deserted peninsula
Generally about the transfer of Crimea from the RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic) Ukraine is referred to as “Khrushchev’s gift”: allegedly, after coming to power as a Ukrainian, he tried to strengthen his native republic at the first opportunity. Nikita Khrushchev actually held high positions in the Ukrainian SSR since 1938 and served as the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (Bolsheviks) before being transferred to Moscow. However, he was born in the Kursk province and called himself Russian many times throughout his life. Khrushchev, in particular, wondered in his “Memoirs” why he was sent to Ukraine, even though he had nothing to do with it and did not speak the language.
If we assume that the politician has become Ukrainianized for more than a dozen years or decided to please his Ukrainian wife, even in this case Crimea will be a dubious gift. The Great Patriotic War hit the peninsula several times. At first, heavy fighting took place on its territory during the German offensive and the siege of Sevastopol. Later, during the counter-offensive of the Soviet army and the liberation in 1944. Shortly after this, deportations of local people (Crimean Tatars, Armenians, Bulgarians and Greeks) began due to accusations of mass collaboration with the Germans.
Considering that a significant part of the Slavic settlement of the peninsula also died in battles for itself or on other fronts, the territory was practically emptied. According to official data, out of a pre-war population of 1.2 million, no more than 500 thousand people remain in Crimea; this is less than the population of modern Sevastopol.
economic collapse
According to Crimean Pravda correspondents G. Tetenkov and V. Dyunin, in 1953 even the famous local vineyards fell into decay. It was very difficult to buy vintage wines “Solnechnaya Dolina”, “Sudak”, “Kagor”, “Tashly” in factory stores. Those made mostly from imported wine materials.
“In recent years, state farms have been achieving very low yields and providing insufficient raw materials to factories. New fields are slowly expanding, while old ones are shrinking and becoming sparse. Instead of renewing the fields, the foundation proposes that state farms delete old vineyards as economically unprofitable. Journalists wrote that 30 hectares of vineyards were erased on the Solnechnaya Dolina state farm, and 24 hectares of abandoned fields were planned to be erased on the Feodosiysky state farm.
The yields of wheat, tobacco and potatoes also decreased many times. The Crimean economy did not allow food to be supplied to the region.
“Unfortunately, the current state of vegetable growing in our region cannot meet the public’s need for fresh vegetables in winter and spring. And this year many collective farms did an unsatisfactory job of sowing seeds and planting seedlings, and prematurely and poorly cared for the plants. Vegetable gardens are overgrown with weeds, the soil is not loosened on time, watering is not done on time. Collective and state farms delivered a ridiculously small number of early vegetables. Mass collection and distribution of vegetables began only in June,” wrote Krymskaya Pravda on August 14, 1953.
It is worth noting that in those years, journalists did not have the duty to look for the problems of the state and the economy, on the contrary, the duty was exactly the opposite. Therefore, if local communist newspapers write about the collapse of agriculture, it means that it really happened. But it was impossible to restore Crimea without a massive infusion of resources.
Ukrainians in Crimea
The problem of labor shortage was obvious, and local authorities tried to solve it at the expense of immigrants from Russia. This corrected the situation, but not completely: rural dwellers in the mid-20th century were not like modern workers in commercial agricultural enterprises who use scientifically based instructions. Collective farmers and state agricultural workers relied on personal experience gained at home and accumulated since childhood. At the same time, the climatic conditions of the forest zone of central Russia and the peninsula are quite different.
Crimea is a southern steppe, and it is precisely these conditions that the inhabitants of most of Ukraine are accustomed to. Therefore, even before the transfer of the peninsula to the Ukrainian SSR, workers with their families began to be imported from here.
“In the deep autumn of 1952, on the eponymous collective farm. IDPs arrived in Kalinin, Zuysky district. There were 86 families from the Chernihiv region, all from Ukraine. The collective farm had problems with livestock for a long time. There was not enough space and feed for farm animals, and work discipline on the farm was very low. It was necessary to take very serious measures. Within two years, the collective farm had put into operation a pig barn and a calf barn with a capacity of 100 heads each, as well as a cow barn with a capacity of 120 heads. Now the collective farm barns have turned into bright and warm rooms. The farms have hanging roads, automatic watering stations and feed kitchens,” wrote correspondent I. Polyakov in the January 12, 1954 issue.
Of course, being of Ukrainian origin did not make one an expert on agriculture in Crimea, and there were steppe regions similar to the plains of the peninsula in the south of Russia. However, in addition to the climatic similarities between Ukraine and Crimea, their geographical proximity was also obvious.
These are the arguments listed In Protocol No. 41 of the meeting of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR on February 5, 1954:
“Taking into account the economic similarity, territorial proximity and close economic and cultural ties between the Crimean region and the Ukrainian SSR, the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics takes the following decision: to transfer the Crimean region from the RSFSR to the Ukrainian SSR.”
On February 19, 1954, the Presidium finally issued a decree approving the transfer of the territory.
Win-win solution
Also, one of the reasons for the annexation of the peninsula to Ukraine is the construction of the Northern Crimean Canal (starting at the Kakhovka Reservoir), around which until recently the entire economy of the region was organized. For example this version supports Doctor of Political Sciences Sergei Moshkin:
“Even a simple common-sense calculation shows that it would be easier to manage a huge construction industry scattered across the territory of the two union republics from a single center, and even better than in Ukraine itself: it is immediately adjacent to Crimea and a significant part of the work is carried out on its territory.” .
At the same time, the issue of building canals was not secondary. Crimea of the late USSR period is also associated with endless fertile fields and gardens, but in the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries it was an arid region. In 1864, the water in half of the peninsula’s fresh water resources was not suitable for drinking and was used only for agricultural purposes. A paradox arose: the sunny and hot climate was not suitable for agriculture due to water scarcity. The canal solved this problem and was one of the rare examples of successful economic decisions of the Soviet government.
Thus, in the eyes of the USSR leadership, the transfer of Crimea to Ukraine solved many problems and did not have a single drawback, since it took place within one country. Only a part of the population that firmly associated itself with Russia was dissatisfied – after all, the development of Crimea under Catherine II, the conflict with Turkey, the Crimean War and many other local historical stories have nothing to do with Ukrainian identity. This problem became especially evident in the 2000s, when pro-Russian rallies were regularly held in Crimea. Even the then mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, visited them.
However, even the most ardent anti-Sovietists could not have foreseen the collapse of the Soviet Union and the associated conflicts in the 1950s, and the party leadership certainly did not factor this into its decisions.