| Part of a series on the |
| 2014 annexation of Crimea |
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| Date | 1954 |
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| Location | Soviet Union |
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The transfer of the Crimean Oblast in 1954 was an administrative action of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, which transferred the government of the Crimean Peninsula from the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic to the Ukrainian SSR.
Prior to being incorporated into the Russian Empire, the Crimean Peninsula was independent under the Crimean Khanate. The Muslim Turkic Crimean Tatars were under the influence of the Ottoman Empire, while also bordering an increasingly aggressive Russian Empire. In 1774, following the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–74, the Russian and Ottoman empires agreed to refrain from interfering with Crimean Khanate through the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca. In 1783, following the increasing decline of the Ottoman Empire, the Russian Empire annexed the Crimean Khanate.
Within Russia, the peninsula was transferred between multiple internal administrations. Through its time in the Russian Empire and the USSR, up to its transfer to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954, Crimea was administered by 14 administrations. From annexation to the 1954 transfer, Crimea was administered by the following jurisdictions:
| Country | Jurisdiction | Period | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Russian Empire (1783–1917) | Taurida Oblast | February 1784 –December 1796 | Russian Oblast consisting of the land annexed from the Crimean Khanate |
| Novorossiysk Governorate (Second Establishment) | December 1796 –October 1802 | A Russian governorate, of which Crimea was simply a small part | |
| Taurida Governorate | October 1802 –December 1917 | A Russian governorate centered on the Crimean Peninsula | |
| Russian Revolution and Civil War (1917–1921) | Crimean People's Republic | December 1917 –January 1918 | Crimean Tatar government |
| Taurida Soviet Socialist Republic | 19 March –30 April 1918 | Bolshevik government | |
| Ukrainian People's Republic | May–June 1918 | ||
| First Crimean Regional Government | 25 June –25 November 1918 | German puppet state under Lipka Tatar General Maciej (Suleyman) Sulkiewicz | |
| Second Crimean Regional Government | November 1918 –April 1919 | Anti-Bolshevik government under Crimean Karaite former Kadet member Solomon Krym | |
| Crimean Socialist Soviet Republic | 2 April –June 1919 | Bolshevik government | |
| South Russian Government | February 1920 –April 1920 | Government of White movement's General Anton Denikin | |
| Government of South Russia | April (officially, 16 August) –16 November 1920 | Government of White movement's General Pyotr Wrangel | |
| Bolshevik Revolutionary committee government | November 1920 –18 October 1921 | Bolshevik government under Béla Kun (until 20 February 1921), then Mikhail Poliakov | |
| Crimean Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic | 18 October 1921 –30 June 1945 | Autonomous republic of the Russian SFSR | |
| Soviet Union (1922–1991) | |||
| Crimean Oblast | 30 June 1945 –19 February 1954 | An oblast directly under the control of the Russian SFSR. After 1954, the Crimean Oblast would continue as an oblast in the Ukrainian SSR, until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1992. |
Throughout its time in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, Crimea underwent a population change. During the Crimean War and the Russian Civil War, much of the Tatar population fled, leaving the formerly diverse territory with a large population of Ethnic Russians and Ukrainians, compared to the Turkic Tatars.
In 1944 Lavrentiy Beria, head of the Soviet state security and secret police ordered the forced deportation of the Crimean Tatars from the Crimean peninsula on behalf of Joseph Stalin, resulting in the ethnic cleansing of the region. As a result, this region was now predominantly ethnically Russian.
In 1954, Nikita Khrushchev transferred the Crimean Oblast from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR.
 | This article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject.(February 2021) |
On 19 February 1954, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union issued a decree transferring the Crimean Oblast from the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic to the Ukrainian SSR. The documents which are now housed at the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF) do confirm that the move was originally approved by the Presidium (Politburo) of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) on 25 January 1954, paving the way for the authorizing resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union three weeks later. [1] According to the Soviet Constitution (article 18), the borders of a republic within the Soviet Union could not be re-drawn without the agreement of the republic in question. The transfer was approved by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. The constitutional change (articles 22 and 23) to accommodate the transfer was made several days after the decree issued by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. [2] [3]
The decree was first announced, on the front page of Pravda , on 27 February 1954. [4] The full text of the decree was: [5]
On April 26, 1954 The decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet transferring the Crimea Oblast from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR.
