Crimean–Nogai raids into East Slavic lands

The Crimean-Nogai raids were slave raids carried out by the Khanate of Crimea and by the Nogai Horde into the region of Rus' then controlled by the Grand Duchy of Moscow (until 1547), by the Tsardom of Russia (1547-1721), by the Russian Empire (1721 onwards) and by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1569). These raids began after Crimea became independent about 1441 and lasted until the peninsula came under Russian control in 1774. Their main purpose was the capture of slaves, most of whom were exported to the Ottoman slave markets in Constantinople or elsewhere in the Middle East. The raids were an important drain of the human and economic resources of eastern Europe. They largely inhibited the settlement of the "Wild Fields" – the steppe and forest-steppe land which extends from a hundred or so miles south of Moscow to the Black Sea and which now contains most of the Russian and Ukrainian population. The raids also played an important role in the development of the Cossacks.

Estimates of the number of people involved vary: according to Alan W. Fisher the number of people deported from the Slavic lands on both sides of the border during the 14th to 17th centuries was about 3 million. Michael Khodarkhovsky estimates that 150,000 to 200,000 people were abducted from Russia in the first 50 years of the 17th century. By way of comparison, the Atlantic slave trade affected about 12 million people over three centuries, while Arabs captured 10 to 18 million African slaves over a much longer period.

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