Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Local Responses to the Contested Border in Northern Crimea

  • BORDER STUDIES
  • Published:
Regional Research of Russia Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract—

This article analyses the situation in Crimea, which de facto seceded from Ukraine and joined Russia in 2014 following a local referendum, the results of which are not recognised by the international community. It focuses on the everyday life of the local population, which has been forced to adapt to the emergence of the contested border between Russia and Ukraine; the related breakdown of political and economic interactions between Crimea and Ukraine; and the region’s transition to new geopolitical, economic, and legal conditions. Based on field research, expert interviews, and six focus groups in two small border cities of Northern Crimea, we specifically address the meaning of the de facto border for local residents. By considering perceptions of Ukraine and its regional neighbours, cross-border practices, and social relations, we discuss how people assess these changes and view the border. Our research, firstly, shows that residents of Northern Crimea attach great importance to the protective function of the new border. Echoing mainstream Russian media, they portray Ukraine as a hostile state that threatens Crimeans. Secondly, the residents claim that the emergence of the border has given people hope for improved living standards and well-being. Despite the still-ambiguous balance of costs and benefits in border cities, the local residents are overwhelmingly pro-Russian and expect Russia’s support in the future. Thirdly, for Crimean residents, the border has also become a significant obstacle to communication with those in Ukraine. Neighbours across the border are not yet perceived as “other.” In this sense, Crimean residents do not accept the border and would like to see Crimea and Ukraine once again united.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 3.

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. The corresponding amendment was made to the current Constitution of the Russian Federation of December 12, 1993 after its approval during the All-Russian vote on July 1, 2020.

  2. These statistics were posted to the website of Krymskie izvestiia on March 18, 2014 [Ukrainian language only]: http:// crimiz.ru/index.php/2014-04-03-07-29-46/13848–16-2014-.

  3. Postanovlenie Prezidiuma Verkhovnogo Soveta RSFSR ot 5 fevralia 1954 goda “O peredache Krymskoi oblasti iz sostava RSFSR v sostav Ukrainskoi SSR” [Resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR of February 5, 1954 On the Transfer of the Crimean Region from the RSFSR to the Ukrainian SSR], in Sbornik zakonov RSFSR i Ukazov Prezidiuma Verkhovnogo Soveta RSFSR 1946–1954 gg [Collection of laws of the RSFSR and decrees of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR 1946–1954], Moscow, 1955, pp. 105–108.

  4. Regions of Ukraine. Statistical publication. Part ІI, 2015.

  5. A total of 25 face-to-face expert interviews were conducted.

  6. This data can be accessed via the website of Krymstat [Russian language only]: https://crimea.gks.ru/folder/28296.

  7. In Russia the Levada Center was recognised as a foreign agent in September 2016.

  8. The Right Sector is a far-right Ukrainian nationalist political party and paramilitary movement whose activists took part in the anti-government riots during the Euromaidan in Kiev in late 2013 and early 2014. In the Russian Federation, the Right Sector is recognised as an extremist organisation.

  9. This polling data, posted by FOM on May 19, 2015, can be accessed via the following link: https://fom.ru/Nastroeniya/12165.

  10. Polling data from 2016, posted by FOM on January 12, 2016, can be accessed via the following link: https://fom.ru/ posts/12471.

REFERENCES

  1. Balogh, P., Sleeping abroad but working at home: Cross-border residential mobility between transnationalism and (re)bordering, Geografiska Annaler: Ser. B, Hum. Geogr., 2013, vol. 95, no. 2, pp. 189–204.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Bezverkha, A., Reinstating social borders between the Slavic majority and the Tatar population of Crimea: Media representation of the contested memory of the Crimean Tatars’ deportation, J. Borderlands Stud., 2015, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 127–139. https://doi.org/10.1080/08865655.2015.1066699

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Border Experiences in Europe: Everyday Life—Working Life—Communication—Languages, Wille, C., and Nienaber, B., Eds., Border Studies: Cultures, Spaces, Orders, Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2020. https://doi.org/10.5771/9783845295671

  4. Brambilla, C., Exploring the critical potential of the border-scapes concept, Geopolitics, 2015, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 14–34. https://doi.org/10.1080/14650045.2014.884561

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Filatov, A.S., Crimea: Ethnocultural orientations and political attitudes, Vopr. Razvitiya Kryma, 2012, no. 16, pp. 184–194.

  6. Goriunova, E., The Crimean region in the context of the theory of border communication, Vopr. Razvitiya Kryma, 2012, no. 16, pp. 214–221.

