From the LinkedIn page of George Casey. Aug 26.
Does Crimea “belong” to Russia? The answer under International Law is clear: Crimea is an illegally occupied territory of Ukraine, but some Western politicians are repeating a Russian narrative that Khrushchev gave Crimea to Ukraine as a “gift” in 1954. Russia cannot invade a sovereign country with well recognized international borders claiming that a territory “belonged” to it (some voices in Russia say Alaska should be next), but let’s nevertheless address the historical point of what happened.
Crimea, with well known sites of ancient civilizations, was not part of Russia until the Russian empire colonized it starting in 1783, after colonizing Ukraine. Colonization was accompanied by forcing Crimean Tatars to leave the peninsula. In 1944, Stalin ordered the mass deportation of Crimean Tatars, and moved to Crimea Russian settlers. More than 400,000 Crimean Tatars were deported, about 46% of them died within a couple of years of the deportation.
By Stalin’s death in 1953, Crimea was in a desperate situation. Ukraine’s first President Kravchuk described (based on his review of Communist party archives) how Khrushchev, as the new Communist party leader, was receiving complaints that Russian settlers could not live in Crimea and wanted to move back to Russia.
Crimea needed everything from water to electricity to infrastructure. Kravchuk further described how Khrushchev went to Crimea and was confronted by unhappy settlers. He then immediately went to Kyiv to meet with the head of the Ukrainian Communist party Kyrychenko. Khrushchev insisted that Ukraine accept Crimea into Ukrainian SSR and take care of it. Kyrychenko refused as Crimea needed a massive amount of investment. Khrushchev dragged Kyrychenko to Moscow, where the Politburo ordered him to take Crimea into Ukraine.
Legally, Crimea was transferred from Russia to Ukraine (both part of the USSR) by decrees of both Russian and Soviet legislative bodies culminating in the law of the Supreme Soviet of April 26, 1954. The reason for the transfer: “the commonality of economy, territorial proximity, and close economic and cultural ties” between Crimea and Ukraine.
According to Kravchuk, Ukraine invested $100 billion into Crimea. The money came from Ukraine’s budget that could have been spent on developing other parts of Ukraine. There was no “gift.”
When the agreement on the dissolution of the Soviet Union was signed in December 1991, Russia agreed to the borders of Ukraine that included Crimea: “The parties recognize … each other’s territorial integrity and the inviolability of existing borders…”.
Moreover, when Ukraine agreed to give up its nuclear weapons, Russia agreed in the Budapest treaty of December 5, 1994 “to respect Ukraine’s independence and sovereignty and its existing borders.” Russia further promised not to “use force against territorial integrity … of Ukraine.”
If only Russia ever lived by its agreements and its own laws.
Comment from Andriy Galiuk:
Crimea was totally devastated during WWII.
Before the Nazis came, Stalin killed and sent to Gulag at least 50.000 ethnic Germans that had settled here on invitation from Ekaterina the Great in 1700s. These Germans managed the most productive parts of local farming.
At the end of the war, Stalin forcibly deported some 3-400,000 Tatars, Greeks, Armenians and Bulgars whom he considered collaborators with the German occupants. Large parts of the countryside were virtually deserted
Stalin tried to repopulate the peninsula by ethnic Russians from the Soviet heartland. But these people didn’t possess the farming skills needed for the local agriculture and Crimea’s climate. New settlers abandoned the plots of land given to them and moved to the cities at the coast. Neither was there anyone who could teach them what to do with this rocky, arid land. The semi-abandoned Crimea remained a huge sinkhole for the cash-strapped federal budget.
Ukrainian farmers restored post-war Crimea and fed the city-dwelling Russian settlers.
It was a widely accepted view that Crime was economically / physically tied to Ukraine.
Even after generations of forced and voluntary russification, 30-50% of non-coastal Crimeans speak languages other than Russian.
“Does Crimea “belong” to Russia?”
No!
“Legally, Crimea was transferred from Russia to Ukraine (both part of the USSR) by decrees of both Russian and Soviet legislative bodies culminating in the law of the Supreme Soviet of April 26, 1954. The reason for the transfer: “the commonality of economy, territorial proximity, and close economic and cultural ties” between Crimea and Ukraine.”
The Trolls like to say Crimea was always part of Russia/USSR but they aren’t correct; Crimea was colonized and subjugated. Also Crimea has always been economically, geographically and culturally tied to Ukraine, not the land of Misfits.
Besides Ukraine, other peoples have a stranger claim to Crimea. They were there before mafia land and longer too.
The Greeks; whose descendants are known as the Azov Greeks. Hence the Greek names like Khersones.
But the Tatars have been there for 700 years, so they can rightly claim to be the indigenous people of Krym.
Up until 1921, the Tatars were the majority there. After that Lenin began the genocide and deportations that continued under Stalin and now putler.
At the same time, RuSSian occupiers were inserted from the time of Lenin.
Invasion, occupation, genocide and race replacement: the modus operandi of RuZZian imperialism for centuries.
Only the Moscow region is legitimate RuSSian territory. All the rest is thieved.
Strange, I have never heard this version of the events that lead to Crimea becoming Ukrainian, but it certainly sounds far more plausible than anything I have heard to date.
I tend to believe this version.
Its true from what I’ve learned. It makes sense too. Knowing Moskali are not capable of producing something besides bombs they couldn’t even grow anything in Crimea. Its true that Ukraine didn’t want the burden of managing Crimea but the knowledge and ethics of Ukrainians turned Crimea into a land of many fruits, nuts and the best wine on earth.
The Generation before us even got paid to go to Crimea during harvest season and return to the mainland with good money during Soviet times. That should tell you something too.