The Mubarek zone (, crh, Mubarek zonası) was a failed proposal by the government of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

promoted by the

KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...

throughout the 1970s and 80's to push exiled

Crimean Tatars , flag = Flag of the Crimean Tatar people.svg , flag_caption = Flag of Crimean Tatars , image = Love, Peace, Traditions.jpg , caption = Crimean Tatars in traditional clothing in front of the Khan's Palace ...

(referred to as "people of Tatar nationality that formerly lived in Crimea" by the government) scattered throughout the

Ferghana valley The Fergana Valley (; ; ) in Central Asia lies mainly in eastern Uzbekistan, but also extends into southern Kyrgyzstan and northern Tajikistan. Divided into three republics of the former Soviet Union, the valley is ethnically diverse and in the ...

to move to the mostly unindustrialized Mubarek district of the

Qashqadaryo Region Qashqadaryo Region ( uz, Qashqadaryo viloyati, Қашқадарё вилояти, قەشقەدەريا ۋىلايەتى; old spelling ''Kashkadarya Region'', russian: Кашкадарьинская область) is one of the regions of Uzbekist ...

with the goal of having them help industrialize the area, "take root" in Uzbekistan to put to rest desires to return to Crimea, and compose a new Tatar district in lieu of the Crimean Tatar community's long-sought goal of full right of return to Crimea and restoration of the

Crimean ASSR During the existence of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, different governments existed within the Crimean Peninsula. From 1921 to 1936, the government in the Crimean Peninsula was known as the Crimean Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic; ...

. Few Crimean Tatars supported it or ever moved to the proposed district, seeing it as a plan to further assimilate them in Uzbekistan, turn them into "Mubarek Tatars", keep them out of Crimea, prevent restoration of the Crimean ASSR, and artificially recreate the "promised land" so far away. It was eventually scrapped when it became clear that few Crimean Tatars were moving to Mubarek and held strong desires to return to Crimea despite strong encouragement to "take root" in Central Asia, which promoters of the project described as their "ancestral home" to push the project and downplay Crimean Tatar ties to Crimea. Previously, the

Central Committee Central committee is the common designation of a standing administrative body of Communist party, communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, of both ruling and nonruling parties of former and existing socialist states. In such party org ...

attempted to "solve" the "Crimean Tatar problem" by suggesting that exiled Crimean Tatars move to the

Tatar ASSR The Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (russian: Татарская Автономная Советская Социалистическая Республика; tt-Cyrl, Татарстан Автономияле Совет Соци� ...

and "reunite" with

Kazan Tatars The Volga Tatars or simply Tatars ( tt-Cyrl, татарлар, tatarlar) are a Turkic ethnic group native to the Volga-Ural region of Russia. They are subdivided into various subgroups. Volga Tatars are Russia's second-largest ethnicity after ...

, despite the huge linguistic differences and starkly different origins between the two nations bearing a coincidental name, and as expected no Crimean Tatars ever "returned" to Tatarstan at the suggestion.

References

{{Crimean Tatar Surgun era Qashqadaryo Region Politics of the Crimean Tatars Racism in the Soviet Union Settlement schemes

See also

References