Mariupol Greek Court

Since the resettlement of Orthodox Christians from Crimea to the Nadazov region, the Mariupol Greek Court played an important organizational role in the life of the community. This institution was established according to the 5th point of the document “Charter of Privileges for Christians of the Greek Law, Who Have Left Crimea for Resettlement in the Azov Governorate” dated May 21, 1779. It allowed the settlers to have their own court and internal police with elected representatives from the people, based on general state laws, but the jurisdiction of the court was limited to the settlers and their descendants.

One of the unique features of the internal life of the Greek settlers was that, within the legal framework, they were all recognized as equal. The Mariupol Greek Court began its work on June 28, 1780, in accordance with an order from Catherine the Great. It carried out administrative and police functions, as well as handled legal matters.In the court, all cases were decided collectively, behind closed doors. There were six departments in the court: criminal, civil, investigative, economic, orphan, and police. In 1869, the Greek Court was abolished, and a district zemstvo was established for the Mariupol region, along with the introduction of local judicial institutions in Mariupol and the surrounding area, with the inclusion of the Taganrog District Court.

Researcher A. Hedo divides the court documents into the following groups based on their origin and informational value: 1) documents that came to the Mariupol Greek Court from higher administrative bodies; 2) documents created by the court and sent as intended; 3) journals and documents received by the court from subordinate structures; 4) documents sent from private individuals; and 5) papers sent by the court’s judicial authority to private individuals, etc.

Currently, the materials of the Greek Court are preserved in the fund 1576 “Mariupol Greek Court” at the Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine in Kyiv. Before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, some of the court’s files were stored in at the Mariupol Local History Museum. As a result of the city’s occupation and the fire in the museum, the fate of these documents is currently unknown.

Some of the Mariupol Greek Court files, which are presented on the website, were stored in the Mariupol Local History Museum until 2022 and were photographed by Svitlana Arabadzhy and the museum’s scientific staff before the onset of military actions in Ukraine in 2014.

The material for the website and the publication of the files were prepared by Dr. Svitlana Arabadzhy as part of the project “Becoming Greek South of Ukraine, 1774-2021: The History of Ukraine through its Greek Minority Between Local and Transnational Contexts (UAGREEKS).” This project received funding through the MSCA4Ukraine program, which is funded by the European Union [grant number 1233124].

The cases presented from the Mariupol Greek Court often have two titles: the first one, given by the scientific staff of the Mariupol Local History Museum when describing and registering the document, and the second – the original title assigned to the case when the documents were created.

Svitlana Arabadzhy