urums and Rumeians) are opposed to the Russians; Greeks (Rumeans) - (Greek) - Tatars (Urums); Hellenes (Rumeans and Greeks from Greece) - also (Greek) - Tatars (Urums).

The system outlined above constitutes the generally accepted ideas of the Rumeans about their neighbors. Depending on the individual preferences of the informant, these relationships can be characterized somewhat differently, with the narrator voicing the ideas that make up the background, the “reserve fund” of the community, updated from time to time, as needed. For example, some informants emphasize the fallacy of the nomination “Greek-Tatars” and, insisting exclusively on the Tatar nature of another group, deny the commonality of the Rumeans and Urums in all respects, attributing to the Urums not only linguistic, external and behavioral differences, but also a different religion, place of origin ( not Crimea, but Turkey). These views may at some point be in demand by the entire community when the boundaries between groups are blurred. However, the complete denial of the Greek nature of the Urums is possible only as an expression of an individual position and is not shared by the rest, since, crossing out any similarity between representatives of another group with the Rumeans, it leads to the disappearance of the border between communities.

The ideas of the Rumeians about neighbors depend on the status of the interacting groups. However, are group relations always perceived as a hierarchy of low and high statuses? Each group gives itself definitions that testify to its higher position compared to its neighbors; at the same time, status differences that actually exist are sometimes ignored. Although attributes attributed by neighbors are part of the self-identification of the group, the internal point of view may to some extent neglect the negative assessment or develop compensatory mechanisms, resorting to such parameters as beauty or the antiquity of traditions, that is, to the values ​​of authenticity. As a result, each of the groups feels superior to other communities, and an agreement is formed on the borders of the communities, according to which one of the communities carries the ancient culture, and the other is successful economically. Lower status may not actually be reflected in the community's self-description in interviews.

The relationship “real Greeks” – “Greek-Hellenes” – “Greek-Tatars” is an example of a pure hierarchy, a stepwise decrease in the status of a group. The already mentioned term “hierarchy of Greekness”, introduced by researchers of immigration policy in Greece (see:), successfully characterizes the status distribution of groups in the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov, accepted, in fact, by all participants in this system, although both Urums and Rumeians develop different compensatory characteristics that allow clarify relations with a group with a higher status. The stability of this system is due to mechanisms outside the community: economic and other advantages of contacts with Greece and the activities of the Federal State Educational Institution

At the same time, relations with Russians today are not connected with pressure from the state or the elite, which changes the prestige of the groups. There are memories in the community about the relationship between the statuses of Russians and Greeks in different periods, and the informant can use certain plots of the oral history of the group to describe the ethnic boundary.

* * *

Relations between groups are not an isolated opposition of two communities, but a complex system of communicating boundaries. An increase in pressure from one of the groups causes a change in the border with the rest of the neighbors. The complete denial of the Greek identity of the Urums leads to the disappearance of the border with them and, thereby, violates the “hierarchy of Greekness” recognized by the Rumeans: the existence of another Greek group places the Rumeans in the middle of the scale, between real Greeks and Greco-Tatars.

Informants use two value scales - authenticity and civility; assessments from the point of view of authenticity prevailed in the perception of everyday life, holiday traditions, the choice of nationality (before the abolition of the corresponding column in the passports of citizens of Ukraine), while in relation to the native language, assessments from the point of view of civilization prevail in interviews.

So, to be Greek means for our informants to be different from Russians (non-Greeks); to be somewhat the same as the Urums, but more real Greeks; strive to enter the imaginary community of Greeks, embodied by Greeks from Greece (recognizing themselves as less pure Greeks). Interaction with the three groups discussed above determines the self-identification of the Rumeians. Describing neighbors, informants explain how they see themselves. By accepting or rejecting attributes attributed to another group, the community develops a constantly changing self-image.

