Article - Deportation and the struggle of the Crimean Tatar people for return to their historical homeland Exile. The life and life of the special settlers.

On May 10, 1944, People's Commissar for Internal Affairs L. Beria introduced I. Stalin the draft decision of the State Defense Committee "on eviction of all Crimean Tatars from territory of Crimea”. Signed by Stalin GKO decree No. 5859ss "On Crimean Tatars" dated May 11, 1944 became fatal for an entire people. It blamed "many Crimean Tatars" treason, desertion from the Red Army, participation in German punitive detachments - deciding to evict everyone.

In the early morning of May 18 in all settlements of the Crimea to exile of the Crimean Tatars, officers and fighters of the NKVD-NKGB and Red Army. They entered the houses of Crimean Tatars, announced eviction, on fees were given a few minutes. From all sides of the peninsula to the nodal the railway stations were pulled by trucks with unfortunate people, who were forced into boxcars. Where they were taken, people did not knew ...

Already on May 20, the communists reported on successful eviction action and reported information about the property of Crimean Tatars. Most of Crimean Tatars were deported to Uzbekistan.

The expelled Crimean Tatars received the status of “special settlers”. They are were registered and were required to register with the commandant's offices - authorities in places of special settlements. Crimean Tatars returning from the front, also headed to places of exile.

According to the department of special settlements of the NKVD of the USSR, in November 1944 in places of eviction were 193,865 Crimean Tatars, out of which in Uzbekistan - 151.136, in Mari ASSR - 8.597, in Kazakh SSR - 4.286, the rest were distributed "for use at work" in Molotov (10.555), Kemerovo (6.743), Gorkovskaya (5.095), Sverdlovsk (3.594), Ivanovo (2.800), Yaroslavl (1.059) regions of the RSFSR.

The first months of exile were the most terrible in life of the people. Everyday life the deportees were severe, the mortality rate was high. According to the NKVD Uzbek SSR, for the first six months since the deportation of the Crimean Tatars to Uzbekistan in 1944 died 16,052 Crimean Tatars (10.6%), and in 1945 - 13.183 (9.8%). Thus, in first year and a half after deportation to Uzbekistan, about 30,000 Crimean Tatars have died.

Decree of the Presidium of Supreme Soviet of the USSR of November 26, 1948 tightened the link mode. Moving to a neighboring area was allowed only when the presence of a "call" from close relatives. Departure out of place settlement for the first time was punished with five days of arrest, and the second violation was considered as "escape from the place of exile" and was punished by the 20th years of imprisonment.

Nobody waited for Crimean Tatar special settlers in a new place’s. Local residents, poisoned by Soviet propaganda, wary and hostile to the arriving exiles, calling them traitors and enemies.

At this time, Crimea was populated by new residents. They were mostly immigrants from the RSFSR, less from the Ukrainian SSR. Many of them settled in houses of Crimean Tatars, for others they built housing. Everything that could remind an indigenous people of Crimea was erased in Crimea - Crimean Tatars. In 1944-1948, most of settlements of Crimean Tatar origin were replaced by Russians.

Monuments of Crimean Tatar history and culture were destroyed. September 1948, at the session of Academy of Sciences of the USSR, a campaign was launched to revision about history of Crimea. On June 25, 1946, Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR adopted a law that approved transformation of Crimean ASSR into Crimean region.

Subsequently, it was transferred from the RSFSR to the Ukrainian SSR by Decree of Presidium of Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated 02.19.1954 - "given the common economy, territorial proximity and close economic and cultural connections".

As for problem of deported peoples, very accurately wrote historian Pavel Polyan: “Injustice in very precedent of punishment peoples”, which substituted legal proceedings against specific persons. Independent of any statistics, attributing collective guilt and collective punishment based on ethnicity belonging is a serious crime against humanity, on a par with the taking and shooting of hostages. "

The origin of the national movement of Crimean Tatar people in 1950s

At the beginning, the predominant mood of the deportees was feeling depression. In late 1940s, representatives of Crimean Tatar intelligentsia were arrested. And at the origins of the national movement stood up those who belonged to the former state elite of Crimean Tatar people - party workers, military men, writers. Yet during Stalin's life, a discussion of options took place among the actions that would induce the authorities to return Crimean Tatar people to Crimea.

