May 18, 1944: The deportation of Crimean Tatars is a painful crime of totalitarianism

 In the spring of 1944, the Soviet authorities returned to the Crimea and immediately resorted to mass repression against categories of the population who showed at least some disobedience to the Stalinist regime during the war. Of course, it should be noted that the crime of collaborationism was committed by representatives of various peoples of the former USSR, and its examples are shameful. But the punishment – especially since it covered the entire nation - went to the "chosen".

According to the principle of "collective responsibility"
The liberation of Crimea from the Nazis and their allies almost immediately took a turn for the worse. On the sixth day after the start of the Crimean offensive, on April 13, 1944, People's Commissar of internal affairs of the USSR L. Beria and People's Commissar of State Security of the USSR V. Merkulov signed an order "On Measures to Clean the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of Anti-Soviet elements." It was primarily about the Crimean Tatars, accused of "treason" and "aiding and abetting the German occupiers." For this purpose, 5,000 operatives of the NKVD and the NKDB of the USSR arrived in the Crimea, at the same time 20,000 soldiers and officers of the NKVD internal troops were involved in the secret operation.
According to the NKVD-NKDB, from April 10 to 27, 1944, 49 members of Muslim committees set up by Crimean Tatars during the war in cooperation with the German occupation administration were arrested, and 5,000,806 "anti-Soviet individuals" were identified. In mid-May, their number increased to 8 thousand 521 people. During the KGB operations, 6,100 combat weapons were seized.
Stalin wanted to use the facts of cooperation of certain representatives of the Crimean Tatar people with the Nazi occupation regime during the war to achieve his own great-power goals. Due to questionable loyalty to the Soviet government, the presence of so-called. "Small" nationalities on the outskirts of the communist state became undesirable, especially - those who had experience of their own state-building. As a result, the entire Crimean Tatar population was threatened with eviction.

The Soviet punitive authorities began preparations for a large-scale operation to evict the Crimean Tatar population from the peninsula long before the top military-political leadership decided to carry it out. A memorandum addressed to the head of the NKVD, L. Beria, dated May 7, 1944, stated: "We consider it possible to complete the preparatory work for the operation on May 18-20, and the entire operation by May 25." On May 10, 1944, the People's Commissar of internal affairs personally reported to Stalin: “Given the treacherous actions of the Crimean Tatars against the Soviet people and the undesirable further residence of Crimean Tatars on the border of the Soviet Union, the NKVD of the USSR submits a draft decision on all evictions. territory of the Crimea. We consider it expedient to resettle Crimean Tatars as special settlers in the regions of the Uzbek SSR for use in work in agriculture - collective farms, state farms, as well as in industry and construction."
On May 11, 1944, the USSR State Defense Committee adopted a historic resolution постано 5859 on the eviction of Crimean Tatars from the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic to the Uzbek SSR. The reason for the deportation was stated in the document: “During the Patriotic War, many Crimean Tatars betrayed the Motherland, deserted from the Red Army units defending Crimea, and sided with the enemy, joined the German-formed volunteer Tatar military units that fought against the army period of occupation of Crimea by Nazi troops, participated in German punitive detachments, Crimean Tatars were especially noted for their brutal massacres of Soviet guerrillas, and helped the German occupiers in organizing the forcible abduction of Soviet guerrillas into German slavery and mass extermination of Soviet people.
Crimea without Crimean Tatars

The NKVD and the KGB of the USSR considered it possible to complete the entire operation to deport the Crimean Tatars ahead of schedule by May 18-20, 1944. According to the schedule, the operation to "detarize" Crimea was to begin on the morning of May 18. However, in some settlements, evictions began late in the evening on May 17.
On May 18, 1944, the People's Commissar of the NKVD of the USSR L. Beria reported to J. Stalin and V. Molotov about the beginning of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars: 90,000 people were prepared for loading into echelons, of which 48,000 were sent east. The next day, a special contingent of 165,000 people was assembled from across the peninsula, of which 136,412 were deported.

On May 20, 1944, deputy people's commissar of internal affairs of the USSR I. Serov and deputy people's commissar of state security of the USSR B. Kobulov in a report to the top party and state leadership summed up the operation - the deportation of Crimean Tatars was completed at 16:00, according to its results 180 thousand people. Within three days, the penal authorities sent more than 70 railway echelons from the peninsula, each of which had 50 carriages, completely filled with displaced persons.
However, the scale of the deportation seemed insufficient to the Stalinist leadership. Therefore, on May 21, 1944, the GKO of the USSR adopted a resolution on the additional resettlement of Crimean Tatars from the Crimea.
Given the number of mobilized by the Main directorate of the Red Army and the special contingent sent to the country's leading industrial facilities, the total number of deported Tatars was 191 thousand 14 people. During the eviction campaign, 1,137 people were arrested "as an anti-Soviet element," and 5,989 people were arrested during the operation. L. Beria ordered his emissaries I. Serov, Sergienko and Fokin to remain in the Crimea and ensure the arrest of those Tatars who were hiding from resettlement: "Comrade. Serov must take into account that in the Crimea, in any case, you can not leave the Tatars, who evade resettlement, and other gangster elements. At the same time, party and Soviet workers in Crimea were evicted.