Chapter 5
Ethnic identity of the Urums

In this chapter, the focus is on the Turkic-speaking part of the Greeks of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov - the Urums. Due to the historical discrepancy between the self-name of the group ("Greeks") and the characteristics of their language (reflected in the linguonym "Greek-Tatar"), any reasoning about this community of the Urums themselves and representatives of other groups is based on finding out how language and ethnicity actually correlate Turkic-speaking Greeks of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov. The Urum language is recognized as the main marker of the group, allowing the speakers themselves and their neighbors to form the boundaries of the community.

At the same time, the definitions of language and community adopted under the influence of contacts with other groups, in turn, affect the attitude (commitment, loyalty) of speakers to their language.

Analyzing the relationship between language and ethnic (self-)identification of the Urums, I will try, as far as possible, to take into account both sides of the problem: the role of language in shaping the boundaries of the group, and the influence of external and internal definitions of the community on the attitude towards the idiom. Considering the first aspect, the role of linguonyms in the categorization of a group and language as a marker of ethnic boundaries, I will consider the system of nominations for Urums and their idiom by different groups, then I will analyze the markers used by Urums to maintain boundaries with other groups, and share some observations on how the accepted definitions groups (formed in the interaction of external categorization and self-descriptions of the community) affect the attitude towards the idiom, that is, I will consider the perception of the Urum language by native speakers in the context of interaction with other groups.

The main part of the field materials was collected in two Urum settlements - Stary Krym in the Mariupol region and Granitnoye (Staraya Karan) in the Telmanovsky region.

1. The village of Stary Krym, Mariupol District- average in terms of the number and composition of the population for the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov (about 6200 inhabitants 80
According to the city department of statistics of Mariupol in Stary Krym in 1979 there were 6170 inhabitants; of them Greeks - 2249; in 1989 - 6439 inhabitants; of them Greeks - 1984. As of 2003, 6242 people lived in the village. It is difficult to judge to what extent this ratio of Greeks and non-Greeks (about 1 to 3), presented in the census, reflects the real situation. The article by K. Kaurinkoski and the booklet dedicated to the 220th anniversary of the village of Stary Krym provide other data: 60% of the Greek population, 20% of Russians, 15% of Ukrainians out of 6460 people in 2000 [Kaurinkoski, 2002, p. 82; Old Crimea, 2000].

), in fact - a suburb of Mariupol 81
By minibus you can get to the city in 10-15 minutes, and some residents go to Mariupol to work (to the Ilyich Iron and Steel Works and other enterprises).

For many years, the president of the Federation of Greek Societies of Ukraine (a native of the Rumeian village) worked as the director of the local school No. 46; the period of her tenure in this position is associated with a more active (compared to other Greek settlements) introduction of the Modern Greek language into the school curriculum (the status of a school with in-depth study of the Modern Greek language), a large-scale organization of the 220th anniversary of the founding of the village in 2000, frequent visits of delegations from Greece.

2. Settlement of Granite (Old Karan) Telmanovsky district in 1946–1970 was a district center, which was then transferred to the urban-type settlement of Telmanovo. 3929 people live in Granitnoye, of which 2712 (69%) are Urums. Today, Granitnoye is a relatively inaccessible village, located far from the city and away from the Mariupol-Donetsk highway. There is no permanent teaching of the Modern Greek language in the village, although for several years there were extracurricular classes for schoolchildren on weekends; due to the remoteness from Mariupol, delegations from Greece rarely come here. The settlement is inhabited by Crimean Tatars who moved to the Sea of ​​Azov in the 1950s-1960s.

Like the Rumean settlements chosen for analysis, these two Urum settlements are quite typical. In addition, I use material recorded in the Urum settlements of Staroignatievka and Kamenka in the Telmanovsky district, Staromlinovka in the Velikonovoselkovsky district (Zaporozhye region) and Mangush in the Pervomaisky district, as well as in the only settlement with a mixed Urum and Rumeian population - the regional center of Velikonovoselovka.

