Articles

Administrative Structure of the Crimea before and after the Russian Annexation of 1783

Vostok/Oriens '2016, №5

 
The article analyzes the administrative structure of the Crimea in the seventeenth-eighteenth centuries and in the early years after the Russian annexation of the peninsula in 1783. In the period between 1475/1478 and 1774 the Crimea was divided into two main parts – the Ottoman Crimea and the Crimean Khanate. Although both were administratively divided into qadılıks (judicial districts), the main authority in the Ottoman Crimea was the paşa of Kefe province while the Crimean Khanate was ruled by the Khans of Giray dynasty. Paşa’s deputies were qaymaqam and müsellem while most important municipal duties were fulfilled by superintendents emins. Khan’s deputies were called qalğa and nureddin although at the end of the seventeenth century in the Crimean Khanate there also appeared a position of qaymaqam. Most of the Tatar towns were governed by the emins appointed by the Khan. In the Crimean Khanate there also existed beyliks – lands of the Tatar beys which were practically independent both from the Khans and Ottoman sultans. After the Russian annexation of 1783, the administrative structure of the Crimea underwent complete modernisation. All Tatar and Ottoman administrative institutions were abolished. New Russian institutions were established. The territory of the former Crimean Khanate was first reorganized as the Tavricheskaia oblast’ (1784) and divided into seven uezds. In 1802, at the time of Alexander I, it was reorganized as the Tavricheskaia guberniia.

Keywords: Crimean Khanate, the Crimea, Ottomans, Tatars, Russia, administrative system

Pages: С. 53–63