The tyrant died on March 5, 1953. For the deported peoples, Stalin's death was associated with the hopes of release from exile and return to their homeland. In the report of N. Khrushchev at the XX Congress of CPSU in February 1956, it was said about the injustice committed in relation to the evicted peoples. Decree of the Presidium of Supreme Soviet of USSR dated in April 28, 1956, which appeared soon, "On lifting restrictions on special settlements from Crimean Tatars, Balkars, Turks - citizens of the USSR, Kurds, Hemshils and members of their families, evicted during the Great Patriotic War" canceled the regime of special settlements of the above peoples and freed them from supervision. The lifting of the restrictions did not entail the " return of property confiscated during the eviction " and return to the places from which people were evicted.

And the active representatives of Crimean Tatar people began to turn to the highest state bodies with a request to return Crimean Tatars to their homeland.

In one of first such appeals - a letter from Crimean Tatar communists to members of the Presidium of the Central Committee of CPSU - question of the return of Crimean Tatars to their homeland was raised. However, neither this, nor subsequent letters led to success. The authorities answered: the removal of status of special settlers from the Crimean Tatars does not give the right to return to their homeland. In November 1956, an ode to the Resolution of Politburo of CPSU "On the reconstruction of the national autonomous Kalmyk, Karachay, Balkar, Chechen and Ingush peoples." The return of the mentioned peoples to the places of their former residence began. The Crimean Tatars did not receive such an opportunity. The denial of the right to return to their homeland for Crimean Tatars was formulated in the sixth paragraph of this stop: " To recognize the granting of national autonomy to the Tatars who previously lived in Crimea as inappropriate. "

In autumn, 1957 ode in various places of residing Crimean Tatar network occurs "action groups". Thanks to their activities, appeals signed by tens of thousands of people were sent to the highest authorities.

In March 1958, activists of the movement achieved a meeting with the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR a Nastas Mikoyan. After the conversation, they told their compatriots that Crimean Tatars would soon be returned to their homeland. However, the experienced Kremlin operator deceived the delegates. Apart from repressions against participants in the meeting, this did not lead to anything.

In 1959, a new appeal was sent to the Central Committee of the CPSU with 10,000 signatures; in March 1961, a petition was sent to the Presidium of Central Committee of CPSU, which had already been signed by 18,000 signatures.

The rise of Crimean Tatars national movement in 1960s

In 1950s, nothing changed in a fate of Crimean Tatars. And the arrests soon began.

October 11, 1961, the trial ended, which went down in history as the first political trial of Crimean Tatars of the post-Stalin era. On this day, the Tashkent Regional Court passed a verdict in case of Enver Seferov and Shevket Abdurakhmanov. They were accused of preparing and distributing leaflets demanding the return of Crimean Tatars to their historical homeland and calling on Crimean Tatars to fight for their return. It was regarded as the anti-Soviet activity. The sentence was harsh - 7 and 5 years of imprisonment in a lager’s strict regime.

In August 1962, a new political process took place. The case of Marat Omerov and Seit-Amza Umerov, who were leaders of the Organization of Crimean Tatar Youth was heard in Supreme Court of the Uzbek SSR. Sentence: Omerov Marat to be imprisoned for 4 years in a corrective labor colony with a high security regime, Umerov Seit Amza - for 3 years in a penal colony with a high security regime.

Since 1964, an unofficial representation of the Crimean Tatars operated in Moscow, the composition of which has changed. It was engaged in the transmission of appeals to government agencies. Initiative groups regularization angles to be produced and distributed " Information", which reported the amount handed over documents and interviews with officials.

The leaders of the movement, people mainly of the older generation, tried to give the movement a character loyal to the Soviet regime. However, in 1960 Mr. odes an increasingly important role in the movement begin to play the young people who grew up in the places of exile. They did not have the experience of a Soviet career; from childhood they experienced the powerlessness and arbitrariness of the authorities. They were much more radical. What the elders called the mistakes of the Soviet leadership, the young people called crimes. The most prominent representatives of this generation of the national movement are Mustafa Dzhemilev, Aishe Seitmuratova, Reshat Dzhemilev, Rollan Kadyev , Ayder Bariev, Zampira Asanova, Yuri Osmanov.

