Painting by Rustem Eminov.
By decision of the State Defense Committee of the USSR No. GOKO-5859 dated May 11, 1944 about the eviction of everyone Crimean Tatars from the territory of Crimea, which he personally signed Joseph Stalin, from the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic to Uzbekistan and neighboring areas of Kazakhstan and Tajikistan was resettled over 180 thousand Crimean Tatars. Small groups were also sent to the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and a number of other regions of the RSFSR.
The draft decision of the State Defense Committee was prepared by its member, People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Lavrenty Beria. Deputy People's Commissars of State Security and Internal Affairs were entrusted with leading the deportation operation Bogdan Kobulov And Ivan Serov.
Officially, the deportation of the Crimean Tatars was justified by the facts of their participation in collaborationist formations that acted on the side of Nazi Germany during the Great Patriotic War. Patriotic War.
The decision of the State Defense Committee accused “many Crimean Tatars” of treason, desertion from the Red Army units defending Crimea, going over to the enemy’s side, joining “volunteer Tatar military units” formed by the Germans, participating in German punitive detachments, “brutal reprisals against Soviet partisans”, assistance to the German occupiers “in organizing the forcible abduction of Soviet citizens into German slavery”, cooperation with the German occupation forces, the creation of “Tatar national committees”, the use by the Germans “for the purpose of sending spies and saboteurs to the rear of the Red Army.”
The Crimean Tatars, who were evacuated from Crimea before it was occupied by the Germans and managed to return from evacuation in April-May 1944, were also subject to deportation. They did not live under occupation and could not participate in collaborationist formations.
Deportation operation began early in the morning of May 18 and ended at 16:00 on May 20, 1944. To carry it out, they involved NKVD troops in quantities more than 32 thousand people.
The deportees were given anywhere from a few minutes to half an hour to get ready, after which they were transported by truck to the railway stations. From there, trains under escort were sent to places of exile. According to eyewitnesses, those who resisted or could not go were sometimes shot on the spot.
The transfer to the settlement sites lasted about a month and was accompanied by mass deaths of the deportees. The dead were hastily buried next to the railroad tracks or not buried at all.
According to official data 191 people died along the way. More from 25% to 46.2% of Crimean Tatars died in 1944-1945 from hunger and disease due to lack normal conditions accommodation.
In the Uzbek SSR only for 6 months of 1944, that is, from the moment of arrival until the end of the year, died 16,052 Crimean Tatars (10,6 %).
In 1945-1946, more were exiled to places of deportation 8,995 Crimean Tatars are war veterans.
In 1944-1948, thousands settlements(with the exception of Bakhchisaray, Dzhankoy, Ishuni, Sak and Sudak), the mountains and rivers of the peninsula, the names of which were of Crimean Tatar origin, were.
For 12 years, until 1956, the Crimean Tatars had the status of special settlers, which implied various restrictions on their rights. All special settlers were registered and were required to register with the commandant's offices.
Formally, the special settlers retained their civil rights: they had the right to participate in elections.
Unlike many other deported peoples of the USSR, who returned to their homeland in the late 1950s, the Crimean Tatars were formally deprived of this right until 1974, and in fact - until 1989.
IN November 1989 The Supreme Soviet of the USSR condemned the deportation of the Crimean Tatars and declared it illegal and criminal.
The mass return of people to Crimea began only at the end of Gorbachev’s “perestroika”.
The forced eviction of the Crimean Tatar population took place on May 18, 1944. It was on this day that employees of the punitive body of the NKVD came to Crimean Tatar houses and announced to the owners that because of treason they would be evicted from Crimea. By order of Stalin, hundreds of thousands of families were sent in trains to Central Asia. During the period of forced deportation, about half of the displaced people died, a third of them were children under 14 years of age.
Therefore, Ukrinform infographics dedicated to the Day in memory of the victims of the genocide-deportation of the Crimean Tatar people from Crimea.
Spring 1944: chronology of events
April 8-13 - operation of Soviet troops to expel the Nazi occupiers from the territory of the Crimean Peninsula;
April 22 - in a memo addressed to Lavrentiy Beria, the Crimean Tatars were accused of mass desertion from the ranks of the Red Army;
May 10 - Beria, in a letter to Stalin, proposed to evict the Crimean Tatar population to Uzbekistan, citing accusations of “treacherous actions of the Crimean Tatars against the Soviet people” and “the undesirability of further residence of the Crimean Tatars on the border outskirts Soviet Union»;
May 11 - secret resolution of the State Defense Committee No. 5859ss “On the Crimean Tatars” was adopted. It made unfounded claims against the Crimean Tatar population - such as mass betrayal and mass collaboration - which became the justification for the deportation. In fact, there is no evidence of “mass desertion” of the Crimean Tatars.
“Detatarization” of Crimea by the punitive bodies of the NKVD:
32 thousand NKVD officers were involved in the operation;
deportees were given anywhere from a few minutes to half an hour to get ready;
it was allowed to take with you personal belongings, dishes, household equipment and provisions up to 500 kg per family (in fact, 20-30 kg of things and food);
the Crimean Tatar population was sent in trains under escort to places of exile;
the property abandoned was confiscated by the state.
