Crimea: the flash point for the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. But how did a gesture
that was meant to show the quote, “boundless trust and love the Russian people feel toward
the Ukrainian people” end up as a catalyst for the slaughter of Ukrainians at Russian hands?
The stage for today's war between Ukraine and Russia was set in the late 1700s. The
Crimean peninsula had been under rule of the Crimean Khanate for three hundred years,
and was the longest surviving splinter of Gengis Khan's once powerful Golden Horde. The peninsula
was bordered by both the Russian and Ottoman empires, but the presence of a significant
number of Turkic Crimean Tatars brought the peninsula under the influence of the Ottomans.
In 1768, western Europe was experiencing a period of weakness after the Seven Years' War, and an
increasingly powerful Russia took advantage of the situation to impose its influence on Poland.
Guerrilla war soon broke out, though Russian troops managed to suppress most of the uprisings.
One group managed to slip away from Russian troops by crossing over the border into the Ottoman
Empire- the Cossacks pursuing them paid no heed to the borders and followed them to the town of Balta
where they massacred everyone. Shortly after, war broke out between Russia and the Ottomans.
The Ottoman empire was beset by infighting though, and while technically the superior force,
with a superior tactical position thanks to their control of the Black Sea, Russia would
end up the victor six years later. This marked the rise of Russia as a major European power,
and in the peace negotiations that followed, Western European states worked to limit the
terms of the peace treaty so as to prevent Russia from gaining too much influence in the east.
Crimea however was annexed by Russia, and soon heavily colonized by both Russians and Ukrainians,
though with a population that was ultimately mostly Russian.
In 1853, Russia once more went to war with the declining Ottoman Empire. Britain and
France joined on the side of the Ottomans to prevent Russia from gaining too much
influence over breakaway states of the ever-declining Ottoman empire.
Much of the fighting would take place in Crimea, hence the war earning the name the Crimean War,
and it would leave the peninsula devastated economically. Russian persecution of Crimean
Tatars led to many being killed or forced to flee to the Ottoman empire-
with the Russians ending the practice only because too much farmland was being left unattended.
Despite being the focus of much of the fighting, the peninsula remained in Russian hands though.
Having lost the war, the Russian empire went into a decades-long period of decline during which
it sought to reinvent itself so as to regain its former status as a major European power.
For Crimea though, life would remain largely the same until the Russian civil war of 1917.
Prompted by increasing dissatisfaction over the domestic condition in Russia and a disastrous
involvement in World War I, the Russian Revolution began with the Tsar stepping down from power,
believing that his removal would calm the ever increasing social unrest.
In his place, the Russian Duma was formed,
which was made up of prominent capitalists as well as Russian nobility and aristocracy.
This however didn't sit well with many of the people. Though liberated from serfdom decades
before, their 'liberation' had come with vast stipulations that heavily favored the nobility
that once lorded over them. The common people thus distrusted the Duma, and banded together
into 'Soviets', grassroots community assemblies that sought to bring political
power to the lower classes through unity. For a time, the Duma ruled alongside the Soviets,
with the Duma in control of the military and international affairs, and the Soviets
wielding great influence over domestic affairs. With the allegiance of much of the working and
middle-classes, the Soviets were too powerful for the Duma to simply disband by force or ignore.
Amongst the Soviets was the quickly growing Bolshevik faction,
headed by Vladimir Lenin who campaigned on the slogan of “peace, land and bread”. He wished
to end the disastrous war against Germany, give land belonging to the nobles to the peasantry,
and end the famine caused by Russia's losing war. With thousands of demoralized soldiers
coming home from the Eastern front, the Bolsheviks quickly grew in popularity, and support for the
war dwindled. Finally, tensions exploded with the October Revolution, during which Bolshevik forces
stormed Petrograd and overthrew the provisional government, leaving them in power over all Russia.
However, not everyone in Russia accepted Bolshevik rule,
prompting the Russian civil war. Russia split into 'whites' and 'reds', with the White factions
consisting of capitalists, imperialists wishing to see the Tsar restored to power,
and various other political factions all supported by the West- who hoped that
a White victory would return Russia to the war and continue to put pressure on Germany.
Crimea became a stronghold of the White army thanks to its access to the Black Sea, which
allowed for easy resupply from western allies. The peninsula would swap hands multiple times though
as the bloody war progressed, making it one of the bloodiest places in all of Russia at the time.
However, as the war turned against the Whites, Crimea would be where they would make their last
stand in 1920. After being defeated, any surviving Whites fled to Istanbul and beyond. 50,000 White
prisoners of war and civilians would end up massacred after the defeat of the White army.
In 1921 the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was created, and officially joined with
the Soviet Union. Despite claimed autonomy though, Crimea remained very much in control
of the Soviet Union, and autonomy did not protect its population from Joseph Stalin's repressions.
With tensions rising in the peninsula, Stalin took advantage of a natural famine and worsened
it on purpose so as to starve millions of rebellious Ukrainians, including many in Crimea.
