 Decree of thePresidium of the Supreme Soviet ("About the Transfer of the Crimean Oblast") on theSupreme Council Herald, 9 March 1954 | |
| Date | 19 February 1954 – 17 June 1954 |
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| Location |  Soviet Union |
| Participants |  Russian SFSR Ukrainian SSR |
| Outcome | Administrative authority of theCrimean Oblast transferred to the Ukrainian SSR from the Russian SFSR |
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Background
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In 1954, thePresidium of the Supreme Soviet of theSoviet Union transferred theCrimean Oblast from theRussian SFSR to theUkrainian SSR. The territory had been recognized within the Soviet Union as having "close ties" to the Ukrainian SSR, and the transfer commemorated theUnion of Russia and Ukraine Tercentenary.
Amidst thedissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Ukrainian SSR seceded from the Soviet Union andUkraine continued to exercise sovereignty over the territory as theAutonomous Republic of Crimea.Russia did not dispute the Ukrainian administration of Crimea for just over two decades, but retracted this stance on 18 March 2014, whenCrimea was annexed by Russia after coming underRussian military occupation.
The Soviet-era transfer of Crimea has remained a topic of contention between the two countries in light of theRusso-Ukrainian War, as the Russian government has stated that the Ukrainians must recognize Russia's sovereignty over the territory as part of any negotiated settlement to end theRussian invasion of Ukraine, which began in 2022.
Prior to being incorporated into theRussian Empire, the Crimean Peninsula was independent under theCrimean Khanate. The MuslimTurkicCrimean Tatars were under the influence of the Ottoman Empire, while also bordering the Russian Empire. In 1774, following theRusso-Turkish War of 1768–74, the Russian and Ottoman empires agreed to refrain from interfering with the Crimean Khanate through theTreaty of Küçük Kaynarca. In 1783, following the increasing decline of the Ottoman Empire, the Russian Empireannexed the Crimean Khanate.
Crimea was transferred between various internal administrations within Russia. It was governed by 14 administrations during its time in the Russian Empire and the Russian SFSR, up to its transfer to the Ukrainian SSR in 1954.
Throughout its time in the Soviet Union, Crimea underwent a population change. Because of alleged collaboration with the Germans byCrimean Tatars during World War II,all Crimean Tatars were deported by the Soviet regime and the peninsula was resettled with other peoples, mainly Russians and Ukrainians. Modern experts say that the deportation was part of the Sovietplan to gain access to theDardanelles and acquire territory inTurkey, where the Tatars had Turkic ethnic kin, or to remove minorities from the Soviet Union's border regions.[1] Nearly 8,000 Crimean Tatars died during the deportation, and tens of thousands perished subsequently due to the harsh exile conditions.[2] The deportation resulted in the abandonment of 80,000 households and 150,000 hectares (360,000 acres) of land.
The autonomous republic without its titled nationality was downgraded to an oblast within the Russian SFSR on 30 June 1945.
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On 19 February 1954, thePresidium of the Supreme Soviet of theSoviet Union issued a decree transferring theCrimean Oblast from the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.[3] The documents which are now housed at the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF) do confirm that the move was originally approved by thePresidium (Politburo) of theCommunist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) on 25 January 1954, paving the way for the authorizing resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union three weeks later.[4] According to the Soviet Constitution (article 18), the borders of a republic within the Soviet Union could not be re-drawn without the agreement of the republic in question. The transfer was approved by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. The constitutional change (articles 22 and 23) to accommodate the transfer was made several days after the decree issued by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet.[5][6]
The decree was first announced, on the front page ofPravda, on 27 February 1954.[7] The full text of the decree was:[8]
On April 26, 1954 The decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet transferring the Crimea Oblast from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR.
Taking into account the integral character of the economy, the territorial proximity and the close economic and cultural ties between the Crimea Province and the Ukrainian SSR, the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet decrees:
To approve the joint presentation of the Presidium of the Russian SFSR Supreme Soviet and the Presidium of the Ukrainian SSR Supreme Soviet on the transfer of the Crimea Province from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR.
