Deportation of the Crimean Tatars. how it was

I have a neighbor. Crimean partisan. He went to the mountains in 1943, when he was 16 years old. This document will tell about it better than me.

From the stories of Grigory Vasilyevich:
"In 1942, the Tatars wanted to slaughter the entire Russian population of Yalta. Then the Russians bowed to the Germans so that they would protect them. The Germans gave the command - do not touch ..."
"I don't know a single Tatar who would be in the partisans..."
"On May 18, they told me that I would take the Tatars to Simferopol. I would do it again today ...."
“The Tatars who had taken refuge in the forests after the eviction began to attack individual soldiers. The soldier would go to the bushes to take a pee, and the next day they found him - hung by his legs, and a penis in his mouth ... Then the troops were removed from under Sevastopol and they passed through the chain all the forests of the Crimea. Whoever they found, they shot. The conversation was short. And the sense was great ... "

In general, everything happened like this:

On the eve of the Great Patriotic War, Crimean Tatars made up less than one-fifth of the population of the peninsula. Here are the 1939 census data:
Russians 558481 - 49.6%
Ukrainians 154120 - 13.7%
Tatars 218179 - 19.4%

Nevertheless, the Tatar minority was in no way infringed on their rights in relation to the Russian-speaking population. Rather the opposite. The official languages ​​of the Crimean ASSR were Russian and Tatar. The basis of the administrative division of the Autonomous Republic was the national principle. In 1930, national village councils were created: Russian - 207, Tatar - 144, German - 37, Jewish - 14, Bulgarian - 9, Greek - 8, Ukrainian - 3, Armenian and Estonian - 2 each. In addition, national districts were organized . In all schools, children of national minorities were taught in their native language.

After the start of the Great Patriotic War, many Crimean Tatars were drafted into the Red Army. However, their service was short-lived. As soon as the front approached the Crimea, desertion and surrender among them took on a mass character. It became obvious that the Crimean Tatars were waiting for the arrival of the German army and did not want to fight. The Germans, using the current situation, scattered leaflets from airplanes with promises to “finally solve the issue of their independence” - of course, in the form of a protectorate within the German Empire.

From among the Tatars who had surrendered in the Ukraine and other fronts, cadres of agents were trained, who were thrown into the Crimea to strengthen anti-Soviet, defeatist and pro-fascist agitation. As a result, units of the Red Army, manned by Crimean Tatars, turned out to be unfit for combat, and after the Germans entered the territory of the peninsula, the vast majority of their personnel deserted. Here is what is said about this in the memorandum of the Deputy Commissar of State Security of the USSR B.Z. Kobulov and the Deputy Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR I.A. Serov addressed to L.P. Beria, dated April 22, 1944:

“... All those drafted into the Red Army amounted to 90 thousand people, including 20 thousand Crimean Tatars ... 20 thousand Crimean Tatars deserted in 1941 from the 51st Army during its retreat from the Crimea ...” .

That is, the desertion of the Crimean Tatars was almost universal. This is confirmed by the data for individual settlements. So, in the village of Koush, out of 132 drafted into the Red Army in 1941, 120 deserted.

Then began subservience to the invaders.

Crimean Tatars in the auxiliary troops of the Wehrmacht. February 1942

Eloquent evidence of the German Field Marshal Erich von Manstein: “... the majority of the Tatar population of Crimea was very friendly towards us. We even managed to form armed self-defense companies from Tatars, whose task was to protect their villages from attacks by partisans hiding in the Yayla mountains .... The Tatars immediately sided with us. They saw us as their liberators from the Bolshevik yoke, especially since we respected their religious customs. A Tatar delegation came to me, bringing fruits and beautiful handmade fabrics for the liberator of the Tatars “Adolf Effendi”.

On November 11, 1941, the so-called "Muslim committees" were created in Simferopol and a number of other cities and towns in Crimea. The organization of these committees and their activities took place under the direct supervision of the SS. Subsequently, the leadership of the committees passed to the headquarters of the SD. On the basis of Muslim committees, a “Tatar committee” was created with centralized subordination to the Crimean center in Simferopol with widely developed activities throughout the Crimea.

On January 3, 1942, the first official solemn meeting of the Tatar Committee took place in Simferopol. He welcomed the committee and said that the Fuhrer had accepted the offer of the Tatars to come out in arms to defend their homeland from the Bolsheviks. Tatars who are ready to take up arms will be enrolled in the German Wehrmacht, will be provided with everything and receive a salary on a par with German soldiers.

