Crimean Tatars are Orthodox. History of the Crimean Tatars

Crimean Tatars are an Eastern European Turkic people who historically formed on the territory of the Crimean peninsula. Belongs to the Turkic group of the Altaic language family.

The national flag of the Crimean Tatars is blue with a yellow emblem in the upper left corner. The first time this flag was adopted at the national congress of the Crimean Tatars in 1917, shortly after the Federal Revolution in Russia.

Crimean Tatar activists will gather on September 20 or 21, 2015 to completely close off the temporarily occupied peninsula. This was announced on September 14 by Refat Chubarov, MP from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction, chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, during a meeting of the Parliamentary Conciliation Council.

The leadership of the Turkish Republic does not recognize and does not recognize the illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula by Russia, and will do everything possible to protect the indigenous population of the peninsula - the Crimean Tatars, the press service of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people reports.

In a greeting to the participants of the II World Congress of Crimean Tatars, which takes place in (Turkey) on August 1-2, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also stated that the security of the Crimean Tatars in their homeland is a top priority for Turkey.

International reaction to the referendum and the annexation of Crimea.

The United Nations Security Council said it considers the referendum held in Crimea to be legitimate.

Aziz Abdullayev, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the ARC;

Ilmi Umerov, head of the Bakhchisaray district state administration;

Fevzi Yakubov, rector of KIPU;

Lilya Budzhurova, journalist;

Ahtem Chiygoz, Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis;

Enver Abduraimov, businessman;

Nadir Bekirov, lawyer;

Server Saliev, Chairman of the Committee for Nationalities of the ARC;

Shevket Kaybullayev, Head of the Information Policy Department of the Mejlis;

Eldar Seitbekirov, chief editor of the weekly "Voice of Crimea";

Enver Izmailov, musician;

Seyran Osmanov, Honorary Consul of the Republic of Turkey;

Safure Kadzhametova, head of the association of Crimean Tatar educators "Maarifchi";

Aider Emirov, director of the library named after I. Gasprinsky;

Crimean Tatar groups have many followers on VK.com:

153 groups found in Odnoklassniki:

There are also many groups found in:

The origin of both large and small communities of the population - peoples, nationalities and various ethnographic groups is a complex historical process, including migrations, wars, epidemics, deportations. Some populations became heterogeneous, which inevitably caused problems in understanding the history, culture, evolution of both the communities themselves and the whole world.

To solve these problems, a number of classifications were compiled based on languages, specific objects of material culture, basic phenotypic differences, etc. However, despite the existing sound historical ethnogenetic and anthropogenetic reconstructions and classifications, it cannot be argued that they fully reflect the real historical fact. In this case, special biological (genetic) research, which has been rapidly developing in recent years, could help us.

One of these areas is the study of the morphological features of the structure of human hair, which are used not only in forensic medical examination, but also to determine different ethnic groups. Based on a large number of studies on the study of hair of different nationalities, unique results have been obtained. It turned out that the edges of keratinocytes make up specific "patterns". They have, as it turned out, identical characteristics for individual genetically closely related groups that make up one or another people. The change in the pattern of the edge occurs very slowly, perhaps over several millennia.

The purpose of this work is to analyze the results of research and compare the "patterns" of hair keratinocytes using a new in science raster-electronic method (SEM) of various ethnic and ethnographic groups of Crimea, but first of all, to clarify the ethno-anthropological composition of the group of "Crimean Tatars" (breakdown produced according to the ethnic self-identification of the subjects).

The problem of the origin of the Crimean Tatars is complex and poorly understood. Although many scientific works and monographs of historians, ethnologists, and philologists are devoted to the ethnic history of the Crimean Tatar people. There are the following versions of the ethnogenesis of this people. A.L. Jacobson in his work "Medieval Crimea" directly indicates that "the ancestors of the Crimean Tatars are the Mongols". Philologists have a different version, who, relying on the features of the Crimean Tatar language, attribute this people to the Kypchak tribes (Polovtsy). The same views, in particular, are held by the Turkologist G.T. Grunina, who believes that the bulk of the Turkic-speaking population of Crimea, both before the Mongol invasion (if there was such a thing in the history of the peninsula) and after it, were Kipchaks (Polovtsy) and “only after the Mongol invasion” other Turkic tribes came to the peninsula” .

The following peoples could take part in the formation of the Crimean Tatar ethnic group: Taurians, Scythians, Greeks, Byzantines, Sarmatians, Alans, Goths, Huns, Khazars, Proto-Bulgarians, Pechenegs, Cumans (Kypchaks), Horde, etc.

According to one version, “two powerful ethnic layers” developed in the Crimea: the Tats, who inhabited the mountainous and coastal regions of the peninsula, and the Turkic, whose representatives inhabited the steppe and foothill parts.

Another classification, based on practical observations, the study of dialect differences in the language, features of the anthropological type, material and spiritual culture, made it possible to subdivide the Crimean Tatars into four groups (the fourth - conditionally, a characteristic for 1940) . The first group includes the Crimean Tatars of the southern coast of Crimea (the self-name "yaly-boylu" - "coastal"). To the second group, scientists include the population living between the First and Second Ridges of the Crimean Mountains. They were called "tats". The group of Crimean Tatars of the northern foothills, conditionally introduced by scientists, lived in the lower reaches of the Chernaya, Belbek, Kacha, Alma and Bulganak rivers and had the self-name "Tatars", less often "Turk". And, finally, the third group - the steppe Tatars of the Crimea, or "nogai", "nugai" (self-name "mangyt").

They called the "tatami" and the southern coast Tatars. The ethnonym "janaviz" is also found. The Tats population of the eastern part of the mountainous Crimea retained the self-name "tau-boyli".
During the study, external biometric data were recorded, including: eye color, color, shape, length, thickness of the hair, as well as the nature of their peripheral end, the nature and features of the lines of the cuticle pattern, the number of the latter at a certain length. Hair was cut with scissors near the surface of the skin of different parts of the head (temporal, frontal, parietal, occipital regions). The hair weights were at least 50 mm.

The shape of the hair was described using the usual notation; their length was measured according to the generally accepted method. Hair color was determined according to the color scale of G.G. Avtandilov (1964) for pathologists and forensic doctors. Brief Color Chart G.G. Avtandilov includes 107 chromatic and achromatic colors and shades. There is a nomenclature of colors, which provides scientifically based names of color shades. The color naming system has a uniform terminology. In the study of hair, a light binocular microscope MMU-modified (magnification 5000) was used.

The data obtained were subjected to a variation-statistical analysis. The name of the type of pattern of keratinocytes was given according to the monograph published in the monograph of Academician Yu.V. Pavlova (1996) classification. If some type of pattern was found in the vast majority of samples, then it was recognized as dominant for this person. And the trait found in the largest number of respondents in the group is recognized as dominant in the group.

Part of the names of the types of patterns of keratinocytes originally appeared as a result of research by Academician Yu.V. Pavlova. Part of it is the result of research by expert Alexei Novikov. General group names are used here, such as: Uralic (for the Finno-Ugric peoples), Slavic, Iranian, Turkish-Asia Minor (for the ancient population of Asia Minor), Turkish-Turkic, Turkic-Kypchak (i.e. - Tatar), Turko- Oghuz (i.e. Turkmen), Northern Mongolian (i.e. Buryat), Western Mongolian (i.e. Kalmyk), Indian (i.e. Dravidian or Tamil), etc.

In our studies, the cells of the hair cuticle - keratinocytes in the Crimean group of "Crimean Tatars" are large, have an arc. Mechanical damage to the free edges of hair cuticle cells - cracks, fractures, splitting - indicates increased hair fragility, which, apparently, is associated with their genetic, chemical and morphological characteristics.

First of all, studies were conducted of adults of both sexes in the amount of 56 people who identify themselves as "Crimean Tatars". The sample is random and determined by the nature of the work of independent experts. Respondents are evenly represented Balaklava, Yalta, Alushta, Sudak-Feodosia, Sevastopol, Bakhchisaray, Simferopol, Kirov, Leninsko-Kerch, Dzhankoy regions of Crimea, rural and urban areas. Pilot study.

In each case, when taking hair samples, the genealogy of the person was taken into account, the region from which the respondent comes from, and information about all ethnic inclusions, if known, was indicated. Such data is necessary for comparison, because in this study, an important place was given to the issues of miscegenation of the studied people, its ethnic drift. In addition, it is necessary to take into account the extreme conservatism of the Crimean Tatar population before the period of the Second World War, before the deportation in 1944, when miscegenation was extremely low, the communities were often endogamous.

In the studied Crimean group of “Crimean Tatars”, 33 types of keratinocyte pattern were found, of which the most common were: Chinese in 31 subjects (55.36%), Italian – in 27 (48.21%), Kurdish – in 25 (44.64%), Greek, Central- Uralic, Japanese and Turkish-Asia Minor – in 20 (35.71%), Latvian – in 14 (25.00%), Armenoid – in 13 (23.21%), Korean and Indian – in 12 (21.43%), Northern Mongolian – in 11 ( 19.64%), German - 10 (17.86%), Turko-Kypchak (Tatar) - 9 (16.07%), Iranian, Uzbek, Gypsy - 8 (14.29%), Iraqi - 7 (12.50%), Slavic – in 6 subjects (10.71%) of the total number. This fact indicates that the "Crimean Tatars" are not a mono-ethnic group, but are a complex multi-ethnic composite.

As can be seen from the data presented, among the “Crimean Tatars”, the “Chinese” type of keratinocyte pattern was dominant (55.36%), which dominated in every two out of five carriers of this type (41.94%) and in every fifth in the group as a whole (23.21%).
The Japanese type was found in 20 people. (35.71%), Korean - in 12 people. (21.43%). Signs of all three types were found in 40 respondents, which amounted to 71.43%. 32 people adjoin here with the Ural (35.71%) and North Mongolian types (19.64%). Taking into account the fact that the same person can be a carrier of different anthropological types, we took into account such only once. As a result, there were 48 representatives of the “Golden Horde complex”, which amounted to 85.71% of the entire group. However, the Far Eastern anthropological type (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian) dominates only in every third respondent of the entire group (33.93%).
Most likely, representatives of the Chinese peoples came to Eastern Europe along with the troops of Batu Khan in the 13th century. In addition to them, the Tungus-Manchu, Japanese, Korean, Altai and other Siberian and Far Eastern peoples and nationalities could and should have been under the leadership of the Mongols. Initially, apparently, they could be localized in the Volga-Ural basin, where the core of the "Golden Horde" was formed. Consequently, assimilated Uralic peoples must also be taken into account in the composition of this population. In general, this community may well be conditionally called the "Golden Horde". It stands out for its relative integrity, characteristic specificity, compatibility and is represented by a complex of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Mongolian (northern, eastern and central groups) and Ural anthropological types.

The second dominant type is the “Italian” anthropological type of keratinocyte pattern (48.21%), which prevailed in one of the three carriers of this type (37.04%) and in every sixth in the group as a whole (17.86%). Taking into account the proximity of the French type (4 people = 7.14%), only 31 people, which would be 55.36%. However, in two cases the speakers of Italian and French coincided, therefore, we have 29 people of the Western Mediterranean type, which is 51.79%. That is, half. The appearance of the Italian type in the Crimea can be associated with the late Middle Ages, when in the XII-XV centuries, when there was an intensive Venetian, Genoese and minor Lombard and Montferrat colonization of the southern coast. A certain number of Italians could also appear with the Romans, who fell into the Crimea in the 1st century BC. BC. - VI century. AD A small number of French colonists, apparently, came here in the XIV-XV centuries. along with the Genoese.
If the Italians and the French are traditionally referred to the western part of the Mediterranean community, then the Balkan-Armenoid group is traditionally referred to its eastern part. First of all, this concerns the Greeks. Among the respondents, the study revealed the Greek anthropological type in 20 people, which accounted for 35.71% of the group. The Turkish-Asia Minor anthropological type of representatives of the ancient population of Asia Minor and the Black Sea region was also found in 20 people, which is 35.71% of the group. And the Armenoid anthropological type was found in 13 people, which is 23.21% of the group. But taking into account that in some carriers the signs of different types may coincide, we ended up with 38 people, which amounted to 67.86% of the group. This reflects the realities of both the ancient population of the Crimea, and subsequently the newcomer. The Turkish-Asia Minor anthropological type can correspond both to representatives of the ancient agricultural population of the Crimea, and to representatives of Turkish expansion in the late Middle Ages and modern times. Greek - from the first appearance of the Greeks in the Crimea in the VII-VI-V centuries. BC. until the first third of the 20th century. AD Armenoid, perhaps, is associated with the appearance here of the troops of the Pontic emperor Mithridates VI Eupator at the end of the 2nd century BC. BC, then - the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire (not only the dynasty of Byzantium, but also a significant part of the soldiers were Armenians). A large influx of the Armenian population dates back to the late Middle Ages and modern times under the Genoese and Turks.
Of great interest in the study was the presence of the German anthropological type among the Crimean Tatars, residents of the Bakhchisaray-Balaklava region. This region was unofficially sometimes even called Gothia, believing that the descendants of the ancient Goths-Germans remained there. According to the study, it was possible to establish that the German type among the Crimean Tatars is extremely dispersed throughout the peninsula and extremely rare: Sudak-Feodosia region - 3, Yalta - 1, Balaklava - 1, Bakhchisaray - 2, Dzhankoy - 1, Simferopol - 1 representative.