Consequently, amendments were made to the republican constitutions of Russia and Ukraine. On 2 June 1954 theSupreme Soviet of Russia adopted amendments to theRussian Constitution of 1937, which, among other things, excluded Crimea from list of subdivisions enumerated in article 14, and on 17 June 1954, theSupreme Soviet of Ukraine added Crimea to article 18 of the 1937 Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR.[9][10]
Sevastopol became aclosed city due to its importance as the port of the SovietBlack Sea Fleet and was attached to the Crimean Oblast only in 1978.[citation needed]
On 27 June 2015, after theannexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, theOffice of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation accepted the request of the leader ofA Just Russia party,Sergey Mironov, to evaluate the legitimacy of 1954 transfer of Crimea and stated that the transfer violated both theConstitution of the Russian SFSR [Wikidata] and theConstitution of the Soviet Union. The text of the document signed by Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Sabir Kekhlerov stated: "Neither the Constitution of the RSFSR nor the Constitution of the USSR [and, by extension, of the UkSSR] empowers the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR to consider changes in the constitutional legal status of Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics, which are members of the union republics. In view of the above, the decision adopted in 1954 by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR and the Soviet on the transfer of the Crimean region of the RSFSR to the UkSSR did not correspond to the Constitution (Fundamental Law) of the RSFSR or the Constitution (Fundamental Law) of the USSR."[11]
Mark Kramer, director of Cold War Studies at Harvard University, argued that Proceedings of the USSR Supreme Soviet Presidium meeting indicated that the parliaments of both theRussian SFSR and theUkrainian SSR had given their consent to the transfer of Crimea, and so had complied with Article 18 of the Soviet Constitution, which stated that "the territory of a Union Republic may not be altered without its consent." Additionally, Kramer disputed the relevance of questioning the transfer's constitutionality by stating that the "legal system in the Soviet Union was mostly a fiction," and that the Russian Federation recognised Crimea as being a part of Ukraine in 1991 in theBelovezha Accords, as well as in 1994 in theBudapest Memorandum.[12]
The transfer of the Crimean oblast to Ukraine has been described as a "symbolic gesture", marking the300th anniversary of the 1654Treaty of Pereyaslav, called the "Reunification of Ukraine with Russia" in the Soviet Union.[8][13][14] It was also attributed toCommunist Party first secretaryNikita Khrushchev, although the person who signed the document was ChairmanKliment Voroshilov, the Soviet Union'sde jurehead of state.[15] The transfer had taken place 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"[16] and to commemorate the 300th anniversary ofUkraine's union with Russia (also known in the Soviet Union as thePereiaslav Agreement).[17][18]
Mark Kramer, professor of Cold War Studies atHarvard University, also claimed that the transfer was partly to help Khruschev's then-precarious political position against the Prime MinisterGeorgii Malenkov through winning support of theFirst Secretary of the Ukrainian Communist PartyOleksiy Kyrychenko. Kramer believed that the transfer also aimed to greatly increase the number of ethnic Russians in the Ukrainian SSR which itself was going through problems integrating previousPolish territory due to organized Ukrainian nationalist resistance.[19]
Nina Khrushcheva, a political scientist and the great-granddaughter ofNikita Khrushchev, said of his motivation, "it was somewhat symbolic, somewhat trying to reshuffle the centralized system and also, full disclosure, Nikita Khrushchev was very fond of Ukraine, so I think to some degree it was also a personal gesture toward his favorite republic. He was ethnically Russian, but he really felt great affinity with Ukraine."[8]Sergei Khrushchev, Khrushchev's son, claimed that the decision was due to the building of a hydro-electric dam on theDnieper River and the consequent desire for all the administration to be under one body.[20] SinceSevastopol in Crimea was the site of theBlack Sea Fleet, a quintessential element of Soviet and then of Russian foreign policy, the transfer had the intended effect of binding Ukraine inexorably to Russia, "Eternally Together", as a poster commemorating the event proclaimed. Other reasons given were the integration of the economies of Ukraine and Crimea and the idea that Crimea was a natural extension of theUkrainian steppes.[21] There was also a desire to repopulate parts of Crimea with Slavic peoples, mainly Russians and Ukrainians, after the peninsula was subject tolarge-scale deportations ofCrimean Tatars to Central Asia by the Soviet regime in 1944.[22]
The transfer increased the ethnic Russian population of Ukraine by almost a million people. Prominent Russian politicians such asAlexander Rutskoy considered the transfer to be controversial.[23]
In January 1992, theSupreme Soviet of Russia questioned the constitutionality of the transfer, accusingNikita Khrushchev of treason against theRussian people and said that the transfer was illegitimate.[24]Alexander Rutskoy, the former Vice President of Russia, said that this was a “harebrained scheme”, and that those who signed the document must have been suffering from sunstroke or hangovers.[25]
There was confusion about the status ofSevastopol and whether it was a part of the transfer as it had a degree of independence from the Crimean Oblast and never formally ratified the transfer,[26] although it was later mentioned as Ukrainian territory in the Soviet Constitution and theBelavezha Accords between Ukraine and Russia.[26]
In 1994, a Russian nationalist administration underYuriy Meshkov took over in Crimea with the promise to return Crimea to Russia, although these plans were later shelved.[27] In a1997 treaty between the Russian Federation and Ukraine, Russia recognized Ukraine's borders, and accepted Ukraine's sovereignty over Crimea.[28]
However, at that time, Ukraine could not fully claim jurisdiction over Crimea. Indeed, further legislative acts and constitutional amendments were needed to legitimise the territorial changes in that region. On 2 June 1954, the Supreme Council of the Russian SFSR adopted the Law on the introduction of changes and amendments to Article 14 of the Constitution (Fundamental Law) of the SFSR, according to which the Crimean Region was excluded from Soviet Russia at the same time that the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian SFSR introduced changes to the Ukrainian Constitution.