The authorities reacted harshly to the actions of the Crimean Tatars.

August 27, 1965 more than a thousand Crimean Tatars gathered vivo Recording in front of the city committee of the party in Bekabad to ask the first secretary of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan Sh Arafa Rashidov, when the Crimean Tatars returned to Crimea. The authorities used force to disperse the demonstration.

From 8 to 18 October 1966, in commemoration of the 45th anniversary of the founding of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, rallies and meetings of the Crimean Tatars were held in many cities of Uzbekistan. All of them were dispersed by the authorities and were accompanied by mass arrests of participants. Thousands of beaten, hundreds of those arrested for fifteen days and 17 sentenced to long terms - this was the result of the festive events.

In 1966-1967 Mr. odes have been several lawsuits against the activists of the Crimean Tatar movement in Tashkent, Ferghana, Andijan, Moscow.

Another important feature of the mid-1960s was the sharply increased interest of the Crimean Tatars in the history and culture of their people, which testified to the rise of national self-awareness. In September 1965, activists of the movement began to collect data on losses during deportation and in places of exile. According to the "people's" census, 46.2% of the Crimean Tatars died during the resettlement and in the first years of life in new places.

During this period, initiative groups continued to submit petitions. According to the calculations of the Reception Office of the Presidium of the Supreme Council, between 1965 and January 1967, the highest authorities received about 53,000 letters and telegrams from the Roman Tatars of a thousand signatures. More than 120 thousand Crimean Tatars from all regions of residence have signed the “Nationwide appeal to the XXIII Congress of the CPSU”.

Despite all these efforts, in 1966 Crimean Tatars problem wasn’t solved.

Decree of September 5, 1967. Rapprochement of Crimean Tatar and Democratic Movements

By the beginning of 1967, the national movement of Crimean Tatar people reached a high degree of organization. His activity forced the authorities in year of the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution to propose a solution to the Crimean Tatar problem.

On July 21, 1967, a delegation of activists of the movement with representatives of the country's political leadership was received. The reception was hosted by Yuri Andropov, chairman of the USSR KGB. He informed the Crimean Tatars that a decree on the rehabilitation of the Crimean Tatar people would soon be issued, and the issue of the return of the people to Crimea requires additional study.

Going out to rallies on August 27 and September 2, 1967 in Tashkent, the Crimean Tatars did not yet know that for many years their "national question was resolved." On August 17, 1967, the Resolution of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee was adopted. The main thesis of this document: Crimean Tatars "took root" in the places of exile, "their return to the Crimea is inexpedient."

And on September 5, 1967, the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was issued " On citizens of Tatar nationality who previously lived in Crimea. " He overturned the decisions of state bodies in the part that contained sweeping accusations against "citizens of Tatar nationality who lived in Crimea", but claimed that they "took root in the territory of the Uzbek and other union republics." The Resolution that followed the Decree stated that "citizens of Tatar nationality and their family members enjoy the right, like all citizens of the USSR, to reside throughout the Soviet Union in accordance with the current legislation on employment and passport regime."

As it turned out later, the clause about the "passport regime" contained a catch.

And yet the Roman Tatars perceived the Decree as opening the way to their homeland. By the end of September 1967, about 2,000 Tatars had arrived in Crimea, but practically none of them was registered. Houses bought by the Crimean Tatars were demolished by bulldozers, and people were forcibly evicted outside the peninsula. General human rights activist Petr Grigorenko called this decree "the most deceitful and hypocritical of all, issued against the Crimean Tatars."

The attitude towards openness, appeal to the law, attempts at dialogue with the authorities - all this brought Crimean Tatar activists closer to representatives of the democratic movement - human rights defenders. In the spring of 1968, close interaction of the Crimean Tatar and democratic movements began.

