Who deported the Crimean Tatars in 1944. Why Stalin deported the Crimean Tatars

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

Collaborators of Crimea

The eviction was carried out under the control of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs in May 1944. The order on the deportation of the Tatars, allegedly part of the collaborationist groups during the occupation of the Crimean ASSR, was signed by Stalin shortly before that, on May 11. Beria substantiated the reasons:

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

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

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

Main charges

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

According to the research of the Russian scientist, professor of history Oleg Romanko, during the war, 35 thousand Crimean Tatars helped the fascists in one way or another: they served in the German police, participated in executions, extradited communists, etc. For this, even distant relatives of traitors were entitled to exile and confiscation of property.

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

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

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

The forced eviction of the Crimean Tatar population took place on May 18, 1944. It was on this day that officers of the NKVD punitive body came to the Crimean Tatar houses and announced to the owners that they would be evicted from Crimea because of treason. By order of Stalin, hundreds of thousands of families were sent in echelons to Central Asia. During the period of forced deportation, about half of the displaced persons died, a third of them were children under 14 years old.

Therefore, Ukrinform infographics dedicated to the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Genocide-deportation of the Crimean Tatar people from Crimea.

Spring 1944: chronology of events

April 8-13 - the operation of the Soviet troops to expel the Nazi occupiers from the territory of the Crimean Peninsula;

April 22 - In a memo addressed to Lawrence Beria, Crimean Tatars were accused of mass desertion from the ranks of the Red Army;

May 10 - Beria, in a letter to Stalin, proposed to evict the Crimean Tatar population to Uzbekistan, motivating this with the accusation of “treacherous actions of the Crimean Tatars against the Soviet people” and “the undesirability of further residence of the Crimean Tatars on the border outskirts of the Soviet Union”;

May 11 - a secret resolution of the State Defense Committee No. 5859ss "On the Crimean Tatars" was adopted. In it, unfounded claims were made against the Crimean Tatar population - such as mass betrayal and mass collaboration - which became the justification for deportation. In fact, there is no evidence of the "mass desertion" of the Crimean Tatars.

"Detatarization" of Crimea by the punitive bodies of the NKVD:

32 thousand employees of the NKVD were involved in the operation;

the deported were given from a few minutes to half an hour to collect;

it was allowed to take personal belongings, dishes, household equipment and provisions with them at the rate of up to 500 kg per family (in fact, 20-30 kg of things and food);

the Crimean Tatar population was sent to the places of exile in echelons under escort;

the property left behind was confiscated by the state.

The number of Crimean Tatar population deported from Crimea:

183 thousand people in the general special settlement;

6 thousand in the reserve management camps;

6 thousand to the GULAG;

5 thousand special contingents for the Moscow Coal Trust;

only 200 thousand people.

Also among the adult special settlers were 2,882 Russians, Ukrainians, Gypsies, Karaites and representatives of other nationalities.

Geography of Kyryml settlement:

More than 2/3 of the evicted Crimean Tatars were sent to the Uzbek SSR. The first 7 echelons with displaced persons arrived in Uzbekistan on June 1, 1944, the next day - 24; June 5 - 44; June 7 - 54 echelons. All of them were sent to the Tashkent region - 56 thousand 641, Samarkand region - 31 thousand 604, Andijan region - 19 thousand 773, Fergana region - 16 thousand, Namangan region - 13 thousand 431, Kashkadarya region - 10 thousand, Bukhara region - 4 thousand. man.

In total, 35 thousand 275 families of Crimean Tatars were deported to the Uzbek SSR.

Crimean Tatars also arrived in the Kazakh SSR - 2 thousand 426 people, the Bashkir ASSR - 284, the Yakut ASSR - 93 people, in the Gorky region of Russia - 2 thousand 376 people, as well as Molotovskaya - 10 thousand, Sverdlovsk - 3 thousand 591 people, Ivankovskaya - 548, Kostroma region - 6 thousand 338 people.

According to researchers, the human losses during the transportation of the Crimean Tatars by echelons to the east amounted to 7 thousand 889 people. In the certificate on the movement of Crimean special settlers in 1944-1946, it was noted that in the first period, 44 thousand 887 people died among them, that is, 19.6%.

Consequences of deportation

The deportation led to disastrous consequences for the Crimean Tatars in places of exile. A significant number of the deported (estimated - from 15 to 46%) died of hunger and disease in the very first winter of 1944-45.