After the approval of the general events, the Tatars asked permission to end this first solemn meeting - the beginning of the struggle against the atheists - according to their custom, with a prayer, and repeated the following three prayers after their mullah:
1st prayer: for the achievement of an early victory and a common goal, as well as for the health and long life of the Fuhrer Adolf Hitler.
2nd prayer: for the German people and their valiant army.
3rd prayer: for the soldiers of the German Wehrmacht who fell in battle.

Many Tatars were used as guides for punitive detachments. Separate Tatar units were sent to the Kerch front and partly to the Sevastopol sector of the front, where they participated in the battles against the Red Army.

Typically, local "volunteers" were used in one of the following structures:
1. Crimean Tatar formations as part of the German army.
2. Crimean Tatar punitive and security battalions SD.
3. Apparatus of the police and field gendarmerie.
4. Apparatus of prisons and SD camps.

Persons of Tatar nationality who served in the punitive bodies and military units of the enemy were dressed in German uniforms and provided with weapons. Persons who distinguished themselves in their treacherous activities were appointed by the Germans to command posts.

Certificate of the High Command of the German Ground Forces dated March 20, 1942:
“The mood of the Tatars is good. The German authorities are treated with obedience and are proud if they are recognized in the service or outside. The greatest pride for them is to have the right to wear the German uniform.”

A poster calling on the population to join the Waffen-SS. Crimea, 1942

It is also necessary to provide quantitative data on the Crimean Tatars turned out to be among the partisans. On June 1, 1943, there were 262 people in the Crimean partisan detachments, of which 145 were Russians, 67 Ukrainians and 6 Tatars.

After the defeat of the 6th German army of Paulus near Stalingrad, the Feodosia Muslim Committee collected one million rubles from the Tatars to help the German army. Members of Muslim committees in their work were guided by the slogan "Crimea only for the Tatars" and spread rumors about the annexation of Crimea to Turkey.
In 1943, the Turkish emissary Amil Pasha came to Feodosia, who called on the Tatar population to support the activities of the German command.

In Berlin, the Germans created a Tatar national center, whose representatives came to the Crimea in June 1943 to get acquainted with the work of Muslim committees.

In April-May 1944, the Crimean Tatar battalions fought against the Soviet troops liberating the Crimea. So, on April 13, in the area of ​​​​the Islam-Terek station in the east of the Crimean peninsula, three Crimean Tatar battalions acted against units of the 11th Guards Corps, losing only 800 prisoners. The 149th battalion fought stubbornly in the battles for Bakhchisarai.

The remnants of the Crimean Tatar battalions were evacuated by sea. In July 1944, in Hungary, the Tatar Mountain Chasseurs Regiment of the SS was formed from them, which was soon deployed into the 1st Tatar Mountain Chasseurs Brigade. A certain number of Crimean Tatars were transferred to France and included in the reserve battalion of the Volga-Tatar Legion. Others, mostly untrained youth, were assigned to the air defense auxiliaries.

After the liberation of the Crimea by the Soviet troops, the hour of reckoning came.

"By April 25, 1944, the NKVD-NKGB and Smersh NPOs arrested 4,206 people of an anti-Soviet element, of which 430 spies were exposed. agents of German intelligence and counterintelligence agencies, 266 traitors to the Motherland and traitors, 363 accomplices and henchmen of the enemy, as well as members of punitive detachments.

48 members of Muslim committees were arrested, including Izmailov Apas - chairman of the Karasubazar regional Muslim committee, Batalov Balat - chairman of the Muslim committee of Balaklava region, Ableizov Belial - chairman of the Muslim committee of Simeiz region, Aliev Mussa - chairman of the Muslim committee of Zui region.

A significant number of persons from the enemy agents, henchmen and accomplices of the Nazi invaders were identified and arrested.

In the city of Sudak, Umerov Vekir, the chairman of the district Muslim committee, was arrested, who confessed that, on the instructions of the Germans, he organized a volunteer detachment from a kulak-criminal element and waged an active struggle against the partisans.

In 1942, during the landing of our troops in the area of ​​​​the city of Feodosia, Umerov's detachment detained 12 Red Army paratroopers and burned them alive. 30 people were arrested in the case.

In the city of Bakhchisaray, the traitor Abibulaev Jafar, who voluntarily joined the punitive battalion created by the Germans in 1942, was arrested. For his active struggle against Soviet patriots, Abibulaev was appointed commander of a punitive platoon and carried out the execution of civilians who he suspected of being connected with partisans.
Abibulaev was sentenced to death by hanging by the military field court.

In the Dzhankoy region, a group of three Tatars was arrested, who, on the instructions of German intelligence, poisoned 200 gypsies in a gas chamber in March 1942.

As of May 7 this year. 5381 agents of the enemy, traitors to the Motherland, accomplices of the Nazi invaders and other anti-Soviet elements were arrested.