In March 1968, the Crimean Tatar activists, activists staged a banquet in honor of writer Alexei Dempsey, defender of repressed peoples. Due to illness, Kosterin could not attend it, but asked his friend Pyotr Grigorenko to be there. On it, human rights activist general Pyotr Grigorenko called on the Crimean Tatars not to lock themselves in a "narrowly national shell", advised them to seek help from the Soviet and world community, to international organizations. B It was decided to hold a mass demonstration demanding the return of Crimean Tatars to their homeland and revive the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

This e Demos consisting familiarize April 21, 1968 in Chirchik, Tashkent region. It was violently dispersed by the authorities, and ten of its members were subsequently brought to trial. For the first time in the history of the Crimean Tatar movement, the defendants were defended by Moscow lawyers - Sofya Kallistratova, Leonid Popov, Yuri Pozdeev, Vladimir Romm. This happened on the initiative of Pyotr Grigorenko, who at that time actively defended the rights of the Crimean Tatars.

The pressure on the authorities grew. On August 17, 1968, a demonstration to the Roman Tatars took place in Moscow, timed to coincide with the next anniversary of the deportation. About 800 Crimean Tatars came to Moscow to take part in the demonstration. Among them were women and elderly war veterans. This did not stop the policemen. Crimean Tatars were detained and beaten by law enforcement officers, and then, under escort, loaded onto trains and sent to their places of residence.

In 1968-1970. passed judgments against those who openly criticized the Decree of 5 September 1967 and the action of the authorities during the Chirchik and events in Moscow. The so-called " Trial of Ten " had the greatest resonance, the materials of which were distributed in samizdat, and then were released in the West as a separate edition.

These conditions determined the new attitude of the Crimean Tatars to the authorities. The last illusions of a speedy solution to the Crimean Tatar problem were dispelled.

Crimean Tatar movement in the 1970s: difficult times (trends, events, attempts at comprehension)

In the 1970s, Crimea was "closed" to Crimean Tatars. Despite brutal evictions and trials on charges of violating the passport regime, in 1967-1970, according to official data, 3,026 Crimean Tatars settled in Crimea. However, in the years 1972-1973 registration Krimsky's Tatars in Crimea almost stopped.

As in the 1960s, initiative groups remained a form of organizing the Crimean Tatar movement, their work was still reflected in the Crimean Tatar samizdat - “Information”, “Reports”, “Information messages”, copies of which were sent to party and government bodies, various state institutions. Key decisions were made at republican and all-Union meetings of initiative groups of movement activists.

Initiative groups carried out the functions of informing the Crimean Tatar population, preparing and holding meetings, rallies, various national events, collecting signatures and funds for sending delegates to Moscow, helping families of political prisoners, etc. However, the scale of this activity was no longer as great as in the 1960s, which allowed researchers to designate this period in the development of the Crimean Tatar movement as a “crisis” (L.Alekseeva) or “a new round of development under conditions of reaction” (M. Guboglo ).

Indeed, in the 1970s, the movement no longer represented such a massive monolithic organism, and there were quite objective reasons for that. Let's name some of them:

• the unsuccessful attempts of the majority of the Crimean Tatars to settle in Crimea, the fierce repressions against the activists of the movement gave rise to many a feeling of futility in the fight against the state machine. This contributed to the departure from active activity in the movement of a significant part of the activists of the 1960s;
• The policy of “rooting” continued in the Uzbek SSR, which included such measures of “social bribery” (as defined by L. Alekseeva), such as promotion, removal of unspoken prohibitions related to obtaining education in specialties hitherto inaccessible to Crimean Tatars, had certain successes (public administration and part of the disciplines of the humanitarian cycle), promotion to party and administrative work;
• an important role was played by the fact that the law enforcement agencies have developed a rather successful strategy to combat the national movement. Along with the regular trials in relation to the most active participants in the movement, softer measures were also used, the purpose of which was to destroy the unity of the movement, to create a layer of Crimean Tatars loyal to the authorities, indifferent to the idea of repatriation and contributing to the implementation of the “policy of the party and governments in the national question”. Work was constantly carried out to replenish the number of informants about the various steps and actions of the movement.

The activists of the movement summed up disappointing results in 1973: “For 1956-1973. 66 national documents with 4 million signatures were sent to higher authorities, covering the entire adult population ... 32 exclusions from the party and about 100 from the Komsomol, several thousand searches, tens of thousands of interrogations and " conversations " in the KGB, more than 20 major " massacres " by the police and troops using firewalls , smoke bombs, batons, 8 large raids and escorted evictions of Crimean Tatar representatives from Moscow, 32 large escorted evictions (about 6 thousand people) from Crimea, anti-Tatar harassment in Crimea, more than 50 lawsuits, over 200 convicts ”.

