Crimean–Nogai slave raids in Eastern Europe

Crimean–Nogai slave raids in Eastern Europewere theslave raids, for over three centuries, conducted by the military of theCrimean Khanateand theNogai Hordeprimarily in lands controlled by RussiaandPoland-Lithuaniaas well as other territories, often under the sponsorship of theOttoman Empire, which provided slaves for theCrimeanandOttomanslave trades.
Their main purpose was the capture of humans and consequentenslavement,most of whom were exported to theOttoman slave marketsinConstantinopleorelsewhere in the Middle Eastvia theBlack Sea slave trade.GenoeseandVenetianmerchants controlled theslave trade from Crimea to Western Europe. Theraidswere a drain on the human and economic resources of eastern Europe. They largely targeted the "Wild Fields" – the steppe and forest-steppe land which extends about five hundred or so miles north of theBlack Seaand which now contains most of the population of modern-day south-eastern Ukraine and south-western Russia. The campaigns also played an important role in the development of theCossacks.
Estimates of the number of people affected vary: Polish historian Bohdan Baranowski assumed that the 17th-centuryPolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth(present-dayPoland,Lithuania,Latvia,Estonia,Ukraine, andBelarus) lost an average of 20,000 yearly and as many as one million in total from 1474 to 1694.Mikhail Khodarkhovsky estimates that 150,000 to 200,000 people were abducted from Russia in the first half of the 17th-century.
The first major raid occurred in 1468 and was directed into thesouth-eastern border of Poland.The last raid intoHungarytook place in 1717.In 1769, the last major Tatar raid, which took place during theRusso-Turkish War, saw the capture of 20,000 slaves.
Thesteppesof southern Eurasia are flat and most of its societies were either nomadic or semi-nomadic, even those based in urban centers, likeKazan,Crimea, andAstrakhan.
Given the mobility of nomadic nations, warfare and slave trade proved more lucrative than trade because of the wide-open terrain. Additionally, the decentralized and fractious powers that Russia encountered on its eastern andsouthern borderswere organized for war, leaving East Slavic lands in a constant state of warfare with numerous potential invaders. Armed mainly with spears, bows, and sabres, raiders could travel for hundreds of miles across an open steppe landscape with no natural impediment like mountain ranges, attack villages with little warning, and then leave with captives.  Traveling light and on horseback, the main concern of the Tatars was finding sufficient fodder for their horses.  Sedentary farming societies, with or without a powerful army, were easy prey for the highly mobile raiders.
Security on the steppe's wide-open terrain remained precarious and in ever-present danger. Even in the mid-18th century, with greater security at the southern frontier, Russian peasants there continued to farm their lands fully armed, often superficially indistinguishable fromCossacks.
Most of the raids fell on territory of today's Russia and Ukraine – lands previously divided between the Grand Duchy of Moscow and the Duchy of Lithuania, although some fell onMoldaviaandCircassia(North Caucasus).
The main economic goal of the raids was booty, some of it material, but most of it human.These human trade goods were mostly sold on to the Ottoman Empire, although some remained in Crimea. Slaves and freedmen formed approximately 75% of the Crimean population.According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, "It is known that for every slave the Crimeans sold in the market, they killed outright several other people during their raids, and a couple more died on the way to the slave market."The main slave market wasCaffawhich after 1475 was part of the coastal strip of Crimea that belonged to the Ottomans. In the 1570s close to 20,000 slaves a year went on sale in Caffa.
The Crimean Khanate broke off from theGolden Hordein 1441. When the Horde came to an end in 1502, the buffer between Crimea and its northern neighbors disappeared. The Khans took advantage of the conflicts between Lithuania and Moscow, allying now with one, then with the other, and using the alliance with one as a justification to attack the other. During the Russo-Lithuanian War of 1500–1506 the Crimeans were allied with Russia and penetrated deep into Lithuania. Relations soon deteriorated. Near continuous raids on Muscovy began in 1507.
Crimean KhanDevlet I Girayburnt down Moscow during the1571 campaign. Contemporaries counted up to 80,000 victims of theTatar invasion in 1571, with 150,000 Russians taken as captives.Ivan the Terrible, having learnt that Crimean Khanate army was approaching Moscow, fled from Moscow toKolomnawith hisoprichniks.
