Why were Crimean Tatars deported in 1944? "1944": how the Crimean Tatars were actually deported and returned to their native lands

The deportation of the Crimean Tatars in the last year of the Great Patriotic War was a mass eviction of local residents of Crimea to a number of regions of the Uzbek SSR, the Kazakh SSR, the Mari ASSR and other republics of the Soviet Union.

This happened immediately after the liberation of the peninsula from the Nazi invaders. The official reason for the action was the criminal assistance of many thousands of Tatars to the occupiers.

Crimean collaborators

The eviction was carried out under the control of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs in May 1944. The order to deport the Tatars, allegedly members of the collaborationist groups during the occupation of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, was signed by Stalin shortly before that, on May 11th. Beria substantiated the reasons:

Desertion of 20 thousand Tatars from the army during the period 1941-1944;
- the unreliability of the Crimean population, especially pronounced in the border areas;
- a threat to the security of the Soviet Union due to collaborationist actions and anti-Soviet sentiments of the Crimean Tatars;
- the deportation of 50 thousand civilians to Germany with the assistance of the Crimean Tatar committees.

In May 1944, the government of the Soviet Union did not yet have all the figures regarding the real situation in the Crimea. After the defeat of Hitler and the calculation of losses, it became known that 85.5 thousand newly minted "slaves" of the Third Reich were actually stolen to Germany only from among the civilian population of Crimea.

Almost 72 thousand were executed with the direct participation of the so-called "Noise". Schuma is an auxiliary police, but in fact - punitive Crimean Tatar battalions subordinate to the Nazis. Of these 72,000, 15,000 communists were brutally tortured in the largest concentration camp in Crimea, the former Krasnoy collective farm.

Main allegations

After the retreat, the Nazis took part of the collaborators with them to Germany. Subsequently, a special SS regiment was formed from among them. The other part (5,381 people) were arrested by the security officers after the liberation of the peninsula. Many weapons were seized during the arrests. The government was afraid of an armed rebellion of the Tatars because of their proximity to Turkey (the latter Hitler hoped to draw into the war with the communists).

According to the research of the Russian scientist, professor of history Oleg Romanko, during the war years, 35,000 Crimean Tatars helped the Nazis in one way or another: they served in the German police, participated in executions, handed over communists, etc. For this, even distant relatives of traitors were supposed to be exiled and confiscate property.

The main argument in favor of the rehabilitation of the Crimean Tatar population and its return to their historical homeland was that the deportation was actually carried out not on the basis of the real deeds of specific people, but on a national basis.

Even those who did not contribute to the Nazis were sent into exile. At the same time, 15% of Tatar men fought alongside other Soviet citizens in the Red Army. In the partisan detachments, 16% were Tatars. Their families were also deported. Stalin's fears that the Crimean Tatars might succumb to pro-Turkish sentiments, revolt and end up on the side of the enemy were reflected in this mass character.

The government wanted to eliminate the threat from the south as quickly as possible. The eviction was carried out urgently, in freight cars. On the way, many died due to crowding, lack of food and drinking water. In total, about 190 thousand Tatars were deported from Crimea during the war. 191 Tatars died during transportation. Another 16 thousand died in new places of residence from mass starvation in 1946-1947.

Image copyright getty Image caption Every year in May, the Tatars celebrate the anniversary of the deportation. This year, the Russian authorities banned the rally in Simferopol

On May 18-20, 1944, NKVD fighters, on orders from Moscow, rounded up almost the entire Tatar population of Crimea to railway cars and sent them to Uzbekistan in 70 echelons.

This forced deportation of the Tatars, whom the Soviet authorities accused of collaborating with the Nazis, was one of the fastest deportations in world history.

How did the Tatars live in Crimea before the deportation?

After the creation of the USSR in 1922, Moscow recognized the Crimean Tatars as the indigenous population of the Crimean ASSR as part of the indigenization policy.

In the 1920s, the Tatars were allowed to develop their culture. In Crimea, Crimean Tatar newspapers and magazines were published, educational institutions, museums, libraries and theaters worked.

The Crimean Tatar language, together with Russian, was the official language of the autonomy. More than 140 village councils used it.

In the 1920s-1930s, Tatars made up 25-30% of the total population of Crimea.

However, in the 1930s, Soviet policy towards the Tatars, like other nationalities of the USSR, became repressive.

First began the dispossession and eviction of the Tatars to the north of Russia and beyond the Urals. Then came forced collectivization, the Holodomor of 1932-33, and the purges of the intelligentsia in 1937-1938.

