Mikhoels, Putin and Crimean California. Project "New California" - myth or reality
how the United States blackmailed Stalin with the opening of a second front. And why the Crimean peninsula is still a bone of contention.
History of the Jewish Question
It all started long before the war. In 1920, after the liberation of Crimea from the troops of General Wrangel, the Soviet sages were faced with the question - what to do with it? Before the revolution, the peninsula was a summer dacha place for royal family, landowners and nobles. Agriculture on the most fertile lands was carried out by German settlers and Jews, endowed with numerous benefits. The new government immediately took away the privileges. And in Crimea they began to think - why are we going to feed Moscow? Through societies and unions, for example, the German “Bunde-stroy” or the Jewish consumer cooperative “Amateur”, former settlers began to look for ways to connect with their compatriots abroad.
Germany after the Treaty of Versailles lay in ruins. But the Jewish lobby in the United States became interested in Crimea. Taking advantage of the difficult situation, the charitable Jewish organization “Joint” quietly entered Simferopol. The exact name is “American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.” Agro-Joint began to operate actively, actively helping the Crimean Jewish colonists. He financed the arrival of new settlers and the training of national personnel in local educational institutions in Crimea.
Already in 1923, the USSR and the USA independently began to discuss the idea of relocating Jews from Belarus, Ukraine, Russia to lands in the Black Sea region and creating national autonomy there. The head of the Jewish section of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), Abram Bragin, actively lobbied for this idea. Already terminally ill, Lenin even visited the “Jewish Pavilion” at the 1923 All-Union Agricultural Exhibition, which was sponsored by the Joint. In November 1923, Bragin prepared a draft document, according to which, by the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution, it was proposed to form an autonomous Jewish region on the territory of Northern Crimea, the southern steppe part of Ukraine and the Black Sea coast up to the borders of Abkhazia, with total area 10 million tithes. As many as 500 thousand Jews were supposed to move there. He was supported by Bukharin, Trotsky, Kamenev, Zinoviev, Rykov.
If you can't beat it, buy it
At the end of the 20s, seeing Moscow’s position, the Joint began negotiating with the Kremlin about issuing a very decent loan secured by Crimean lands. The agreement was signed in the early 20s by the entire leadership of the RSFSR. The Joint allocated $900 thousand per year for 10 years at 5% per annum. It was also planned to pay additional amounts of up to 500 thousand dollars a year. Total - about 10 million, still backed by gold, full-fledged dollars. The Soviet state had to repay the debt from 1945 to 1954.
– Millions of hectares of Crimean land were divided into shares. Two hundred of the largest financial and political families in America - Rockefeller, Marshall, Warburg, Roosevelt (and his wife Eleanor), Hoover and others - bought these shares, - Mikhail, chairman of the interdepartmental commission for the study of archives of the KGB of the USSR with the rank of Deputy Prime Minister, told the "Moment of Truth" program Poltoranin. That is, the American Jewish lobby turned out to be the largest latifundist in Crimea.
Almost in parallel, the resettlement of Crimean Tatars to the lowland regions of Crimea took place. Mutual insults began between the newcomers and the Tatars, sometimes turning into pogroms.
– The Tatars turned back trains with Jews from Simferopol back to Ukraine, Belarus, and Bulgaria. Pogroms began against already settled Jewish families. It ended with Stalin saying: “We cannot fan the flames of interethnic hostility.” And in 1934 he created Birobidzhan,” says Mr. Poltoranin.
The Joint branch in the USSR was liquidated by the Decree of the Politburo of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of May 4, 1938. But the United States did not abandon the idea of seizing Crimean lands. And a new act of tragicomedy took place during the Great Patriotic War.
Changing the “second front” to gingerbread
With the outbreak of World War II, American newspapers wrote extremely sparingly about the atrocities of the Nazis in our occupied territories. But they described the defeat of the Soviet troops in every detail. Public opinion was not in favor of our country. Moreover, there was a catastrophic lack of money to purchase food, medicine, and weapons abroad. After all, Lend-Lease was not at all free for our country.
In order to solve these two grandiose tasks, Stalin gave the green light to the creation of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC). The chairman of the presidium was the artistic director of the State Jewish Theater Solomon Mikhoels. The executive secretary is Shakhno Epstein, and the deputy chairman is poet and playwright Itzik Fefer. In 1943, the JAC delegation went on a tour of the American continent and England. During the almost six-month trip, about 32 million dollars were collected for the Red Army Fund. More than 500 thousand people attended lectures and rallies by representatives of the USSR. The information blockade was broken.
But the Americans would not be them if they did not derive their very material benefits from such a show. The creation of “Crimean California” - an independent Jewish state - was a constant topic at Mikhoels and Fefer’s meetings with the American and British establishment. Millionaire D. Rosenberg bluntly stated: “Crimea interests us not only as Jews, but also as Americans, since Crimea is the Black Sea, the Balkans and Turkey.” Also, the Soviet delegation was hinted that the first loan that Lenin issued did not need to be repaid. It is only necessary for the Kremlin to give the green light to the creation of a Jewish state. Then they will also throw in money for the development of Jewish Crimea - almost 10 billion dollars.
The idea went deep. Already in February 1944, the JAC prepared an interesting document, which was placed on the table of the first deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, Vyacheslav Molotov. The document is worth quoting.
“During the Patriotic War, a number of questions arose related to the life and structure of the Jewish masses Soviet Union. Before the war, there were up to 5 million Jews in the USSR from the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus, the Baltic states, Bessarabia and Bukovina, as well as from Poland. In the Soviet regions temporarily captured by the Nazis, it must be assumed that at least 1.5 million Jews were exterminated.
At one time, the Jewish Autonomous Region was created in Birobidzhan with the prospect of turning it into a Jewish Soviet Republic, in order to thus resolve the state and legal problem for the Jewish people. It must be admitted that the experience of Birobidzhan, due to a number of reasons, primarily the insufficient mobilization of all capabilities, and also due to its extreme remoteness from the location of the main Jewish labor masses, did not give the desired effect. But, despite all the difficulties, the Jewish Autonomous Region has become one of the most advanced regions in the Far Eastern region, which proves the ability of the Jewish masses to build their own statehood. This ability is even more manifested in the development of the created Jewish national districts in Crimea.
In view of all of the above, we would consider it advisable to create a Jewish Soviet Republic in one of the areas where this is possible for political reasons. It seems to us that one of the most suitable areas would be the territory of Crimea, which best meets the requirements both in terms of capacity for resettlement and due to the successful experience in the development of Jewish national areas there. The creation of the Jewish Soviet Republic would once and for all resolve in a Bolshevik manner, in the spirit of Leninist-Stalinist national policy, the problem of the state and legal status of the Jewish people and the further development of their age-old culture. No one has been able to solve this problem for many centuries, and it can only be resolved in our great socialist country.
The idea of creating a Jewish Soviet Republic is extremely popular among the broadest Jewish masses of the Soviet Union and the best representatives of the fraternal peoples.
In the construction of the Jewish Soviet Republic, the Jewish people of all countries of the world, wherever they may be, would provide us with significant assistance. Based on the above, we propose:
Create a Jewish Soviet socialist republic on the territory of Crimea.
In advance, before the liberation of Crimea, appoint a government commission to develop this issue.
We hope that you will pay due attention to this issue, on the implementation of which the fate of an entire nation depends.
Chairman
Presidium of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee of the USSR S. MIKHOELS.
Responsible
Secretary SH. EPSTEIN.
Vice-chairman
Presidium I. FEFER.
February 15, 1944, Moscow"
Mikhail Poltoranin
– Mikhail Nikiforovich, historians reproach you for not seeing the documents you refer to when talking about “Crimean California.” Do they really exist?
– Yes, there are documents in the archives. At one time, when I worked on the declassification commission, we decided that documents from 1917 to 1945 would be disclosed. Except, of course, documents on our agency. We declassified the documents, but Alexander Yakovlev and Dmitry Volkogonov came to Yeltsin, and the president, by his decree, again classified them, illegally. They did this in order to pull documents out of the archive only when they need to, distort the history of our country and pour dirt on it.
Vise for Stalin
Note that Crimea is still in the hands of the fascists, and the guys who visited the USA are already ready to create their own country and, most likely, appoint themselves as its leaders. Molotov sent the project back. And in June 1944, a meeting took place between millionaire, chamber of commerce and industry president Eric Johnston and US Ambassador to the USSR Averell Harriman with Stalin and Molotov. The Americans made a generous offer - to invest the notorious $10 billion in the Crimean economy. In return, create a republic where Jews from all over the world could come, turning it into the world's largest resort with a profitability of almost 2 billion dollars.
The messengers of “good will” demanded the already mentioned Mikhoels for the post of leader. Stalin believed that Lazar Moiseevich Kaganovich would cope. Plus, the money should go not only to the Black Sea coast, but to other regions that suffered from the occupation. The Americans didn't want to pay that much.
They tried to put pressure on Stalin from the other side.
– In 1943, Stalin complained to Josip Broz Tito that in Tehran, Roosevelt told him (Stalin) that the United States could no longer continue deliveries under Lend-Lease, because the Jewish lobby, very strong in America, was demanding from me the project of creating a “Crimean California” " We (the United States) also cannot open a second front unless a decision is made on Crimea,” Mikhail Poltoranin refers to the conversation.
As we see, colossal pressure was put on Stalin. The deadline for paying off bills for Crimean land was approaching. “Crimea is almost ours. The Soviets have no money,” they rubbed their hands in the United States.
In 1945, the year the repayment of Lenin’s loans began, the notorious George Marshall wrote a secret letter to the former ambassador, now Minister Harriman.
“To the US Secretary of Commerce A. Harriman
Dear Averell!
The President approves of your plans. He added the following to them. The coexistence of a Soviet Black Sea Fleet base and a Jewish republic on the territory of Crimea, open to the free entry of Jews from all over the world, appears to be an incongruity fraught with unpredictable consequences. From the very beginning, this raised his doubts about the reality of the “Crimean project.” Crimea should become a demilitarized zone. Let Stalin know that he must be prepared to relocate the fleet from Sevastopol to Odessa and the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus. Then we will believe that the Crimean Jewish Republic is a reality and not a propaganda myth. J. Marshall."
Apparently, then Joseph Vissarionovich had an idea on how to deceive those who considered themselves smarter than other Americans.
Versailles, Palestine, Khrushchev
– Stalin reminded the world Jewish lobby about the congress in Basel, which took place back in 1887. It was decided that homeless Jews should create their own state in Palestine. In the mid-forties of the last century, the British ruled there. And then Stalin in 1946 gave the command to supply weapons to the Jews who fought against the Arabs and the British. Tens of thousands of machine guns, machine guns, and howitzers went to Palestine through Bulgaria. Stalin’s opinion: let Israel be in Palestine, not in Crimea,” says Poltoranin. As a result, on May 15, 1948, the creation of Israel was proclaimed.
