NATURAL HAZARDS AND THEIR IMPACT ON THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE CRIMEAN KHANATE IN 17th CENTURY
Abstract
The article from the perspective of “disasters studies” summarizes and analyzes the currently known cases of natural hazards in the history of the Crimean Khanate of the 17th century. Written evidence, systematized by the subject of the description, allowed to distinguish the following groups: 1) extreme meteorological phenomena; 2) extraordinary hydrological phenomena; 3) invasion of locusts; 4) epizootics; 5) epidemics; 6) earthquakes.
It is claimed that agriculture, which was the main source of food for the citizens of the Crimean Khanate, was characterized by higher than nomadic pastoralism, sensitivity to the devastating effects of natural disasters. Thus, favorable years allowed to produce a surplus of bread and send it for export, and the years, marked by frequent natural disasters, caused famine and mass death of cattle in the Crimean Khanate, and deterioration of people’s diet that weakened their immunity and made them more vulnerable to epidemics.
The available sources allow us to construct the following chronological lines of extraordinary natural phenomena that affected the Crimean Khanate in 17th century: the invasion of locusts – in 1625 – 1629 (with breaks), 1632, 1690; cold winters – 1625 – 1629 (with breaks), 1657; extremely hot summer and droughts – 1626, 1628, 1642, 1645, 1690; crop failures and famines caused by natural disasters – 1626, 1628, 1642 – 1643, 1645 – 1646, 1657, 1684, 1686; earthquakes – 1615, 1617, 1618, 1619, 1626, 1640, 1656; epidemics – 1628 – 1629, 1636, 1680 – 1681 рр. On the basis of the compiled chronological series we can distinguish at least two large-scale protracted agricultural and food crises in the Crimean Khanate of the 17th century, caused by particularly adverse weather conditions: 1642 – 1647 and 1684 – 1690.
Among the “answers” of the citizens of the Crimean Khanate to the “challenges” of nature were: 1) an increase in the intensity of Tatar campaigns in neighboring countries; 2) mass resettlement to the provinces of the Ottoman Empire; 3) mass transition from a settled to a nomadic way of life, the reorientation from gardening to nomadic pastoralism, mass resettlement from the Crimea to the Black Sea and Azov steppes; 4) sale or exchange for valuables of products, and in exceptional circumstances – sale of family members into slavery; 5) the introduction of a ban on the export of food from the Crimean Khanate, including to the Ottoman Empire; 6) practice of meteorological and economic magic.
References
Borisenkov E. P., Pasetskiy V. M. (1983). “Ekstremal’nyye prirodnyye yavleniya v russkikh letopisyakh XI – XVII vv.”. Leningrad : Gidrometeoizdat. (In Russian).
Borisenkov E. P., Pasetskiy V. M. (1988). “Tysyacheletnyaya letopis’ neobychaynykh yavleniy prirody”. Moscow : Mysl’. (In Russian).
Borisenkov E. P., Pasetskiy V. M. (2002). “Letopis’ neobychaynykh yavleniy prirody za 2,5 tysyacheletiya”. Saint Petersburg : Gidrometeoizdat. (In Russian).
Vasil’yev K. G., Segal A. E. (1960). “Istoriya epidemiy v Rossii”. Moskow : Gosudarstvennoye izd-vo meditsinskoy literatury (In Russian).
Evseyev S. V. (1961). “Zemletryaseniya Ukrainy (Katalog zemletryaseniy Ukrainy s 1000 po 1940 gg.)”. Kyiv : Izd. AN USSR. (In Russian)
Dërbek F. A. (1905). “Istoriya chumnykh epidemiy v Rossii s osnovaniya gosudarstva do nastoyashchego vremeni”. Saint Petersburg. (In Russian).
Ivanhorods’kyy K. (2006). “Zemlerobstvo v ekonomitsi Kryms’koho khanstva (XV – XVII st.): istorychna interpretatsiya problem”, Ukrayins’kyy selyanyn: Zb. nauk. prats’, Vyp. 10, pp. 198–204. (In Ukrainian).
Ivanhorods’kyy K. (2012). “Zemlerobs’ka kul’tura Kryms’koho khanstva v XV – XVII st.”, Chornomors’kyy litopys, Vyp. 5, pp. 198–204. (In Ukrainian).
Kryp”yakevych I. (1927). “Zemletrusy na Ukrayini v XVII ta XVIII vv.”, Visnyk pryrodoznavstva, ch. 3 – 4, p. 206. (In Ukrainian).