The discovery of Slavic types among the Crimean Tatars was also of interest. The Slavic type belongs to 10.71% of the group; separately "Russian" (possibly - Alanian?) type - 3.57%. Total - 14.29% of the group. However, Slavic types are localized in limited regions: the Kerch Peninsula, the Yalta-Alushta and Simferopol regions. In addition to the Germanic and Slavic groups, Iranian peoples belong to the Indo-Europeans. The Iranian anthropological type was found among 17.39% and is represented in the following regions: Alushta, Simferopol, Bakhchisarai, Balaklava, Kerch. It is combined more often with the following types: Italian, Greek, Turkish-Asia Minor, Japanese, Turkic-Kypchak (Tatar), Chinese, Uralic, Iraqi. Given the departure of Iranian nomads, localization in transit regions and the presence of the Golden Horde complex, one can assume a later origin of the Iranians. In this case, it is doubtful to connect them with the ancient peoples of the Northern Black Sea region: Scythians, Cimmerians, Sauromatians, Sarmatians, Alans.

It is noteworthy that among the respondents the representation of the Caucasian population is extremely low: isolated cases of the Georgian and Ossetian types were found, and no more. At the same time, the Indian anthropological type was found in 12 respondents, which amounted to 21.43%, and the gypsy type was found in 8, which amounted to 14.29%. Taking into account the belonging of these types to the South Asian group, a total of 17 carriers were identified, which amounted to 30.36%.
It should be noted a very high level of the Near Eastern and Middle Eastern types of keratinocyte pattern in the study group as a whole: Kurdish - in 25 people. (44.64%), Iraqi - in 7 (12.50%), Lebanese - in 4 (7.14%), Kuwaiti - in 2 (03.57%), together - in 33 people. (58.93%).

It is significant that of the Turkic types, "Turkic-Kypchak" is represented in 9 people. (16.07%) and "Turkic-Oghuz" (Turkmen-Turkish - 1 person, Azerbaijani - 2 people and Uzbek - 8 people) in 10 people. (17.86%). The northern Mongolian anthropological type appeared in 19.64% of the group.

Of these anthropological types, in the first place, we were interested in the Turkic-Kypchak, which is often identified with the "Tatar". It turned out that it is extremely rare among the Crimean Tatars (up to 16%) and is localized in certain regions: Bakhchisaray, Yalta, Alushta and Kerch. Perhaps these are the remnants of the pre-Mongolian Far East-Central Asian population of Crimea. It is tempting to assume that we found representatives of the Polovtsian (Kipchak) ethnic group.

It was surprising to find a Latvian anthropological type, unexpectedly numerous (25.00% of the whole group) and showing a certain localization in the so-called. "Gothic" region (71% between Bakhchisaray and Balaklava). It is also represented in the Yalta region close to it, as well as in the Sudak and Kerch-Lenin regions. It is combined more often with such types: Kurdish, Chinese, Mordovian; much less often - with Italian and Greek. This reflects a preference for militancy rather than settledness.

In general, the entire group of Crimean Tatars easily breaks up into northern and southern parts. Representatives of the southern coast of Crimea from Balaklava to Feodosia belong to the southern. The anthropological types of this group lined up in the following descending order: Italian, Chinese, Kurdish, Turko-Asia Minor, Uralic, Greek, Japanese, Armenoid, Latvian, Korean, Northern Mongolian, Indian, Iraqi, Germanic, Turko-Kypchak, Iranian, Uzbek, Gypsy, Lebanese
Here the share of Italian sharply increases to 53.33% (for 30 people with southern coastal roots). And up to 60.00% only among the South Coast, without taking into account the descendants of mixed marriages with the northern group. Together with French, the share rises to 66.67%. And, accordingly, the share of the Chinese type also sharply drops to 43.33% with mixed marriages and to 40.00% among the South Coast. Japanese: one third to one quarter. From the Golden Horde complex, the percentage of the Ural type is unexpectedly high here: more than 50%. The Korean type also grew from one-fifth of the whole group to one-fourth in the southern part without intermarriages. The Mongolian type also manifested itself strongly (up to one third) precisely among the southern coastal part of the group. The entire Golden Horde complex was found in 90% of the entire group.

The level of representation of Turkic types is traditionally low, it fluctuates between one seventh and one eighth of the group. While the Caucasian types are insignificant and possibly random, the proportion of Eastern Mediterranean types is expected to increase compared to the entire group: the Greek anthropological type is present in more than every second representative (53.33%), Turkish-Asia Minor and Armenoid - in every third . Only 76.67% of the entire group.
The Middle Eastern types are represented by Kurdish (33.33%), Iraqi (20.00%) and Lebanese (13.33%). There are 17 people in total, which is 56.67% of the entire group. Relatively low representation of South Asian patterns, about one in seven respondents. Minor representation of Iranian, Slavic, Turkic and Latvian patterns.
On the whole, the southern group demonstrates the following average composition: nine-tenths Golden Horde types, three-quarters Eastern Mediterranean, two-thirds Western Mediterranean, and half Asiatic-Middle Eastern types.
Anthropological types of the northern part of the group lined up in the following descending order: Chinese, Kurdish, Turko-Asia Minor, Japanese, Italian, Uralic, Greek, Indian, Latvian, Armenoid, Germanic, Korean, Northern Mongolian, Turko-Kypchak, Iranian, Gypsy, Uzbek .

Here, the share of Chinese is traditionally high 57.14% (dominant among 25.71% of the northern group) and without mixed marriages - up to 73.68%. The share of Northern Mongolian (dominant among 11.43%) and Korean (dominant among 5.71%) types falls compared to the average figure in the group, while Japanese grows from one third to two fifths in the group (42.86%). The entire Golden Horde complex makes up 91.43% of the group. The representation of Eastern Mediterranean types is very high: the Turkish-Asia Minor anthropological type is present in two out of five (42.86%), Greek - in every third representative (31.43%), and Armenoid - in every fifth (22.86%). Only 71.43% of the entire group.
The Middle Eastern types are represented by Kurdish (48.57%), which is dominant among 11.43% of the group, Iraqi (8.56%), Lebanese (5.71%) and Kuwaiti (2.86%) types. Only 57.14% of the entire group. Together with mixed marriages, Western Mediterranean types made up 42.86% of the group (dominant among 17.14%), while South Asian and Latvian types are represented by 31.43% each (both dominant among 5.71%). A minor representation of Iranian, Slavic and Turkic patterns.
The northern group demonstrates the following composition: nine-tenths of the Golden Horde complex, almost three-quarters of the Eastern Mediterranean types, almost three-fifths of the Near East, two-fifths of the Western Mediterranean, one-third of the South Asian and Latvian types.

The entire group of the studied Crimean Tatars demonstrates the following composition: almost nine-tenths are Golden Horde types, two-thirds are Eastern Mediterranean, three-fifths are Western-Mediterranean, half are Western Mediterranean, one-third are South Asian and a quarter are Latvian types.

Based on the obtained data on the distribution of keratinocyte types in the head hair of representatives of the studied Crimean group of Crimean Tatars, it can be stated that this community is polyethnic. In its composition, a significant proportion is occupied by the Golden Horde anthropological types [Chinese (55.36%), Japanese (35.71%), Korean (21.43%), Central Ural (35.71%), North Mongolian (19.64%)], Eastern Mediterranean [Greek (35.71%), Turkish-Asiatic (35.71%) and Armenoid (23.21%)], Near Eastern or Afrasian [Kurdish (44.64%), Iraqi (12.50%), Kuwaiti, Lebanese], Western Mediterranean [Italian (48.21%) %) and French], South Asian [Indian (21.43%) and Gypsy (14.29%)], North European [Latvian (25.00%), Germanic (17.86%) and Slavic (10.71%)], Turkic [Turkic-Oguz ( 19.64%) and Turko-Kypchak (16.07%)] and Iranian (14.29%). However, the basic anthropological type of this group can be considered the “Golden Horde composite” for the northern part and the “Italo-Balkan-Caucasian composite” for the southern part. At the same time, the most likely candidates for the archaic part of the Crimeans may be population groups with Turkish-Asia Minor, Greek and Armenoid anthropological types, which corresponds to the ancient farmers of the peninsula.
There is too little Iranian to build an assumption about the participation of the Scythian-Sarmatian-Alan peoples in the ethnogenesis, and German - to build an assumption about the participation of the Gothic peoples in the ethnogenesis. It is possible that the ethnically Crimean Goths were not of German origin or were completely exterminated or moved outside the peninsula. Perhaps in their place will be the Baltic (Latvian) peoples.
The Turkic types were separated from the Golden Horde complex due to the fact that the "Oguz" influences may be of very late origin, associated with the deportation of a large number of Crimean Tatars to Uzbekistan. The Turkic-Kypchak or "Tatar" type, in turn, appeared in the Crimea very early and cannot always be tied specifically to the Mongol conquests. In addition, the latter type is not scattered among all regions, but, unlike Chinese, Japanese or Korean, it is strictly localized, not typical for the entire Crimean Tatar ethnic group, which does not give researchers the right to call this community “Tatar”.

Perhaps there should have been more Slavic types historically, but a significant number of alleged speakers among the northern part of the Crimean Tatars were resettled outside the Crimea or left it after its conquest and wars in the 18th-19th centuries. Unfortunately, among the respondents there were no natives of Krasnoperekopsky, Chernomorsky, Razdolnensky, Belogorsky, Nizhnegorsky and Leninsky regions of Crimea. But this did not rule out the possibility of discovering some tendencies and processes.

Thus, on the basis of the conducted pilot study and the results of the analysis of anthropological macro-microscopic data on the structure of the hair cuticle of the head, taking into account that the group itself is small, one can only make a very cautious preliminary assumption that the Crimean group of Crimean Tatars is part of a characteristic Crimean community, which is a complex ethnic composite that has been formed over the past millennium. In its formation, there probably took place a partial miscegenation with the Golden Horde population of Eastern Europe. Among the ongoing processes, one can note the erasure of narrow group barriers, increased regional migration, powerful urbanization, the widespread loss of traditions, the substitution of local traditions for stylized Soviet or Arab-Turkish ones, and against this background, as a result, acculturation and the strongest intra-group and extra- group miscegenation. The obtained data do not yet allow identifying the Crimean Tatars with Tatars, Turks, Slavs (including Ukrainians), Scythians, Sarmatians, Khazars, Germans (including Goths), Mongols and Celts. But they provide an opportunity to create historical reconstructions. For example, the participation of a large number of forcibly mobilized Chinese population from China destroyed by the Mongols in the campaign of Batu Khan.

The studied Crimean group of Crimean Tatars makes up a significant part of the Crimean society according to the latest population census. In the linguistic, cultural and religious spheres of life, as well as in ethnic and genetic-anthropological relations, they represent a unique and specific Crimean community.

Our research can be used by anthropologists, ethnographers, historians, political scientists involved in the research of the Crimean society, will help to penetrate deeper into the essence of the problems of the history of Crimea, reduce the severity of interethnic relations in Crimea. But most importantly, there is a need to conduct a large-scale study of the main groups of the Crimean population, which could solve many issues of modern history.

Introduction

Crimean Tatars or Crimeans are the indigenous people of Crimea, historically formed in Crimea. They speak the Crimean Tatar language, which belongs to the Turkic group of the Altaic family of languages. The vast majority of Crimean Tatars are Sunni Muslims and belong to the Hanafi madhhab.

They live mainly in the Crimea (about 260 thousand) and adjacent areas of continental Ukraine, as well as in Turkey, Romania (24 thousand), Uzbekistan, Russia, Bulgaria. According to local Crimean Tatar organizations, the Crimean Tatar diaspora in Turkey numbers hundreds of thousands of people, but there are no exact data on its numbers, since Turkey does not publish data on the national composition of the country's population. The total number of residents whose ancestors immigrated to the country from Crimea at different times is estimated in Turkey at 4-6 million people, however, most of these people assimilated and consider themselves not Crimean Tatars, but Turks of Crimean origin. The number of people living in the United States is not indicated, although it is well known that in 2010 alone in New York, more than 15 thousand Crimean Tatars live.

The Crimean Tatars formed as a people in the Crimea and are the descendants of various peoples who migrated to the territory of the peninsula. The main ethnic groups that inhabited Crimea at different times and took part in the formation of the Crimean Tatar people are Taurians, Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans, Bulgars (Proto-Bulgarians), Greeks, Goths, Khazars, Pechenegs, Cumans, Italians, Circassians, Asia Minor Turks. The most important role in the formation of the Crimean Tatar ethnic group belongs to the Western Kipchaks, known in Russian historiography under the name of the Polovtsy.

As a result of the predominance of the Polovtsian-speaking population and the Islamic religion on the territory of the peninsula, which received the name "Tatars", the processes of assimilation and consolidation of a motley ethnic conglomerate into a single Crimean nation began. For several centuries, the modern national image of the Crimean Tatars and the Crimean Tatar language based on the Polovtsian language have developed.

1. Encyclopedic reference

The Autonomous Republic of Crimea is part of Ukraine, an independent state that was formed after the collapse of the USSR at the end of 1991 (from 1922 to 1991 it was the second most important federal republic of the Soviet Union).