Crimea would once more become the site of atrocities during the German invasion of the
Soviet Union in the second world war. Crimea was highly sought after by the Germans due to
its beauty and fertility, and was seen as a crown jewel to be seized and handed over to
German colonists after the war. Thus it became the site of many of the war's bloodiest battles,
until finally falling to the Germans. Despite brutal reprisals though,
the Germans were never able to secure the mountainous areas from a partisan
movement that lasted until they themselves were finally expelled by Russian forces.
Stalin however had his own plans for ethnic cleansing of Crimea,
and followed German persecution of locals, and especially Jews,
with his forced deportation of Crimean Tatars. The Tatars had their lands seized from them and
forcibly deported to Central Asia in a bid to destroy them culturally. The Armenians,
Bulgarians, and Greeks would follow suit, leaving mostly Russians and Ukrainians behind. The Crimean
Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was also abolished in 1945, with the peninsula
being made officially part of the Russian Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.
In 1954 though, the Crimean peninsula was officially returned to the Ukrainian
republic via a decree from the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. In a front page announcement
on the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Pravda, the decree read:
On April 26, 1954 The decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet
transferring the Crimea Oblast from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR.
Taking into account the integral character of the economy, the territorial proximity and the
close economic and cultural ties between the Crimea Province and the Ukrainian SSR,
the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet decrees:
To approve the joint presentation of the Presidium of the Russian SFSR Supreme Soviet
and the Presidium of the Ukrainian SSR Supreme Soviet on the transfer
of the Crimea Province from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR
The reason for the transfer of the strategically important peninsula to Ukraine was described as a
'symbolic gesture' marking the 300th anniversary of the 1654 Treaty of Pereyaslav. However,
this doesn't hold up to scrutiny as Pereyaslav is in central Ukraine and nowhere near Crimea,
and neither did the treaty affect the peninsula itself. Symbolically,
the Communist Party was trying to portray the Treaty as the unification between Ukrainians
and Russians, but while the treaty was a major step in that direction,
plenty of violence remained before Ukrainians and Russians would consider themselves brothers.
The real reasons are numerous.
Nina Khruscheva, political scientist and great-granddaughter of Nikita Kruschev,
believed that the transfer of the peninsula to the Ukrainian people was partially symbolic,
partially an effort to reshuffle the centralized political system,
and also because Khrushchev had always been fond of Ukraine. She believed that it was a
gesture from her great grandfather to what was his favorite republic.
However, Sergei Khruschchev, son of Nikita Krushchev, claimed that the decision was due
to the building of a hydro-electric dam on the Dnieper river and a desire for administration
of the Ukrainian territory to be under a single body. Thus ceding the peninsula
back to the Ukrainian republic was a measure of convenience. Other reasons though include
the integration of the Ukrainian and Crimean economies and the belief that Crimea was a
natural extension of the Ukrainian steppes. There was even some desire to repopulate
Crimea with Slavs after the expulsions of the Crimean Tatars by Stalin in 1944.
One effect of the transfer however was the unifying of the Ukrainian and Russian people.
Sevatapol in Crimea was the home of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet,
and an all-important naval base for the Soviets, through which they could influence the Black Sea
and the Mediterranean beyond. By transferring the peninsula it bound Ukraine closer to Russia,
and even the 1954 posters announcing the event ran with the slogan of “Eternally Together”.
Whatever the reasons, the transfer of the peninsula did indeed bring the
Russian and Ukrainian people closer together, resulting in great benefit to both. However,
as the Soviet Union began to disintegrate in 1989, Ukraine declared its independence shortly after,
taking Crimea along with it. This suddenly put the Russian navy in a very disadvantageous
position in the Black Sea, further impacting its ability to influence the Mediterranean. Vladimir
Putin vowed to resolve the situation, and took advantage of political strife in Ukraine in 2014
to forcibly annex the peninsula. Putin claimed that he was merely responding to the request
of a majority Russian population to be part of the Russian federation.
Crimea would end up emboldening Putin however, and fueling his support for breakaway republics
in eastern Ukraine. Claims were made that these republics too contained a majority of citizens
who wanted to rejoin Russia, and public referendums were held that showed support
in favor of leaving Ukraine- though these results were immediately disputed since no
independent sources were allowed to verify the voting and the results weren’t recognized by
either the Ukrainian government or any UN member countries. This only added to the tension of the
ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War, which has now lasted until at least 2022 and following
Putin’s decision to invade all of Ukraine, it doesn’t appear to be ending anytime soon.
What happens next in Ukraine is anyone's guess, though the current invasion is going
disastrously for Russia and in just two the first two weeks of fighting, Russia lost more
men and equipment than the United States did in 20 years of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Even if Russia succeeds in defeating the Ukrainian military, it is impossible for its
army to secure the entire country against a raging insurgency hellbent on expelling Russian troops
from their native soil. With so much political goodwill destroyed between Russia and Ukraine,
and with the blacklisting of Russia internationally, along with the staggering
losses in lives and equipment, even if Russia wins in Ukraine, it will still have lost the war.
Now go check out What Happens When A Country Declares War, Or click this other video instead!