  7. Grigor’iants, V.E., Zhil’tsov, S.S., Ishin, A.V., and Mal’gin, A.V., Federalizatsiya Ukrainy: k edinstvu cherez raznoobrazie (Federalisation of Ukraine: to Unity through Diversity), Moscow: Vostok–Zapad, 2011.

  8. Johnson, C., Jones, R., Paasi, A., Amoore, L., Mountz, A., Salter, M., and Rumford, C., Interventions on rethinking “the border” in border studies, Polit. Geogr., 2011, vol. 30, pp. 61–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2011.01.002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Levinson, A., Open group discussions as a method of applied sociological research, Vestn. Obshchestv. Mneniya, vol. 92, no. 6, pp. 45–54.

  10. Meinhof, U.H., Migrating borders: An introduction to European identity construction in process, J. Ethnic and Migration Stud., 2003, vol. 29, no. 5, pp. 781–796. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183032000149569

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. O’Loughlin, J., and Toal, G., The Crimea conundrum: Legitimacy and public opinion after annexation, Euras. Geogr. Econ., 2019, vol. 60, no. 1, pp. 6–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/15387216.2019.1593873

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Paasi, A., Problematizing “bordering, ordering, and othering” as manifestations of socio-spatial fetishism, Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 2020, vol. 112, no. 1, pp. 18–25. https://doi.org/10.1111/tesg.12422

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Popov, F.A., Geografiya setsessionizma v sovremennom mire (Geography of Secessionism in the Modern World), Moscow: Novyi Khronograf, 2012.

  14. Rippl, S., Petrat, A., Kindervater, A., and Boehnke, K., Zur Bedeutung “transnationalen Sozialkapitals”: Sind Grenzgebiete Laboratorien sozialer Integration in Europa? (Transnational social capital: Are border regions a laboratory of social integration in Europe?), Berliner J. für Soziologie, 2009, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 79–103.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Sasse, G., The Crimea Question: Identity, Transition, and Conflict, Series in Ukrainian Studies, Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 2007.

  16. Sasse, G., Terra Incognita – The Public Mood in Crimea, ZOiS Report, no. 3, 2017. https://www.zois-berlin.de/en/publications/terra-incognita-the-public-mood-in-crimea.

  17. Schack, M., Regional identity in border regions: The difference borders make, J. Borderlands Stud., 2001, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 99–114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Seregina, I. A., and Chudinov, A.P., Metaphorical slogans in the discourse of the referendum on the status of Crimea, Polit. Lingvistika, 2014, vol. 48, no. 2, pp. 89–94.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Stewart, D.W., Stamdasani, P.N., and Rook, D.W., Group depth interviews: Focus group, in The SAGE Handbook of Applied Social Research Methods, Bickman, L. and Rog, D.J., Eds., Los Angeles: SAGE, 2009, pp. 589–616.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Szytniewski, B. and Spierings, B., Encounters with otherness: Implications of (un)familiarity for daily life in borderlands, J. Borderlands Stud., 2014, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 339–351.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. van Houtum, H., The geopolitics of borders and boundaries, Geopolitics, 1999, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 672–679.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. van Houtum, H. and van Naerssen, T., Bordering, ordering and othering, Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 2002, vol. 93, no. 2, pp. 125–136. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9663.00189

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. van der Velde, B. and Spierings, B., Cross Border Shopping and the “Bandwidth of Familiarity”: Exploring the Positive Impact of National Borders on Consumer Mobility in the Euregion Rhine-Waal, Working paper, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, Nijmegen School of Management, 2008.

  24. Vendina, O., La crimée du nord: étude de cas, in Russie 2018. Regards de l’Observatoire franco-russe, Dubien, A., Ed., Moscow: Novyi Vek Media and L’Inventaire, 2018. https://fr.obsfr.ru/report/15207/11439/.

  25. Zadorin, I.V., “Frontier” regions: Territorial identity and the perception of uniqueness, Politiia, 2018, vol. 89, no. 2, pp. 102–136.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors wish to thank Dr. Sabine von Löwis and Dr. Beate Eschment of the Center for East European and International Studies (ZOiS) for their help in discussing, reviewing, and editing this article.

Funding

The research was supported by State Assignment IGRAS (no. АААА-А19-119022190170-1 (FMGE-2019-0008).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

    A. A. Gritsenko & M. V. Zotova

Authors
  1. A. A. Gritsenko
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. M. V. Zotova
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to A. A. Gritsenko or M. V. Zotova.

Ethics declarations

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Gritsenko, A.A., Zotova, M.V. Local Responses to the Contested Border in Northern Crimea. Reg. Res. Russ. 12, 589–599 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1134/S2079970522700150

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S2079970522700150

Keywords:

Search

Navigation