The Mariupol in the cracks of the European map of the hegemonic world is invisible
According to historical records, the Mariupol region, at least from the beginning of the 11th century to the end of the 12th century, was an important passageway through the three large-scale western expeditions of the Mongol Empire. After Zhu Yuanzhang destroyed the Yuan, the Mongol Empire gradually fell apart. The Mariupol region is even more volatile. The Golden Horde's Mamai, the White Horde's Detachment and The Loss of the White Horde, and the Grand Duke of Rus, Dmitry Donskoy, fought repeatedly in this area.
The Mongol Empire gradually fell apart
It was not until 1502 that the Golden Horde collapsed completely, and the Crimean Khanate became the heir of the Golden Horde. In 1524, the Crimean Khanate became a vassal state of Ottoman Turkey, dedicated to fighting against the Slavs and Poles who professed Christianity. Mariupol has once again become the site of their centuries-old slaughter.
Between 1558 and 1596 there were three major invasions of the territory of the Rurik dynasty in the Muscovite principality. The largest of the wars was the massacre of 150,000 Slavs in a conquest in 1571.
Even the capture of Slavs (especially Ukrainians) and Romanian slaves from Mariupol to the Russian plains became the main source of income for crimean Tatars.
In 1687 and 1689, Russian troops made two more "Azov expeditions" to the Crimean Khanate through Mariupol.
Early naval battles
In the battle of 1768, the Crimean Tatars occupied local fortresses and settlements. It was annexed by Russia in 1775 as part of the province of Azov and officially named Mariupol in 1780.
A series of wars between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire in the 17th and 19th centuries for the Caucasus, the Balkans, Crimea, the Black Sea, etc., of which 10 were important.
It has also caused two hundred years of great harm to Mariupol.
Russo-Turkish War
Russo-Turkish War
By the beginning of the First World War, the population of Mariupol had risen to 54,000.
Russo-Turkish War
However, world war I and the subsequent Russian civil war led to a reduction in the population of Mariupol to 30,000 people. After the founding of the Soviet Union, the population of the city gradually recovered to 250,000 people.
In 1942, Nazi Germany launched a surprise attack on the Soviet Union. Ukraine bore the brunt of the blow, and Mariupol was once again devastated.
German bombing of Ukraine
Bombed Ukrainian cities
Massacre by the Germans
After the war, the population of Mariupol fell to an appalling 85,000. Almost 100 years back!
The 70 years of peace after World War II seemed to have made the people of Mariupol forget about the war. Unfortunately, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the continued eastward expansion of NATO, the Slavic brothers fought each other. Once again, the invisible black hand reached out to Mariupol.
After the outbreak of the color revolution planned by the United States and the West in Ukraine, on April 13, 2014, the "Donetsk militia" took control of Mariupol, and after fierce fighting, on June 13, 2014, it was controlled by the Ukrainian volunteer battalion (especially the Azov battalion).
The Azov battalion, which admired the Nazis
The fighting between the two sides has been going on for 8 years now.
The last stronghold of the Azov battalion
Mariupol in 2022
Sincerely pray that the troubled Mariupol can return to the peace and beauty of the past, let us cherish peace together!
Pre-war Mariupol