The Crimean Referendum of 1991 It has recently been alleged that a referendum in Crimea in 1991 showed about the same proportion of the population in favor of transfer from Ukraine to Russia as the referendum on that subject several days ago. A bit of fact-checking reveals that that was not even the topic of the referendum of 1991 The Crimean Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic of the Russian SFSR was created in 1921; at that time the Tatars were 36% of the population. It was renamed the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1936; the Tatars were down to around 20%. It was converted to the Crimean Oblast of the RSFSR in 1945; at that time there were no Tatars. This constituted a demotion in status, an oblast had substantially less initiative than an autonomous republic (although of course no political subdivision of the USSR had nearly as much autonomy as, say, a state of the United States). The Crimean Oblast was transferred to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954 (there were still no Tatars). The referendum in 1991 (when the Tatars were around 2% of the population) was a yes-or-no vote on restoring the Autonomous SSR; 94% voted Yes, and in February the Supreme Soviet of the USSR assented to the referendum and restored the Autonomous SSR. The USSR was dissolved in September; subsequently the Crimean SSR became part of the newly independent Ukrainian state, retaining a high degree of autonomy. It is clear that the measure voted on in the Referendum of 1991 was not a return of Crimea to Russia, but a restoration of the status of Autonomous SSR, and that the Supreme Soviet complied with the results, granting anew the pre-World War II status. This did not at all involve a return of Crimea from Ukraine to Russia. (The demographics also present an often-overlooked fact; not only the Tatars, but the smaller minorities of Germans, Greeks, Bulgarians, and Armenians were deported in 1944.)
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 06:40:06 +0000
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