( compiled based on a study of documents of the Crimean State Archive )
According to the Crimean State Archive, the population of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic by the beginning of World War II was 1126.4 thousand people, including 251 thousand Crimean Tatars (22.3% of the total). Employment of the population as a whole in the national economy at the same time amounted to 292.4 thousand people. (or 26%) of the total population, including 65.3 thousand Crimean Tatars.
According to archival data, 188,626 Crimean Tatars were forcibly evicted from Crimea in 1944, including 19,750 from the cities and 168,876 from the countryside.
As a result of deportation, many settlements remained completely deserted. Characteristic in this regard is the Yalta region, where the predominant majority of the rural population were Crimean Tatars. There were 21 settlements here; they were part of 18 rural and resort settlement Soviets. Before the expulsion, there were 20 collective farms in the region, where there were 1,825 peasant households with a population of 7,666 people. The eviction was carried out from 21 settlements, as a result of which many of them were empty. Of the 9 rural settlements with a population of 5546 people (1470 families), 5297 Crimean Tatars (1401 families) were expelled. After deportation, there remained 249 people (69 families), residents of the Russian-speaking population. In particular, in the village Degermenkoy (now Zaprudnoe) 995 people lived before deportation, only 9 people of the Russian-speaking population remained after eviction. A similar picture was observed in other settlements of the region. The rest of the Crimean Tatar population was exterminated during the war; was in the ranks of the Soviet Army; was forcibly stolen to Germany or sent to the so-called “labour army” to work in mines and logging.
As a result of deportation from the Crimean Tatars, more than 80 thousand houses, more than 34 thousand household plots from collective farmers, about 500 thousand livestock, sown area of collective farms – 360,000 ha, tobacco plantations – 8,000 ha, 360 beekeeping hives, about 40 thousand tons of agricultural products were seized. Great damage was done to cultural institutions and public organizations, namely, eliminated:
- personal libraries – 112;
- elementary school libraries – 640;
- secondary school libraries – 221;
- collective farm libraries – 200;
- hut-reading room – 360;
- district libraries – 30;
- city libraries – 60;
- Crimean Tatar schools: elementary – 640;
- secondary schools – 221;
- clubs – 263.
In fact, the entire system of higher, secondary and special education in the Crimean Tatar language was eliminated.
During deportation, rural residents were forced to leave 6,700 units of agricultural equipment.
The main types of household items seized during deportation amounted to more than 751 thousand units. As the above data testify, the material damage inflicted is enormous.
The problem of fair compensation for material and moral damage, despite the complexity of its resolution, undoubtedly, must be solved.
SOURCES:
1. Crimean State Archive, fund 2221, inventory N 1, file N 555;
2. Crimean State Archive, fund R-652, inventory N 2, file N 29;
3. Crimean State Archive, fund R-652, inventory N 22; case number 14.
Halil MUSTAFAYEV, candidate of economic sciences