As a result of the deportation, the Crimean Tatars were confiscated: more than 80 thousand houses, more than 34 thousand homestead houses, about 500 thousand heads of livestock, all supplies of food, seeds, seedlings, feed for domestic animals, building materials, tens of thousands of tons of agricultural products ... 112 private libraries, 646 in primary and 221 in secondary schools were liquidated. In villages, 360 reading rooms ceased to operate, in cities and regional centers - more than 9 thousand schools and 263 clubs. Mosques were closed in Yevpatoria, Bakhchisarai, Sevastopol, Feodosia, Black Sea and in many villages.

On May 18, 1944, the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people began.
The deportation operation began in the early morning of May 18, 1944 and ended at 4:00 pm on May 20. It took the punitive agencies only 60 hours to carry it out and over 70 trains, each of which had 50 cars. For its implementation, the NKVD troops were involved in the number of more than 32 thousand people.

The deportees were given from a few minutes to half an hour to collect, after which they were transported by trucks to railway stations. From there, echelons with escorts went to the places of exile. According to the recollections of eyewitnesses, those who resisted or could not walk were often shot on the spot. On the way, the exiles were rarely and often fed salty food, after which they felt thirsty. In some trains, the exiles received food for the first and last time during the second week of the journey. The dead were hastily buried next to the railroad tracks or were not buried at all.

Officially, the basis for the expulsion was declared the mass desertion of the 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 prisons and camps. Moreover, deportation did not touch most of the Crimean Tatar collaborators, since the bulk of them were evacuated by the Germans to Germany. Those who remained in Crimea were identified by the NKVD during the "sweeps" in April-May 1944 and convicted as traitors to their homeland. For those who say that all Crimean Tatars were traitors and accomplices of the fascists, I will give a few numbers.
Crimean Tatars who fought in the Red Army were also subjected to deportation after demobilization. In total, during 1945-1946, 8995 Crimean Tatar war veterans, including 524 officers and 1392 sergeants, were sent to the places of deportation. In 1952 (after the famine of 1945 that took many lives), only in Uzbekistan, according to the NKVD, there were 6057 war participants, many of whom had high government awards.

From the memories of survivors of deportation:

“In the morning, instead of a greeting, a choice mate and a question: are there any corpses? People cling to the dead, cry, do not give. Soldiers throw the bodies of adults out the doors, children out the window ... "

“There was no medical service. The dead were taken out of the carriage and left at the station, not allowing them to be buried. "

“There was no question of medical care. People drank water from reservoirs and stored themselves from there for future use. There was no way to boil water. People began to get sick with dysentery, typhoid fever, malaria, scabies, lice overpowered everyone. It was hot and thirsty all the time. The dead were left on the road, no one buried them. "

“A few days later the tracks from our carriage carried the dead: an old woman and a little boy. The train stopped at small stations to leave the dead. ... They were not allowed to bury. "

“My grandmother, brothers and sisters died in the first months of deportation, before the end of 1944. Mom was unconscious in this heat with her dead brother for three days. Until the adults saw her. "

A significant number of immigrants, exhausted after three years of life in the German-occupied Crimea, died in places of exile from hunger and disease in 1944-45 due to the lack of normal living conditions (in the early years, people lived in barracks and dugouts, did not have sufficient food and access to health care). Estimates of the death toll during this period vary greatly: from 15-25% according to estimates by various Soviet official bodies to 46% according to the estimates of activists of the Crimean Tatar movement who collected information on those who died in the 1960s. So, according to the OSP of the UzSSR, only “for 6 months of 1944, that is, from the moment of arrival in the UzSSR and until the end of the year, 16,052 people died. (10.6%) ".

For 12 years until 1956, Crimean Tatars had the status of special settlers, which implied various restrictions in rights, in particular, a ban on unauthorized (without written permission from the special commandant's office) crossing the border of a special settlement and criminal punishment for violating it. There are numerous cases when people were sentenced to many years (up to 25 years) in camps for visiting relatives in neighboring villages, the territory of which belonged to another special settlement.

Crimean Tatars weren't just evicted. They were subjected to the deliberate creation of such living conditions for them, which were designed for the complete or partial physical and moral destruction of the people so that the world would forget about them, and they themselves forgot to which clan-tribe they belonged and in no case thought about returning. to their native land.

The total deportation of the Crimean Tatars was the greatest betrayal on the part of the Soviet government, since the bulk of the male population of the Crimean Tatars, drafted into the army, continued at that time to fight on the fronts for the same Soviet power. About 60 thousand Crimean Tatars were called to the front in 1941, 36 thousand died defending the USSR. In addition, 17 thousand Crimean Tatar boys and girls became activists of the partisan movement in Crimea, 7 thousand - participated in underground work.

