Russians in Ukraine - History - Early History: Early Settlement and Novorossiya

Early History: Early Settlement and Novorossiya

The early Russian ethnic group, the Goriuns resided in Putivl (Putyvl) region (what is modern northern Ukraine) from medieval times. The first new waves of Russian settlers onto Ukrainian territory came in the late 16th century to the empty lands of Slobozhanschyna, in what is now northeastern Ukraine, that the Russian state gained from the Tatars, although they were outnumbered by Ukrainian peasants escaping harsh exploitative conditions from the west. In 1599 Tsar Boris Godunov ordered the construction of Tsareborisov on the banks of Oskol River, the first city and the first fortress in Eastern Ukraine. To defend the territory from Tatar raids the Russians built the Belgorod defensive line (1635–1658), and Ukrainians started fleeing to be under its defense.

More Russian speakers appeared in northern, central and eastern Ukrainian territories during the late 17th century, following the Cossack Rebellion led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky. The Uprising led to a massive movement of Ukrainian settlers to the Slobozhanschyna region, which converted it from a sparsely inhabited frontier area to one of the major populated regions of the Tsardom of Russia. Following the Pereyaslav Rada the modern northern and eastern parts of Ukraine entered into the Tsardom of Russia. This brought the first significant, but still small, wave of Russian settlers into central Ukraine (primarily several thousand soldiers stationed in garrisons, out of a population of approximately 1.2 million non-Russians).

At the end of the 18th century, the Russian Empire captured large uninhabited steppe territories from the former Crimean Khanate. The systematic colonization of lands in what became known as Novorossiya (mainly Crimea, Taurida and around Odessa) began. Migrants from many ethnic groups (predominantly Ukrainians and Russians from Russia proper) came to this area. At the same time the discovery of coal in the Donets Basin also marked the commencement of a large-scale industrialization and an influx of workers from other parts of the Russian Empire.

Nearly all of the major cities of the southern and eastern Ukraine were established in this period: Aleksandrovsk (now Zaporizhia; 1770), Yekaterinoslav (now Dnipropetrovsk; 1776), Kherson and Mariupol (1778), Sevastopol (1783), Simferopol and Novoaleksandrovka (Melitopol) (1784), Nikolayev (Mykolaiv; 1789), Odessa (1794), Lugansk (Luhansk; foundation of Luhansk plant in 1795).

Both Russians and Ukrainians made the bulk of the migrants — 31.8% and 42.0% respectively. The population of Novorossiya eventually became intermixed. and with the Russification being the state policy, the Russian identity dominated in mixed families and communities. The Russian Empire officially regarded Ukrainians, Russians and Belarusians as Little, Great and White Russians, which, according to the theory officially accepted in the Imperial Russia, belonged to a single Russian nation, the descendants of the people of the Rus'.

In the beginning of the 20th century the Russians were the largest ethnic group in the following cities: Kiev (54,2%), Kharkov (63,1%), Odessa (49,09%), Nikolaev (66,33%), Mariupol (63,22%), Lugansk (68,16%), Berdiansk (66,05%), Kherson (47,21%), Melitopol (42,8%), Yekaterinoslav (41,78%), Yelisavetgrad (34,64%), Pavlograd (34,36%), Simferopol (45,64%), Feodosiya (46,84%), Yalta (66,17%), Kerch (57,8%), Sevastopol (63,46%), Cuguev (86%).