Chersonesos Nikolai Berg, RFERL
Russia will soon open what it calls an “ancient archaeological park” in a territory directly connected to the ancient Tauric city of Chersonese and its Chora, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in occupied Crimea. While banal corruption is undoubtedly also at play, the vast complex built in what was once a suburb of the ancient city also aims to rewrite history to justify Russia’s illegal profession of Crimea by attributing to it ancient ties that it does not have. The claim that this is an “archaeological park” is also incredibly cynical, as the complex was built after heavy bulldozers were dropped on an archaeological site with a cultural layer of up to 10 meters.
As noted, Russia’s ties to Crimea only began with its first land grab in 1783, yet it has long and aggressively tried to turn back the clock by about a thousand years. Russian propaganda is replete with claims that Chersonesos is “Russian Pompeii” and “Russian Troy,” and Russian leader Vladimir Putin spoke in 2014 of “Holy Crimea. ” The Russian narrative has systematically ignored reasons to question Moscow’s claim that Volodymyr the Great baptized at Chersonesus and will almost in fact overlook, or definitively deny, the hitherto indisputable fact that the mass baptism that marked the Christianization of kyiv Russia in 988 took place in kyiv.
It was Putin who first publicly proposed a “historical and archaeological park” in 2015; the former KGB agent would possibly have been prompted to do so through his Russian Orthodox “spiritual mentor”, Tikhon Shevkunov, who is, since 2023, the “Simferopol and the Crimean metropolis” installed through Russia. Obviously, Tikhon shares Putin’s vision of the “Russian world” and, judging by the piece he prepared for Putin’s stopover at Chersonese in August 2019, offers a glimpse into “the history of Crimea and Chersonese. “
The plan for this complex was approved in 2017. Active ‘construction’ work began in 2021, with Vladimir Medinsky, Putin’s aide and the head of the Russian Military History Society, claiming in August that year that this would be “a world-level museum which would be visited from all over the world”. It was clear even then that the only possible result of such barbaric treatment of this unique ancient site would be that UNESCO would cancel its World Heritage site status.
The amphitheater on the remains of a Roman citadel Photo Evelina Kravchenko
It has been claimed that the land used for the “park” extends over 23 hectares, adjacent to the ruins of Chersonesos, and that the land was “handed over” for this purpose through the Russian Ministry of Defense. Evelina Kravchenko, a senior researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, in her report on the destruction of Chersonese across Russia, notes that the structure of the so-called “New Chersonese” was located on the site of a suburb of the old city. of Chersonesus. As a result, 80,000 m² of the World Heritage site were destroyed, a cultural layer containing the remains of an ancient temple, the city’s necropolis with unique funerary and memorial structures, and much more. The lands of Sevastopol were first under the control of the Soviet and then the Russian army, so in the past a complete archaeological investigation was blocked.
To implement Putin’s grandiose plans for the Chersonese, a Russian “expedition” was carried out that claimed to have begun and finished a massive excavation task in just seven months. This is mainly a way of approving the “New Chersonese” projects, while complacent Russian “experts” claim that there is nothing of archaeological interest on the ground to be finished for the new complex. Thousands of archaeological remains have been illegally sent to Russia. However, since bulldozers and bulldozers were used, it is not surprising that many archaeological treasures have been discarded or discovered through local citizens and possibly end up on the black market. Painting work on major structures has begun at full speed, with the Russian Ministry of Defense as the general contractor.
The so-called “New Chersonese” is a brilliant, anachronistic fake, complete with fountains, lawns, Chinese bridges, and a domed temple. This was a task personally supervised through Putin and Tikhon Shevkunov, and the My History Foundation of the Russian Orthodox Church officially controlled the task.
Some archaeological collections from the authentic Chersonesos reserve will be moved to this fake “New Chersonesos”, while all the old museum buildings, dating back to the 19th century, were “donated” through the occupying state to the Russian Orthodox ChurchArray Array
Photo of the “governor” of Sevastopol Mikhail Rozvajaev, installed in Russia, from the “Historical and Archaeological Museum”.
The complex was built at record speed and was announced at Russia’s so-called “international economic forum” in St. Petersburg in June 2024. German Gref, director of Sberbank, one of the “sponsors” of the taskArray, falsely claimed that “in a position where there is nothing, an absolutely amazing complex is born that will in fact attract millions of people every year. ”
Kravchenko points out that “restoration” in new Russia did not develop from the old Soviet technique that focused on a “pleasing appearance” rather than preserving the building’s original appearance. He notes that by destroying the city’s suburbs to create their “New Chersonese” park, the Russians rebuilt two buildings: the sanctuary, or heroon, and the temple. Sergei Soloviev, the so-called archaeologist of their “research,” boasted in an interview with a propaganda channel that they had been rebuilt “better than the Greeks. “
Concerns about the settlement of the Chersonesos through the aggressor state arose long ago, when Russia erected “observation platforms”, propped steel structures against the walls of the ruins and organized various “events”, with lights, electricity, etc. in its territory. There have been warnings, public appeals and even civil lawsuits about the danger posed to the ruins by heavy machinery and structures under construction, as well as stalls and other measures to “popularize” the site.
While the “events” in Chersonese for Putin and company, with lighting fixtures and special efforts, were perhaps nothing more than reasonable propaganda tricks, the “My Story” Foundation is very transparent about the propaganda goals of the “historical and archaeological” parks policy. Formation
“The implementation of the mentioned program will ensure the influx to Crimea of numerous pilgrims and tourists from all over Russia and from “near” and “far” countries. This will give a strong boost to the progress of Sevastopol and the entire Crimea; will help transform this vital region into a spiritual, cultural and educational center of southern Russia [sic]. A wide public representation of Chersonesos as the national and sacred center of Russia will make it possible to capture in the framework of foreign discontent a transparent and unambiguous understanding of the basic importance of Crimea as an ancient baptismal font and inalienable component of the Russian state.
See also: Russia vandalizes and loots UNESCO World Heritage Site in Chersonesos, occupied Crimea