The Nazis burned 127 Crimean Tatar villages because their residents helped partisans, 12 thousand Crimean Tatars were killed for resisting the occupation regime, and more than 20 thousand were forcibly driven to Germany.
Crimean Tatars who fought in the Red Army were also subjected to deportation after demobilization and returning home from the front to Crimea. Also deported were Crimean Tatars who did not live in Crimea during the occupation and who managed to return to Crimea by May 18, 1944. In 1949, there were 8995 Crimean Tatars in the places of deportation - participants in the war, including 524 officers and 1392 sergeants.

According to the final data, 193,865 Crimean Tatars (more than 47 thousand families) were deported from Crimea.
After the deportations in Crimea, two decrees from 1945 and 1948 renamed settlements whose names were of Crimean Tatar, German, Greek, Armenian origin (more than 90% of the settlements of the peninsula). The Crimean ASSR was transformed into the Crimean region. The autonomous status of Crimea was restored only in 1991.

Unlike many other deported peoples who returned to their homeland in the late 1950s, the Crimean Tatars were formally deprived of this right until 1974, in fact, until 1989. The mass return of the people to Crimea began only at the end of Perestroika.

GENERAL DEPORTATION RESULTS:
The Crimean Tatar people have lost:
- the native land in which the ancestors, mastering the land, from the 13th century formed as a nationality, calling their land in their native language Crimea, and themselves Crimean Tatars;
- monuments of material culture, created by the hands of talented representatives of the people for many centuries.
The following were eliminated from the Crimean Tatar people:
- primary and secondary schools teaching in the native language;
- Higher and secondary educational institutions, special and vocational, technical schools with teaching in their native language;
- national ensembles, theaters and studios;
- newspapers, publishing houses, radio broadcasting and other national bodies and institutions (unions of writers, journalists, artists);
- research institutes and institutions for the study of the Crimean Tatar language, literature, art and folk art.

The following were destroyed from the Crimean Tatar people:
- cemeteries and graves of ancestors with gravestones and inscriptions;
- monuments and mausoleums of historical figures of the people.
The following were taken away from the Crimean Tatar people:
- national museums and libraries with tens of thousands of volumes in their native language;
- clubs, reading rooms, prayer houses - mosques and madrasahs.

The history of the formation of the Crimean Tatar people as a nation was falsified and the original toponymy was destroyed:
- renamed the names of towns and villages, streets and quarters, geographical names of localities, etc .;
- folk legends and other types of folk art created by the ancestors of the Crimean Tatars for centuries have been altered and appropriated.

On the eve of the war, Crimean Tatars made up less than one fifth of the population of the peninsula. Here is the 1939 census data 1:

Nevertheless, the Tatar minority was not in the least infringed on its rights in relation to the "Russian-speaking" population. Rather the opposite. The state languages \u200b\u200bof the Crimean ASSR were Russian and Tatar. The administrative division of the autonomous republic was based on the national principle: in 1930, national village councils were created: 207 Russians, 144 Tartars, 37 German, 14 Jewish, 9 Bulgarian, 8 Greek, 3 Ukrainian, Armenian and Estonian - 2 each. , national districts were organized. In 1930, there were 7 such districts: 5 Tatar (Sudak, Alushta, Bakhchisarai, Yalta and Balaklava), 1 German (Biyuk-Onlarsky, later Telmansky) and 1 Jewish (Freidorf) 2 In all schools, children of ethnic minorities studied in their native language ... After the start of the Great Patriotic War, many Crimean Tatars were drafted into the Red Army. However, their service was short-lived. We will quote the memo of the deputy. People's Commissar of State Security of the USSR B.Z. Kobulov and deputy. People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR I.A. Serov in the name of L.P. Beria, dated April 22, 1944:

"... All those drafted into the Red Army numbered 90 thousand people, including 20 thousand Crimean Tatars ... 20 thousand Crimean Tatars deserted in 1941 from the 51st Army when it retreated from the Crimea ..." 3

Thus, the desertion of the Crimean Tatars from the Red Army was almost universal. This is confirmed by data for individual settlements. So, in the village of Koush, out of 132 drafted into the Red Army in 1941, 120 people deserted 4.

Then the subservience to the German invaders began.

"From the very first days of their arrival, the Germans, relying on the Tatar-nationalists, without plundering their property openly, as they did with the Russian population, tried to ensure a good attitude of the local population towards themselves" 5, wrote Krasnikov, head of the 5th partisan district ...