5395 rifles, 337 machine guns, 250 machine guns, 31 mortars and a large number of grenades and rifle cartridges were confiscated illegally stored by the population...

By 1944, more than 20,000 Tatars had deserted from the units of the Red Army, who betrayed their Motherland, went over to the service of the Germans and fought against the Red Army with weapons in their hands ...

Soldier of the Tatar "self-defense" detachment. Winter 1941 - 1942 Crimea.

Taking into account the treacherous actions of the Crimean Tatars against the Soviet people and proceeding from the undesirability of the further residence of the Crimean Tatars on the border outskirts of the Soviet Union, the NKVD of the USSR submits for your consideration a draft decision of the State Defense Committee on the eviction of all Tatars from the territory of Crimea.
We consider it expedient to resettle the Crimean Tatars as special settlers in the regions of the Uzbek SSR for use in work both in agriculture - collective farms, state farms, and in industry and construction. The question of the resettlement of the Tatars in the Uzbek SSR was agreed with the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Uzbekistan Comrade Yusupov.

People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR L. Beria 10.05.44".

The next day, on May 11, 1944, the State Defense Committee adopted Decree No. 5859 on "On the Crimean Tatars":

“During the Patriotic War, many Crimean Tatars betrayed their homeland, deserted from the Red Army units defending the Crimea, and went over to the side of the enemy, joined the volunteer Tatar military units formed by the Germans, who fought against the Red Army; during the occupation of the Crimea by the Nazi troops, participating in the German punitive detachments, the Crimean Tatars were especially distinguished by their brutal reprisals against Soviet partisans, and also helped the German invaders in organizing the forcible deportation of Soviet citizens into German slavery and the mass extermination of Soviet people.

The Crimean Tatars actively cooperated with the German occupation authorities, participating in the so-called “Tatar national committees” organized by German intelligence and were widely used by the Germans to send spies and saboteurs to the rear of the Red Army. The “Tatar National Committees”, in which the White Guard-Tatar emigrants played the main role, with the support of the Crimean Tatars, directed their activities to the persecution and oppression of the non-Tatar population of Crimea and worked to prepare for the forcible secession of Crimea from the Soviet Union with the help of the German armed forces.

Crimean Tatars in German service. Romanian form. Crimea, 1943. Most likely, these are police officers from the Schuma battalion

Considering the foregoing, the State Defense Committee decides:

1. All Tatars must be evicted from the territory of Crimea and settled permanently as special settlers in the regions of the Uzbek SSR. The eviction is to be assigned to the NKVD of the USSR. Oblige the NKVD of the USSR (comrade Beria) to complete the eviction of the Crimean Tatars by June 1, 1944.

2. Establish the following procedure and conditions for eviction:
a) allow special settlers to take with them personal belongings, clothing, household equipment, dishes and food in the amount of up to 500 kilograms per family.

Remaining property, buildings, outbuildings, furniture and household land are taken over by local authorities; all productive and dairy cattle, as well as poultry, are accepted by the People's Commissariat of Meat and Dairy Industry, all agricultural products - by the USSR People's Commissariat of Education, horses and other draft animals - by the USSR People's Commissariat of Agriculture, breeding stock - by the USSR People's Commissariat of State Farms.

Acceptance of livestock, grain, vegetables and other types of agricultural products is carried out with the issuance of exchange receipts for each settlement and each farm.

To instruct the NKVD of the USSR, the People's Commissariat of Agriculture, the People's Commissariat for Meat and Milk Industry, the People's Commissariat of State Farms and the People's Commissariat of Education of the USSR by July 1 of this year. to submit proposals to the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR on the procedure for the return of livestock, poultry, and agricultural products received from them by exchange receipts to special settlers;

b) to organize the reception from the special settlers of the property, livestock, grain and agricultural products left by them in the places of eviction, send a commission of the Council of People's Commissars to the place.

To oblige the People's Commissariat of Agriculture of the USSR, the People's Commissariat of the USSR, the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the USSR, the People's Commissariat of State Farms of the USSR to send the necessary number of workers to the Crimea to ensure the reception of livestock, grain and agricultural products from special settlers;

c) oblige the NKPS to organize the transportation of special settlers from the Crimea to the Uzbek SSR in specially formed echelons according to a schedule drawn up jointly with the NKVD of the USSR. The number of trains, loading stations and destination stations at the request of the NKVD of the USSR. Payments for transportation shall be made according to the tariff for the transportation of prisoners;

d) The People's Commissariat of Health of the USSR to allocate for each echelon with special settlers, within the time limits agreed with the NKVD of the USSR, one doctor and two nurses with an appropriate supply of medicines and provide medical and sanitary care for special settlers on the way; The People's Commissariat of the USSR to provide all echelons with special settlers daily with hot meals and boiling water.

