Greeks in Russia

The Greek presence in southern Russia is dated to the 6th century BC. Today there are about 128,000 people of Greek extraction living in the Russian Federation. Most live in the south and the Black Sea region (100,000) with large concentrations in Moscow (25,000) and St. Petersburg (3,000). About 70% are Greek-speakers from the Black Sea coast, 29% are Turkish-speaking Greeks from Tsalka in Georgia and 1% are Greek-speakers from Mariupol in Ukraine. According to the 2006 official census there are 100,000 Russian citizens of Greek extraction living in Russia. However, the leaders of the Greek community in Russia claim that their true numbers exceed this figure two-fold. [ [http://www.ypex.gov.gr/www.mfa.gr/en-US/Policy/Geographic+Regions/Russia+-+Eastern+Europe+-+Central+Asia/Bilateral+Relations/Russia/ Hellenic Republic, MFA:Greeks in Russia] ]

Ancient

Greeks have lived in the Black Sea region of Russia and the CIS since before the foundation of the first Russian state. The Greek name of Crimea was Tauris and in mythology it was the home of the tribes who took Iphigenia prisoner in Euripides' play Iphigenia in Tauris. Trade relations with the Scythians led to the foundation of the first outposts between 750 and 500 BC during the Old Greek Diaspora. In the Eastern part of the Crimea the Bosporan kingdom was founded with Panticapaeum (modern Kerch) as its capital. The Greeks had to fight off Scythian and Sarmatian (Alan) raiders who prevented them from progressing inland but retained the shores which became the wheat basket of the ancient Greek world. Following the conquests of Alexander the Great and the Roman conquest the provinces maintained active trading relations with the interior for centuries. [http://www.nupi.no/cgi-win/Russland/etnisk_b.exe?Greek NUPI Centre for Russian Studies, Ethnic groups, Greeks] ] [http://www.blacksea-crimea.com/history1.html History of the Crimea] ]

Medieval

Black Sea trade became more important for Constantinople as Egypt and Syria were lost to Islam in the 7th c. Greek missionaries were sent among the steppe people, like the Alans and Khazars. Most notable were Saints Cyril and Methodius of Thessalonica, who later became known as the apostles of the Slavs. Many Greeks remained in Crimea after the Bosporan kingdom fell to the Huns and the Goths, and Chersonesos became part of the Byzantine Empire. In 965 AD there were 16,000 Crimean Greeks in the joint Byzantine and Kievan Rus army which invaded Bulgaria. Orthodox monasteries continued to function, with strong links with the monasteries on Mount Athos in northern Greece. Relations with the people from the Kievan Rus principality were stormy at first, leading to several short lived conflicts, but gradually raiding turned to trading and many also joined the Byzantine military, becoming it's finest soldiers. Subsequently Byzantine power in the Black Sea region waned, but ties between the two people were strengthened tremendously in cultural and political terms with the baptism of Prince Vladimir of Kievan Rus in 988 and the subsequent Christianization of his realm. The post as metropolitan of the Orthodox Church in Russia was, in fact, with few exceptions, held by a Byzantine Greek all the way to the 15th century. One notable such prelate was Isidore of Kiev.

Modern

With the Fall of Constantinople in the 15th century, there was an exodus of Greeks both to the West and to Russia. Together with the marriage of Greek Princess Sophia and Tsar Ivan III of Russia, this provided a historical precedent for the Muscovite political theory of the Third Rome, positing Moscow as the legitimate successor to Rome and Byzantium. Greeks continued to migrate in the following centuries. Many sought protection in a country with a culture related to theirs. Greek clerics, soldiers and diplomats found employment in Russia and Ukraine while Greek merchants came to make use of privileges that were extended to them in Ottoman-Russian trade. Catherine the Great also settled many thousands of Greeks in the empire’s south. There were over 500.000 Greeks in tsarist Russia prior to the Russian Revolution, between 150.000 and 200.000 of them within the borders of the present-day Russian Federation. There have been several notable Greeks from Russia like Ioannis Kapodistrias, diplomat of the Russian Empire and first head of state of Greece.

As most Greeks were engaged in trade or other occupations that marked them as "class enemies" of the Bolshevik government and due to the participation of a regiment from Greece in the Civil War of 1919, official state policy after the Revolution, became hostile. About 50,000 Greeks emigrated between 1919 and 1924. After 1924 Soviet authorities pressed Greece to "repatriate" 70.000 Greeks from Russia, although few actually had ancestors who were citizens of the Greek state. In the Stalinist era, many Greeks were deported to remote parts of the Soviet Union, and Greek Orthodox churches, Greek-language schools and other cultural institutions were closed. During World War II, the Greeks first suffered under Nazi occupation and then, when Crimea was liberated in 1944, most of the Greeks were exiled to Kazakhstan, along with the Crimean Tatars.

The last major immigration of Greeks to Russia and the Soviet Union happened after the end of the Greek civil war as Communist supporters became political refugees. Over 10.000 ended up in the Soviet Union. After de-Stalinization, Greeks were gradually allowed to return to their homes in the Black Sea region. Many have emigrated to Greece since the early 1990’s.

Current

Many Greeks now seek to emigrate to Greece. In 1990, 22,500 Pontian Greeks left the Soviet Union, a dramatic increase from previous years. Figures for 1991 indicate that about 1,800 left every month, primarily from Central Asia and Georgia. [http://www.everyculture.com/Russia-Eurasia-China/Greeks-Orientation.html Greeks-Orientation] ]

Today most Greeks in the former USSR speak Russian, with a significant number speaking their traditional Pontian Greek language. Pontian is a Greek dialect that derives from the ancient Ionic Greek dialect and resembles ancient Greek more than the modern "demotic" Greek language. Until recently, the ban on teaching Greek in Soviet schools meant that Pontian was spoken only in a domestic context. Consequently, many Greeks, especially those of the younger generation, speak Russian as their first language. Linguistically, Greeks are far from being unified. In the Ukraine alone, there are at least five documented Greek linguistic groups, which are broadly categorized as the Mariupol dialect. Other Greeks in the Crimea speak Tatar, and in regions such as Tsalka in Georgia there are numerous Turkophone Greeks. Greeks were permitted to teach their own language again during Perestroika, and a number of schools are now teaching Greek. Because of their strongly philhellenic sentiments and ambitions to live in Greece, this is normally modern, "demotic" Greek rather than Pontian.

See also

* Greeks in Georgia
* Greeks in Ukraine
* Greek diaspora

References