Number of Crimean Tatar population deported from Crimea:
183 thousand people in the general special settlement;
6 thousand to reserve management camps;
6 thousand in the Gulag;
5 thousand special contingent for the Moscow Coal Trust;
only 200 thousand people.
Also among the adult special settlers were 2,882 Russians, Ukrainians, Gypsies, Karaites and representatives of other nationalities.
Geography of settlement of the Kyryml:
More than 2/3 of the evicted Crimean Tatars were sent to the Uzbek SSR. The first 7 trains with deportees arrived in Uzbekistan on June 1, 1944, the next day - 24; June 5 - 44; June 7 - 54 trains. All of them were sent to Tashkent region - 56 thousand 641, Samarkand region - 31 thousand 604, Andijan region - 19 thousand 773, Fergana region - 16 thousand, Namangan region - 13 thousand 431, Kashkadarya region - 10 thousand, Bukhara region - 4 thousand. Human.
In total, 35 thousand 275 families of Crimean Tatars were deported to the Uzbek SSR.
Crimean Tatars also arrived in the Kazakh SSR - 2 thousand 426 people, the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic - 284, the Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic - 93 people, in the Gorky region of Russia - 2 thousand 376 people, as well as Molotov - 10 thousand, Sverdlovsk - 3 thousand 591 people, Ivankovo region - 548, Kostroma region - 6 thousand 338 people.
According to researchers, human losses during the transport of Crimean Tatars by train to the east amounted to 7,889 people. The certificate on the movement of special settlers in Crimea in 1944-1946 noted that in the first period, 44 thousand 887 people died among them, that is, 19.6%.
Consequences of deportation
The deportation led to catastrophic consequences for the Crimean Tatars in places of exile. A significant number of deportees (estimated from 15 to 46%) died of hunger and disease in the first winter of 1944-45.
As a result of the deportation, the following were confiscated from the Crimean Tatars: more than 80 thousand houses, more than 34 thousand personal houses, about 500 thousand heads of livestock, all supplies of food, seeds, seedlings, pet food, building materials, tens of thousands of tons of agricultural products . 112 personal libraries were liquidated, 646 libraries in primary schools and 221 in secondary schools. In villages, 360 reading rooms ceased to operate, in cities and regional centers - more than 9 thousand schools and 263 clubs. Mosques were closed in Yevpatoria, Bakhchisarai, Sevastopol, Feodosia, Chernomorskoye and in many villages.
Exactly 70 years ago - on May 11, 1944 - the State Committee issued a resolution 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 Crimea, their collaboration during the Second World War was also mentioned.
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 of the Germans by part of the population of Tatar nationality in the period from 1941 to 1944, during the seizure of Crimea by German troops.
From the Resolution of the State Defense Committee of the USSR dated May 11, 1944, it is said that full list- treason, desertion, defection to the side of the fascist enemy, the creation of punitive detachments and participation in brutal reprisals against partisans, mass extermination of residents, assistance in sending groups of the population into slavery in Germany, as well as other reasons for the deportation of the Crimean Tatars in 1944, carried out by the Soviet government .
Among the Crimean Tatars, 20 thousand people either belonged to police detachments or were in service in the Wehrmacht.
Those collaborators who were sent to Germany before the end of the war to create the Tatar SS Mountain Jaeger Regiment managed to avoid Stalin's deportation of the Crimean Tatars from Crimea. Among those Tatars who remained in Crimea, the bulk were identified by NKVD employees and convicted. During the period from April to May 1944, 5,000 accomplices of the German occupiers of various nationalities were arrested and convicted in Crimea.
The part of this people that fought on the side of the USSR was also subjected to Stalin’s deportation of the Crimean Tatars from Crimea. In a number of (not so numerous) cases (as a rule, this affected officers with military awards), Crimean Tatars were not expelled, but a ban was imposed on them from living in the territory of Crimea.
Over two years (from 1945 to 1946), 8,995 war veterans belonging to the Tatar people were deported. Even that part of the Tatar population that was evacuated from Crimea to the Soviet rear (and, of course, for 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 All-Union Communist Party 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 government bodies in new places.
The Stalinist deportation of Crimean Tatars from Crimea, based on national criteria, was characteristic of political totalitarian regimes. The number of deportations, when only nationality was taken as a basis, in the USSR during the reign of Stalin, according to some estimates, is close to 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, and their residential addresses were checked. The secrecy of the operation was the highest. After the preparatory operations, the deportation procedure itself began. It lasted from May 18 to May 20, 1944.
Three people - an officer and soldiers - entered 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 get ready, then the people who were literally thrown out onto the street were collected into groups and sent to railway stations.
Those who resisted were shot right next to their houses. At the stations, about 170 people were placed in each heated carriage, and the trains were sent to Central Asia. The road, exhausting and difficult, lasted about two weeks.
Those who managed to take food from home could barely survive; the rest died from hunger and diseases caused by the transportation conditions. First of all, the elderly and children suffered and died. Those who could not bear the crossing were thrown off the train or hastily buried near the railway.
