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On May 18, 1944, the Soviet totalitarian regime committed one of the greatest crimes in its history – the forced mass deportation of the entire Crimean Tatar people from their historical homeland – Crimea. By personal order of Stalin, a decision was made to “finally cleanse” the peninsula of Crimean Tatars – in fact, to carry out ethnic cleansing and destroy the Crimean Tatars as an indigenous people and national community for the final colonization of the peninsula. The majority of the victims were women, children and the elderly – since thousands of Crimean Tatar men were on the fronts of World War II as part of the Red Army.

At dawn on May 18, a large-scale NKVD operation began simultaneously throughout Crimea. Armed security forces broke into the homes of Crimean Tatars and, at gunpoint, forced them to gather in 10–20 minutes for forced eviction. As early as 8 a.m. on May 18, 90,000 Crimean Tatars were loaded onto 25 freight trains. By the end of May 19, the deportation had involved over 165,000 people, and on May 20, the authorities reported to Moscow on the “complete cleansing” of Crimea. In total, 47,885 families — 193,865 people — were deported, including over 92,000 children under the age of 16.

The main places of deportation were Central Asia, namely the Uzbek SSR (over 151,000 people) and the Kazakh SSR (4,286), as well as various regions of the RSFSR: the Mari ASSR, Molotov, Sverdlovsk, Kemerovo, Gorky, Yaroslavl, and Ivanovo regions.

The Crimean Tatars were deported in overcrowded freight cars, without access to food, drinking water, or medical care. The journey to the places of forced settlement in remote regions of the USSR lasted 2–3 weeks. Already during transportation, according to various estimates, from 7 to 8 thousand people died – due to thirst, disease, exhaustion and inhuman conditions. After arriving at the places of exile – hard forced labor, hunger, unsanitary conditions, the spread of epidemics, complete social isolation.

The Crimean Tatar people were placed in specially created isolated settlements – the so-called “special settlements”, which actually became Soviet reservations. They were subject to a strict control regime: mandatory registration in special commandants’ offices, a strict ban on leaving the boundaries of the settlements, constant surveillance by the repressive authorities. The status of “special settlers” meant lifelong discrimination and restrictions on basic rights – freedom of movement, education, medical care, and work in their specialty. In Uzbekistan alone, according to official Soviet data, about 30,000 Crimean Tatars died in a year and a half. In some areas, the mortality rate reached 60–70%. According to the Crimean Tatar national movement, the real number of deaths was even higher. In 1948, the regime of special settlements was further tightened. Attempting to leave the reservation was punishable by arrest, and repeated violations were punishable by up to 20 years of hard labor. Separately, almost 6,000 people were sent to Gulag camps directly during deportation.

Crimean Tatar soldiers and officers of the Red Army were also subjected to repression. After the end of World War II, almost 9,000 of them were deported to special settlements or labor camps — along with the rest of the people. Neither military merit nor personal heroism at the front saved them. Despite the fact that 21 Crimean Tatars were nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and some – repeatedly, in particular, the pilot Amet-Khan Sultan received this title twice (1943, 1945), even they found themselves under the label of “traitors” and suffered the same repressions. After the expulsion, the Soviet regime destroyed everything that reminded of the Crimean Tatars in Crimea, in particular, the Crimean ASSR was liquidated and replaced by an oblast. Toponyms with Crimean Tatar names were Russified. Mosques were destroyed or converted into farm buildings. Immigrants from other Soviet republics moved to Crimea en masse, who were settled in the houses of the deportees. The Crimean Tatar language, books, historical documents, cultural artifacts were subject to destruction by the Soviet authorities and replaced with new ones – Russian. Even mention of the fact of deportation — Sürgünlik — was prohibited, and the very term “Crimean Tatar” was tried to be removed from use.

The official recognition of the 1944 deportation as an act of genocide at the international level is a fundamentally important step for establishing historical truth and preventing the repetition of such crimes in the future. By calling things by their proper name – genocide – states and international organizations give a clear assessment of the crimes of the Soviet regime against the Crimean Tatar people, honor the memory of the victims and demonstrate solidarity with the victims. This is not only a matter of the past – in modern conditions, such a position is also a condemnation of the current policy of the Russian Federation, which in occupied Crimea continues a similar policy of destruction and displacement of the indigenous people in many aspects. On November 12, 2015, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine officially recognized the deportation of the Crimean Tatars as an act of genocide, and established May 18 as the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of this Crime. Ukraine condemned the policy of the Soviet totalitarian regime, guided by the provisions of the UN Convention on the Prevention of Genocide. At the state level, the memory of the victims is honored every year on May 18: mourning events, memorial rallies, and lessons of remembrance are held throughout the country. In Kyiv and other cities, people light candles in the shape of a map of Crimea and raise Crimean Tatar flags as a sign of solidarity.

Ukraine’s example has become an impetus for international recognition of the genocide of the Crimean Tatar people. The parliaments of Latvia and Lithuania (2019), Canada (2022), Poland, Estonia, and the Czech Republic (2024) have adopted corresponding resolutions. In their resolutions, these states directly call the actions of the Stalinist regime genocide, and also condemn the policy of the Russian Federation, which continues repressions against the Crimean Tatars during the current occupation of Crimea. In particular, the Sejm of Poland strongly condemned not only the crime of 1944, but also its modern continuation, and the Estonian Riigikogu emphasized the legacy of the criminal policies of the USSR and the Russian Federation.