This turned many Crimean Tatars against the Soviet regime.

When did the deportation take place?

The main phase of the forced resettlement took place over less than three days, starting at dawn on May 18, 1944 and ending at 4:00 pm on May 20.

In total, 238.5 thousand people were deported from Crimea - almost the entire Crimean Tatar population.

For this, the NKVD attracted more than 32 thousand fighters.

What caused the deportation?

The official reason for the forced resettlement was the accusation of the entire Crimean Tatar people of high treason, "mass extermination of Soviet people" and collaborationism - cooperation with the Nazi occupiers.

Such arguments were contained in the decision of the State Defense Committee on deportation, which appeared a week before the start of the evictions.

However, historians name other, unofficial reasons for the resettlement. Among them is the fact that the Crimean Tatars historically had close ties with Turkey, which the USSR at the time viewed as a potential rival.

In the plans of the USSR, the Crimea was a strategic springboard in case of a possible conflict with Turkey, and Stalin wanted to play it safe from possible "saboteurs and traitors", whom he considered the Tatars.

This theory is supported by the fact that other Muslim ethnic groups were resettled from the Caucasian regions adjacent to Turkey: Chechens, Ingush, Karachays and Balkars.

Did the Tatars support the Nazis?

Between nine and 20 thousand Crimean Tatars served in anti-Soviet combat units formed by the German authorities, writes historian Jonathan Otto Paul.

Some of them sought to protect their villages from Soviet partisans, who, according to the Tatars themselves, often persecuted them on ethnic grounds.

Other Tatars joined the German troops because they were captured by the Nazis and wanted to alleviate the difficult conditions of their stay in the prisoner of war camps in Simferopol and Nikolaev.

At the same time, 15% of the adult male Crimean Tatar population fought on the side of the Red Army. During the deportation, they were demobilized and sent to labor camps in Siberia and the Urals.

In May 1944, most of those who served in the German detachments retreated to Germany. Mostly wives and children who remained on the peninsula were deported.

How did the forced resettlement take place?

Employees of the NKVD entered the Tatar dwellings and announced to the owners that they were being evicted from the Crimea due to treason.

To collect things, gave 15-20 minutes. Officially, each family had the right to take up to 500 kg of luggage with them, but in reality they were allowed to take much less, and sometimes nothing at all.

People were taken by trucks to the railway stations. From there, almost 70 echelons were sent to the east with tightly closed freight cars, crowded with people.

During the move, about eight thousand people died, most of them children and the elderly. The most common causes of death are thirst and typhus.

Some people, unable to endure suffering, went crazy. All the property left in the Crimea after the Tatars, the state appropriated to itself.

Where were the Tatars deported to?

Most of the Tatars were sent to Uzbekistan and neighboring regions of Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. Small groups of people ended up in the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, the Urals and the Kostroma region of Russia.

What were the consequences of the deportation for the Tatars?

During the first three years after the resettlement, from starvation, exhaustion and disease, according to various estimates, from 20 to 46% of all deportees died.

Almost half of those who died in the first year were children under 16.

Due to the lack of clean water, poor hygiene and lack of medical care, malaria, yellow fever, dysentery and other diseases spread among the deportees.

The newcomers had no natural immunity against many local ailments.

What status did they have in Uzbekistan?

The overwhelming majority of the Crimean Tatars were transferred to the so-called special settlements - surrounded by armed guards, roadblocks and fenced with barbed wire, the territories looked more like labor camps than civilian settlements.

Newcomers were cheap labor, they were used to work in collective farms, state farms and industrial enterprises.

In Uzbekistan, they cultivated cotton fields, worked in mines, construction sites, plants and factories. Among the hard work was the construction of the Farkhad hydroelectric power station.

In 1948, Moscow recognized the Crimean Tatars as lifelong migrants. Those who, without the permission of the NKVD, went outside their special settlement, for example, to visit relatives, were in danger of 20 years in prison. There have been such cases.

Even before the deportation, propaganda incited hatred for the Crimean Tatars among local residents, stigmatizing them as traitors and enemies of the people.

As historian Greta Lynn Ugling writes, the Uzbeks were told that "cyclops" and "cannibals" were coming to them and were advised to stay away from the newcomers.

After the deportation, some local residents felt the heads of visitors to check that horns did not grow on them.

Later, when they learned that the Crimean Tatars were of the same faith, the Uzbeks were surprised.

The children of migrants could receive education in Russian or Uzbek, but not in Crimean Tatar.

By 1957, any publications in Crimean Tatar were banned. An article about the Crimean Tatars was removed from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia.