To organize food for special settlers on the way, allocate food to the People's Commissariat of Trade in the amount according to Appendix No. 1.

3. To oblige the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Uzbekistan, comrade Yusupov, the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Uzbek SSR, comrade Abdurakhmanov, and the people's commissar of internal affairs of the Uzbek SSR, comrade Kobulov, until June 1 of this year. to carry out the following measures for the reception and resettlement of special settlers:

a) accept and resettle within the Uzbek SSR 140-160 thousand people of special settlers - Tatars, sent by the NKVD of the USSR from the Crimean ASSR.

Resettlement of special settlers to be carried out in state farm settlements, existing collective farms, subsidiary farms of enterprises and factory settlements for use in agriculture and industry;

b) in the areas of resettlement of special settlers, create commissions consisting of the chairman of the regional executive committee, the secretary of the regional committee and the head of the UNKVD, entrusting these commissions with carrying out all activities related to the reception and accommodation of arriving special settlers;

c) in each area of ​​resettlement of special settlers, organize district troikas consisting of the chairman of the district executive committee, the secretary of the district committee and the head of the RO NKVD, entrusting them with preparing for the accommodation and organizing the reception of arriving special settlers;

d) prepare horse-drawn vehicles for the transportation of special settlers, mobilizing the transport of any enterprises and institutions for this;

e) ensure that incoming special settlers are provided with household plots and assist in the construction of houses with local building materials;

f) organize special commandant's offices of the NKVD in the areas of resettlement of special settlers, attributing their maintenance at the expense of the estimate of the NKVD of the USSR;

g) Central Committee and Council of People's Commissars of the Uzbek SSR by May 20 of this year. submit to the NKVD of the USSR, Comrade Beria, a project for the resettlement of special settlers in regions and districts, indicating the station for unloading echelons.

4 Oblige the Agricultural Bank to issue to special settlers sent to the Uzbek SSR, in their places of settlement, a loan for the construction of houses and for household equipment up to 5,000 rubles per family, with an installment plan of up to 7 years.

5. To oblige the People's Commissariat of the USSR to allocate flour, cereals and vegetables to the Council of People's Commissars of the Uzbek SSR for distribution to special settlers during June-August of this year. monthly in equal amounts, according to Appendix No. 2.

Issuance of flour, cereals and vegetables to special settlers during June-August this year. to produce free of charge, in payment for the agricultural products and livestock accepted from them in the places of eviction.

6. To oblige the NPO to transfer during May-June this year. to reinforce the vehicles of the NKVD troops stationed by garrisons in the areas of resettlement of special settlers - in the Uzbek SSR, the Kazakh SSR and the Kirghiz SSR, "Willis" vehicles - 100 pieces and trucks - 250 pieces that have come out of repair.

7. To oblige Glavneftesnab to allocate and ship until May 20, 1944 to points at the direction of the NKVD of the USSR 400 tons of gasoline, at the disposal of the Council of People's Commissars of the Uzbek SSR - 200 tons.

The supply of motor gasoline is to be carried out at the expense of a uniform reduction in supplies to all other consumers.

8. Oblige Glavsnabless under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR at the expense of any resources to supply the NKPS with 75,000 wagon boards of 2.75 m each, with their delivery before May 15 of this year; transportation of NKPS boards to be carried out by one's own means.

9. Narkomfin of the USSR to release the NKVD of the USSR in May of this year. 30 million rubles from the reserve fund of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR for special events.

Chairman of the State Defense Committee I. Stalin.

Note: The norm for 1 person per month: flour - 8 kg, vegetables - 8 kg and cereals 2 kg

The operation was carried out quickly and decisively. The eviction began on May 18, 1944, and already on May 20, Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR I.A. Serov and Deputy People's Commissar of State Security of the USSR B.Z. Kobulov reported in a telegram addressed to People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR L.P. Beria:

“We are hereby reporting that, launched in accordance with your instructions on May 18 of this year. The operation to evict the Crimean Tatars was completed today, May 20, at 16:00. A total of 180,014 people were evicted, loaded into 67 trains, of which 63 trains numbering 173,287 people. sent to their destinations, the remaining 4 trains will also be sent today.

In addition, the district military commissars of the Crimea mobilized 6,000 Tatars of military age, who, according to the orders of the Main Department of the Red Army, were sent to the cities of Guryev, Rybinsk and Kuibyshev.

Of the 8,000 people of the special contingent sent on your instructions to the Moskovugol trust, 5,000 people. are also made up of Tatars.

Thus, 191,044 persons of Tatar nationality were deported from the Crimean ASSR.

