 | |
| Total population | |
| c. 300[1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Crimea | |
| Languages | |
| Religion | |
| Catholic, Eastern Orthodoxy | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Italians, Italians of Odesa |
The Italians of Crimea (Italian: italiani di Crimea; Ukrainian: Італійці Криму, romanized: Italiytsi Krymu; Russian: Итальянцы в Крыму, romanized: Ital'yantsy v Krymu) are an ethnic minority residing in Crimea, whose ancestors were Italians who emigrated to Crimea during the Italian diaspora, the largest nucleus of which is found in the city of Kerch. Ancient Romans, who are the ancestors of Italians, settled in some areas of Ukraine and Crimea since the times of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. For a period Crimea was a client state of the Roman Empire. Subsequently Italians have populated some areas of Ukraine and Crimea at the time of the Republic of Genoa and the Republic of Venice during the Middle Ages. The conquest of Crimea by the Ottoman Empire marked the end of the Italian trading colonies. Starting from the end of the 18th century, Italian emigration to Crimea resumed with vigor.
At the beginning of the 19th century, Italian emigration to the Crimea came from various Italian regions (Liguria, Campania, Apulia), with immigrants settling mainly in the coastal cities of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, as well as in Odesa, Mykolaiv, Sevastopol, Mariupol, Berdiansk and Taganrog. After the Congress of Vienna in 1815, emissaries of Tsar Alexander I of Russia were sent to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies to recruit settlers. In 1914, when World War I broke out, the Italian community was numerous enough to have a primary school and a library. With the October Revolution of 1917, with which the Russian Empire became the Soviet Union, a bitter period began for minorities in Russia. Italians of Crimea therefore faced much repression. The Kingdom of Italy suspended diplomatic relations with Russia and recalled the Italians residing in the country; so did the Italians of Kerch.
Between 1920 and 1930, many anti-fascist Italians seeking asylum in Soviet Union were sent from Moscow to Kerch to organise the local Italian community. In 1924, according to the plans of Soviet collective farming, the Italians were forced to create a kolkhoz, named Sacco e Vanzetti for the two Italian anarchists of the same name. More than half of Kerch's Italians opposed the move to hand over their land to the collective farm, and those who could, fled and tried to return to Italy. Between 1936 and 1938, during Joseph Stalin's Great Purge, many Italians were accused of espionage and were arrested, tortured, deported or executed. With the outbreak of World War II and the invasion of the Soviet Union by the Wehrmacht in June 1941, the population of Italian origin residing there were declared an enemy of the people and, on the basis of a census carried out by the German Wehrmacht, were deported to Kazakhstan and Siberia in three waves of deportations for alleged collaboration with the enemy "for their own security".
The few survivors were allowed to return to Kerch in the 1950s and 1960s during Nikita Khrushchev's administration. There they discovered that they had lost everything and could no longer return to their previous homes. Many could no longer prove that they were of Italian origin because their documents had been confiscated at the time of deportation. On 12 September 2015, a delegation of the 'Cerkio' association (an organization that represents ethnic Italians in Crimea) led by its president, Giulia Giacchetti Boico, and Silvio Berlusconi, met Vladimir Putin in Yalta. Following this meeting, the Russian president issued a decree recognizing the plight of Crimean Italians during the Stalinist regime. The descendants of the surviving Italians of Crimea currently account for about 300 people, mainly residing in Kerch.
- ^ "Europa e Mediterraneo d'Italia. L'italiano nelle comunità storiche da Gibilterra a Costantinopoli - 10. Gli italiani di Crimea | Treccani, il portale del sapere". www.treccani.it (in Italian). Retrieved 2023-05-22.