Weltschau

The Crimean Tatars came under direct Russian rule in 1783 and later formed an autonomous region in the USSR from 1921 to 1945 when it was downgraded to a normal oblast within the RSFSR following the 18-20 May 1944 deportation of the Crimean Tatars to Uzbekistan and the Urals. The Crimean Tatars were not allowed to return to their former homeland in significant numbers until 1987. The Crimean ASSR which had functioned as a national autonomy for the Crimean Tatars despite their minority status was never restored.

The Crimean Tatars are a group of Turkic speaking Sunni Muslims that emerged in the Crimean Peninsula during the Middle Ages. They formed a state allied with the Ottoman Empire known as the Crimean Khanate. The Russian Empire successfully severed the ties of the Crimean Khanate to the Ottoman Empire in 1774 and annexed the territory in 1783 under Empress Catherine II. This cleared the way to settle the territory with Russians, Ukrainians, Germans, and other peoples. Crimean Tatars, however, remained a majority of the population of the Crimean Peninsula until after the Crimean War in 1853-1856. In response to Tsarist repression the majority of the Crimean Tatar population then emigrated from the Russian Empire to the Ottoman Empire during the second half of the 19^th Century. A modern secular Crimean Tatar national identification connected to the land of the Crimean Peninsula and the Crimean Tatar language developed in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. The most important figure in this nationalist development was Ismail Gasprali who published the newspaper Terciman. The ideas of Gasprali and people associated with him would later form the basis for creating a modern Crimean Tatar nationalism linked to the territory of the Crimean ASSR.

The Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 greatly changed the position of the Crimean Tatars and other non-Russian nationalities in relationship to the larger Russian population. In 1917-1918 attempts to create a completely independent Crimean Tatar state failed. In 1921 the Crimean ASSR was formed and de facto functioned as a Crimean Tatar national autonomous territory complete with the official recognition of the Crimean Tatar language until 1945. From 1941-1944 the territory came under German rule and a small number of Crimean Tatars served in German organized military units to defend against partisan attacks. These military units served as the official justification for the subsequent Soviet policy of forcibly relocating almost the entire Crimean Tatar population to Uzbekistan and the Urals as special settlers. They were banned from returning to their homeland until near the end of the USSR.

From 18-20 May 1944 the NKVD rounded up and placed over 180,000 Crimean Tatars on train echelons bound east. Most of these deportees, over 150,000, ended up in Uzbekistan. Another 30,000 or so were diverted en route from Uzbekistan to the Urals to be employed in forestry work. The Crimean Tatars received the same legal status as the earlier deported kulaks and ethnic Germans. They could not choose their place of residence and needed special permission from the NKVD to even travel short distances. The material conditions that met the Crimean Tatars in internal exile in Uzbekistan the Urals were extremely substandard. They lacked sufficient housing, warm clothing, adequate medical care, and food. As a result, by 1946 over 25,000 had perished prematurely due to hunger, diseases, and other causes directly stemming from their poor material conditions. In particular malaria killed a large number of Crimean Tatars in Uzbekistan. During the first five years of internal exile more Crimean Tatars died than were born each year. Births did not outnumber deaths among the Crimean Tatars until 1949. They remained under special settlement restrictions until 1956, but were not allowed to return to Crimea until the late 1980s.Their continued exile from their homeland during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s spurred a revived national movement seeking to return to their Crimean homeland. This movement, however, was largely unsuccessful in its primary goal until the late 1980s.

The modern history of the Crimean Tatars saw them participate in the construction of the Crimean ASSR as a Crimean Tatar national territory followed by their forced resettlement in Uzbekistan and the Urals. In 1956 the legal conditions of the Crimean Tatars improved with their release from the special settlement restrictions. But, they remained in internal exile unable to return to Crimea. This sparked a strong national movement to return which had considerable success in the late 1980s and 1990s.