April May 1944 Crimean Tatars place of deportation. Deportation of Crimean Tatars: Figures and Facts

The deportation of the Crimean Tatars in the last year of the Great Patriotic War was a mass eviction of local residents of Crimea to a number of regions of the Uzbek SSR, the Kazakh SSR, the Mari ASSR and other republics of the Soviet Union. This happened immediately after the liberation of the peninsula from the Nazi invaders. The official reason for the action was the criminal assistance of many thousands of Tatars to the occupiers.

Crimean collaborators

The eviction was carried out under the control of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs in May 1944. The order to deport the Tatars, allegedly members of the collaborationist groups during the occupation of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, was signed by Stalin shortly before that, on May 11th. Beria substantiated the reasons:

Desertion of 20 thousand Tatars from the army during the period 1941-1944; - the unreliability of the Crimean population, especially pronounced in the border areas; - a threat to the security of the Soviet Union due to collaborationist actions and anti-Soviet sentiments of the Crimean Tatars; - the deportation of 50 thousand civilians to Germany with the assistance of the Crimean Tatar committees.

In May 1944, the government of the Soviet Union did not yet have all the figures regarding the real situation in the Crimea. After the defeat of Hitler and the calculation of losses, it became known that 85.5 thousand newly minted "slaves" of the Third Reich were actually stolen to Germany only from among the civilian population of Crimea.

Almost 72 thousand were executed with the direct participation of the so-called "Noise". Schuma - auxiliary police, but in fact - punitive Crimean Tatar battalions, subordinate to the Nazis. Of these 72,000, 15,000 communists were brutally tortured in the largest concentration camp in Crimea, the former Krasnoy collective farm.

Main allegations

After the retreat, the Nazis took part of the collaborators with them to Germany. Subsequently, a special SS regiment was formed from among them. The other part (5,381 people) were arrested by the security officers after the liberation of the peninsula. Many weapons were seized during the arrests. The government was afraid of an armed rebellion of the Tatars because of their proximity to Turkey (the latter Hitler hoped to draw into the war with the communists).

According to the research of the Russian scientist, professor of history Oleg Romanko, during the war years, 35,000 Crimean Tatars helped the Nazis in one way or another: they served in the German police, participated in executions, handed over communists, etc. For this, even distant relatives of traitors were supposed to be exiled and confiscate property.

The main argument in favor of the rehabilitation of the Crimean Tatar population and its return to their historical homeland was that the deportation was actually carried out not on the basis of the real deeds of specific people, but on a national basis.

Even those who did not contribute to the Nazis were sent into exile. At the same time, 15% of Tatar men fought alongside other Soviet citizens in the Red Army. In the partisan detachments, 16% were Tatars. Their families were also deported. Stalin's fears that the Crimean Tatars might succumb to pro-Turkish sentiments, revolt and end up on the side of the enemy were reflected in this mass character.

The government wanted to eliminate the threat from the south as quickly as possible. The eviction was carried out urgently, in freight cars. On the way, many died due to crowding, lack of food and drinking water. In total, about 190 thousand Tatars were deported from Crimea during the war. 191 Tatars died during transportation. Another 16 thousand died in new places of residence from mass starvation in 1946-1947.

Painting by Rustem Eminov.

By decision of the USSR State Defense Committee No. GOKO-5859 dated May 11, 1944 on the eviction of all Crimean Tatars from the territory of Crimea, which he personally signed Joseph Stalin, from the Crimean ASSR to Uzbekistan and neighboring regions of Kazakhstan and Tajikistan were resettled over 180 thousand Crimean Tatars. Small groups were also sent to the Mari ASSR and a number of other regions of the RSFSR.

The draft decision of the GKO was prepared by its member, People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Lavrenty Beria. The deputies of the people's commissars for state security and internal affairs were entrusted to lead the deportation operation. Bogdan Kobulov and Ivan Serov.

Officially, the deportation of the Crimean Tatars was justified by the facts of their participation in the collaborationist formations that acted on the side of Nazi Germany during the Great Patriotic War.

The decision of the State Defense Committee accused “many Crimean Tatars” of treason, desertion from the Red Army units defending Crimea, defecting to the enemy, joining the “volunteer Tatar military units” formed by the Germans, participating in German punitive detachments, “atrocious reprisals against the Soviet partisans”, assistance to the German occupiers “in organizing the forcible deportation 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 were also subjected to deportations, who were evacuated from the Crimea before it was occupied by the Germans and managed to return from the evacuation in April-May 1944. They did not live in the occupation and could not participate in collaborationist formations.

deportation operation began early in the morning on May 18 and ended at 16:00 on May 20, 1944. For its implementation were involved NKVD troops more than 32 thousand people.

The deportees were given from several minutes to half an hour to collect, after which they were transported by trucks to the railway stations. From there, trains under escort went to places of exile. According to eyewitnesses, those who resisted or could not walk were sometimes shot on the spot.

The transfer to the places of settlement 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 on the way. More from 25% to 46.2% of Crimean Tatars died in 1944-1945 from hunger and disease due to the lack of normal living conditions.

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 the places of deportation. 8,995 Crimean Tatars are war veterans.

In 1944-1948, thousands of settlements (with the exception of Bakhchisarai, Dzhankoy, Ishuni, Sak and Sudak), mountains and rivers of the peninsula, whose names were of Crimean Tatar origin, were.

For 12 years, until 1956, the Crimean Tatars had the status of special settlers, which meant 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 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, but in fact - until 1989.

AT November 1989 The Supreme Soviet of the USSR condemned the deportation of the Crimean Tatars and recognized it as illegal and criminal.

The mass return of the people to the Crimea began only at the end of Gorbachev's "perestroika".

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.

This happened immediately after the liberation of the peninsula from the Nazi invaders. The official reason for the action was the criminal assistance of many thousands of Tatars to the occupiers.

Crimean collaborators

Main allegations

The deportation of the Crimean Tatars in the last year of the Great Patriotic War was a mass eviction of local residents of Crimea to a number of regions of the Uzbek SSR, the Kazakh SSR, the Mari ASSR and other republics of the Soviet Union.
This happened immediately after the liberation of the peninsula from the Nazi invaders. The official reason for the action was the criminal assistance of many thousands of Tatars to the occupiers.

Crimean collaborators

Desertion of 20 thousand Tatars from the army during the period 1941-1944;
- the unreliability of the Crimean population, especially pronounced in the border areas;
- a threat to the security of the Soviet Union due to collaborationist actions and anti-Soviet sentiments of the Crimean Tatars;
- the deportation of 50 thousand civilians to Germany with the assistance of the Crimean Tatar committees.

Almost 72 thousand were executed with the direct participation of the so-called "Noise". Schuma is an auxiliary police, but in fact - punitive Crimean Tatar battalions subordinate to the Nazis. Of these 72,000, 15,000 communists were brutally tortured in the largest concentration camp in Crimea, the former Krasnoy collective farm.