On this day in 1944, the Soviet authorities started deporting the Crimean Tatars from their native land.
On May 18, the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Crimean Tatar Genocide and the Day of Struggle for the Rights of the Crimean Tatars are marked.
On this day in 1944, the Soviet government began an operation to deport the Crimean Tatar population from the Crimean peninsula.
Deportation of Crimean Tatars: Facts
On May 11, 1944, the State Defense Committee passed Resolution No. 5859ss On the Crimean Tatars.
It contained allegations against the Crimean Tatars who were accused of mass treason and collaboration ith the enemy in WW2, which was supposed to justify deportation. At the same time, there is no evidence of "mass desertion" of Crimean Tatar men from the Soviet army, while most collaborators died in battles or were individually convicted.
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Some 32,000 NKVD operatives were involved in the campaign. Within two days, the Crimean Tatars were brought to railway stations of Bakhchisarai, Dzhankoy, and Simferopol, to be sent eastwards, to mainland Russia by rail.
Deportation consequences