Why did Khrushchev give the Crimea? This question is asked today by many. In connection with the events of recent months, myths about the territorial affiliation of Crimea reappeared and swirled in the information space. The legend about the “royal gift” of Nikita Khrushchev is especially actively circulated. Say, he gave the peninsula to Ukraine with his one-man (and therefore illegitimate) decision. And since then in the mighty cauldron of the USSR the property of the fraternal republics was purely symbolic, the people kept silent - everything was all common, Soviet. For those who are interested in historical truth, and not
political myths, the purpose of which is the ideological justification of the entry of the autonomous republic into Russia, an analysis of the sources is carried out. Let's see why Khrushchev gave Crimea to Ukraine, whether he “gave it”, and whether this “present” was pleasant.
Facts of redrawing lands of republican subordination in the USSR
Russian historians often call the transfer of Crimea to Ukraine an unprecedented act. Say, Khrushchev adored this land, and used the anniversary of the Pereyaslav Rada in order for his beloved country to "grow into a fellow countryman." In fact, the act of transferring the peninsula from the Russian SSR to the Ukrainian SSR had no ideological connotation. The decision was dictated by purely economic motives, economic ones. And such a transfer was not the only one. So, in 1924 the Taganrog district of Donetsk province was transferred to Russia. Later it became a district of the Rostov region. But the vast majority of the population of this district, especially those living in rural areas, are ethnic Ukrainians. But back to our peninsula. Why did Khrushchev give Crimea to Ukraine? After all, this is not just a piece of land, it is an all-Union health resort ... But was it such in 1954?
Myth 1: Khrushchev gave Crimea to Ukraine
In the 1990s, immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union, discussions began on this topic. Some Russian politicians raised the Crimean issue “uphill”. They found Khrushchev’s son-in-law, Alexey Adzhubey, and ordered him, a professional journalist, an article based on personal recollections of those events. He completed the order. But the article titled “How and why Khrushchev gave Crimea to Ukraine. Memories on a given topic ”was a disservice to political strategists. According to the journalist, in 1954 the position of his father-in-law on the Soviet throne was very precarious. He, of course, was the First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, but in the country Stalinist "hawks" —Malenkov, Molotov, Kaganovich, Voroshilov, Bulganin, were still in charge of everyone in the country. Making serious decisions, and even those that could lead to accusations of sympathy for national minorities to the detriment of the “great older brother,” would be very short-sighted on the part of Nikita Sergeevich.
Myth 2: Khrushchev GIFT Crimea to Ukraine
Let's try to reproduce the events of that time. Crimea, like the others that were under the fascist occupation of the land, suffered greatly during the war. But the most terrible were human losses. The population of the peninsula was halved, and in 1944 amounted to 780 thousand people. Instead of solving the problem of labor resources, the Soviet leadership began "ethnic cleansing." Fifty thousand Germans who lived on the peninsula since the time of Catherine II, were evicted in the early days of the war. And after its end, their fate was repeated by 250 thousand Crimean Tatars, who were accused of "complicity with the invaders." Together with them, ethnic Bulgarians, Greeks, Armenians and Czechs were deported. As a result of such a mediocre policy, the economy of the peninsula completely fell. To raise it even to the level of pre-war indicators, the government instructed the authorities of the Ukrainian SSR to provide the peninsula with water and energy resources. After all, they were sorely missed there.
Myth 3: Ukrainians came to everything ready
The Soviet government decided to fill the deserted land with Russian immigrants, who were transported mainly from the northern regions. Many of them began to live in the homes of deported Tatars and received "their inheritance" all their personal land. Only here the peasants from the Volga region and the Arkhangelsk Territory saw the vine, tobacco, essential oil crops for the first time in their life. But potatoes and cabbage sprouted poorly in the conditions of an arid Crimean climate. As a result of a ten-year "management", the economy of the peninsula has not changed for the better. Such a branch of agriculture as sheep breeding has completely disappeared. Vineyard crops were reduced by seventy percent, and the yield of orchards was even lower than that of wild-growing trees. That is why Khrushchev gave Crimea to Ukraine - collective farmers from the Ukrainian SSR were accustomed to growing southern fruits and vegetables, and the climatic conditions of the Kherson region and Odessa region did not differ much from the steppes of Dzhankoysky or Simferopol regions.
Background
And yet, Nikita Sergeevich played a role in the fact that in 1954 a significant event took place - the annexation of Crimea to Ukraine. Khrushchev arrived on the peninsula six months before, driven by the idea of sowing the land of the Land of the Soviets with corn. He was accompanied by his son-in-law, Alexey Adzhubei. He recalls: “A crowd of collective farmers surrounded Nikita Sergeyevich. Since the meeting was really business, and not for the record, the conversation went frankly. The peasants complained that the potatoes did not grow here, the cabbage withered, and the conditions were unbearable. “They deceived us,” was heard more and more often from the crowd. That evening, Khrushchev went to Kiev. At a meeting in the Mariinsky Palace, he urged the Ukrainian leadership to help the suffering population of the peninsula. “Southerners are needed there who love gardens, corn, not potatoes,” he said. ”
Myth 4: The illegitimacy of the “gift”
Some unscrupulous historians claim that the transfer of Crimea to Ukraine by Khrushchev was a simple gift on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the Pereyaslav Rada. Therefore, such an act of alienating the peninsula from Russian lands is illegitimate. Consequently, the current annexation of Crimea to Russia is the restoration of historical justice. But is it? Let’s follow the events. In September 1953, a plenary meeting of the CPSU Central Committee was convened. The main theme is the state of agriculture. At that time, G. M. Malenkov was the head of the Presidium of the Central Committee and the Chairman of the Council of Ministers. It was at this meeting that the decision was made to transfer the peninsula of the Ukrainian SSR, since the Crimean economy was already sufficiently integrated into the Ukrainian one. A month and a half later, at the end of October 1953, the Crimean Regional Committee reacted to the decision of the Central Committee. He came up with a corresponding "initiative from below." Throughout the winter of 1953-1954. Intensive ideological work was carried out. Since nothing was done in the USSR without an ideological basis, it was decided to time the transfer of the peninsula from one fraternal republic to another on the anniversary of the reunification of the Ukrainian people with the Russian. After passing the "Crimean issue" in all jurisdictions, on February 19, 1954 this historical event occurred. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR unanimously adopted the Decree on the transfer of the region from the Russian to the Ukrainian Union Republic. This decision was finally confirmed only in April 1954. Therefore, the assertion that Khrushchev gave Crimea to Ukraine is superficial and historically incorrect.
Transmission consequences
Since the spring of 1954, immigrants from Ukraine began to come to the peninsula - Kiev, Chernihiv and southern regions. The results have been visible for five years. A canal was built that diverted water from the Dnieper. This irrigation system allowed the peninsula to be in good condition. The Ukrainian SSR conducted the world's longest trolleybus route, rebuilt Sevastopol, which was destroyed during the war, and boosted the economy of the steppe Crimea. The Soviet newspapers of that time admit this - it is enough to look through the old binder. Therefore, the question of why Khrushchev gave Crimea to Ukraine is purely political. History answers it a little differently than modern television.