The country was recognized by the United States and the Soviet Union, and on May 18, 1948, the USSR was the first to establish diplomatic relations with Israel.
But, despite the fact that the Jews received Palestine, the idea of “Crimean California” did not die.
– In June 1948, Golda Meir was appointed Israeli Ambassador to the USSR, and arrived in Moscow on September 3. In two weeks, she organized two rallies of 50 thousand people each in Moscow. These were people from Leningrad, Moscow, even from Siberia. At the rallies they demanded to fulfill the promise to America and give up Crimea. As a result, it was decided to evict the “fifth column” from Crimea. In the summer of 1953, 17 ships went beyond the Arctic Circle to Novaya Zemlya. This was the beginning of an operation codenamed “White Partridge,” Poltoranin clarifies.
Stalin also planned to evict Jews from major cities of the country, in particular from Moscow. Minister Furtseva has already compiled lists. But suddenly - mysterious death leader.
In 1954, Khrushchev gave Crimea to the Ukrainian SSR. The RSFSR, read – the Soviet Union, ceased to bear legal responsibility for those signed in the 20s Russian government bills. Nobody returned the money to the Americans. And after 1991, the Joint again actively launched its activities in Ukraine, including in Crimea.
From the USSR. We will talk about the American project “Crimean California”...
Even before the Maidan events, the Simferopol Committee for Demanding Compensation, consisting of veterans of the National Movement of the Crimean Tatar People, demanded from Barack Obama nothing less than a public apology and compensation for the damage suffered by the Crimean Tatars as a result of repression and forced eviction in May 1944 . According to the authors of the appeal, US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had a direct connection to this event.
This story began back in the 20s. US financial circles hatched the idea of creating a Jewish state friendly to the US on the territory of Crimea. The Jewish-American organization "Joint", which before establishing diplomatic relations with the United States represented the interests of this country in Soviet Russia, allocated us a loan of 20 million dollars.
375 thousand hectares of Crimean land were pledged as security. Issued for the entire amount borrowed securities, they were bought by powerful US families, including Roosevelt. That is, they would become the owners of the Crimean territories in the event of failure by the Soviet side to fulfill loan obligations. The settlement date was set to 1954.
Part of the borrowed money was intended for the mass resettlement of Soviet Jews to Crimea and the creation of national autonomy there. The resettlement process began, Jewish collective farms showed good results, but bad luck - friction began with the Crimean Tatar population. In addition, the growing Soviet state did not want to develop the project, which could ultimately result in the separation of the territory. The resettlement process was slowed down, and the Jewish Autonomous Region was created in the Far East.
The United States returned to the idea of separating Crimea during the difficult war years for the USSR. In particular, in 1943, during a trip to America and Great Britain, the leaders of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, Mikhoels and Fefer, who were actually envoys of Stalin. Financial circles have made it clear: in exchange for help in the fight against Germany, they expect the creation of a Jewish state in Crimea after the victory over Hitler.
In their appeal to Obama, the Crimean Tatars also refer to the memoirs of the former Vice President of Yugoslavia Milovan Djilas. Allegedly, after the Tehran Conference, Stalin, in his presence, told Josip Broz Tito about his conversation with Roosevelt. Threatened by the cessation of supplies under Lend-Lease and the refusal of the landing of allied troops in France, the US President demanded the revival of the Crimean California project. “We cannot open a second front until you make a decision on Crimea,” Djilas quotes.
The authors of the appeal are convinced that it was pressure from Roosevelt that caused Stalin’s decision to deport the Crimean Tatars - it was necessary to show that the USSR heard his wishes and was freeing up the territory for the conflict-free existence of future settlers.
Stalin managed to successfully maneuver and stall for time - as a result, the status quo in Crimea remained the same after the war. By the way, is this why the USSR was almost the first to support the creation of Israel in 1948? This actually removed the question of the need for a Jewish state in Crimea.
Jewish collective farmers of the Novozlatopol region
Moreover, there is a completely conspiracy theory that the transfer of Crimea to Ukraine is connected with old cases. The trick to this maneuver is that the Joint had a loan agreement drawn up with the RSFSR. And if someone presented something, Ukraine might not respond to such demands, since despite the unity of the USSR, each republic had room for economic and social maneuver in a number of issues. For example, each republic had its own Criminal Code. And the Ukrainian and Belarusian Soviet socialist republics, along with the USSR, were full members of the UN.
Mikhail Poltoranin also spoke about the existence of the Crimean California project, citing some papers that he allegedly saw in the KGB archives. However, many historians doubt this and demand evidence. Reasonable. If we do not take into account the fact that a number of documents have not yet expired, and many agreements between strongmen of the world This could well have been oral in nature.
Meeting of Jewish collective farmers.
Article on the topic:
Since the First Zionist Congress, held in Basel in 1897, Jewish organizations around the world have intensified their search for ways to create a Jewish state in Palestine, Africa and South America. Russian Jews did not lag behind, they not only developed a project for the so-called South Russian Republic on the territory of Crimea, Volyn and Podolia with the capital in Odessa, but also made an unsuccessful attempt to implement it in 1905. After that, the project was forgotten and was remembered only after a decade and a half in America.
BOLSHEVIKS AND JOINT – FRIENDSHIP FOREVER
In 1923, a Jewish charitable organization from the United States, the Joint (American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee), proposed to the Soviet government “a project beneficial for the USSR to create a Jewish autonomy on the territory of the Soviet Union,” including Odessa, Kherson, the northern part of Crimea, the Black Sea coast. sea to Abkhazia and Sochi. In the United States, both this project and this future public entity were known as “Crimean California.”
To begin with, it was planned to resettle 500 thousand Jews from the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus to the autonomy. In return, the Joint promised the Soviet Union assistance in obtaining large loans and lobbying its interests in the United States.
The Joint's proposals were actively supported by Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev and approved by V.I. Lenin. During the discussion of the project, appetites had to be tempered and a Jewish Autonomous Republic within the RSFSR had to be created only on the territory of Crimea. But even here it turned out to be a “bummer” - J.V. Stalin intervened and insisted that, to begin with, we should limit ourselves only to the creation of a committee for the land management of Jews in Crimea (KomZET), and make final decisions based on the practical results achieved. The wheel of the Crimean project has begun to spin.
On July 21, 1924, by resolution of the Joint Executive Committee, the Agro-Joint Corporation was created, the main task of which was to settle several hundred Jewish families in the south of Russia in order to determine the possibility of mass Jewish colonization in the USSR.
KomZET was created on August 29, 1924 by decree of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, with the aim of attracting the Jewish population to productive agricultural work. On the initiative of interested party circles, on January 17, 1925, the Land Management Society of Jewish Workers (OZET) was organized to help KomZET.
On November 29, 1924, Agro-Joint entered into an agreement on organizing the land management of Jews with Soviet government, on whose behalf KomZET acted. The essence of the agreement was the distribution of costs and responsibilities for land management of Jews between KomZET and Agro-Joint. KomZET provided land and provided some of the financing for the project, and Agro-Joint provided its main financing.
During the 14 years of Agro-Joint’s work in the USSR (until its completion in 1938), new agreements were concluded with the Soviet government (January 31, 1927, February 15, 1929, March 22, 1933), clarifying issues of the organization work, financing, loans, etc.
M. Poltoranin in one of his television interviews stated that during the implementation of the Crimean program, the Joint organization allocated a loan (credit) tied to the implementation of the program. Under the terms of the loan, the Soviet Union received $900 thousand annually for 10 years at 5 percent interest. According to the same conditions, in the USSR, state bonds-shares were issued for the entire amount of the loan, against which almost all of the Crimean land was divided into shares (apparently, the situation that had arisen had no other development options and this was the only possible and optimal one for that period of time solution).
200 people received shares in the Crimean land, including very famous Americans: Roosevelt, his wife Eleanor, Hoover, Marshall. In fact, the loan was taken out against promissory notes, which were backed by the Crimean territory.
The repayment of the loan debt with specified interest was supposed to begin in 1945 and end in 1954 - that’s why 1954 was “critical” for the Soviet leadership, both in terms of political and financial obligations - lenders had to give either money or collateral lands .
The project was illegal and dangerous - since 1921, the Crimean Autonomous Republic already existed with its own constitution. In addition, both the Crimean Tatars and other peoples of the peninsula had plans for the lands of the future autonomy. Thus, the resettlement of Jews there was fraught with the transformation of the peninsula into a hotbed of ethnic tension, which was confirmed by subsequent events.
The resettlement of Jews met fierce resistance from both the Crimean Tatar population and the leaders of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, some of whom, in connection with this, were repressed.
In the rural areas of Crimea, two Jewish national districts were created - Freidorf and Larindorf, but practical experience The resettlement of Jews there showed its inconsistency: the bulk of the settlers, faced with opposition from the local population and peasant labor that was unusual for them, returned to their native places. Of the Jews who remained in Crimea, a minority settled “on the ground” - the majority settled in cities (in 1930, out of 49,100 Crimean Jews, only 10,140 people lived in rural areas).
Taking into account these circumstances, in 1934 I.V. Stalin curtailed the Crimean project and made a “knight’s move”: in the east of the country, a special administrative-territorial entity was created for the resettlement of Jews - the Jewish Autonomous Region with its capital in Birobidzhan (so that there were “and the sheep are safe and the wolves are well-fed"). Despite all the social cataclysms, the Jewish Autonomous Region still exists in this status, thereby continuing to solve the original problem.
But the “wolves”, unfortunately, remained hungry. The question of the need for the Soviet Union to implement the “Crimean California” project again surfaced during the Great Patriotic War and the Americans made us an offer that was impossible to refuse...
ALREADY "JEWISH SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLIC"
In 1942, to organize political and material support from wealthy American Jews in the USSR, the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC) was created, headed by S. Mikhoels. The Committee performed its functions quite successfully, but already at the end of 1943, at the Tehran Conference, Roosevelt warned I.V. Stalin that further deliveries under Lend-Lease and the opening of the 2nd front are impossible without the implementation of the “Crimean California” project - this is the demand of the Jewish tycoons of the United States.
And already on February 21, 1944, having returned from the USA, members of the JAC delegation sent I.V. Stalin and V.M. Molotov so-called “Note on Crimea,” which suggested:
"…1. Create a Jewish Soviet socialist republic on the territory of Crimea.
2. In advance, before the liberation of Crimea, appoint a government commission to develop this issue..."
The “note” was left unanswered, but soon, on May 18, 1944, the Crimean Tatars were deported from Crimea, followed by the Armenians, Bulgarians and Greeks on June 26.