Already in December 1941, the German command began to organize the so-called "Muslim committees". Under the leadership of the Germans, armed "self-defense" detachments began to form. Many Tatars were used as guides for punitive detachments against partisans. Separate detachments were sent to the Kerch Front and partially to the Sevastopol sector of the front, where they participated in battles against the Red Army. But most of all they became famous for the massacres of the civilian population. Here it is appropriate to recall one of the main arguments of the defenders of the "repressed peoples":

"The accusation of betrayal, really committed by individual groups of Crimean Tatars, was unfoundedly extended to the entire Crimean Tatar people."

Say, not all Tatars served the Germans, but only "separate groups", while others were partisans at that time. However, in Germany, there was also an anti-Hitler underground, so now the Germans should be recorded as our allies in World War II? Let's look at specific numbers. Let's turn to the data of N.F.Bugai himself:

"In the units of the German army stationed in Crimea, there were, according to rough estimates, more than 20 thousand Crimean Tatars" 7

.
That is, taking into account the information given in the note cited above by Kobulov and Serov, practically all of the Crimean Tatar population of draft age. It is indicative that this unseemly circumstance is actually recognized in a very characteristic edition ("The book constitutes a documentary historical basis for the measures taken in the Russian Federation to rehabilitate abused and punished peoples" 8).

And how many Crimean Tatars were there among the partisans? On June 1, 1943, there were 262 people in the Crimean partisan detachments, of which 145 were Russians, 67 Ukrainians and ... 6 Tatars 9. As of January 15, 1944, according to the party archives of the Crimean Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, there were 3,733 partisans in Crimea, of which Russians - 1944, Ukrainians - 348, Tatars - 598 10. Finally, according to the certificate on the party, national and age composition of the Crimean partisans in April 1944, among the partisans there were: Russians - 2075, Tatars - 391, Ukrainians - 356, Belarusians - 71, others - 754 11.

So, even if we take the maximum of the given figures - 598, the ratio of Tatars in the German army and in the partisans will be more than 30 to 1. It is also very interesting to read the newspaper Azat Crimea (Liberated Crimea), published in the occupied Crimea since 1942 to 1944. Here are some 12 characteristic excerpts:

03.03.1942 g.

After our brothers-Germans crossed the historic moat at the gates of Perekop, the great sun of freedom and happiness rose for the peoples of Crimea.

03/10/1942

Alushta. At a meeting hosted by the Muslim committee, muslims expressed their gratitude to the Great Fuehrer Adolf Hitler-Effendi for the free life given to the Muslim people. Then they arranged a service for the preservation of life and health for many years to Adolf Hitler-Effendi.

In the same issue:

Great Hitler - the liberator of all peoples and religions! 2 thousand Tatars der. Kokkozy (now the village of Sokolinoe, Bakhchisarai district) and its surroundings gathered for a prayer service ... in honor of the German soldiers. We created a prayer for the German war martyrs ... The entire Tatar people every minute prays and asks Allah to grant the Germans victory over the whole world. Oh, great leader, we tell you from the bottom of our hearts, from our whole being, believe us! We, Tatars, give our word to fight the herd of Jews and Bolsheviks together with the German soldiers in the same row! .. May the Lord thank you, our great Mr. Hitler!

03/20/1942

Together with the glorious German brothers who arrived in time to liberate the world of the East, we, the Crimean Tatars, declare to the whole world that we have not forgotten Churchill's solemn promises in Washington, his desire to revive the Jewish rule in Palestine, his desire to destroy Turkey, seize Istanbul and the Dardanelles , raise an uprising in Turkey and Afghanistan, etc. etc. The East is waiting for its liberator, not from the lying democrats and swindlers, but from the National Socialist Party and from the liberator Adolf Hitler. We have made an oath to make sacrifices for such a sacred and brilliant task.

04/10/1942

From the message to A. Hitler, accepted at the prayer service for more than 500 Muslims in Karasubazar.

Our liberator! Only thanks to you, your help and thanks to the courage and dedication of your troops, we were able to open our prayer houses and perform prayers in them. Now there is not and cannot be such a force that would separate us from the German people and from you. The Tatar people vowed and gave their word by volunteering in the ranks of the German troops, hand in hand with your troops to fight against the enemy to the last drop of blood. Your victory is the victory of the entire Muslim world. We pray to God for the health of your troops and ask God to give you, the great liberator of nations, long years of life. You are now the liberator, the leader of the Muslim world - Adolf Hitler Gaza.

