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The Krymly, also known as the Crimean Tatars, find themselves marginalized by the emerging structures of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), as well as by an historic injustice. An Islamic people with a distinct linguistic and ethnic identity, the Crimean Tatars have struggled to maintain that identity in the face of official opposition. Their deportation from the Crimea to relocation centers as distant as eastern Uzbekistan during the 1940s illustrates part of the gray area between ethnocide and genocide. Presently, their experience endures, as delays in the restoration of their ancestral territories have brought them once more to crisis, this time in a struggle between legislative bodies competing for recognition: a Russian-dominated Supreme Soviet, recognized to administer the Crimea by the Supreme Soviet of Ukraine, versus a Majlis (parliament) set up by the Crimean Tatars to govern their own affairs and administer their home territory. The fate of the Krymly demonstrates the problems that have emerged for non-state nations, particularly in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and in the post-Cold War world more generally.
From the first, the Soviet state had to deal with national aspirations held in check under the Russian empire. Marxism, which broadly dismissed nationalism as a distraction from class conflict, provided little direct guidance. It was left to Lenin and Stalin, in his role as the expert on the "nationality question," to find an answer: a formal (though totally contradictory) recognition of national autonomy for constituent members of the socialist federation. National identity was recognized administratively and in the structure of the Soviet Constitution, while the Communist Party provided the senior personnel and common loyalties to maintain the whole under the direction of Moscow. Constituent nations and peoples of the Soviet Union were promised the right to self-determination (up to and including the right to secession), but in practice, that right was always negated and denied.
Within this general pattern, in 1921, the Crimean Autonomous Republic (Oblast) was established as part of the Russian Federation. The Krymly were recognized as a people and the Crimea was recognized as their home. However, after Soviet troops recaptured the territory from the Germans during the Second World War, Stalin and NKVD (Soviet secret police) director Beria acted to expel the Tatars (as well as Bulgarians, Greeks, and Armenians) from the Crimea.
The operation against the Krymly began in May 1944. In August, Stalin ordered the resettlement of all the Crimean Tatars, and in 1945 the autonomous republic was formally abolished. According to official statistics, 228,392 residents of the Crimea were relocated, of whom over 191,000 were Crimean Tatars. Most deportees were shipped to several locations in Uzbekistan. Official Soviet estimates of the death toll from the deportation stated that 5 percent of the Tatars died in transit. The Krymly lived in, "special settlements" in Uzbekistan, where they were subject to harsh regulation by the state security apparatus. Residents had to register their addresses once a month with an office of the Ministry of Internal Security (MVD). Leaving the settlements required special authorization; any attempt to escape was punishable by 20 years in a labor camp. Even by official figures, over 19 percent of the relocatees died by 1949; the Tatars themselves estimate that 46 percent of their population perished by 1948.
Stalin's atrocities upon the Krymly (and many other peoples) came to light after his death, but there was a curious lack of official support for the resettlement of the Krymly to the Crimea. In part, this may be because in 1954 Khrushchev transferred the Crimean Oblast to the Ukrainian SSR as a present, to mark the 300th anniversary of the "reunification" of Russia and Ukraine. Two years later, when Khrushchev revealed in his "secret speech" the extent of Stalin's crimes, he failed to acknowledge the status of the Krymly.
It was not until 1968 that they were officially rehabilitated, although bureaucratic roadblocks were immediately established to prevent their return home. The Krymly were denied official affiliation with the Crimean Oblast which had previously been the Crimean Autonomous Oblast. No schools would teach in the Crimean language. Travel was restricted by internal passport, which also denied Krymly identity, as the passport would state their national affiliation only as "Tatar, formerly residing in the Crimea."
Only in 1987 did the Soviet government admit that the deportation of the Crimean Tatars had been illegal. When glasnost presented new opportunities, the Krymly were quick to take advantage. Although it usually meant a decline in their conditions, the Krymly began returning to the Crimea in greater numbers. The official Soviet census of 1989 found 271,000 Crimean Tatars, while the Krymly have estimated their own numbers at over 500,000. In any case, by 1991, some 130,000 had returned home, while several hundred thousand remain spread across Russia and Uzbekistan. Because of the forced relocation, and the movement of Russians into the region under Stalin, Crimea remains the only administrative region of Ukraine with a Russian majority. The 1989 census found slightly more than 67 percent of the population to be Russian, with another 26 percent Ukrainian, of whom nearly half reported Russian to be their native language.
In November 1989, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a declaration entitled "On the Recognition of the Illegal and Criminal Nature of the Repression of Peoples Subjected to Forcible Deportation and on the Observance of Their Rights"; the statement was followed a few days later by an instruction to the Council of Ministers to "resolve the practical questions relating to the rights of Soviet Germans and Crimean Tatars." As a result, many of the Russian settlers began searching for a way to institutionalize their position and block an "invasion" of Crimean Tatars. In September 1991, the Crimean Supreme Soviet, dominated by Russians, declared the state sovereignty of the peninsula. Although this act was not justifiable in terms of existing law, and in fact contradicted Soviet law, the Supreme Soviet of Ukraine recognized the existence of this new Crimean Autonomous Republic.
Today, since the collapse of the USSR, the situation is even more complex. A majority of Russian inhabitants of the Crimea support Ukrainian independence, but also wish to retain their autonomy within Ukraine. The status of the peninsula, as well as of the Black Sea fleet stationed there, has emerged as a symbolic and strategic issue between the new states of Russia and Ukraine. The Krymly continue to do what they can to return home, but lack the legal and economic resources. Their return was assisted somewhat in January 1992 when the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers authorized 400 million (1991) rubles to assist the Krymly to return.
In June, hoping to build on the recognition of their status as a nation, the Krymly established their own Majlis, chaired by Mustapha Dzamilev. Ukraine has yet to recognize the authority of the Majlis, however, and the Majlis refuses to recognize the legitimacy of the new autonomous republic or of the ruling Crimean Supreme Soviet. The Russians of the Crimea, with the support of the government of Ukraine, continue to dominate the affairs of the peninsula. The Krymly fear that to accept the Russian-dominated Supreme Soviet would forever condemn them to the status of a powerless minority in their old home.
The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) has addressed the issue in recent months. In late July, a working group of the CIS completed a draft agreement on the rights of deported individuals, national minorities, and peoples. Signed by the members of the Commonwealth, it called for joint action to deal with the social problems associated with deportations and resettlement. The agreement might have been the beginning of the policy for which the Krymly would have been a difficult test case. But the Crimean Supreme Soviet, in reaction, passed a resolution supporting the resettlement of nearly 70,000 Armenians, Greeks, and Germans to the Crimea by the end of the century. And as usual, at the direction of the Russian majority, the Krymly were left out of the deal. Complicating matters, Ukraine left the CIS in early 1993.
The continuing dispute between the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet, the Russian-dominated Supreme Soviet of the Crimea, and the Majlis of the Krymly is symbolic of the status of the Tatars in the Crimea. They persevere, yet they continue to operate at the margins of the system. With limited resources, they are dedicated to retaking their home one household at a time.
Fourth World Bulletin • February 1993
Copyright © 1996 by the Fourth World Center
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