Wars are fought on many fronts for many reasons, economic, strategic and sometimes symbolic ones. These are all at play in the battle for the city of Kherson, on the west bank of the Dnieper River in Ukraine. It’s a place where symbolic and strategic objectives intertwine.
Its name tells an important part of the story. Kherson is derived from the Greek chersonesos, peninsula. The city is not itself a peninsula, but its history goes back to a peninsula colonized by Greeks in the fifth or maybe sixth century BCE, These Greeks in calling their settlement Chersonese nust have been thinking of the whole peninsula, which we now call the Crimea, and many in antiquity recognized as Scythian Taurica. .
The Greek settlement, 3 km. or so from modern Sevastopol, lasted for almost two thousand years, its citizens driving off attacking Scythians, bargaining and, if need be, fighting with local tribes, and all the while sailing and trading around the Black Sea. Finally, in the late middle ages it was abandoned and almost forgotten.
It was not, however, forgotten by Catherine the Great of Russia. In June 1778 she gave the name Kherson to a city she was founding on the west bank of the Dnieper River. It was about 150 miles away from its namesake, Chersonesos. Her purpose, however, was not to revive the ancient city but to proclaim her strategic objective, for the new city would not only become a center of commerce, shipping and ship building; its location made it also the key to control of the Chersonese, that is all of Crimea. If you want to dominate Crimea, you need Kherson. If you dominate Crimea, you can also dominate the Black Sea. Or so the Russians thought when they took the next step: in 1784 Russia established a naval base on the Black Sea, Sevastopol, right next to the site of ancient Chersonesos. Once again the name had classical echoes. Sevastopol was the Augusta’s city. And, once again, the objective was dominance of the Black Sea.
The name Kherson is still a reminder of Catherine’s strategic goals, and, I believe, of Vladimir Putin’s. .He wants land, resources, wealth, power, but also symbolic success, to restore the grandeur Russia enjoyed under Catherine the Great, Peter the Great and his namesake the sainted Vladimir. He will not lightly relinquish Kherson. The Ukrainians, I believe, know all this full well and will do everything they can to take that city away from Russia.
Keep your eyes on Kherson.
Its name tells an important part of the story. Kherson is derived from the Greek chersonesos, peninsula. The city is not itself a peninsula, but its history goes back to a peninsula colonized by Greeks in the fifth or maybe sixth century BCE, These Greeks in calling their settlement Chersonese nust have been thinking of the whole peninsula, which we now call the Crimea, and many in antiquity recognized as Scythian Taurica. .
The Greek settlement, 3 km. or so from modern Sevastopol, lasted for almost two thousand years, its citizens driving off attacking Scythians, bargaining and, if need be, fighting with local tribes, and all the while sailing and trading around the Black Sea. Finally, in the late middle ages it was abandoned and almost forgotten.
It was not, however, forgotten by Catherine the Great of Russia. In June 1778 she gave the name Kherson to a city she was founding on the west bank of the Dnieper River. It was about 150 miles away from its namesake, Chersonesos. Her purpose, however, was not to revive the ancient city but to proclaim her strategic objective, for the new city would not only become a center of commerce, shipping and ship building; its location made it also the key to control of the Chersonese, that is all of Crimea. If you want to dominate Crimea, you need Kherson. If you dominate Crimea, you can also dominate the Black Sea. Or so the Russians thought when they took the next step: in 1784 Russia established a naval base on the Black Sea, Sevastopol, right next to the site of ancient Chersonesos. Once again the name had classical echoes. Sevastopol was the Augusta’s city. And, once again, the objective was dominance of the Black Sea.
The name Kherson is still a reminder of Catherine’s strategic goals, and, I believe, of Vladimir Putin’s. .He wants land, resources, wealth, power, but also symbolic success, to restore the grandeur Russia enjoyed under Catherine the Great, Peter the Great and his namesake the sainted Vladimir. He will not lightly relinquish Kherson. The Ukrainians, I believe, know all this full well and will do everything they can to take that city away from Russia.
Keep your eyes on Kherson.