In his above-mentioned television interview, M. Poltoranin also demonstrated the Russian translation of D. Marshall’s secret letter to US Secretary of Commerce A. Harriman, written in 1945. The letter sets out the desire of the US President to let I.V. know. Stalin, so that he was ready to relocate the Black Sea Fleet to Odessa and the Caucasus coast, since: “The coexistence on the territory of Crimea of the base of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet and the Jewish Republic, open to the free entry of Jews from all over the world, seems to be an incongruity fraught with unpredictable consequences...”.
Judging by this letter, the issue was studied at the highest level and very serious people were dealing with it.
It is quite obvious that I.V. Stalin was a staunch opponent of the creation of the Jewish SSR. According to the memoirs of Leonid Efremov, a member of the CPSU Central Committee, J.V. Stalin, at the last meeting of the Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee during his lifetime, criticized V.M. Molotov in a rather harsh form precisely because he had previously proposed to transfer Crimea to the Jews.
It seems that to divert attention, the USSR carried out some insignificant, demonstrative actions. Real measures to create the Jewish SSR were actually sabotaged - the empty Tatar villages began to quickly be populated by Belarusian, Russian and Ukrainian peasants from destroyed villages in the regions liberated from occupation.
Soon the international situation changed - the United States, from an ally, became our adversary in the unfolding Cold War, which allowed J.V. Stalin to sharply reduce attention to their “wants”. In addition, things in the Middle East have turned out quite favorably for us. In Palestine, due to refugees from Europe, the Jewish population almost tripled in 1945-1946, reaching 600 thousand people. Thus, a “critical mass” was formed, which made it possible, instead of a Jewish republic in Crimea, to begin the struggle for the creation of a Jewish independent state in Palestine.
I.V. Stalin actively supported the long-standing Zionist idea of creating a Jewish state in Palestine and in 1946 gave the command to supply weapons to the Jews who fought there against the Arabs and British. On May 14, 1948, the Jewish State of Israel was proclaimed. The first country to recognize the Jewish state in full was the Soviet Union on May 17.
But, despite the newfound Palestine, the idea of exploiting Crimea among Jews did not die. On September 3, 1948, Golda Meir, appointed ambassador to the USSR, arrived in Moscow. In two weeks, she organized two rallies in Moscow of 50 thousand people each - these were people from Leningrad, Moscow and even Siberia, who demanded to fulfill the promises made to America and give up Crimea.
Soon, on November 20, 1948, the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee was dissolved and closed as a center of anti-Soviet propaganda - friendship with Israel ended. At the beginning of 1949, active members of the JAC were arrested and events known as the “fight against cosmopolitanism” began in the country. The events reached their culmination by 1953, but were curtailed immediately after the death of I.V. Stalin, whose death was more like a murder.
The deadline for repaying the debt to the Joint expired in 1954, but the Soviet Union, which was restoring the national economy destroyed by the war, could hardly complete all loan payments on time. A major scandal was brewing, undesirable for both the USSR and the Joint.
KHRUSHCHEV'S CLOSURE OF THE "CRIMEAN CALIFORNIA" PROJECT
N.S. Khrushchev, who came to power, “was in the know.” Using the 300th anniversary of the reunification of Ukraine with Russia as a cover, he transferred Crimea from the RSFSR to the jurisdiction of Ukraine. According to the agreement with the Joint, the transfer of Crimean lands to Jews from the RSFSR was provided for, and Ukraine did not bear any legal responsibility for the implementation of this agreement.
In addition, the Jews already had their own land in Birobidzhan and it seems very likely that all this was still Stalin’s “preparation.”
Thus, the government of the USSR acquired the formal right to close the question of the obligations of the Soviet Union to Jewish organizations in the United States regarding the creation of Jewish statehood in Crimea. And this right was significantly reinforced by the fact that the USSR had a real nuclear weapons On August 29, 1949, the first Soviet atomic bomb was tested, and on August 12, 1953, we tested the first hydrogen bomb...
For the peoples of the USSR in those years, this action was also an empty formality - there was a single country inhabited by a single Soviet people. At that time, no one could have imagined that Ukraine would become a foreign state for Russia.
No one wanted all the details of the deal to be made public and, it seems, the interested American-Jewish side silently (“money loves silence”) postponed the resolution of this important issue for it until more favorable times.
FOODS FOR CONSIDERATION
The Americans never received the money, but it seems that, if necessary, there will always be “craftsmen” who can justify the penalty interest for non-payment of the loan, and inflate (taking them into account) the amount of debt at the moment to mind-boggling proportions.
The same “craftsmen” will be able to prove that the Crimean land divided into shares continues to be legally pledged by the current holders of shares and bonds issued in the 20s of the last century.
Meanwhile, the “Joint” case on the lands former USSR continues to live.
Since 1991, the “CIS Department” has been operating within the Joint. Judging by the amount of budget funds allocated, the organization is most active in Ukraine.
As of 2006, Ukraine received $41,421,785 (second from Israel, which received $140,616,535).
IN Lately Quite interesting information flashed on some Internet sites. For example, on the website of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress on October 16, 2009, an article by Joseph Zisels “Restitution of Jewish property in Ukraine: formulation of the question” was published. This article examines various aspects of the topic of former Jewish property in Ukraine and the problems of its restitution (i.e. returning the owners to their heirs or successors). An article “Zazubrina” appeared on the website of the NGO “Zubr” newspaper, which tells how in the second half of last 2013, an initiative group led by A. Rapoport decided to recreate OZET in an updated format and hold the Founding Conference of OZET in April - May 2014 in Crimea (Feodosia). The same website reports that on March 23, 2014, an appeal was announced from the Coordinator of OZET in Ukraine and Crimea, the Head of the Beit Shlan Council (center for religious Zionism) Meir Landau to allied organizations and Jewish communities of Crimea “to gather in the very near future for a conference on the issue restoration of the national and cultural autonomy of the Jewish people in Crimea."
On March 4, 2014, the website of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine published “An Appeal to the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin on behalf of the multinational people of Ukraine, on behalf of national minorities, on behalf of the Jewish community.” The document was signed by the previously mentioned Joseph Zissels, Chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities (Vaada) of Ukraine, Executive Vice President of the Congress of National Communities of Ukraine, and 36 other equally respected “Ukrainians.”
In the specified “Appeal”:
a) it is argued that Russian-speaking residents of Ukraine are not subjected to humiliation and oppression, their civil rights are not limited and that the stability of Ukraine is under threat emanating from the Russian government, that is, from V.V. Putin;
b) there is a call “not to interfere in internal Ukrainian affairs, to withdraw Russian troops to their permanent locations and stop encouraging pro-Russian separatism.”
It should be noted that the actions to recreate OZET coincided in time with the main events of the political crisis in Ukraine and it is highly doubtful that this was a mere coincidence.
To confirm doubts, it is also necessary to note:
1. The highest involvement in political events in Ukraine by employees of the US Embassy in Kyiv and senior American leadership.
2. The highest activity shown in the current political events of Ukraine is the head of the United Jewish Community of Ukraine, the head of the European Council of Jewish Communities and the President of the European Jewish Union (EJU) Igor Kolomoisky (2nd in the ranking of Ukrainian rich people in 2013).
3. The highest activity shown by the European Union in matters of restitution in the countries of the former Soviet bloc. After joining the association with the EU, the same awaits Ukraine, whose legislation it will have to follow.
It looks like everything has been calculated, people are prepared, positioned and taking the necessary actions...
Of course, the authenticity of the second version can be confirmed or refuted only on the basis of relevant archival documents, if any (according to A. Karaulov, M. Poltoranin’s information is based on archival documents).
If the second version is reliable, political events in Ukraine, coupled with measures to revive OZET, can be interpreted as the implementation of a certain plan of preliminary measures to seize the collateral lands of Crimea.
It seems that if Crimea were part of Ukraine, which joined the EU, its collateral lands would be seized by the United States through legal casuistry and restitution.
Experience shows that at present, with the help of brute military force, the United States can trample on any legal and moral standards and do with any NON-NUCLEAR power everything that seems necessary to them.
Crimea broke out into its historical nuclear missile homeland literally at the very last possible moment - a little more, and the Russian world could have lost it forever.
Judging by the rage that the entry of Crimea into Russia aroused in the United States, it is extremely doubtful that our good comrades - ordinary Jews, with whom we work, ride on trolleybuses and drink vodka in the kitchens, could have gained anything from the Americans confiscating the Crimean deposits lands.
Many events of the past show that ordinary Jews, as a rule, are used as auxiliary, expendable material in the big games of very big people who are least of all interested in someone's personal destinies.
It seems that the proposed measures to seize Crimean lands, first of all, should solve the global strategic task of organizing some form of absolute American presence on the territory of Crimea - up to the declaration of the peninsula as the 51st American state (like Alaska and Hawaii).
Therefore, dear comrades, Crimea now needs to be defended to the last nuclear warhead.
Project "Crimea - New California" - myth or reality?
06/30/2008 - Andrey Karaulov - Moment of Truth - TVC channel
Project "Crimean California". Why was Stalin killed?
To judge those and current times objectively, you should at least take an interest in the “Crimean California” project or the case of the Chairman of the Crimean Central Executive Committee, Veli Ibraimov. In fact, the question is much deeper. The deportation of 1944 should be considered an act of tragedy that is not completed to this day. The “New California” project, which initially, in addition to Crimea, was supposed to include the lands of the Kherson and Odessa regions, as well as the Krasnodar Territory to the border with Abkhazia, was carried out by the “Joint” (American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee) since 1923 ) .