During the eviction of the Tatars, 1137 anti-Soviet elements were arrested, and in total during the operation - 5989 people.
Weapons seized during the eviction: mortars - 10, machine guns - 173, machine guns - 192, rifles - 2650, ammunition - 46,603 pieces.

In total, during the operation, the following were seized: mortars - 49, machine guns - 622, machine guns - 724, rifles - 9888 and ammunition - 326,887 pieces.

There were no incidents during the operation."

Of the 151,720 Crimean Tatars sent to the Uzbek SSR in May 1944, 191 died on the way.
From the moment of deportation to October 1, 1948, 44,887 people from among those evicted from Crimea (Tatars, Bulgarians, Greeks, Armenians and others) died.

As for those few Crimean Tatars who really honestly fought in the Red Army or in partisan detachments, contrary to generally accepted opinion, they were not evicted. About 1,500 Crimean Tatars remain in Crimea

"Secret Field Police No. 647
No. 875/41 Translation to His Highness Herr Hitler!

Allow me to convey to you our heartfelt greetings and our deep gratitude for the liberation of the Crimean Tatars (Muslims), who were languishing under the bloodthirsty Jewish-Communist yoke. We wish you a long life, success and victory for the German Army throughout the world.

The Tatars of the Crimea are ready, at your call, to fight together with the German people's army on any front. At present, in the forests of Crimea there are partisans, Jewish commissars, communists and commanders who did not have time to escape from Crimea.

For the speedy elimination of partisan groups in the Crimea, we earnestly ask you to allow us, as good connoisseurs of the roads and paths of the Crimean forests, to organize from the former "kulaks" who have been groaning for 20 years under the yoke of Jewish-Communist domination, armed detachments led by the German command .

We assure you that in the shortest possible time the partisans in the forests of Crimea will be destroyed to the last man.

We remain devoted to you, and again and again we wish you success in your affairs and a long life.

Long live His Highness, Herr Adolf Hitler!

Long live the heroic, invincible German people's army!

The son of a manufacturer and the grandson of a former urban
heads of the city of Bakhchisaray - A.M. ABLAEV

Simferopol, Sufi 44.

That's right: Sonderführer - SCHUMANS

GA RF
FOUNDATION R-9401 DISCLOSURES 2 CASES 100 SHEETS 390"

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Exactly 70 years ago - on May 11, 1944 - a resolution of the State Committee was issued on the beginning of the Stalinist deportation of the Crimean Tatars in 1944 - the eviction of the indigenous population of the Crimean peninsula to Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan ...

Among the reasons for the deportation of the Crimean Tatars from the Crimea, among other things, was their collaborationism during the Second World War.

Only in the late perestroika years was this deportation recognized as criminal and illegal.

The formally stated reason for the deportation of the Crimean Tatars in 1944 was the complicity with the Germans of a part of the population of Tatar nationality in the period from 1941 to 1944, during the capture of Crimea by German troops.

From the Decree of the State Committee of Defense of the USSR of May 11, 1944, the full list is mentioned - treason, desertion, defection to the side of the fascist enemy, the creation of punitive detachments and participation in brutal reprisals against partisans, the mass extermination of residents, assistance in sending population groups into slavery in Germany , as well as other reasons for the deportation of the Crimean Tatars in 1944, carried out by the Soviet authorities.

Among the Crimean Tatars, 20 thousand people either belonged to police units or were in the service of the Wehrmacht.

Those collaborators who were sent to Germany before the end of the war to create a Tatar SS mountain ranger regiment managed to avoid the Stalinist deportation of the Crimean Tatars from the Crimea. Among the same Tatars who remained in the Crimea, the main part was calculated by the employees of the NKVD and convicted. During the period from April to May 1944, 5,000 accomplices to the German occupiers of various nationalities were arrested and convicted in the Crimea.

The Stalinist deportation of the Crimean Tatars from the Crimea was also subjected to that part of this people who fought on the side of the USSR. In a number of (not so numerous) cases (as a rule, this concerned officers with military awards), Crimean Tatars were not expelled, but they were banned from living in Crimea.

For two years (from 1945 to 1946) 8995 war veterans belonging to the Tatar people were deported. Even that part of the Tatar population that was evacuated from the Crimea to the Soviet rear (and, of course, in relation to which it was impossible to find a single reason for the deportation of the Crimean Tatars in 1944) and could not be involved in collaborationist activities, was deported. The Crimean Tatars, who held leading positions in the Crimean regional committee of the CPSU and the Council of People's Commissars of the KASSR, were no exception. As a reason, the thesis was put forward about the need to replenish the leadership of the authorities in new places.

Carrying out the Stalinist deportation of Crimean Tatars from Crimea, based on national criteria, was typical of political totalitarian regimes. The number of deportations, when only nationality was taken as the basis, in the USSR during the period of Stalin's rule, according to some estimates, is approaching 53.

