In our publications, you had the opportunity to learn many interesting facts about the culture, language and customs of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people. And today we want to tell you a few facts about another indigenous people of Ukraine – the Krymchaks, who began to settle on the Crimean peninsula from the 13th century.
- Origin. According to one version, the history of the Crimean people began with several waves of Jewish migration: from Byzantium, the countries of the Middle East and southern Europe to the Crimea. According to other sources, the Krymchaks have Turkic roots.
- Faith. The Krymchaks are Talmudic Jews and profess the rabbinical trend in Judaism (Rabbanites).
- Language. The Krymchak language is considered an ethnolect of the Crimean Tatar. In the language of worship, scientific and theosophical works until the beginning of the twentieth century. remained Hebrew. In the 1920-1940s. Krymchaks used the Latin alphabet, and from 1945 they began to use the Cyrillic alphabet.
- Facts about life. The life of the Krymchaks is very similar to the Crimean Tatar. Until the XX century. The basis of the family was patriarchy. According to worldview ideas, husband and wife are inseparable even after death. Relations in the Krymchak family are based on mutual respect, regardless of age. Interestingly, before marriage, a man and a woman entered into a marriage contract (kitubu), which marked the future relationship between the spouses. Even a certain bail was fixed, which the man’s family had to pay in the event of a divorce. This was for the couple to try to save the marriage, otherwise it would have been very costly for them. Therefore, Krymchak families have always been very strong and friendly.
- Cuisine. A special place in the cuisine of the Krymchaks belongs to puff pastry. It is used to make a closed kubete pie (a common holiday dish). From the same dough they prepare cheche (pies with different fillings). Daily meals are mainly porridge, kulah and suzma.
- The tragedy of the people. In 1941, on the 10th kilometer of the Simferopol-Feodosiia highway, the Nazis shot up to 20 thousand Simferopol residents. In total, more than 7,000 Krymchaks were killed, who shared the tragic fate of the Jewish people, when more than 35,000 Jews were killed.
Today, there are about 1200 Krymchaks in the world, living in different parts of the globe.
- Outstanding people. The Crimean people gave the world dozens of famous people, among which it is worth noting the outstanding philologist, author of the textbook Krymchak language David Rebi, poet and journalist Illia Selvinskyy, as well as the famous American director Ralph Bakshi, who worked on the creation of the world famous film The Lord of the Rings.
- We hope that this information was very interesting. Read our publications and learn more about the peculiarities of the indigenous peoples of Ukraine.