ПОЛІТИЧНІ АМБІЦІЇ «ГРЕЦЬКОГО ПРОЄКТУ» І ЙОГО ПРАКТИЧНА РЕАЛІЗАЦІЯ НА ПРИКЛАДІ ІМПЕРСЬКОГО ВТРУЧАННЯ У ТОПОНІМІЮ ПІВДЕННОЇ УКРАЇНИ

The historical conditions for the formation of the “Greek project” date back to the end of the 17th – the first half of the 18th century, due to the aggressive plans to expand the territory of the Russian Empire. The main vector of imperial aggression aimed at the Black Sea and Mediterranean regions is associated with the weakening of the geopolitical capabilities of the Ottoman state. In 1782, the imperial so-called “Greek project” was formulated in Russian politics, where the global idea was the formation of a Greek state with a center in Constantinople, headed by a representative of the Romanov dynasty. The implementation of the project also concerned the formation of the state of Dacia from Moldavia, Wallachia and Bessarabia - this is not a complete list of features that were envisaged within the framework of the “Greek project”. The Ottoman Empire was to be dismembered or rejected only within the limits of its Asian possessions. To implement these plans, the Russian Empire launched active international diplomatic activities in European countries, in the Greek, Balkan and Asian provinces of the Ottoman Empire. The implementation of the “Greek project” involved demonstrating pro-Greek sentiments in Russian not only foreign, but also domestic policy. As a result, many Greek immigrants settled in the occupied southern Ukrainian territories and the Crimean Khanate, who contributed a lot to the development of these territories. At the same time, Russia is launching a large-scale campaign to rename settlements in the Greek manner, which leads to the emergence of the concept of founding settlements from the very beginning of the appearance of the Russian Empire on these lands. This is a distortion of collective memory and a distortion of the age of cities and towns in Southern Ukraine. As a result of the modern policy of decolonization in Ukraine, a significant number of settlements have received their historical names, associated with the history of the indigenous inhabitants of the conquered and annexed territories. To date, this law on decolonization in Southern Ukraine and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea has renamed more than 200 settlements, and this process is ongoing.