This nationality was also forbidden to enter in the passport.

What has changed in Crimea without the Tatars?

After the Tatars, as well as the Greeks, Bulgarians and Germans, were evicted from the peninsula, in June 1945 Crimea ceased to be an autonomous republic and became a region within the RSFSR.

The southern regions of Crimea, where the Crimean Tatars used to live, were deserted.

For example, according to official data, only 2,600 residents remained in the Alushta region, and 2,200 in Balaklava. Subsequently, people from Ukraine and Russia began to move here.

"Toponymic repressions" were carried out on the peninsula - most of the cities, villages, mountains and rivers that had Crimean Tatar, Greek or German names received new Russian names. Among the exceptions are Bakhchisaray, Dzhankoy, Ishun, Saki and Sudak.

The Soviet government destroyed Tatar monuments, burned manuscripts and books, including volumes of Lenin and Marx translated into Crimean Tatar.

Cinemas and shops were opened in mosques.

When were the Tatars allowed to return to Crimea?

The regime of special settlements for the Tatars lasted until the era of Khrushchev's de-Stalinization - the second half of the 1950s. Then the Soviet government softened their living conditions for them, but did not withdraw charges of high treason.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the Tatars fought for their right to return to their historical homeland, including through demonstrations in Uzbek cities.

In 1968, the occasion for one of these actions was Lenin's birthday. The authorities dispersed the rally.

Gradually, the Crimean Tatars managed to achieve the expansion of their rights, however, an informal, but no less strict ban on their return to Crimea was in force until 1989.

Over the next four years, half of all Crimean Tatars who then lived in the USSR returned to the peninsula - 250 thousand people.

The return of the indigenous population to the Crimea was difficult and was accompanied by land conflicts with local residents who managed to get used to the new land. However, major confrontations were avoided.

A new challenge for the Crimean Tatars was the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014. Some of them left the peninsula due to persecution.

Others have themselves been banned by Russian authorities from entering Crimea, including Crimean Tatar leaders Mustafa Dzhemilev and Refat Chubarov.

Does the deportation have signs of genocide?

Some researchers and dissidents believe that the deportation of the Tatars is consistent with the UN definition of genocide.

They argue that the Soviet government intended to destroy the Crimean Tatars as an ethnic group and deliberately went to this goal.

In 2006, the kurultai of the Crimean Tatar people turned to the Verkhovna Rada with a request to recognize the deportation as genocide.

Despite this, in most historical writings and diplomatic documents, the forced resettlement of Crimean Tatars is now called deportation, not genocide.

In the Soviet Union, the term "resettlement" was used.

Irina Simonenko

Every year on May 18, Crimean Tatars celebrate the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Deportation. Through the efforts of Ukrainian political strategists and their curators, from the original day of sorrow of the deportation of the Crimean peoples, this day methodically and purposefully turned into the Day of Remembrance of the victims of the exclusively Crimean Tatar people, “punished without guilt” people.

The words of Petro Poroshenko are especially cynical: “We are obliged to give the Crimean Tatars the right to self-determination within the framework of a single Ukrainian state. This is what we owe to the Crimean Tatars. The Ukrainian authorities should have done this at least 20 years ago. And now the situation would be completely different.”

By the way, no matter how much the “representatives” of the Kyiv Crimean Tatars beg and plead, they will never receive that same definition. This people for Kyiv has always been a tool for manipulation. And things never went beyond promises in the entire history of Ukraine, only time after time “the need to amend section 10 of the Constitution of Ukraine is emphasized”, but in reality this will never be allowed.

Ukraine consists of different regions that once belonged to the Commonwealth, Turkey, the Russian Empire. And if the Crimean Tatars receive self-determination, which the Guarantor of the Constitution enthusiastically talks about every May 18, then the same "autonomy" is quite capable of coveting in Transcarpathia. And there and further along the chain, an independent can lose all its lands.

Ukrainian politicians continue to lead the Crimean Tatar people by the nose, promising their land, their government and mountains of gold. But even on paper, they still do not want to formalize such changes in relation to the already lost territory of Crimea, postponing the adoption of the document for another year, two, three. And so on ad infinitum.

Today, the number of historical hoaxes associated with the "Stalinist expulsion of peoples" is only growing and bottom experts are already calling it a "planned genocide."

It will not be superfluous to look into this issue. What were the reasons for the deportation? What actually happened on the territory of Crimea during the war years? There are very few living witnesses of those events left who could tell how everything really happened. But even what not numerous eyewitnesses tell, and what is recorded in Soviet and German chronicles is enough to understand that resettlement was the only and most correct decision.

