|
The greatest of the Mamluke Sultans of Egypt was the Crimean Tatar, Ruku ad-Din Baibars. He took power in Cairo in 1250 and
completed the reconquest of Palestine, driving the last of the Crusaders out. In 1261 he sent a letter to Berke to organize
an alliance between the Mamlukes of Egypt and the Kypchak Horde against the Ilkhans in Persia In 1262 he send an ambassador
with a major amount of funding to build the mosque in Solkut, the Tatar capital of Crimea at that time in honor of his own
birthplace.
1441 Foundation of the Crimean Khanate
1736 Russian raid Crimean and burn 2.000 houses, Hansaray and the library.
1746 During the Iranian-Turkish war, the Iranian troops move 24.000 Armenian to Iran to open their way. Some of them go
to Crimea
1778 30.000 Crimean Tatars deported from Crimea and around 75.000 Armenians move to the Crimean steppes
April 8, 1783 end of the Crimean Khanate, russian troops under Katherina II. enter Crimea, khan family leaves for Anatolia,
remains in Ayas Pasa Camii in Saray/Tekirdag
7,000-8,000 Crimean Tatars migrated to the Taman peninsula (Caucasus) in 1783
1792 aproximately 100,000 Tatars emigrated to Turkey following the Treaty of Jassy
As a result of a rescript of Katharina dated May 27, 1794 the city of Odessa was built at the place of the turco-tatar
Fortress Hacibey starting August 22, 1794.
1804-1810 Germans from Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria settle in Crimea. In some villages german live together with Tatars
and learn Tatar language. Many of the German people learned to speak the Tatar language, and adopted many of the Tatar customs
and foods, and learned many other things from the Tatars such as well digging practices, oxen yoking, and other things. As
a fellow German wrote in a biography of his life in the Crimea, "In reality our forefathers did not migrate to Russia,
but rather to a Tatar land...."
1812 500.000 Crimean Tatars have to leave Crimea (Yeshil Ada) and only 300.000 of them reach Anatolia (Aktoprak) - 100.
000 Crimean Tatars stay
1828 another 200.000 Crimean Tatars have to leave Crimea - more than half of the Crimean Tatar population has left Crimea
1854 due to the Crimean War (12.03.1854-10.09.1856) Frontline Figures all muslims (Crimean Tatars) are forced to move
from the sea-side to Inner-Russia
The largest migration (by far) was that of 1854-1859 and 1860-61 and consisted of aproximately 200,000 people (e.g. to
Dobruja in Romania) out of a Tatar population for the Tauride Province (Crimea + neighboring steppe lands) of 300,000.
Due to the Crimean War many foreigners come and stay for a long time in Istanbul. It was the logistic center of the allied
forces during the war. For the war, telegraph lines were finished. The message ever received was: Allied Soldiers entered
Ak-Yar. The first ever volunteer woman nurse Florence Nightingale organized the hospital built in Selimiye caserne where soldiers
of the Crimean War were treated. The hospital has a small museum now. Istanbul's first municipality was founded in 1855. The
same year Istanbul's first street (Istiklal Caddesi) was illuminated by gas and the first rail way was built between Haydarpasa
and Fenerbahce.
1860-1862 another 141.667 Crimean Tatars have to leave - 784 aouls and Tatar villages became empty
1874 500 Tatars emigrate
1875 the war starts
After two waves of Crimean Tatars emigration in 1783 and 1856, in 1880 in Crimea Crimean Tatars had 142 560 quarts of
lands, Germans had 202 913 quarts of lands, Bulgars had 22 592 quarts of lands and the Russian Government had 31 978 quarts
of lands.
1909 Vatan organization founded
1915 During the Balkan War many Dobruca Tatars leave for Istanbul
April 7, 1917 Crimean Tatar Vatan Association proclaims Crimean Sovereignity in Bahcesaray
6.1917 Milli Fikri founded
December 9, 1917 Milli Kurultai meets
December 26, 1917 Milli Kurultai proclaims Crimean Independance with a 18 chapter constitution
February 23, 1918 Numan Celebi Cihan was murdered by the Bolshevik revolutionaries
April 1918 Germans occupy Crimea
June 1918 Süleyman Sulkiyevic became new prime minister
1918-1920 rule changes between bolsheviks (11.11.1920) and white russians
General Matcey Sulkevich was Polish Tatar who new about his Crimean origin. He arrived to Crimea in 1919 and led a temporary
Government which was the second attempt of Crimean Tatars to restore their Statehood after leadership of First Kurultay was
murdered by Bolsheviks. Unfortunately German occupational authorities of that time tried to prevent too active position of
Sulkevich Government and he failured to develop all nessesery institutions. After the Bolsheviks entered into Crimea again
he escaped to Baku (Azerbajan) and took an active part in National Government of Musavat Party. After Red Army destroyed Azerbaijan
Republic he was arrested and killed by Bolsheviks.
1920 the bolshevics terror leaded by Bela Kun lead to death about 60 thousand Crimean Tatars;
1921-1922 the organized man-made starvation, which lead to death of another 60.000 Crimean Tatars. 3,500 people of Crimean
Tatar intelligence and clergy were shooted, also 10 thousand people of educated and perspective youth. After them 36 thousand
people, who didn't want to go to kolkhozes. A total of 150.000 Crimeans die during the great famine [1921-1923]
October 18, 1921 Independant Soviet Republic Crimea founded by Lenin, Veli Ibrahimov becomes Prime Minister, Crimean Tatar
is official language
1927/8 Crimean Tatar Prime Minister Veli Ibrahimov and his friends first arrested, later assasinated
1928-1939 40.000 Crimean Tatars imprisioned or deported to Ural-Siberia region and die during Collectivization - Raskulachivanie
1930s Crimean Tatars moving to Turkey through Istanbul make a stop in Tashan, a three story kervansaray in Carsamba/Fatih
Crimean Tatar diaspora celebrates Tepres in Nuri Bey Park in Uskudar/Istanbul until recently
