"SURGUN"

By Volodymyr Kish

This past Sunday I attended the Tatar community in Toronto’s 70^th Anniversary commemoration of the Surgun, the Tatar word for Stalin’s mass deportation of all Tatars from the Crimean Peninsula in 1944. Stalin tried to justify the deportation by claiming that the Tatars had collaborated with the invading Germans during the war, but this was clearly nonsense as it is a well-known fact that, though there were a small number of collaborators, significant numbers of Tatars served in the Soviet armed forces or were active in the partisan ranks that fought against the Germans in Crimea.

Stalin, in truth, was merely continuing the centuries long Russian policy of de-Tatarization of Crimea and replacing the native population with Russians. This initiative was accelerated after the Bolshevik Revolution when it is estimated that between 1917 and 1933 over half of the Tatar population of Crimea was either killed or deported. Stalin merely finished the job in 1944 when he deported the entire Tatar population of Crimea, numbering some 230,000, to the far east, primarily Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. In the process, it is estimated that some 100,000 of them died due to starvation, disease and other causes.

It was only during the Perestroika era of the mid 1980’s that the Tatars started to return from exile, until currently their population in Crimea numbers some 250,000 souls, or just over 12% of the population. The return from exile has been difficult as the predominantly Russian local population and local government authorities have done everything to discourage the Tatars’ return and resettlement. The Tatars have had little success in regaining the homes, lands and assets that were confiscated from them during the deportation, or securing any kind of compensation for the injustice done to them by Stalin. The Ukrainian government in Kyiv over the past several decades has been sympathetic to the Tatar cause and has provided some support and aid, but it has fallen far short of what is due to them considering their unjust treatment during the Soviet era. Unfortunately, with all the other political problems on the national scene, the plight of the Tatars has been low on the priority list.

To make things even worse, events of recent months have once again conspired to place the Tatars under the fascist, imperialistic hands of the Russians once again. And once again, the Russians are demonstrating their racist, chauvinistic mind set. The Mejlis, or parliament of the Crimean Tatars is in danger of being banned and is being branded by the Russian propaganda as being a “treasonous” organization.

The most prominent Tatar leader and former head of the Mejlis, Mustafa Dzhemilev, has been banned from entering Crimea. Even more dastardly, the current Crimean government has barred the Tatars in Crimea from commemorating the 70^th anniversary of the 1944 deportation. Tatars in Crimea are facing increasing persecution, arrests, beatings, confiscation of assets, forced resettlement, kidnappings and even murder. Speculation abounds that the authorities are looking at once more deporting Tatars from Crimea. It is clear that the Russian authorities are once again reviving their historical policy of de-Tatarization of Crimea.

The Tatars are once again facing an existential crisis and need the help and support of not only their Ukrainians allies, but all the countries of the free world as they seek to assert their historical and moral rights to their homeland.

In the light of unfolding events in Crimea, Toronto’s small Tatar community has recently come together and formed their own organization, the Crimean Tatar Community of Ontario, which has grown to some one hundred members. The Ukrainian Canadian Congress has been very supportive of this initiative and was one of the sponsors and co-organizers of the 70^th Anniversary event mentioned earlier in this article. The event was held at the Ukrainian National Federation Hall, and was well attended by representatives from the Ukrainian community in Toronto, as well as by local leaders and politicians.

As unlikely as it may have seemed several centuries ago, history and a common enemy has made Ukrainians and Tatars friends and allies, and it is hoped that in the years to come, justice will prevail and the Tatars will once again be able to live in peace, freedom and prosperity in their historical lands in Crimea, a Crimea living in harmony and absent of the artificial and imposed conflict brought about by a predatory Russian regime.