Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic

It was created on October 18, 1921, as the Crimean Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic of the Russian SFSR. It was renamed the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic on December 5, 1936 by the VIII Extraordinary Congress of Soviets of the USSR.[1]

There were two attempts, both unsuccessful, to establish Jewish autonomy in Crimea. The first attempt, conducted by the Soviet government with the support of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, ended in the creation of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in Birobidzhan, as the Soviet government feared establishing it in Crimea would provoke antisemitic sentiments. The second attempt, by the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee between 1943 and 1944, led to the Night of the Murdered Poets and heightened persecution of Jews as Stalin feared the establishment of a Jewish republic in Crimea with American support.[2][3]

Crimea was under de facto control of Nazi Germany from September 1942 to October 1943, administratively incorporated into Reichskommissariat Ukraine as Teilbezirk Taurien. Alfred Frauenfeld was appointed as General Commissar (although it seems that Frauenfeld spent most of his time in Crimea researching the peninsula's Gothic heritage and the actual government was in the hands of Erich von Manstein).[4]

In 1944, under the pretext[5] of alleged collaboration of the Crimean Tatars with the Nazi occupation regime, the Soviet government on orders of Joseph Stalin and Lavrentiy Beria deported the Crimean Tatar people from Crimea.[6] Actual collaboration in the military sense had been rather limited, with a recorded 9,225 Crimean Tatars serving in anti-Soviet Tatar Legions and other German formed battalions,[7] but there was in fact a surprisingly high degree of co-operation between the occupation government and the local administration; this has been significantly due to Frauenfeld's unwillingness to implement the policy of brutality towards the local population pursued by Reichskommissar Erich Koch, which led to a series of public conflict between the two men.[8] The constitutional rights of the forcibly-resettled Tatars were restored with a decree dated September 5, 1967, but they were not allowed to return until the last days of the Soviet Union.[9]

The Crimean ASSR was converted into the Crimean Oblast of the RSFSR on June 30, 1945 by a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (published as a law on June 25, 1946).

The Crimean Oblast was transferred to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954.[10] on the basis of "the integral character of the economy, the territorial proximity and the close economic and cultural ties between the Crimea Province and the Ukrainian SSR.":[11]

On 12 February 1991, the status of Crimea Oblast was changed to that of autonomous republic by the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR as the result of a state-sanctioned referendum held on 20 January 1991.[12] 4 months later, on June 19, appropriate changes were made to the Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR.[13][14]

With effect from 6 May 1992, the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was transformed into the Republic of Crimea within Ukraine. In September 1991 the Crimean parliament declared the territory to be a sovereign constituent part of Ukraine.[15] Following approval of Ukrainian independence national referendum the region became part of the newly independent state of Ukraine.

On 21 September 1994 it was renamed to Autonomous Republic of Crimea by Verkhovna Rada.[16] This name was used for Crimea (with the exception of the city of Sevastopol) in new Ukrainian Constitution of 1996. The status of Sevastopol, due to its strategic importance as the main base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, remained disputed between Ukraine and Russia until 1997 when it was agreed that it should be treated as a "city with special status" within Ukraine.

Central Executive Committee

• November 7, 1921 – August 1924 Yuri Gaven (Janis Daumanis)
• August 1924 – January 28, 1928 Veli Ibraimov
• January 28, 1928 – February 20, 1931 Memet Kubayev
• February 20, 1931 – September 9, 1937 Ilyas Tarkhan (arrested on September 8, 1937)
• September 9, 1937 – July 21, 1938 Abdul-Celil Menbariyev

Supreme Soviet

• July 21, 1938 – May 18, 1944 Abdul-Celil Menbariyev (expelled from Crimea in 1944 with the rest of Crimean Tatars)
• May 18, 1944 – June 30, 1945 Nadezhda Sachiova (acting)

• March 22, 1991 – May 9, 1994 Mykola Bahrov

• November 16, 1920 – February 20, 1921 Béla Kun
• February 20, 1921 – November 7, 1921 Mikhail Poliakov (become the one of NKVD troika)

• November 11, 1921 – May 16, 1924 Sakhib-Garey Said-Galiyev
• May 16, 1924 – May 1924 I.Goncharov (acting)
• May 1924 – March 21, 1926 Osman Deren-Ayerly
• March 21, 1926 – May 1929 Emir Shugu
• May 1929 – September 16, 1937 Abduraim Samedinov (arrested September 17, 1937)
• 1937 – April 5, 1942 Memet Ibraimov
• April 5, 1942 – May 18, 1944 Ismail Seyfullayev (under de facto control of Nazi Germany during September 1, 1942 to October 23, 1943)
• May 18, 1944 – June 30, 1945 Aleksandr Kabanov

• March 22, 1991 – May 20, 1993 Vitaliy Kurashik