The area of ​​Crimea is 27 thousand square meters. km, population in 1994 - 2.7 million people. The capital is Simferopol. In the south of Crimea, the port city of Sevastopol is located, which was the base of the Black Sea Fleet of the USSR (in 1996, the fleet was divided between Ukraine - the Ukrainian Navy, and Russia - the Black Sea Fleet; both fleets are based in Sevastopol, Balaklava and other bases on the southwestern coast of Crimea). The basis of the economy is resort tourism, agriculture. Crimea consists of three cultural and climatic regions: the Steppe Crimea, the Mountainous Crimea and the Southern coast (in fact, the southeastern) of Crimea.

2. History. Crimean Tatars

One of the states that arose on the ruins of the Golden Horde in the 14th-15th centuries was the Crimean Khanate with its capital in Bakhchisarai. The population of the khanate consisted of Tatars, divided into 3 groups (steppe, foothill and southern), Armenians, Greeks (who spoke the Tatar language), Crimean Jews, or Krymchaks (who spoke the Tatar language), Slavs, Karaites (a Turkic people professing a special, not recognizing the Talmud, the course of Judaism and speaking a special language close to the Crimean Tatar), Germans, etc.

The legends of the Crimean Tatars attribute the spread of Islam in the Crimea to the companions of the Prophet Muhammad (S.A.V.) - Malik Ashter and Gazi Mansur (7th century). The oldest dated mosque - 1262 - was built in the city of Solkhat (Old Crimea) by a native of Bukhara. From the 16th century Crimea became one of the centers of Muslim civilization in the Golden Horde; from here the Islamization of the North Caucasus was carried out. The Zinjirli madrasah, founded in the suburbs of Bakhchisaray in 1500, was of great fame. The south of Crimea was traditionally oriented towards Turkey, while the north retained the steppe Horde properties. Among the Sufi tariqats widespread in the Crimea were Mevlevia, Khalvetiya (both came from Turkey; the latter from the city of Sivas), Naqshbandiya, Yasaviya (the former traditionally dominated the entire Golden Horde; the latter came in the 17th century; both were widespread among the steppes ).

The conquest of the Khanate by Russian troops in the 18th century marked the beginning of the colonization of Crimea and the migration from Crimea to Turkey of large groups of the Tatar population. The Crimean Khanate ceased to exist in 1783, becoming part of the Russian Empire under the name Tauride Governorate (Tauric Chersonese). At that moment, there were about 1530 mosques on the peninsula, dozens of madrasahs and tekes.

At the end of the 18th century, the Crimean Tatars made up the majority of the Crimean population - 350-400 thousand people, but as a result of two migrations to Turkey in the 1790s (at least 100 thousand people) and 1850-60s. (up to 150 thousand) were a minority. The next waves of emigration of Tatars to Turkey occurred in 1874–75; then - at the beginning of the 1890s (up to 18 thousand) and in 1902-03. In fact, by the beginning of the 20th century. most of the Crimean Tatars found themselves outside their historical homeland.

After 1783, until the formation of the Crimean ASSR, the Crimean Tatars were part of the Taurida province (divided into counties: Simferopol, Evpatorsky, Feodosia / Crimea proper /, Perekop / partially in the Crimea /, Dnieper and Melitopol / the territory of inner Ukraine / - in the last three Tatars also lived in the counties - in fact, Nogais). In Crimea itself, at the beginning of the 20th century, the Tatars lived compactly in the area: from Balaklava to Sudak and from Karasubazar (Belogorsk) to Yalta; on the Kerch and Tarkhankut peninsulas; in the region of Evpatoria; on the shore of the Sivash bay. The largest groups of citizens from among the Tatars were in Bakhchisarai (10 thousand people), Simferopol (7.9 thousand), Evpatoria (6.2 thousand), Karasubazar (6.2 thousand), Feodosia (2.6 thousand) and Kerch (2 thousand). The cultural centers of the Tatars were Bakhchisaray and Karasubazar. By 1917, the number of mosques in Crimea was reduced to 729.

The Crimean Tatars consisted of three sub-ethnic groups: the steppe Tatars (Nogai Tatars), foothill Tatars (Tat, or Tatlar), South Coast Tatars (Boylu Yaly); the group of Nogays (Nogai, Nogailar) who mixed with the steppe Tatars stands out in particular; sometimes they distinguish the Central Crimean Tatars (orta-yulak). The difference between these groups was in ethnogenesis, and in dialect, and in traditional culture. In the places of deportation of the Crimean Tatars - Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, etc. - this division has practically disappeared, and today the nation is quite consolidated.

In 1921, the Crimean ASSR was formed as part of Soviet Russia. According to the 1939 census, Crimean Tatars numbered 218,800 people, or 19.4% of the population of the ASSR. In 1944, all Crimean Tatars were deported from the Crimea to Central Asia and Kazakhstan - 188.6, or 194.3, or 238.5 thousand people (according to various sources). Russians and Ukrainians from various regions of the USSR moved to Crimea, and all material and spiritual traces of the Tatar-Muslim civilization of Crimea were destroyed, up to fountains at mosques. All materials about the culture of Crimean Muslims were withdrawn from all reference books and encyclopedias.

The persecution of religion in Crimea, as well as throughout the USSR, began immediately after the revolution. Until 1931, 106 mosques were closed in the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Sevastopol, for example, was given to the Black Sea Fleet) and 2 prayer houses of Muslims, of which 51 were immediately demolished. Feodosia, Yalta, Simferopol, which were slowly destroyed or destroyed immediately. The German occupation of Crimea 1941–44 temporarily allowed for the restoration of relative religious freedom. After the deportation of the Tatars in 1944, all the mosques that had survived by that time were handed over to the new authorities of Crimea, then most of them were destroyed. By the 1980s not a single mosque has been preserved in a satisfactory condition on the territory of Crimea.

The libraries of the Khan's palace and the oldest Zinjirli Madrasah in Bakhchisarai contained thousands of titles of handwritten books. All this was destroyed with the loss of Crimean independence and began to revive at the end of the 19th century. In 1883–1914, Ismail Bey Gasprinsky, one of the prominent Muslim leaders throughout the Russian Empire, published the first Crimean Tatar newspaper Terdzhiman in Bakhchisarai. In 1921-28, many books and other literature were published in this language (writing: until 1927 - Arabic, in 1928-39 and since 1992 - Latin, in 1939-92 - Cyrillic). After the deportation of the Crimean Tatars, all books in the Crimean Tatar language from libraries and private collections were destroyed. In 1990, the first Crimean Tatar library was opened in the center of Simferopol (in 1995 it acquired the status of a republican library). The library building is currently in need of renovation.

In 1954, according to the order of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Crimean region was transferred from the RSFSR to the Ukrainian SSR (at the same time, the status of Sevastopol, which was a city of republican (RSFSR) subordination, remained “hanging in the air”). The Crimean ASSR was restored after a referendum on its status in 1991 (since 1992 - the Republic of Crimea, later - the Autonomous Republic of Kazakhstan).

Since the 1960s, when it became clear that the leadership of the USSR would not return the Crimean Tatars to their homeland (unlike the deported and returned Chechens, Ingush, Karachays, Balkars, etc.), new , young leaders, among them Mustafa Cemil, who later became the head of the Organization of the Crimean Tatar National Movement (OKND). OKND was formed by 1989 on the basis of the "Central Initiative Group", created in 1987 back in Uzbekistan. Until the mid-1990s, when the return of the Tatars became an irreversible phenomenon, the authorities of the USSR, then independent Ukraine and Crimea, put up all sorts of obstacles to the return of this people, up to the bloody massacre in the summer-autumn of 1992 in the suburbs of Alushta, trying to turn the confrontation between the Tatars and the authorities Ministry of Internal Affairs in an interethnic war. Only the high organization of the Tatars and a clear system of government contributed then and now to the goals facing the nation - to survive and regain Crimea. By the mid 1990s. lost its meaning that existed in the late 1980s. delimitation of the national movement of the Tatars (NDKT - conservative, loyal to the Soviet regime, led by Yu. Osmanov until his death in 1993, and the radical OKND). The supreme body of self-government of the Crimean Tatars is the Kurultai (“The first Kurultai” is read as held in 1917; the 2nd - in 1991; in 1996 the 3rd Kurultai took place), which forms the Mejlis. The leader of the Crimean Tatars, Mustafa Cemil, was re-elected Chairman of the Mejlis for the last time.

If in the spring of 1987 there were only 17.4 thousand Crimean Tatars in Crimea, and in July 1991 - 135 thousand, then in July 1993 there were already 270 thousand of them (according to other sources, only by 1996 the number of Tatars reaches 250 thousand people; specialists' calculations indicate the number of 220 thousand Tatars by the beginning of 1997). Of these, 127,000 remain citizens of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Russia, as the government complicates the process of obtaining Ukrainian citizenship (according to the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, 237,000 Tatars were registered by 1996). "Commonwealth of NG" (ј6, 1998, p. 4) gave a figure of 260 thousand - Tatars living in Crimea in total, of which 94 thousand citizens of Ukraine. Tatars return to the places of their birth and residence of their ancestors, although they are offered to settle exclusively in the steppe part of the Crimea.

The strategic goal of the Mejlis is the transformation of Crimea into a national Crimean Tatar state. At present, the relative number of Tatars has approached 10% of the total population of Crimea; in some areas - Simferopol, Belogorsk, Bakhchisarai and Dzhankoy - their share reached 15-18%. The repatriation of the Tatars somewhat rejuvenated the age structure of the Crimean population, especially noticeably in the countryside (according to some data, the share of children under 15 among Tatars is 32%). But this effect is limited - due to the exhaustion of the immigration potential (among the remaining Tatars in Central Asia, elderly people predominate), due to the highest infant mortality among Tatars (the birth rate is 8-14%%, and the death rate is 13-18% %), due to difficult social conditions, unemployment and degradation of the healthcare system.

About 250 thousand Crimean Tatars, according to the Mejlis, still live in the places where they were deported (experts are very critical of this information, casting great doubt on it; we can talk about no more than 180 thousand Tatars, of which 130 thousand . - in the republics of Central Asia, the rest - in Russia and Ukraine). In today's Crimea, Tatars live compactly in more than 300 villages, towns and microdistricts, of which 90% are squatters without power supply, etc. About 120 thousand Tatars do not have permanent housing. About 40 thousand Tatars are not employed, and more than 30 thousand work outside their specialty. From 40 to 45% of adult Tatars cannot participate in elections, because do not have Ukrainian citizenship (all data need to be carefully rechecked, since many of them do not match each other).

According to the 1989 census, there were 271.7 thousand Crimean Tatars in the former USSR. Many Crimean Tatars then hid their true nationality; according to research estimates, we can talk about a figure of 350 thousand Crimean Tatars. According to the Mejlis, about 5 million "Crimean Turks" live in Turkey today - the descendants of the Tatars who were evicted from the Crimea in the 17th-18th centuries. (R. Landa estimates the number of "Crimean Turks" at 2 million people, Damir Iskhakov - at 1 million, the researchers who are most critical of this problem (Starchenko) believe that the maximum number of "Crimean Turks" who have not completely assimilated does not exceed 50 thousand people.) In addition, the historical parts of the Crimean Tatar nation are the Budzhak or Dobruja Tatars living in Romania (21 thousand, or 23-35 thousand - D. Iskhakov), Bulgaria (5, or 6 thousand) and in Turkey near Bursa. In addition to the Tatars of Crimea and Dobrudja proper, the third part of the nation that formed in the former Crimean Khanate after the collapse of the Golden Horde were the Tatars of the Kuban (modern Krasnodar Territory of Russia) - who completely migrated to Turkey, or were destroyed by Russian troops, or became part of the Nogais and Cossacks of the Kuban in the 17th and 18th centuries

According to the law of 1993, the Crimean Tatars received 14 seats (out of 98) in the Crimean parliament - the Supreme Council. However, the Mejlis sought a quota of 1/3 of all deputy mandates + 1 mandate in order to block the adoption of laws that offend the interests of the Tatars. So far, the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatars has not been recognized as a legitimate body by either the Crimean authorities or the Ukrainian authorities. The new Crimean Constitution, adopted in November 1995, does not provide for a parliamentary quota for indigenous and deported peoples. The new Constitution of Ukraine, adopted by the Verkhovna Rada in 1996, in the section "Autonomous Republic of Crimea", also does not provide for the concepts of "indigenous" or "deported" peoples. The elections to the Crimean parliament that took place in the spring of 1998 did not give the Tatars a single seat (the only Crimean Tatar in the new Supreme Soviet was elected on the list of the Communist Party); 2 Crimean Tatars were elected to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine - according to the Rukh lists.

3. Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Crimea

The first DUM in the Crimea was formed under Tsar Alexander I in 1788 (the Tauride DUM, with its center in Simferopol). In the 1920s The DUM was liquidated (in 1924 the Crimean Central Muslim People's Administration for Religious Affairs was created, headed by the mufti, which soon disappeared). In 1941–44, during the occupation of the Crimea by the Germans, they allowed the Tatars to regain their mosques (250 mosques were opened) and madrasahs; "Muslim committees" were created, but the Muftiate was not allowed to be restored. In 1991, the kadiat (Spiritual Administration) of the Crimean Muslims was formed, which had the status of a mukhtasibat within the DUMES. Seyid-Jalil Ibragimov became the first mufti of Crimea (under him, in 1995, the DUM included 95 parishes; the most literate of his generation among the Crimean Tatars, he graduated from the Bukhara Madrasah and the Islamic Institute in Tashkent); in 1995, Nuri Mustafayev became a mufti, having more neutral relations than his predecessor with the chairman of the DUM of Ukraine A. Tamim (the leader of the Habashists, who is not recognized by the Tatars of Ukraine, has very good relations with the government of Ukraine and is supported by Caucasians, Lebanese and Palestinian Arabs, etc. . Shafi'i), and better relations with the Turks (but much less literate in the field of Islam).