1932 Hamza bey opened a little coffee house in Fatih/Istanbul. It became a meeting place and the unofficial community
center of the Crimean Tatars in diaspora
1921-1941 165.000 CT were murdered or deported
1935 As so many Turks died in the numerous wars, Atatürk invites the Turk and Turkic diaspora to settle in Turkey, e.g.
from Dobruja
Gaspirali was pictured in early Soviet works as a modernist whose efforts to enlighten the backward Muslims of the Russian
Empire coincided with the Soviets' own objectives. The Soviet regime in fact turned Gaspirali's residence in Bahçesaray into
a museum and promoted this figure as a Socialist hero. With Josef Stalin's attack on 'nationalist deviation' among the Crimean
Tatars and other Soviet nations in the 1930s, however, Gaspirali's role as a socialist icon came to an abrupt end. Gaspirali
was subsequently "repressed in death" and his house-museum was closed in 1930.
June 1937 poet Cemil Kermencikli was declared a Crimean Tatar nationalist and arrested, deported to a Gulag in Archangelsk.
He was never seen again; he perished simply because he was declared a dangerous element by the Stalinist regime. Kermencili
and hundreds and thousands of talented Crimean Tatars who fought to preserve their national identity, perished during the
Oppression of the 30s.
July 1941 45.000 Crimea Germans were deported to Central Asia. Stalin planned to deport the Crimean Tatars but the Germany
Army came before the plan could be realized.
28.10.1941-04.1944 during German occupation Crimean Tatars were send as Eastern workers to Germany, South Tirolians were
planned to be settled in Crimea, many Crimeans were killed and 128 Tatar villages have been destroyed. The Soviet Union was
attacked by Hitler to destroy all "Untermenschen" including Kyrgyz, Mongolian and Tatar. Many Turco-Tatar died in
camps. Around 1 million Soviet citizen fought against the Red Army.
November/December 1941: Nazi Troops kill 92.000 Jews on Crimea.
1942: 3.000 Ukrainian and Belarusian Jews survive the Holocaust as Tatars hide them in forests. [Ali Akis]
08 May 1942 German troops attack Kerch Peninsula in the Crimea. Crimean Tatars start leaving Crimea for Romania. The Red
Army deports those found in 1944/1945 to Central Asia.
21 year-old later german artist Joseph Beuys (Kleve, -1986) crashes March 16, 1944 at 08.35 AM with his JU-87 on Crimea,
200 meters east of the village Freifeld (today it is called Snamenka). Crimean Tatars save his life. Beuys was in the mobile
field hospital 179 in Kruman-Kemekchi (today called Krasnovardiysk) from March 17 till April 07, 1944. Pilot Hans Laurinck
died and was buried at the german cemetery. This event has great impact on his later work.
02.42-04.1944 only 7.623 CT join german forces, 53.000 serve in the Red Army (out of 95.000 men), 12.000 joined the partisans.
A total of 30.000 men die.
The CT formed 8 Schutzmannschaftbataillone, Nr. 147-154. They mainly fight the very active partisans in the Jaila-Mountain.
The claim that CT participated in the attrocities against jews or other people is soviet propaganda to justify the deportation
- which was planned long before the invasion of Crimea.
1943 Last Tepres in Crimea
11APR1944 Soviet forces re-enter Crimea
Kerch and Sevastopol resisted german forces until May / July 1944
11.5.1944 secret deportation order
May 18, 1944 - 250.000 to 300.000 Crimean Tatars were deported - 40 percent of them die during Deportation - Surgun to
Central Asia - hundreds of thousands of Crimean Tatars were deprived of their homeland, habitation, property and lands. A
total of 19.000 NKWD people and 100.000 Interior Ministry Troops took part in the deportations of all deported nations (a
total of 825.000 people) organized by the chief Lawrentij Berija. He was convicted and shot Dec. 23, 1953.
some journeys lasted 5 weeks, last wagon arrived in Uzbekistan 06.06.1944. The Steppe population was deported to Central
Asia while the Yaliboyu population was deported to Russia.
each 3.500 CT are assigned one NKWD regiment, regiments investigated some time before
JUSTICE FOR ALL - The following statement by Fikret K. Yurter, President of the National Center of Crimean Tatars, appeared
in Birlik, 2(3): 15, 2000. It is posted here with the list of Crimean Tatar Villages destroyed by the Nazis during World War
II. — Ed.
June 1944 Greeks were deported from Crimea
February 1945 Yalta Conference - Eastern Europe was given to the control of the Soviet Union and decision to divide Germany
into four administrative parts
Large resettlement camps were located in Augsburg, Neu-Ulm and Sonthofen near Munich. In the early 1950s there were 80
families in Neu-Ulm and the same in Augsburg. Mittenwald camp housed more than 2000 Crimean Tatars, but many emigrated to
Turkey or directly to the US. In Austria Soviet officers try to kidnap Crimean Tatar refugees. They and Turkish officers claim
they are from Turkey so they can stay in Austria or move to Germany.
25.06.1945 Crimea looses its status as republic, all tatar cities were renamed.
5.000 returning Red Army soldiers were deported to Central Asia after the fighting, around 30.000 move themselves, the
allied forces force CT Eastern Troops to go the SU
According to NKWD 191.000 CT and 50.000 (1.119) German, (9.621) Armenian, (12.422) Bulgar and (15.040) Greek and (3.652)
others were deported.
During Deportation and the first 18 months of exile 110.000 CT die. NKWD figures claim that 183.155 CT (151.604 in Uzbekistan
and 31.551 in RSFSR) arrived (96%) and 26.775 CT died during 07.06.1944-01.01.1946 (15%).
Crimean Tatars have to live in Special Settlement Camps SpezPoseleniye
09.1945/08.1950 russian migration to Crimea
In October 1945 there were 1,650 Crimean Tatars working in the Tula coal basin and on 20 June 1946 there were 2,532.
