Day of Adoption of Crimea, Taman and Kuban into the Russian Empire Date in the current year: April 19, 2024

On June 25, 2018, the Chairwoman of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko and a group of senators and deputies submitted to the Sate Duma a draft law establishing April 19 as the Day of Adoption of Crimea, Taman and Kuban into the Russian Empire. On July 24, 2018, the press service of the Russian parliament reported that the bill passed the third reading.

The adoption of Crimea into the Russian Empire in 1783 was basically an annexation. For more than three centuries, the Crimean Peninsula was controlled by the Crimean Khanate, a Turkic vassal state of the Ottoman Empire. Having defeated the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War, Russian Empress Catherine the Great helped the Crimean Khanate achieve de jure independence.

In 1783, Empress Catherine was encouraged by her favorite Prince Grigory Potemkin to annex Crimea. She issued a formal proclamation of annexation on April 19, 1783. After years of turmoil, Tatars lacked the will and resources to continue fighting, so the annexation was met with almost no resistance. The Khanate was liquidated and replaced by the Taurida Governorate.

Along with Crimea, Russia annexed the locality of Taman on the coast of the Taman Bay (present-day Krasnodar Krai) and the region of Kuban surrounding the Kuban River.