I would like to immediately dot the i's - by no means do I want to say that all Crimean Tatars are bad. Many Crimean Tatars valiantly defended the common Soviet Motherland in the ranks of the Red Army, in the ranks of the Crimean partisans turned the life of German and Romanian Nazis in Crimea into hell, thousands were awarded state awards. Their exploits deserve a separate post. Here, I want to understand why what happened happened.

The deportation was justified by the facts of the participation of the people in the collaborationist formations that acted on the side of Nazi Germany during the Great Patriotic War.

Of the 200,000 of the entire Crimean Tatar population, 20,000 became soldiers of the Wehrmacht, punitive detachments, and in other ways went into the service of the German invaders, that is, almost all men of military age, as evidenced by the reports of the German command. How would they get along with the Red Army soldiers who returned from the front, what would the veterans of the war do with them, having learned about what the Tatar punishers were doing in the Crimea during the German occupation? A massacre would begin, and resettlement was the only way out of this situation. And there was something to take revenge on the Red Army soldiers, and this is not Soviet propaganda, there are plenty of facts about their atrocities from both the Soviet and German sides.

So, in the Sudak region in 1942, a group of self-defense Tatars liquidated the reconnaissance landing of the Red Army, while the self-defenders caught and burned alive 12 Soviet paratroopers.

On February 4, 1943, Crimean Tatar volunteers from the villages of Beshui and Koush captured four partisans from the detachment of S.A. Mukovnin.

Partisans L.S.Chernov, V.F.Gordienko, G.K.Sannikov and Kh.K.Kiyamov were brutally killed: stabbed with bayonets, laid on fires and burned. The corpse of the Kazan Tatar Kh.K.

The Crimean Tatar detachments dealt with the civilian population just as brutally. It got to the point that, fleeing from reprisals, the Russian-speaking population turned to the German authorities for help.

Beginning in the spring of 1942, a concentration camp operated on the territory of the Krasny state farm, in which at least 8 thousand inhabitants of Crimea were tortured and shot during the occupation.

The concentration camp was the largest fascist concentration camp during the Great Patriotic War on the territory of Crimea, in which about 8 thousand Soviet citizens were tortured during the years of occupation.

The German administration was represented by a commandant and a doctor.

All other functions were carried out by the fighters of the 152nd Tatar Volunteer Battalion, whom the head of the camp, SS Oberscharführer Shpekman, attracted to perform "the dirtiest work."

With particular pleasure, the future "innocent victims of Stalin's repressions" mocked the ideologically wrong prisoners. With their cruelty, they resembled the Tatar horde of the distant past, and were distinguished by a particularly “creative” approach to the issue of the destruction of prisoners. In particular, mothers with children were drowned more than once in pits with feces dug under camp toilets.

Mass burning was also practiced: living people tied with barbed wire were stacked in several tiers, doused with gasoline and set on fire. Eyewitnesses claim that "those who lay below were the most lucky" - they suffocated under the weight of human bodies even before execution.

For serving the Germans, many hundreds of punishers from among the Crimean Tatars were awarded special insignia approved by Hitler - "For courage and special merits shown by the population of the liberated regions participating in the fight against Bolshevism under the leadership of the German command."

So, according to the report of the Simferopol Muslim Committee, for 12/01/1943 - 01/31/1944:

“For services to the Tatar people, the German command was awarded: a badge with swords of the II degree, issued for the liberated eastern regions, the chairman of the Simferopol Tatar Committee, Dzhemil Abdureshid, a badge of the II degree, Chairman of the Department of Religion Abdul-Aziz Gafar, an employee of the Department of Religion Fazyl Sadyk and Chairman of the Tatar Table Tahsin Jamil.

Dzhemil Abdureshid took an active part in the creation of the Simferopol Committee at the end of 1941 and, as the first chairman of the committee, was active in attracting volunteers to the ranks of the German army.

In a response speech, the chairman of the Tatar Committee, Cemil Abdureshid, said the following:

“I speak on behalf of the committee and on behalf of all Tatars, being sure that I express their thoughts. One call of the German army is enough and the Tatars, one and all, will come out to fight against the common enemy. It is a great honor for us to have the opportunity to fight under the leadership of the Fuhrer Adolf Hitler, the greatest son of the German people. The faith embedded in us gives us strength so that we trust the leadership of the German army without hesitation. Our names will later be honored along with the names of those who stood up for the liberation of the oppressed peoples.”

