The ENTIRE History of Crimea in 18 Minutes

Crimea hangs off the map of Europe by a neck of land just 5 to 7 kilometers wide, and more than a dozen powers have held the peninsula behind it. The Taurians, the Greek kings, the Huns, the Golden Horde, Genoa, the khans, the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union are all gone, but the harbor is still here. So why has almost every power around the Black Sea fought to own one small peninsula, and why can an army cross its neck in days but need almost a year to take a single harbor? This history documentary covers the entire history of Crimea: the Taurians, Greek Chersonesus and the Bosporan Kingdom, the Goths and Huns, Vladimir's baptism in 988, the Golden Horde, Genoese Caffa and the plague story of 1346, the Crimean Khanate and Devlet Giray, Catherine the Great and the founding of Sevastopol and the Black Sea Fleet in 1783, Potemkin villages, the Crimean War and Balaclava, Wrangel and Perekop in 1920, the siege of Sevastopol in 1941 and 1942, the 1944 deportation of the Crimean Tatars, the 1954 transfer, 1991, the 2014 referendum and annexation and the competing claims of Russia and Ukraine, the Kerch Bridge, and the war in Ukraine in 2026. CHAPTERS 0:00 A harbor with a piece of land attached 2:05 The Taurians and the neck of land 2:42 Chersonesus and the Bosporan grain kingdom 3:39 Goths, Huns and the baptism of 988 4:33 The Golden Horde, Genoese Caffa and the plague story 5:45 The Crimean Khanate 6:36 1774 to 1783: Russia annexes Crimea 7:23 Potemkin villages and the navy 7:50 The secret of Crimea 8:26 Sinop and the siege of Sevastopol 9:10 Balaclava and the Treaty of Paris 10:13 Wrangel and the walk across the Sivash 11:00 Sevastopol, 1941 to 1942 11:32 1944: the deportation of the Crimean Tatars 12:25 1954 and 1991 13:25 Count the years 13:54 2014: referendum, annexation and the disputed status 14:47 2014 to 2025: water, the bridge and the fleet 15:42 Crimea in 2026 17:11 Why it matters Which date changed Crimea most: 1783, 1944 or 1954? Tell us in the comments. Estimates are marked as estimates; traditions are told as traditions. Illustrations are artistic reconstructions, not portraits. Music: "Oumuamua" by Alex Hamlin (YouTube Audio Library). #history #crimea #documentary