Year of manufacture: 1927
Genre: history
Issued: USSR
Director: Abram Room
Duration: 00:17:54
Back in November 1923, the head of the Jewish section of the RCP (b), Abram Bragin, submitted to the Politburo a draft decision on the creation of a Soviet socialist Jewish republic. In 1927, Yuri Larin (Lurie) proposed a set of new measures for the settlement of Jewish settlers in Crimea. Since 1929 The Joint issued targeted loans for “Crimean California” on the security of Crimean lands. The debts became due in 1945. In case of non-repayment of debt before 1954. the mortgaged lands were to be transferred to the shareholders. And they became more than 200 Americans, including future presidents Roosevelt and Hoover, financiers Rockefeller and Marshall, General MacArthur. The resettlement began, but was met with opposition from local authorities. The opposition to the Center was led by the Chairman of the Crimean Central Election Commission Veli Ibraimov. He had a plan to resettle landless Crimean Tatars and repatriate up to 200 thousand people from Turkey and Romania. According to Crimean Tatar sources, Ibraimov acted sharply and irreconcilably, he even personally turned back the arriving trains with Jewish settlers. Stalin summoned him to Moscow, the conversation, as Ibraimov was later able to tell, was cool, and upon his return he was arrested. Among the thirteen charges, he was credited with the murder of the red partisan Ibrahim Choloka, harboring the Hayser Amet gang and others. At the trial, Ibraimov named the true reason for the reprisal carried out against him. But Veli Agha’s suicide note also contained the following words: “Communo-Zionist unity is killing me because I defended the rights of the Crimean Tatars, planned to gather them in their homeland... and moved to action.” It is not said to what purpose, but this was by no means written for the court that had already passed a verdict. The tragic fate of this man, who sincerely considered himself a Bolshevik, can be explained by the fact that he was not familiar with Marxism. It clearly states that the proletariat has no fatherland, that it must establish its dictatorship under the banner of proletarian internationalism. Ibraimov sincerely believed that being a Bolshevik, he could remain a Crimean Tatar, have a homeland, and even take care of his people. Before him, Jews were sent to Crimea: Rosalia Zemlyachka (Zalkind), Bela Kun (Kogan), Yuri Gaven (Dauman). They internationalized to their heart's content, shooting more than 200 thousand officers, representatives of the clergy, and intelligentsia and artificially creating the famine of 1921-22, in which at least 60 thousand more died. And Veli aga gave the land, declared an amnesty and the fight stopped. (Subsequently, the Leninist guard was exterminated by Stalin, which even the Crimean Tatars give him credit for).
A few days after Ibraimov’s confession and the arrest of his group (in total, about 3.5 thousand were repressed), Larin made a proposal to create a Jewish Republic. The Committee for the Land System of Jewish Workers and the Public Committee for the Land System of Jewish Workers were created. KomZET was headed by Smidovich, and OZET by Larin. Discontent began on the part of the local population, especially the Crimean Tatars, which definitely subsequently influenced their relations with the Soviet authorities. Published in the period 1942-44. the Crimean Tatar newspaper Azat Krym (Free Crimea) called it “Chufut-Bolshevik”. It's impossible to argue with anything.
But already in the 30s, Karl Radek uttered the famous phrase: “Moses led the Jews out of Egypt, and Stalin - from the Politburo.” Then in the Khabarovsk Territory. The Jewish Autonomous Region was formed, the employees of the Joint were accused of espionage and expelled, and its branch in the USSR was liquidated by the Decree of the Politburo of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on May 4, 1938. But in Crimea there are two autonomous Jewish districts (Freidorf in 1930 and Larindorf in 1935) was nevertheless created. Some sources mention another one - Telmansky). The first two included 29 local Jewish councils and occupied 4.5 thousand square meters. km with a population of about 80 thousand people. Yiddish was the language of office work, teaching, and periodicals here. According to Jewish sources, the radio newspaper Emes (Truth) was published in October 1930. There was a mobile Jewish theater. The newspaper Lenin Veg (Lenin's Way) was published. You can read about this in the book “Jewish Collective Farmers” by N. Gotovchikov and the President of the Association of Jewish Communities and Organizations of Crimea A. Gendin. In May of this year (2010) it was released in Simferopol. In addition, according to the chairman of the Yalta Jewish community, Vladlen Naftulevich Lyustin, his father was the director of an agricultural technical school, where teaching was conducted in Yiddish, and Hebrew was included in the curriculum.
At this time, great attention was paid to the construction of housing for displaced people. In 1928, 441 residential buildings were built, in 1931 - 3828. Compare this with the rate of “repatriation” of Crimean Tatars in free Ukraine. By the way, in the neighboring Crimea of the Ukrainian SSR, on January 1, 1927, over 107 thousand Jews (seven percent of the Jewish population of the republic) worked in agricultural production, and in 1936 - already over 200 thousand. The largest Jewish district was Stalindorf in the Kherson region. He led the nation-state and cultural construction in the 1920s. Jewish subsection of the Department of National Minorities of the NKVD of the Ukrainian SSR. The NKVD is the NKVD, but it was financed directly by the same “Joint”, which spent $30 million on Crimean California alone, which at that time was a huge amount of money, which no one was going to forgive.
They recalled Crimean California in 1943. During the Tehran Conference, in a conversation with Stalin, Roosevelt said that his administration would soon have problems with supplies to the USSR under Lend-Lease if the “Crimean California” project was not revived. Milovan Djilas, the future vice-president of Yugoslavia, wrote about this. He and Josip Broz Tito secretly flew to the USSR and in a personal conversation asked Stalin why the Tatars were deported from Crimea in the spring of 1944. According to him, Stalin referred to the obligations given to Roosevelt to clear Crimea for Jewish settlers. Note that in the text of the Resolution of the State Defense Committee on May 11, 1944, there is not a word about the nature of the deportation as retribution for cooperation with the occupation authorities. At the same time, Field Marshal Manstein wrote in the book “Lost Victories”: “We even managed to form armed self-defense companies from the Tatars, whose task was to protect their villages from attacks by partisans hiding in the Yayla mountains. The reason is that a powerful partisan movement developed in Crimea from the very beginning, which caused us a lot of trouble...” You can’t erase a word from a song, but why insert a whole black legend into it? It is certain that the myth of the “traitorous people” was invented and exaggerated later, and this is worth understanding. A year before the liberation of Crimea, a delegation of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee of the USSR was sent to the USA, and then to Mexico, Canada and England. Before the trip, its leader Solomon Mikhoels was instructed by Beria himself. There is no information about his recruitment, but this is not what happens in intelligence work. The head of department “C” of the USSR MGB, Lieutenant General Pavel Sudoplatov, recalls: “... Mikhoels and Fefer, our trusted agent (who was personally in touch with State Security Commissioner Raikhman - author), were instructed to probe the reaction of influential foreign Zionist organizations to the creation of a Jewish republics in Crimea. This task of a special reconnaissance probe - establishing, under the leadership of our residency in the United States, contacts with the American Zionist movement in 1943-1944 - was successfully completed.” In the USA, the “Crimean problem” was discussed everywhere. Thus, Julius Rosenberg, the head of the Soviet intelligence network in the United States, is credited with the words: “Crimea interests us not only as Jews, but also as Americans, since Crimea is the Black Sea, the Balkans and Turkey.” The hands of his former leaders did not have time to reach Rosenberg. In 1953, the Americans put him in the electric chair. Sudoplatov further writes that besides Molotov, Lozovsky and several senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mikhoels was the only person who knew about the existence of Stalin’s plan to create a Jewish state in Crimea. “In this way, Stalin hoped to receive 10 billion dollars from the West to restore the economy destroyed by the war.” And this after a trip to the USA?! Indeed: on the page below the author refutes himself: “... the idea of a Jewish republic in Crimea was openly discussed in Moscow not only among the Jewish population, but also in the highest echelons of power” and claims that the intentions of the leader of the peoples were not sincere, but his true goal there was a “divorce” of American Jews. However, on February 15, 1944, a letter signed by the Chairman of the Presidium of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee of the USSR S. Mikhoels, Executive Secretary Sh. Epstein and Deputy Chairman of the Presidium I. Fefer landed on Vyacheslav Molotov’s desk:
"...The creation of a Jewish Soviet Republic would once and for all resolve, in a Bolshevik manner, in the spirit of Lenin-Stalinist national policy, the problem of the state-legal status of the Jewish people and the further development of their age-old culture. No one was able to resolve this problem for many years centuries, and it can only be resolved in our great socialist country. ...
Based on the above, we propose:
1. Create a Jewish Soviet socialist republic on the territory of Crimea.
2. In advance, before the liberation of Crimea, appoint a government commission to develop this issue.”
In June of the same year, the President of the American Chamber of Commerce, Eric Johnston, and the US Secretary of Commerce, Averell Harriman, arrived in Moscow; They were already dividing up portfolios: the Americans proposed Michaels as the head of Crimea, Stalin insisted on Lazar Kaganovich. Johnston and Harriman offered a loan against a self-sufficient Jewish state; Stalin bargained and wanted the Jewish state to remain part of the USSR. And then it turned out that American Jews were demanding the withdrawal of the Black Sea Fleet from Sevastopol.
“Completely confidential.
To the US Secretary of Commerce A. Harriman
Dear Averell! The President approves of your plans. He added the following to them. The coexistence of a Soviet Black Sea Fleet base and a Jewish republic on the territory of Crimea, open to the free entry of Jews from all over the world, appears to be an incongruity fraught with unpredictable consequences. This from the very beginning raised his doubts about the reality of the “Crimean project”. Crimea should become a demilitarized zone. Let Stalin know that he must be prepared to relocate the fleet from Sevastopol to Odessa and the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus. Then we will believe that the Crimean Jewish Republic is a reality and not a propaganda myth.
J.Marshall"
To prove this reality, the Crimean Tatars were evicted from Crimea, followed by the Bulgarians, Greeks and others, whose involvement in cooperation with the occupiers was not discussed at all. This is definitely not where the dog was buried. The Allies made sure of the cleanup during the Crimean (Yalta) Conference. Taking into account Roosevelt’s Tehran “request,” it, in this sense, became a kind of inspection trip.
"Crimean California"
Since the mid-1920s, Jews, primarily residents of Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states, and Bessarabia, began to actively move to Crimea.
The long-term plan for the land management of the KEA, approved in 1926, was designed for the period from 1927 to 1936. During this time, about 96 thousand families were subject to resettlement - according to rough estimates, 250-300 thousand people.
On February 19, 1929, a document called “Crimean California” was signed between the Soviet government and the American Jewish charitable organization Joint.
According to the representative of the Department of Nationalities of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee I.M. Rashkes, in the new Jewish autonomy it was planned to create a continuous land area “in the future, not for the concentration of world Jewry, but for the purpose of establishing three million Jews of the USSR on the land.”
Certain achievements in this endeavor were evident: some Jewish communes successfully developed livestock farming, harvested high yields and introduced new technology.
However, there were also problems. The money transferred by the Joint for the improvement of Jews in Crimea did not go through the USSR budget, but directly to the settlers.
This caused a whole wave of indignation among the local population - Tatars, Greeks, Germans, Bulgarians, who often staged pogroms against Jews. The unrest forced Stalin to declare that “Crimean California” gave the country nothing but national strife.
In 1934, he implemented an alternative Jewish project - “Birobidzhan”.
Modern historians note other reasons that have nothing to do with the solution of Jewish problems. In their opinion, Jewry turned out to be a hostage of geopolitical games between the USSR and the West, which is confirmed by further plans for the implementation of the Crimean-Jewish program.
Propaganda tool
Former intelligence officer Pavel Sudoplatov is confident that the idea of creating the KEA was launched by Stalin himself to promote the USSR in the world community.
Writer Pyotr Efimov writes that “in the story of the “Jewish Crimea,” Stalin appears not only as a skilled master of intrigue and behind-the-scenes deals, but also as the author, director, conductor and main character of this spectacle.”