The operation to deport the Crimean Tatars was planned and organized by the NKVD troops - a total of 32 thousand employees. By May 11, 1944, all clarifications and adjustments were made in the lists of the Crimean Tatar population, their addresses of residence were checked. The secrecy of the operation was the highest. After the preparatory operations, the deportation procedure itself began. It lasted from 18 to 20 May 1944.

Three people - an officer and soldiers - entered the houses early in the morning, read out the reasons for the deportation of the Crimean Tatars in 1944, gave a maximum of half an hour to prepare, then the people who were literally thrown out into the street were gathered in groups and sent to railway stations.

Those who resisted were shot right next to the houses. At the stations, about 170 people were placed in each wagon, and the trains were sent to Central Asia. The road, exhausting and heavy, lasted about two weeks.

Those who managed to take food from home could hardly hold out, the rest died of hunger and diseases caused by transportation conditions. First of all, the elderly and children suffered and died. Those who could not stand the move were thrown off the train or hastily buried near the railway.

From eyewitness accounts:

Official figures sent to report to Stalin confirmed that 183,155 Crimean Tatars had been deported. The Crimean Tatars who fought were sent to the labor armies, and those demobilized after the war were also deported.

During the period of deportation from 1944 to 1945, 46.2% of the Crimean Tatars died. According to the official reports of the Soviet authorities, the death toll reaches 25%, and according to some sources - 15%. The data of the OSB of the UeSSR indicate that 16,052 migrants have died in the six months since the arrival of the echelons.

The main destinations for the trains with the deportees were Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. Also, a part was sent to the Urals, to the Mari ASSR and the Kostroma region. The deportees had to live in barracks, practically not intended for living. Food and water were limited, conditions were almost unbearable, which caused many deaths and illnesses among those who endured the move from the Crimea.

Until 1957, the deportees were subject to a regime of special settlements, when it was forbidden to move further than 7 km from home, and each settler was obliged to report monthly to the commandant of the settlement. Violations were punished extremely strictly, up to long terms of camps, even for unauthorized absence to a neighboring settlement where relatives lived.

Stalin's death did little to change the situation of the deported Crimean Tatar population. All those repressed on a national basis were conditionally divided into those who were allowed to return to the autonomy, and those who were deprived of the right to return to their original places of residence. The so-called policy of "rooting" the exiles in places of forced settlement was carried out. The second group included the Crimean Tatars.

The authorities continued the line of accusing all Crimean Tatars of complicity with the German invaders, which provided a formal basis for banning the return of settlers to Crimea. Until 1974, formally and until 1989 - in fact - Crimean Tatars could not leave their places of exile. As a result, in the 1960s, a broad mass movement arose for the return of rights and the possibility of returning the Crimean Tatars to their historical homeland. Only in the process of "perestroika" for the majority of the deportees did this return become possible.

Stalin's deportation of the Crimean Tatars from Crimea affected both the mood and the demographic situation of Crimea. For a long time, the population of Crimea lived in fear of possible deportation. Added panic expectations and the eviction of the Bulgarians, Armenians and Greeks who lived in the Crimea. Those areas that were inhabited by Crimean Tatars before the deportation were left empty. After returning, most of the Crimean Tatars were settled not in their former places of residence, but in the steppe regions of Crimea, while before their homes were in the mountains and on the southern coast of the peninsula.

In chapter

On the eve of the anniversary of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars, the head of the Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, handed out hundreds of keys to new apartments to the descendants of the exiles, as if once again compensating them for the moral costs of the hardships and suffering they had suffered. But how much can one “pay and repent” if back in Soviet times the country’s authorities paid for the deportation of the Crimean Tatars at least three times?

That's right: the Soviet Union three times compensated the deported Crimean Tatars for their material costs incurred as a result of resettlement in the republics of Central Asia, as well as in Moscow (!), Samara, Guryev and Rybinsk. Only at the disposal of the Moskvougol trust, as follows from a telegram addressed to People's Commissar Lavrenty Beria dated May 20, 1944, 5 thousand "limiters" of Crimean Tatar nationality were sent. The resolution of the State Defense Committee No. 5859 dated May 11, 1944 stipulated that the settlers in the new place would be compensated “according to exchange receipts” for real estate, livestock, poultry and agricultural products received from them in the Crimea. All compensation was paid before March 1, 1946. At the same time, at the new place of residence, each family of migrants was provided with housing - an apartment in the city or a house in the countryside. In other words, the deportees were given money for housing left in Crimea and were immediately provided with new houses and apartments free of charge. But that's not all. In 1989, by decrees of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, as well as the Councils of Ministers of Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, the settlers were compensated for their material costs for the third time. For migrants arriving in Uzbekistan (Crimean Tatars were not deported to Tajikistan, they moved there later and solely of their own free will), the Agricultural Bank provided interest-free loans for household equipment - 50 thousand rubles per family with installments up to 7 years. Also, each migrant was given 8 kilos of flour, 8 kilos of vegetables and 2 kilos of cereals every month free of charge. Recall that it was the summer of 1944, the war was still going on, and in many parts of the country there was hunger.