After the burning of Moscow, Devlet Giray Khan, supported by theOttoman Empire, invaded Russia again in 1572. The combined force of Tatars and Turks, however, this time was repelled in theBattle of Molodi. In July–August, the 120,000-strong Tatar horde was also defeated by the Russian army, led by Prince MikhailVorotynskyand Prince Dmitriy Khvorostinin.
In 1620, Tatars took part in theBattle of Cecora, where they vastly contributed to the crushing victory of the Turks over thePoles-Lithuanians.In 1672, KhanSelim I Giraywas assigned to join Ottoman army during thePolish–Ottoman War (1672–76)in which he was successful in the conquest ofBar.
At the beginning of this period, almost 700 miles of sparsely populated grassland -- the so-called Wild Fields -- separated the Crimean Khanate from the Duchy of Moscow. The Oka River, 40 miles south of Moscow, was the city's the principal and northernmost line of defense, guarded by the Beregovaya Sluzhba ("river-bank service"). These guards remained in place there after the construction of the Belgorod Line far to the south. They rarely crossed the Oka in that direction, even when the southward fortresses suffered massive attacks.
Three main routes, called trails, traversed the terrain between Muscovy and Crimea. To minimize the necessity of fording rivers, the  trails generally followed the high ground between them.
Caffa, which after 1475 belonged to the Ottoman Empire, was Crimea's main slave market. Artillery and a strong garrison ofJanissariesprotected the city. The Crimean towns ofKarasubazar,Tuzleri,BakhchysaraiandKhazlevealso sold slaves. The slave dealers were Turks, Arabs, Greeks, Armenians and Jews, and both the Crimean khan and the Turkish pasha taxed them in exchange for that right. Caffa sometimes had as many as 30,000 slaves, most of whom came from Muscovy and the southeastern lands of thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.Sigismund von Herberstein, who was a Habsburg diplomat and theHoly Roman Empire's  ambassador to Muscovy,  wrote that "old and infirmed men, who will not fetch much at a sale, are given up to the Tatar youths, either to be stoned, or to be thrown into the sea, or to be killed by any sort of death they might please."A Lithuanian in 1630 wrote:
Alan W. Fisher describes the fate of the slaves:
According to Ukrainian-Canadian historianOrest Subtelny, "from 1450 to 1586, eighty-six raids were recorded, and from 1600 to 1647, seventy. Although estimates of the number of captives taken in a single raid reached as high as 30,000, the average figure was closer to 3000...InPodiliaalone, about one-third of all the villages were devastated or abandoned between 1578 and 1583."
Michalo Lituanusdescribed Caffa as "an insatiable and lawless abyss, drinking our blood." Besides the bad food, water, clothing and shelter, they were subjected to exhausting labor and abuse. According to Litvin "the stronger slaves were castrated, others had their noses and ears slit and were branded on the forehead or cheek. By day they were tormented with forced labor and at night kept in dungeons." Muslim, Armenians, Jews, and Greek traders all purchased Slavic slaves in Caffa.
The human losses during the raids in Eastern Europe were significant. According to partial statistics and fragmentary estimates, nearly 2 million Russians, Ukrainians, and Poles were taken into slavery by the Crimean Tatars from 1468 to 1694.In the first half of the 17th century alone, an estimated 150 to 200 thousand people were taken into slavery from the territory of the Moscow State. These figures do not take into account those who were killed during the attacks.
The largest captures of slaves occurred in theDnieper,Podolia,Volhynia, andGaliciaregions, with more than a million people taken from these lands between 1500 and 1644.During the second half of the 17th century, these regions saw numerous wars with Tatar participation, suggesting an extremely high number of captured yasyr during this period. In 1676, for example, 40 thousand people were taken away inVolhynia,Podolia, andGalicia.According to some estimates, the total amount of captives seized from territory ofPoland-Lithuaniabetween 1500 and 1700 could’ve been 1 million; at least half of whom could’ve been ethnicPoles.
After theAzov campaignsofPeter Iin the 18th century, the raids became smaller and were mostly carried out in theDnieper region, theAzovregion, and the Don, by both theTatarsand theCossacksin both directions.