From the memories of eyewitnesses:
Official data sent to Stalin for reporting confirmed that 183,155 Crimean Tatars were deported. 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 Crimean Tatars died. According to official reports from Soviet authorities, the death toll reaches 25%, and according to some sources - 15%. Data from the OSP of the Ukrainian SSR indicate that in the six months since the arrival of the trains, 16,052 displaced persons died.
The main destinations of the trains with deportees were Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. Also, some were sent to the Urals, the Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and the Kostroma region. The deportees had to live in barracks that were practically not intended for living. Food and water were limited and conditions were almost unbearable, causing many deaths and illnesses among those who survived the move from Crimea.
Until 1957, the deportees were subject to a special settlement regime, when it was prohibited to move further than 7 km from home, and each settler was obliged to report monthly to the commandant of the locality. Violations were punished extremely strictly, up to long terms camps, even for unauthorized absence to a neighboring settlement where relatives lived.
The death of Stalin did little to change the situation of the deported Crimean Tatar population. All those repressed on ethnic grounds 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 places of original residence. The so-called policy of “rooting” 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 aiding the German occupiers, 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 Crimean Tatars to their historical homeland. Only during the process of “perestroika” did this return become possible for the majority of deportees.
Stalin's deportation of 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. They added panic expectations and evictions of Bulgarians, Armenians and Greeks living in Crimea. Those areas that were inhabited by Crimean Tatars before the deportation remained empty. After returning, most of the Crimean Tatars were resettled not to their previous places of residence, but to the steppe regions of Crimea, whereas previously their homes were in the mountains and on the southern coast of the peninsula.
Illustration copyright Getty Image caption Every May, Tatars celebrate the anniversary of the deportation. This year, Russian authorities banned the rally in Simferopol
On May 18-20, 1944, NKVD soldiers, on orders from Moscow, herded almost the entire Tatar population of Crimea to railway cars and sent them towards Uzbekistan in 70 trains.
This is the forced eviction of the Tatars, who Soviet authority accused of collaborating with the Nazis, became 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 Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic as part of the indigenization policy.
In the 1920s, the Tatars were allowed to develop their culture. Crimean Tatar newspapers, magazines were published in Crimea, educational institutions, museums, libraries and theaters.
The Crimean Tatar language, together with Russian, was the official language of the autonomy. It was used by more than 140 village councils.
In the 1920-1930s, Tatars made up 25-30% of the total population of Crimea.
However, in the 1930s, Soviet policy towards the Tatars, as well as other nationalities of the USSR, became repressive.
Illustration copyright hatira.ru Image caption Crimean Tatar State Ensemble "Haitarma". Moscow, 1935First, the dispossession and eviction of the Tatars to the north of Russia and beyond the Urals began. Then came forced collectivization, the Holodomor of 1932-33, and the purges of the intelligentsia in 1937-1938.
This turned many Crimean Tatars against Soviet rule.
When did the deportation take place?
The main phase of the forced relocation occurred over the course of less than three days, beginning at dawn on May 18, 1944 and ending at 16:00 on May 20.
In total, 238.5 thousand people were deported from Crimea - almost the entire Crimean Tatar population.
For this, the NKVD recruited more than 32 thousand fighters.
What caused the deportation?
The official reason for the forced relocation was the accusation of the entire Crimean Tatar people of high treason, “mass extermination of Soviet people” and collaboration - collaboration 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 relocation. 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.
Illustration copyright hatira.ru Image caption Spouses in the Urals, 1953In the USSR's plans, Crimea was a strategic springboard in the event of a possible conflict with Turkey, and Stalin wanted to be safe from possible “saboteurs and traitors,” whom he considered the Tatars.
This theory is supported by the fact that other Muslim ethnic groups were also resettled from the Caucasian regions adjacent to Turkey: Chechens, Ingush, Karachais and Balkars.
Did the Tatars support the Nazis?
Between nine and 20 thousand Crimean Tatars served in the anti-Soviet combat units formed by the German authorities, writes historian Jonathan Otto Pohl.
Some of them sought to protect their villages from Soviet partisans, which, according to the Tatars themselves, often persecuted them based on their nationality.
Other Tatars joined the German forces because they had been captured by the Nazis and wanted to alleviate the harsh conditions in prison 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 German units retreated to Germany. Mostly wives and children who remained on the peninsula were deported.
How did the forced relocation take place?
NKVD employees entered Tatar homes and announced to the owners that because of treason to their homeland they were being evicted from Crimea.
They gave us 15-20 minutes to pack our things. 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.
Illustration copyright memory.gov.ua Image caption Mari ASSR. Crew at the logging site. 1950People were transported by trucks to railway stations. From there, almost 70 trains with tightly closed freight cars, crowded with people, were sent east.
About eight thousand people died during the move, most of whom were children and elderly people. The most common causes of death are thirst and typhus.
Some people, unable to bear the suffering, went crazy. All the property left in Crimea after the Tatars was appropriated by the state.
Where were the Tatars deported?
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 deportation for the Tatars?
In the first three years after the resettlement, according to various estimates, from 20 to 46% of all deportees died from hunger, exhaustion and disease.
