Famine in Crimea

by
Cafer Seydahamet

Providing all of Russia with electricity...
The five-year plan for industrialization that would leave America behind...
The large and cheap exports that destabilize the global economy.... Dumping...
And famine in Crimea!

The Soviet dictatorship based on the so-called rule of workers and poor peasants… The "wealthy" farmers have been deported from Crimea a year ago and the remaining poor and destitute are now facing death by starvation. The Moscow government, which promised to free all those oppressed nations not only in Russia but the entire world, especially the East, is now destroying the Crimean Republic! The Bolshevik leaders declared that Crimea would be a model republic for the Eastern regions; yet people in Crimea are dying of starvation once again, after eleven years of Bolshevik occupation! Famine in Crimea! Can one believe it? While the Soviet Union is exporting at a rate that destabilizes the grain markets and shipping out hundreds of thousands of tons of grain from Crimea, how does one explain the famine in Crimea? They established collective farms (kolkhoz) and increased the cultivation and production of grain, while the population of Crimea decreased due to the deportation of thousands of people, including at least 35,000 Crimean Tatars who were accused of being "wealthy." Why is famine ravaging in the land?

In Crimea, 210,000 tons of salt was produced in 1930 and shipped to the rest of the Soviet Union and abroad. Crimea produced 420,000 tons of cast iron and 300,000 tons of iron ore were mined in Kerch. Again in 1930, the production of cut stone from the quarries reached 9 million tons, a sizable increase over the previous figure of 3.5 million. The production of chromium increased 60 percent in the last two years.(1) There is no need for giving the details on the millions of tons of salted fish, fruit, wine and tobacco exported from Crimea. Most of these products are sent to European markets from Hamburg and increase the Soviet exports. Despite these facts, why is Crimea left to starve? How and why is Crimea being destroyed?

Instead of emphasizing how and why, let us now determine the famine conditions in Crimea. Analyzing the reasons is doing politics. Our aim is not to do politics, but to appeal to all those merciful people and report on the calamity that has fallen upon our nation. We will try to describe accurately death by starvation that is being experienced in Crimea, the noble Turkic land, and not dwell upon the mentality and animosity that have brought famine and destruction to our motherland.

We know that people cannot find meat, oils and sugar in the market for almost a year now, and the price of grain has gone up so much in recent months that there is a severe shortage of foods. We hoped, however, that the government would at least provide enough food for sustenance, as there are now collective farms established in almost every village in Crimea and the majority of people work at these farms. We further believed that those who opted for farming their own land, after the requirement to join the kolkhoz was lifted, would not be deprived of the right to basic subsistence. The Soviet authorities, who take their share of the milk from the cows and even demand a given number of eggs from the chickens, confiscated most of the villagers' property. Even this was not enough; they reduced the bread ration of 1,000 grams that had been promised to 500 grams and finally to 300 grams. This bread is not edible; it is like a piece of black mud. As there are no grain stocks left in Crimea, the bread obtained in the black market carries a high price tag. Some people went to Melitopol secretly and tried to bring a few bags of flour, but they were arrested by the administration of public security (GPU) upon their return to Crimea.

Villagers who recently managed to leave Crimea due to their status as Turkish citizens report that there are already famine victims with swollen bodies in the mountainous and coastal areas (where the population is predominately Turkic). Those who arrived just last week tell us that the entire Crimea is not immune to famine, even around Kerch, a region rich in grain production, every village has several starving families with swollen bodies, waiting for their death. One newcomer said he saw in the village of Sarayman several families extremely feeble from starvation.

As I felt crushed by this wave of grim news, I learned from someone who had just arrived from Crimea that Mehmed Kubayev, Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of Crimea (ASSR), was removed from office and arrested. He was accused of being a nationalist because he distributed flour to starving villagers. Kubayev, a nationalist! That Kubayev who would respond in Russian when people spoke to him in Crimean Tatar. That Kubayev who did not protest when 5-6 times as many Crimean Tatars (over 35,000) as Russians were declared "wealthy" and deported. He knew very well that Crimean Tatars are poorer than Russians and other ethnic groups. That Kubayev, who eagerly agreed to allocating hundreds of thousands of hectares of fertile land for the Jews and failed to say a word about the needs of poor and landless Crimean Tatars. According to a Russian newspaper published in Paris on 11 March 1931, Kubayev was removed from office because he wrote that "Moscow is openly plundering Crimea." Even Kubayev has been moved to admit the terrible devastation in Crimea.

During the 1921-1922 famine, 100,000 people died of starvation.(2) Most of these victims were Crimean Tatars. Famine raged particularly in areas populated by the Tatars.(3) .... Today Crimea is again in desperate need of assistance. Five to ten families in every village are struggling to survive and dying untimely deaths. No doubt, the number of these poor victims is increasing every day. We cannot expect that the Moscow or Crimean government would extend a helping hand to these unfortunate people. The dismissal of Kubayev, a man devoid of any national feelings, eliminated any hope that the authorities would send aid to famine victims. After all, Kubayev tried to help by distributing flour but lost his job and got arrested. Who can send aid from abroad to the citizens of a country who are forced to starve by their own government? It is a government pursuing an insane policy of exporting grain at low prices that destabilize world markets.