‘A Seditious and Sinister Tribe’

Rayfield, one of Britain’s most eminent historians of Russia, turns his attention here to the Crimean Tatars, whose khanate survived for some 350 years before its conquest by the tsarist empire. It is a work of vast scholarship. Everyone interested in Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea and war against Ukraine should read it. -- Tony Barber * Financial Times 'Best Books of 2024' *
A remarkable and revelatory work of phenomenal historical scholarship, written with great verve and aplomb. A classic of its kind. * William Boyd *
'A Seditious and Sinister Tribe’ is long overdue and it delivers an authoritative blow-by-blow chronicle of the Tatar Crimean monarchy and the fate of Tatar people since its annexation by Russia in 1783, and particularly their tragic destiny since 1917 -- Simon Sebag Montefiore * Financial Times *
Jutting into the Black Sea as a Eurasian crossroads, the Crimean Peninsula has been desired by Mongolian, Turkish, Russian, French, and German conquerors. In 2014, the Russian Federation seized Crimea in its war against Ukraine. But, what about the Crimean Tatars, the people who claim the peninsula as their homeland? Rayfield presents the most detailed and thoroughly researched survey history of these people to appear in English since Alan W. Fisher’s The Crimean Tatars . . . Based on hundreds of mostly published sources in numerous languages, Rayfield reveals a Crimean khanate that thrived for 350 years with strong military, political, judicial, and economic structures. He meticulously explores the inner workings of these structures and how the khanate interacted with neighboring peoples and states. When the Russian Empire grew strong enough to seize Crimea in 1783, it launched a program of ethnic cleansing that continued under the USSR and now again under Vladimir Putin. Rayfield traces this tragic history as well, describing it as "a slow genocide." Highly recommended. * Choice *
Donald Rayfield has written a magisterial history of the Crimean Tatars, who in centuries past had a deep and unduly overlooked impact on war and peace in Poland, Austria and Russia. Rayfield’s book takes us right through to the Putin era, giving a vivid picture of a people who once terrified their neighbours and are now again threatened with extinction in their homeland. * Robert Service, Emeritus Professor of Russian History, St Antony's College, University of Oxford *
While many observers see the war in Ukraine as being between Russians and Ukrainians, there is a third nation involved in this conflict: the Muslim Crimean Tatars. Donald Rayfield tells their story in an epic account of Europe's last Mongol khanate and its long wars with Russia that ultimately led to tsarist conquest and a Soviet-era genocide. The story of this small ethnic group's struggle to survive continues up to this very day as the Crimean Tatars seek to rebuild their shattered nation in a beloved Crimean homeland that has once again been invaded by their historic Russian foes. * Brian Glyn Williams, author of The Crimean Tatars: From Soviet Genocide to Putin's Conquest and Inferno in Chechnya *