26.06.1946 The deportation decree is published in Izvestia
1936-1952 3 million non-russians have been deported
27.2.1954 Crimea is given from Russia to Ukraine as a present during the celebrities of 1000 years friendship
28.4.1956 Crimean Tatars were returned some civic rights, but not allowed to return to Crimea and get their properties.
6.58 petition to Upper Soviet, 4 more petitions follow, the last with 25.000 signatures to the XXII Congress of the CPSU
October 1966 Mitings of Crimean tatars concerning 45th of formation Crimean ÀSSR in Andijan (2000 persons), Bekabad (2000
persons), in Fergana, Kuvasai, Tashkent, Samarkand and other cities. Only in Andijan and Bekabad more than 65 persons are
detained.
2 September 1967 In Tashkent the militia has dispersed multithousand demonstration of Crimean tatars. 160 persons are
detained, 10 of them are condemned.
05.09.1967 Crimean Tatars were returned all civic rights, but were there live, not in Crimea - Tatars are no longer accused
of colloraboration with occupants during WW II. Until then Crimean Tatars were not allowed to Crimea even as tourists
21 April 1968 Mass beating by militia Crimean tatars during their traditional walking in urban park of Chirchik city.
More than 300 persons are detained, 10 of them are condemned.
Between 68 and 69 250 CT were allowed to settle as farmers. From 10.-12.12.69 police forces attacked CT. This violence
caused protests from Russians and Ukrainians.
53-73 50 court rulings against 200 active Tatar
1972 Crimean Tatar Rustem Kazakov wins at Munich Olympic Games Gold Medal in Greco-Roman. He was also in 1968 and 1971in
Greco-Roman wrestling
1975/6 Mustafa Cemiloglus hunger strike lasts 303 days, his weight falls to 36 kg
1976-1982 6.000 Crimean Tatars were deported a second time to Uzbekistan.
28.06.78 police tried to remove Musa Mamut and his family since 1975. During their last attempt he burns himself.
11.78 another suicide
14.11.78 declaration
1986 Mustafa Cemiloglu is free
1987 Perestroika and Glasnost allow activities for the rights of the Crimean Tatar.
11.-12.04.1987 first All-Union meeting of Crimean Tatars Action Group held in Tashkent - appeal to the new leadership
under Secretary General M. Gorbachev sent with 40.000 signatures
3./23.07.1987 over 2.000 Crimean Tatar representatives protest on Red Square - largest demonstration since 1917
1987 10.000 CT returned during 20 years, many others were deported, some persecuted
October 25, 1989 Saki Yarullin doused himself with gasoline and set himself on fire in an act of protest against the vicious
discrimination of Crimean Tatars by the local authorities.
14.11.1989 Upper Soviet declares the rehabilitation of Crimean Tatars. The deportation in 1944 was declared illegal und
criminal.
until 1990 about 38.000 Crimean Tatars return to Crimea, another 100.000 return in 1990
30 September 1990 in the village of Krasnokamenka the pogrom of the tent camp of Crimean Tatars was organized
15th October of 1990 pogrom of the tent camp in Koreiz
2nd August of 1991 the pogrom of settlement of Crimean Tatars in the villige of Molodejnoye by OMON. Russian-speaking
people from 22 nearest villages took part in. More than 100 temporary and homes being built of Crimean Tatars were destroyed
12.08.1991 Gorbatchev arrested in his Datcha in Foros
1991 When the Soviet Union collapsed 120.000 Crimean Tatars returned to Crimea. No major administrative changes will be
made during the years. So still former communists continue to rule the communities and state offices. Inflation and custom
rules of the CIS states destroy the last wealth of the returning Crimean Tatars.
1991 local russian population destroys Tatar housing, e.g. in Alushta
5.92 Crimeas status is changed to Autonomous Republic within Ukraine.
01. 10.92 local authorities destroy a Tatar tent camp in Alushta. Tatars were beaten, tents, houses and construction material
destroyed. 27 Tatar were injured and 26 arrested. Milli Meclis wants the people to get free.
06.10.1992 As the authorities refuse, Crimean Tatars demonstrate in front of the government building. As the police cannot
prevent the demonstrators to enter the building, the government releases the Tatars.
November 1993 Osmanov killed in Simferopol under suspicous circumstances after a rapprochemant with OKND. New leader is
Abduraimow.
According to the decree 315/1/00350, 16.12.1993 of the Russian Army family members of the deported people shall not be
used in secrecy relevant departments.
1995 The Ukrainian Ministry of Financial Affairs ceased to allocate money for the program of resettlement of Crimean Tatars
23-27 June of 1995 clashes in Sudak, Feodosia, Jankoy between Crimean Tatars and mafia. 4 Crimean Tatars died, 7 wounded
March 1996 NDKT Leader Abduraimov joins a Communist Party meeting that is pro reconstruction of the Soviet Union and the
formation of a slavic-turkic union.
Today still half of the half million Crimean Tatars living in CIS have not been able to return to Crimea. Upon return
to Crimea, the Tatars found their homes and lands occupied. They face difficulties in arranging inter-state transport of their
personal property and exaction of prohibitive tariffs.
03.06.1997 More then 10 Crimean Tatar with Uzbek passports have to leave a train from Uzbekistan to Ukraine at the Russian-Ukrainian
in the Donetsk region. Although there a visa exception between the CIS member countries Uzbekistan, Ukraine and Russia, local
militsia claims the passengers fail to present an entry visa.
02.1998 The Ministry for Nationalities and Migration has been downgraded to a state committee.
24.03.1998 Ukrainian Parliament (Ukraine's Communists and leftist parties) failed to provide half of the returning Crimean
Tatars with Ukrainian citizenship
March 28, 1998 44 years after the deportation ( SURGUN ) from their homeland, Ukraine elects two Crimean Tatar into the
Ukrainian Parliament Verkhoviy Rada.