In the 1970s, thanks to the efforts of human rights associations ("Initiative Group for the Protection of Human Rights in the USSR", "Human Rights Committee", "Moscow Helsinki Group"), the struggle of the Crimean Tatars was in the center of attention of the world community. All aspects of the problem were covered in detail by the human rights bulletin "Chronicle of Current Events"; its 31st issue (May 1974), timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the deportation, was entirely devoted to the Crimean Tatars. Participation in the Crimean Tatars movement was one of the reasons for the imprisonment of Pyotr Grigorenko in a psychiatric hospital, and the conviction of Ilya Gabai. For many years, up to his arrest in 1980, Alexander Lavut was most closely associated with the national movement. Andrei Sakharov in his Nobel lecture (December 1975) said about discrimination "hundreds of thousands of Crimean Tatars ... still deprived of the right to return to their native land."

Repressions and arrests of Crimean Tatars continued in the 1970s. In the early 1970s, activists of the national movement Aishe Seitmuratova, Lenur Ibraimov, Dzhebbar Akimov, Mustafa Dzhemilev, Eskender Kurtumerov , Ebazer Khalikov , Riaed Ramazanov, Islam Kudusov were convicted .

Mustafa Dzhemilev was one of those members of the Crimean Tatar national movement to whom Soviet law enforcement officials showed increased attention. On June 22, 1974, in Uzbekistan's Gulistan, he was arrested for the third time.

On July 19, 1974, by the verdict of the People's Court of Gulistan, Mustafa Dzhemilev was found guilty under article 199-1 of the Criminal Code of the Uzbek SSR and sentenced to 1 year in prison in a strict regime colony. He was serving his sentence in a correctional labor colony in Omsk.

Shortly before the end of the term, it became clear that the Rgans set out to fabricate a new case against Dzhemilev. In May 1975, the guards and operatives of the colony inspected his belongings, seizing personal letters and notebooks. On June 4, 1975, a few days before the end of his term of imprisonment, a new criminal case was initiated against him on the grounds of Article 190-1 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR. In protest, Mustafa Dzhemilev went on a hunger strike.

Mustafa Dzhemilev's hunger strike with forced feeding lasted 303 days. During this period, his name became widely known outside the USSR. The authorities did not manage to deal with Mustafa Dzhemilev. But this time the authorities lost twice - not only could they not destroy it, but thanks to the resonance in the world, the national problem of the Crimean Tatars became known outside the USSR as never before.

On April 14, 1976, the trial of Mustafa Dzhemilev began in Omsk. According to the indictment, “the basis for the initiation of the case was the fact that Dzhemilev, in the period from autumn 1974 to July 1975, systematically orally expounded to prisoner V. Dvoryansky deliberately false fabrications discrediting the Soviet state and social system, and also produced and disseminated documents of such content”.

The Omsk Regional Court sentenced Mustafa Dzhemilev to two and a half years in prison in a strict regime correctional labor colony. Despite numerous appeals in defense of Mustafa Cemil, he was sent to serve his sentence in the Far East, the camp is strictly th regime "Seaside".

The apogee of the persecution of the Crimean Tatars was the tragedy that happened in the Crimea in the village of Donskoy. In June 1978, an ode to protest against the persecution of the Crimean Tatars in Crimea by Verga himself immolation Musa Mamut, who threatened to re-arraigned under Article Atiyah " for violating the passport regime ". The funeral of M Mamut's mustache showed that he had become a symbol of the movement for returning to his homeland, began to be perceived as a national hero.

Soon after this tragedy, Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 700 " On additional measures to strengthen the passport regime in the Crimean region " was adopted, which legalized administrative evictions from houses and " removal " of unregistered families from Crimea.

In the late 1970s - the first half of the 1980s, the Crimean Tatar movement was going through a difficult period. Almost all of his most influential figures were arrested and convicted - Mustafa Dzhemilev, Reshat Dzhemilev, Rollan Kadyev, Eldar Shabanov, Yuri Osmanov and many others. Ayshe S eitmuratova was “forced out” into exile under the threat of arrest, where she made a lot of efforts to acquaint the foreign public with the national problem of the Crimean Tatars.