Efimov claims that Stalin, in addition to providing the USSR with loans and benefits under Lend-Lease, also expected to gain a few years of head start in the nuclear confrontation with the United States.
According to other researchers, “Crimean California” is a settlement of issues with Soviet Jewry. Stalin, anticipating a massive outflow of Jews to the newly formed Israel, gives them Crimea.
However, could the leader in this way settle scores with the Jewry he disliked?
During the capture of Crimea, German troops resettled a large number of Kuban Cossacks to the peninsula.
And, despite the desire of the Kuban residents to return home, the Soviet authorities prevented them. Considering the anti-Semitic sentiments among the Cossacks, a conflict with the newly arrived Jewish settlers was ensured.
Moreover, according to researchers, in the “Crimean issue” Stalin was preparing a platform for future trials against the Zionists.
Thus, shifting responsibility for the creation of the Crimean Jewish Autonomy to the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC), he declared it “the nationalist center of international Zionism,” accusing it of an impending coup d’état and an attempt to surrender Crimea to the Americans.
This gave rise to dealing with the members of the JAC, including Solomon Mikhoels, who was tipped for the post of head of the “Jewish republic.”
The process of liquidating the JAC turned out to be inevitable because, according to Sudoplatov, Mikhoels was the only person who knew about the existence of Stalin’s plan to create a Jewish state in Crimea.
What happened
Very soon relations between the USSR and the West become colder, and contradictions arise with Israel. Against this background, an anti-Semitic campaign is gaining momentum in the country: the “doctors’ cause,” the fight against “rootless cosmopolitanism,” the execution of members of the JAC.
After the death of Mikhoels, Stalin finds a new culprit in the “Crimean issue.” “What is Molotov’s proposal to hand over Crimea to the Jews worth? - says Stalin. - This is a gross political mistake<…>Comrade Molotov should not be a lawyer for illegal Jewish claims to our Soviet Crimea.”
Molotov was indeed a supporter of Jewish autonomy, but not in Crimea, but in the Volga region.
Paying attention to the socio-economic aspect of the KEA, it should be noted that Jews were mostly resettled in disadvantaged semi-desert areas of Crimea, unsuitable for the development of agriculture.
In addition, the main mass of settlers was not adapted to agricultural work. Famine became common in Jewish communities.
The process of resettlement of Jews painfully affected the original inhabitants of these places, which gave rise to interethnic conflicts.
The program to create the KEA had the greatest impact on the Crimean Tatars, whose autonomy was liquidated by order of Stalin in 1946.
In fact, by 1939, the resettlement of Jews to Crimea was suspended: according to the census, their number did not exceed 65 thousand people. But the resumption of this process never took place.
During the Great Patriotic War, the peoples of the USSR acquired a new super-ethnic community that generalized them - the Russian people. And soon Stalin came to the conclusion that proletarian internationalism turned out to be rootless cosmopolitanism. Solomon Mikhoels, according to Pavel Sudoplatov, was killed, and his comrades in the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee were accused of plotting to secede Crimea from the USSR and were shot. Then there was the purge of Jews from the apparatus of the Central Committee and the MGB (even Kheifitz, who obtained for the USSR the secret of the atomic bomb and the organizer of the murder of Trotsky Eitington, was not spared for the USSR), the “doctors’ affair,” and more broadly, the “Zionist conspiracy” to seize power.”
Note: The construction of the naval base in Odessa really began in those years, but at the time of the collapse of the USSR, only a cadre division of submarines of “German” (post-war) projects remained in Odessa.
The “clearing” of Crimea in 1944 was a nightmare - according to various estimates, 75-80% of the population was forcibly displaced. Instead of demilitarization, Crimea was “stuffed” with troops as much as possible and in this state it survived the collapse of the USSR.
In the December weekly supplement to Komsomolskaya Pravda, a certain Evgeniy Chernykh, under the catchy headline “Does Israel have 10 years left?” mentioned that at one time the Jews asked Stalin to give him Crimea.
This reminded me of one question that almost became a paragraph in my master’s thesis. For some reason, there are still people who take seriously a series of rumors about the alleged sale of Crimea. I was even asked to consider this issue in detail as part of the search for the reasons for the transfer of the Crimean region in 1954. As a result of my investigation, it turned out that this hypothesis has nothing to do with reality, but at the same time it was widely replicated in the “2000s,” often in the central media. Since many people still believe in this nonsense, I consider it my duty to explain some facts and show what this myth about the “sale of Crimea to the Jews” was cut from and where its legs grow from.
I would like to start this story with one strange event that happened to me in the summer of 2010. At that time I was sitting in the archive on Bolshaya Pirogovskaya Street. Once I ordered another batch of materials there. It seems that these were Gosplan documents on the power supply for the construction of the North Crimean Canal. Unexpectedly for me, I was informed that they could not deliver what I had ordered to the comfortable reading room, so I would have to go and study them in the storage room. Let me remind you that there was terrible heat in Russia that summer. Even the cats who took care of them suffered state secrets from rodents. As I walked past the public garden inside the archive town, I noticed that on the lawn, in the shade of the trees, about two dozen cats, fed by local employees, were escaping the heat.
The workers of the State Archive of the Russian Federation themselves also had a hard time. As I walked past the park with the cats, crossed the courtyard and climbed several floors up to the menacing blue sign informing me that I was approaching the holy of holies, I heard some noise. One of the researchers was indignant that he was given the wrong cases for study that he had ordered. To which he was categorically informed that it was more than 30 degrees inside the storage facility, and no one was going to search again. Warm, I would even say hot, such an atmosphere of nostalgic Soviet life, in the midst of a collection of documentation from the highest Soviet and party bodies.
They began to give out what I ordered, and then it was time for me to be indignant. Not at all what I wanted to read that day. It happens. Once, on Berezhkovskaya Embankment, they made a photocopy of me twice for the same order, completely different from the document that I requested. And only the third time I was lucky. That's why I'm not surprised by such incidents. Russia, it's time to get used to it.
I didn’t become particularly indignant, because I knew it was useless. The last name in the issue journal is my first name too. But instead of the State Planning Committee, they brought four completely different cases that had nothing to do with Crimea. Three volumes in a red cover with gold embossing and lead seals and some kind of gray nondescript folder. Since the day was already hopelessly lost and they wouldn’t give me anything in return, and if I ordered again, they would only give it another time, I decided to at least look through what they mistakenly brought to me in the “holy of holies” - in the repository of important state documents. Again, curiosity got the better of me - what’s there behind the lead seals?
It should be noted that this storage facility does not have a reading room as such. There is a small room where the tables of the supervising workers (usually two growling girls) are located opposite each other, and between them two or three researchers are lonely and crowded on stools with an edge along the wall on one and a half tables (they can’t fit anymore). I was incredibly lucky that day - one of the employees was not there that day, and I sat comfortably in her workplace - not only on a chair, but also at a separate table.
Each archive has its own atmosphere. The reading room of the RGANI on Ilyinka, in the former building of the Central Committee, where you now have to pass through the framework of the Federal Guard Service guarding the Presidential Administration, most of all from the inside resembles a Gothic castle with internal columns and a stucco frame. Only now, instead of portraits of feudal lords, Marx and Lenin still hang there. In RGASPI you feel like you’re on the deck of an ocean liner, from where you have a spacious view of Dmitrovka - a panorama with the Prosecutor General’s Office standing next to it and the Federation Council opposite. And although there are no air conditioners, the ventilation on the ceiling creates quite comfortable conditions in summer (in winter, however, it is quite cool there). And in the reading room of GARF on Bolshaya Pirogovskaya it’s also quite cozy. It’s only in the storage facility itself that you most clearly feel that you are not welcome here. However, I got carried away.
These three beautifully designed red volumes with gold lettering and lead seals were a disappointment to me. It seems that there were some materials to supply the OGPU soldiers who were guarding some gold mines (Lenzoloto, it seems). Allowance standards, daily rations and the number of underpants issued per year. Nothing interesting for me, except maybe the autographs of Menzhinsky and Yagoda. I was about to leave, but to clear my conscience I finally decided to leaf through the remaining file - a gray, nondescript folder filled with some sheets of rough, colorless paper written on with a simple pencil.
So, quite by chance, the founding protocols of KomZet (Committee for the Land Administration of Working Jews) fell into my hands, chaired by Pyotr Smidovich and the secretary of Merezhin and OZET.
When reading them, for some reason I immediately remembered one author’s television program by Andrei Karaulov, dedicated to the activities of this committee. As I later clarified for myself, it was the “Moment of Truth” program, it seems on TVC, which aired on June 30, 2008. It was attended by journalist Mikhail Poltoranin, who in 1992 was the head of the Interdepartmental Commission for the declassification of documents of the CPSU with the rank of Deputy Prime Minister of the Government (this fact was emphasized in this program). According to them, the Crimean Peninsula in the 1920s was allegedly pledged against promissory notes to American financiers on behalf of the RSFSR, and therefore was transferred to Ukraine in 1954, in order to avoid either debt payments or the complete loss of the then-region (there is no clear answer The program does not answer this question). Literally: “I didn’t know until recently that Stalin pledged Crimea to America.” Shares or bills for the territory of Crimea, according to the authors of the program, belonged to influential American circles, among which, among other things, the names of future presidents were named (which was already alarming and allowed one to doubt the feasibility of these plans). According to this version, the final payment of the debt was supposed to take place on February 19, 1954. What would happen in the event of non-payment was not specified, but the viewer was led to believe that the transfer of the Crimean region from the RSFSR to the Ukrainian SSR helped to avoid the loss of the peninsula to the Soviet Union. They say that the agreement on the sale of shares in the land was signed on behalf of the Russian Federation, which means that Ukraine had no obligations, and thus it was possible to deceive overseas moneybags.
In this program by Andrei Karaulov, the date of appearance of these plans for the sale of the Crimean Peninsula was even named. Allegedly, they first started talking about this in 1922, that is, before the unification of the RSFSR and the Ukrainian SSR within the Soviet Union.
At the same time, Mikhail Poltoranin recalled the project of creating a kind of Jewish republic on the territory of the peninsula, that is, on the lands allegedly pledged with bills of exchange. Mentions the creation of the AgroJoint corporation within the framework of this project, - joint organization Jewish organization Joint, which fed up to two million people, mostly children, at the peak of the 1922 famine in Ukraine and the Volga region (about this charitable activities for some reason it was not reported in that program) and the Soviet government in the person of the mentioned KomZet. At the same time, for some reason Poltoranin insists that AgroJoint was founded in 1922, and not in 1924. And he even claims that, despite his illness, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin showed great interest in these plans, who even visited an agricultural exhibition in 1923 organized by AgroJoint, which in turn was founded only in 1924. The Time Machine definitely exists.