18.05.1998 Some 10,000 people gathered in Simferopol to mark the 54th anniversary of Stalin's deportation of Crimean Tatars.
Crimean Tatars have returned to the peninsula and many have no jobs and housing. A resolution adopted at the gathering demanded
Crimean Tatar representatives in state bodies, and official recognition of the Kurultay and the Mejlis, the representative
bodies of the Crimean Tatar people.
05.10.98 Mustafa Abdulcemil Kirimoglu, head of the self-proclaimed Tatar parliament in Crimea in Ukraine was awarded the
1998 Nansen Medal for his work in helping his Turkic-speaking people resettle in their former Soviet homeland.
15.01.1999 The office building of the Crimean Tatar National Majlis was burned. The office of the Chair of the Mejlis,
Mustafa Abdulcemil Kirimoglu, was completely destroyed, and the building including the communications equipment sustained
considerable damage. The fact that water and telephone services were cut off to the building prior to the attack strongly
suggests a well planned sabotage. A similar attack took place in 1993.
27.01.1999 The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe discusses the human rights situation in Ukraine. Deputies
also monitor the situation of the Crimean Tatars.
CRIMEAN TATARS PROTEST DISCRIMINATION. On April 8, the anniversary of the annexation of Crimea in 1783 by Catherine the
Great, some 3,000 Tatars staged a rally in front of the Crimean Supreme Court to protest what they call "the world's
longest ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing." They demanded representation in parliament, official status for their
language, and changes in both the Ukrainian and Crimean Constitutions. Their protests are scheduled to continue until May
18, the day Stalin's deportation of Crimean Tatars began. RFE/RL Watchlist
A General Assembly of Crimean Tatar residents of the village of Gavr (Plotinnoye) took place on Saturday. The Assembly
adopted an important decision: within a month a local referendum (general assembly of all inhabitants of the village) to be
held to decide to restore the Crimean Tatar name of this village. Note: the decision of this referendum should then be formally
approved by the government bodies of Crimea. There are precedents of such referendums: the village of Tanino (in translation
it means "Belonging to Tanya" (Tanya is a Russian female name) of Pervomaysky district was renamed into Saribash,
as it was called before the deportation in 1944. 11 April 2000
Kirim Tatar Milli Meclisinin ve Kirim Tatar Gencleri organizasyonu ile 2000, 6 Haziranda Kirim'a 102 Cecen cocugu goturldu.
Cocuklar 2 ay devaminda Kirim Tatar ailelerinde yasaycaklar. Kirim'in cesit koy ve sehirlerinde yine de kardes cecen halkina
boyle gibi yardmda bulunmak istegenler az degil.
CRIMEAN TATARS by H. B. Paksoy
Modern Encyclopedia of Religions in Russia and Soviet
Union [MERRSU] (Academic International Press, 1995)
Vol. VI. Pp. 135-142.]
The Crimean Tatars are a Turkic people who inhabited Crimean peninsula from at least the 13th century to Word War
II, when they were deported to Central Asia by Stalin's orders. Although the Soviet regime "exonerated" them, it
has denied permission for the Crimean Tatars to return to Crimea. At present, Crimean Tatars live in diaspora. Large numbers
are living in Ozbekistan, or in the principal cities of Turkey. At various times, other Tatar groupings migrated as far as
Helsinki, Finland and New York, while still others stayed in the Dobruja region of Romania. Poland has a small enclave.
Origins and Early History:
The word Tatar appears in the Kultigin tablets, which
were erected in early 8th century AD and are located close
to the Orkhon river near the Mongolian border. These
tablets were variously discovered. re-discovered and finally
deciphered between the 18th and 20th centuries. According
to the inscriptions, Tatars were one of the tribes living in
the vicinity of the Altai range of Eastern Asia. During the
11th century, Kashgarli Mahmut, the author of Compendium of
Turkic Dialects , noted that Tatars were living around
Otuken, next to the Uyghurs. However, Tatars became one of
the tribes forcibly incorporated into the Mongol armies by
Chinggis Khan, when the Mongols swept through most of
Eurasia during the 13th century.
The Latin word "Tartarus," meaning "the infernal
regions of Roman and Greek mythology, hence Hell" had
already been borrowed into Christian theology by the clergy
of Europe. Possibly St. Louis of France was the first, in
1270, to apply this unrelated term to the troops of
Chinggis. By the 14th century, this erroneous usage was
also extended to the homelands of the Tatars. Consequently
that area later known as Central Asia, or Turkistan, was
referenced by the European cartographers and authors,
including Chaucer, as "Tartary," Tartares," or "Independent
Tartary."
By extension the term "Tatar," or "Tartar" was applied
by outsiders to almost all groupings of Turkish origin
including numerous Turkish confederations present on the
Eurasian steppe before 13th century: Kipcahks, Khazars,
Pechenegs and a variety of others. These Turkic groups were
simply incorporated into the new influx of the 13th century.
P. Golden, N. Golb and O. Pritsak provide the details of
some of the Turkic Groups already present in Eurasia. Togan
and Barthold provide the overview, including the movements
of a number of Turkic tribes and confederations. The Mongol
leadership was thus absorbed into the Turkic population. By
the early 13th century the Mongols encountered by all
outsiders --including the Russians-- apparently were
speaking "Tatar."
Even Timur (d. 1405), a Barlas Turk (who has been
called Tamarlane, Tamburlane, etc. by many authors), was
labelled "Tatar." Christopher Marlowe (and, later, Lord
Byron) can probably be partly credited with the propagation
of this error during the 16th century, as well as for the
distortion of Timur's name. Later Western authors argued
among themselves as to the "correct spelling" of the word
Tatar, some opting for the form "Tartar" based on alleged
phonetical studies they conducted. Tatars --and other Turk
groups-- seem never to have entertained the thought of
including the first "r." Throughout recent history, the
term Tatar has been further distorted by other Western
authors in applications that had no bearing on the original
tribe, descendent or deeds.
