Crimea in the Era of Napoleon: the ‘French trace’ in regional politics
Journal: RUDN Journal of Russian History
Year: 2019

When the Crimea acquired the status of Russian territory in 1783, it became an imperial ‘borderland’ a long way from Saint Petersburg. However, in the geopolitical aspirations of European powers, and, also, from the viewpoint of the Russian Empire, the Crimea was not a remote periphery. The Russian government consistently sought to attract colonists from abroad to the thinly-populated Black Sea region. Several attempts to do so ended in failure; one of these was the organization of farming colon