Crimea: A Historically Ukrainian Land

The family of Crimean Tatar Akhtem Chyihoz was among thousands Soviet leader Josef Stalin deported from the Black Sea peninsula, during World War II. Only towards the latter 1980’s during Perestroika did they manage to return. After the Soviet Union collapsed, key figures such as the Russia-leaning Yuriy Meshkov, Crimea’s only ever president between 1994 and 95’ attempted to fuel pro-Moscow sentiment – but the Crimean Tatars demanded to be part of Ukraine.

According to Akhtem Chyihoz, the Kremlin was already cultivating the myth of the Russian Crimea back then. Khrushchev’s gift – this is how Soviet ideologists described the transfer of Crimea to Ukraine in 1954, without mentioning the peninsula’s state at the time. Poor agriculture, lack of electricity, water, and food.

Economic advantages of transferring Crimea were outlined in the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. On April 26th, 1954, the document was officially approved, and corresponding amendments to the Constitution of Soviet Ukraine were made.

Since 1955, Crimea was financed exclusively by the Ukrainian budget. After Ukraine gained its independence, Leonid Kravchuk, who was the president at the time, asked economists to calculate the resources spent on the restoration of Crimea. According to him, the sum exceeded $100 billion.

Until 2014, Crimea was receiving subsidies from Ukraine, which made up half of its budget – $340 million a year on average. After Russia annexed the peninsula, the damage to Ukraine is estimated to be at dozens of billions US dollars. But Russian propagandists continue talking about the so-called gift.