Ethnonyms and linguonyms

The most common ethnonyms and linguonyms used by various groups present in the Azov region to designate the Urums and the Urum language are summarized in a table (see Table 5.1).

Table 5.1. Urum nominations and their idiom

* Note. Contacts with the Crimean Tatars are typical only for one village, so the situation in the Granitnoye village will be considered separately.

Russians. As noted in Chapter 4, Russians and Ukrainians refer to the Urums and Rumeans as Greeks and use the linguonem "Greek" for both idioms. The linguistic division of the two groups is usually known to Russians permanently residing in the Urum or Rumean settlements, but they, as a rule, evaluate it as a private difference, significant only within the “Greeks” group itself, and do not distinguish between Urums and Rumeans. Greco-Hellenes and Greco-Tatars. I don't understand these subtleties. ‹…› No, well, we just[name them] "Greeks", who will make out there - he is a Greek-Tatar or a Greek-Hellenic. It’s far, far away the roots went there ”(RAP, Russian, ca. 1940, Mangush).

Like the Rumeians, some Urums recall that the Russians used to use the nickname "Pindos", which has clearly negative connotations: “But the Greeks are not people at all, the Greeks are not for people at all.[considered] ... Greeks, Pindos, you know, everyone…”(MAN, Urumka, 1936, Stary Krym). In interviews with Russian informants, this nomination did not come up.

The ethnonym "Russians" used by the Urums refers to the non-Greek Russian-speaking population - Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians. Some Urums use the terms "Ukrainian", "Ukrainian" to refer to specific people, while the group will be called Russians. In Urum, the term "Russians" corresponds to the ethnonym "hazah": "Everyone was called" hazah " – and Ukrainians, and Russians, and Katsapov"(SAA, Urumka, 1929, Stary Krym).

The Urums comprehend the relationship with the Russian-speaking population of the Sea of ​​Azov as contacts between Russians and Greeks, not divided into Ukrainians and actually Russians, Urums and Rumeians.

Rumei. The linguonym "Tatar" is perceived by the Rumians as a neutral nomination of the idiom of the Urums, while the ethnonym "Tatars" implies a certain point of view of the informant; the neutral nomination is considered to be “Greek-Tatars”. Among themselves, the Rumeians call the Urums both Greek-Tatars and Tatars, but in interaction with the Urums they use only the full form of the ethnonym - "Greek-Tatars" and the self-name "Greek-Hellenes", or "Greek-Hellenes". As a rule, the Urums and Rumeians in conversation avoid nominations of the group or use names derived from toponyms without resorting to ethnic terms. The Rumeians call the Tatar and only sometimes the Greco-Tatar language of the Urums; but when talking with the Urum, the linguonym "Greek-Tatar" will be chosen.

As already noted (see Chapter 2), from ethnographic descriptions of the 19th century. It is known that in the past, the Rumeians called the Urums in Rumeian "Bazarians", or "Bazariots", which means "residents of the city" [Grigorovich, 1874, p. 56] 82
Bazar (Rom.) originally meant the city of Mariupol, although now it is often used as a synonym for shier" (Rom.) the city in general.

However, today neither the Rumeians nor the Urums remember this nomination, since Mariupol was founded and inhabited by the Urums. Thus, the Rumeans do not have special terms for the other group and their language in Rumeian, and in all situations they use Russian nominations.

Within their own group, the Urums call the Rumeans "Greek Hellenes", "Greek Hellenes", or "Greeks", and themselves - "Greeks"; they designate the language of the Rumeans as Hellenic, and their idiom as Greek. Describing interaction with the Rumeians in a conversation with visiting collectors, the informants, as a rule, switched to an “external” Rumeian-oriented system of description and called their idiom Greek-Tatar, however, some Urums in any situation adhered to their usual distribution of linguonyms “Greek” and "Hellenic", even when it could lead to misunderstandings.