The Golden Horde was formed (under Batu Khan, grandson
of Chinggis) out of the Western domains of the great
Chinggisid Ulus which had reached from Northern China to the
Carpathians, including Muscovy. The Golden Horde itself,
with its capital at Sarai on the Idil (Volga), dominated the
Yayik (Ural)-Idil area, Muscovy, Kievan Rus and the Crimea
from its rise in the latter part of the 13th century until
the decisive defeat of the Horde under Toktamysh by Timur in
the 1490s. However, the Horde was already weakened and
fragmented by 1430s, and thereafter one can tentatively
begin to speak of an "independent" Crimean Khanate.
During the period of the Golden Horde's greatest power,
it excited the fear and curiosity of Europe. The dearth of
information about the Tatars contributed to distorted views
among outsiders. An historian of early 15th century (quoted
by Togan), wrote of the Tatars:
Their thought processes are as swift as their
actions. All information regarding the political
conditions existing on earth arrive in their
quarters. But, no details of their intentions or
thoughts are allowed to leave their domains or
reach other people.
The Tatars, like other Turks in Chinggisid armies,
practiced Shamanism. The Western edges of the Eurasian
steppe also displayed a varied set of religious beliefs.
The Khazar ruling class seem to have embraced Judaism
sometime prior to the 9-10th century. Portions of the
Kipchak (mainly Gagauz and Pecheneks) became Christians.
Some Kipchak Turkish odes to Jesus, written or translated,
exist in manuscript form. Despite the inroads made by all
major religions, the steppe also preserved the earlier
beliefs: be it Shamanism, Taoism, or other remnants that
originally arrived from Eastern Asia.
The Tatars had their first flirtation with Islam during
the reign of the Chinggisid Berkei Khan (r. 1257-1267).
However, Islam was not widely established until after the
accession of Ozbeg (1313-1340). Fourteenth century
travellers found Islamic communities among Tatars. The
acceptance of Islam, perhaps still incomplete at the end of
the 14th century, added an additional dimension and points
of contention to tatar political life. It enhanced the
existing competition, alternating with open conflict, with
Muscovy; it expanded the ethnic and linguistic affinities
with the Ottoman dynasty into the realm of formal religion.
Nonetheless, the Crimean Tatars' link to the Golden Horde
and its Chinggisid lineage, rather than the religious
dimension, remained the single most important factor of
political life to the end of the 16th century, possibly
longer.
Muscovy had paid tribute to the Golden Horde for 240
years, and Tatar dominance was exercised occasionally even
after the last payment in 1480. During Horde rule, Moscow
became increasingly a player in intra-horde, and later
inter-Khanate politics and intrigues, regardless of any
religious issues. The fragmentation of the Horde was partly
induced by Muscovite agents who were pitting prominent Tatar
families against each other to prevent a unity among
Tatars.. After the disintegration of the Horde, but before
the Muscovite conquest of Kazan (1552), the Grand Prince of
Moscow and the Khan of Crimea competed to control the
appointment of the Kazan Khan. Bennigsen is an early
Western observer bringing these issues to the attention of
the Western world. Inalcşk and Fisher explore later aspects
of the competition.
The Tatar political legacy, particularly the concept
that political legitimacy lay only with the Chinggisid line,
was clearly established under Batu Khan in the mid-13th
century and survived at least into the reign of Ivan IV,
"The Terrible" (r. 1533-1584). Pritsak even relates an
incident in 1574 when the Tsar Ivan:
enthroned Simeon Bekbulatovich as tsar in
Moscow... he himself rode simply... Whenever he
(Ivan) comes to tsar Simeon, he sits at a
distance... together with the Boyars... Who was
this Tsar Bekbulatovich? He was a genuine
Chinggisid, a descendent of Orda, the eldest son
of Jochi, who was also a great-grandson of Ahmed,
the last Khan of the Great Horde.
Both in this political realm and in the areas of
culture and language, the influence of tatars on the
Russians was enormous. During the rule of the Horde and
even after the fall of Kazan to the Russians, bearing a
Tatar name or Tatar familial ties were a source of prestige
for the Russian nobility. Keenan pointed out how the
influence of a "Tatar Style of Writing" is discernible in
18th century Russian literature. Kazakh author Oljas
Suleymanov, in his recent analysis of the Igor Tale, long
regarded as Russian, presents powerful if controversial
evidence that it si in fact adapted from an earlier Turkic
work. Inalcik, too, demonstrates how Russian Orthodox
clerics between the 14th-17th centuries designed the titles
of the Russian ruler largely on the basis of the Mongol and
Tatar originals.
Crimean Khanate
Under Haji Giray, who ruled Crimea in the 1440s, one
might begin to speak of an "independent" Crimea. In 1475,
during the reign of Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, "The
Conqueror" (r. 1451-1481), Crimea became a nominal vassal of
the Ottoman Sultan. It was not until the late 16th century
that Ottoman power became intrusive. Sultans then were able
to unseat and replace recalcitrant khans and the name of the
sultan began to be mentioned regularly at the Friday prayer,
a symbol of his supreme temporal authority.
Before that time, and occasionally thereafter, the
Crimean khans had freely pursued their own policies. They
continued to raid Muscovy after the fall of Kazan and even
conducted a final raid on the suburbs of Moscow in 1571. As
late as the middle of the 17th century, the Crimean Khan
made a treaty with Poland against Muscovy. Nonetheless,
continued Muscovite control over Idil --with attendant
claims to be the legitimate successors to the Golden Horde--
effectively quashed Crimean ambitions to reestablish
Chinggisid rule. Crimean Tatars then turned to the Caucasus
and Iran in the East and South, and to Hungary to their
West.
Crimea under Russian Rule
Catherine II (r. 1762-1796; German princess married
Peter --who later became tsar Peter III) separated Crimea
from the Ottoman empire and later annexed it to her own
empire. The first step was taken in the Treaty of Kucuk
Kaynarja (1774), which ended her Russo-Ottoman war of 1773-
74 and provided for the independence of Crimea.