In the same issue:

The liberator of the oppressed peoples, the son of the German people, Adolf Hitler.

We, Muslims, with the arrival of the valiant sons of Great Germany in Crimea, with your blessing and in memory of long-term friendship, have become shoulder to shoulder with the German people, took up arms and began to fight to the last drop of blood for the great universal human ideas put forward by you - the destruction of the red Jew- the Bolshevik plague to the end and without a trace.
Our ancestors came from the East, and we waited for liberation from there, but today we are witnessing that liberation comes to us from the West. Perhaps for the first and only time in history it happened that the sun of freedom rose from the west. This sun is you, our great friend and leader, with your mighty German people.
Presidium of the Muslim Committee.

As we can see, Gorbachev, with his notorious "universal human values", had a worthy predecessor.

After the liberation of Crimea by Soviet troops, the hour of reckoning came.

The organs of the NKVD and the NKGB are carrying out work in Crimea to identify and seize the enemy's agents, traitors to the Motherland, accomplices of the German fascist invaders and other anti-Soviet elements.
As of May 7 this year. 5381 such persons were arrested.
5995 rifles, 337 machine guns, 250 submachine guns, 31 mortars and a large number of grenades and rifle cartridges were seized illegally stored by the population ...
By 1944, over 20 thousand Tatars had deserted from the units of the Red Army, who betrayed their Motherland, went into the service of the Germans and fought with arms in their hands against the Red Army ...
Considering the treacherous actions of the Crimean Tatars against the Soviet people and proceeding from the undesirability of further residence of the Crimean Tatars on the border outskirts of the Soviet Union, the NKVD of the USSR submits for your consideration a draft decision of the State Defense Committee on the eviction of all Tatars from the territory of Crimea.
We consider it expedient to resettle the Crimean Tatars as special settlers in the regions of the Uzbek SSR for use in work in agriculture - collective farms, state farms, and in industry and construction.
The issue of resettlement of Tatars in the Uzbek SSR was agreed with the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Uzbekistan, comrade Yusupov.
According to preliminary data, currently there are 140-160 thousand Tatar population in Crimea. The eviction operation will start on May 20-21 and end on June 1. At the same time, I present a draft resolution of the State Defense Committee, I ask for your decision.
People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR
L. Beria

Project

Resolution
State Defense Committee 14

May 1944

GKO decides:

1. All Tatars to be evicted from the territory of Crimea and to settle them for permanent residence as special settlers in the regions of the Uzbek SSR. The eviction should be assigned to the NKVD of the USSR. To oblige the NKVD of the USSR (Comrade Beria) to complete the eviction of the Crimean Tatars by June 1, 1944.

2. Establish the following procedure and conditions for eviction:
a) Allow the special settlers to take with them personal belongings, clothes, household equipment, dishes and food in an amount of up to 500 kg per family.
Remaining property, buildings, outbuildings, furniture and household land are accepted by local authorities; all productive and dairy cattle, as well as poultry, are accepted by the People's Commissariat for Meat Processing; all agricultural products - by the People's Commissariat of the USSR; horses and other draft animals - by the USSR People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs; pedigree cattle - by the USSR People's Commissariat of State.
Acceptance of livestock, grain, vegetables and other types of agricultural products shall be carried out with an extract of exchange receipts for each settlement and each farm.
To instruct the NKVD of the USSR, the People's Commissariat for Agriculture, the Narkommyasomolprom, the Narkomsovkhoz and the Narkomzag of the USSR from July 1 of this year. to submit to the Council of People's Commissars proposals on the procedure for returning the livestock, poultry and agricultural products received from them to the special settlers on exchange receipts.

b) To organize reception from the special settlers of property, cattle, grain and agricultural products left by them in places of eviction, send a commission of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR to the place: the chairman of the commission comrade Gritsenko (Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR) and members of the commission - comrade. Krestyaninov (member of the board of the USSR People's Commissariat for Land), comrade Nadyarnykh (member of the board of the NKM and MP), comrade Pustovalov (a member of the board of the USSR People's Commissariat for Agriculture), comrade Kabanov (Deputy People's Commissar of State Farms of the USSR), Comrade Gusev (member of the board of the USSR People's Commissariat for Finance).
To oblige the People's Commissariat of the USSR (Comrade Benediktova), the People's Commissariat of the USSR (Comrade Subbotina), the People's Commissariat of Education and the MP (Comrade Smirnova), the People's Commissariat of the USSR (Comrade Lobanova) to send livestock, grain and agricultural products from the special settlers (in agreement with Comrade Gritsenko) in Crimea the required number of workers.

