Decree No. 493 "On citizens of Tatar nationality, formerly living in the Crimea" () was issued by the
Presidium of the Supreme Soviet
The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (russian: Президиум Верховного Совета, Prezidium Verkhovnogo Soveta) was a body of state power in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).icwere officially legally rehabilitated and had "taken root" in places of residence. For many years the government claimed that the decree "settled" the "Tatar problem", despite the fact that it did not restore the rights of Crimean Tatars and formally made clear that they were no longer recognized as a distinct ethnic group.
History
While other deported peoples such as the
Chechens
The Chechens (; ce, Нохчий, , Old Chechen: Нахчой, ''Naxçoy''), historically also known as ''Kisti'' and ''Durdzuks'', are a Northeast Caucasian ethnic group of the Nakh peoples native to the North Caucasus in Eastern Europe. "Europ ...
,
Ingush Ingush may refer to:
* Ingush language
* Ingush people
The Ingush (, inh, ГIалгIай, translit=Ghalghaj, pronounced ) per Oxford dictionary "a member of a people living mainly in Ingushetia in the central Caucasus." Ingushetia is a federa ...
,
Kalmyks
The Kalmyks ( Kalmyk: Хальмгуд, ''Xaľmgud'', Mongolian: Халимагууд, ''Halimaguud''; russian: Калмыки, translit=Kalmyki, archaically anglicised as ''Calmucks'') are a Mongolic ethnic group living mainly in Russia, w ...
,
Karachays
The Karachays ( krc, Къарачайлыла, Qaraçaylıla or таулула, , 'Mountaineers') are an indigenous Caucasian Turkic ethnic group in the North Caucasus. They speak Karachay-Balkar, a Turkic language. They are mostly situated ...
, and
Balkars
The Balkars ( krc, Малкъарлыла, Malqarlıla or Таулула, , 'Mountaineers') are a Turkic people of the Caucasus region, one of the titular populations of Kabardino-Balkaria. Their Karachay-Balkar language is of the Ponto-Casp ...
had long since been permitted to return to their native lands and their republics were restored in addition to other forms of political rehabilitation as recognized peoples, the very same decree of 24 November 1956 “On the restoration of national autonomies of the Kalmyk, Karachay, Chechen and Ingush peoples” («О восстановлении национальных автономий калмыцкого, карачаевского, чеченского и ингушского народов») that rehabilitated those peoples in 1956 took on a
genocidal
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...
Tatar ASSR
The Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (russian: Татарская Автономная Советская Социалистическая Республика; tt-Cyrl, Татарстан Автономияле Совет Соци ...
belonging to the distinct but similarly named
Volga 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 t ...
in lieu of 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; ...
for Crimean Tatars who sought a national autonomy, despite the fact that Crimean Tatar activists did not seek a "return" to Tatarstan. As result, Crimean Tatars organized petitions and delegations to Moscow demand their rehabilitation.
The decree was issued roughly two months after a Crimean Tatar delegation met with senior government officials in Moscow, requesting to be rehabilitated in the same manner as the other deported peoples that had been rehabilitated in 1956. Besides Andropov, Georgadze, Shchelokov, and
Rudenko
Rudenko ( uk, Руденко, russian: Руденко) is a Ukrainian surname, derived from the adjective uk, рудий, which means 'red'. Notable people with the surname include:
* Aleksandr Rudenko (footballer, born 1993), Russian goalkeepe ...
were present at the meeting. On 21 July 1967,
Yuri Andropov
Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (– 9 February 1984) was the sixth paramount leader of the Soviet Union and the fourth General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. After Leonid Brezhnev's 18-year rule, Andropov served in the po ...
promised the Crimean Tatars that they would be rehabilitated, however, the decree was not issued until 5 September that year.
Much to the aghast of Crimean Tatar activists, the decree not only failed to allow them to return to Crimea en mass but also revealed that the government did not see them as a distinct ethnic group, only as "people of Tatar nationality formerly living in Crimea" and claimed that they had already "taken root" in Central Asia.
Implementation and response
Unlike what leaders in Moscow had promised, the decree was only published locally in areas where Crimean Tatars lived.
Many Crimean Tatars living in exile who saw the decree mistakenly thought that it meant they were allowed to return to Crimea, and the odd wording of the decree resulted in considerable confusion among Crimean Tatars. As result, many Crimean Tatar families traveled to Crimea in the expectation that they would be allowed to live in Crimea and would be seen as a rehabilitated people. However, most of them were redeported, and very few Crimean Tatars were allowed to return to Crimea in the following years, most under an organized labor recruitment scheme that let in very few Crimean Tatars. For many years, Crimean Tatars continued to be re-deported from Crimea, and it was not until 1989 that they were allowed to return en mass.
Hero of the Soviet Union
The title Hero of the Soviet Union (russian: Герой Советского Союза, translit=Geroy Sovietskogo Soyuza) was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded together with the Order of Lenin personally or collectively for ...
Abdraim Reshidov
Abdraim Izmailovich Reshidov ( crh, Abduraim İsmail oğlu Reşidov, russian: Абдраим Измайлович Решидов; 8 March 1912 – 24 October 1984) was the deputy commander of the 162nd Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment of the Soviet ...
was among the first Crimean Tatars who tried to return to Crimea upon seeing the decree, but unlike many others he was able to get a
residence permit
A residence permit (less commonly ''residency permit'') is a document or card required in some regions, allowing a foreign national to reside in a country for a fixed or indefinite length of time.
These may be permits for temporary residency, or p ...
, albeit only after resorting to threatening
self-immolation
The term self-immolation broadly refers to acts of altruistic suicide, otherwise the giving up of one's body in an act of sacrifice. However, it most often refers specifically to autocremation, the act of sacrificing oneself by setting oneself o ...
.
The decree was widely rebuked by people in the Crimean Tatar civil rights movement as being a "fraud", "Another step towards the liquidation of the Crimean Tatar people as a nation" (Очередной шаг в направлении ликвидации крымскотатарского народа как нации), and was ridiculed by the Tashkent Ten defendants as farce.Ташкентский процесс: Суд над десятью представителями крымскотатарского народа (1 июля – 5 августа 1969 г.): Сборник документов с иллюстрациями. – Амстердам: Фонд имени Герцена, 1976. – 854 с., л. ил.: портр., факс. – (Серия «Библиотека Самиздата»; № 7)