The Imperiia Project: a spatial history of the Russian EmpireMain MenuProjectsDashboardsData CatalogMapStoriesGalleriesGamesWho said history was boring?Teach Our ContentCiting the ProjectKelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5The Imperiia Project // Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University
apple vine
12022-07-15T08:45:48-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f591illustration from the first volume of Simirenko's treatise on commercial fruit cultivation in Crimeaplain2022-07-15T08:45:48-04:00Kelly O'Neilldc20b45f1d74122ba0d654d19961d826c5a557f5
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12022-06-27T22:27:10-04:00Apple varieties14plain2022-07-15T08:50:37-04:00From the moment Catherine II annexed the Crimean Khanate, naturalists began assembling lists of the apple varieties of the peninsula. There were short lists and long lists, from a list of 13 local varieties compiled in 1818 to a list of 294 compiled at the Nikita Botanical Garden in 1847.
(The fact that so many apples grew wild in the forest made it difficult for pomologists to keep them straight. At the 1888 Tavrida Province agricultural exhibition 111 varieties were on display.)
Here are the varieties identified as growing in Crimea according to the 1906 Atlas of Fruits.
12022-06-30T09:28:25-04:00Russia is apple country.11plain2022-07-15T08:54:28-04:00The tsars did not need to build an empire in order to acquire this particular fruit (oranges are another story altogether!). However, once they pushed the borders south into Ukraine, they found themselves in possession of a proliferation of varieties, many of which came to dominate the markets of St. Petersburg and Moscow.
And everyone agreed that the best apples came from Crimea.
All sorts grew on the peninsula, ranging from pedestrian to highly prized. The "Sary Sinap" held pride of place among them all. Just how fabulous could this apple possible be, you might ask? Well, according to Crimea's most famous horticulturalist (Abram Isaakovich Pastak),
old-time gardeners consider the notion of orcharding in Crimea unthinkable without the Sary Sinap apple.
There you have it. (See the Atlas plodov, vypusk 1, page 77)