CRIMEA SICH

Crimea Sich is about the patriotic and spiritual upbringing of future soldiers in the Crimean Peninsula and its consequences. It is located in a beautiful place in Crimea, in the canyon of the medieval fortress town Eski-Kerman surrounded by all sides by mountains and forests.

VI A.D. - The Byzantine Empire founded the Old Fortress, and among the Crimean people Christianity became increasingly widespread.



VIII A.D. - The people of the Old Fortress rebelled against the Chaser Khanate, which for a long time imposed the Jewish faith. But Chasers put it down very quickly and subjugated the entire south-western Crimea.



XIII A.D. - The Old Fortress was destroyed by the troops of the Golden Horde, after which people couldn’t recover its former importance.



XIV A.D. - Golden Horde troops crushed rebuilt strengthened again and finally destroyed the Old Fortress. But people continued and continue to live on this territory.


 

XXI A.D. - The territory of the Old Fortress became the property of the Cossacks and returned to the Orthodox people.

PHOTOGRAPHY

I discovered the camp in 2010, and for three years I kept coming back there to understand why at such a tender age children needed to be taught how to deal with real weapons in time of peace, and what the camp was all about.

Each August, children aged 7 to 16 attended military boot camp training there. Their instructors were Ukrainian and Russian Cossacks with real-life war experience. The training included target practice with real weapons, live ammunition, and instilling Christian values into the young Cossacks. 

Do children, at such a young age, realize what they are being taught and why, and is this type of imposed ideological stance healthy or even ethical for the young impressionable minds?

DOCUMENTARY

In 2013 with my brother, we shot during the last days of the camp, a half year later Russia annexed Crimea, which led to the conflict between Ukraine and Russia and the war in Ukraine.

Some of the officers from the camp took part in the annexation of Crimea and supported separatists in Eastern Ukraine.

Cossacks, who previously considered themselves brotherly nations, split up for those who fight for maintaining their country’s boundaries and those who wanted to revive the former Russian empire.