April 10, 1942. From a message to Adolf Hitler, received at a prayer service by more than 500 Muslims in the city of Karasu Bazaar:

"Our liberator! It is only thanks to you, your help and thanks to the courage and dedication of your troops that we managed to open our prayer houses and perform prayers in them. Now there is not and cannot be such a force that would separate us from the German people and from you. The Tatar people swore and gave their word, signing up as volunteers in the ranks of the German troops, hand in hand with your troops to fight against the enemy to the last drop of blood. Your victory is the victory of the entire Muslim world. We pray to God for the health of your troops and ask God to give you, the great liberator of the peoples, long life. You are now the liberator, the leader of the Muslim world - the gases Adolf Hitler.

Our ancestors came from the East, and until now we have been waiting for liberation from there, but today we are witnessing that liberation is coming to us from the West. Perhaps for the first and only time in history it happened that the sun of freedom rose in the West. This sun is you, our great friend and leader, with your mighty German people, and you, relying on the inviolability of the great German state, on the unity and power of the German people, bring us, the oppressed Muslims, freedom. We swore an oath of allegiance to you to die for you with honor and weapons in our hands and only in the fight against a common enemy.

We are confident that together with you we will achieve the complete liberation of our peoples from the yoke of Bolshevism.

On the day of your glorious anniversary, we send you our heartfelt greetings and wishes, we wish you many years of fruitful life for the joy of your people, to us, Crimean Muslims and Muslims of the East.

Abdul-Aziz Gafar and Fazyl Sadiq, despite their advanced years, worked among volunteers and did significant work to establish religious affairs in the Simferopol region.

Takhsin Dzhemil organized the Tatar table in 1942 and, working as its chairman until the end of 1943, provided systematic assistance to "needy Tatars and families of volunteers."

In addition, the personnel of the Crimean Tatar formations were provided with all sorts of material benefits and privileges. According to one of the decisions of the High Command of the Wehrmacht, “any person who actively fought or is fighting against the partisans and Bolsheviks” could apply for “allocation of land to him or payment of a monetary reward of up to 1000 rubles.”

At the same time, his family was supposed to receive a monthly subsidy in the amount of 75 to 250 rubles from the social welfare departments of the city or district government.

After the publication on February 15, 1942 by the Ministry of the Occupied Eastern Regions of the “Law on the New Agrarian Order”, all Tatars who joined volunteer formations and their families were given full ownership of 2 hectares of land. The Germans provided them with the best plots, taking land from the peasants who did not join these formations.

As noted in the already cited memorandum of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Crimean ASSR, Major of State Security Karanadze in the NKVD of the USSR "On the political and moral state of the population of Crimea":

“In a particularly privileged position are persons who are members of volunteer detachments. All of them receive wages, food, are exempt from taxes, received the best allotments of fruit and vineyards, tobacco plantations, taken from the rest of the non-Tatar population.

Volunteers are given things stolen from the Jewish population.”

All these horrors are not an invention of Soviet political officers, but the bitter truth. Many more examples of the “innocence of the Crimean Tatars” can be cited, but this article is not about that.

The whole problem is that modern Tatars are not required to bear the stigma of traitors until the end of their days, because they were not even born then. Similarly, modern Russians have nothing to do with the deportation of the Tatars. We all need to live on, live in peace and harmony. And for this you need to stop crying about your long-suffering past, and think about our common future. A Russian Tatar and a Ukrainian should develop the Crimean economy together, stop taking skeletons out of closets, blaming each other for what the neighbor's great-grandfather or great-great-grandfather did.

In the meantime, every May 18, the Crimean Tatars provide an excellent opportunity for all kinds of speculation by the Ukrainian Mejlis and their curators in Ukraine and further west, and thanks to their position of “offended and oppressed”, they are used as a bargaining chip to create instability in the region.

Crimea appeared on the federal agenda twice this week, and both appearances are associated with the number 1944. Firstly, this is the victory of the Crimean Tatar singer Jamala with the song "1944" at Eurovision (which made many Tatarstanis happy), and secondly, this is that 72 years have passed since the start of the operation to deport Tatars from Crimea. Elvina Seitova, candidate of historical sciences from Crimea, in her article for Realnoe Vremya talks about those terrible events, shares her opinion about Jamal and rejoices at the new hero from among the Tatars.

