Surozhgrad in Crimea

Surozhgrad in Crimea (на ПРОЗА.РУ)

Historians doubt the correct identification of this city on the site of Sughdea, but agree that for some time this name could have been the city of Surozh, also known for the fact that its christian population rebelled against the khazars. Cristians of Surozhgrad strove for Byzantium, which in turn did not want to conflict with the khazars, having an agreement with it to oppose Persia.

Alans called this city as Sugdeya, the byzantine greeks called it Sidagios, the italians called it Soldaya, and the russian-slavic sources called it Surozh. The karaites called him Sogdagon, referring this name to some kind of left mountain.

Base city rumor attributes to the alans, which appear in the Crimea in the 2nd century after Christ, when an ancient greco-mycenaean trading post founded in the 4th century BC was still standing on this place, almost deserted. Scythian alans, in fact sarmatians, called this settlement Sugdey

Russian-slavic mythological historiography deduces the name of the city from the name of one of their vedic Gods, the Sun-Surya, in whose honor, at the dawn of the new era, their descendants named their city in the north of the Crimea Surozhgrad. There, in the cave of the Father Mountain, they made their own moonshine infused with the sun-suritsa-mead.

The production of suritsa-mead was part of the Vedic cult that is still revered in Sudak, the successor of Surozhi-Sugdei. And the places where this rite was performed and is still being performed, the Male Palvan-mountain and the Female Devich-mountain, are visited by the Power that is Yarila, the hypostasis of the Sun, why the husbands have Strong and their wives are given more fertile.

The inhabitants of the city themselves in the middle ages believed that their city appeared in 212, and it was founded by the ancient slavs, the ancestors of Prince Arjuna's army. It is written in the religious book of the Synaxarion, somewhere in the fields of this book, that was kept by the jewish karaites, who moved from the Crimea to the island of Halka. We must assume that in Sugdea the Surozh too, there was a karaite community.

In the 7th century is published the Cosmograph, where the author Ravensky mentions the city of Sogdabon, located on the northern coast of the Black sea. We must assume that the city of Surozh appeared at least a couple of hundred years before the release of the Cosmograph.

In the 7th century, the Byzantines came to Surozh and founded a port here, which took an important place in the entire Mediterranean trade not only of Byzantium, but also of the Crimean greeks, russian-slavs, khazars, and italians.

At the beginning of the 8th century, a diplomatic and allied relationship is outlined between the khazars and Byzantium according to Gothia and Doros, which was marked by the founding of independent Gothic and Sugdean dioceses. In Sogd diocese served Stephen Sourozhsky, a revered in Russian Orthodoxy.

At the end of the 8th century, famous according to legends, Prince of Rus Bravlin, having recruited a host from Novgorod of Rus, attacks the city of Sugdea, called Surozh in legends. This was after 787, the year of the death of Stephen of Sourozh, Bishop of Sughdea, a participant in the Council of Nicaea.

Bravlin's men from his army attacked the church of St. Sophia, where the relics of the saint lay along with the precious gifts of the Bishop, but the Prince ordered everything to be returned to its place, because he had a vision of Stefan Surozhsky himself, who said that these jewels would cause an attack on Bravlin by nomads waiting for him on the way back.

After this act, Bravlin and his men-at-arms could not sleep for several days, for the face of the late Stephen appeared to them every night and read the Gospel.

Then Bravlin appeared to Archbishop Filaret and he baptized Bravlin in the Sourozh Church, after which everyone slept for many days and woke up full of strength and health. Bravlin ordered his soldiers to go to the houses and streets of the city and help its residents in construction and other necessary matters. After that, the army of Russia left.

The Rus attack on the Crimea, attributed by historians to the end of the 8th century and the first third of the 9th century, was due to the fact that the nascent Rus sought to settle along the Dnieper to the south, in which it was hindered by the khazars.

A little earlier than Bravlin, Hendrik made a similar trip to the Crimea along the Black Sea coast. According to indirect sources, it is known that Bravlin made several trips towards the Crimea, the last of which is attributed to the year 830. Apparently, Byzantium gradually supported Bravlin and Hendrik in their struggle with the khazars in the lack sea region and in the Crimea, the greeks repeatedly rebelled against khazar rule in the Crimea. At that time, the governor of Khazaria, Yuri Tarkhan, was sitting in Sugdey of Surozh, who once convinced the khazar local voivode to abandon the destruction of christian cities close to Kherson, it is easier to take tribute from them than to waste time on sieges.

Constantine the Philosopher reports that during one of his campaigns in the Crimea, Prince Bravlin of Novgorod negotiated with the khazar voivode to stop imposing excessive tribute on Sugdey of Surozh, where there were many greeks who were already ready to surrender to Byzantium, which would force it to enter the Crimea with its troops. Konstantin had to participate in these negotiations as an expert in languages and as a diplomat.

Together with the khazars at that time, the magyars also fought in the Crimea, who were particularly cruel to local residents. This was the time of the magyar Exodus from Khazaria to Europe. Both Khazaria and Byzantium avoided confrontation in the Crimea, since they had an Alliance against the persians. Byzantium then allowed the magyars to settle in Pannonia, which satisfied their Princes.

After the blockade was lifted from Surozh and nearby cities, freedom of christian worship was declared there, thanks to which the previously closed Episcopal sees in Surozh and Tamatarch were restored.

In 1059, when the Bosporus was already controlled by Byzantium, Lev Aliat was a stratig in Sugdea of Surozh and Kherson.

In the 12th century, the Fulla Archdiocese again merged with the Surozh Archdiocese to form the Sugdo-Fulla metropolis, which was associated with the granting of religious freedom throughout the Crimea and the Taman Peninsula.

In 1204, Surozh falls under the control of the Trebizond Empire.

In 1240, the khans of the Golden Horde came to Surozh. The city is part of the Crimean ulus.

In 1260, the Republic of Venice established control over the city for a couple of decades.

With the end of the 13th century Sugdea-Surozh becomes the center of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Crimea.

Around 1300 Sourozh Sugdeya ruined Khan of the Golden Horde Nogai.

In the middle of the 14th century, the city was again captured by the khans of the Golden Horde. For two decades, the city has been developing, many houses are being built here, and various crafts and trade flourish. The Golden Horde provided the Surozh traders and artisans with an unprecedented market, the size of half of Asia and half of Europe.

In 1365, the power of the Genoese Republic comes to the city. A fortress is being fortified in the city, and walls with ditches and ramparts are being built. Many public buildings, wells, water pipes, and many churches of various confessions are being built.

In 1475, the city was conquered by the ottomans, who renamed it Sudak. From this point on, the city gradually loses its life-affirming powers, and completely dries up. The turks are not engaged in the city, people who led their ancestral estates here from these centuries and millennia, went to other places. After three hundred years, it has completely dried up.

In 1777, the Russian Empire came here. The city began to revive, but it was already a different city on the site of the old one, a different story, because its ancestral thread was interrupted. Surozh-Sugdeya turned into a Ghost that wanders restlessly among the defeated ancient urban deserts in search of the spirit of the ruso-slavs who founded it.

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