The cruelty of the Crimean Tatars surprised even the SS

Until now, scientists are arguing how many Crimean Tatars were deported from Crimea, although it seems that there is nothing to argue about - it is enough to study archival documents. In a telegram sent on May 20, 1944 to People's Commissar Lavrenty Beria by his deputy Bogdan Kobulov, these figures are given: 191,044 people were evicted. By the way, this document contains other very interesting figures. Today, there is a lot of talk about the repressions that Crimean Tatars were subjected to en masse, although one can hardly talk about mass character. For the entire "Crimean operation" of 1944, 5989 "anti-Soviet elements of the Crimean Tatar nationality" were arrested. Is this a lot, considering that only in the first two months of the occupation, 20 thousand Crimean Tatars took the oath of allegiance to the Fuhrer? At the same time, during the deportation, 10 mortars, 173 light machine guns, 2650 rifles, 192 machine guns and more than 46 thousand pieces of ammunition were confiscated from the deportees! In total, after the liberation of Crimea, 9888 rifles, 724 machine guns, 622 machine guns and 49 mortars were seized from the Tatars.

The Germans even issued a special circular forbidding Crimean Tatars serving in the SS to independently conduct interrogations

“In January 1942, Hitler issued an order to form the Crimean Tatar units of the SS under the leadership of Obergruppenführer Ohlendorf,” recalled the head of the Crimean partisan movement, writer Georgy Seversky. - Part of the volunteers - 10 thousand fighters - were enrolled in the Wehrmacht, another 5 thousand were accepted into the so-called reserve to replenish the formed combat units. In addition, the village elders gathered another 4,000 people into "detachments to combat partisans." For comparison: about 10 thousand Crimean Tatars went to serve in the Red Army, but most of them deserted from the 51st Army during the retreat from the Crimea.” And either 391 or 598 Crimean Tatars were partisans in Crimea - in fairness it should be noted that 12 of them were nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

The Crimean Tatars served Hitler, as they say, to the conscience. The tragedy of the "Crimean Khatyn" - the Greek village of Laki is well known. On March 23, 1942, Crimean Tatar punishers burned alive several hundred inhabitants of this village, mostly Greeks and Armenians, most of whom were women, children and the elderly. “Partisans who managed to escape from captivity said that the Crimean Tatars, their guards, were distinguished by unheard-of cruelty,” Seversky recalled. “The Germans even issued a special circular forbidding the Crimean Tatars serving in the SS to conduct interrogations on their own, they knew how to torture so cruelly and subtly.” Meanwhile, Mustafa Dzhemilev, who fled to Kyiv, insists: “There have never been traitors among the Crimean Tatars! We have nothing to repent of!” Whom to believe?

Why did the Crimean Tatars move to Tajikistan and not to the Crimea

It is generally accepted that the Tatars were allowed to return to Crimea by General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev - on November 14, 1989, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a declaration on the restoration of the rights of the deported peoples. For this, Gorbachev, who authorized this mass repatriation, is idolized by the Crimean Tatars. In fact, it was not the instigator of “perestroika” who allowed the repatriates to return. Back in 1956, a decree was prepared by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on the restoration of the national autonomy of the Chechens, Ingush, Kalmyks and Karachays - in fact, these peoples were thereby rehabilitated. It was expected that the Crimean Tatars would be pardoned at the same time, but the then Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev initially crossed out the mention of them from the draft decree with his own hand.

Two people worked for the Crimean Tatars - Anastas Mikoyan and Leonid Brezhnev. And they eventually persuaded the Secretary General. So at the end of April 1956, a decree was issued “On lifting restrictions on special settlements from Crimean Tatars, Balkars, Turks - citizens of the USSR, Kurds, Hemshils and members of their families evicted during the Great Patriotic War.” From that moment on, Crimean Tatars were not forbidden to settle anywhere on the territory of the USSR, including in the Crimea. But for some reason, the settlers rushed to Tajikistan, and not to their small homeland. The reason for this was that the leadership of the republic especially favored the Crimean Tatars, providing migrants with a lot of special opportunities. By the way, this explains the fact that today in Crimea more than a third of doctors are Crimean Tatars by nationality. The fact is that in Soviet times there was an unspoken agreement between the Crimean Tatar diaspora and the leadership of Tajikistan that the quota of Crimean Tatars in the Republican Medical Institute would be 90%, while in the Ukrainian Soviet Crimea no one promised Crimean Tatars such preferences.