Almost half of those who died in the first year were children under 16 years of age.
Due to shortage clean water, poor hygiene and lack medical care Malaria, yellow fever, dysentery and other diseases spread among the deportees.
Illustration copyright hatira.ru Image caption Alime Ilyasova (right) with a friend whose name is unknown. Early 1940sThe new arrivals had no natural immunity against many local diseases.
What status did they have in Uzbekistan?
The vast majority of Crimean Tatars were transported to so-called special settlements - areas surrounded by armed guards, checkpoints and barbed wire that were more reminiscent of labor camps than civilian settlements.
The visitors were cheap labor force, they were used for work on 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 Farhad hydroelectric power station.
In 1948, Moscow recognized the Crimean Tatars as lifelong migrants. Those who left their special settlement without permission from the NKVD, for example to visit relatives, were in danger of 20 years in prison. There were such cases.
Even before the deportation, propaganda incited hatred of the Crimean Tatars among local residents, branding 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 aliens.
After the deportation, some local residents felt the heads of visitors to check that they were not growing horns.
Later, upon learning that the Crimean Tatars were of the same faith as them, the Uzbeks were surprised.
Children of immigrants could receive education in Russian or Uzbek, but not in Crimean Tatar.
By 1957, any publications in Crimean Tatar were prohibited. From Bolshaya Soviet encyclopedia an article about the Crimean Tatars was withdrawn.
This nationality was also prohibited from being included in the passport.
What has changed in Crimea without the Tatars?
After the eviction of the Tatars, as well as Greeks, Bulgarians and Germans 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 previously predominantly Crimean Tatars lived, are deserted.
For example, according to official data, only 2,600 residents remained in the Alushta region, and 2,200 in the Balaklava region. Subsequently, people from Ukraine and Russia began to resettle 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 and 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 Tatars lasted until the era of Khrushchev's de-Stalinization - the second half of the 1950s. Then the Soviet government softened their living conditions, but did not drop the charges of treason.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Tatars fought for their right to return to their historical homeland, including through demonstrations in Uzbek cities.
Illustration copyright hatira.ru Image caption Osman Ibrish with his wife Alime. Settlement of Kibray, Uzbekistan, 1971In 1968, the occasion of one of these actions was Lenin’s birthday. The authorities dispersed the meeting.
Gradually, the Crimean Tatars managed to achieve expansion of their rights, however, an informal, but no less strict ban on their return to Crimea was in effect 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 Crimea was difficult and was accompanied by land conflicts with local residents who managed to get used to the new land. Major confrontations were nevertheless 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.
The Russian authorities themselves banned others from entering Crimea, including Crimean Tatar leaders Mustafa Dzhemilev and Refat Chubarov.
Does deportation have signs of genocide?
Some researchers and dissidents believe that the deportation of the Tatars meets the UN definition of genocide.
They argue that the Soviet government intended to destroy the Crimean Tatars as an ethnic group and deliberately pursued this goal.
In 2006, the Kurultai of the Crimean Tatar people appealed to the Verkhovna Rada with a request to recognize the deportation as genocide.
Despite this, most historical works and diplomatic documents now call the forced resettlement of the Crimean Tatars deportation, not genocide.
In the Soviet Union they used the term "resettlement".
On the eve of the war, Crimean Tatars made up less than one-fifth of the peninsula's population. Here are the 1939 census data (*1):
Nevertheless, the Tatar minority was not at all infringed upon in its rights in relation to the “Russian-speaking” population. Quite the opposite. State languages The Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was Russian and Tatar. The administrative division of the autonomous republic was based on 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 1930, there were 7 such districts: 5 Tatar (Sudak, Alushta, Bakhchisaray, Yalta and Balaklava), 1 German (Biyuk-Onlarsky, later Telmansky) and 1 Jewish (Freidorf) (*2). In all schools, children of national minorities studied 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. Let us quote the memorandum of the deputy. People's Commissar of State Security of the USSR B.Z. Kobulov and deputy. People's 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 Crimea..." (*3).
Thus, the desertion of the Crimean Tatars from the Red Army was almost universal. This is confirmed by data for individual settlements. Thus, in the village of Koush, out of 132 people called up in 1941, 120 people deserted to the Red Army (*4).
Then began serving the German occupiers.
"From the very first days of their arrival, the Germans, relying on the Tatar nationalists, without openly robbing their property, as they did with the Russian population, tried to ensure good attitude to the local population“(*5),” wrote the head of the 5th partisan region, Krasnikov.
Already in December 1941, the German command began organizing the so-called “Muslim committees”. Under the leadership of the Germans, armed “self-defense” units began to form. Many Tatars were used as conductors of punitive detachments against partisans. Separate detachments were sent to the Kerch Front and partially to the Sevastopol sector of the front, where they took part in battles against the Red Army. But most of all they became famous for their massacres of civilians.
Here it is appropriate to recall one of the main arguments of the defenders of “repressed peoples”:
"The accusation of treason, actually committed by certain groups of Crimean Tatars, was unreasonably extended to the entire Crimean Tatar people" (*6).