Taking into account the integral character of the economy, the territorial proximity and the close economic and cultural ties between the Crimea Province and the Ukrainian SSR, the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet decrees:
To approve the joint presentation of the Presidium of the Russian SFSR Supreme Soviet and the Presidium of the Ukrainian SSR Supreme Soviet on the transfer of the Crimea Province from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR.
Consequently, amendments were made to the republican constitutions of Russia and Ukraine. On 2 June 1954 the Supreme Soviet of Russia adopted amendments to the Russian Constitution of 1937, which, among other things, excluded Crimea from list of subdivisions enumerated in article 14, and on 17 June 1954, the Verkhovna Rada added Crimea to article 18 of the 1937 Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR. [6] [7]
According to a 2009 article on Russian website Pravda.ru, the Presidium of the Supreme Council gathered for a session on 19 February 1954 when only 13 of 27 members were present. There was no quorum, but the decision was adopted unanimously. [8]
The earlier published documents and materials that have emerged more recently confirm that the transfer of Crimea from the Russian RSFSR to the Ukrainian SSR was carried out in accordance with the 1936 Soviet constitution, which in Article 18 stipulated that "the territory of a Union Republic may not be altered without its consent." The proceedings of the USSR Supreme Soviet Presidium meeting indicate that both the Russian RSFSR and the Ukrainian SSR had given their consent via their republic parliaments. [9]
On 27 June 2015, after the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation accepted the request of the leader of A Just Russia party, Sergey Mironov, to evaluate the legitimacy of 1954 transfer of Crimea and stated that the transfer violated both the Constitution of the Russian RSFSR and the Constitution of the Soviet Union. The text of the document signed by Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Sabir Kekhlerov stated: "Neither the Constitution of the RSFSR nor the Constitution of the USSR [i.e. Ukrainian SSR] empowers the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR to consider changes in the constitutional legal status of Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics, which are members of the union republics. In view of the above, the decision adopted in 1954 by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR and the Soviet on the transfer of the Crimean region of the RSFSR to the USSR did not correspond to the Constitution (Fundamental Law) of the RSFSR or the Constitution (Fundamental Law) of the USSR." [10]
The transfer of the Crimean Oblast to Ukraine has been described as a "symbolic gesture", marking the 300th anniversary of the 1654 Treaty of Pereyaslav. [5] [11] [12] It was also attributed to Communist Party first secretary Nikita Khrushchev, although the person who signed the document was Chairman Kliment Voroshilov, Soviet Union's de jure head of state. [13]
Nina Khrushcheva, the political scientist and great-granddaughter of Nikita Khrushchev, the then First Secretary of the Communist Party, said of Khrushchev's motivation "it was somewhat symbolic, somewhat trying to reshuffle the centralized system and also, full disclosure, Nikita Khrushchev was very fond of Ukraine, so I think to some degree it was also a personal gesture toward his favorite republic. He was ethnically Russian, but he really felt great affinity with Ukraine." [5] Sergei Khrushchev, Khrushchev's son, claimed that the decision was due to the building of a hydro-electric dam on the Dnieper River and the consequent desire for all the administration to be under one body. [14] Sevastopol in Crimea being the site of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet, a quintessential element of Russian and then of Soviet foreign policy, the transfer had the intended[ citation needed ] effect of binding Ukraine inexorably to Russia, "Eternally Together", as a poster commemorating the event of 1954 proclaimed. Other reasons given were the integration of the economies of Ukraine and Crimea and the idea that Crimea was a natural extension of the Ukrainian steppes. [15] There was also a desire to repopulate parts of Crimea with Slavic peoples after the peninsula was subject to large-scale expulsions of Crimean Tatars to Central Asia in 1944. [16]
The transfer increased the ethnic Russian population of Ukraine by almost a million people. Prominent Russian politicians such as Alexander Rutskoy considered the transfer to be controversial. [17] Controversies surrounding the legality of the transfer remained a sore point in relations between Ukraine and Russia for the first few years after the breakup of the Soviet Union, and in particular in the internal politics of Crimea.