In general, the deportees were clearly not going to move en masse to Crimea, and the leadership of the USSR decided to encourage them to do so. In August 1965, a large group of Crimean Tatars - mostly communists and war veterans - were invited to the Kremlin. They were received by the chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Anastas Mikoyan, formally the second person in the state after Brezhnev. “Why don’t you return to Crimea?” the Soviet leader asked. “We will return as soon as Moscow declares Crimea a Crimean Tatar national autonomy,” the head of the delegation, Riza Asanov, answered Mikoyan. In general, I found a scythe on a stone: it was ridiculous to turn the peninsula into national autonomy, given that even a tenth of its inhabitants would not have been from the Crimean Tatars. But the leaders of the Tatars rested: if there is no autonomy, there will be no mass return to Crimea. The result is known to all: repatriation was postponed until the end of the 80s.

Sergey MARKOV, political scientist, member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation:

– We have already recognized – at the highest state level – that the expulsion of the Crimean Tatar people was cruel and unfair. The country's leadership expressed its sympathy to all the innocent victims of this expulsion. However, the obvious fact must also be admitted that the reason for the expulsion was valid. The Crimean Tatar SS units committed monstrous atrocities. They killed the elderly, and children, and women. They were killed so brutally that the Germans complained about their atrocities to Berlin. Were the conditions of deportation more cruel than the actions of the Crimean Tatar punishers?

Taken from the BBC website
Some facts are deliberately exaggerated or distorted.

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

This forced eviction of the Tatars, whom the Soviet authorities accused of collaborating with the Nazis, was one of the most rapidly carried out deportations in the history of mankind.

The BBC Ukrainian service prepared a certificate on how the deportation took place and how the Crimean Tatars lived after it.

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. There were Crimean Tatar newspapers, magazines, educational institutions, museums, libraries and theaters in Crimea.

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.

However, in the 1930s, Soviet policy towards the Tatars, as well as towards other nationalities of the USSR, became repressive. First there was the dispossession and eviction of the Tatars to the north of Russia and beyond the Urals. Then forced collectivization and famine of 1932-33. And then - purges of the intelligentsia in 1937-38.

Image copyright Image caption Crimean Tatar State Ensemble "Khaitarma". Moscow, 1935

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 security officials.

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 the deportation, which appeared a week before it began.

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 Union, the Crimea was a strategic springboard in case of a possible conflict with this country, 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 some Tatars really support the Nazis?

According to various sources, between 9,000 and 20,000 Crimean Tatars served in the anti-Soviet combat units formed by the German authorities, writes historian J. 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 detachments because they were captured by the Nazis and wanted to alleviate the inhuman 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?

Image copyright Image caption Spouses in the Urals, 1953

Employees of the NKVD entered the Tatar houses and announced to the owners that they were being evicted from the Crimea because of 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 transported by trucks to railway stations. From there, almost 70 echelons were sent east with tightly closed freight cars, which were crowded with people.

About 8,000 people died during the move, 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.

Image copyright MEMORY.GOV.UA Image caption Mari ASSR. Team at the logging site. 1950

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 vast majority of the Crimean Tatars were moved to the so-called special settlements - surrounded by paramilitary guards, roadblocks and fenced with barbed wire, territories that looked more like labor camps than civilian settlements.

Newcomers were a cheap labor force, and they were used to work in collective farms, state farms and industrial enterprises. In Uzbekistan, they cultivated cotton fields, worked in mines, construction, plants and factories. Among the most difficult works 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 threatened with 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.

Image copyright Image caption

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 if horns were growing on them.

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

The children of immigrants could receive education in Russian or Uzbek, but not in Crimean Tatar. Until 1957, any publication in this language was prohibited. An article about the Crimean Tatars was removed from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (BSE). 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 2.6 thousand inhabitants remained in the Alushta region, and 2.2 thousand in the Balaklava region. 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 authorities 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 the living conditions for them, but did not remove the charges of high treason.

During 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 responded with force and dispersed the rally.

Gradually, the Crimean Tatars managed to expand their rights, but an informal, but no less strict ban on their return to Crimea was in effect until 1989.

Image copyright Image caption Osman Ibrish with his wife Alime. Kibray settlement, Uzbekistan, 1971

A new challenge for the Crimean Tatars was the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014. Some of them left the peninsula under the pressure of persecution. Other Russian authorities have themselves banned entry to Crimea, including the leaders of this people, 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.

Over the next four years, half of all Crimean Tatars who lived in the USSR then 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.

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.