Later, Crimean Tatars, who inhabited other parts of the country, were sent east. The NKVD of the USSR demanded that the republics testify to the presence of Crimean Tatars on their territories. Researchers name different numbers of Crimean Tatars deported in 1944. According to the latest estimates - about 200 thousand people.

Hard road to the east
The resettlement took place in difficult sanitary and domestic conditions. People were malnourished, leading to high mortality. According to researchers, human losses during the transportation of Crimean Tatars in echelons to the east amounted to 7 thousand 889 people. The certificate on the movement of special settlers of the Crimea in 1944–1946 stated that in the first period 44,887 people died among them, ie 19.6%. As noted in the report from the Uzbek SSR, in 1944 among the special settlers in the republic died 16 thousand 52 people (10%), in 1945 - 13 thousand 183 people (9.8%) of the total number of deportees.

More than two-thirds of the deported Crimean Tatars were sent to the Uzbek SSR: a total of 35,275 Crimean Tatar families were deported. Crimean Tatars also arrived in the Kazakh SSR - 2 thousand 426 people, Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic - 284, Yakut Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic - 93 people, in the Gorky region of Russia - 2 thousand 376 people, and Molotov - 10 thousand, Sverdlovsk - 3 thousand 591 persons, Ivanivska - 548, Kostroma region - 6 thousand 338 people. A significant part of the Crimean Tatars was "transferred for labor use" in mines, factories and buildings.
Most of them did not have basic living and working conditions, many people were ill (from 10% to 40%). As of 1948, 74,997 special settlers from the Crimean Tatar people worked in industry and agriculture.

The crimes continued
According to the resolution of the GKO of the USSR of June 2, 1944, "German textbooks from among the Greeks, Armenians and Bulgarians were expelled from the Crimea simultaneously with the Crimean Tatars." On May 29, 1944, the People's Commissar of the NKVD of the USSR, L. Beria, made proposals for this special operation. Armenians and Bulgarians were accused of active cooperation with the occupiers, Greeks - trade with the Germans. The eviction operation covered both contingents and was carried out within two days - June 27-28, 1944. The NKVD forces forcibly transferred from the Crimea to special settlements in Guryevsk, Molotov, Sverdlovsk, Kemerovo regions and in the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic families of Greeks, Armenians and Bulgarians in the amount of 37 thousand 455 people (including: Greeks - 16 thousand, Armenians - 9 thousand 821, Bulgarians - 12 thousand 628). In total, in May-June 1944, 225,000 people were deported from the Crimea.

The resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR of June 30, 1945 submitted a request to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR to transform the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic into the Crimean region. On the same day, the Presidium of the Verkhovna Rada of the USSR decided to approve the relevant proposal. On June 25, 1946, at a meeting of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, a law was signed approving the liquidation of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Thus, the abolition of the latter was interrelated with the resettlement of Crimean Tatars, Bulgarians, Greeks, Armenians and Germans from the territory of Crimea.
Persons deported from the Crimea were included in the category of special settlers deported for life. The Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR "On Criminal Liability for Escape from the Places of Compulsory Permanent Settlement of Persons Evicted to Remote Areas of the Soviet Union during the Patriotic War" of November 26, 1948 established severe punishment for fleeing a special settlement - 20 years of hard labor.
The regime of special settlements for the repressed peoples of Crimea was abolished only by decrees of the Presidium of the Verkhovna Rada of the USSR of March 27, 1956 (for Crimean Greeks, Bulgarians, Armenians) and April 28, 1956 (for Crimean Tatars). Legislative acts of the highest state authority of the USSR, although providing for the release from administrative supervision of special settlers from the Crimea, but completely deprived them of the right to compensation for property lost during the eviction and prohibited the return to their former places of residence. This ban was formally in force until 1974, and in fact until 1989.

Prepared by Oleksandr Sevastyanov,
associate professor of the department of
international relations and social sciences
(Photos are used from Internet portals "Crimea. Realities", "Espresso TV", "Ukrinform", 5.ua)