Crimean Peninsula

Crimean Peninsula cliffs

Crimean Peninsula, Ukrainian Krymsky Pivostriv, Russian Krymskiy Poluostrov, peninsula coterminous with the autonomous republic of Crimea, Ukraine, lying between the Black Sea and Sea of Azov and having an area of 10,400 square miles (27,000 square km). The Crimean Peninsula is linked to the mainland by the narrow Perekop Isthmus; Syvash lies between the mainland and the peninsula and is separated from the Sea of Azov by a long sandspit, the Tonka of Arabat. The brines of Syvash are used to supply a chemical complex at Krasnoperekopsk on the Perekop Isthmus. The northern and central part of the Crimean Peninsula (some 75 percent of its total area) is a level plain of dry steppe with little surface water. In the south are the three parallel, thickly forested ranges of the Crimean Mountains, flat-topped limestone blocks culminating in Mount Roman-Kosh (5,069 feet [1,545 m]). The narrow southern coastal plain has a warm climate and is a major health and holiday resort region. Sevastopol, one of the best harbours in Ukraine, was long a Russian naval base.

The Crimean Peninsula, which in antiquity was known as the Tauric Chersonese, was settled by Greek colonists from the 6th century bce onward, and Scythians occupied the interior. Later it came under the kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus, which eventually collapsed under the barbarian invasions. Long the home of the Crimean Tatars, with Bakhchysaray as their capital, the peninsula was annexed by Russia in 1783. Under Soviet rule the peninsula became the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. At the end of World War II, however, the Soviets abolished the republic, and the Tatar population was exiled to central Asia and Siberia. Although legally rehabilitated in 1967, they were not allowed to return to Crimea. In the late 1980s and early ’90s, as the Soviet Union disintegrated, many Tatars resettled in Crimea. In March 2014 Russian troops occupied the peninsula. Within weeks, a popular referendum was scheduled, and the predominantly Russian population voted overwhelmingly to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian Federation.