Tremins "Greek-Hellenes" and "Greek-Tatars" are perceived as full forms, emphasizing the common part - Greeks, while short forms, opposing Greeks and Hellenes (Greek and Hellenic languages), allow you to designate the border of the community and separate yourself from the Rumeans. The ethnonyms "Greek-Hellenes" and "Greek-Tatars" set the scheme of logical (generic) relations, which, as a rule, the informants try to interpret. Double generic ethnonyms are a productive model for the formation of new nominations in an interview: “... Still, it seems, there are Greek-Georgians; Greco-Hellenes and Greco-we"(ELK, rumeyka, c. 1923, Stary Krym).

Crimean Tatars. In the late 1950s Crimean Tatars moved to Granite from the Trans-Urals, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. In 1956–1957 the first families settled in Granitnoye, and in the 1960s and early 1970s. migration continued: relatives of migrants were also recruited to work on the collective farm; the main Tatar population of the village was formed during these decades. Separate families arrived later under the influence of political and ethnic processes in the republics of the USSR or the newly independent states (the family of an AAA Tatar came from Uzbekistan in 1989).

Tatars live in the so-called new settlement, in houses built by the collective farm for migrants, located separately from the central part of Granite 83
Today, the new village is no smaller than the rest of the village, but the division is very clearly understood: on one side of the village administration building is the old village, and on the other, behind the wasteland on the site of the old cemetery, is the new one.

Crimean Tatars are in contact only with the urums of the village of Granitnoe (Staraya Karan), and also, in part, with residents of the nearest villages - Staraya Laspa and Staroignatievka, who come to Granitnoe. Urums from other settlements did not meet with the Tatars and do not know about the group of settlers in Granitny.

Tatars in conversation with the Urums call them "Greeks", and within their group - "Greeks", or "Greek-Tatars". The last ethnonym is used by the Crimean Tatars in the presence of the Urums only in a situation of conflict or play, playful teasing. In interviews, Crimean Tatars avoid unambiguous nominations of Urums and their language, resorting to deictic constructions or common attributes of the group. Often in interviews there is a definition of the Urums as Crimean people or other references to the presence of the community in Crimea.

“Yes, they too, they are… Greek Tatars, they say[hereinafter highlighted by me. - V. B.],but their 300 years - back there - they were sent here. They are also deported people in general. Well, their descendants… have already died. Children remained there, children-children ... like that, in general, youth. And their parents all died a long time ago - once 300 years, what kind of parents are there? That's why they are their nation ... for the Russian, who goes where in general. Got married. People got confused. This is where the people are. And our language converges. And they speak even more clearly than we do.”(VAV, Urumka, 1927, Granite).

The informant avoids ethnonyms: once she calls the Urums Greek-Tatars, but she distances herself from this nomination, referring to the fact that others say so. Then she resorts to descriptive names of another group, and the wording “also deported people” indicates a comparison of the Urums and her own group: the main motive of the oral history of the Crimean Tatars is deportation from Crimea, and the assessment of the resettlement of the Urums from the Crimea to the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov as an eviction in an interview with Crimean Tatars usually indicates the recognition of the Urums by the Tatars.

The Crimean Tatars call the Urum language both Tatar and Greek, but more often, avoiding certain lingvonims, they describe it as a similar idiom close to Tatar. Crimean Tatar and Urum are closely related languages, and sometimes there are communications in which each of the interlocutors uses “his own” idiom, called in this case by the Tatars both Tatar and Greek.

The Tatars of Granite distinguish two variants in the Crimean Tatar - Nogai (steppe) and Tat. Some of our informants projected this division into a similar idiom, describing the language of the Urums as Tat, the language of Tats (AAA, Urumka, 1940, Granite). However, none of the Urum informants noticed the coincidence of this nomination with the almost lost designation of the Rumeians in the Urum language - Tats, Tat language.