Assistance to the Crimean Tatars in restoring their national culture and religion is provided by the Turkish government and private organizations, charitable organizations from Arab and Muslim countries. They finance the construction of mosques in new settlements rebuilt by the Tatars. But the restoration of ancient mosques in the cities of Crimea, as well as assistance in the socio-economic development of the Crimean Tatars, requires more active participation of Islamic states.

Currently, 186 Muslim communities are registered in Crimea, 75 mosques operate (June 1998), most of which are adapted buildings. In December 1997, the Muslim community of Bakhchisarai, with the support of the Mejlis, occupied a mosque on the territory of the Khan's palace-museum.

4. Karaites

The Karaites (Karai, Karaylar - from the Hebrew “readers”) are a Turkic people who speak a special Turkic language (the Karaite language of the Kipchak subgroup, the writing is Jewish), professing a special stream of Judaism - Karaimism, or Karaism, founded in the 8th century by the Mesopotamian Jew Ben- David. The Karaites recognize the Old Testament (Torah and other books), but, unlike other Jews, do not recognize the Talmud. Although there are more than 20 thousand Karaites all over the world - in Egypt (Cairo), Ethiopia, Turkey (Istanbul), Iran, and now mostly in Israel - the Karaites of Crimea (and their descendants in Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine and Russia) are considered a special ethnic group associated with the Middle Eastern Karaites only by a single religion, but having a different origin and a different native language. According to the most common version of their origin, they are the descendants of the Khazars (Crimea was part of the Khazar Khaganate), who professed Judaism. After the defeat of Khazaria in the 10th century, the bulk of the Khazars assimilated with other peoples (as Douglas Reed claims in his book The Question of Zion, based on the works of some historians, such a large mass of people could not assimilate without a trace; the descendants of the Khazars, who adopted the languages ​​of their neighbors, but who did not change their religion, - says D. Reed, - are the Ashkenazi Jews of the countries of Eastern Europe: the Lithuanian-Polish state, the Russian Empire, Romania, etc.), the smaller part, which apparently had differences from other Khazars, remained in Crimea and turned into Karaites. They lived in the Crimea in the fortified cities of Chufut-Kale and Mangup-Kale, and occupied a very honorable position at the Khan's court. At the end of the 14th century, part of the Karaites, together with a small horde of Crimean Tatars, left for Lithuania, to the Grand Duke Vitovt, who settled them around the city of Trakai and guaranteed them freedom of religion and language (the descendants of those Tatars are modern Lithuanian Tatars, and the descendants of the Karaites are about 300 people - still live in Trakai, and they are the only ones who have preserved the Karaite language). Another group of Karaims then settled in Galicia and Volhynia (the cities of Lutsk, Galich, Krasny Ostrov, etc. - modern western Ukraine).

The Trakai and Galich-Lutsk groups developed autonomously from the Crimean Karaites. When the Crimea was annexed to Russia in 1783, the Turks wanted to evacuate the Karaites to Albania. However, the Russian rulers, starting with Catherine II, treated them favorably (in contrast to the attitude towards the Jews). The Karaites were the owners of tobacco and fruit plantations, salt mines (the Jews were small artisans and merchants). In 1837, the Taurida Spiritual Administration of the Karaites was formed (by analogy with the Spiritual Administrations of Muslims); the residence of the gaham - the head of the Karaite clergy - was Evpatoria. During the revolution and civil war in Russia in 1918–20. Karaites participated in it, mainly on the side of the whites. After the revolution, all religious buildings of the Karaites (kenases) in the Crimea were closed, including the central kenasa in Evpatoria, where a museum of atheism was set up (until the 1940s, the only Karaite kenasa operated in Trakai, Lithuania). The national library was destroyed - "punish bitikligi". After the death of the last gahan in the late 80s. no one was elected to take his place, and thus the religious institutions almost collapsed.

In 1897, the total number of Karaites in Russia was 12.9 thousand. In 1926, there were 9,000 Karaites within the borders of the USSR, and 5,000 abroad (mainly Lithuania and Poland). In 1932 in the USSR - 10 thousand (mainly in the Crimea), in Poland and Lithuania - about 2 thousand. Before the war, there were about 5,000 Karaites in Crimea. During the war, the Germans did not persecute the Karaites (unlike the Jews), to which there was a special order of the German Ministry of Internal Affairs (1939) that the "racial psychology" of the Karaites was not Jewish (although the Karaites in Krasnodar and Novorossiysk were persecuted). Nevertheless, after the war, the process of migration of Karaites abroad is gradually gaining momentum, and above all to Israel, and, most importantly, the strongest assimilation by Russians. In 1979, there were 3.3 thousand Karaites throughout the USSR, of which 1.15 thousand were in the Crimea. In 1989 in the USSR - 2.6 thousand, of which in Ukraine - 1.4 thousand (including in the Crimea - 0.9 thousand, as well as in Galicia, Volyn, Odessa), in Lithuania - 0 .3 thousand, in Russia - 0.7 thousand. In the 1990s. the national movement has intensified, kenasas have been opened in Vilnius, Kharkov, and it is planned to open kenasas in Evpatoria. However, a clear downward trend in national self-consciousness leaves little chance for this nation. The language, with the exception of the Karaites of Lithuania, is known only by the older generation.

Today, there are no more than 0.8 thousand Karaites in Crimea, which is 0.03% of the population of Crimea. Using the status of the “indigenous people of Crimea” (along with the Crimean Tatars and Krymchaks), they had 1 seat (out of 98) in the parliament of the republic, according to the additions to the Law “On Elections of the Supreme Council of Crimea”, adopted on 10/14/93 (the new Constitution of Crimea 1995 and the new Constitution of Ukraine of 1996 deprives them of such a quota).

5. Krymchaks

Krymchaks (Crimean Jews) have lived in Crimea since the Middle Ages. From other groups of Jews (Ashkenazi, etc.), who appeared in the Crimea much later - in the 18th-19th centuries, they were distinguished by the spoken language (a special dialect of the Crimean Tatar language) and the traditional way of life. In the 14th-16th centuries. their main center was the city of Kaffa (modern Feodosia), at the end of the 18th century. - Karasu-Bazaar (modern Belogorsk), since the 1920s - Simferopol. In the 19th century, the Krymchaks were a small poor community engaged in crafts, agriculture, horticulture and viticulture and trade. At the beginning of the 20th century Krymchaks also lived in Alushta, Yalta, Evpatoria, Kerch, as well as outside the Crimea - in Novorossiysk, Sukhumi, etc.

Representatives of the Krymchaks took part in the Zionist movement. In 1941–42 most of the Krymchaks died during the German occupation of Crimea. In the 1970s–90s. the high level of migration to Israel practically led to the disappearance of this people from the Crimea and the countries of the former USSR. The number of Krymchaks in Crimea before the war was 7.5 thousand, in 1979 - 1.05 thousand, in 1989 - 679 people, in 1991 - 604 people. (or less than 0.02% of the current population of Crimea). Currently, being considered one of the "indigenous peoples of Crimea" (along with the Crimean Tatars and Karaites), they had 1 seat (out of 98) in the parliament of the republic, according to the additions to the Law "On Elections of the Supreme Council of Crimea", adopted on 10/14/93 ( the new Constitution of Crimea of ​​1995 and the new Constitution of Ukraine of 1996 deprive them of such a quota).

6. Crimean Armenians, Bulgarians, Greeks and Germans

In 1941, by order of the Soviet government, about 51,000 Germans were deported from Crimea to the eastern regions of the USSR; in May 1944, after the liberation of the Crimea from the Nazis, the Crimean Tatars and the remnants of the Crimean Germans (0.4 thousand) were deported; a month later, in June, the same fate befell the Greeks (14.7, or 15 thousand), Bulgarians (12.4 thousand) and Armenians (9.6, or 11 thousand), as well as foreign nationals living in Crimea: 3.5 thousand Greeks, 1.2 thousand Germans, Italians, Romanians, Turks, Iranians, etc.

Armenians have been known in the Crimea since the 11th century. In the 11th-14th centuries. they migrated to the peninsula from Hamshen and Ani (Asia Minor), settled mainly in the cities of Kaffa (Feodosia), Solkhat (Old Crimea), Karasubazar (Belogorsk), Orabazar (Armensk). In the 14th–18th centuries Armenians occupied the second place in terms of numbers in the Crimea after the Tatars. In the future, the colony was replenished with immigrants from Armenia, Turkey, and Russia. Since the 12th century, they built 13 monasteries and 51 churches in the Crimea. In 1939, 13,000 Armenians lived in the Crimea (or 1.1% of the total population of the republic). After the deportation of 1944, Crimea was again populated by Armenians from the 1960s. - immigrants from Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh, Georgia, Central Asia. In 1989, there were 2.8 thousand Armenians in Crimea (of which 1.3 thousand were citizens). Only a small part of them are descendants of those deported from Crimea after the war.

The Bulgarians appeared in the Crimea at the end of the 18th and 19th centuries. in connection with the Russian-Turkish wars. In 1939, 17,900 Bulgarians (or 1.4%) lived in the Crimea. Due to the performance of Bulgaria during the war of 1941–45. on the side of Nazi Germany, all Bulgarians were deported from the Crimea. Today, their repatriation is the least organized (compared to other nations).

The Greeks lived in the Crimea since antiquity, having numerous colonies here. The descendants of the ancient Greeks - immigrants from the Empire of Trebizond - "Romeyus" with their native Crimean Tatar language and Modern Greek (Mariupol dialect) - who lived in the Bakhchisaray region, in the bulk were withdrawn in 1779 from the Crimea to the northern coast of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov in the region of Mariupol (modern. Donetsk region of Ukraine). The settlers of the new time (17-19 centuries) - "Hellenes" with the Modern Greek (in the form of dimotic) language and Pontics with the Pontic dialect of the Modern Greek language - settled in Kerch, Balaklava, Feodosia, Sevastopol, Simferopol, etc. In 1939 Greeks made up 1.8% of the republic's population (20,700). The deportation of 1944 left a very heavy psychological mark on the national consciousness of the Greeks; Until now, many of them, when returning to the peninsula, prefer not to advertise their nationality (even after 1989, Greeks were practically not registered in Crimea); strong inclination to leave for Greece. Among those returning to the Crimea, a significant part are the descendants of the Pontic Greeks, who were deported in 1944–49. from various regions of the North Caucasus; likewise, the Crimean Greeks settle in the North Caucasus.

The Germans began to populate the Crimea from the time of Catherine II. It was the only one of the old-timer groups of Crimea that mixed little with the Crimean Tatars and adopted almost nothing from the Tatars (neither in language, nor in culture). On the contrary, already in the 20th century. German townspeople in Simferopol, Yalta, and others did not differ in their way of life from Russians. In 1939 there were 51,300 Germans in the Crimea, or 4.6% of the republic's population. Most of them were evicted in 1941, a small part - in 1944.

Today, both the descendants of the Crimean Germans and the Germans of the Volga region and other areas are returning to Crimea (all the Germans of the European part of Russia and Ukraine were deported with the beginning of the war). When returning, they, perhaps, experience the least difficulties in comparison with other peoples. Neither the local population, nor the Crimean authorities, nor the Ukrainian authorities have anything against their return, and even, on the contrary, in every possible way invite the Germans to settle in the Crimea (hope for a financial flow from Germany?).

On November 1, 1997, about 12 thousand Bulgarians, Armenians, Greeks and Germans returned to Crimea (NG, December 1997). All these groups, as descendants of the “deported peoples”, had 1 seat in the parliament of the republic out of 98, according to the additions to the law “On elections to the Supreme Council of Crimea”, adopted on 10/14/93 (the new Constitution of Crimea in 1995 and the new Constitution of Ukraine in 1996). do not provide for such quotas).

Ashkenazi Jews in the 1930s had a Jewish national (Larindorf) district in the Crimea; in addition, Jews lived in Evpatoria, Simferopol, Dzhankoy and Freidorf (western Steppe Crimea) regions. The number of Jews in Crimea in 1926 - 40 thousand, 1937 - 55 thousand (5.5%), 1939 - 65.5 thousand, or 5.8% (including Krymchaks), in 1989 - 17 thousand (0 .7%).

The most plausible version of the numerous sharp turns in the fate of the Crimea is set out in NG on March 20, 1998 in an article by Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor S.A. Usov "How Russia Lost Crimea". This article speaks directly about the role of Jews in the sad fate of the Crimean Tatars, Germans and other problems. After the revolution of 1917 (the role of the Jews in the revolution is known) and the civil war, about 2.5 million Jews remained on the territory of the USSR, i.e. half of their numbers in the collapsed Russian Empire. Most of them lived on the territory of Ukraine and Belarus.