c) To oblige the NKPS (Comrade Kaganovich) to organize the transportation of special settlers from the Crimea to the Uzbek SSR by specially formed echelons according to a schedule drawn up jointly with the NKVD of the USSR. The number of echelons, loading stations and destination stations at the request of the USSR NKVD. Calculations for transportation shall be made at the rate for transportation of prisoners.

d) The USSR People's Commissariat for Health (Comrade Mitereva) shall be allocated for each echelon with special settlers, within the time frame agreed with the USSR NKVD, one doctor and two nurses with an appropriate supply of medicines and provide medical and sanitary services for the special settlers on the way.

e) The USSR People's Commissariat for Trade (Comrade Lyubimov) will provide all trains with special settlers daily with hot meals and boiling water. To provide food for the special settlers on the way, provide the People's Commissariat of Trade with food ...

3. To oblige the secretary of the Central Committee of the CP (b) of Uzbekistan, comrade Yusupov, chairman of the SNK UzSSR comrade. Abdurakhmanov and People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Uzbek USSR Comrade. Kobulov until July 1 of this year. to carry out the following measures for the reception and resettlement of special settlers:
a) Accept and resettle within the Uzbek SSR 140-160 thousand people of special settlers Tatars sent by the NKVD of the USSR from the Crimean ASSR.
The resettlement of special settlers should be carried out in state farm settlements, existing collective farms, subsidiary farms of enterprises and factory settlements for use in agriculture and industry.

b) In the areas of resettlement of special settlers, create commissions consisting of the chairman of the regional executive committee, the secretary of the regional committee and the head of the UNKVD, entrusting these commissions with all activities related to the direct placement of arriving special settlers.

c) Prepare guzhavotransportation for the transportation of special settlers, mobilizing for this transport of any enterprises and institutions.

d) Ensure that the arriving special settlers are provided with household plots and provide assistance in the construction of houses with local building materials.

e) To organize special commandant's offices of the NKVD in the areas of resettlement of the special settlers, attributing their maintenance at the expense of the estimates of the NKVD of the USSR.

f) the Central Committee and SNK of the UzSSR by May 20 of this year. submit to the NKVD of the USSR Comrade Beria, a project for the resettlement of special settlers in regions and districts with an indication of the stations for unloading trains.

4. To oblige the Selkhozbank (Comrade Kravtsova) to issue to the special settlers sent to the Uzbek SSR, in the places of their settlement, a loan for the construction of houses and for economic establishment of up to 5,000 rubles per family with an installment plan of up to 7 years.

5. To oblige the People's Commissariat of the USSR (Comrade Subbotin) to allocate flour, cereals and vegetables at the disposal of the Council of People's Commissars of the Uzbek SSR for distribution to the special settlers during June-August of this year. in equal monthly amounts ... Distribution of flour, cereals and vegetables to the special settlers during June-August of this year. produce free of charge, taking into account the agricultural products and livestock accepted in the places of eviction.

6. To oblige the NCO (Comrade Khrulev) to transfer within May-July of this year. to reinforce the vehicles of the NKVD troops deployed by garrisons in the areas of settlement of special settlers in the Uzbek SSR, Kazakh SSR and Kirghiz SSR 100 Jeep cars and 250 trucks that were out of repair.

7. To oblige Glavneftesnab (Comrade Shirokova) to allocate and ship by May 20, 1944 to the points at the direction of the USSR NKVD 400 tons of gasoline and to the disposal of the SNK of the Uzbek SSR - 200 tons.

8. To oblige the Glavsnables SNK of the USSR (Comrade Lopukhova) to supply the NKPS with 75,000 carriage boards, 2.75 m each, through the sale of resources, with their delivery by May 15 of this year; transportation of NKPS boards to carry out by own means.

9. The People's Commissariat of Finance of the USSR (Comrade Zverev) to release the NKVD of the USSR in May of this year. 30 million rubles from the reserve fund of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR for special events.

Chairman of the State Defense Committee
I. Stalin

On April 2 and May 11, 1944, the State Defense Committee adopted resolutions No. 5943ss and No. 5859ss on the eviction of Crimean Tatars from the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic to the Uzbek SSR 15.

