ABSTRACT
Today, Berdyans'k is a popular resort, renowned for its mud clinics, salt lakes and mineral springs. It is located some 80 kilometres southwest of Mariupol on the northern coast of the Sea of Azov, which maintains a constant outflow into the Black Sea and is often described as its northern extension. Historically, the hinterland of the Sea of Azov was a site of incessant conflict between the Russian and Ottoman empires, due to its strategic position in relation to Russian imperial expansion into the Caucasus. The Sea of Azov was itself a point of intersection between two of the major Cossack Hosts, the Zaporozhian and the Don, both traceable at least as far back as the 16th century. The chapter suggests that the border territories at the southeastern and northeastern corners of the Black Sea are of some sensitivity.