In 1773 Catherine had instructed the Holy Synod to
issue a "toleration of All Faiths" edict. She had already
closed the Office of New Converts (established by Peter I).
Both steps were possibly meant to make the tsarist russian
empire more attractive to a Crimea she intended to absorb.
In 1777, i.e. after Crimea's detachment from the Ottoman
Porte, Catherine ordered preparations for the settlement of
Greek and Slavic groups from Ottoman domains in order to
strengthen Russia's position there. Catherine annexed
Crimea six years later.
Catherine was advised by one Baltic German nobleman
that Crimean Tatars, if properly incorporated in a new
Russian administration of their homeland, might ultimately
prove useful in advancing Her Majesty's imperialist goals in
Central Asia. Catherine wished to utilize Tatar merchants,
who included itinerant Muslim "clerics," in Islamizing the
steppe people. The Russians believed that the adherence to
Islam would prevent any union against Russians and make
Islamized subjects more pliant. As the Russian empire began
preparations for military occupation of Central Asia,
special schools were established. In such institutions,
Tatars were encouraged to enroll to train as translators and
minor officials, for duty in Central Asia to represent and
enforce the tsarist interests.
After the Crimean War (1855-6), the Russian empire
sought to expel, and indeed induced by force, large numbers
of Tatars from Crimea, on the ground that the tatars sided
with the invading allied forces. Hundreds of thousands
migrated to the Ottoman domains, to Dobruja, located West of
the Black Sea. Portions of the emigrants went directly to
Istanbul. As a result of the later Balkan Wars (1912-3),
sizeable groupings of Tatars crossed the Bosphorus and
settled in various cities in Asia Minor. The armistice (and
terms of peace treaty) following the First World War further
speeded this process.
Despite the emigrations, there still remained a Crimean
Tatar populations living in Crimea in the 19th century,
apart from the Tatars of Kazan. This group was urged on to
further develop their original culture --which predates the
first mention of the word Rus in the Chronicles (e.g.
Annales Bertiniani of 9th c.)-- and adapt it to the demands
of the age. Such 19th century Crimean and Idil Tatars as
Kayyum Nasiri, Marjani, Ismail Bey Gaspirali and others
advocated this position. They sought to establish cultural
links with other Tatar and Turk groupings living elsewhere
in order to prevent a total assimilation by the Russians.
This movement was labelled Jadidism, or, convolutedly, "Pan-
Turkism." Treated as if a "pan" movement were the plague
itself, even today, such "bogey-man" approach is widely
applied to any thought even remotely suggesting that Crimean
Tatars have a history prior to the coming of the Bolsheviks.
However, those Crimean Tatars remaining in their
homeland were also to be subjected to another type of
ideological struggle as well --the struggle between kadim
(old) and jadid (new). The Jadid movement had begun among
Idil Tatars as an attempt to modernize the curricula of the
madrasa (loosely, Islamic seminaries). The Jadids advocated
the rejuvenation of education by ending blind memorization
of a few texts and the addition of such secular courses of
study as sciences and Western languages. Those Crimean
Tatars who followed this movement and in all spheres of life
advocated adapting to the age of science and were known as
the Jadidists.
The religious establishment in Crimea, as in the Idil
region, resisted these attempts to introduce changes which
they interpreted as heretical, and would, in any event,
threaten their hold over the education system and the
population. Encouraged by the russian bureaucracy, indeed
incorporated into the russian bureaucracy by a system of
appointments and regulations, the Crimean Tatar Muslim
clergy insisted on maintaining the strict hold of religious
dogma over the Crimean Tatars. This group was named
kadimist because they strove to remain the "old," or kadim.
Soviet Period
After the imposition of the Soviet regime in Moscow,
Crimea was the scene of brief but bloody conflict between
Bolshevik sailors at the port of Sebastopol and the Tatar
national organization, the Milli Firka (The National Party).
The Milli Firka was entirely in the Jadidist tradition and
oppose control of waqf (religious endowments) and schools by
the conservative ulama (religious scholar/jurists and
administrators; most of whom were kadimist) of the official
establishment. Military defeat of the Tatar armed forces at
the hands of the Bolsheviks (January 1918) was followed by
German occupation in May.
The Germans brought in a Lithuanian Muslim, General
Sulkevich, to administer the occupied Crimea. His policies,
including the shipping of Crimean food supplies to Germany,
earned him and the Germans considerable unpopularity. The
withdrawal of German forces in late 1918 was followed by
brief rule of the Milli Firka and subsequently by a second
communist government. The Red Army had invaded Crimea in
April 1919 and established, among other organs of
administration, a Crimean Muslim Bureau. Despite its name,
the Bureau had little to do with religious affairs and was
intended to administer all matters concerning the Tatar
population (rather than the Russian settlers). This
communist government rejected offers of cooperation in
return for power sharing advanced by the Milli Firka.
This second communist government fled one month after
its establishment at the approach of General Denikin and his
White forces. The rule of Denikin was the worst of those
governments since 1917. Post-revolutionary reforms were
reversed and the tsarist Mufti (the highest cleric) of
Crimea, unseated by the Milli Firka in 1917, was restored to
his former post. The Milli Firka was outlawed; in order to
drive out the Whites, the Milli Firka allied with the Reds.
The latter fought its way to power in Crimea in October
1920, despite the shipment of British weapons to the Whites
through Istanbul --which was then under occupation of the
British, French and the Italian forces.
The policies of the third communist government included
seizure of large landed estates, many the results of
Catherine II's land grants to Russian nobles. Despite
peasant expectation that these lands would be distributed,
they were instead made into state farms (sovkhozy). As
noted by R. Pipes in his detailed account of the "Civil" War
in Crimea, "many irregularities" were committed in the
establishing of the sovkhozy and the "heaviest losers" were
the tatars.