The funeral of veterans of the Bekir Osmanov movement in Crimea (May 1983) and Dzhebbar Akimov in Uzbekistan (July 1983) resulted in real political demonstrations.

Return. Second Kurultai of the Crimean Tatar people (June 1991)

With the proclamation of the course of perestroika (1985), a new rise begins

in the national movement. In 1987-1989, under the pressure of incessant actions of the Crimean Tatars, appearances in print by writers Sergei Baruzdin, Eugene

Yevtushenko, Bulat Okudzhava, Anatoly Pristavkin, the authorities are forced to

return to Crimean Tatar problem.

At the Fifth All-Union Meeting of Representatives of Initiative Groups, held from April 29 to May 2, 1989 in Yangiyul, by a majority vote, it was decided to establish a socio-political Organization of the Crimean Tatar National Movement (OKND) on the basis of existing initiative groups.

The creation of the OKND was motivated by the need to move to more organized forms of political struggle for their national rights and democracy.

OKND had a fixed membership, charter and program. At the first meeting, by secret ballot for a period of one year, the Central Council of 27 people, the Audit Commission (it included 6 people) and the chairman of the OKND were elected - Mustafa Dzhemilev.

A major step towards deepening the course of restructuring the country was Held from May 25 to June 9, 1989, the I Congress of People's Deputies. Representatives of the Crimean Tatar who were in Moscow at that time people distributed among deputies documents on the situation of the Crimean Tatars, spoke at numerous rallies. This contributed to the fact that several deputies from the rostrum of the Congress recalled the problem Crimean Tatars, and then the Congress instructed the Council of Nationalities Of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR to create a deputy commission on problems Crimean Tatar people.

To provide assistance to compatriots, on June 17, 1989, the Regional Headquarters of the Central Asian Council of the OKND for the Fergana events in Tashkent and the Committee for Refugees in Crimea were created. Measures were taken to ensure their safety in Uzbekistan and to provide assistance to those of them who arrived in Crimea.

In many places of residence of the Crimean Tatars, rallies were held. The demonstration of refugees from the Fergana Valley near the building of the Crimean Regional Committee in Simferopol continued for four days. The main requirements are to provide them with housing and work. At the end of June 1989, their issue was resolved positively.

And on July 12, 1989, the Council of Nationalities elected by the Congress of People's Deputies formed a Commission on the problems of the Crimean Tatar people chaired by Gennady Yanayev. It consisted of 14 people, among them there were four Crimean Tatars (Dzhulvern Ablyamitov, Ayder Kurkchi, Akseit Seitmetov, Fikret Sefershaev).

Despite these positive steps, obtaining a residence permit in the Crimea for the Crimean Tatars was akin to a feat. In August 1989, in the village of Sevastyanovka, Bakhchisarai district, the first tent camp arose on a land plot illegally occupied by the Crimean Tatars. According to OKND, about 50 thousand people lived in Crimea during this period. Registered and several thousand who did not have permanent housing and registration of the Crimean Tatars. Only for 8 months of 1988 according to Leninsky 4,835 people were registered in the Crimea region (about 5 percent of the total the number of inhabitants of the district), of which there are only about 626 Crimean Tatars, i.e. only 13 percent. Moreover, if citizens of other nationalities resettlement houses and state apartments were provided, then Crimean Tatars were prescribed only in the case of buying private houses after long red tape.

Meanwhile, after three months of work, in May 1990, a government commission led by In Italy Doguzhieva adopted a Concept of the State program of return of the Crimean Tatars in the Crimean region.

The concept determined the most important tasks of the State Program, as well as the methods for the organized return of the Crimean Tatars to places of historical residence. The activities of the commission continued until September 1991, when after the August putsch most of the ministries and departments of the USSR ceased to exist.

According to the testimony of a member of the commission, Refat Appazov, her work was very intense and was accompanied by heated discussions: " Almost any decision aimed at speeding up the process of the return of the Crimean Tatars had to be literally pulled out with battles. "

At the beginning of 1991, another significant event took place in the life of the peninsula.

