Pages: 53-74 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.55086/sp2165374

Budzhak (in modern Moldova and Ukraine) is the western part of the Eurasian steppe, the natural character of which had determined the ways of the local life for centuries. The Ottoman and the Russian Empires had clashed here in the eighteenth century, on the eve of the European Enlightenment. This fight was to determine further prospects for development, while many contemporaries and eyewitnesses tried to guess any signs of these prospects.
A profound social crisis in south-eastern Europe contributed to political and ethnic and confessional changes and was changing the natural landscape. The Turkic Muslim population had to leave these lands under the growing pressure of these changes, and the new population was predominantly Christian. Now the Christians determined the way of life in Budzhak, even its flora and fauna.

Keywords: Budzhak, steppe, flora, fauna, Tatars, Nogai, Muslims, Christians, Enlightenment, Ottoman Porte, Russian Empire, Crimean Khanate

Information about author:

Nicolai Russev (Kishinev, Moldova). Doctor Habilitat of History. High Anthropological School University. N. Iorga St., 5, Kishinev, MD-2009, Moldova
E-mail: [email protected]
Fedor Markov (Suvorovo, Ukraine). Local Lore researcher.