Beyond the theatre of military operations: the monuments of the Crimean War in Simferopol and Bakhchisaray

The article is devoted to the events that took place on the Crimean peninsula during the Eastern War (1853-1856) beyond the main battle fields. The author describes overall picture of what was happening in the Crimean cities on the background of heroic defense of Sevastopol, names cities which experienced invasion and tells about the consequences of their occupation. The article mainly focuses on Simferopol and Bakhchisaray as the front-line cities that played a significant role in defense of Sevastopol and experienced all the consequences of military actions on the Crimean peninsula. The author names the famous participants of the Crimean War whose lives were closely connected with those cities, and tells about historical monuments related to the events of those years. The aforementioned participants include the famous writers L.N. Tolstoy and N.V. Berg, who spent significant amount of time in those cities during the war. Another personality that draws the author ’s close attention is N.I. Pirogov, a surgeon whose professional activity on the peninsula at that time was tightly connected with Simferopol. The article also tells about active participants of military operations - generals P.A. Vrevskiy and P.V. Veimarn who lost their lives during the battle at the Chornaya river and were buried in Bakhchisaray. The author believes that knowledge of events that were happening on the entire territory of the Crimean peninsula substantially improves our understanding of the scale of the Crimean War, reveals the drama of the War and its impact on nations, cities and individuals - whether well-known to us or not - and provides additional material for patriotic education. The article describes in detail the work on preservation of memorials of the Crimean War and promotes the attitude of care towards the monuments located all over the Crimean peninsula.