- Albanians in Ukraine
The historical community of Albanians in Ukraine call themselves Shqipetar. They are also at times called
Arnaut . Their ancestors came toUkraine in the 18th and 19th centuries. The coming of the Albanians was connected with theRusso-Turkish War of 1768-1774 . During this warOrthodox Christian Greeks and Albanians revolted against the power of theOttoman Empire . After their initially rebellion failed many joined up with the Russian fleet which was on itsAegean Expedition . At the end of the war about 1,700 Albanian fighters and family members went to theRussian Empire . They settled primarily in the vicinity ofKerch andYenikale . Later Albanian immigrants to the Russian Empire settled primarily in the vicinity ofOdessa . Over time many of the Albanian have been assimilated into either the Greek, Russian or Ukrainian populations of these areas.By the late 20th Century, only a few years before the fall of the
USSR the Albanian of Ukraine were mainly concentrated inZaporizhia Oblast .In 1958 they numbered 5,258 in the entire
Soviet Union . Their number had fallen to 4,402 by 1970.Sources
* Wixman, Ronald. "The Peoples of the USSR: An Ethnographic Handbook". (Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, Inc, 1984) p. 8
* Olson, James S., "An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires". (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1994) p. 28-29
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