In January 1992, the Supreme Soviet of Russia questioned the constitutionality of the transfer, accusing Nikita Khrushchev of treason against the Russian people and said that the transfer was illegitimate. [18] Alexander Rutskoy, the former Vice President of Russia, said that this was a “harebrained scheme” for which Khrushchev was famous saying that those who signed the document must have been suffering from sunstroke or hangovers. [19]
There was confusion about the status of Sevastopol and whether it was a part of the transfer as it had a degree of independence from the Crimean Oblast and never formally ratified the transfer, [20] although it was later mentioned as Ukrainian territory in the Soviet Constitution and the Belavezha Accords between Ukraine and Russia. [20]
In 1994, a Russian nationalist administration under Yuriy Meshkov took over in Crimea with the promise to return Crimea to Russia, although these plans were later shelved. [21] However, in a 1997 treaty between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, Russia recognized Ukraine's borders, and accepted Ukraine's sovereignty over Crimea. [22] The treaty expired on 31 March 2019.
After the overthrow of President Viktor Yanukovych during the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, the territories of Sevastopol and Crimea were seized by the Russian Federation; the annexation was formalized following a referendum in which 96% of the Crimean population is reported to have voted "Yes." This move was denounced by the new Ukrainian government and disregarded by most UN states, which continue to recognize Crimea as part of Ukraine. [23] [24] The Venice Commission (an advisory body of the Council of Europe in the field of constitutional law) issued an opinion in 2014, concluding that the referendum was illegal under the Ukrainian constitution and that "circumstances in Crimea did not allow the holding of a referendum in line with European democratic standards." [25]
The last Soviet Union (USSR)-era flag was adopted by the Russian SFSR in 1954 and used until 1991. The flag of the Russian SFSR was a defacement of the flag of the Soviet Union. The constitution stipulated:
The state flag of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (SFSR) presents itself as a red, rectangular sheet with a light-blue stripe at the pole extending all the width [read height] which constitutes one eighth length of the flag.
An Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was a type of administrative unit in the Soviet Union (USSR) created for certain nations. The ASSRs had a status lower than the constituent union republics of the USSR, but higher than the autonomous oblasts and the autonomous okrugs.
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 and was an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic located within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic; from 1936 to 1945, it was called the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.
The coat of arms of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was adopted on 14 March 1919 by the government of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and subsequently modified on 7 November 1928, 30 January 1937 and 21 November 1949. The coat of arms from 1949 is based on the coat of arms of the Soviet Union and features the hammer and sickle, the red star, a sunrise and stalks of wheat on its outer rims. The rising sun stands for the future of the Soviet Ukrainian nation, the red star as well as the hammer and sickle for communism and the "world-wide socialist community of states".
The recorded history of the Crimean Peninsula, historically known as Tauris, Taurica, and the Tauric Chersonese, begins around the 5th century BC when several Greek colonies were established along its coast, the most important of which was Chersonesos near modern day Sevastopol, with Scythians and Tauri in the hinterland to the north. The southern coast gradually consolidated into the Bosporan Kingdom which was annexed by Pontus and then became a client kingdom of Rome. The south coast remained Greek in culture for almost two thousand years including under Roman successor states, the Byzantine Empire, the Empire of Trebizond, and the independent Principality of Theodoro. In the 13th century, some Crimean port cities were controlled by the Venetians and by the Genovese, but the interior was much less stable, enduring a long series of conquests and invasions. In the medieval period, it was partially conquered by Kievan Rus' whose prince Vladimir the Great was baptised at Sevastopol, which marked the beginning of the Christianization of Kievan Rus'. During the Mongol invasion of Europe, the north and centre of Crimea fell to the Mongol Golden Horde, and in the 1440s the Crimean Khanate formed out of the collapse of the horde but quite rapidly itself became subject to the Ottoman Empire, which also conquered the coastal areas which had kept independent of the Khanate. A major source of prosperity in these times was frequent raids into Russia for slaves.
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic,Russian SFSR or RSFSR, previously known as the Russian Soviet Republic and the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic as well as being unofficially known as Soviet Russia, the Russian Federation or simply Russia, was an independent federal socialist state from 1917 to 1922, and afterwards the largest and most populous of the Soviet socialist republics of the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1922 to 1991, until becoming a sovereign part of the Soviet Union with priority of Russian laws over Union-level legislation in 1990 and 1991, the last two years of the existence of the USSR. The Russian Republic was composed of sixteen smaller constituent units of autonomous republics, five autonomous oblasts, ten autonomous okrugs, six krais and forty oblasts. Russians formed the largest ethnic group. The capital of the Russian SFSR was Moscow and the other major urban centers included Leningrad, Stalingrad, Novosibirsk, Sverdlovsk, Gorky and Kuybyshev. It was first Marxist-Leninist state in the world.