They say that not all Tatars served the Germans, but only “separate groups,” while others were partisans at that time. However, there was also an anti-Hitler underground in Germany, so should we now count the Germans among our allies in World War II? Let's look at specific numbers.
Let us turn to the data of N.F. Bugai himself:
"According to approximate data, the units of the German army stationed in Crimea consisted of more than 20 thousand Crimean Tatars" (*7).
That is, taking into account the information given in the note by Kobulov and Serov cited above, almost the entire Crimean Tatar population is of military age. It is significant that this unseemly circumstance is actually recognized in a very characteristic publication (“ The book constitutes the documentary historical basis of the ongoing Russian Federation measures for the rehabilitation of abused and punished peoples" (*8)).
How many Crimean Tatars were among the partisans? On June 1, 1943 in the Crimean partisan detachments there were 262 people, of which 145 were Russians, 67 Ukrainians and... 6 Tatars (*9). On January 15, 1944, according to the party archive of the Crimean Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, there were 3,733 partisans in Crimea, of which 1,944 were Russians, 348 were Ukrainians, and 598 Tatars (*10). Finally, according to a certificate on the party, national and age composition of the Crimean partisans as of April 1944, among the partisans there were: Russians - 2075, Tatars - 391, Ukrainians - 356, Belarusians - 71, others - 754 (*11).
So, even if we take the maximum of the given figures - 598, then the ratio of Tatars in the German army and in the partisans will be more than 30 to 1.
It is also very interesting to read the newspaper "Azat Crimea" ("Liberated Crimea"), published in occupied Crimea from 1942 to 1944. Here are some typical excerpts (* 12):
03/03/1942
After our German brothers crossed the historical ditch at the gates of Perekop, the great sun of freedom and happiness rose for the peoples of Crimea.
03/10/1942
Alushta. At a meeting organized by the Muslim Committee, Muslims expressed their gratitude to the Great Fuhrer Adolf Hitler Effendi for the free life he granted to the Muslim people. Then they held a service for the preservation of life and health for many years to Adolf Hitler Effendi.
In the same issue:
To the great Hitler - liberator of all peoples and religions! 2 thousand Tatar village. Kokkozy (now the village of Sokolinoe, Bakhchisaray district) and surrounding areas gathered for a prayer service... in honor of the German soldiers. We made a prayer to the German martyrs of the war... The entire Tatar people prays every minute and asks Allah to grant the Germans victory over the whole world. Oh, great leader, we tell you with all our hearts, with all our being, believe us! We, Tatars, give our word to fight the herd of Jews and Bolsheviks together with German soldiers in the same ranks!.. May God thank you, our great Master Hitler!
03/20/1942
Together with the glorious German brothers who arrived in time to liberate the world of the East, we, the Crimean Tatars, declare to the whole world that we have not forgotten the solemn promises of Churchill in Washington, his desire to revive Jewish power in Palestine, his desire to destroy Turkey, seize Istanbul and the Dardanelles , raise an uprising in Turkey and Afghanistan, etc. and so on. The East is waiting for its liberator not from lying democrats and swindlers, but from the National Socialist Party and from the liberator Adolf Hitler. We took an oath to make sacrifices for such a sacred and brilliant task.
04/10/1942
From a message to A. Hitler, received at a prayer service by more than 500 Muslims in the city of Karasubazar.
Our liberator! It is only thanks to you, your help and thanks to the courage and dedication of your troops that we were able to open our houses of worship and perform prayer services 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, volunteering to join the ranks German troops, hand in hand with your troops, fight against the enemy to the last drop of blood. Your victory is a victory for the entire Muslim world. We pray to God for the health of your troops and ask God to give you, the great liberator of nations, long years life. You are now a liberator, the leader of the Muslim world - gases Adolf Hitler.
In the same room.
Liberator of oppressed peoples, son of the German people, Adolf Hitler.
We, Muslims, with the arrival of valiant sons in Crimea Greater Germany with your blessing and in memory of long-term friendship, we stood shoulder to shoulder with the German people, took up arms and began to fight to the last drop of blood for the great things you put forward universal ideas- the destruction of the red Jewish-Bolshevik plague to the end and without a trace.
Our ancestors came from the East, and we waited for liberation from there, but today we are witnesses 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 from the west. This sun is you, our great friend and leader, with your mighty German people.
Presidium of the Muslim Committee.
As we see, Gorbachev, with his notorious “universal human values,” had a worthy predecessor.
After the liberation of Crimea Soviet troops the hour of reckoning has arrived.
Comrade Stalin I.V. (* 13)
May 10, 1944
The NKVD and NKGB bodies are carrying out work in Crimea to identify and seize enemy agents, traitors to the Motherland, accomplices of the Nazi occupiers and other anti-Soviet elements.
Weapons illegally stored by the population included 5,995 rifles, 337 machine guns, 250 machine guns, 31 mortars and a large number of grenades and rifle cartridges...
By 1944, over 20 thousand Tatars had deserted from the Red Army units, betrayed their Motherland, went into the service of the Germans and fought against the Red Army with arms in hand...