Thus, an international consensus is being formed on the assessment of the tragedy of the Crimean Tatar people as an act of genocide. Ukraine continues to actively work with calls on the governments of other countries and international organizations (UN, European Parliament, Council of Europe) to provide a proper legal and moral assessment of the events of 1944.

After Stalin’s death and the 20th Congress of the CPSU, the Crimean Tatars were not allowed to return to their homeland – Crimea. In fact, their exile became indefinite. At the same time, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, a national movement of the Crimean Tatars arose to restore their rights and return to their historical homeland. This movement became one of the largest and longest-lasting human rights movements in the Soviet Union. The culmination was the action on Red Square in Moscow in July 1987, when hundreds of community representatives openly appealed to the authorities with demands for the right to return to Crimea. It was thanks to public pressure that the Soviet authorities lifted the ban on Crimean Tatars living in Crimea in November 1989. Immediately after receiving the opportunity, a self-organized process of mass return began. Already in the late 1980s and especially in 1990–1991, thousands of families went back to Crimea. The return was spontaneous and extremely difficult, the community self-organized and created about 300 new settlements of compact residence throughout Crimea. These settlements, built by the Crimean Tatars themselves, became a symbol of the people’s return to their native land.

In 1991, the institutional representation of the Crimean Tatar people was restored. On June 26, 1991, the historic Second Kurultai of the Crimean Tatar people was held in Simferopol, which became a continuation of the tradition of national self-government, initiated in 1917. The Kurultai proclaimed the restoration of the people’s rights to self-government in Crimea and created a representative body – the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people. The Mejlis became the legitimate representative of the interests of the Crimean Tatars, interacting with the authorities of Ukraine and the international community on issues of return, restoration of property rights, development of education, language and culture.

Having returned home, the Crimean Tatar people began to actively revive their culture, language and religious life, despite the difficult starting conditions. In the first years after repatriation, the Crimean Tatar Drama Theater was restored, the folklore ensemble “Kyrym” was created, the Ismail Gasprinsky Library and the Museum of the History and Culture of the Crimean Tatar People were opened. The first programs and printed publications in the Crimean Tatar language appeared in the media. Mosques began to open in communities, religious buildings that had been converted into warehouses or museums during the Soviet era were returned. The construction of schools with elements of teaching in the native language began.

The current policy of the Russian Federation in occupied Crimea is a direct continuation of the genocidal practices that began in the Soviet period. After the occupation of the peninsula in 2014, the Russian occupation administration launched a systematic campaign of pressure, persecution and displacement of the Crimean Tatar community, which became one of the main centers of non-violent resistance to the occupation. From the very beginning, the actions of the occupation regime were aimed at suppressing the identity, culture, political expression and self-organization of the indigenous people of Ukraine in Crimea.

Already in the first years of the occupation, the activities of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, a legitimate representative body recognized by the international community, were banned. In 2016, a Russian court declared the Mejlis an “extremist organization”, effectively depriving the Crimean Tatars of the right to collective representation. Peaceful assemblies, including rallies to mark the anniversary of the deportation on May 18, the use of Crimean Tatar symbols, and public commemoration of the victims of the genocide were banned or severely restricted. Leading leaders, activists, and human rights defenders were forced to leave the peninsula, while others were subjected to criminal prosecution, political pressure, and media campaigns of discredit.

Russian security forces regularly conduct searches of Crimean Tatar homes, arrests on trumped-up charges, torture, and abductions. The main instrument of repression was the so-called “Crimean Muslim case”—a mass indictment of members of the Hizb ut-Tahrir organization, in which dozens of members of the community—mostly Muslim activists—received long-term sentences (up to 17–20 years) on terrorism charges without any evidence of involvement in violent acts. Among the victims are citizen journalists, human rights activists, members of the Crimean Solidarity association and other pro-Ukrainian activists.

At the same time, a conscious policy of cultural displacement and assimilation continues. All independent Crimean Tatar media outlets, in particular the ATR TV channel, have been closed. Opportunities for learning in the native language have been significantly reduced, the content of historical narratives in school education has been systematically changed in favor of imperial versions of the past. Traditional events are banned, and the space for the free use of the Crimean Tatar language, symbols and religious practices is narrowing.

All this is happening against the backdrop of demographic changes: thousands of Crimean Tatars are once again forced to leave Crimea due to an atmosphere of fear, constant searches, political persecution and military conscription. Instead, Russia is actively populating the peninsula with its own citizens. According to the Representation, this amounts to hundreds of thousands of people, which is a direct violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and qualifies as a war crime. This policy of “creeping” or “hybrid” deportation pursues the same goal: to destroy the presence of the Crimean Tatar people in Crimea and to establish an artificial image of a “Russian” peninsula. This experience resonates far beyond Ukraine: peoples and countries that have experienced similar tragedies — mass deportations, occupations, ethnic cleansing, or colonial enslavement — understand the depth of the suffering of the Crimean Tatar people. Their solidarity with Ukraine and the Crimean Tatars is conditioned by a common history of struggle for freedom, dignity, and the preservation of identity. It is these states and societies that are increasingly actively supporting international efforts to restore justice, de-occupy Crimea, and hold the Russian Federation accountable as an aggressor state that continues imperial and Soviet practices of destroying inconvenient and rebellious communities.