86 years since the Soviet authorities shot Crimean Tatar intellectuals

On April 17, Ukraine commemorates the Crimean Tatar intellectuals who were shot during the Great Terror of the USSR in 1937-1938. On this day in 1938, 36 Crimean Tatars were killed by order of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. 

On March 5, 1938, Stalin and his allies drew up the so-called “execution list” containing the names of 60 people, 41 of whom were Crimean Tatars. By decree of the Soviet authorities – NKVD Order No. 00447 of July 30, 1937 “On the Repression of Former Kulaks, Criminals and Other Anti-Soviet Persons” – they were to be either killed or imprisoned for long terms.

In total, historians estimate that about 200,000 people were convicted during the Great Terror on the territory of the Soviet Union on the part of Ukraine, about two-thirds of whom were sentenced to death. The rest were sent to prisons and correctional labor camps (Gulag).

The military board of the USSR Supreme Court held a visiting session in Akmesdzhyt (Simferopol) on April 17, 1938, where Crimean Tatars almost identical sentences for so-called “anti-Soviet Pan-Turkish spying, sabotage, and terrorist activities” in Crimea.

“Overnight, the intellectual elite of an entire nation was destroyed. These people were accused of allegedly being involved in the Milli Firma national party, and of spying for England, Germany, and other countries. This was done deliberately to destroy the opinion leaders of the time,” noted Ukrainian historian Hulnara Abdullaieva.

In the 1920s, to control national communities, the USSR introduced a policy of indigenization. The state-sponsored emancipation was a continuation of the empire’s colonialist policy toward the enslaved. However, the Crimean Tatars managed to use the liberties granted to them, although temporarily. At this time, national schools were opened, the Crimean Tatar theater began its work, and newspapers and magazines were published in the Crimean Tatar language. The Crimean Tatar language became the official language on the peninsula. In addition, there was the Permanent Mission of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in Moscow (where the post of Permanent Representative was always held by Crimean Tatars). The booming development of culture led to the rise of a new generation of Crimean Tatar intellectuals and elite, which, however, was almost entirely destroyed during the Great Terror of the 1930s. 

In the late 1930s, the USSR began the phase of the Great Terror, a large-scale campaign of mass repression of citizens organized by the Soviet authorities in 1937-1938. According to Stalin’s plan, mass repressive operations were supposed to end the long struggle against “socially hostile persons,” subdue the population, and strengthen the authoritarian ruling style. Several measures were planned by the Soviet Union’s leadership, including Stalin himself, to eliminate both real and potential political opponents. intimidate the population, and change the national and social structure of society. Persecution of the intellectual elite, the fight against alleged nationalism, and repressions against the scientific elite and cultural figures began. Crimea did not escape this fate. Then, for the first time in the history of the Soviet national republics, in May 1928, the Head of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic,Veli Ibraimov, was convicted and shot. Subsequently, in the so-called “Milli Firk case,” more than 60 people were repressed, including the writer Abibula Odabash and the poet Amdi Hiraibai. 

During the spring of 1937, some of the most influential cultural figures were arrested and later executed in Crimea. Among the victims wereTeifuk Boiadzhiiev, the editor of the newspaper “Yeni Dunia” (meaning “New World”), Asan Sabri Aivazov, a renowned writer and teacher,Osman Akchokrakly, a philologist, Reshat Refatov, the editor of the radio committee, and Mamut Nedim, a researcher at the Central Research Institute of Nationalities. There were artist and director of the Bakhchysarai Palace MuseumUsein Bodaninskyi; writersDzhafer Hafarov and Ilias Tarkhan; scientistKerim Dzhemaledinov; poet and translator Abdulla Liatif-Zade; teacher Bilial Chahari and many others among those executed persons in the Simferopol prison of the NKVD. Theater director Abibula Bakkal and Kurultai delegate Yakub Kermenchekli were sentenced to 15 years in the camps, and playwright Umer Ipchi was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Only Yakub Kermenchekli survived his imprisonment. According to the Ukrainian historianHulnara Abdullaieva, the full list of those killed is still unknown, as is where the bodies of those executed were taken. The shooting of the intellectuals was a “preamble” to another tragedy that occurred 6 years later: the deportation of the Crimean Tatars in May 1944.

However, the criminal actions of the Soviet authorities in 1938 and 1944, which, according to their plan, were supposed to destroy the Crimean Tatar people or at least utterly suppress their will to revive and return to their native lands, proved to be in vain: despite severe trials, the Crimean Tatars returned to their native Crimea many years later.

Currently, in the temporarily occupied Crimea, Russia is continuing the efforts of Stalin, who failed to destroy the Crimean Tatar people.

Russia’s crimes against Crimea and the Crimean Tatar people have not stopped for more than 240 years, and can only be stopped if Ukraine wins this war and de-occupies the Crimean peninsula.