The revolt in
Sevastopol in 1830, as well as
"revolts" in a number of other cities sparked in those years, was
a detonating of
anger accumulating in broad masses,
a spontaneous protest against cruel
Nikolaev politics in Russia. The Sevastopol revolt in June, 1830,
was also named
the "woman's
revolt" or "pestilential revolt". In
the past many epidemic illnesses,
including the cholera, also named
"the Plague",
hit hard on Russia. The cholera disease
attacked Russia, as a rule,
from Iran. In 1823 a new wave
was noted on this "path": at first in
Transcaucasia, then - in Astrakhan. In 1829 cholera again
penetrated the
Russian-Iranian border and hit the same regions. The flashes of epidemic
wee reported in troops
on Caucasus, then in Bessarabia. In that time Russia led wars just on Caucasus, Balkan and
in Transcaucasia. From Sevastopol the ships set off to
the battlefields with
equipment and food, and, on their way back, they used
to carry refugees and prisoners of war. There was
a substantial threat of spreading of
the epidemic to seaside cities of Russia. The government
took a number of preventive measures and
put the Black Sea coast
in quarantine.
The household activities
in the newly established cities were still
organised in a primitive way. The handicraftsmen,
fishermen, ferrymen, loaders, families of the
married and retired sailors, as well as
sailor
widows lived in the settlements
of Shipboard, Artillery, Gipsy and on
the "Spine of
Lawlessness" (the Central urban hill) in conditions
far from sanitary. On the Shipboard side
most of the homes
were established in the caves which had
been cut into an abrupt decline of soft
fossil rock: three sides
being the surfaces of the very rock and only one,
the front, built of stone sawed here.
Needless to say that any means for winter heating
were non-existent. The inhabitants of
those settlements were engaged
mainly in fisheries and urban carrying field day
jobs. The women
- in day operation in city and suburban manors, farms, kitchens
and gardens. Considerable
income for some of them
came from rearing of oxen.
June 17, 1829 in connection with some (as
was clarified later, catarrhal) diseases,
a much stricter quarantine was imposed. Though,
within more than two months, there was no suspicion
for any disease in Sevastopol,
moving in or out of the settlements
was almost totally intercepted. Anyone
wishing to abandon the
city or
visit it should remain in quarantine from
about 14 to 19
days in strict internment. The shuttle service of agricultural
products, fire wood and hay ceased. Nobody would like to
spend 19 days in quarantine,
where it was necessary to feed one's horse
or cattle on purchased fodder.
Access to pasture fields
outside the city limits was not allowed, and
within the city
there were neither pastures
nor horse-ponds. The only way-out was to
either sell out the cattle or to surrender it to shambles.
For the inhabitants of Sevastopol
that was harsh times. Market prices
went up and gambling began. The
city poor had no possibility to buy expensive products,
or buy any provisions spending the money they would
have earned working in the fields outside the
city. In the poor regions of
the city famine
hit hard. The quarantine measures
created all prerequisites for bribing of
arbitrary
and other
authorities. Merchants, officials, doctors of quarantine made profit of gambling
or
bribing with second-hand dealers and peasants
on outposts. Cases of
deaths that could directly be referred to the
plague were non-existent, nevertheless, all
illness was believed to, one way or another,
represent a fatal danger to the city.
Cruelty
and inhumanity reigned
both among the diseased and
the healthy. The distress of the
local people was
unspeakable. The remedies,
mainly catering services of the inhabitants' settlements, were plundered by
the top officials. Self-interest
and greed, illegal profiting of the
advantageous position in the state hierarchy on the part of most of the
local authorities, put the endurance of the people of Sevastopole to
test. Medicine Doctors
were rather doubtful about the real existence of
cholera threat in the city, yet the high emergency measures would not be
upheld because some people made a fortune thanks to them.
On December 1, 1829 special
medical advice from 15 authoritative doctors certified that the high death rate
observed in the quarantined quarters was
due to the unacceptable
hygienic and catering conditions that
prevailed. In the middle of January, 1830
the diseased persons were instructed to take baths in
the winter cold bay water, a "treatment" that, later, was given to
"doubtful" cases, to be eventually applied to everybody dwelling in the
settlements. Everyone was obliged to regularly
take a bath 3-4 times a month until late May.
A sharp raise of the number
of catarrhal diseases with fatal outcome
followed.
Under these conditions, the riot that followed was
only justifiable...
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 The long struggle of Russia's
to sea contact with the Black Sea was
successfully
over as a
result of the war against
Turkey in the years 1768-1774.
It was signing of
Kuchuk - Kainardzhiysky treaty, according to
which the Crimean khanate was announced independent from Turkey and passed under
the protection
of Russia. Russian army
Commander in Crimea A. V. Suvorov appreciated
the strategic
importance of a series of well protected bays,
and it was along
their coast line that the construction of
the city and its port
would begin five years later.
In 1778, at Ahtiar bay,
the first military forces were based. The commander had
expressly stated his belief
that it was exactly at this point that a future
Naval Base was necessary to be created, to ensure the safety of the
Southern sea boundaries of Russia.
 "
A rival harbour of similar
importance", A. V. Suvorov wrote, "
will never be able to exist, not only at
the local peninsula, but also on
any of the
rest of the Black Sea
bays. Here the
fleet is safely stationed and the staff are serviced in
the best and most quiet environment". By the manifest
of April 8, 1783, Crimea, Taman and
the
right bank of Kuban were
annexed by Russia and
proclaimed as Russian territory. With the liquidation of
the crimean
khanate, Turkey lost its
ground to prepare aggressive
movements on the Northern Black Sea
coast. The victory of Russia during that war created
the preconditions for the
strengthening of the struggle of
the peoples of Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and other countries
against Turkish dominion.
The frigates
"Brave" and "Cautious" were the first Russian ships
to have wintered
in Akhtiar
Bight during 1782/83. The officers were
sufficiently pleased with the location, and in May it was decided to build
a port and a town on the shores of the bight. Thus the city of Sevastopol
was founded.
Prince Potemkin commissioned Rear-Admiral Tomas Mekenzi to build up the
new port, and Sevastopol soon became the principal Russian naval base on
the Black Sea. Barracks and a marine depot were erected on the shores of
the bay along with storehouses and a shipyard for the repair and
construction of ships. In effect, both the Russian Black Sea Fleet and its
home port were founded simultaneously.
Within two years the Black Sea Admiralty Department was established and
put under the command of Prince Potemkin.
I
Seamen, peasants from various Russian provinces,
civilian workers - inhabitants, of
the nearby Balaclava - were the first builders of the
future base of Black Sea fleet. June 3 1783 on
the western coast of the
Southernmost bay the first stone
constructions of city
were incorporated to the new city : the house for
the new
commander of Black Sea Navy F. F. Mekenzy, a chapel,
a smithy and wooden quay
named later as Grafskaya. This date has become
the birthday of Sevastopol. The
construction was supervised by the chief of staff of a squadron, a flag - captain D. N.
Seniavin, subsequently admiral, outstanding naval commander. By the decree
of February 10, 1784. Akhtiar city -
fortress at the Black sea was given the name of Sevastopol.
The high expectations of Russian officials were to
be justified. By creating and utilizing the Black Sea Fleet,
Empress Catherine II effectively joined the Crimean Peninsula to Russia
along with most of the coastal territory surrounding the Black Sea. The
Black Sea Fleet developed quickly and, through its victories, returned to
Russia the trade route "from the Vikings to the Greeks," the waterways
that, from earliest times, had belonged to Russia.
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