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[1994 flashback] Russia vs. Ukraine: A Case of the Crimean Jitters

By CELESTINE BOHLEN,
Published: March 23, 1994

SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine— If there is a nightmare ahead in Russia's relations with Ukraine, it is likely to feature Crimea, a peninsula of barren steppe and lush coastline that juts into the Black Sea.

In January that nightmare seemed to inch closer with the election of a Russian nationalist as the first President of Crimea, a region that was part of Russia until Khrushchev gave it to Ukraine -- then a Soviet republic -- 40 years ago.

For the ethnic Russians who make up 70 percent of the peninsula's 2.7 million people, the victory of the Russian nationalist, Yuri Meshkov, held out a vague promise of return to a country that many never really felt they had left.

"What we want is to live again in the union as it was," said Valentina Maslennikova, an elderly woman out for a stroll along the faded boardwalk at Yalta. "I live in Yalta. My sister lives in southern Ukraine. Her son lives in Leningrad. We don't want all these borders. We want stability."

But so far, the election of Mr. Meshkov has not turned out quite the way some Ukrainian nationalists had feared, and some Russian nationalists had hoped. After visits to Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, and Moscow, the 49-year-old lawyer backed off his more strident oratory and has decided to postpone -- apparently indefinitely -- his promised referendum on Crimea's secession from Ukraine and gradual integration with Russia. Freer Economic Hand Sought

Instead, he is proposing three bland "consultative" questions that will be put to Crimean voters on March 27, the day of the first round of the Ukrainian parliamentary elections. The gist of these questions is to give Crimea, and its local government, a freer hand in deciding its economic fate while leaving untouched the volatile issue of the peninsula's status.

[ The Ukrainian President, Leonid M. Kravchuk, ruled on March 15 that the Crimean government had overstepped its constitutional authority in calling for even this nonbinding plebiscite, and in a decree he annulled the vote. But he did not say what measures he would take to stop the vote, which Mr. Meshkov has vowed will take place. And, mindful of their own elections, lawmakers in Kiev may be reluctant to take measures that would roil Ukraine's large Russian minority. ]

Crimea, known for its holiday resorts favored by czars and Communist leaders alike, was taken from the Russian Federation and given to Ukraine in 1954 in a gesture marking the 300th anniversary of Russia's union with Ukraine.

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Insert:
And, Siegelbaum says, the idea that Crimea and Ukraine had economic similarities, as Pravda noted, was a stretch, since the peninsula was mostly a tourist destination for the rest of the Soviet Union.

There were other reasons for the handover, though.

Ukraine's great famine, or Holodomor, was created by Joseph Stalin, Khrushchev's predecessor; millions died. Stalin died in 1953, and when Khrushchev took over, "the idea was that they really needed to democratize the system, to centralize it less," says Nina Khrushcheva, Khruschev's great-granddaughter and an associate professor of international affairs at The New School in New York.

"It was somewhat symbolic, somewhat trying to reshuffle the centralized system and also, full disclosure, Nikita Khrushchev was very fond of Ukraine," she tells NPR's David Greene. "So I think to some degree it was also a personal gesture toward his favorite republic. He was ethnically Russian, but he really felt great affinity with Ukraine."
http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/02/27/283481587/crimea-a-gift-to-ukraine-becomes-a-political-flash-point
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A year after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, a newly independent Ukraine, nervous about Crimea's restless Russians, gave the peninsula the special status of an autonomous republic. Fears of Secession

That status has since been used to wring further concessions from Kiev, including the creation of the post of Crimean President. Although Mr. Meshkov's promised referendum on joining Russia seems to have been shelved for now, it still lingers as leverage in a battle of wills with Kiev.

Thus, the Crimean question, like other crises that have dogged the Ukrainian-Russian relationship over the last two years, seems to be on hold, unresolved but not pushed to the brink. The failure to settle these periodic crises -- which include the division of the Black Sea Fleet, which is based in the Crimean port of Sevastopol, Ukraine's unpaid energy bills and the transfer of nuclear warheads -- remains troubling.

The situation here in Crimea is generally calm, but some worry that the peninsula
will find itself a pawn in new power struggles that could erupt in either Kiev or Moscow.