First the Germans were deported

Crimea was liberated in May: Sevastopol - on May 9, the last battles took place at Cape Khersones on May 13, 1944. Literally at the same time, on May 11, a decision was made to deport the Crimean Tatars. Before that, already in August 1941, the Germans were expelled. Later, on June 27, 1944, Bulgarians, Greeks and Armenians were deported. The wording in all documents about the deportation was the same: the accusation of collaborationism, of having links with the occupiers.

The Crimean Tatars were taken away very quickly. The events unfolded exactly 72 years ago - on May 18, 1944. They broke into the houses of the Crimean Tatars early in the morning, gave literally a few minutes to get ready, there was no way to take something valuable with them. People literally had time to take with them the Holy Book and the first things that came across. Mostly women, old people and small children were deported, because the main part of the male population was at the front. Everything was very fast, people were taken out without any property, even without documents.

They were escorted to trains that were intended for the transport of cattle. They were not equipped for people. Everyone was loaded into these wagons in huge quantities. Naturally, there was no medical care and no amenities. One could say that people were rammed into the wagons. Thus, in a matter of days, absolutely all Crimean Tatars were taken out of Crimea.

“They were escorted to trains that were intended for the transport of cattle. They were not equipped for people. Everyone was loaded into these wagons in huge quantities.” Photo gazeta.ua

"Hell Road"

The main place of deportation of the Crimean Tatars was the Uzbek SSR. 82.5% of all deported Crimean Tatars were transported there. They were also deported to Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, to the Urals and to the Kostroma region.

Trains from the Crimea were about a month. They were transported in "cattle" wagons, fed with salted fish, they did not give water. People were dying in huge numbers, there was no way to bury them. I had to throw the bodies of dead loved ones right on the road. If the train stopped, they were quickly buried. There were a huge number of diseases - primarily dysentery and related diseases. Many people died from precisely those diseases that were acquired during this road, which was called the "road of hell."

The years immediately after the deportation were incredibly difficult for the entire nation. Nobody expected the Crimean Tatars. They were deported to these regions - they were not particularly welcome there either. In the first years they did not receive any help, support. Subsequently, people got used to it, found a common language, worked together. But in the first years after the deportation it was very difficult. Our grandparents say that we had to rely only on each other. People were simply left in bare fields, in areas where there was really no housing or food. People left - and that's all, survive as you want. It was very difficult to establish life from scratch - without the support of the local population, without property, without decisive male support. There was no water. Given that Uzbekistan is a very arid region, people had to drink water literally from puddles, hence all these diseases. This played a decisive role in the fact that in the first years after the deportation, many people died. No housing, no food was provided, people were left to fend for themselves. They settled in some kind of free barracks, where no one lived. Someone was “lucky” to settle there, someone had to build housing for themselves from improvised means, for several families.

In addition to the Crimean Tatars, Bulgarians, Greeks and Armenians were deported. They were deported on June 27, 1944, sent to the Kazakh SSR, Sverdlovsk region, Kemerovo region, Bashkir ASSR. The Crimean Tatars did not intersect with them, because they were deported on different days and to different regions.

Crimean Tatars in the places of special settlements after deportation in 1944. Photo memory.gov.ua

Deported 25% of the Crimean population

The question of the number of the deported population in historiography is very debatable. It is generally accepted that about 200 thousand people were deported. This is the population that lived in their homes, without taking into account the warring population. According to the 1926 census, Crimean Tatars made up just over 25% of the Crimean ASSR.

This tragedy unites the whole nation. Crimean Tatars of all generations are involved in it. Crimean Tatar children with mother's milk absorb memories of deportation, stories of grandparents about these tragic events. These are not stories that have been read somewhere, this is the tragedy of every family, every Crimean Tatar. These stories stir the souls and minds of all of us. First of all, this is due to the inhuman conditions of detention of the Crimean Tatars, in which they were transported. Almost half, 46% of the total deported population died in deportation in the first year, in 1944-1945.

Crimean Tatars in the Great Patriotic War

In all occupied territories there are always collaborators. They were in the Ukrainian SSR, and in the Russian regions, they were in the Crimea among different nationalities, not only among the Crimean Tatars. But to say that the Crimean Tatars were all without exception collaborators - there are no grounds for this. Crimean Tatars are proud of their contribution to the Great Victory, their participation in the Great Patriotic War - I say this as the granddaughter of a Soviet soldier. First of all, when we talk about the role of the Crimean Tatar people in the Great Patriotic War, it is worth remembering our heroes of the Soviet Union. These are twice Hero of the Soviet Union Amet-Khan Sultan, Abdraim Reshidov, Abdul Teifuk, Uzeyir Abudaramanov, Seitnafe Seitveliev, Fetislyam Abilov.

