Central and Local Authority Policy in the Sphere of Land Management and Crimean Resettlement in the 1920s

In: Ukrai͏̈noznavstvo, Issue 1(78), p. 156-170

Abstract

The problem of demographic processes in Crimea is acutely relevant in the light of recent political events. Besides, this issue is gaining more scientific importance due to the fact that during the Soviet period, Crimea conducted special demographic and migration policy, different from all adjacent regions. The consequences of the Soviet demographic and migration policy now impact the elaboration of a stable position and action plan of Ukraine on the deoccupation of the peninsula, the development of state policy towards the indigenous peoples of Crimea, etc. It is worth mentioning that Crimea was of special strategic importance for the USSR, and therefore the demographic structure of the population of the peninsula constituted a subject of particular attention as for the Union leadership so for the heads of local executive and party bodies. In addition, Crimea had special conditions for economic activity, different from other regions, and thus migration processes within the peninsula were to be planned and carried out according to the policy of the Soviet government and the Crimean socioeconomic situation. The scholarly research has not yet properly reflected the problem of the migration policy of the USSR in Crimea in the 1920s, so this blank space must be filled.
The article considers the policy pursued by the Bolshevik Party and its subordinate Soviet authorities on the issue of relocation and resettlement of the Crimean population within the peninsula. The research is based on the analysis of materials of the State Archives of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, which are currently inaccessible to Ukrainian scholars due to the occupation of the peninsula. The article also provides the analysis of the Soviet leaders' plans on relocating the population to Crimea and its settlement, the prerequisites and factors that influenced the development and implementation of local demographic and migration policies. It studies some aspects of the Soviet leadership plans on resolving the national question in the USSR in general due to the resettlement policy in Crimea, namely creating there a Jewish republic. Special attention is paid to the resettlement of Tatar families to Crimea. It is noted that the migration policy of the Soviet government within the Crimean peninsula had a contradictory character, which led to the overall failure of the developed large-scale plans.