Сrimean Tatars: deportation and fate of the people in Kazakhstan

Abstract

The article is devoted to an urgent and insufficiently studied problem. It is the deportation of the Crimean Tatars to Kazakhstan during the Great Patriotic War. The author presented a historiographic review of the literature on the forcible resettlement of certain ethnic groups to the territory of Kazakhstan, which showed the lack of today works entirely devoted to the Crimean Tatars, who, at the behest of the leadership of the totalitarian state, ended up in Kazakhstani lands. In this regard, the purpose of this article was to disclose the process of deportation and residence in the conditions of special settlements of the Crimean Tatars during the war and in the post-war period in Kazakhstan. The author introduced into scientific circulation the materials of the State Archives of the Almaty Region, the Central State Archives of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the State Archives of the Karaganda Region, and the Archives of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, published in various collections of materials and documents. The article discusses the reasons for the resettlement of the Crimean Tatar ethnos to the East, shows how the betrayal and desertion of individual people were blamed on the whole people, as the country’s leadership for the security of its southern borders, within two days they carried out an operation to send old people in freight cars, women and children to the eastern lands. Part of the Crimean Tatars ended up in Kazakhstan. The author, relying on documents and archival materials, examines the resettlement of «Crimeans» in Kazakhstani lands, their living in special settlements, the lack of rights and freedoms, the possibility for children of deported Crimean Tatars to master only technical specialties necessary for the development of the economy of the Kazakh SSR. The number of «Crimeans», their knowledge of their native language, was witnessed by the data of the 1970 and 1999 population censuses, which the author cites in the article in dynamics and in comparison. In the conclusion, the conclusion is presented that, despite all the difficulties of the fate of the whole people, the Crimean Tatars were able to adapt and actively engage, together with representatives of other ethnic groups, in the creative work for the development of Kazakhstan.