The Russia–Ukraine border is the international state border between the Russian Federation and Ukraine. Over land the border outlines five oblasts (regions) of Ukraine and five oblasts of the Russian Federation. The modern border issue has been ongoing ever since the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917.
The Declaration and Treaty on the Formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics officially created the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union. It de jure legalised a political union of several Soviet republics that had existed since 1919 and created a new federal government whose key functions were centralised in Moscow. Its legislative branch consisted of the Congress of Soviets of the Soviet Union and the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union (TsIK), while the Council of People's Commissars composed the executive.
A referendum on sovereignty was held in the Crimean Oblast of the Ukrainian SSR on 20 January 1991, two months before the 1991 All-Union referendum. Voters were asked whether they wanted to re-establish the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, which had been abolished in 1945. The proposal was approved by 94% of voters.
Soniachna Dolyna or Solnechnaya Dolina(Ukrainian: Сонячна Долина; Russian: Солнечная Долина; literally, Sunny Valley) is a village in the Sudak Municipality of the Crimea, a territory recognized by a majority of countries as part of Ukraine and annexed by Russia as the Republic of Crimea.
Myndalne or Mindalnoye(Ukrainian: Миндальне; Russian: Миндальное) is a village in the Sudak Municipality of the Crimea, a territory recognized by a majority of countries as part of Ukraine and annexed by Russia as the Republic of Crimea.
A variety of social, economical, cultural, ethnic, and linguistic factors contributed to the sparking of unrest in eastern and southern Ukraine in 2014, and the subsequent eruption of the Russo-Ukrainian War, in the aftermath of the early 2014 Revolution of Dignity. Following Ukrainian independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, resurfacing historical and cultural divisions and a weak state structure hampered the development of a unified Ukrainian national identity. In eastern and southern Ukraine, Russification and ethnic Russian settlement during centuries of Russian rule caused the Russian language to attain primacy, even amongst ethnic Ukrainians. In Crimea, ethnic Russians have comprised the majority of the population since the deportation of the indigenous Crimean Tatars by Soviet general secretary Joseph Stalin following the Second World War. This contrasts with western and central Ukraine, which were historically ruled by a variety of powers, such as the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Austrian Empire. In these areas, the Ukrainian ethnic, national, and linguistic identity remained intact.
Vesele or Vesyoloye(Ukrainian: Веселе; Russian: Весёлое) is a village in the Sudak Municipality of the Crimea, a territory recognized by a majority of countries as part of Ukraine and annexed by Russia as the Republic of Crimea.
Bahativka or Bogatovka is a village in the Sudak Municipality of the Crimea, a territory recognized by a majority of countries as part of Ukraine and annexed by Russia as the Republic of Crimea.
Dachne is a village in the Sudak Municipality of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, a territory recognized by a majority of countries as part of Ukraine and annexed by Russia as the Republic of Crimea.
Hromivka or Gromovka is a village in the Sudak Municipality of the Crimea, a territory recognized by a majority of countries as part of Ukraine and annexed by Russia as the Republic of Crimea.
Kholodivka or Kholodovka is a village in the Sudak Municipality of the Crimea, a territory recognized by a majority of countries as part of Ukraine and annexed by Russia as the Republic of Crimea.
Lisne or Lesnoye is a village in the Sudak Municipality of the Crimea, a territory recognized by a majority of countries as part of Ukraine and annexed by Russia as the Republic of Crimea.
Mizhrichchia or Mezhdurechye is a village in the Sudak Municipality of the Crimea, a territory recognized by a majority of countries as part of Ukraine and annexed by Russia as the Republic of Crimea.
Perevalivka is a village in the Sudak Municipality of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, a territory recognized by a majority of countries as part of Ukraine and annexed by Russia as the Republic of Crimea.
However, at that time, Ukraine could not fully claim jurisdiction over Crimea. Indeed, further legislative acts and constitutional amendments were needed to legitimise the territorial changes in that region. On 2 June 1954, the Supreme Council of the Russian SFSR adopted the Law on the introduction of changes and amendments to Article 14 of the Constitution (Fundamental Law) of the SFSR, according to which the Crimean Region was excluded from Soviet Russia at the same time that the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian SFSR introduced changes to the Ukrainian Constitution.