In 1923, after the mass death from the famine of 1921–22, more than 100 thousand people in the Crimea, most of whom were Crimean Tatars, in the USSR and the USA almost simultaneously began to discuss the idea of ​​creating a Jewish national autonomy by resettling Jews from Belarus, Ukraine and Russia on land in the Black Sea region. In the USA, this idea was promoted by the charitable Jewish organization "Joint", and in the USSR - by the elite circles of the capital's intelligentsia, close to Maria Ulyanova and Nikolai Bukharin. In the fall of 1923, a report was submitted to the Politburo through Kamenev with a proposal to create by 1927 a state autonomy for Jews in the regions of Odessa - Kherson - Northern Crimea - the Black Sea coast to Abkhazia, including Sochi.

This secret project was supported by Trotsky, Kamenev, Zinoviev, Bukharin, Rykov, Tsyurupa, Sosnovsky, Chicherin and others. Gradually discussing the project reduced the territory of the alleged Jewish autonomy (and in January 1924 already the Jewish Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, federated with Russia) to the size of the Northern Crimea. The "Crimean project" received wide support in the circles of Jewish financiers of the West, future US presidents Hoover and Roosevelt, leaders of the World Zionist Organization, was included in the agenda of the Jewish Congress of America in Philadelphia. The US Congress, although it did not have diplomatic relations with Soviet Russia, decided to finance the "Crimean project" through the organization "Joint". After that, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, following the report of Kalinin, adopted a resolution on the possibility of organizing Jewish autonomy in the Crimea. The resettlement of Jews in the Steppe Crimea began; the heightened secrecy of the project was “blown up” by the chairman of the Ukrainian All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Petrovsky, who gave an interview to Izvestia, after which the situation in Crimea sharply escalated. Unrest of the Crimean Tatars and Germans began; Tatar intelligentsia, in opposition to Jewish autonomy, wished to create German autonomy in the north of Crimea. In early 1928, Veli Ibraimov, chairman of the Crimean Central Executive Committee, who actually led the sabotage of Moscow's instructions to allocate land to Jews in the steppe part of Crimea, was arrested and shot three days later. After that, under the personal control of the Menzhinsky GPU, they fabricated a closed trial “63”, according to which they were sent to Solovki for resisting the Jewish colonization of Crimea and shot the flower of the Tatar national intelligentsia there. The unrest of the Crimean Germans was severely suppressed. In order to free up land for the resettlement of Jews in Crimea, the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR urgently approved a special law recognizing the North Crimean funds as lands of all-Union significance for the resettlement needs of the USSR; at the same time, about 20 thousand Crimean Tatars were sent to the Urals. A mass seizure of land for new settlers began. In total, 375 thousand hectares were seized - they planned to resettle 100 thousand Jews here and proclaim a republic.

On February 19, 1929, in an atmosphere of heightened secrecy between the Joint and the government of the USSR, an agreement was concluded on the financing of the Crimean Project by the Americans, according to which the Joint allocated 900 thousand dollars a year for 10 years at 5% per annum. The repayment of the debt was to begin in 1945 and end in 1954. The Soviet government undertook to issue bonds for the entire amount of the loan and transfer them to the Joint, and this organization distributed shares among wealthy American Jews - among them were Rockefeller,

Marshall, Roosevelt, Hoover, and others. In total, by 1936, the Joint had transferred more than 20 million dollars to the Soviet side. By that time, Stalin was already pursuing a policy of destroying his competitors - Trotsky, Kamenev, Zinoviev, and others. Soon, Stalin decided to form two Jewish regions in Crimea (instead of an autonomous republic), and an autonomous region was created in the Far East in Birobidzhan; later, everyone who took part in the project of the Jewish republic in the Crimea was destroyed. Nevertheless, the Germans were not without reason deported from the Crimea in 1941 - they were avenged for their anti-Jewish speeches. When the Crimea was occupied by the Nazi troops, resentment towards Moscow in the light of the "Crimean project" was the main reason for the alliance of the Crimean Tatars with the German fascists. With the outbreak of war with Hitler, Stalin was forced to reconsider his policy towards the Jews; The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC) was created. In the United States, representatives of the JAC were reminded of the obligations of the USSR regarding the Crimean Project loan; a little later, the fulfillment of these obligations was the main condition for the extension of the Marshall plan to the USSR. In 1944, a petition was sent to Stalin from the leaders of the JAC for the creation of a Jewish republic in Crimea, and now it was not only about the northern regions of Crimea, but about the entire peninsula. In May 1944 the Crimean Tatars, and a month later the Armenians, Bulgarians and Greeks were deported from the Crimea.

The leaders of the JAC have already begun to distribute among themselves the highest posts in the future republic. However, a little later, the USSR supported the formation of a Jewish state in Palestine. Stalin again began to have fits of suspicion against the Jews, a lawsuit was launched against the leaders of the JAC; after the sudden death of Stalin in 1953, this campaign ceased. Khrushchev's decision to transfer Crimea to Ukraine was due to the fact that the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR assumed obligations to allocate land for the resettlement of Jews in Crimea under an agreement with the Joint. Thus, the transfer of Crimea to Ukraine was aimed at closing the issue of the obligation to the US Zionist organizations to allocate land and create Jewish statehood in Crimea.

This story is indirectly mentioned by the experts of the Applied Social Research Company and the Center for Management Design S, Gradirovsky and A. Tupitsyn in the article “Diasporas in a Changing World” (“Commonwealth of NG”, No. 7, July 1998), saying: “at least two attempts to turn the Crimea into the Jewish Autonomous Region in the 20s and late 40s. XX century."

Bibliographic list

1. Iskhakov D. Tatars. Naberezhnye Chelny, 1993.

2. Starchenkov G. Crimea. The vicissitudes of fate. // Asia and Africa today. $10–97.

3. Landa R. Islam in the history of Russia. M., 1995.

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10. Crimean Tatars: problems of repatriation. RAS, Institute of Oriental Studies, M., 1997.

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Scientists are endless disputes and discussions about the origin of the Crimean Tatars. Today, researchers find the roots of the Crimean Tatar people in the archaeological cultures of the Bronze and Iron Ages, which once developed in the Northern Black Sea region and Crimea.

Representatives of one of these cultures - Kizil-Kobinsky - are the Taurians, the natives of the Crimean peninsula.

This is discussed in the material of the historian, ATR TV presenter Gulnara Abdulla, published by 15 minutes.

It is the Tauri, which are known from the 10th century BC. e., and became one of the main components of the emerging indigenous people of the Crimea. They inhabited the mountainous and foothill regions of the peninsula and undoubtedly left their mark on the material culture of the Crimean peoples. The Cimmerians, known from the 10th to the 7th century BC, have common related roots with the Taurians. e. However, they never mixed with each other. The Cimmerians occupied a vast steppe territory between the Don and the Dniester, the steppe part of the Crimea and Taman. Some researchers argue that in the first half of the 7th century BC. e. part of this people left the territory of the Northern Black Sea region due to severe drought. But on the peninsula, by this time, the descendants of the Cimmerians had already managed to become an integral part of the Taurus and Scythian people, part of the Crimean gene pool.

In the 7th century BC e. in the Crimea appeared the most famous tribal union in ancient history - the Scythians. Unlike the Taurians and Cimmerians, the ancestral home of the Scythians was Altai - the cradle of the Turkic peoples. In Crimea, the Scythian tribes settled unevenly, occupied the eastern, western coasts and the main ridge of the Crimean mountains. The Scythians settled reluctantly in the steppe part, but this did not stop them from pushing the Cimmerians to the foothills. But as for the Taurians, the Scythians peacefully coexisted with them, and for this reason an active process of interethnic interaction took place between them. In historical science, the ethnic term "Tauroscythians" or "Scythotaurs" appears.

Around the 8th century BC. e. small settlements of fishermen and merchants appeared on the Crimean peninsula, belonging to the Hellenes from Miletus, the most powerful and richest of the cities in Asia Minor. The first inter-ethnic contacts among the colonists and the local Crimean population were exclusively economic and rather restrained. The Hellenes never advanced deep into the peninsula, they settled in the coastal strip.

More intensive integration processes took place in the eastern part of Crimea. Integration with the Hellenes did not proceed at a fast pace, for example, like the Scythians with the Cimmerians and Taurians, the latter became smaller in number. They gradually dissolved in the Scythians and rushed in the III century BC. e. from the mainland to the peninsula of the Sarmatians, who occupied the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region, displacing the Scythians from there. A distinctive feature of the Sarmatians was matriarchy - women were both part of the cavalry and occupied high priestly posts. The peaceful penetration of the Sarmatians into the mountainous and foothill regions of the peninsula continued throughout the 2nd-4th centuries. n. e. Soon they were called none other than "Scythian-Sarmatians". Under the onslaught of the Goths, they left the Crimean valleys of Alma, Bulganak, Kacha and went to the mountains. So the Scythian-Sarmatians were to settle forever between the First and Second Ridges of the Crimean Mountains. The culture, ideology and language of the Sarmatians were close to the Scythians, so the integration process of these peoples went quickly. They were mutually enriched, at the same time retaining the features of their individuality.

In the 1st century A.D. e. Roman legionnaires appeared on the Crimean peninsula. It cannot be said that their history is closely intertwined with the local population. But the Romans were in the Crimea for a long time, until the 4th century AD. e. With the departure of the Roman troops, not all Romans wanted to leave the Crimea. Someone was already connected by family ties with the natives.

In the 3rd century, East Germanic tribes, the Goths, appeared on the peninsula. They occupied the Eastern Crimea, settled mainly along the southern coast of the peninsula. Among the Crimean Goths, Arian Christianity was actively spreading. It is noteworthy that the Crimean Goths lived in the Crimea for a long time in their principality Mangup, almost without mixing with the local population.

In the 5th century A.D. e. the era of the Great Migration of Nations began. The ancient civilization ceased to exist, Europe entered the early Middle Ages. With the establishment of new states, feudal relations were formed, and new political and administrative centers, mixed in ethnic composition, were formed on the peninsula.

Following the Goths, in the IV century AD. e. a wave of new migrants hit the peninsula. These were the Turks - known in history as the Huns. They pushed the Goths into the mountainous and foothill regions of the peninsula. The Huns traveled a long way thousands of kilometers from Mongolia and Altai to Europe and settled in the Crimea, subsequently opening the way for the Khazars, Kypchaks and Horde. Hun blood harmoniously flowed into the Crimean "melting pot", which for thousands of years formed the Crimean Tatar ethnic group. The Huns brought faith and the cult of the god Tengri to the peninsula. And since that time, along with Christianity, Tengrianism has spread in the Crimea.

The Avars followed the Huns, but their stay did not leave a deep trace. They themselves very soon dissolved into the local population.

In the 7th century, the Bulgars, one of the Turkic ethnic groups, penetrated into the Crimea under the pressure of the Khazars. In Crimea, they lived in ethnic communities, but did not lead a secluded lifestyle. Settled almost throughout the peninsula. Like all Turks, they were sociable and free from prejudices, therefore they mixed intensively both with the natives and with the recent "Crimeans" like them.

At the end of the 7th century, the Khazars (Turkic tribes, overwhelmingly belonging to the Mongoloids) advanced to the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov, subjugating almost the entire Northern Black Sea region and the steppe part of Crimea to their power. Already at the turn of the 8th century, the Khazars advanced to the area of ​​settlement of the Goths in the south of the peninsula. After the collapse of their state - the Khazar Khaganate - part of the aristocracy, professing Judaism, settled in the Crimea. They called themselves "Karaites". Actually, according to one of the existing theories, it was from the 10th century that a nation, better known as the “Karaites”, began to form on the peninsula.

Around 882, another Turks, the Pechenegs, settled on the peninsula and took part in the ethnic processes that took place among the population of the Crimea. They pushed back the Turko-Bulgarians in the foothills and thereby intensified the Turkification of the highlanders. Subsequently, the Pechenegs finally assimilated into the Turkic-Alano-Bulgarian-Kipchak environment of the foothills. They had Caucasoid features with a slight admixture of Mongoloid ones.

In the second half of the 11th century, the Kipchaks appeared in the Crimea (in Western Europe known as Cumans, in Eastern Europe as Polovtsy) - one of the numerous Turkic tribes. They occupied the entire peninsula, except for its mountainous part.

According to written sources, the Kypchaks were mostly fair-haired and blue-eyed people. The amazing feature of this people is that they did not assimilate, but assimilated into them. That is, they were the core, to which, like a magnet, the remnants of the tribes of the Pechenegs, Bulgars, Alans and others were attracted, adopting their culture. The capital of the Kipchaks on the peninsula was the city of Sugdeya (modern Sudak). By the XIII century, they finally merged with the local population, switched from Tengrism to Islam.

In 1299, the troops of the Horde temnik Nogai entered the Zaperekop lands and the Crimea. From that time on, the peninsula became part of the Dzhuchiev ulus of the Great Horde, without any major upheavals, without actually changing the structure of the population that had developed at the beginning of the 13th century, without changes in the economic structure, without the destruction of cities. After that, both the conquerors and the vanquished lived peacefully on the Crimean land, virtually without conflicts, gradually getting used to each other. In the mixed demographic mosaic thus formed, everyone could continue to do their own thing and preserve their own traditions.

But it was with the arrival of the Kipchaks in the Crimea that the final centuries-old Turkic period began. It was they who completed the Turkization and created the predominant monolithic population of the peninsula.