Considering the treacherous actions of the Crimean Tatars against the Soviet people and based on the undesirability of 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 advisable 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 issue of settling the Tatars in the Uzbek SSR was agreed upon with the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Uzbekistan, Comrade Yusupov.
According to preliminary data, there are currently 140-160 thousand Tatar population in Crimea. The eviction operation will begin on May 20-21 and end on June 1. At the same time, I present a draft resolution of the State Defense Committee and ask for your decision.
People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR
L. Beria
Project
Resolution
State Defense Committee(*14)
May 1944
The State Defense Committee decides:
1. All Tatars should be evicted from the territory of Crimea and settled permanently as special settlers in the regions of the Uzbek SSR. Entrust the eviction to the NKVD of the USSR. Oblige the NKVD of the USSR (Comrade Beria) to complete the eviction of the Crimean Tatars before 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 an amount of up to 500 kg per family.
Property, buildings, outbuildings, furniture and personal lands remaining on site are accepted local authorities authorities; all productive and dairy cattle, as well as poultry, are accepted by the People's Commissariat of Meat and Milk Industry; all agricultural products - by the People's Commissariat of the USSR; horses and other draft animals - by the People's Commissariat of Meat of the USSR; breeding stock - by the People's Commissariat of State Farm of the USSR.
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 entrust the NKVD of the USSR, the People's Commissariat for Agriculture, the People's Commissariat of Meat and Milk Industry, the People's Commissariat for State Farm and the People's Commissariat for Transport of the USSR from July 1 of this year. submit to the Council of People's Commissars proposals on the procedure for returning livestock received from them to special settlers using exchange receipts, poultry, agricultural products.
b) To organize the reception of the property, livestock, grain and agricultural products left by special settlers in the places of eviction, send to the site a commission of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, consisting of: the chairman of the commission, Comrade. Gritsenko (Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR) and members of the commission - Comrade. Krestyaninov (member of the board of the People's Commissariat of Agriculture of the USSR), comrade. Nadyarnykh (member of the board of NKM and MP), comrade. Pustovalov (member of the board of the People's Commissariat of Transport of the USSR), comrade. Kabanova (Deputy People's Commissar of State Farms of the USSR), Comrade. Gusev (member of the board of the USSR Narkomfin).
Oblige the People's Commissariat of Agriculture of the USSR (comrade Benediktova), the People's Commissariat of the USSR (comrade Subbotina), the NKP and MP (comrade Smirnova), the People's Commissariat of State Farm of the USSR (comrade Lobanova) to send livestock, grain and agricultural products from special settlers (in agreement with comrade. Gritsenko) to Crimea the required number of workers.
c) Oblige the NKPS (Comrade Kaganovich) to organize the transportation of special settlers from Crimea to the Uzbek SSR by specially formed trains according to a schedule drawn up jointly with the NKVD of the USSR. Number of trains, loading stations and destination stations at the request of the NKVD of the USSR. Payments for transportation are made according to the tariff for transportation of prisoners.
d) The People's Commissariat of Health of the USSR (comrade Miterev) allocates one doctor and two nurses with an appropriate supply of medicines for each train with special settlers, in a timely manner in agreement with the NKVD of the USSR, and provides medical and sanitary care for special settlers en route.
e) The People's Commissariat of Trade of the USSR (Comrade Lyubimov) provide all trains with special settlers with hot meals and boiling water every day. To organize food for special settlers on the way, allocate food to the People's Commissariat of Trade...
3. Oblige the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Uzbekistan, Comrade. Yusupov, Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the UzSSR Comrade. Abdurakhmanov and People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Uzbek USSR comrade. Kobulova until July 1 this year. carry out the following activities for the reception and resettlement of special settlers:
a) Accept and resettle within the Uzbek SSR 140-160 thousand people of special Tatar settlers sent by the NKVD of the USSR from the Crimean ASSR.
The resettlement of special settlers will be carried out in state farm villages, existing collective farms, subsidiary agricultural farms of enterprises and factory villages 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 NKVD, entrusting these commissions with carrying out all activities related to the direct placement of arriving special settlers.
c) Prepare vehicles for transporting special settlers, mobilizing for this purpose the transport of any enterprises and institutions.
d) Ensure that arriving special settlers are provided with personal plots and provide assistance in the construction of houses with local building materials.
e) Organize special commandant's offices of the NKVD in the areas of resettlement of special settlers, attributing their maintenance to the budget of the NKVD of the USSR.
f) Central Committee and Council of People's Commissars of the UzSSR by May 20 of this year. submit to the NKVD of the USSR comrade. Beria's project for the resettlement of special settlers in regions and districts, indicating train unloading stations.
4. Oblige the Agricultural Bank (comrade Kravtsova) to issue special settlers sent to the Uzbek SSR in the places of their resettlement a loan for the construction of houses and for economic establishment of up to 5,000 rubles per family with installments of up to 7 years.
5. Oblige the People's Commissariat of the USSR (Comrade Subbotin) 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 quantities... Distribution of flour, cereals and vegetables to special settlers during June-August of this year. produce free of charge, in exchange for agricultural products and livestock taken from them in the places of eviction.