The Urums use the ethnonym "(Crimean) Tatars" (and sometimes, within their community, the pejorative derivative "Tatarva") and the linguonem "Tatar". In the village of Granitnoye, when discussing the Crimean Tatars, the Urums almost never use the self-name "Greek-Tatars", which implies a comparison and rapprochement of groups that is undesirable for the informants.

When interacting with the Crimean Tatars, the functions of the ethnonym and lingvonim in maintaining the border between the groups are distributed: the ethnonym contrasts the Urums and the Crimean Tatars with Greeks and Tatars, while the lingvonim allows emphasizing the commonality of the groups. Speaking about the Crimean Tatars, the Urums called the idiom Greek-Tatar or Tatar, denoting a partial or complete coincidence of the Urum and Crimean Tatar languages. The rare use of the self-name "Greek" in this context was marked and signified the informant's refusal to acknowledge any similarity between the idioms.

self-names, considered outside the context of interaction with other groups are rather conditional, since only in a situation of contact does the need for naming arise. However, the nominations of their group and the idiom adopted by the Urums are divided into those used mainly in interaction with other groups or in the context of stories about these contacts and reflecting the internal point of view of the community.

Used in the XIX - early XX century. the self-name of the group in the native language "Urum" and the nomination of the idiom "Urum" / "rum tili" ("the language of the Urums") [Muratov, 1963, p. 179] are currently unknown to the absolute majority of the community. However, this nomination is familiar to some informants from publications in newspapers or from the title of a book by A. N. Garkavets, a modern researcher who enjoys considerable authority in the community. The lost self-name is gradually re-spreading, primarily among older men who are interested in the history of the group; informants tend to interpret the lost internal form of the nomination. “Do you know what urums are in general? It's Greek in Turkish. This, apparently, was what the Turks called it.”(ITSH, Urumka, 1963, Stary Krym). The publications usually mention the paired term "Rumei", however, Urum informants often confuse who they are - Rumei or Urum.

To date, the Urums use only Russian-language nominations to designate their group and idiom. The linguonym "Greek" - the most natural modern name for its idiom for the Urums - spread, apparently after the 1930s. influenced by population censuses and other official documents. Throughout the 19th century the Urums could borrow Russian-language linguonyms from officials or ethnographers who designated the Urum idioms as Turkish-Tatar. The Urum language was named Tatar and Turkish in the 1897 census [First general census… 1904]; the same nominations were used later during the indigenization period (along with the new linguonym "Greek-Tatar"). In the mid 1920s. the Urums called their idiom in Russian - "Turkish-Tatar", for example, in a debate at a meeting of citizens in the village of Mangush in 1925 [TsGAVO 8, l. nineteen]. In interviews with modern urums, this form was not encountered. In the late 1930s the nominations “Tatar, Turkish or Greek-Tatar language” disappeared from official documents, and the wording “Greeks with the language of their nationality”, that is, with the alleged Greek, was preserved in the census. Within the community, the Russian linguonym “Greek language” was established, which now did not contradict the official categorization, but was supported by it.

As already noted, the urums of the nomination "Greek-Tatars" and the Greek-Tatar language, opposed to the Rumeians and their idiom, are also used as self-names, although some informants perceive the meaning of the ethnonym "Greek-Tatars" rather negatively: "Our language is called[Greek-Tatar], Why do they say "Greek-Tatars"? Not Tatars. Well, in general, everywhere in the documents, everywhere it is written “Greeks”. Do you understand? And so, this is how to verbally say that these are Greek-Tatars. Well, why? Well, it’s true, not Greek-Hellenics”(VGT, Urumka, 1936, Stary Krym). The protest of the VGT informant is caused by the connection of the nomination “Greek-Tatars” with the ethnonym “Tatars”, which is not accepted by the Urums to define their group. The informants are aware of the application of the ethnonym “Tatars” to them, and stories about interactions with neighbors using this nomination contain explicit or implicit polemics with this categorization.

