What France knew in March, 2014 and forgets now: “With one simple decree, Khrushchev gave Crimea to Ukraine”
Mathilde Gérard, in Le Monde, March 15, 2014
Translated from French by Tom Winter, August 18, 2016
Translator note: Europe knew at the time that Kiev’s jurisdiction over Crimea came from the whim of one man, and that the ballot — which had not yet taken place — would erase it. Just to show how the Western line has changed and set.
It was a surprise gift: in 1954, Nikita Khrushchev “gave” Crimea to Ukraine with a simple decree. It barely took fifteen minutes of debate for the decision to be ratified in the Central Committee of the Communist Party, according to the Pravda daily. This handover was a surprise, but the gift was symbolic because Ukraine was part of the USSR. It was not until 1991, when the Soviet Union broke up, the consequences of this decision were felt: Crimea finds itself subject to the authority of a country with which it has little common history .
Today, the reasons for Khrushchev’s gesture remain mysterious. Many Russians believe that the leader should never have given the Crimea, which was under the Russian fold since Catherine II had made the conquest in the late eighteenth century. For nearly two centuries, the peninsula was the bridgehead of Russia into the warm seas: the aristocracy of Moscow and St. Petersburg would stay in the luxurious summer homes of Yalta while the Navy established the headquarters of its fleet in the Black sea in Sevastopol.
In 1954, the “gift” of Khrushchev was supposed to mark the tercentenary of the Treaty of Pereiaslav, whereby the Cossacks of Ukraine proclaimed their allegiance to Moscow. The handover was then presented as a “gift” of thanks from Russia to Ukraine, celebrating the brotherhood between the peoples of the Soviet Union.
Khrushchev had emotional ties with Ukraine, where he had worked in the mine and had his political rise. According to the his granddaughter Nina Khrushcheva, interviewed by American radio NPR, the transfer of Crimea “was to some extent a personal gesture to his favorite republic. He was ethnically Russian, [but] he felt great affinity with Ukraine. “
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