After the recommendations of Kazan Tatar Mir Sultan
Said Sultan Galiev, then deputy to Stalin, the Commissar of
Nationalities (Commissariat for Nationality Affairs), the
Crimean policy was changed. Tatars were accepted into the
Communist Party and, in an effort to soothe ruffled
feathers, an Autonomous Crimean Soviet Socialist Republic
(Crimean ASSR) was established in November 1921. The new
status of Crimea as an ASSR within the RSFSR (status which
continued until 1954) had no practical significance.
Despite a liberal sounding list of promises on paper,
Crimean Tatars were not guaranteed political or cultural
autonomy by the central government.
One Tatar Communist leader, Veli Ibrahimov was able, in
his capacity as Chairman of the Central Committee and of the
Council of Ministers in Crimea, to continue the work of the
pre-revolutionary Tatar nationalist government. He made
government appointments largely from the ranks of the Milli
Firka. Under his leadership, until he was purged in 1929,
Tatar-language schools and newspapers were reestablished.
Tatar, with Russian, became the official language of Crimea.
After the 1929 purges of Ibrahimov and his followers
for "national deviationism," the new policy of
"Sovietization," (meaning de facto "Russification") was set
in motion. Tatar leadership in education and the press was
replaced by Russian and Ukrainian communist cadres. The
Latin script was replaced by a contrived "specially created"
Cyrillic and "new" grammars were written for Crimean Tatar
introducing Russian words in place of Turkish. Most
existing tatar publications were labelled "nonproleterian"
and "non-Soviet." In the 1930s, Tatar intellectuals were
eliminated both by exile and by execution in large numbers.
The clergy, too, was purged wholesale with many ulama being
sent to Siberian and Central Asian exile. Virtually all
religious schools and mosques were closed.
The Soviet regime thus continued the tsarist policies
toward religion, only with the added zeal of Marxism.
Religious personnel were branded social parasites. The
"campaign of denigration," as Bennigsen has called it, was
replaced around 1930 with a more direct approach. The
League of Godless Zealots, which had been founded in 1925,
were active in Crimea and other traditionally non-Russian
areas only from the late 1920s' Membership in that league
grew from 15,000 in 1930 to 30,000 in 1931 and 42,000 in
1932. Clerics, formerly were "parasites" now became
"counterrevolutionaries." The role of the Muslim Spiritual
Boards (of which there were four in the USSR: Ufa for the
"European" region; Tashkent for Central Asia and
Kazakhistan; Mohachkala; Baku --the latter two in the
Caucasus) were streamlined. Crimea, as in tsarist times,
was in the jurisdiction of Ufa.
During the Second World War, after the Soviets
reoccupied Crimea from the withdrawing German forces (c.
1945), Stalin forcibly loaded the entire Crimean Tatar
population of Crimea onto cattle-cars and deported them to
Central Asia. The alleged reasoning, once again, was their
collaboration with invading forces. Karpat and Inalcik
provide most of the details on the emigration and related
aspects. Although the Crimean Tatars were later exonerated
of the previous charges that they have "collaborated," no
"permission" was forthcoming for their return to their
homeland.
Since that time, a large group of Crimean Tatars are
living in Ozbekistan. They are mostly concentrated around
Tashkent, Samarkand and Shehrisebz. They are allowed to
publish one weekly newspaper (until 1992 called Lenin
Bayragi --Lenin's Banner). Their struggle to return to
their Crimean domains and with the Soviet security apparatus
and psychiatric hospitals are chronicled in Uncensored
Russia, translated by Peter Reddaway.
Crimean Tatars are one of the earliest and better
organized "nationalities" living in Russia. This fact was
once again brought to the attention of the world through
their unprecedented Red Square demonstrations of 1987,
stressing the Crimean Tatar desire to return to Crimean
homelands. They are presently maintaining observers at
various localities around the world, including the "Council
of Europe" in Strasbourg, to inform humanity of their
plight.
(Completion date: 1988)
Sources:
For the earliest known references to Tatars in written
sources (8th c.), see T. Tekin, A Grammar of Orkhon Turkic.
(Bloomington: Uralic and Altaic Series Vol. 69, 1968),
containing the originals and translations. Kilisli Rifat
produced the edition princeps of Kasgarli Mahmud, Kitab
Diwan Lugat at Turk. (3 Vols.) (Istanbul, 1917-19), which
places the tatars in the vicinity of the Altai range during
the 11th century. This work is also edited by B. Atalay, as
Divanu Lugat-at-Turk. (Ankara, 1939-1941), and translated
into English by R. Dankoff with J. Kelly, Compendium of
Turkic Dialects. (3 Vols.) (Cambridge, MA., 1982-84).
Z. V. Togan, in his Umumi Turk Tarihine Giris
(Istanbul, 1981), 2nd edition, provides the insight into the
composition of Tatars in Eurasia and the later
confederations incorporating them.
A. Aziz, Tatar Tarihi (Moscow, 1919) and G. Rahim & G.
Aziz, Tatar Edebiyati Tarihi (Kazan, 1925) provide the later
views of Tatars of themselves. See also H. B. Paksoy,
"Chora Batir: A Tatar Admonition to Future Generations"
Studies in Comparative Communism Vol. XIX, Nos. 3&4
Autumn/Winter 1986. The works by Togan, Aziz and Rahim are
not yet available in Western languages. To avoid the usual
pitfalls, these are panacea.
For an analysis of the Turk groups resident in Eurasia
prior to the arrival of Mongols and Tatars, reference should
be made to: Togan's above referenced works; P. Golden,
Khazar Studies. (Budapest, 1980). Two Vols; idem, "Cumanica"
Archivum Eurasiae Medii Aevi, IV, 1984; D. Sinor, Editor,
The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia. (Cambridge,
1990); Uli Schamiloglu, "Tribal Politics and Social
Organization" (PhD Dissertation, Columbia University, 1986);
W. Barthold, Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion. (4th.
Ed.) (London, 1977); N. Golb & O. Pritsak, Khazarian Hebrew
Documents. (Ithaca, 1982).