The nomination system of urums, from the point of view of speakers, can be represented as several concentric circles. At the center of this system are the original names for their group and the idiom - the Greeks with the Greek language. The ethnonym and linguonym, generally accepted within the group, postulate the identity of the language and ethnicity of the Urums and, thereby, remove the contradiction indicated by the nominations used by the Rumeians. The little-known terms “Urums” and “Urum language” are easily recognized as true nominations, since they do not carry negative connotations, and their external origin is compensated by the authority of researchers.

The nominations "Greek-Tatars" and "Greek-Tatar language" or even "Tatar language" constitute an intermediate layer between self-names and unacceptable exoethnonyms: although part of the community believes that the double ethnonym used by the Urum environment disputes their Greek origin, this ethnonym and linguonyms are allowed in a conversation with a Rumei or a visiting linguist, in contrast to the pejorative ethnonym "Pindos" and the nomination "Tatars", which, as a rule, are not mentioned without special questions from the collector.

During the interview, informants move from one layer of nominations to another. An example is the standard option for choosing a self-name - "Greeks" or "Greek-Tatars" - in the Urum village of Stary Krym: at the beginning of the interview, at the first appearance of the researcher, the informants specify that they are not just Greeks, but Greek-Tatars, and "at they have the wrong language, not Hellenic,” which is supposed to be of interest to the interviewer. After some time, the informants switched to the point of view of their community and began to call themselves simply "Greeks", but when the conversation touched on relations with the Rumeians, as a rule, they again used the ethnonym "Greek-Tatars".

Urum self-names and external nominations are organized around two ethnonyms - "Greeks" and "Tatars" (or linguonyms "Greek" and "Tatar language") with a complex system of connotations and assessments associated with the ideas of a modern inhabitant of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov about Greece, Tatars and Mongol-Tatars . The use of a double ethnonym or non-coinciding linguonym and ethnonym allows each group, in addition to the unambiguous definition of the Urums as Greeks or Tatars, to introduce various intermediate statuses. The most complete possibility of categorizing the Urums as Tatars/Greeks to a greater or lesser extent is realized in interaction with the Rumeians and Crimean Tatars. The choice of nomination makes it possible for the neighbors of the Urums to separate themselves from them and, at the same time, to emphasize closeness with this group, and the discrepancy between exoethnonyms and self-names accepted among the Urums causes a need in the community for new definitions of ethnicity.

Urums and neighboring groups: symbolic markers

Urums ascribe to neighboring groups certain properties that allow them to show the similarities and differences between their own and other communities. Such markers are associated with observations of the daily life of neighbors and the most relevant (auto)stereotypes that manifest certain features of one's own and others' traditions. From the point of view of the urums, the markers used actually exist, although an outside observer may see a different picture.

We consider both the everyday interaction of the Urums with Russians, Rumeans and Crimean Tatars (the latter is relevant only in the village of Granitnoye), as well as the borders with imaginary communities - Greeks from Greece and Turks, whose influence on the self-determination of informants is sometimes no less real than contacts with neighboring groups. .

Russians. As already noted in Chapter 4, the opposition of Russians and Greeks implies the unification of Urums and Rumeans, and, because of this, the stories of the Urums about Russians largely coincide with similar ideas of the Rumeans. Interaction with Russians appeals to two layers of the oral history of the group - memories of the appearance of Russian settlers in Greek villages and the experience of the Soviet era.

Settlers. The ideal past, the "golden age" of the group, refers to the period prior to contact with the Russians. Talking about genuinely Greek cultural features, informants often stipulate that they existed before the appearance of Russians, which led to a mixture of traditions. The informant's childhood is described as devoid of Russian influence: the Urums say that their parents (grandparents) did not know Russian, there were no Russians in the village. Often informants emphasize that Russians were such a rarity in the village that adults used to scare small children with them: “ "Khazah will take." Well, they were afraid of another nation, as I understand it. They also said: “Xazaghyn baltasyn podushkasyndun”. Well, “the hazakh has an ax under his pillow.” That he is always on the lookout. Well, they were afraid(LOD, Urumka, 1938, Stary Krym). Although such stories are usually told in the first person, as a rule, the informant stipulates that he was no longer frightened, because Russians already lived in the village in his childhood.

