Crimean ASSR (1921–1945)

Crimean Tatars on a 1933 "Peoples of the Soviet Union" postage stamp

On 18 October 1921, the Crimean Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic was created within the Russian SFSR on the territory of the Crimean Peninsula. It was renamed the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic on 5 December 1936 by the Eighth 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 Generalbezirk Krym-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] During the war, there was also widespread resistance to the German occupation.

In 1944, under the pretext^[5] of alleged collaboration of the Crimean Tatars with the Nazi occupation regime, the Soviet government deported the Crimean Tatar people from Crimea, according to GKO Order No. 5859ss of Joseph Stalin and Lavrentiy Beria.^[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]

Crimean Oblast (1945–1954)

The Crimean ASSR was converted into the Crimean Oblast of the Russian SFSR on June 30, 1945 by a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (published as a law on June 25, 1946). It was stripped of its autonomous status as a result of the alleged crimes of Crimean Tatars during World War II.^[10]

Crimean Oblast (1954–1991)

On 19 February 1954, the oblast was transferred from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR jurisdiction,^[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] and to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Ukraine's union with Russia.^[12][13]

Sevastopol was a closed city due to its importance as the port of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet and was attached to the Crimean Oblast only in 1978.

Crimean ASSR (1991–1992)

On 12 February 1991, the status of Crimea Oblast was changed to that of autonomous republic, the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, by the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR as the result of a state-sanctioned referendum held on 20 January 1991.^[14] 4 months later, on June 19, appropriate changes were made to the Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR.^[15][16]

With effect from 6 May 1992, the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was transformed into the Republic of Crimea within Ukraine. On 21 September 1994 it was renamed the Autonomous Republic of Crimea by Verkhovna Rada.^[17] This name was used for Crimea (with the exception of the city of Sevastopol) in the 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.