Calming the Waters: For a New Narrative of the Black Sea
All in all, writing a coherent maritime history of the Black Sea presents at least four challenges or paradoxes: the dual valence of the land and the sea; the largely geopolitical issue of openness versus closedness (especially in relation to the Straits); the prevalence of micro-history over macro-history in the existing literature; and (last but not least) the difficulty of writing a narrative escaping the inertia of imperial and national histories.
Indeed, while the nineteenth century had presaged a new era of modernity, the creation of new states bordering that sea bequeathed a string of problematic national identities, marred by a memory of wars, massacres and deportations. Nationalist ideologies (an essentially land-oriented form of thought) are threatening to relegate the sea to the background again and to reduce its circulations. Particularly in Russia, Ukraine and Turkey, the dominant narratives remain those of ethnically homogeneous nations, oriented to the land (i.e. turning their backs on the sea), afflicted by essentially hostile neighbours and misfit ‘minorities’. Reality is different: in spite of everything, family ties still create intricate webs of local and regional identities, bringing together people in a constellation of social and religious affiliations; and the sea remains a connecting medium between the shores.
In general, attempting to write a maritime history of the Black Sea as a whole in the perspective of the ‘new thalassology’, remains a risky business, and not only by reason of its human complexity. In a region where historical ‘truth’ is still a matter of territorial stakes among rival nationstates, national narratives (which largely continue to ignore that diversity) persist to feed controversy. The recent falling out between Ukraine and Russia and generally the fierce exploitation of historical biases in littoral states toward legitimising political standpoints (not to mention laws curbing free speech), are making the task of historians increasingly difficult.
Accounts of atrocities suffered are still too often used to minimise those previously committed or justify new ones perpetuating an endless cycle of revanchism, irredentism and violence.Writing a new regional narrative where the sea plays a foreground role may require that all states admit that they played a guilty part in the immense tragedy that disconnected the coastlines from the late nineteenth century forward. A new generation of historians is recognising the need to rewrite a history of the Black Sea that moves beyond political partisanship and parochial interests in order to bring together populations forcibly divided by ‘national identities’. This process, which also includes collecting the confessions of perpetrators alongside the testimonies of victims, is occasionally a painful one. Those who undertake this path of intellectual pacification are likely to expose themselves to vehement criticism by those who believe that historians should be subservient to self- righteous political agendas. Yet reconciliation among the littoral states of the Black Sea could be envisioned if all states involved abandoned desires of self-aggrandisement and instead turned to ‘concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity’,[752] a method that paid dividends for France and Germany after the Second World War.
In the long term, the hostilities that have existed between the states bordering the Black Sea are but a brief moment in the history of the region. Empires and nation-states, together with their ideologies, appear as transient actors that enter, perform their act and exit against a slowly moving backdrop. Indeed, geopolitical stakes, national ambitions and past military glories appear ephemeral when placed next to the relative permanency of the grey-green waves of the Black Sea - ‘the most marvellous of seas’, according to Herodotus. Despite the advent of rail, motorcars and airplanes, sea shipping will continue to be a cheap and effective transportation method. The Pontos Euxeinos, the ‘hospitable sea’ remains the true lord and the main actor of this region in the longue duree: it existed long before empires and nation-states and will likely outlast them. Indeed, it might be up to the Black Sea’s inhabitants to bring it honour by establishing a lasting peace by favouring the circulation of people, goods and ideas along its shores, while protecting and perpetuating its precious environment.