Like the Rumeians, the Urums indicate that the community avoided intermarriage in the past. “Before, it was even wild - well, there are cases when our local Greek will go and bring a Russian. You know how wild it was? Even, well ... it was indecent that this Russian was in the family. Even my brother got married in 1953 and somehow else…”(VFD, Urumka, 1937, Stary Krym). The WFD appeals to the experience of his brother, but more often informants do not correlate knowledge about marriages (mostly mixed) in their own family and the general prohibition to marry Russians.

The high prestige of the Urums in the eyes of visitors is motivated by the advantages of everyday culture, primarily by the neatness of the Greeks: “But the Russians really liked our nation, when they came:“ What cultural! How clean!“. Of course, the katsaps were probably not so clean.”(SAA, Urumka, 1929, Stary Krym). In the opinion of the informants, the modern traditions of the village are the result of the interpenetration of traditions, although the influence of Greek culture on Russians prevails; an example of Greek practices is almost always the cubite celebratory pie.

Informant. The Russians who live here, they have… learned a lot from us – both good and… well, not bad, of course. And we are from them. They have one food, we have another. Collector. What have they learned from you? Informant. Greek dishes have learned. Kubite with meat, with zucchini.

(Informant information: AEN, Urumka, 1928, Granite.)

In the daily life of the community, the symbols of Greek household traditions among the Urums, as well as among the Rumeians, are cubites and chebureks. They are prepared for the holidays and especially for visitors, for example, for us.

Let us repeat that the motifs of the stories about the other group are the same for the Urums and the Rumeans, and the differences in ideas about the other group become all the more significant. In general, the Urums are more loyal to the Russians than the Rumeans, and less often mention the negative properties of the settlers and talk about the superiority of the Greeks over the Russians; in particular, the Urums did not mention Russian workers among the Greeks.

Russians and the state. In the interview, the Russians are described as the conductors of the Soviet policy aimed at Russification and suppression of the Greeks (both Urums and Rumeians); at the same time, the Russians support the unity of the Greeks, which is significant for the Urums. The Urums, like the Rumeans, mention the ban on the use of the Greek language, career restrictions, and the fact that Greeks were not drafted into the army; in recent years, according to informants, the attitude of Russians towards the Greeks has changed under the influence of contacts with Greece. However, such stories are heard mainly in response to the questions of the collector, and one gets the impression that memories of discrimination constitute an insignificant, optional layer of discourse for the Urums. Exceptions are often related to the biographical circumstances of the informant: “It’s now that they started the Greek language and they started the Greeks, but before - “damn the Greeks!”, yeah, like that ... You’ll go to the city, you’ll get up for bread, there too - “these devils Greeks have come again, oh! Go to your village!“ – so we were scolded. They called it scary. We were even afraid to speak Greek. Yes. And then this power has become narrower, we have become... Greece began to travel here, ours began to travel there. And we have already begun to respect "(OMT, Urumka, 1926, Stary Krym).

(extremely close to the Crimean Tatar language). In addition, the title urums worn by descendants of Armenians who adopted the Chalcedonian religion (ukr.)Russian and eventually Hellenized

Ethnonym

The term "Urum" comes from the Arabic word رُوم ‎ ("room"), meaning "Roman, Roman", and later - "Byzantine" (Eastern Roman) and "Greek". Words beginning with the consonant "r" were atypical for the Turkic languages, therefore, in order to facilitate pronunciation, their speakers added a vowel to the beginning of the word. However, in modern Turkish, the spelling "urum" is considered obsolete, despite the fact that it continues to exist; the spelling "rum" is taken as the literary form.

