Novorossiya: How a 18th-Century Imperial Administrative Project Became a Modern Geopolitical Flashpoint

Wars & Conflicts · Published 15 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Originally a 1764 administrative designation for the Russian Empire's southern borderlands, Novorossiya has evolved from a colonial project into a contested geopolitical concept. Once a sparsely populated steppe, the region was transformed by diverse migrations, only to be repurposed in the 21st century as a symbol of conflicting national identities.

The term Novorossiya, or New Russia, emerged in 1764 when the Russian Empire established a governorate to secure its southern frontier against the Ottoman Empire. Following the annexation of the Crimean Khanate and the Zaporozhian Sich in 1775, the region became a focus for state-led colonization. Empress Catherine the Great encouraged a diverse influx of settlers, including Romanians, Bulgarians, Serbs, Greeks, Germans, and Italians, alongside significant numbers of Ukrainian and Russian peasants. This era saw the development of major urban centers like Odesa, founded in 1794, and Yuzovka, later Donetsk, which grew around industrial hubs established by figures like the Welsh industrialist John Hughes.

By the 19th century, the region's demographic landscape was complex. While Russian was the dominant language in urban centers, the 1897 All-Russian Empire Census indicated that Ukrainian was the primary native language for the majority of the rural population. The governorate itself underwent several administrative reorganizations, eventually dissolving into smaller units like the Kherson and Taurida governorates before the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917. Throughout the Soviet period, these territories were integrated into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, a status that remained until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

In the modern era, the concept of Novorossiya was revived as a political tool. In 2014, the term gained renewed prominence when it was invoked by Russian leadership to describe southeastern Ukrainian territories, including Kharkiv, Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Odesa. This revival was accompanied by the short-lived proclamation of a confederation by separatist leaders in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which was effectively frozen by 2015. Scholars have described this usage as an 'ersatz' geopolitical imaginary, intended to challenge Ukrainian statehood. Despite its historical roots as an imperial administrative label, the term remains deeply contentious, serving as a focal point for debates over sovereignty, identity, and the historical legitimacy of modern borders.

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