E. L. Keenan shows the high esteem, via imitation, the
tatar literary enjoyed among Russian literati, long after
the political position of the tatars eroded. See E. L.
Keenan, "Muscovy and Kazan: Some Introductory Remarks on the
Patterns of Steppe Diplomacy" Slavic Review Vol. XXVI, No.
4 (1967); idem "The Jarlyk of Axmed-Xan to Ivan III: A New
Reading" International Journal of Slavic Linguistics and
Poetics Vol. XII, (1967). Also O. Pritsak, "Moscow, the
Golden Horde, and the Kazan Khanate from a Polycultural
Point of View" Slavic Review Vol. XXVI, No. 4 (1967). R.
Pipes, The Formation of the Soviet Union (Harvard, 1954)
provides information about the tatars during the Bolshevik
revolution.
Turco-Tatar Past, Soviet Present: Studies Presented to
Alexandre Bennigsen (Louvain-Paris, 1986) is of importance.
In addition to a list of Bennigsen's personal (and co-
authored) contributions to the field, this volume (Edited by
Ch. Lemercier-Quelquejay, G. Veinstein, S. E. Wimbush)
contains papers directly addressing the issues at hand.
Among them are: J. Martin, "The Tiumen Khanate's Encounters
with Muscovy, 1481-1505;" H. Inalcik, ""Power Relationships
between Russia, the Crimea and the Ottoman Empire as
reflected in Titulature;" K. H. Karpat, "The Crimean
Emigration of 1856-1862 and the Settlement and Urban
Development of Dobruca;" E. J. Lazzerini, "The Revival of
Culture in pre-revolutionary Russia: or, why a
Prosophography of the Tatar Ulema?;" A. A. Rorlich, "The
Temptation of the West: Two Tatar travellers' Encounter with
Europe at the end of the Nineteenth Century."
A short list of specialist and general works on the
Tatars, their lineage and politics include A. W. Fisher
Crimean Tatars. (Stanford, 1978); J. Pelenski, Russian and
Kazan: Conquest and Imperial Ideology (Hague and Paris,
1974); A-A, Rorlich, The Volga Tatars: Profile in National
Resilience (Stanford, 1986); T. Allsen, Mongol Imperialism
(Berkeley, 1987); N. A Baskakov, Russkie Familii Tiurkskogo
proiskhozhdeniia (Moscow, 1972); Peter Reddaway, Editor,
Translator, Uncensored Russia (New York, 1972). Resat
Cemilev, Musa Mamut: Human Torch, M. Serdar, (Ed.) (New
York: Crimea Foundation, 1986); Tatars of the Crimea: Their
Struggle for Survival, E. Allworth (Ed.), (Durham and
London, 1988); Shest' Denei: Sudebnyi Protsess Il'i Gabaia i
Mustafy Dzhemileva, M. Serdar (Ed.), (New York: Crimea
Foundation, 1980).
by John Sloan, August 2000
The first entry in the Primary Chronicle for the appearance of the
Polovtsi ( the medieval Russian name for the Kypchak - Cumans) is in
1054 when they appeared south of Kyiv and the leader, Bolush, signed a
treaty with Vsyevolod, prince of Pereyaslavl. Then under 1061 they
appeared for the first time in battle against the same Vsyevolod and
defeated him. The leader then was Iskul. From then on they appear in
Russian sources continuously sometimes fighting against and often as
allies of various Rus princes, including wars against the Hungarians,
Poles, and Byzantine Empire.
Moreover, quite a few Rus princes married Kypchak princesses. The famous
Yuri I Dolgoruki's first wife was Anna, daughter of Kypchak khan Aepa.
He is the theoretical 'founder' of Moscow.
Svyatopolk II, Vladimir II, Oleg Svyatoslavich of Chernigiv all had
Kypchak wives.
Most interesting perhaps is that Mstislav Mstislavich Udaloi ( died
1228) the Daring married Maria, daughter of the great Kypchak khan,
Khotyan. Interesting because their daughter, Rostislava-Fedosia, married
Yaroslav II Vsyevolodovich, grand prince of Vladimir and thus Maria
became the grand mother of a whole set of most famous Russian warriors,
including Alexander Nevski. So when anyone questions the antecedents of
a Crimean Tatar one might point out that "Saint" Alexander Nevski's
grandmother was a Tatar and long before anyone heard of Batu. Of course
all the princes of Moscow, Tver, Rostov, Nizhnigorod et cetera are
descended from her too.
There were others. To carry the story forward, Fedor Rostislavich,
prince of Smolensk and then of Yaroslavl married Anna, the daughter of
the great Mongol-Tatar general Nogai. (maybe folks don't remember that).
Thus she was the mother and grandmother of the whole line of princes of
Yaroslavl, Mologa and other towns in that region.
The actual situation is that the ancestors of the Crimean Tatars were in
all southern Ukraine, Romania, Crimea, Kuban, Don-Volga valley from the
11th century. Only a very few of Batu's warriors in 1237-40 were even
Mongols (some estimate as few of 5000) - most were Central Asian Turkish
ethnic types related to the Kypchak of the western region - which of
course was called the Kypchak steppe. And even those Central Asian
soldiers were quickly absorbed by the indigenous Kypchak -Tatar families
who lived there all along. And they were not all nomads either. The
major Kypchak port Surozh- Sudalia-Sudak was famous all over the
medieval world.
On the other hand, while the vast majority of the Crimean Tatars had
very little to do with any "Mongol" ancestry, the Khans of the Gerei
family could indeed trace their line through the male side directly to
Chingis Khan. Thus they were of the "Golden Kin'; something that no
Ottoman Sultan or Tamerlane could claim. This always gave them a
certain cachet. And of course they were by far the longest lasting and
remaining rulers descended from Chingis Khan (by some 200 + years).
|
