title: Claiming Crimea: A History of Catherine the Great's Southern Empire
abstract: The first comprehensive, archive-based history of Russia's original annexation of Crimea and its predominantly Muslim population more than two hundred years ago Russia's long-standing claims to Crimea date back to the eighteenth-century reign of Catherine II. Historian Kelly O'Neill has written the first archive-based, multi-dimensional study of the initial "quiet conquest" of a region that has once again moved to the forefront of international affairs. O'Neill traces the impact of Russian rule 