6. Oblige the NPO (comrade Khrulev) to transfer during May-July this year. to strengthen the vehicles of the NKVD troops garrisoned in the areas of resettlement of special settlers in the Uzbek SSR, Kazakh SSR and Kyrgyz SSR, there were 100 Willys vehicles and 250 trucks that were out of repair.
7. Oblige Glavneftesnab (comrade Shirokova) to allocate and ship before May 20, 1944 to points at the direction of the NKVD of the USSR 400 tons of gasoline and to the disposal of the Council of People's Commissars of the Uzbek SSR - 200 tons. Deliveries of gasoline should be made by uniformly reducing supplies to all other consumers.
8. Oblige Glavsnables of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR (comrade Lopukhov), through the sale of resources, to supply NKPS with 75,000 carriage planks, 2.75 m each, with their delivery before May 15 of this year; Transportation of NKPS boards must be carried out using your own means.
9. The People's Commissariat of Finance of the USSR (Comrade Zverev) to release the NKVD of the USSR in May of this year. from the reserve fund of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR for special events 30 million rubles.
Chairman of the State Defense Committee
I.Stalin
On April 2 and May 11, 1944, the State Defense Committee adopted resolutions No. 5943ss and No. 5859ss on the eviction of the Crimean Tatars from the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic to the Uzbek SSR (*15). The operation was carried out quickly and decisively. The eviction began on May 18, and already on May 20, Serov and Kobulov reported:
Telegram addressed to the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR L.P. Beria (*16)
May 20, 1944
We hereby report that started 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 numbered 173,287 people. sent to their destinations, the remaining 4 echelons will also be sent today.
In addition, the district military commissars of Crimea mobilized 6,000 Tatars of military age, who, according to the orders of the Head of the Red Army, were sent to the cities of Guryev, Rybinsk and Kuibyshev.
Of the number of 8,000 special contingent people sent at your direction to the Moskovugol trust, 5,000 people. are also Tatars.
Thus, 191,044 persons of Tatar nationality were removed from the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.
During the eviction of the Tatars, 1,137 anti-Soviet elements were arrested, and in total during the operation - 5,989 people.
Weapons seized during the eviction: 10 mortars, 173 machine guns, 192 machine guns, 2650 rifles, 46,603 ammunition.
In total, during the operation the following were confiscated: 49 mortars, 622 machine guns, 724 machine guns, 9888 rifles and 326,887 ammunition.
There were no incidents during the operation.
Serov
Kobulov
In addition to the Tatars, Bulgarians, Greeks, Armenians and persons of foreign citizenship were evicted from Crimea. The need for this step was justified by the following document:
I.V.Stalin (*17)
May 29, 1944
After the eviction of the Crimean Tatars in Crimea, work continues to identify and seize the anti-Soviet element, combing, etc. by the NKVD of the USSR. On the territory of Crimea, 12,075 Bulgarians, 14,300 Greeks, and 9,919 Armenians are counted.
The Bulgarian population lives mostly in settlements between Simferopol and Feodosia, as well as in the Dzhankoy region. There are up to 10 village councils with a population of 80 to 100 Bulgarian residents each.
During the period of the German occupation, a significant part of the Bulgarian population actively participated in the activities carried out by the Germans to procure bread and food products for German army, assisted the German military authorities in identifying and detaining Red Army soldiers and Soviet partisans, and received “safety certificates” from the German command.
The Germans organized police detachments from Bulgarians, and also carried out recruitment among the Bulgarian population to send them to work in Germany.
The Greek population lives in most areas of Crimea. A significant part of the Greeks, especially in coastal cities, took up trade and small industry with the arrival of the invaders. The German authorities assisted the Greeks in trade, transportation of goods, etc.
The Armenian population lives in most regions of Crimea. There are no large settlements with an Armenian population. The Armenian Committee, organized by the Germans, actively collaborated with the Germans and carried out a lot of anti-Soviet work.
In the mountains In Simferopol, there was a German intelligence organization "Dromedar", headed by the former Dashnak general Dro, who led intelligence work against the Red Army and for these purposes created several Armenian committees for espionage and subversive work in the rear of the Red Army and to facilitate the organization of volunteer Armenian legions.
Armenian national committees, with the active participation of emigrants arriving from Berlin and Istanbul, carried out work to promote “independent Armenia.”
There were so-called “Armenian religious communities”, which, in addition to religious and political issues, were involved in organizing trade and small industry among the Armenians. These organizations provided assistance to the Germans, especially “by collecting funds” for Germany’s military needs.
Armenian organizations formed the so-called “Armenian Legion”, which was maintained at the expense of the Armenian communities.
The NKVD considers it expedient to evict all Bulgarians, Greeks, and Armenians from the territory of Crimea.
