Posted on 07/22/2023 1:02:17 PM PDT by hardspunned
“Khrushchev saw the transfer as a way of fortifying and perpetuating Soviet control over Ukraine now that the civil war had finally been won. Some 860,000 ethnic Russians would be joining the already large Russian minority in Ukraine.” “The transfer of Crimea to the UkrSSR also was politically useful for Khrushchev as he sought to firm up the support he needed in his ongoing power struggle with Soviet Prime Minister Georgii Malenkov, who had initially emerged as the preeminent leader in the USSR in 1953 after Joseph Stalin’s death.”
(Excerpt) Read more at wilsoncenter.org ...
it has always had special status though.
The Soviet Union.
It probably never occurred to Khrushchev that the Soviet Union would ever collapse in two centuries, much less two generations, so it was a paper transfer, the equivalent of moving my leftovers from the kitchen fridge to the game room fridge.
Yes, the Russians in any form have controlled the Crimea off and on for over 500 years.
Kruchev's motivation escapes me.
5.56mm
But they tell us there are no ethnic Russians in Ukraine. That's alot of this war is about. Ukraine has been killing them since 2014.
Bingo! I think you nailed it.
What does Vicky Nuland say [and why]?
“The transfer was a political stunt in 1954.”
And it was an act that had consequences.
Also, Crimea never belonged to the Russian Federation. It belonged to the USSR which ceded it to Ukraine.
Unless of course you wish to admit that the USSR and the Russian Federation are merely two names for the same thing.
The crimias warm water port is a vital national interest to Russia.
In Khrushchev’s day oil had not yet been discovered in Crimea...
Who did Crimea belong to the three hundred years prior to 1917? How many years prior to 1954 was Crimea part of Ukraine? In recorded history, after the Mongols and in competition with the Ottoman Empire, Crimea has been Russian 99% to 1% Uke. The Ukes also occupy land that was taken away from Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. The Ukes abuse the ethnic populations in these areas as they do the Russians. The Uke press gangs are particularly taking ethnic Hungarians and shipping them to the meat grinder. Orban is constantly complaining about this.
It was still highly valued by the Russians. No way Khrushchev’s intent was to give Crimea away to an independent nation of Ukraine. More along the lines of a political expedient, a reclassification of Soviet (Moscow Regime) territories, in his mind, a Missouri Compromise type deal.
Great. So when will Russia return the territories it stole from Finland? Are they going to hand back Siberia to China which owned it for thousands of years before Russia came along? How about the Kurile Islands which belong to Japan and that Russia stole after WW2...not to mention the south end of Sakhalin Island? And isn’t it time Russia gave Konigsberg back to Germany?
always ?
Hard to say.
Yes, there are a lot of Russians in Ukraine but, except for Crimea, they are in the minority of all of the provinces, Donbas included.
Hey, I agree. We’ve got whole states on their way back to Mexico. Or we could just let the majority Russians living under Russian rule in Donbas and Crimea live in peace, not have a world war and leave well enough alone in those other countries.
This is a very good article, that debunks the conventional explanations and provides a very credible theory that does make sense (that Khruschev wanted to strenghten his Ukrainian base for his power struggle with Malenkov). Thanks for posting it. Commentors should break tradition and actually read the article.
“Or we could just let the majority Russians living under Russian rule in Donbas and Crimea live in peace”
Right after they go back to Russia. Likewise since Russian colonists are an existential threat to every country they settle in then Europe as a whole needs to purge their Russian populations and send them back to Russia. Forthwith.
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