When in the 16th century a significant mass of Zaperekop Nogais began to penetrate into the Crimean steppes, the descendants of the Kipchaks became the first with whom the Nogais encountered and with whom they began to mix quite intensively. As a result, their physical appearance changed, acquiring pronounced Mongoloid features.

So, since the 13th century, almost all ethnic components, all components, were already present on the peninsula, in other words, there were progenitors who would form a new nation - the Crimean Tatars.

It is noteworthy that even before the emergence of the Ottoman state, settlers from Asia Minor appeared on the peninsula, they were immigrants from the Turkic tribe, the Seljuks, who left traces of their stay in the Crimea, as part of its population, who spoke Turkish. This ethnic element persisted century after century, partly mixing with the Crimean Tatar population of the same faith and quite close in language - a process inevitable for any migrants. Actually, contacts with the Seljuks, and later with the Ottoman Turks from the 13th and throughout the following centuries did not stop due to the fact that the future states - the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire - were always allies.

Speaking about the ethnic composition of the Crimea, it is difficult to ignore the Venetians and Genoese. The first Venetians appeared on the peninsula at the end of the 11th century. Following Venice, Genoa began to send its trade and political agents to the Crimea. The latter subsequently finally ousted Venice from the Crimea. Genoese trading posts flourished in the first years of the independent Crimean Tatar state - the Crimean Khanate, but in 1475 they were forced to return to Italy. But not all Genoese left the Crimea. Many have put down their roots here and eventually completely disappeared into the Crimean Tatars.

Over the centuries, the ethnogenesis of modern Crimean Tatars has been rather complicated, in which non-Turkic and Turkic ancestors took part. It was they who determined the features of the language, anthropological type and traditions of the culture of the ethnos.

During the period of the Crimean Khanate, local integration processes were also observed. For example, it is known that in the early years of the Crimean Khanate, whole families of Circassians moved here, which by the end of the 19th century dissolved in the Crimean Tatars.

Today, modern Crimean Tatars consist of three main sub-ethnic groups: South Coast (Yaly Boyu), mountain, foothill Crimea (Tats), steppe (Nogai).

As for the ethnonym "Crimean Tatars", or rather Tatars, it appeared in Crimea only with the advent of the Horde, that is, when Crimea became part of the Jochi Ulus of the Great (better known as the Golden) Horde. And as it was said above, by this time a new nation was almost formed. Since then, the inhabitants of the Crimea began to be called Tatars. But this in no way means that the Crimean Tatars are descendants of the Horde. Actually, it was this ethnonym that the young Crimean Khanate inherited.

To date, the ethnogenesis of the Crimean Tatars has not yet been completed.

So, Crimean Tatars.

Different sources present the history and modernity of this people with their own characteristics and their own vision of this issue.

Here are three links:
one). Russian site rusmirzp.com/2012/09/05/categ… 2). Ukrainian site turlocman.ru/ukraine/1837 3). Tatar site mtss.ru/?page=kryims

I will write some material using the most politically correct Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krymsky… and my own impressions.

Crimean Tatars or Crimeans are a people who historically formed in the Crimea.
They speak the Crimean Tatar language, which belongs to the Turkic group of the Altai family of languages.

The vast majority of Crimean Tatars are Sunni Muslims and belong to the Hanafi madhhab.

Traditional drinks are coffee, ayran, yazma, buza.

National confectionery products are sheker kyiyk, kurabye, baklava.

The national dishes of the Crimean Tatars are chebureks (fried pies with meat), yantyk (baked pies with meat), saryk burma (puff pastry with meat), sarma (vine leaves stuffed with meat and rice), cabbage), dolma (peppers stuffed with meat and rice) , kobete - originally a Greek dish, as evidenced by the name (baked pie with meat, onions and potatoes), burma (layered pie with pumpkin and nuts), tatar ash (dumplings), yufak ash (broth with very small dumplings), barbecue, pilaf (rice with meat and dried apricots, unlike Uzbek rice without carrots), bakla shorbasy (meat soup with green bean pods seasoned with sour milk), shurpa, kainatma.

I tried sarma, dolma and shurpa. Very tasty.

Resettlement.

They live mainly in the Crimea (about 260 thousand), adjacent areas of continental Russia (2.4 thousand, mainly in the Krasnodar Territory) and in the adjacent regions of Ukraine (2.9 thousand), as well as in Turkey, Romania (24 thousand), Uzbekistan (90 thousand, estimates from 10 thousand to 150 thousand), Bulgaria (3 thousand). According to local Crimean Tatar organizations, the diaspora in Turkey numbers hundreds of thousands of people, but there are no exact data on its size, since Turkey does not publish data on the national composition of the country's population. The total number of residents whose ancestors immigrated to the country from Crimea at different times is estimated in Turkey at 5-6 million people, but most of these people have assimilated and consider themselves not Crimean Tatars, but Turks of Crimean origin.

Ethnogenesis.

There is a misconception that the Crimean Tatars are predominantly descendants of the Mongols conquerors of the 13th century. This is not true.
The Crimean Tatars were formed as a people in the Crimea in the XIII-XVII centuries. The historical core of the Crimean Tatar ethnos is the Turkic tribes that settled in the Crimea, a special place in the ethnogenesis of the Crimean Tatars among the Kipchak tribes, which mixed with the local descendants of the Huns, Khazars, Pechenegs, as well as representatives of the pre-Turkic population of Crimea - together with them formed the ethnic basis of the Crimean Tatars, Karaites , Krymchaks.

The main ethnic groups that inhabited the Crimea in antiquity and the Middle Ages are Taurians, Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans, Bulgars, Greeks, Goths, Khazars, Pechenegs, Cumans, Italians, Circassians (Circassians), Asia Minor Turks. Over the centuries, the peoples who again came to Crimea assimilated those who lived here before their arrival, or themselves assimilated among them.

An important role in the formation of the Crimean Tatar people belongs to the Western Kypchaks, known in Russian historiography under the name of the Polovtsy. Kipchaks from the 11th-12th centuries began to populate the Volga, Azov and Black Sea steppes (which from then until the 18th century were called Desht-i Kypchak - "Kypchak steppe"). From the second half of the 11th century, they began to actively penetrate into the Crimea. A significant part of the Polovtsy took refuge in the mountains of Crimea, fleeing after the defeat of the combined Polovtsian-Russian troops from the Mongols and the subsequent defeat of the Polovtsian proto-state formations in the northern Black Sea region.

By the middle of the XIII century, the Crimea was conquered by the Mongols under the leadership of Batu Khan and included in the state founded by them - the Golden Horde. During the Horde period, representatives of the Shirin, Argyn, Baryn and other clans appeared in the Crimea, who later formed the backbone of the Crimean Tatar steppe aristocracy. The spread of the ethnonym "Tatars" in the Crimea dates back to the same time - this common name was used to call the Turkic-speaking population of the state created by the Mongols. Internal unrest and political instability in the Horde led to the fact that in the middle of the 15th century Crimea fell away from the Horde rulers, and an independent Crimean Khanate was formed.

The key event that left an imprint on the further history of Crimea was the conquest by the Ottoman Empire of the southern coast of the peninsula and the adjacent part of the Crimean Mountains, which previously belonged to the Republic of Genoa and the Principality of Theodoro, in 1475, the subsequent transformation of the Crimean Khanate into a vassal state in relation to the Ottomans and the entry of the peninsula into Pax Ottomana - "cultural space" of the Ottoman Empire.

The spread of Islam on the peninsula had a significant impact on the ethnic history of Crimea. According to local legends, Islam was brought to Crimea in the 7th century by companions of the Prophet Muhammad Malik Ashter and Gaza Mansur. However, Islam began to spread actively in Crimea only after the adoption of Islam by the Golden Horde Khan Uzbek as the state religion in the XIV century.

Historically traditional for the Crimean Tatars is the Hanafi direction, which is the most "liberal" of all four canonical sects in Sunni Islam.
The vast majority of Crimean Tatars are Sunni Muslims. Historically, the Islamization of the Crimean Tatars took place in parallel with the formation of the ethnic group itself and was very long. The first step on this path was the capture of Sudak and its environs by the Seljuks in the 13th century and the beginning of the spread of Sufi brotherhoods in the region, and the last step was the massive adoption of Islam by a significant number of Crimean Christians who wanted to avoid being evicted from Crimea in 1778. The main part of the Crimean population converted to Islam in the era of the Crimean Khanate and the Golden Horde period that preceded it. Now in Crimea there are about three hundred Muslim communities, most of which are united in the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Crimea (adhere to the Hanafi madhhab). It is the Hanafi direction that is historically traditional for the Crimean Tatars.

Mosque Tahtali Jam in Evpatoria.

By the end of the 15th century, the main prerequisites were created that led to the formation of an independent Crimean Tatar ethnic group: the political dominance of the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire was established in Crimea, the Turkic languages ​​​​(Polovtsian-Kypchak on the territory of the Khanate and Ottoman in the Ottoman possessions) became dominant, and Islam acquired the status of the state religions throughout the peninsula.

As a result of the predominance of the Polovtsian-speaking population called "Tatars" and the Islamic religion, the processes of assimilation and consolidation of a motley ethnic conglomerate began, which led to the emergence of the Crimean Tatar people. Over the course of several centuries, the Crimean Tatar language developed on the basis of the Polovtsian language with a noticeable Oghuz influence.

An important component of this process was the linguistic and religious assimilation of the Christian population, which was very mixed in its ethnic composition (Greeks, Alans, Goths, Circassians, Polovtsian-speaking Christians, including the descendants of the Scythians, Sarmatians, etc. assimilated by the listed peoples in earlier eras), which amounted to the end of the XV century, the majority in the mountainous and southern coastal regions of Crimea.

The assimilation of the local population began in the Horde period, but it especially intensified in the 17th century.
The Goths and Alans who lived in the mountainous part of the Crimea, who began to adopt Turkic customs and culture, which corresponds to the data of archaeological and paleoethnographic studies. On the Ottoman-controlled South Bank, assimilation was noticeably slower. Thus, the results of the 1542 census show that the overwhelming majority of the rural population of the Ottoman possessions in the Crimea were Christians. Archaeological studies of the Crimean Tatar cemeteries on the South Bank also show that Muslim tombstones began to appear en masse in the 17th century.

As a result, by 1778, when the Crimean Greeks (Greeks were then called all local Orthodox) were evicted from the Crimea to the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov by order of the Russian government, there were just over 18 thousand of them (which was about 2% of the then population of Crimea), and more than half of these The Greeks were Urums, whose native language is Crimean Tatar, the Greek-speaking Rumeians were a minority, and by that time there were no speakers of Alanian, Gothic and other languages ​​​​at all.

At the same time, cases of conversion of Crimean Christians to Islam were recorded in order to avoid eviction.

Sub-ethnic groups.

The Crimean Tatar people consist of three sub-ethnic groups: the steppe or Nogai (not to be confused with the Nogai people) (çöllüler, noğaylar), the highlanders or Tats (not to be confused with the Caucasian tats) (tatlar) and the South Coast or Yalyboi (yalıboyylular).

South Coast - yalyboylu.

Before the deportation, the South Coast residents lived on the Southern Coast of Crimea (Krymskotat. Yalı boyu) - a narrow strip 2-6 km wide, stretching along the seashore from Balakalava in the west to Feodosia in the east. In the ethnogenesis of this group, the main role was played by the Greeks, Goths, Asia Minor Turks and Circassians, and in the inhabitants of the eastern part of the South Bank there is also the blood of Italians (Genoese). Until the deportation, the inhabitants of many villages on the South Shore retained elements of Christian rituals inherited from their Greek ancestors. Most of the Yalyboys adopted Islam as a religion quite late, compared to the other two subethnoi, namely in 1778. Since the South Coast was under the jurisdiction of the Ottoman Empire, the South Coast never lived in the Crimean Khanate and could move throughout the empire, this is evidenced by a large number of marriages of the South Coasters with the Ottomans and other citizens of the empire. In racial terms, most of the southern coasters belong to the southern European (Mediterranean) race (outwardly similar to Turks, Greeks, Italians, etc.). However, there are individual representatives of this group with pronounced features of the northern European race (light skin, blond hair, blue eyes). For example, the inhabitants of the villages of Kuchuk-Lambat (Cypress) and Arpat (Zelenogorye) belonged to this type. The South Coast Tatars also differ markedly from the Turkic in physical type: they were noted to be taller, lack cheekbones, “in general, regular facial features; this type is very harmoniously complex, which is why it can be called beautiful. Women are distinguished by soft and regular features, dark, with long eyelashes, large eyes, finely defined eyebrows ”(writes Starovsky). The described type, however, even within the small space of the South Bank, is subject to significant fluctuations, depending on the predominance of one or another nationality living here. So, for example, in Simeiz, Limeny, Alupka, one could often meet long-headed people with an oblong face, a long hooked nose and blond, sometimes red hair. The customs of the southern coast Tatars, the freedom of their women, the veneration of certain Christian holidays and monuments, their love for sedentary occupations, compared with their appearance, cannot but convince that these so-called "Tatars" are close to the Indo-European tribe. The South Coast dialect belongs to the Oghuz group of Turkic languages, very close to Turkish. In the vocabulary of this dialect there is a noticeable layer of Greek and a certain number of Italian borrowings. The old Crimean Tatar literary language, created by Ismail Gasprinsky, was based on this particular dialect.

Steppe people - legs.