Separately, I would like to say about our illustrious heroine Alim Abdenanova, she was a resident of the intelligence department. An amazing thing: when the war began, she was only 17 years old. A completely young girl decided to contribute to the struggle of the people against the invaders. Unfortunately, in February 1944, her group was discovered, and on April 5, 1944, she was shot. Until recently, her name was not noted, and only in 2014, thanks to the decision of the President of Russia, she was awarded the title of Hero of Russia. This is a very big event for us. In addition, the Crimean Tatars had holders of the Order of Glory of the third degree. Crimean Tatars contributed to the Great Victory.

“Crimean Tatar settlements were created, a long, very exhausting process of social and domestic improvement began. First of all, this is the construction of houses. Photo by Alexander Klimenko (mycentury.tv)

Return: build houses anew

The process of returning Crimean Tatars to Crimea began in 1989. Then the mass return of the Crimean Tatars began. This is another difficult milestone in the history of the Crimean Tatars, because the return coincided with difficult events in the country. The process of return was again complicated to a certain extent by the lack of understanding of the local population.

The biggest problem again turned out to be social and household arrangements. The Crimean Tatars faced a choice: to return to the houses of their relatives, in which other people already lived, or to look for another way. The first path was unambiguously connected with the aggravation of the national question. It was decided to follow the path of the so-called "self-capture of the Crimean lands." Crimean Tatar settlements were created, a long, very exhausting process of social and domestic improvement began. First of all, it is the construction of houses. As we joke, every Crimean Tatar is a builder. In addition to his main specialty, he is also a builder: all Crimean Tatar families were forced to settle down on their own, build their own houses anew. There were also difficult issues with citizenship, with work (Crimean Tatars were not hired), with education, and the creation of Crimean Tatar schools. This process is still ongoing, many issues have not been resolved. According to various estimates, between 10,000 and 150,000 Crimean Tatars remained in deportation. However, the vast majority of Crimean Tatars returned.

At the moment, Crimean Tatars live in all regions of the peninsula. But most of us are in Simferopol and Bakhchisaray, as well as Belogorsk districts. There are a lot of Crimean Tatars in such cities as Sudak, Stary Krym, Bakhchisaray, Simferopol, Dzhankoy.

“As for problems, there are always a lot of them, they were, are and will be. First of all, these are the problems of social arrangement, strengthening of infrastructure”. Photo reuters.com

Lack of schools and roads

Immediately after the well-known events that took place two years ago, a presidential decree was issued on April 21, 2014 "On measures to rehabilitate the Armenian, Bulgarian, Greek, Crimean Tatar and German peoples and on state support for their revival and development." This is the first document in all these years about rehabilitation. Previously, such a document was not adopted. Of course, we are grateful: from a psychological and moral point of view, this document has very great weight.

As for problems, there are always a lot of them, they were, are and will be. First of all, these are the problems of social development and strengthening of infrastructure. These issues are very painful for the Crimean Tatars, because they live mainly in densely populated areas, but, unfortunately, not all of them have roads or communications. Crimean Tatars need more national schools and kindergartens, language development and cultural support. These issues are still relevant, but, fortunately, the Crimean Tatars find understanding with the Crimean and federal authorities. We very much hope that with close support we will be able to solve all these problems together.

Eurovision is not for politics

Jamala, of course, is a very talented artist, extraordinary and original. Represented Ukraine, I think, with dignity. We are happy about it. But still, I would like such a well-known music contest as Eurovision, which is popular, not to be a platform for political confrontation.

Elvina Seitova

Reference

Elvina Seitova - candidate of historical sciences, employee of the Crimean Scientific Center of the Institute of History named after Sh. Marjani, senior lecturer at the Crimean Engineering and Pedagogical University.

So, friends - today there will be a post about rather tragic events - exactly 75 years have passed since the Stalinist genocide of the Crimean Tatars in. On May 18, 1944, the Crimean Tatars were deported in freight cars from Crimea to remote regions of the USSR - in particular, to sparsely populated regions of Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. The deportation was carried out by the punitive organs of the NKVD, and the deportation order was personally signed.

"But Stalin won the war!" - fans of the USSR speak in the comments - "If Stalin had not sent people to concentration camps, then Hitler would have done it for him!" neo-Stalinists and conspiracy theorists echo them. However, the truth is that there can be no justification for this genocide - just as there is no justification for Stalin's other crimes - such as deportation and.