Azov urums

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Notes

Bibliography

• Garkavets O. Urumi Nadazov'ya. History, language, fairy tales, pisni, riddles, epistles, letters of memo - Alma-Ata: UKC, 1999.
• Garkavets O.- Alma-Ata: Baur, 2000. - 632 p.
• Smolina M. Urum language. Urum dili. Priazovsky option: A tutorial for beginners with an audio application - Kyiv: Blank-Press, 2008.

An excerpt characterizing the Urums

When everything was ready, the sabers were stuck in the snow, meaning a barrier to which it was necessary to converge, and the pistols were loaded, Nesvitsky approached Pierre.
“I would not have fulfilled my duty, count,” he said in a timid voice, “and would not have justified the trust and honor that you did me by choosing me as your second, if I had not said at this important moment, a very important moment, you the whole truth. I believe that this case does not have enough reasons, and that it is not worth shedding blood for it ... You were wrong, not quite right, you got excited ...
“Oh yes, terribly stupid ...” said Pierre.
“So let me convey your regret, and I am sure that our opponents will agree to accept your apology,” said Nesvitsky (as did the other participants in the case and like everyone else in such cases, still not believing that it would come to a real duel) . “You know, Count, it is much nobler to admit one’s mistake than to bring the matter to the point of irreparable. There was no resentment on either side. Let me talk...
- No, what is there to talk about! - said Pierre, - all the same ... Is that ready? he added. “Just tell me how to go where, and where to shoot?” he said, smiling unnaturally meekly. - He took a pistol in his hands, began to ask about the method of descent, since he still did not hold a pistol in his hands, which he did not want to admit. “Oh yes, that’s right, I know, I just forgot,” he said.
“No apologies, nothing decisive,” Dolokhov said to Denisov, who, for his part, also made an attempt at reconciliation, and also approached the appointed place.
The place for the duel was chosen about 80 paces from the road where the sledges were left, in a small clearing of a pine forest, covered with snow that had melted from the last days of thaw. The opponents stood 40 paces apart, at the edges of the clearing. The seconds, measuring their steps, made footprints imprinted in the wet, deep snow from the place where they stood to the sabers of Nesvitsky and Denisov, which meant a barrier and were stuck in 10 steps from each other. The thaw and fog continued; nothing was visible for 40 steps. For about three minutes everything was already ready, and yet they hesitated to start, everyone was silent.

- Well, start! Dolokhov said.
“Well,” said Pierre, still smiling. - It was getting scary. It was obvious that the deed, which began so easily, could no longer be prevented by anything, that it went on by itself, already independently of the will of people, and had to be accomplished. Denisov was the first to come forward to the barrier and proclaimed:
- Since the "opponents" refused to "name" eniya, wouldn't you like to start: take pistols and, according to the word t, and begin to converge.
- G ... "az! Two! T" and! ... - Denisov shouted angrily and stepped aside. Both walked along the trodden paths closer and closer, recognizing each other in the fog. The opponents had the right, converging to the barrier, to shoot whenever they wanted. Dolokhov walked slowly, without raising his pistol, peering with his light, shining, blue eyes into the face of his opponent. His mouth, as always, had a semblance of a smile on it.
- So when I want - I can shoot! - said Pierre, at the word three, he went forward with quick steps, straying from the beaten path and walking on solid snow. Pierre held the pistol, stretching his right hand forward, apparently afraid of lest he kill himself with this pistol. He diligently put his left hand back, because he wanted to support his right hand with it, but he knew that this was impossible. After walking six paces and straying off the path into the snow, Pierre looked around at his feet, again quickly looked at Dolokhov, and pulling his finger, as he had been taught, fired. Not expecting such a strong sound, Pierre flinched at his shot, then smiled at his own impression and stopped. The smoke, especially thick from the fog, prevented him from seeing at first; but the other shot he was waiting for did not come. Only Dolokhov's hurried steps were heard, and his figure appeared from behind the smoke. With one hand he held on to his left side, with the other he clutched a lowered pistol. His face was pale. Rostov ran up and said something to him.