The Nogai lived in the steppe (Crimean Tat. çöl) north of the conditional line Nikolaevka-Gvardeiskoye-Feodosiya. The main part in the ethnogenesis of this group was taken by the western Kipchaks (Polovtsy), eastern Kipchaks and Nogais (from this the name Nogai came). In racial terms, Nogai and Caucasoids with elements of Mongoloidity (~ 10%). The Nogai dialect belongs to the Kypchak group of Turkic languages, combining the features of the Polovtsian-Kypchak (Karachay-Balkarian, Kumyk) and Nogai-Kypchak (Nogai, Tatar, Bashkir and Kazakh) languages.
One of the starting points of the ethnogenesis of the Crimean Tatars should be considered the emergence of the Crimean yurt, and then the Crimean Khanate. The nomadic nobility of Crimea took advantage of the weakening of the Golden Horde to create their own state. The long struggle between the feudal groups ended in 1443 with the victory of Hadji Giray, who founded the virtually independent Crimean Khanate, whose territory included the Crimea, the Black Sea steppes and the Taman Peninsula.
The main force of the Crimean army was the cavalry - fast, maneuverable, with centuries of experience. In the steppe, every man was a warrior, an excellent rider and archer. Beauplan also confirms this: "Tatars know the steppe as well as pilots know sea harbors."
During the emigration of the Crimean Tatars of the XVIII-XIX centuries. a significant part of the steppe Crimea was practically devoid of the indigenous population.
The well-known scientist, writer and researcher of the Crimea of ​​the 19th century, E. V. Markov, wrote that only the Tatars “endured this dry heat of the steppe, knowing the secrets of extracting and conducting water, raising cattle and gardens in places where a German or a Bulgarian would not get along until now. Hundreds of thousands of honest and patient hands have been taken away from the economy. Camel herds have almost disappeared; where thirty flocks of sheep used to walk, there one walks, where there were fountains, there are now empty pools, where there was a populous industrial village - there is now a wasteland ... Pass, for example, Evpatoria district and you will think that you are traveling along the shores of the Dead Sea.

Highlanders - Tats.

Tats (not to be confused with the Caucasian people of the same name) lived before the deportation in the mountains (Crimean Tatar dağlar) and foothills or the middle lane (Crimean Tatar orta yolaq), that is, north of the South Coast and south of the steppes. The ethnogenesis of the Tats is a very complex and not fully understood process. Almost all the peoples and tribes that have ever lived in the Crimea took part in the formation of this sub-ethnos. These are Taurians, Scythians, Sarmatians and Alans, Avars, Goths, Greeks, Circassians, Bulgars, Khazars, Pechenegs and Western Kypchaks (known in European sources as Cumans or Komans, and in Russian as Polovtsians). Particularly important in this process is the role of the Goths, Greeks and Kypchaks. From the Kipchaks, the Tats inherited the language, from the Greeks and the Goths - the material and everyday culture. The Goths mainly took part in the ethnogenesis of the population of the western part of the mountainous Crimea (Bakhchisarai region). The type of houses that the Crimean Tatars built in the mountain villages of this region before the deportation is considered by some researchers to be Gothic. It should be noted that the given data on the ethnogenesis of the Tats are to some extent a generalization, since the population of almost every village in the mountainous Crimea before the deportation had its own characteristics, in which the influence of one or another people was guessed. Racially, the Tats belong to the Central European race, that is, outwardly similar to representatives of the peoples of Central and Eastern Europe (some of the North Caucasian peoples, and some of the Russians, Ukrainians, Germans, etc.). The Tats dialect has both Kypchak and Oguz features and is to some extent intermediate between the dialects of the South Coast and the steppe people. The modern Crimean Tatar literary language is based on this dialect.

Until 1944, the listed sub-ethnic groups of the Crimean Tatars practically did not mix with each other, but the deportation destroyed the traditional areas of settlement, and over the past 60 years, the process of merging these groups into a single community has gained momentum. The boundaries between them are already noticeably blurred today, since the number of families where the spouses belong to different subethnic groups is significant. Due to the fact that, after returning to the Crimea, the Crimean Tatars, for a number of reasons, and primarily because of the opposition of local authorities, cannot settle in the places of their former traditional residence, the process of mixing continues. On the eve of the Great Patriotic War, among the Crimean Tatars living in the Crimea, about 30% were South Coast, about 20% - Nogai and about 50% - Tats.

The fact that the word "Tatars" is present in the generally accepted name of the Crimean Tatars often causes misunderstandings and questions about whether the Crimean Tatars are not a sub-ethnic group of Tatars, but the Crimean Tatar language is a dialect of Tatar. The name "Crimean Tatars" has remained in Russian since the times when almost all the Turkic-speaking peoples of the Russian Empire were called Tatars: Karachays (Mountain Tatars), Azerbaijanis (Transcaucasian or Azerbaijani Tatars), Kumyks (Dagestan Tatars), Khakasses (Abakan Tatars), etc. Crimean Tatars have little in common ethnically with the historical Tatars or Tatar-Mongols (with the exception of the steppes), and are descendants of the Turkic-speaking, Caucasian and other tribes that inhabited Eastern Europe before the Mongol invasion, when the ethnonym "Tatars" came to the west .

The Crimean Tatars themselves today use two self-names: qırımtatarlar (literally "Crimean Tatars") and qırımlar (literally "Crimeans"). In everyday colloquial speech (but not in an official context), the word tatarlar (“Tatars”) can also be used as a self-name.

The Crimean Tatar and Tatar languages ​​are related, since both belong to the Kypchak group of Turkic languages, but they are not the closest relatives within this group. Due to the rather different phonetics (primarily vocalism: the so-called “Volga vowel interruption”), Crimean Tatars hear only certain words and phrases in Tatar speech and vice versa. The closest to the Crimean Tatar are the Kumyk and Karachai languages ​​from the Kypchaks, and the Turkish and Azerbaijani languages ​​from the Oguz languages.

At the end of the 19th century, Ismail Gasprinsky made an attempt to create a single literary language for all the Turkic peoples of the Russian Empire (including the Tatars of the Volga region) on the basis of the Crimean Tatar southern coast dialect, but this undertaking did not have any serious success.

Crimean Khanate.

The process of formation of the people was finally completed during the period of the Crimean Khanate.
The state of the Crimean Tatars - the Crimean Khanate existed from 1441 to 1783. For most of its history, it was dependent on the Ottoman Empire and was its ally.

The ruling dynasty in the Crimea was the Geraev (Gireev) clan, the founder of which was the first Khan Hadji I Gerai. The era of the Crimean Khanate is the heyday of the Crimean Tatar culture, art and literature.
The classic of the Crimean Tatar poetry of that era - Ashik Umer.
The main surviving architectural monument of that time is the Khan's Palace in Bakhchisarai.

From the beginning of the 16th century, the Crimean Khanate waged constant wars with the Moscow state and the Commonwealth (until the 18th century, mainly offensive), which was accompanied by the capture of a large number of prisoners from among the peaceful Russian, Ukrainian and Polish population. Those captured into slavery were sold at the Crimean slave markets, among which the largest was the market in the city of Kef (modern Feodosia), to Turkey, Arabia, and the Middle East. The mountain and coastal Tatars of the southern coast of Crimea were reluctant to participate in the raids, preferring to pay off payments from the khans. In 1571, the 40,000-strong Crimean army under the command of Khan Devlet I Giray, having passed the Moscow fortifications, reached Moscow and, in retaliation for the capture of Kazan, set fire to its suburbs, after which the entire city, with the exception of only the Kremlin, burned to the ground. However, the very next year, the 40,000-strong horde, which, together with the Turks, Nogais, and Circassians (more than 120-130 thousand in total), hoped to finally end the independence of the Muscovite Kingdom, suffered a crushing defeat in the Battle of Molodi, which forced the khanate to moderate its political claims. Nevertheless, formally subordinate to the Crimean Khan, but in fact semi-independent Nogai hordes, roaming in the Northern Black Sea region, regularly made extremely devastating raids on Moscow, Ukrainian, Polish lands, reaching Lithuania and Slovakia. The purpose of these raids was to capture booty and numerous slaves, mainly for the purpose of selling slaves of the Ottoman Empire to the markets, their cruel exploitation in the khanate itself, and receiving a ransom. For this, as a rule, the Muravsky Way was used, which passed from Perekop to Tula. These raids bled all the southern, outlying and central regions of the country, which were practically deserted for a long time. The constant threat from the south and east contributed to the formation of the Cossacks, who performed guard and sentinel functions in all border areas of the Moscow State and the Commonwealth, with the Wild Field.

As part of the Russian Empire.

In 1736, Russian troops led by Field Marshal Christopher (Christoph) Minich burned Bakhchisaray and devastated the Crimean foothills. In 1783, as a result of Russia's victory over the Ottoman Empire, Crimea was first occupied and then annexed by Russia.

At the same time, the policy of the Russian imperial administration was characterized by a certain flexibility. The Russian government made the ruling circles of Crimea its mainstay: all the Crimean Tatar clergy and the local feudal aristocracy were equated with the Russian aristocracy with all rights reserved.

The oppression of the Russian administration and the expropriation of land from the Crimean Tatar peasants caused a mass emigration of the Crimean Tatars to the Ottoman Empire. The two main waves of emigration came in the 1790s and 1850s. According to researchers of the late 19th century F. Lashkov and K. German, the population of the peninsular part of the Crimean Khanate by the 1770s was approximately 500 thousand people, 92% of whom were Crimean Tatars. The first Russian census of 1793 recorded 127.8 thousand people in Crimea, including 87.8% of Crimean Tatars. Thus, most of the Tatars emigrated from Crimea, according to various sources, up to half of the population (according to Turkish data, it is known about 250 thousand Crimean Tatars who settled in Turkey at the end of the 18th century, mainly in Rumelia). After the end of the Crimean War, in the 1850-60s, about 200 thousand Crimean Tatars emigrated from Crimea. It is their descendants that now make up the Crimean Tatar diaspora in Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania. This led to the decline of agriculture and the almost complete desolation of the steppe part of the Crimea.

Along with this, the development of the Crimea, mainly the territory of the steppes and large cities (Simferopol, Sevastopol, Feodosia, etc.), was intensively taking place due to the attraction of immigrants from the territory of Central Russia and Little Russia by the Russian government. The ethnic composition of the population of the peninsula has changed - the share of Orthodox has increased.
In the middle of the 19th century, the Crimean Tatars, overcoming disunity, began to move from rebellions to a new stage of national struggle.

It was necessary to mobilize the entire people for collective defense against the oppression of tsarist laws and Russian landowners.

Ismail Gasprinsky was an outstanding educator of the Turkic and other Muslim peoples. One of his main merits is the creation and dissemination of a system of secular (non-religious) school education among the Crimean Tatars, which also radically changed the essence and structure of primary education in many Muslim countries, giving it a more secular character. He became the actual creator of the new literary Crimean Tatar language. Gasprinsky began publishing the first Crimean Tatar newspaper "Terdzhiman" ("Translator") in 1883, which soon became known far beyond the borders of Crimea, including in Turkey and Central Asia. His educational and publishing activities ultimately led to the emergence of a new Crimean Tatar intelligentsia. Gasprinsky is also considered one of the founders of the ideology of Pan-Turkism.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Ismail Gasprinsky realized that his educational task had been completed and it was necessary to enter a new stage of the national struggle. This stage coincided with the revolutionary events in Russia in 1905-1907. Gasprinsky wrote: “The first long period of mine and my “Translator” is over, and the second, brief, but probably more turbulent period begins, when the old teacher and popularizer should become a politician.”

The period from 1905 to 1917 was a continuous growing process of struggle, moving from humanitarian to political. In the revolution of 1905 in the Crimea, problems were raised regarding the allocation of land to the Crimean Tatars, the conquest of political rights, and the creation of modern educational institutions. The most active Crimean Tatar revolutionaries grouped around Ali Bodaninsky, this group was under close attention of the gendarmes. After the death of Ismail Gasprinsky in 1914, Ali Bodaninsky remained as the oldest national leader. The authority of Ali Bodaninsky in the national liberation movement of the Crimean Tatars at the beginning of the 20th century was indisputable.

Revolution of 1917.

In February 1917, the Crimean Tatar revolutionaries observed the political situation with great readiness. As soon as it became known about serious unrest in Petrograd, on the evening of February 27, that is, on the day of the dissolution of the State Duma, the Crimean Muslim Revolutionary Committee was created on the initiative of Ali Bodaninsky.
The leadership of the Muslim Revolutionary Committee offered the Simferopol Council joint work, but the executive committee of the Council rejected this proposal.
After the all-Crimean election campaign conducted by the Musispolkom on November 26, 1917 (December 9, according to a new style), the Kurultai - the General Assembly, the main deliberative, directive and representative body - was opened in the Khan's Palace in Bakhchisarai.
Thus, in 1917, the Crimean Tatar Parliament (Kurultai) - the legislative body, and the Crimean Tatar Government (Directorate) - the executive body, began to exist in Crimea.

Civil War and the Crimean ASSR.

