The Nizhyn Greek Brotherhood and the ‘Port-City’ of Nizhyn (17th–19th Centuries)
The Institute for Mediterranean Studies (IMS-FORTH) announces the publication of the eighth volume of the Black Sea History Working Papers series, entitled The Nizhyn Greek Brotherhood and the ‘Port-City’ of Nizhyn (17th–19th Centuries), edited by Iannis Carras, Eugene Chernukhin and Vitalii Tkachuk.
This volume forms part of the broader interdisciplinary and inter-university project “The Black Sea and its port-cities, 1774–1914. Development, convergence and linkages with the global economy”, implemented between 2012 and 2015 under the Action “Thales,” co-financed by the Greek National Strategic Reference Framework, the European Union, and the Greek Ministry of Education. The project was coordinated by the Department of History of the Ionian University (Project Coordinator: Gelina Harlaftis) in collaboration with IMS-FORTH, the University of Crete, the National Hellenic Research Foundation, the University of Thessaly and the University of the Aegean, alongside 23 academic institutions from Black Sea countries and beyond.
The project examined the economic and social development of twenty-four Black Sea port-cities that together formed an integrated market which became the world’s largest grain-exporting region in the late nineteenth century. By placing the sea and its ports at the centre of analysis, it explored the interaction between coastal cities, their hinterlands, and global markets, highlighting processes of regional development and convergence beyond political boundaries.
Within this broader framework, Nizhyn represents a distinctive case: a “land port” and inland commercial node that developed prior to the rise of the northern Black Sea ports. The Greek Brotherhood of Nizhyn played a crucial role in supporting merchant networks, structuring trade routes and facilitating the circulation of commodities, thereby contributing to the later integration of the Ukrainian Black Sea ports into global markets.
The volume offers new archival research and interdisciplinary perspectives on merchant diaspora networks, institutional structures and economic linkages, enriching international scholarship on the Black Sea region. It continues the long-term research trajectory of the Centre of Maritime History under the overarching theme “History of the Black Sea, 18th–20th century.”
View all IMS publications here:
https://www.ims.forth.gr/en/publication/ims