Krysachenko V. (2000). “Istoriya Krymu: Kryms’ke khanstvo”. Kyiv : Tvim inter. (In Ukrainian).“Litopys Samiyla Velychka” (2006), Zbirnyk kozats’kykh litopysiv: Hustyns’kyy, Samiyla Velychka, Hrabyanky / uporyad., per. V. Krekoten’, V. Shevchuk, R. Ivanchenko. Kyiv : Dnipro, pp. 194 – 876. (In Ukrainian).
Markevich A. I. (1928). “Letopis’ zemletryaseniy v Krymu (istoricheskaya spravka), Chernomorskoye zemletryaseniye 1927 g. i sud’by Kryma”. Simferopol’. (In Russian).
Mushketov I., Orlov A. (1893). “Katalog zemletryaseniy v Rossiyskoy imperii”. Saint-Petersburg. (In Russian).“Neskol’ko istoricheskikh zametok, napisannykh Ravvi Iakovom, synom Ravvi Mordukhaya v kontse knigi Igeret-Gavi-Kuvakh” (1856), Vremennik Imperatorskogo obshchestva istorii i drevnostey rossiyskikh, Kn. 24, Ch. II, pp. 100–134. (In Russian).
Nikonov A. A. (1986). “Zemletryaseniya XVII veka v Vostochnom Krymu”, Izvestiya AN SSSR. Fizika Zemli, № 6, pp. 79–85. (In Russian).
Novosel’skiy A. A. (1948). “Bor’ba Moskovskogo gosudarstva s tatarami v pervoy polovine XVII v.”, Moskow-Leningrad : AN SSSR. (In Russian).
Pallas P. S. (1999). “Nablyudeniya, sdelannyye vo vremya puteshestviya po yuzhnym namestnichestvam Russkogo gosudarstva”. Moskow : Nauka. (In Russian).
Polumb A. (1933). “Ocherk krymskikh zemletryaseniy”. Gos. izd-vo Krym ASSR. (In Russian).
Prokhorov D. A. (2016). “Posledstviya prirodnykh kataklizmov i stikhiynykh bedstviy na Krymskom poluostrove v opisaniyakh avtorov i dokumentov XVII – XVIII veka”, Bosporskiye issledovaniya, Vyp. 33, pp. 319–346. (In Russian).
Pustovitenko B. G., Kul’chitskiy V. E., Kamenobrodskiy A. G. (1995). “Ob izuchenii istoricheskikh zemletryaseniy Kryma “, Seysmologicheskiy byulleten’ Ukrainy za 1992 g., pp. 104–111. (In Russian).
Sanin G. A. (1987). “Otnosheniya Rossii i Ukrainy s Krymskim khanstvom v seredine XVII v.”. Moskow : Nauka. (In Russian).
Sludskiy A. F. (1928). “Istoricheskiy ocherk zemletryaseniy v Krymu”, Krym, № 1 (15), pp. 17–24. (In Russian).
Smirnov V. D. (1889). “Krymskoye khanstvo pod verkhovenstvom Otomanskoy Porty v XVIII stoletii”. Odessa : tip. A.
Shul’tse. (In Russian).
Smirnov V. D. (1887). “Krymskoye khanstvo pod verkhovenstvom Ottomanskoy Porty do nachala XVIII veka”. Saint
Petersburg : Universitetskaya tipografiya, 1887. (In Russian).
Smirnov M. V. (1931). Katalog zemletryaseniy v Krymu”. Simferopol’. (In Russian).
Tunmann I. (1991). “Krymskoye khanstvo”. Simferopol’: Tavriya (In Russian).
Usov S. A. (1925). “Istoriko-ekonomicheskiye ocherki Kryma: proshloye i nastoyashcheye krymskogo khozyaystva”. Simferopol’. (In Russian).
Khapayev V. V. (2008). “Krymskiye zemletryaseniya drevnosti i srednevekov’ya: k istorii voprosa”, Materialy po arkheologii i istorii antichnogo i srednevekovogo Kryma, Vyp. I, pp. 89–116. (In Russian).
Khrapunov N. I. (2013). “Krymskiy poluostrov posle prisoyedineniya k Rossii v sochinenii Bal’tazara fon Kampengauzena”, Materialy po arkheologii, istorii i etnografii Tavrii. Simferopol’-Kerch’, Vyp. XIII, pp. 456–473. (In Russian).
Chelebi E. (2008). “Kniga puteshestviya. Krym i sopredel’nyye oblasti. Izvlecheniya iz sochineniya turetskogo puteshestvennika XVII veka”. Simferopol’ : Dolya (In Russian).
Cook E. R., Solomina O., Matskovsky V. et al. (2020), “The European Russia Drought Atlas (1400–2016 CE)”, Climate
Dynamics, 54, pp. 2317–2335. (In English).
“Tree-Ring Drought Atlas Portal”. URL: drought. memphis.edu (15.06.2022). (In English).
ISSN 