The operation was carried out quickly and decisively. The eviction began on May 18, and already on May 20 Serov and Kobulov reported:

Telegram addressed to the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR L.P. Beria 16

We hereby report that, started in accordance with your instructions on May 18 this year. the operation to evict the Crimean Tatars was completed today, May 20, at 16:00. A total of 180014 people were evicted, loaded into 67 echelons, of which 63 echelons with a total of 173.287 people. sent to their destinations, the remaining 4 echelons will also be sent today.
In addition, the district military commissars of the Crimea mobilized 6,000 Tatars of military age, who were sent to the cities of Guryev, Rybinsk and Kuibyshev, according to the orders of the Main Department of the Red Army.
Of the 8000 people sent at your order to the Moskovugol trust, 5000 special contingent. also make up the Tatars.
Thus, 191,044 persons of Tatar nationality were removed from the Crimean ASSR.
During the eviction of the Tatars, 1137 people were arrested of anti-Soviet elements, and in total during the operation - 5989 people.
Weapons seized during the eviction: mortars - 10, machine guns - 173, machine guns - 192, rifles - 2650, ammunition - 46.603 pcs.
In total, during the operation, the following were seized: mortars - 49, machine guns - 622, machine guns - 724, rifles - 9888 and ammunition - 326.887 pcs.
During the operation, no excesses took place.
Serov
Kobulov

In addition to the Tatars, Bulgarians, Greeks, Armenians and persons of foreign citizenship were evicted from Crimea. The need for this step was justified by the following document:

I.V. Stalin 17

After the eviction of the Crimean Tatars in Crimea, work continues on the identification and seizure of anti-Soviet elements by the NKVD of the USSR, sweeping, etc. On the territory of Crimea, currently residing Bulgarians - 12075, Greeks - 14300, Armenians - 9919 people are counted.
The Bulgarian population lives for the most part in the settlements between Simferopol and Feodosia, as well as in the Dzhankoy region. There are up to 10 village councils with a population of 80 to 100 Bulgarians each.
During the German occupation, a significant part of the Bulgarian population took an active part in the activities carried out by the Germans to procure bread and food for the German army, assisted the German military authorities in identifying and detaining the Red Army and Soviet partisans, and received "security certificates" from the German command.
The Germans organized police detachments from the Bulgarians, and also recruited among the Bulgarian population to send them to work in Germany.
The Greek population lives in most areas of Crimea. A significant part of the Greeks, especially in the coastal cities, with the arrival of the occupiers, engaged in trade and small industry. The German authorities provided assistance to the Greeks in trade, transportation of goods, etc.
The Armenian population lives in most regions of Crimea. There are no large settlements with an Armenian population. The Armenian Committee organized by the Germans actively cooperated with the Germans and carried out a great deal of anti-Soviet work.
In the mountains. In Simferopol, there was a German intelligence organization "Dromedar", headed by the former Dashnak general Dro, who led intelligence work against the Red Army and for this purpose created several Armenian committees for espionage and subversive work in the rear of the Red Army and to help organize the Armenian volunteer legions.
Armenian national committees, with the active participation of emigrants from Berlin and Istanbul, carried out work to promote "independent Armenia".
There were so-called "Armenian religious communities", which, in addition to religious and political issues, were engaged in organizing trade and small industry among Armenians. These organizations provided assistance to the Germans, especially "by raising funds" for the military needs of Germany.
The so-called "Armenian Legion" was formed by Armenian organizations, which was supported by the funds of the Armenian communities.
The NKVD considers it expedient to evict all Bulgarians, Greeks, Armenians from the territory of Crimea.
L. Beria

Summing up the results of the eviction operations from the Crimea, Beria reported to Stalin:

State Defense Committee
to comrade Stalin I.V. eighteen
July 5, 1944

In pursuance of your instructions, the NKVD-NKGB of the USSR, in the period from April to July 1944, the territory of Crimea was cleared of anti-Soviet spy elements, and Crimean Tatars, Bulgarians, Greeks, Armenians and persons of foreign citizenship were evicted to the eastern regions of the Soviet Union. As a result of the measures, 7,883 anti-Soviet elements were seized, 998 spies were evicted, a special contingent was evicted - 225,009 people, 15,990 weapons illegally stored from the population were seized, including 716 machine guns, ammunition - 5 million pieces.
23,000 soldiers and officers of the NKVD troops and up to 9,000 people from the operational staff of the NKVD-NKGB bodies took part in the operations in the Crimea.