Further, Mikhail Poltoranin spoke about plans to create a Jewish state on the territory of the Crimean Peninsula, Greater Sochi, Odessa and Kherson regions, that is, most of the Black Sea coast of the Soviet Union. Allegedly, Roosevelt, one of the note holders, insisted on this at the negotiations in Tehran. And even put it as necessary condition to open a second front. At the same time, the American president allegedly demanded to demilitarize Crimea, that is, to remove the military base from Sevastopol.
That is, from the words of Poltoranin in this program by Karaulov, the following picture is drawn on canvas in oil: Soviet Jews, with the support of their foreign fellow tribesmen, fraudulently pledged the Crimean land, so that later, taking advantage of the difficult situation of the USSR during the war, to take away a strategically important region. The plot came out with a bang, you know. With subtext.
However, it is somehow awkward to accuse the authors of this program of anti-Semitism. Following the presentation of the myth (let’s call it that) about the sale of Crimea, they also launched some absolutely fantastic version in the “cranberry” genre about the alleged plans to exile 100 thousand Moscow Jews to Novaya Zemlya and Spitsbergen (the authors have not yet decided where). That is, they balanced the conspiracy theory about the sale that they had just thrown into the consciousness of the masses with a kind of “unrealized Holocaust.” This operation to genocide the Jewish population was allegedly planned for the summer of 1954 and was codenamed “Ptarmigan”.
In general, this program contains a lot of absurdities, contradictions, omissions and simply tricks and distortions of facts. They sold or mortgaged it either in the 20s or 40s. Either Lenin or Stalin - an inexperienced viewer probably still did not understand - why they showed a close-up of Ilyich speaking when they were talking about completely different people, in general. Some “archival documents” are mentioned, and they show a page marked with a yellow marker, as it seemed to me, from the book of the publicist Alexander Shirokorad, who adopted the theory of the Jews selling the peninsula to their fellow tribesmen, overseas businessmen. That is, as evidence, on the central channel, broadcast throughout Russia, a close-up of a certain text in Cyrillic was shown, allegedly a letter to the US Secretary of Commerce A. Harriman signed “J. Marshal." That is, something in the spirit of “I, an ancient Greek, created this amphora...”, rather than these same mythical “archival documents” being mentioned behind the scenes, which, most likely, simply do not exist in nature.
There are a lot of ambiguities. Either to Novaya Zemlya, or to Spitsbergen. Either they were planning to do it in the summer, or they had already managed to send 17 ships with prisoners there. No one knows anything about any of the passengers on these mythical ships. Looking ahead, I note that the Russian historian Gennady Kostyrchenko, checking this version, claims that according to archival data, no noticeable increase in railway traffic was found in Moscow during this period. I appreciate the work of this researcher, but I have to note that he acted completely irrationally - it is much easier to prove the absurdity of these plans, implemented or not.
The fact is that before Stalin’s death in 1953, these mythical “17 steamships” that Poltoranin mentions should have set sail in January-February 1954, that is, in winter. However, maritime navigation beyond the Arctic Circle is not summer period, is still a fantastic dream. But most importantly, I have great doubts about Mikhail Poltoranin’s knowledge of elementary geography. It is worth recalling that Spitsbergen, which he mentioned several times, as the place of deportation of the mythical “one hundred thousand Jews” on “17 ships,” was not Soviet territory, and was even marked as Norwegian on Soviet maps.
The archipelago was covered by the treaty of 1920, to which the USSR joined in 1935, and, while developing the natural resources of these islands along with Norway, pledged to respect their demilitarized status. That is, there could be no talk of any mass concentration camps in these foreign territories - in vain Poltoranin gesticulated so colorfully, describing the “bays with barbed wire” on board those ships.
In general, I have the impression that many television workers have similar knowledge of geography. For example, once on YouTube I came across a recording of a certain program - I think it was called “Weapons of Russia.” There, in all seriousness, it was said that after the war on Spitsbergen, Stalin secretly manufactured flying saucers. Sorry, but it is not possible for me to comment on this. I can only assume that the author of that program and Mikhail Poltoranin had the same geography teacher.
Well, in conclusion of the discussion of this “Soviet Holocaust” that never took place, it is worth noting the following detail: indeed, in 1947, Operation White Partridge was carried out in the Arctic. Only now, it was carried out by American aviators, and pursued completely different goals. It seems that Sergei Nekhamkin wrote about this in Izvestia. That is, our polar bird turns out to be a bit of a duck when tested.
It’s completely unclear to me why these same “17 steamships” were invented when real facts can be cited as Stalin’s reaction to the plans to create a Jewish republic in Crimea, for example the case of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee? The execution of 12 members of the JAC in 1952 is a fairly well-studied topic, and therefore I will not dwell on it, although I came across quite a few in the archives interesting materials about it.
Inspired by the idea proposed by the security officers to create a Jewish republic on the Crimean Peninsula, Mikhoels decided to address it to the top leadership of the USSR. If you believe Sudoplatov, then on February 15, 1944, he sent a letter to Stalin, the contents of which are unknown. Presumably an exact copy of this letter was addressed to Molotov on February 21; its text was published in 1991 in the magazine Rodina. It seems that even Kaganovich initially spoke out against this project, calling it a utopia. However, these messages were left unanswered and even forgotten about for some time (however, subsequently, Molotov’s wife Polina Zhemchuzhina was arrested for mediation in this matter, and some members of the JAC were repressed and shot).
Why were the top leadership of the USSR pessimistic about the plans to create this republic in 1944? Personally, I believe that the point here is, first of all, the ethnic component of the population of Crimea at that time. Let me remind you that the mass deportation of the Crimean Tatars in February 1944 had not yet been carried out (perhaps not even planned), and the peninsula itself had not been liberated. In addition, even before the war, the Jewish population there was only 70 thousand people, that is, only 5.8% - this is more than the Germans (4.5%), but much less than the Tatars (19.4%). In addition, of these 70 thousand, the invaders destroyed 40 thousand (mostly those living on collective farms) - everyone who did not have time to evacuate, and on April 26, 1942, the peninsula was declared by the Nazis “Judenrhein”, that is, completely “cleared of Jews.” That is, there were simply no physical prerequisites for planning the creation of the Jewish Soviet Socialist Republic on the territory of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in February 1944.
However, Sudoplatov argued that to create such a republic (or even a separate state) in Crimea, the United States was ready to invest $10 billion, which in itself is approximately equal to Len-Lease supplies during the war. Moreover, he himself notes that this proposal was not accepted, and the USSR never received such a sum - this is supposedly the so-called “Marshal Plan”, which was never accepted by the Soviet leadership. That is, there was no “sale” in the forties (we will return to the question of the possibility of such a transaction in the twenties).
However, Gennady Kostyrchenko is confident that negotiations on financing for a similar amount for the creation of a Jewish republic in Crimea between the government of the USSR and the USA are nothing more than Sudoplatov’s invention. Having checked the protocols of the negotiations to which this general refers, he comes to the conclusion that this issue did not even arise at the conferences of the three heads of state mentioned by him. Moreover, according to him, the leaders of the Joint, who invested about 30 million dollars in the agricultural colonization of northern Crimea, after the failure of this agricultural project, were skeptical about the possibility of creating a Jewish republic there and the effectiveness of further financing of such projects.
As Kostyrchenko found out, the version about the alleged sale of the peninsula in 1944 is found only in fiction by V.V. Levashov, in his novel “The Murder of Mikhoels”.
However, having given what he deserved in exposing the “myth of the sale of Crimea” to the historian Gennady Vasilyevich Kostyrchenko, a little about what I was able to find in this direction.
Closing the discussion of the television “real sensation” - then simply a “duck” voiced on air by Mikhail Poltoranin and Andrei Karulov, we also note that in this program they attributed the authorship of the Crimea program to Stalin. They say how cleverly he deceived the American businessmen - instead of a republic in Crimea, he created in 1934 the Jewish Autonomous Region in Far East. And in order not to pay bills, during his lifetime he planned to transfer the Crimean region to Ukraine. Literally, “Stalin’s preparation”, which was later carried out by Khrushchev.
I beg to differ with this statement.
In this version, everything is illogical and incomprehensible - why, for example, was this program scheduled for the very last day, that is, February 19, 1954, according to their version? What was the amount of the bail - several million dollars at five percent in the twenties, or 10 billion in the forties, which we never took? And why did the note holders never claim their rights? In a word, for testing we have a certain version for housewives, widely replicated, but not supported by anything at all.
In addition, the version of “Stalin’s preparation” contradicts the available evidence.
There is information that N.S. Khrushchev made an attempt to transfer Crimea during his leadership of the Ukrainian SSR during the war. The first mention of the possible transfer of the Crimean region dates back to October 1944. According to L.I. Podgrebny, who was at that time the Deputy Minister of Labor Reserves of the USSR, Khrushchev very reluctantly agreed to allocate settlers for the colonization of the half-empty Crimea. He mentioned that the day before he had raised the issue of transferring this region to the Ukrainian SSR: “I was in Moscow and said: “Ukraine is in ruins, and everyone is pulling out of it. But if Crimea is given to her, what’s the point?” So after that they called me everything and shook my soul in every possible way. They were ready to grind into powder! And nothing, as you can see, is alive.” Having signed the paper on the allocation of settlers, he told Podgrebny: “I will give people. And I will take Crimea. Doesn't matter".
That is, having turned to Stalin in the fall of 1944 with a request to transfer Crimea to the Ukrainian SSR, Khrushchev not only did not receive approval in his office, but he almost paid with his career for such plans. Stalin clearly did not want to transfer the peninsula to another republic. Neither in February nor in October 1944.
Thus, Podgrebny’s testimony fundamentally contradicts Poltoranin’s statement. Another question is which of them to believe? Personally, in my master’s thesis, I came to the conclusion that Khrushchev needed the transfer of the peninsula in order to enlist the support of his Ukrainian comrades in the Central Committee in the struggle for leadership against Malenkov. Well, the “sale” version turned out to be so crazy that I devoted no more than two paragraphs to it. Mainly focused on the fact that all the known editions of this myth (and there are several of them) contradict not only themselves, but also do not give clear answers - why it was necessary to transfer this peninsula, when it was founded, by whom, on behalf of whom, for how long, etc.
Moreover, I have the opinion that the obvious and obvious injection of this disinformation into the mass consciousness was clearly pursued by certain political goals, and may have been sanctioned in Russia at the highest level. I will try to confirm this with facts.
To begin with, let us note that there are several editions of this version about the alleged sale of Crimea. Let us leave for a moment the sensational program of Andrei Karaulov, - Mikhail Poltoranin, who voiced this myth in it, contradicted himself and did not give a completely clear statement, although the viewer could have formed an opinion about the reality of the “real sensation”. Let's look at the versions that were published and under which the authors put their signature.