So, in today's post I will tell you about the deportation of the Crimean Tatars - which should not be forgotten today, so that it does not happen again under the cries of "we can do it again!" In general, be sure to go under the cut, write your opinion in the comments, well, add to friends Do not forget)

Why did the deportation begin?

It was established in 1922, and in the same year Moscow recognized the Crimean Tatars as the indigenous population of Crimea. In the interwar period, in the 1920s and 30s, Tatars made up almost a third of the population of Crimea - about 25-30%. In the thirties, after Stalin came to power, mass repressions began against the Tatar population of Crimea - dispossession and dekulakization of the Tatars, repressions, mass "purges" of the intelligentsia in 1937-38.

All this turned many Tatars against the Soviet regime - during the war, several thousand Tatars fought against the USSR with weapons in their hands - in fact, I touched on this issue a little in a post with - how and why people fought against the USSR. In the post-war years, this allegedly became the "official reason" for the deportation of the Crimean Tatars - although by the same logic it was possible to deport all Russians from Russia - at least 120-140 thousand people fought in Vlasov's army alone (not counting other formations).

In fact, the Tatars were deported for completely different reasons - the Crimean Tatars were historically strongly associated with Turkey and were also Muslims - and Stalin decided to deport them precisely for this reason - since they did not fit into his head in the picture of the "ideal USSR" and were "surplus people". This version is also supported by the fact that, along with the Tatars, other Muslim ethnic groups were evicted from the areas adjacent to Turkey - Chechens, Ingush, Karachays and Balkars.

How exactly did the deportation take place?

NKVD soldiers broke into Tatar houses and declared people "enemies of the people" - allegedly because of "treason" they were permanently evicted from Crimea. According to official documents - each family could take up to 500 kilograms of luggage with them - however, in reality, people managed to take much less, and most often they went to the freight cars just in what they were wearing - the houses and the things left were looted by the military and soldiers of the NKVD.

People were transported by trucks to railway stations - later sent to the east by about 70 echelons with tightly closed and nailed doors of freight cars overflowing with people. During the very movement of people to the east, more than 8,000 people died - most often people died of typhus or thirst. Many, unable to endure suffering, went mad.

In the first two years, about half (up to 46%) of all deported people died - unable to adapt to the harsh conditions of the lands where they were sent. Nearly half of those 46% were children under the age of 16, who had the hardest time. People died from lack of clean water, from poor hygiene - because of which malaria, dysentery, yellow fever and other diseases spread among the deportees.

Soviet concentration camps and erased memory.

In all this tragedy, there is another very important point - which Russian sources are silent about. The settlements themselves, where the people were sent, were not any villages or cities. Most of all they looked like real concentration camps- these were special settlements fenced with barbed wire, around which there were checkpoints with armed guards.

The exiled Tatars were used in slave labor in the form of almost free labor - they worked for food on collective farms, state farms and at industrial enterprises - the exiled Crimean Tatars were assigned the hardest and dirtiest work, such as manually harvesting cotton treated with pesticides or building the Farkhad hydroelectric power station.

In 1948, Soviet Moscow declared that this would always be the case - the Tatars were recognized as life prisoners and had no right to leave the territory of special settlement camps. Even the Soviet authorities constantly incited hatred for the Crimean Tatars - the locals were told terrible stories that terrible "traitors to the motherland, cyclops and cannibals" were coming to them - from whom they should stay away. According to eyewitnesses, many local Uzbeks then felt the Crimean Tatars to find out if their horns grow?

In 1957, the USSR began to erase all memory of the Crimean Tatar people. By this year, all publications in the Crimean Tatar language were banned, and from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia about the Crimean Tatars - like they never existed.

Crimes without a statute of limitations. instead of an epilogue.

All the time that has happened since the deportation - the Crimean Tatars fought for their right to return to their homeland - constantly reminding the Soviet authorities that such a people exist, and it will not be possible to erase the memory of them. The Tatars held rallies and fought for their rights - and finally, in 1989, they achieved the restoration of their rights, and the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in November 1989 recognized the deportation of the Crimean Tatars illegal and criminal.

As for me, these crimes of the Soviet government do not have a statute of limitations and are no different from the Nazi Holocaust - he also chose an "objectionable people" for himself and tried to destroy both him and all memory of him.

The good thing is that the USSR itself recognized these actions as crimes. The bad thing is that now there has been a turn back - many from Russia are now again looking at Stalin's deeds and shouting "Crimea is ours!" and "we can repeat" - apparently, these are the descendants of those who once built concentration camps for the Crimean Tatars and stood at checkpoints with machine guns ...

Write in the comments what you think about all this.