The Capture of Crimea

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Forgetting the annexation of Crimea by Katerina Dva, aka Catherine the Great, in WWII when the Germans were racing through Ukraine trying to get to the oil in Azerbaijan they bypassed Crimea, leaving it for cleanup by another Army Group. Crimea was connected to mainland Ukraine SSR by a narrow peninsula, not difficult to block. It took eight months for the Germans to capture Crimea. Holocost fact all the Jews were killed. That was in ‘42.

 

Later when the Germans lost at Stalingrad further north, the Soviets started recapturing territory. They also bypassed Crimea, leaving it for cleanup. The Axis forces were German and Romanian. Most were evacuated through Sevastopol on Romanian ships. The Soviets reclaimed Crimea in less than one month, April-May ‘44.

Recall the Yalta Conference, that was in Crimea, Feb ‘45.

 

The majority residents on Crimea were Tatars, descendants of the Khan. Stalin thought they cooperated with the Nazis and deported them to Siberia. Freeing up land and homes for Russians. Reality, the Tatars didn’t like the Nazis but they hated Stalin.

after the breakup of the Soviet Union, Ukraine forged a democracy with a constitution. In that, Crimea was made an autonomous republic which could leave Ukraine by a popular vote.  In 2014, after the Russian puppet Yanukovich was thrown out a referendum was declared for Crimea. Uniformed and armed troops but without insignia soldiers moved through Crimea demanding identity papers and destroyed them, making people ineligible to vote. The referendum was held and declared a victory for leaving Ukraine and joining Russian Federation. Most countries have rejected the referendum as fraudulent.

 

Since annexation no government money has been spent anywhere in Crimea except in the seaport navy base Sevastopol. I was in the provincial capital, Simferopol, and streets were in disrepair. much like East Germany under the Soviets.

 

for four years the only way for Russia to move people or equipment into Crimea was by air.  Putin ordered the bridges across the Kerch straight be built and ordered the usual engineering approvals be waived.

 

the water source for Crimea comes from Ukraine. Ukraine can shut it off.

 

reclaiming Crimea will be a difficult task.

 

 

A sidebar story here. The Karaites were Jewish but not (I might get this a little wrong) not followers of Abraham. They had a settlement in Bakhchiserai. The Nazis were very legalistic and asked three Hebrew scholars if they were Jews, the scholars said no, and they were spared. Today their settlement is empty. Yes, I have been there.

 

I figure those scholars said “if we say yes they will be killed, let’s say no.”

 

Quote

BAKHCHISARAI, town in Crimea, Ukraine. From the 16^th to the 18^th centuries it was the capital of the khans of Crimea. A settlement of Rabbanite Jews (Krimchaks) as well as of *Karaites  evidently existed in Bakhchisarai in the second half of the 18^th century. In the 1870s the Karaites abandoned *Chufut-Kale , approximately 1¼ mi. (about 2 km.) to the east, and moved to Bakhchisarai. A Jewish traveler in the 1870s found about 20 families of Rabbanite Jews and some 70 Karaite families there: in 1897 there were 210 Rabbanites and 967 Karaites. The Hebrew poet Saul *Tchernichowsky wrote several poems about Bakhchisarai. During the Soviet period the number of Jews remained stable, numbering 228 souls in 1939. Bakhchisarai was occupied by the Germans on November 2, 1941, and they soon murdered 90 Jews. In the first half of July 1943 they murdered over 1,000 from the town and the surrounding area. The Karaites were not considered Jewish by the Germans and were therefore not harmed by them.

 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

After the Russian Empire annexed Crimea, many aristocrats built palaces on the sea coast to be their summer homes. Those palaces are now tourist attractions. Lavadia palace is restored, half as the summer home of a tsar, half as the place where the yalta conference was held. The courtyard where the famous picture of Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin was taken is overgrown with vegetation.

 

 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Tatars have been returning to Crimea but their ancestral properties were gone, they needed to create new homes.

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783]

As I understand it, the Tatars are disproportionately being conscripted for the current war as the Russians consider them disposable. 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

36 minutes ago, Abilene Slim SASS 81783 said:

As I understand it, the Tatars are disproportionately being conscripted for the current war as the Russians consider them disposable. 

Very possible. There are at least two major enclaves of Tatars, those in Crimea and those in Tatarstan, a Federal Republic near Saint Petersburg.

 

by the way, the suffix “Stan” means ‘land of’.

[Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619]

OK.

 

Nice place to visit but I don't want to live there.