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Do you support re-establishing the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic as a subject of the Union SSR and a participant of the Union Treaty? | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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A referendum on sovereignty was held in the Crimean Oblast of the Ukrainian SSR on 20 January 1991, [1] 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.
The Crimean ASSR was originally created in 1921, as part of the Russian SFSR in the Soviet Union. [2] Crimea was invaded by Nazi Germany during World War II, and when the region was reclaimed by the USSR in 1944, the Crimean Tatars and other ethnic groups were deported to Central Asia, [3] [4] and the ASSR was dissolved in 1945 with Crimea becoming an oblast of the Russian SSR. [5] On 5 February 1954, it was transferred to the Ukrainian SSR. [5] During the collapse of the Soviet Union at the start of the 1990s, the Russian SFSR declared itself sovereign on 12 June 1990 and the Ukrainian SSR declared itself sovereign on 16 July 1990.
In September 1990, the Soviet of People's Deputies of the Crimean Oblast called for the restoration of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic together with the previous level of autonomy that the peninsula had enjoyed under the ASSR. [6]
The referendum did not just call for the restoration for the ASSR, but further called for Crimea to be a participant in the New Union Treaty – an ultimately futile attempt by Mikhail Gorbachev to reconstitute the USSR. This would have meant that Crimea would have been a sovereign subject of the renewed USSR [7] and separate from the Ukrainian SSR. [8]
| Choice | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
| For | 1,343,825 | 94.30 |
| Against | 81,254 | 5.70 |
| Invalid/blank votes | 15,910 | – |
| Total | 1,441,019 | 100 |
| Registered voters/turnout | 1,770,841 | 81.37 |
| Source: KIA News | ||
Following the referendum, the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR passed the law "On Restoration of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialistic Republic as part of USSR" on 12 February 1991, restoring Crimea's autonomous status. In September 1991, the Crimean parliament declared state sovereignty for Crimea as a constituent part of Ukraine. [9]
It has been alleged that the Crimean parliament did not have the authority to make this decision, because according to USSR law, "On the procedure for resolving issues related to the withdrawal of a union republic from the USSR" from (3 April 1990) this issue could only be resolved via a referendum. [10]
The Republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or the Union Republics were national-based administrative units of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The Soviet Union was formed in 1922 by a treaty between the Soviet republics of Byelorussia, Russian Federation, Transcaucasian Federation, and Ukraine, by which they became its constituent republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
The Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as Soviet Kazakhstan, the Kazakh SSR, or simply Kazakhstan, was one of the transcontinental constituent republics of the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1936 to 1991 in northern Central Asia. It was created on 5 December 1936 from the Kazakh ASSR, an autonomous republic of the Russian SFSR.
The Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as Soviet Uzbekistan, the Uzbek SSR, UzSSR, or simply Uzbekistan and rarely Uzbekia, was a union republic of the Soviet Union. It was governed by the Uzbek branch of the Soviet Communist Party, the legal political party, from 1925 until 1990. From 1990 to 1991, it was a sovereign part of the Soviet Union with its own legislation.
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.
The republics are one type of federal subject of the Russian Federation. 21 republics are internationally recognized as part of Russia, another is under its de facto control. The original republics were created as nation states for ethnic minorities. The indigenous ethnicity that gives its name to the republic is called the titular nationality. However, due to centuries of Russian migration, a titular nationality may not be a majority of its republic's population.
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.
Autonomous oblasts of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics were administrative units created for a number of smaller nations, which were given autonomy within the fifteen republics of the USSR.
The Mari Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was an autonomous republic of the Russian SFSR, succeeding the Mari Autonomous Oblast. When the Soviet Union disintegrated, the Mari ASSR became the Mari El Republic, a federal subject of the Russian Federation.
National delimitation in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was the process of specifying well-defined national territorial units from the ethnic diversity of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and its subregions. The Russian-language term for this Soviet state policy was razmezhevanie, which is variously translated in English-language literature as "national-territorial delimitation" (NTD), "demarcation", or "partition". National delimitation formed part of a broader process of changes in administrative-territorial division, which also changed the boundaries of territorial units, but was not necessarily linked to national or ethnic considerations. National delimitation in the USSR was distinct from nation-building, which typically referred to the policies and actions implemented by the government of a national territorial unit after delimitation. In most cases national delimitation in the USSR was followed by korenizatsiya (indigenization).
The flag of Crimea is the flag of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in Ukraine and the Republic of Crimea controlled by Russia. The flag was officially adopted on 24 September 1992 as the flag of the Republic of Crimea, readopted on 21 April 1999, then readopted on 4 June 2014 as the flag of the Republic of Crimea, annexed by the Russian Federation.
The transfer of the Crimean oblast in the Soviet Union in 1954 was an administrative action of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet that transferred the government of Crimea from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR.
The recorded history of the Crimean Peninsula, historically known as Tauris, Taurica, and the Tauric Chersonese, begins around the 5th century BCE 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 (341–1204), the Empire of Trebizond (1204–1461), 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, previously known as the Russian Soviet Republic and the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, as well as being unofficially referred to 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 Soviet socialist republic 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 SFSR 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 and the USSR as a whole was Moscow and the other major urban centers included Leningrad, Stalingrad, Novosibirsk, Sverdlovsk, Gorky and Kuybyshev. It was the first Marxist–Leninist state in the world.
The Autonomous Republic of Crimea, commonly known as Crimea, is an autonomous republic of Ukraine encompassing most of Crimea that was annexed by Russia in 2014. The Autonomous Republic of Crimea occupies most of the peninsula, while the City of Sevastopol occupies the rest.
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.
The emblem of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was adopted in 1921 by the government of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The emblem was similar to the emblem of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.
The Republic of Crimea was the interim name of a polity on the Crimean peninsula between the dissolution of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1992 and the abolition of the Crimean Constitution by the Ukrainian Parliament in 1995. This period was one of conflict with the Ukrainian government over the levels of autonomy that Crimea enjoyed in relation to Ukraine and links between the ethnically Russian Crimea and the Russian Federation.
The Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was a polity on the Crimean Peninsula within the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic that was formed during the collapse of the Soviet Union and a year later was renamed the Republic of Crimea.
With the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Ukrainian independence the majority ethnic Russian Crimean peninsula was reorganized as the Republic of Crimea, after a 1991 referendum with the Crimean authorities pushing for more independence from Ukraine and closer links with Russia. In 1995 the Republic was forcibly abolished by Ukraine with the Autonomous Republic of Crimea established firmly under Ukrainian authority. There were also intermittent tensions with Russia over the Soviet Fleet, although a 1997 treaty partitioned the Soviet Black Sea Fleet allowing Russia to continue basing its fleet in Sevastopol with the lease extended in 2010. Following the overthrow of the relatively pro-Russia Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.
After a referendum on 20 January 1991, Crimea regained its status as an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. As this was months before the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine on 24 August 1991 — by December 1991 internationally recognized — Crimea was at the time part of the Ukrainian SSR which was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union.