L. Beria
Summing up the results of the eviction operations from Crimea, Beria reported to Stalin:
State Defense Committee
Comrade Stalin I.V. (*18) July 5, 1944
In pursuance of your instructions, the NKVD-NKGB of the USSR, from April to July 1944, cleared the territory of Crimea from the anti-Soviet spy element, and Crimean Tatars, Bulgarians, Greeks, Armenians and persons of foreign nationality were evicted to the eastern regions of the Soviet Union. As a result of the measures, 7,883 anti-Soviet elements were confiscated, 998 spies were seized, special forces were evicted - 225,009 people, 15,990 weapons were confiscated illegally from the population, including 716 machine guns, and 5 million pieces of ammunition.
23,000 soldiers and officers of the NKVD troops and up to 9,000 operational personnel of the NKVD-NKGB took part in the operations in Crimea.
L. Beria
According to generally accepted opinion, all Crimean Tatars, without exception, were subject to eviction, including those who honestly fought in the Red Army or in partisan detachments. Actually this is not the case:
"Members of the Crimean underground who operated behind enemy lines and members of their families were also exempted from the status of “special settler.” Thus, the family of S.S. Useinov, who was in Simferopol during the occupation of Crimea, was released from December 1942 to March 1943, was a member of an underground patriotic group, then was arrested by the Nazis and shot. Family members were allowed to live in Simferopol"(*19).
"... Crimean Tatar front-line soldiers immediately asked to release their relatives from special settlements. Such appeals were sent by the deputy commander of the 2nd aviation squadron of the 1st fighter aviation regiment of the Higher Air Combat Officer School, Captain E.U. Chalbash, Major armored forces Kh. Chalbash and many others... Often requests of this nature were satisfied, in particular, the family of E. Chalbash was allowed to live in the Kherson region" (*20).
Women who married Russians were also exempt from eviction:
Report addressed to the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR L.P. Beria(*21) August 1, 1944
During the resettlement from Crimea, there were cases of eviction of women of Tatar, Armenian, Greek and Bulgarian nationality, whose husbands were Russian by nationality and were left to live in Crimea or were in the Red Army.
We consider it advisable to release such women from the special settlement if there is no incriminating information on them.
We ask for your guidance.
V. Chernyshov
M.M.Kuznetsov
In conclusion, let's give one more quote: " The Black Sea Greeks were evicted, but the Azov Greeks were left behind. Armenians were deported from Crimea, but the Republic of Armenia was not liquidated. Actually, there was no anti-Tatar, anti-Armenian, anti-Greek propaganda, as the fascists did with their racial theory and their ethnocratic accomplices. The Stalinist regime proceeded from its own ideas about national security and geostrategic interests of the country"(*22). Let us add that, based on these ideas, the “Stalinist regime” was able to win the war against the strongest enemy, to defend the independence and territorial integrity of our country.
Notes
1. Crimea is multinational. Questions and answers. Vol. 1. / Comp. N.G. Stepanova. Simferopol: Tavria, 1988. P.72.
2. Ibid. P.66.
3. Joseph Stalin to Lavrentiy Beria: “They must be deported...”: Documents, facts, comments / Comp. N.F.Bugai. M.: Friendship of Peoples, 1992. P.131.
4. Archive of the Institute Russian history RAS (IRIRAN). F.2. Section VI. Op.13. D.26. L.5. Quote by: Bugai N.F. L. Beria - I. Stalin: According to your instructions... M.: "AIRO-XX", 1995. P.148.
5. IRIRAN Archive. F.2. Section VI. Op.13. D.31. L.6. Quote by: Bugai N.F. L. Beria to I. Stalin: According to your instructions... P.145.
6. “Loaded into trains and sent to places of settlement...”. L. Beria - I. Stalin. Compiled by N.F. Bugai // History of the USSR. 1991, no. 1. P.160.
7. Bugai N.F. L. Beria to I. Stalin: According to your instructions... P.146.
8. Ibid. C.2.
9. Crimea is multinational. Questions and answers. Vol. 1. P.80.
10. Ibid.
11. IRIRAN Archive. F.2. Section 2. Op.10. D.51b. L.3, 13. Quoted. by: Bugai N.F. L. Beria to I. Stalin: According to your instructions... P.146.
12. National policy of Russia: history and modernity. M.: Russian World. 1997. pp. 318-320.
13. Deportation. Beria reports to Stalin... // Communist. 1991, no. 3. P.107.
14. Joseph Stalin to Lavrentiy Beria: “They must be deported...”: Documents, facts, comments. P.134-137.
15. Bugai N.F. L. Beria to I. Stalin: According to your instructions... P. 150-151.
16. Joseph Stalin to Lavrentiy Beria: “They must be deported...”: Documents, facts, comments. P.138-139.
17. GARF. F.R-9401. Op.2. D.65. L.162-163. Quote from: Joseph Stalin to Lavrentiy Beria: “They must be deported...”: Documents, facts, comments. P.140-142.
18. GARF. F.R.-9401. Op.2. D.65. L.271-272. Quote from: Joseph Stalin to Lavrentiy Beria: “They must be deported...”: Documents, facts, comments. P.144.
19. Bugai N.F. L. Beria - I. Stalin: According to your instructions... P.156.
20. Ibid. P.156-157.
21. Joseph Stalin to Lavrentiy Beria: “They must be deported...”: Documents, facts, comments. P.145.
22. National policy of Russia: history and modernity. P.320.