L. Beria

According to the generally accepted opinion, all Crimean Tatars, including those who honestly fought in the Red Army or in partisan detachments, were evicted. In fact, this is not the case:

“Members of the Crimean underground, who acted behind enemy lines, members of their families were also exempted from the status of a“ special settler. ”Thus, the family of S.S.Useinov, who was in Simferopol during the occupation of Crimea, was released from December 1942 to March 1943 He was a member of an underground patriotic group, then he was arrested by the Nazis and shot. Family members were allowed to live in Simferopol " 19 .

"... The Crimean Tatars-front-line soldiers immediately asked to release their relatives from special settlements. Such appeals were sent by the deputy commander of the 2nd Aviation Squadron of the 1st Fighter Aviation Regiment of the Higher Officer's School of Air Combat, Captain E.U. Chalbash, Major of Armored troops H. Chalbash and many others ... Often requests of this nature were satisfied, in particular, E. Chalbash's family was allowed to live in the Kherson region " 20 .

Women who married Russians were also exempted from eviction:

Report to the USSR People's Commissar of Internal Affairs L.P. Beria 21

During the resettlement from Crimea, there were cases of eviction of women of ethnicity Tartars, Armenians, Greek women and Bulgarians, whose husbands are Russian by nationality and are left to live in Crimea or are in the Red Army.
We consider it expedient to release such women from the special settlement in the absence of compromising data on them.
We ask for your instructions.

V. Chernyshov
M.M. Kuznetsov

In conclusion, we will give one more quote:

"The Black Sea Greeks were evicted, and the Azovs were left. The Armenians were deported from Crimea, but the Republic of Armenia was not liquidated. Actually anti-Tatar, anti-Armenian, anti-Greek propaganda was not carried out, as the Nazis did with their racial theory and their accomplices, ethnocrats. The Stalinist regime proceeded from own ideas about national security and geostrategic interests of the country " 22 .

Let us add that, proceeding from these ideas, the "Stalinist regime" managed to win the war against the strongest enemy, to defend the independence and territorial integrity of our country.
__________
Notes
1. Crimea is multinational. Questions and answers. Issue 1. / Comp. N.G. Stepanova. Simferopol: Tavria, 1988.S. 72.
2. Ibid. P.66.
3. Joseph Stalin to Lavrenty Beria: "They must be deported ...": Documents, facts, comments / Comp. N.F.Bugay. M .: Druzhba Narodov, 1992.S. 131.
4. Archive of the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IRIRAN). F.2. Section VI. Op.13. D.26. L.5. Cit. by: Bugay N.F. L. Beria - I. Stalin: According to your instructions ... M .: "AIRO-XX", 1995. P.148.
5. IRIRAN Archive. F.2. Section VI. Op.13. D.31. L.6. Cit. by: Bugay N.F. L. Beria to I. Stalin: According to your instructions ... P.145.
6. "They were loaded into trains and sent to the places of settlements ...". L. Beria - I. Stalin. Compiled by Bugay N.F. // History of the USSR. 1991, no. 1. P.160.
7. Bugai N.F. L. Beria to I. Stalin: According to your instructions ... P.146.
8. Ibid. C.2.
9. Crimea is multinational. Questions and answers. Issue 1.P. 80.
10. Ibid.
11. Archive IRIRAN. F.2. Section 2. Op. 10. D.51b. L.3, 13. Cit. by: Bugay N.F. L. Beria to I. Stalin: According to your instructions ... P.146.
12. National policy of Russia: history and modernity. M .: Russian world. 1997.S. 318-320.
13. Deportation. Beria reports to Stalin ... // Communist. 1991, no. 3. P.107.
14. Joseph Stalin to Lavrenty Beria: "They must be deported ...": Documents, facts, comments. Pp. 134-137.
15. Bugay N.F. L. Beria to I. Stalin: According to your instructions ... pp. 150-151.
16. Joseph Stalin to Lavrenty Beria: "They must be deported ...": Documents, facts, comments. Pp. 138-139.
17. GARF. F.R-9401. Op. 2. D.65. L. 162-163. Cit. Quoted from: Joseph Stalin to Lavrenty Beria: "They must be deported ...": Documents, facts, comments. S.140-142.
18. GARF. F.R.-9401. Op. 2. D.65. L.271-272. Cit. Quoted from: Joseph Stalin to Lavrenty Beria: "They must be deported ...": Documents, facts, comments. P.144.
19. Bugay N.F. L. Beria to I. Stalin: According to your instructions ... p.156.
20. Ibid. S.156-157.
21. Joseph Stalin to Lavrenty Beria: "They must be deported ...": Documents, facts, comments. P.145.
22. National policy of Russia: history and modernity. P.320.

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