May 24 marks ten years since an event that few people now remember: in 2014, the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics announced the creation of a single state called Novorussia.
A year later, the initiators of this project announced its closure. In fact, only the name "Novorussia" remained from it. However, it is still used regularly by Russian officials, including Vladimir Putin.
On "Novorussia" as a Russian historical and political phenomenon is dedicated material to "Medusa".
The name "Novorussia" in relation to modern realities, it was popularized by Vladimir Putin. On April 17, 2014, in the midst of the conflict in Eastern Ukraine, within the so-called si Direct line, he said that the southeastern part of Ukraine is Novorussia, which became part of Ukraine only by a decision of the Soviet government in the 1920s. Remember Catherine II, who created the Novorossiysk Governorate, and Potemkin, who ruled these lands after their conquest in the Russo-Turkish wars.
At the same time, Putin mistakenly called Novorossiysk the center of Ekaterinin Province. In fact, the current Novorossiysk appeared only in 1838. The official center of the Novorossiysk province in the 18th century was first Kremenchug and then Ekaterinoslav (under Paul I it was briefly called Novorossiysk, now Dnieper).
Before that, on May 6, the deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine from the Party of Regions Oleg Tsarev, who switched to the side of the so-called The Donbas People's Militia declared that eight "people's republics" have appeared in the country or will appear in the near future, in the southern and eastern parts of the country: Odessa, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Zaporozhye, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk - and then they will unite in the "federal entity of Novorossiya". And he also referred to the Novorossiysk Governorate of Ekaterina.
The attempts to create "people's republics" failed, as we know, everywhere except Donetsk and Luhansk. On May 22, 2014, the constituent congress of the "Novorusia" party took place in Donetsk, at which the "people's governor" Pavel Gubarev announced that its goal will be the creation of a state of the same name. On May 24, a document to this effect was signed by the leaders of the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR.
Later even the "parliament of Novorussia" - Oleg Tsarev became his spokesman. The flag originally featured a blue St. Andrew's cross on a red background, then a white-yellow-black "imperial" flag.
Also in 2014, in one month, the historian Alexander Shubin wrote the book "History of Novorussia" by order of the Military Historical Society, headed by Vladimir Medinsky. The Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences undertook a collective monograph (published in 2017).
Russia has repeatedly officially denied being a party to the conflict in eastern Ukraine. But at the same time as the war - the battles for the airport in Donetsk, Ilovaisk and Debaltsovo, etc. - there was an intensive propaganda campaign in Russia aimed at proving that a large part of Ukraine is not Ukraine, but Novorussia.
What's new in Novorussia?
It was originally a typical colonial name. When Catherine II created the Novorossiysk Krai, New England, the colony of New Hampshire, the city of New York (formerly New Amsterdam), the city of New Orleans and the Viceroyalty of New Spain already existed in America.
Such baptisms were a constant practice of colonialists and settlers. The Phoenicians arrived in a new place in Africa, built a city - and simply called it New City - Kart Hadasht, Carthage. The Slavs moved to a new place - and built Novgorod (Veliki, Nizhny, Seversky, and also Novogrudok in Belarus).
Ekaterina's Novorussia is a project entirely in the spirit of settler colonization of the 18th century: "civilized people" conquer vast lands from the "barbarians" (in this case from the Crimean Tatars and Cossacks) - and "in a wild field" a "new society" is being built, in which everyone can start a "new life".
Novorussia, of course, is not the New World: these lands are well known from ancient times. The Polovtsian Field in "The Tale of Igor's March" is the current Luhansk region. The first battle of the ancient Russian troops with the Mongols took place on the Kalka River - not far from modern Mariupol.
Even during the years of Catherine's reign, New Russia did not exist permanently as an administrative unit: the structure of local government changed, the borders also changed. After the creation of the province, three wars broke out with the Ottoman Empire, as a result of which Russia annexed almost the entire northern coast of the Black Sea, including Crimea. But "Novorussia" then firmly established itself as an unofficial name that successfully emphasizes that this is a territory of active colonization.
Ekaterina painstakingly emphasizes that Novorossiya connects Russia with ancient and Byzantine heritage, since in even more ancient times Greek colonies were scattered along the northern shores of the Black Sea. Hence the many Greek names, including Simferopol, Sevastopol, Mariupol, Tiraspol, Melitopol, Kherson and Odessa. They were forged in names mainly in the 18th century, but are carefully stylized to resemble antiquity. Catherine's further plans include the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the capture of Constantinople and the revival of Byzantium - even as the empress's aptly named grandson, Constantine, prepares to take over as her ruler.
Ekaterina's Novorussia was colonized by the "new Russians". For example, the Pontic Greeks, Serbs and Bulgarians who were attracted by the Ottoman Empire. But also the "old ones", of course, and as an example is the character of Gogol Chichikov, who takes advantage of the new Russian colonial fever for his fraud - and buys serf's "dead souls" in Central Russia for "resettlement" in Kherson province.
In the 19th century, the name "New Russia" is gradually falling out of use. Mainly because the colonial project was a complete success: this territory was developed and fully integrated into the Russian Empire, becoming its most important economic center: first agricultural - thanks to the steppe black soils, then commercial - thanks to the port of Odessa, and after this and industrial - thanks to the Donetsk coal basin.
Why was Novorussia needed? And why does no one need her now?
Connotations of novelty - whether colonial or otherwise - have virtually disappeared from "Novorsia" of Putin. If Pavel Gubarev, Oleg Tsarev and other founders of the new Novorossia in 2014 meant that they would create a "new Russia" freed from the vices of the existing one, then they never spoke about it directly.
The founders of the "people's republics" they have always thanked Russia and Putin personally for "moral support", but have never publicly declared their intention to join Russia. Apparently, then, the Kremlin intended to use Novorussia in much the same way as Abkhazia and South Ossetia: to create a frozen conflict and with its help to keep the neighboring country in constant tension.
"The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the DNR" Alexander Kofman then explained to British journalists about the plans to organize something like a "separatist International" - and to invite to it supporters of the independence of the state of Texas, of Scotland and of the Basque Country, etc. Usually, however, if there were any contacts with these movements, they were mainly in Moscow. This is also a long-standing dream of the Kremlin - to create some kind of global network capable of broadcasting its narratives and creating various difficulties for the "world order".
What came out of this is known. In May 2015, almost a year after the proclamation of Novorussia, Kofman admitted the failure of the project: Kharkiv, Zaporozhye and Odesa did not support Donetsk and Luhansk, and no federation of "people's republics" failed.
Oleg Tsarev, for his part, announced that "the project is frozen" and referred to the Minsk agreements: they assumed that the "people's republics" they will remain part of Ukraine, but will be granted autonomy. It is clear that no Novorussia does not fit into this concept.
And then 2022 came and Russia simply occupied and annexed the territories of the four regions of Ukraine. At that time, the formula "Donbass and Novorussia" appeared in Vladimir Putin's speech. Obviously, the first word in it refers to the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, which have been fighting for their independence since 2014, and the second - to Zaporozhye and the Kherson region, parts of which Russia has already occupied without federalist mediators.
In the ten years since the proclamation of Novorussia until now, this territory has managed to become something of a "Wild West", where no laws really apply except the rule of force, and bandit groups and warlords rule. And finally it turned into a war zone.
However, some elements of colonial enthusiasm are again visible: Russians are buying up housing in the destroyed and occupied Mariupol. Russian propaganda constantly tries to inspire its audience with pictures of a new life in "new territories".
But if anyone has ever been excited by the prospect of a sovereign Novorussia, then clearly his plans do not coincide with those of the Kremlin lover of the history of imperial conquests.