The Civil War in Russia became a difficult test for the Crimean Tatars. In 1917, after the February Revolution, the first Kurultai (congress) of the Crimean Tatar people was convened, proclaiming a course towards the creation of an independent multinational Crimea. The slogan of the chairman of the first Kurultai, one of the most revered leaders of the Crimean Tatars, Noman Chelebidzhikhan, is known - “Crimea is for the Crimeans” (it meant the entire population of the peninsula, regardless of nationality. “Our task,” he said, “is the creation of such a state as Switzerland. The peoples of Crimea represent a wonderful bouquet, and equal rights and conditions are necessary for every nation, for we should go hand in hand.” However, Chelebidzhikhan was captured and shot by the Bolsheviks in 1918, and the interests of the Crimean Tatars during the Civil War were practically not taken into account by both whites and red.
In 1921, the Crimean ASSR was created as part of the RSFSR. The state languages ​​in it were Russian and Crimean Tatar. The administrative division of the autonomous republic was based on the national principle: in 1930, national village councils were created: 106 Russian, 145 Tatar, 27 German, 14 Jewish, 8 Bulgarian, 6 Greek, 3 Ukrainian, 2 Armenian and Estonian. , national districts were organized. In 1930 there were 7 such districts: 5 Tatar (Sudak, Alushta, Bakhchisaray, Yalta and Balaklava), 1 German (Biyuk-Onlar, later Telman) and 1 Jewish (Fraydorf).
In all schools, children of national minorities were taught in their native language. But after a short rise in national life after the creation of the republic (the opening of national schools, a theater, the publication of newspapers), the Stalinist repressions of 1937 followed.

Most of the Crimean Tatar intelligentsia were repressed, including the statesman Veli Ibraimov and the scientist Bekir Chobanzade. According to the 1939 census, there were 218,179 Crimean Tatars in Crimea, that is, 19.4% of the entire population of the peninsula. Nevertheless, the Tatar minority was in no way infringed on their rights in relation to the "Russian-speaking" population. On the contrary, the top leadership consisted mainly of Crimean Tatars.

Crimea under German occupation.

From mid-November 1941 to May 12, 1944, Crimea was occupied by German troops.
In December 1941, Muslim Tatar committees were created in the Crimea by the German occupation administration. In Simferopol, the central "Crimean Muslim Committee" began its work. Their organization and activities took place under the direct supervision of the SS. Subsequently, the leadership of the committees passed to the headquarters of the SD. In September 1942, the German occupation administration banned the use of the word "Crimean" in the name, and the committee began to be called the "Simferopol Muslim Committee", and from 1943 - the "Simferopol Tatar Committee". The committee consisted of 6 departments: for the fight against Soviet partisans; on recruitment of volunteer formations; to provide assistance to the families of volunteers; on culture and propaganda; by religion; administration department and office. Local committees in their structure duplicated the central one. Their activities were terminated at the end of 1943.

The initial program of the committee provided for the creation of a state of Crimean Tatars in Crimea under the protectorate of Germany, the creation of its own parliament and army, the resumption of the activity of the Milli Firka party, banned in 1920 by the Bolsheviks (Crimean Tatar. Milliy Fırqa - national party). However, already in the winter of 1941-42, the German command made it clear that it did not intend to allow the creation of any kind of state entity in the Crimea. In December 1941, representatives of the Crimean Tatar community of Turkey, Mustafa Edige Kyrymal and Mustegip Ulkusal, visited Berlin in the hope of convincing Hitler of the need to create a Crimean Tatar state, but they were refused. The long-term plans of the Nazis included the annexation of Crimea directly to the Reich as the imperial land of Gotenland and the settlement of the territory by German colonists.

Since October 1941, the creation of volunteer formations from representatives of the Crimean Tatars - self-defense companies, whose main task was to fight partisans, began. Until January 1942, this process went on spontaneously, but after the recruitment of volunteers from among the Crimean Tatars was officially sanctioned by Hitler, the solution to this problem passed to the leadership of Einsatzgruppe D. During January 1942, more than 8,600 volunteers were recruited, of which 1,632 people were selected for service in self-defense companies (14 companies were formed). In March 1942, 4 thousand people were already serving in self-defense companies, and another 5 thousand people were in the reserve. Subsequently, on the basis of the created companies, auxiliary police battalions were deployed, the number of which by November 1942 reached eight (from the 147th to the 154th).

Crimean Tatar formations were used in the protection of military and civilian facilities, took an active part in the fight against partisans, in 1944 they actively resisted the formations of the Red Army that liberated the Crimea. The remnants of the Crimean Tatar units, together with the German and Romanian troops, were evacuated from the Crimea by sea. In the summer of 1944, the Tatar Mountain Jaeger Regiment of the SS was formed from the remnants of the Crimean Tatar units in Hungary, which was soon reorganized into the 1st Tatar Mountain Jaeger Brigade of the SS, which was disbanded on December 31, 1944 and transformed into the Krym battle group, which merged into Eastern Turkic connection of the SS. Crimean Tatar volunteers who were not part of the Tatar Mountain Jaeger Regiment of the SS were transferred to France and included in the reserve battalion of the Volga-Tatar Legion or (mostly untrained youth) were enrolled in the auxiliary air defense service.

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, many Crimean Tatars were drafted into the Red Army. Many of them later deserted in 1941.
However, there are other examples as well.
More than 35 thousand Crimean Tatars served in the ranks of the Red Army from 1941 to 1945. Most (about 80%) of the civilian population actively supported the Crimean partisan detachments. Due to the poor organization of the partisan struggle and the constant shortage of food, medicines and weapons, the command decided to evacuate most of the partisans from the Crimea in the fall of 1942. According to the party archive of the Crimean Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, as of June 1, 1943, there were 262 people in the partisan detachments of Crimea. Of these, 145 Russians, 67 Ukrainians, 6 Tatars. As of January 15, 1944, there were 3,733 partisans in Crimea, of which 1944 were Russians, 348 Ukrainians, and 598 Tatars. 2075, Tatars - 391, Ukrainians - 356, Belarusians - 71, others - 754.

Deportation.

The accusation of cooperation of the Crimean Tatars, as well as other peoples, with the invaders became the reason for the eviction of these peoples from the Crimea in accordance with the Decree of the State Defense Committee of the USSR No. GOKO-5859 of May 11, 1944. On the morning of May 18, 1944, an operation began to deport peoples accused of collaborating with the German occupiers to Uzbekistan and the adjacent regions of Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. Small groups were sent to the Mari ASSR, to the Urals, to the Kostroma region.

In total, 228,543 people were evicted from Crimea, 191,014 of them were Crimean Tatars (more than 47,000 families). From every third adult Crimean Tatar they took a subscription stating that he had familiarized himself with the decision, and that 20 years of hard labor were threatened for escaping from the place of special settlement, as for a criminal offense.

The mass desertion of Crimean Tatars from the ranks of the Red Army in 1941 (the number was called about 20 thousand people), the good reception of the German troops and the active participation of the Crimean Tatars in the formations of the German army, SD, police, gendarmerie, apparatus of prisons and camps. At the same time, the deportation did not affect the vast majority of Crimean Tatar collaborators, since the bulk of them were evacuated by the Germans to Germany. Those who remained in the Crimea were identified by the NKVD during the “cleansings” in April-May 1944 and condemned as traitors to the motherland (in total, about 5,000 collaborators of all nationalities were identified in Crimea in April-May 1944). Crimean Tatars who fought in the Red Army were also deported after being demobilized and returning home from the front to Crimea. Crimean Tatars were also deported, who did not live in Crimea during the occupation and managed to return to Crimea by May 18, 1944. In 1949, in the places of deportation, there were 8995 Crimean Tatars - participants in the war, including 524 officers and 1392 sergeants.

A significant number of immigrants, exhausted after three years of life in the occupation, died in the places of expulsion from starvation and disease in 1944-45.

Estimates of the number of deaths during this period vary greatly: from 15-25% according to estimates by various Soviet official bodies to 46% according to estimates by activists of the Crimean Tatar movement who collected information about the dead in the 1960s.

Fight for return.

Unlike other peoples deported in 1944, who were allowed to return to their homeland in 1956, during the "thaw", the Crimean Tatars were deprived of this right until 1989 ("perestroika"), despite the appeals of representatives of the people to the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine and directly to the leaders of the USSR, and despite the fact that on January 9, 1974, the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR “On recognizing as invalid some legislative acts of the USSR providing for restrictions on the choice of residence for certain categories of citizens” was issued.

Since the 1960s, in the places of residence of the deported Crimean Tatars in Uzbekistan, a national movement arose and began to gain strength to restore the rights of the people and return to Crimea.
The activities of public activists who insisted on the return of the Crimean Tatars to their historical homeland were persecuted by the administrative bodies of the Soviet state.

Return to Crimea.

The mass return began in 1989, and today about 250 thousand Crimean Tatars live in Crimea (243,433 people according to the all-Ukrainian census of 2001), of which over 25 thousand live in Simferopol, over 33 thousand in the Simferopol region, or over 22% of the region's population.
The main problems of the Crimean Tatars after their return were mass unemployment, problems with the allocation of land and the development of infrastructure in the Crimean Tatar settlements that have arisen over the past 15 years.
In 1991, the second Kurultai was convened and a system of national self-government of the Crimean Tatars was created. Every five years elections of the Kurultai (a kind of national parliament) take place, in which all Crimean Tatars participate. Kurultai forms an executive body - the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people (a kind of national government). This organization was not registered with the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine. From 1991 to October 2013, the chairman of the Mejlis was Mustafa Dzhemilev. Refat Chubarov was elected the new head of the Mejlis at the first session of the 6th Kurultai (national congress) of the Crimean Tatar people, held on October 26-27 in Simferopol

In August 2006, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed concern about reports of anti-Muslim and anti-Tatar statements by Orthodox priests in Crimea.

At the beginning, the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people reacted negatively to the holding of a referendum on the annexation of Crimea to Russia in early March 2014.
However, just before the referendum, the situation was reversed with the help of Kadyrov and Tatarstan State Councilor Mintimer Shaimiev and Vladimir Putin.

Vladimir Putin signed a decree on measures to rehabilitate the Armenian, Bulgarian, Greek, German and Crimean Tatar peoples living in the Crimean ASSR. The President instructed the government, when developing a target program for the development of Crimea and Sevastopol until 2020, to provide for measures for the national-cultural and spiritual revival of these peoples, the improvement of their territories of residence (with funding), to assist the Crimean and Sevastopol authorities in holding commemorative events for the 70th anniversary of deportation peoples in May this year, as well as to assist in the creation of national-cultural autonomies.

Judging by the results of the referendum, almost half of all Crimean Tatars took part in the vote - despite very severe pressure on them from radicals from their own ranks. At the same time, the mood of the Tatars and the attitude towards the return of the Crimea to Russia is rather wary, not hostile. So everything depends on the authorities and on how Russian Muslims will accept new brothers.

At present, the social life of the Crimean Tatars is undergoing a split.
On the one hand, the chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, Refat Chubarov, who was not allowed to enter Crimea by prosecutor Natalya Poklonskaya.

On the other hand, the Crimean Tatar party "Milli Firka".
Chairman of the Kenesh (Council) of the Crimean Tatar party "Milli Firka" Vasvi Abduraimov believes that:
"The Crimean Tatars are flesh and blood heirs and part of the Great Turkic El - Eurasia.
We have nothing to do in Europe. Most Turkic Ale today is also Russia. More than 20 million Turkic Muslims live in Russia. Therefore, Russia is also close to us, as well as to the Slavs. All Crimean Tatars speak Russian fluently, were educated in Russian, grew up in Russian culture, live among Russians."gumilev-center.ru/krymskie-ta…
These are the so-called "squatters" of land by the Crimean Tatars.
They simply built several such buildings nearby on the lands that belonged to the Ukrainian State at that time.
As illegally repressed, the Tatars believe that they have the right to seize the land they like for free.

Of course, self-captures do not take place in the remote steppe, but along the Simferopol highway and along the South Coast.
There are few capital houses built on the site of these squatters.
They just staked out a place for themselves with the help of such sheds.
Subsequently (after legalization) it will be possible to build a cafe, a house for children or sell it profitably.
And the fact that squatting will be legalized is already being prepared by a decree of the State Council. vesti.ua/krym/63334-v-krymu-h…

Like this.
Including by legalizing squatting, Putin decided to ensure the loyalty of the Crimean Tatars regarding the presence of the Russian Federation in Crimea.

However, the Ukrainian authorities also did not actively fight this phenomenon.
Since it considered the Mejlis as a counterbalance to the influence of the Russian-speaking population of Crimea on politics on the peninsula.

The State Council of Crimea adopted in the first reading the draft law “On Certain Guarantees of the Rights of Peoples Extrajudicially Deported on a National Basis in 1941-1944 from the Autonomous Crimean Soviet Socialist Republic”, which, among other things, provides for the amount and procedure for paying various one-time compensations to repatriates . kianews.com.ua/news/v-krymu-d… The adopted bill is the implementation of the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation "On measures for the rehabilitation of the Armenian, Bulgarian, Greek, Crimean Tatar and German peoples and state support for their revival and development."
It is aimed at social protection of the deportees, as well as their children, who were born after the eviction in 1941–1944 in places of deprivation of liberty or in exile and returned to permanent residence in Crimea, and those who were outside Crimea at the time of deportation (military service, evacuation, forced labor), but was sent to special settlements. ? 🐒 this is the evolution of city tours. VIP guide - a city dweller, will show the most unusual places and tell urban legends, I tried it, it's fire 🚀! Prices from 600 rubles. - will definitely please 🤑

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