As a rule, this version of this myth about the sale was not presented by professional historians, but mainly by journalists in the media mass media(often under pseudonyms), or in works of fiction. However, it was also mentioned in the monographs of at least one author - publicist A.B. Shirokorada.
Thus, in his opinion, which he outlined in several books, Khrushchev was forced to organize the transfer of the Crimean region from the RSFSR to the Ukrainian SSR, due to the fact that back in the 20s the Soviet leadership agreed to the creation of a Jewish republic on the Crimean peninsula. Further, he mentions certain negotiations in the mid-40s between the Soviet Jewish intelligentsia represented by the JAC, the Soviet government and large US business circles on the creation of a new state on the territory of the Crimean peninsula. Alexander Shirokorad does not directly state that we are talking about the same project in the twenties and forties, but he leads the inexperienced reader to precisely this conclusion. At the same time, the author does not indicate a single documentary source that would confirm this version, but only refers to two articles. This " Crimean California» S.P. Gorbachev (excerpt from his art project) and “Peninsula of Delayed Action” by a certain Boris Sibirsky.
The last author published under this name (which may be a pseudonym) in July 2005 in the newspaper “Duel” and simultaneously in the same month in the magazine “For Seven Seals”. In this article, he claimed that allegedly on February 19, 1929, an agreement was signed [I would like to see it, if one exists] between the American charitable organization "Joint" and the government of the Soviet Union on lending to the Jewish colonization of the Crimean Peninsula. At the same time, according to his version, financing was extremely moderate even by the standards of the 20s. That is, for ten years, 900 thousand dollars per year at 5%, plus an additional 0.5 million per year if colonization is successful.
Allegedly, a total of $20 million in bills were issued, the owners of which, according to the authors, were “Rockefeller, Marshall, Warburg and even future presidents H. Hoover and F. Roosevelt.”
The author, rather cautiously, did not link the demand for the creation of a Jewish republic with the loan agreement he mentioned dated “February 19, 1929.” According to his version, the demand to repay the debt was only accompanied by pressure of this kind. In addition, he vaguely hinted that none of the parties to the said agreement “wanted all the details to be made public.” That is, in this way, several birds were killed at once, - the question was removed - why the creditors did not show up in 1954, and whether the loan agreement was included in the loan agreement, even if there was a clause on the creation of a republic - let the reader speculate on this matter myself. At the same time, Boris Sibirsky quite elegantly combined versions of the sale in the 20s and 40s - supposedly the United States was ready to forgive a debt of 20 million dollars, and was even going to provide new loans of billions of dollars, but only under the condition of the creation of the Jewish Autonomous (but not a socialist) republic.
Another, no less elegant move by the author is an explanation of why the transfer of Crimea to Ukraine eliminates all problems. They say that the “decision on resettlement” was made by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR, which is not necessary for the Ukrainian SSR. That is, it is clear that it is nonsense, but an inexperienced reader can read and retell to a neighbor, for example, that “Russia sold it, but Ukraine owes nothing to anyone.” However, if you imagine for a moment how this text might be interpreted over a bottle of tea...
That is, nowhere does this same Boris Sibirsky directly state that Russia gave obligations to create a republic - we are talking about resettlement. And it is not at all clear what this “strictly secret agreement” of “February 19, 1929” has to do with it, concluded, according to him, on behalf of the USSR, and not the RSFSR? The circumstances surrounding the disclosure of the details of this “highly secret agreement” are not clear. In what archive is it contained and why is it impossible for mere mortals, and not this author without a patronymic, that is, a pseudonym, to get acquainted with it?
And here it is worth paying attention to the fact that this “Boris Siberian” himself is a publicist who writes on a wide variety of topics. Trying to find his publications, I came across articles with topics ranging from Harry Potter and the beauty contest to the global confrontation in the Atlantic. If you believe the portal ruskline.ru, then he once published a text on a historical topic in the weekly magazine "Russia" in the same 2005. Later, I did not come across publications with this pseudonym.
As for his article “Peninsula in Delayed Action”, in the part devoted to the Jewish colonization of the Crimean peninsula, it is surprisingly similar to two other articles by two other authors published in two official publications, the founder of which is the Russian parliament. First of all, this is the Rossiya newspaper and the article “The Sold Peninsula” by a certain Boris Gusyachkin, indicated as a “retired lieutenant colonel.” And in the same 2004, an article by a certain Boris Nikolin “Crimea: from Ukranization to Turkification” in the newspaper “ Russian Federation Today", the founder of which is the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.
All of these three above-mentioned articles, the authorship of which is attributed to certain three Boriss without a patronymic, are characterized by similar content, approximately the same structure, retelling and the same set of key individual sentences, repeated verbatim in these two articles, and repeated to the letter. There are also no links to any archival documents.
That is, most likely we are not talking about plagiarism, but about three different pseudonyms of the same author, who was published in 2004-2005 in publications owned by the Russian parliament.
I would venture to guess that I can name another author who published another clone of this article discussed above, but much earlier and under his own name.
Most likely, the original author of this theory in the version that reached Shirokorad was S.P. Gorbachev, naval officer (currently captain 1st rank), military journalist, deputy editor-in-chief of the official newspaper of the Black Sea Fleet “Flag of the Motherland”. It was in his article “Crimean California”, written back in 1999, and presented as part of his planned book “Revival as a Russian City”, that such a sequence of facts and conclusions was first observed. Based on the fact that this article contains Stalin’s internal monologue, this work was originally conceived in the genre of fiction.
The artistic nature of this work explains the fact that the scientist S.P. Gorbachev (it seems that he defended his dissertation on the patriotic education of youth, majoring in political science, but I could be wrong) is confused with dates and does not provide links to sources. Moreover, even without resorting to content analysis, it is clear that his article “Crimean California” is a compilation of some scientific work, diluted with the author’s fiction.
Most of all, the set and sequence of facts and figures about Jewish colonization on the Crimean peninsula in the 20-30s is similar to the article by historian and specialist in the pre-war history of the Crimean peninsula Alexander Efimov “The Jewish Socialist Republic in Crimea. The story of one project." This article, written on the basis of local periodicals (including Nazi propaganda during the occupation) and some archival documents (in this case, it seems to me, there is no reason not to trust the author), tells the story of the colonization of the desert steppes of northern Crimea. It was held under the leadership of the already mentioned Committee on the Land Settlement of Jewish Workers (hereinafter KomZet) and the Public Committee on the Land Settlement of Jewish Workers (hereinafter OZET) with the financial assistance of the Agro-Joint charitable organization, led by James N. Rosenberg. In addition, he mentions a plan in 1923-1924 “to form an autonomous region of Jews on the territory of Northern Crimea, the southern steppe strip of Ukraine and the Black Sea coast up to the borders of Abkhazia.”
According to Efimov, the People's Commissar of Agriculture A.P. opposed the implementation of this plan in practice. Smirnov, seeing in him a threat of interethnic aggravation on the ground. As it turned out later, these fears were not groundless - the plans for land colonization received the most fierce resistance from the indigenous population, and most importantly, they contradicted the policies pursued locally by the authorities of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.
One way or another, the project of agricultural colonization of the northern part of the Crimean peninsula by the Jewish population was not completed. Armed attacks by local landowners, crop failure, and the beginning of the collectivization process forced collective farmers, despite all the temporary benefits provided, to leave the countryside for the cities and return back - a similar process would take place in the 40s and 50s, already in the time of Slavic colonization. According to the data cited by Efimov, by 1941 about 70 thousand Jews already lived on the peninsula, but no more than 17 thousand people lived on collective farms. Thus, there was no longer talk of a separate Jewish territorial autonomy in northern Crimea.
We especially note that the scientist Alexander Efimov (it seems he was a graduate student at the Russian Academy of Sciences, but I could be wrong), who at one time worked as a press secretary at the Moscow-Crimea Foundation, has no information about large loan, there is no talk of any “highly secret agreement” dated “February 19, 1929,” and certainly not of any “bills of exchange.” A small scientific article within the framework of the topic he is researching, nothing more. The author mentions the Jewish Soviet Socialist Republic only in the title, and the article itself, in fact, is devoted only to the topic of colonization and financing of Jewish colonization only of the steppe territories of northern Crimea, and plans for autonomy, following the examples of existing plans for German autonomy in Crimea.
However, it seems that it is on top real facts, taken from it (or a common source with it, which is unlikely) and the fiction about bills and shares and this very “highly secret agreement” dated “February 19, 1929” was superimposed.
That is, on the basis of the materials of this young scientist, the “myth of sale” we are considering was most likely woven in those editions, which was very carefully interpreted in quite reputable publications in 2004-2005 by certain three “Boris without a patronymic.”
Most likely, these three anonymous “Boris without a patronymic” drew their inspiration from the artistic works of Captain 1st Rank Sergei Pavlovich Gorbachev, winner of the International Literary Prize named after. V. Pikul, deputy editor-in-chief of Flag of the Motherland, the official newspaper of the Black Sea Fleet. It was he who first mentioned this most notorious agreement of “February 19, 1929.”
To understand my confidence, just put two texts in front of you - Efimov’s article “The Jewish Soviet Socialist Republic in Crimea,” which he published at one time on the website of the Moscow-Crimea Foundation, and the excerpt “Crimean California” by Sergei Gorbachev from his literary project . Comments will be unnecessary.
However, I do not exclude that there were earlier editions of the myth about the alleged sale of the peninsula to the Jews for some debts and under some kind of agreements. The same Alexander Efimov mentions such eloquent headlines in the Nazi occupation press as “Stalin received dictatorial power in Russia for selling Crimea to the Jews” (according to this researcher, this was published in the newspaper “Azat Crimea” on March 20, 1942, in No. 17). However, in 1942 they did not yet know that two years later, in February 1944, someone would take the initiative to create a new republic on the peninsula. And they could not know the date of transfer of the region, and not the republic, to neighboring Ukraine.
I personally have no doubt that the date of the mythical treaty of 1929 was artificially adjusted to February 19. For I saw documents testifying to the conditions in which chaos (no other word comes to mind) this very transfer took place. In GARF there is a file with silver embossing, which is studied almost every month by someone new - they ask for a photocopy, photo and video recording. It's like they're trying to find something new there. And no one goes further than this daddy. I came across cases that remained unclaimed for forty years, and I was the first to open the sheets for their use. I repeat, the fact that the date of the meeting of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in 1954 was set precisely for February 19 was a coincidence of random circumstances. Moreover, the Decree itself was promulgated only a week later - all this time, the necessary documents were feverishly rewritten in the Presidiums of the Supreme Soviets of the RSFSR and the Ukrainian SSR, in which the body that allegedly came up with this initiative was not fully agreed upon - someone remembered the Constitution , and decided not to refer to the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee.