On January 20, 1991, a referendum was held on the transformation of the Crimean region into the Crimean ASSR. On February 12, 1991, a session of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR adopted the Law “On the restoration of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic”. The established autonomy was formed as a territorial entity, while the Crimean Tatars insisted on national autonomy. Crimean Tatars boycotted the referendum. The Central Council of the OKND issued several protest statements against the hastily recreated Crimean autonomy: " Instead of restoring the statehood of the Crimean Tatars illegally liquidated under Stalin's regime, another Russian-speaking republic has been created on their territory. "

Despite all the protests, the results of the referendum remained in force, and it was one of the most painful lesions of the Crimean Tatar movement. Dream of several generations of Crimean Tatars about the national autonomy remained unfulfilled. In conditions when the Crimean Tatars turned out to be strangers on their own homeland, the idea of uniting the people remained no less relevant than earlier. This was the prerequisite for holding a national convention.

Its purpose has been designated as the unification of all intellectual, spiritual, economic forces of the people for the speedy solution of problems, first of all, returning home and restoring it statehood. The main tasks of the Kurultay (congress) were named - determination of ways to solve national problems and elections are constantly acting body - Mejlis.

Preparations for the 1991 Kurultai began long before it was held. March 8, 1990 at a meeting of the Central Council of the OKND was a working group was formed to study the possibility of holding a Kurultay. On September 23, the founding meeting of the Organizational committee for the preparation of the Kurultai, which included 36 people (Chairman - Omerov Server).

The election campaign was carried out from October 1990 to May 1991.

Despite various attempts and tricks of the authorities to disrupt the holding of the national congress, the election of delegates was successful. 255 people were elected as delegates to the congress (in Crimea - 129, in Uzbekistan - 88, Kazakhstan - 1, Kyrgyzstan - 4, Tajikistan - 3, RSFSR - 16, Ukraine (except Crimea) - 9, Lithuania - 3, Latvia - 1, Sukhumi - 1).

Kurultay was held in Simferopol from June 26 to 30, 1991 and went down in history as the Second. The first Kurultai of the Crimean Tatar people was held December 1917 the year in Simferopol and was disbanded January 1918 22 the year the Crimean Regional Military Revolutionary Committee. Thus, the continuity between these events was emphasized.

On June 26, 1991, the meeting of the Kurultai was opened by the head of the Organizing Committee, Server Omerov. After the performance of the anthem of the Crimean Tatar people "Ant etkenmen " ("I swore") and the blessing of the imam, the oldest member of the national movement Mustafa Khalilov addressed the delegates with words of greeting.

In addition to the delegates, there were many honored guests at Kurultai. Among them are friends and associates of the Crimean Tatar movement, human rights defenders Alexander Lavut, Henrikh Altunyan, Alexander Podrabinek, Grigory Alexandrov.

Server Omerov made a report “Problems of return, restoration of statehood and national revival of the Crimean Tatars”. Mustafa Dzhemilev highlighted the stages of the national movement of the Crimean Tatars, and Refat Appazov informed about the activities of the State Commission under the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the problems of the Crimean Tatar people.

The session of Kurultai adopted the following documents: Declaration on the National Sovereignty of the Crimean Tatar People; Kurultay's appeal to the Crimean Tatar people; Appeal of the Kurultai of the Crimean Tatar people to all residents of Crimea; Appeal of the Kurultai of the Crimean Tatar people to the President of the USSR, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR; Appeal of the Kurultai of the Crimean Tatar people to the United Nations, peoples, parliaments and governments of states, international organizations; Resolution of Kurultai "On the implementation of decisions of state bodies related to the return of Crimean Tatars to Crimea"; Resolution of the Kurultai of the Crimean Tatar people "On the national flag and national anthem of the Crimean Tatar people"; Resolution of the Kurultai of the Crimean Tatar people "On the transition to the Latin script"; Regulations on the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people.

Kurultay elected the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people. Mustafa Dzhemilev became the chairman of the Mejlis, and Refat Chubarov became his deputy.

The national congress of the best representatives of the people, held 7 4 years later, became a symbolic manifestation of the victory of the national movement and the people who rose like a Phoenix from the ashes.