Novorossiya

Novorossiya (Russian: Новоро́ссия; IPA: [nəvɐˈrosʲɪjə]; Romanian: Noua Rusie), literally New Russia but sometimes called South Russia, is a historical term of the Russian Empire denoting a region north of the Black Sea (presently part of Ukraine). It was formed as a new imperial province of Russia (Novorosiiskaia guberniia) in 1764 from military frontier regions along with parts of the southern Hetmanate in preparation for war with the Ottomans. It was further expanded by the annexation of the Zaporozhian Sich in 1775. At various times it encompassed the Moldavian region of Bessarabia, the modern Ukraine′s regions of the Black Sea littoral (Prychornomoria), Zaporizhia, Tavria, the Azov Sea littoral (Pryazovia), the Tatar region of Crimea, the Nogai steppe at the Kuban River, and the Circassian lands.

The region was part of the Russian Empire until its collapse following the Russian February Revolution in early March 1917, after which it became part of the short-lived Russian Republic. In 1918, it was largely included in the Ukrainian State and in the Ukrainian Soviet Republic at the same time. In 1918–1920, it was, to varying extents, under the control of the anti-Bolshevik White movement governments of South Russia whose defeat signified the Soviet control over the territory, which became part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, within the Soviet Union from 1922.