And, I repeat, I saw the founding protocols of the mentioned KomZet and OZET.
I will immediately disappoint fans of “real sensations”. In these protocols, begun on September 4, 1924 and completed until the end of November, there is no mention of any republic or autonomy in Crimea. It was about the development of virgin territories by landless Jews. The emphasis was placed on the fact that representatives of this people for a couple of thousand years did not have the right to own land and cultivate it, and only the Soviet government gave them such an opportunity. What territories were meant for the settlers? Mainly Ukraine and Belarus. Crimea was mentioned only a couple of times: “First of all, free areas should be identified as settlement areas for working Jews. Located in the area of Jewish colonies in the South of Ukraine, as well as Northern Crimea.”
It was assumed that in order to accommodate the landless and create conditions for them to conduct agriculture, the committee intends to further apply for financial assistance to other organizations, not excluding assistance from abroad. Literally: “The travel item includes expenses for business trips of members of the Committee for the Land Administration of Working Jews to places of exit and settlement. And also trips abroad in order to raise funds, to raise funds, to carry out the tasks of the Committee.”
I would like to note right away that no foreign sources of funding are mentioned - neither names nor organizations. There is no mention of any “branch of the Agro-Joint Bank”, operating since 1922 according to Sergei Gorbachev (Alexander Efimov has no such information). And as noted above, Agro-Joint was formed only in 1924 with the assistance of KomZet and OZET created in the same year under the Central Executive Committee of the USSR (and not the RSFSR, as the myth-makers claim, in order to justify the transfer to the Ukrainian SSR) with one parties, and the charitable organization “Joint”, which has been operating since 1914.
And, of course, the seriously ill Vladimir Ilyich Lenin could not attend the exhibition held by this organization, created only a year later, in 1923, and therefore could not approve of plans to create some kind of separate republic or autonomy in Crimea. And even if the authors of this theory were mistaken in the year they visited that exhibition, then in the fall of 1924 Lenin lived for three months and already had a vague idea of the reality around him.
The file contains several protocols - No. 1, the founding one, and a couple dedicated to the estimates and staff of the “Committee under the Presidium of the Council of Nationalities for the Land Management of Working Jews.” The founding one referred to the resolution of the USSR Central Executive Committee of August 29, 1924 on the creation of this committee. At the very beginning, program speeches by Klimenko, Ibragimov and Ignatovsky were given about work in Ukraine, Belarus and Crimea: “One of the most oppressed peoples under the old regime were the Jews. Under the tsarist regime, Jews were not allowed to engage in agriculture, despite their desire for agricultural work.” At the same time, OZET was created - the Society for the Land Settlement of Working Jews, which initially included 67 members.
In general, it seems that, despite the impressive composition of the founders, the committee was created with fairly moderate capabilities. Ultimately, for permanent functioning, he was allocated a room in the Kremlin and only two paid positions were approved - it seems that he was a typist and a stoker (I didn’t find it among my extracts), - other vacancies were not accepted by the Central Executive Committee. They even refused to hire a cleaning lady.
What surprised me most was that they refused the position of agronomist; they were worth their weight in gold. Most likely, this was the reason for the fatal consequences in the fate of the Jewish colonists. The fact is that the virgin lands in northern Crimea, where it was planned to place the colonists, were initially not suitable for arable farming due to the arid soil. Slavic migrants from the regions of the Ukrainian SSR and the RSFSR later faced a similar problem in the 40-50s, read MGB reports on the mood among the local population. The key issue, the supply of fresh water for irrigation, was resolved only in 1972, when the North Crimean Canal finally began its work.
Thus, for me personally there is no doubt that all the stories about the alleged sale of Crimea to Jews to create some kind of separate republic are fakes. Yes, there was funding for agricultural colonization, including from abroad. Preferential taxation was created for new collective farms, which was periodically extended in the mid-30s - GARF has quite a lot of materials on this subject. Perhaps someone in the 20s had the idea of some kind of local autonomy within the peninsula, similar to plans to create German autonomy. However, for the entire peninsula to be mortgaged for some ridiculous sum of 20 million dollars under the condition of creating a separate republic, this is complete nonsense.
And this is not the first fake that I came across when studying the history of the transfer of this peninsula. The second, no less common, is about the alleged lack of quorum of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, which made the decision. There is a certain text floating around the Internet with absolutely fantastic figures that only 13 out of 27 members were present at that meeting - a fairly common misconception deliberately thrown into the masses by someone, despite the fact that in 1992 the journal “Historical Archive” published real data.
According to my calculations, at the meeting of the Presidium of the RSFSR Supreme Council on February 5, 1954, 15 out of 26 members were present (protocol No. 41), as for the fateful meeting of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Council, which took place on February 19, there were 23 out of 33 (protocol No. 35) . Even 24, if you count the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Latvian SSR K.M. Ozolin, who for some reason wished to remain among the invitees and did not put his signature on this act.
In any case, after the unanimous approval of this Decree at the session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on April 26, 1954, and also the unanimous approval of this decision on June 2 at the session of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR, I personally consider any talk about the illegality of formalizing the transfer of the region to be provocative.
Russia had the opportunity to get the peninsula back during the divorce process in the 90s, but the legally elected Supreme Council of the RSFSR back in 1990 signed a 10-year agreement with the Ukrainian parliament on maintaining territorial integrity - for this reason, consideration of this issue was disrupted at the UN in 1992. Well, after the signing of a friendship treaty in 1997, which canceled the aforementioned 10-year agreement, and its ratification in 1998, Ukraine has complete peremptory right to this peninsula.
Perhaps it was after this, in 1999, that this very “myth of sale” was born, which has a simple subtext for the broad masses - they say, we lost Crimea, but we must come to terms with this, otherwise, if Ukraine loses it, then it it will not go to us, but to the Jews. Rely on reliable, time-tested feelings. Accordingly, the second edition of this myth in 2004-2005 is associated with the failure of pro-Russian forces in the elections in Ukraine, which caused another decline in revanchist sentiments, which urgently needed to be balanced with something. Find someone to blame for your own failures and unsatisfied imperial ambitions.
I’m just wondering what motivates people who invent such myths, and why do they so persistently, in their failures, invent some kind of enemy machinations emanating from people of a different nationality?
The history of Jewish agrarian colonization in Crimea and the events around it can be presented in completely different ways. For example, write about how many millions of people in Ukraine, Belarus and the Volga region were saved from hunger in 1922 by the activities of the charitable organization Joint, which subsequently contributed to agricultural colonization. Or you can write how the activities of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee contributed to the opening of a second front. How, under the influence of their activities, an ardent opponent of Soviet power, “President of the World Organization of Zionists,” Chaim Weizmann, began to call on Jews around the world to help the USSR in their struggle against Nazi Germany. As “the leader of the American Zionists, an avowed enemy of Soviet power,” Rabbi Stefan Weise welcomed the start of the work of the JAC and promised his assistance to the Red Army.
Or you can accuse AgroJoint of helping its fellow tribesmen not for free, but for some interest. Moreover, they would have to make up a fairy tale that they would have to pay for this help by going to the Black Sea. You can even broadcast the myth on the central channel that demands for territorial concessions were put forward as a condition for opening a second front.
The history of Jewish agar settlements is written in blood. I did not mention here either the repressions against members of KomZet in the late 30s, or the 14 Crimean Tatars executed in 1928 in the case of the Milli Firka party, or the 12 members of the JAC executed in 1952. All this is not comparable to those 40 thousand Jews, of which 17 thousand were collective farmers, who were exterminated by the Nazis during the years of occupation. Before this colonization, for several hundred and even thousands of years, these people were deprived of the right to own land and cultivate it. It just so happened that the place they got was initially unsuitable for farming until the opening of the North Crimean Canal in 1972.
One way or another, in the mid-40s, when it was necessary to improve the agriculture of the peninsula that had been depopulated after the war and deportations, a bet was made on the Slavicization of the territory former republic, which has already become a region. Colonists from rural areas of Ukrainian and Russian regions were attracted for settlement, that is, they had centuries-old skills in working on the land. A massive renaming of local Turkic toponyms to Slavic ones was carried out - I found a lot of documents on this issue. The last mention of Jewish agricultural migrants that I came across in the archives was Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR for 1947 No. 3823 “On the resettlement of 250 families from the Crimean region and 704 families from the Kherson and Nikolaev regions to the Jewish Autonomous Region.”
The project of Jewish agrarian colonization in Crimea was completely curtailed.
Thus, if we try to figure out what is true and what is fiction in this story, we must admit that there were still some plans for Jewish autonomy in Crimea. Not as large-scale as Sergei Gorbachev is trying to present in his literary project, but nonetheless. If you believe Alexander Efimov, then a certain project appeared somewhere in 1923 (his chronological sequence is lame), but was abandoned due to its fantastic nature. If you believe Sudoplatov, then similar plans appeared again in 1944, but because of their outright utopianism, they were also not given a go.
There was also funding for agricultural colonization in the South of Ukraine and Northern Crimea. So, for example, the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR dated June 10, 1937 that caught my eye was supposed to resettle 500 Jewish families on collective farms and build 330 houses for them with the allocation of 3,894 thousand rubles in loans. Was foreign capital attracted? Gennady Kostyrchenko, who has no reason not to be trusted, mentions 30 million dollars invested before the war in this agrarian colonization by charitable organizations, but which ultimately did not justify themselves. The salt marshes of the Northern Crimea did not become “California”.
Now where did the fiction come from on these real facts? For the first time, such rumors were spread by the Nazi press during the years of occupation. Perhaps General Sudoplatov added something to the myth-making treasury - you and I know why generals and marshals write memoirs since the time of Geoffroy Villehardouin. At least, he mentioned somewhere that the contents of Mikhoels’ letter to Stalin gave rise to the most ridiculous rumors.
Next we have an inevitable point - the literary project of Sergei Pavlovich Gorbachev, who, as I understand it, superimposed the author’s fiction on top of real facts, surprisingly similar to the material from Alexander Efimov’s article. Then, this version from an excerpt from the received story or novel “Revival as a Russian City” was very carefully retold in 2004 by two Boriss - Gusyachkin and Nikolin (most likely pseudonyms). Moreover, in fairly reputable central publications. And a year later they were retold by a certain Boris Sibirsky, whose traces are lost after 2005, that is, most likely, also someone’s temporary pseudonym.
Sibirsky's ideas were picked up by Alexander Shirokorad and found a place in his monographs. And, most likely, some of his works after some time caught the eye of Andrei Karaulov, who, for the sake of show, even found authoritative witnesses - Mikhail Poltoranin and Tikhon Khrennikov (whose short monologue, by the way, was taken out of some context).
This is exactly how I see the genesis of this myth about the sale of Crimea.