De-Tatarization of Crimea
| De-Tatarization of Crimea | |
|---|---|
| Part of Russian imperialism, Russification and forced population transfer in the Soviet Union | |
Line chart showing the impact of demographic engineering on three ethnic groups in Crimea between 1770 and 2014. In the two centuries following the Russian Empire's annexation of the Crimean Khanate in 1783, Crimean Tatars were squeezed out of the peninsula and supplanted by Russians and Ukrainians. | |
| Location | Crimea |
| Date | 1783–1917, 18–20 May 1944 |
| Target | Crimean Tatars, Muslims |
Attack type | Forced population transfer, ethnic cleansing, genocide |
| Deaths | Up to 195,471 (1944) |
| Victims | 4,000,000 expelled (1783–1917) Up to 423,100 deported (1944) |
| Perpetrators | Russian Empire (1783–1917) Soviet Union (1944) |
| Motive | Tatarophobia, Islamophobia, Russification, Colonialism |
The de-Tatarization of Crimea (Crimean Tatar: Qırımnıñ tatarsızlaştırıluvı; Russian: Детатаризация Крыма, romanized: Detatarizatsiya Kryma; Ukrainian: Детатаризація Криму, romanized: Detataryzatsiya Krymu) was initiated by the Russian Empire and perpetuated by the Soviet Union. Following the Russian Empire's annexation of the Crimean Khanate in 1783, a variety of legal and practical measures were implemented to subjugate the indigenous Crimean Tatars, who are a Turkic ethnic group. This process of "de-Tatarization" manifested in many ways throughout Crimea, intensifying significantly during the Soviet Union's Stalinist era: the Crimean Tatar language was suppressed and supplanted by the Russian language, especially by renaming Crimean toponyms; the government settled Russians and other Slavs in the region and promoted Tatarophobia amongst them, such as by describing Crimean Tatars as traitorous "Mongols" with no authentic connection to the peninsula; and, ultimately, as many as nearly half a million Crimean Tatars were deported in a campaign of ethnic cleansing and cultural genocide. During 1783–1917, nearly 4 million Muslims were forced to emigrate from Crimea, primarily to the Ottoman Empire. Prior to 1783, Crimean Tatars made up 95% of the Crimean population.