On Monday, May 18, Ukraine marks the Day of Struggle for the Rights of the Crimean Tatar People and commemorates the victims of the genocide of the Crimean Tatars on the 82nd anniversary of their mass deportation.
The deportation of the Crimean Tatars began at 03:00 on May 18, 1944, and continued until early June (the first and largest wave ended on May 20), Ukrinform reports.
The official basis for the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people was the secret Resolution No. 5859 "On the Crimean Tatars" adopted by the State Defense Committee on May 11, 1944, which accused the Crimean Tatars of alleged mass treason and widespread collaboration during the occupation of Crimea by Hitler's forces.
According to official data (the so-called Lavrentiy Beria figures), 183,144 people were deported; according to Tatar sources, more than 400,000 were deported, of whom about 46% died within a year and a half. Some 32,000 NKVD officers took part in the punitive operation. People were given from a few minutes to half an hour to gather their belongings and were allowed to take only personal items, food, dishes, and household utensils. Most of their property was left behind and confiscated by the state. The majority of the deportees were sent to special settlements in Uzbekistan, some to the Gulag, and others to replenish the special labor contingent for the Moscow coal basin.
