A book on the history of the port-cities of the eastern coast of the Black sea has been published in Greece

Greek colleagues has just informed about publishing a book

Gelina Harlaftis, Victoria Konstantinova, Igor Lyman, Anna Sydorenko and Eka Tchkoidze (eds) BETWEEN GRAIN AND OIL FROM THE AZOV TO THE CAUCASUS: THE PORT-CITIES OF THE EASTERN COAST OF THE BLACK SEA, LATE 18TH – EARLY 20TH CENTURY. Rethymnon, Crete 2020. xxxi + 534 p.

The book is a part of the series “Black Sea History Working Papers” and is published by the Centre of Maritime History, Institute for Mediterranean Studies – Foundation of Research and Technology. The publication is one of the results of the international project “The Black Sea and its port-cities, 1774-1914. Development, convergence and linkages with the global economy”, which was implemented in 2013-2015. Directly the process of preparing the book took as much as 5 years.

The concept of the book is formulated by Gelina Harlaftis as follows “This book deals with seven main port-cities that grew along the eastern coast of the Black Sea and became the main gateways to the West serving probably the largest hinterland of any port-cities in Europe: Kerch, Berdyansk, Mariupol, Taganrog, Rostov-on-Don, Novorossiysk and Batoum. Contrary to nation-centred analyses, this book follows a maritime history approach, beyond political boundaries; a history of transport and communication. The aim is to indicate the dynamic changes of the port cities that came from the formation of land and sea transport systems. It will further indicate the ways the area was integrated to the global economy”.

The book consists of three parts: “Because of the Sea”, “On and In the Sea” and “Around and About the Sea”, which combine 16 chapters.

In the Greek-Ukrainian-Georgian team of editors of the monograph, two represent the Research Institute of Urban History and Berdyansk.

Publication of the book, one of the 7 “heroes” of which is Berdyansk, symbolically coincided with the beginning of the project “What is your history?”, supported by USAID and aimed at promoting the past of 3 cities of our region, including Berdyansk.

An electronic version of the monograph is available on The Black Sea Research Project Web here: https://books.blacksea.gr/en/18/

Victoria Konstantinova