Chersonese Nikolai Berg, RFERL
Russia will soon open what it calls an “ancient and archaeological park” in territory directly connected to the ancient city of Tauric Chersonese and its Chora, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in occupied Crimea. While worldly corruption is also at play, the grand 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 ancient ties to it that have no history. That it is an “archaeological park” is also incredibly cynical, as the complex was built after heavy bulldozers dumped 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 supposed Russian Orthodox “spiritual mentor,” Tikhon Shevkunov, who has been, since 2023, the “Simferopol and the city of Crimea” installed across Russia. Tikhon obviously shares Putin’s vision of the “Russian world” and, judging by the play he prepared for Putin’s stopover in Chersonesos in August 2019, offers a vision of “the history of Crimea and Chersonesos. “
The plan for this complex was approved in 2017. Active “construction” paintings began in 2021, and Vladimir Medinsky, Putin’s assistant and head of the Russian Military Historical Society, said in August of the same year that it would be a “world-class field”. museum. ” that would be visited from all over the world. ” It was already evident that the only imaginable end result of such a barbaric remedy for this exclusive ancient site would be for UNESCO to cancel its prestige as a World Heritage Site.
The amphitheatre 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 “given” for this purpose through the Russian Ministry of Defense. Evelina Kravchenko, senior researcher at the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, in her report on the destruction of the Chersonesos through Russia, notes that the structure of the so-called “New Chersonesos” was located on the site of a suburb of the old City. of Chersonesos. As a result, 80,000 m² of the World Heritage site was destroyed, a cultural layer containing the remains of an ancient temple, the city 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 Chersonesos, a Russian “expedition” was undertaken that claimed to have started and completed a major excavation task in just seven months. This seems to have been mainly a way of approving the plans for the “New Chersonesos”, while the complacent Russian “experts” announced that there was nothing of archaeological interest in the unfinished land for the new complex. Thousands of archaeological remains were illegally sent to Russia. However, since bulldozers and excavators were used, it is not surprising that many archaeological treasures have been abandoned or discovered by local citizens and possibly ended up on the black market. Painting work on important structures has begun in full swing, with the Russian Ministry of Defense as 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 Church.
Photo of the “governor” of Sevastopol Mikhail Rozvazhaev, installed in Russia, from the “historical and archaeological museum”
The complex was built at record speed and was announced at the so-called Russian “international economic forum” in St. Petersburg in June 2024. German Gref, director of Sberbank, one of the “sponsors” of the project, 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 emphasizes that “restoration” in new Russia did not expand from the old Soviet technique that aimed for 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 solution to the Chersonese by the aggressor state arose a long time ago, when Russia erected “observation decks”, supported steel structures against the walls of the ruins and organized various “events”, with lights, electricity, etc. in its territory. There were warnings, public appeals and even civilian attacks about the danger posed by the ruins due to heavy machinery and structures under construction, as well as stands and other measures aimed at “popularizing” 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 above-mentioned program will ensure the influx to Crimea of many pilgrims and tourists from all over Russia and from ‘near’ and ‘far’ countries. This will give a strong impetus to the progress of Sevastopol and the whole of Crimea. will make it possible to transform this region of maximum vitality into a spiritual, cultural and educational center of southern Russia [sic]. A broad public representation of the Chersonese as the national and sacred center of Russia will make it possible for it to be formed in the framework of Foreign Conformation: a transparent and unequivocal 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