"Recent events have showed that there are dark times ahead for Russia," said Igor Banakh, a local Ukrainian nationalist. "And Russia is a country that lives off blood."

"It is a very complicated process," said Anushan S. Danelyan, who heads the Crimean Parliament's committee on inter-ethnic relations. "Not everything is over. The collapse of the union is not finished, and the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States is not complete." Tatars Returning Now

The history of Crimea is one of overlapping and competing claims. The Crimean Tatars, an indigenous Turkic people forcibly exiled to Central Asia 50 years ago, see the Russian as interlopers on their ancient lands. The Russians have never fully absorbed the transfer to Ukraine.

The dominant two nationalities here -- Ukrainian and Russian -- are thoroughly intermingled, while the Crimean Tatars, who are now returning, still number less than 10 percent of the population.

"Most people who live here have always considered themselves Russian, and they always thought they lived in Russia, and now suddenly it turns out they are in Ukraine," Mr. Danelyan said. "That is a big problem, and even if a majority says they want to live in Russia, that doesn't solve the problem. Because there are international rules. One is about self-determination and the other is about the inviolability of existing borders, and in this case they contradict each other." Economics the Issue

Here in the Crimean capital, a dusty provincial town set inland away from the Black Sea, the compromise most politicians are hoping for has more to do with economics than with nationalism. Most interpreted the vote for Mr. Meshkov as a vote against the stagnation and the hyperinflation brought about by Ukraine's lackluster attempts at economic reform, and for what people here perceive as Russia's relative prosperity.

Mr. Meshkov describes what he calls the "Ukrainianization" of the Crimean economy -- "that is to say, a complete collapse." He blames politicians in Kiev for sacrificing economic reform for the sake of nationalist slogans. "Into this hole, to this chasm, they have dragged Crimea," he said. "We don't want to suffocate in this swamp."

It is still not clear how Mr. Meshkov and his team plan to extricate the peninsula from the mainland's economic woes. There is talk of a quasi-independent central bank and a notion of a "poly-currency" system that Yevgeny Saburov, an adviser to Mr. Meshkov, says would allow not only Russian rubles but also American dollars to circulate in Crimea, along with the Ukrainian currency.

The economy here, based on agriculture, ship building, light industry and tourism, is a mess. Despite the peninsula's potential as a tourist resort, with a coastline that rivals Italy's or Yugoslavia's in beauty if not in amenities, the local government manages to lose more money on tourism than it makes.

Unofficial unemployment is already about 17 percent, Mr. Saburov estimates, while taxation is ineffective, privatization sluggish and trade with Russia -- traditionally the biggest buyer of Crimean fruits and vegetables -- slowed to a standstill. Dreams of Prosperity

Mr. Saburov sees as his first task a normalization of economic ties with Russia, which involve lowering tariffs and opening the peninsula to Russian banks and other investors. Others are even more ambitious and talk grandly of Crimea as the next Hong Kong, an island of prosperity.

For most people here, such talk is still a dream. Zeniya Amyetava, her mother-in-law, Asfari Miliyeva, and their family came from Uzbekistan back home to Crimea last year, almost 50 years after their relatives were moved out in a brutal mass deportation.

They live in a two-room shed, sleeping five to a wide bed, while they finish building a larger house. There is no gas and no electricity, and her children have to walk 500 yards down the road to bring water from a communal well.

Life for Mrs. Amyetava and other returning Crimean Tatars is more peaceful now than it was a few years ago, when the local authorities were challenging their right to return home, tearing down their limestone houses. Now, their right to live here is established, but the political security they long for is not.

"The elections make things more difficult," Mrs. Amyetava said. "Ukraine will never give up Crimea, and the people here want to move it back to Russia. Of course, we are worried. How many times can a person live through upheavals?"

Photo: Voters in Crimea will be asked on Sunday for their opinions on how their local government should handle its economic fate while leaving untouched the more volatile issue of the peninsula's status. Ethnic Russians make up 70 percent of the population and many hope to link up with Moscow again and not be part of Ukraine. Above, Asfari Miliyeva, 75, is one of the Crimean Tatars now returning. (Otto Pohl for The New York Times) Maps show the location of Crimea.

http://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/23/world/russia-vs-ukraine-a-case-of-the-crimean-jitters.html?pagewanted=all