DISINFO: The annexation of Crimea brought peace and prosperity to this region
SUMMARY
The annexation of Crimea by the Russian Empire 240 years ago brought peace, prosperity and security to this region. Even today, 240 years after Catherine II signed the historical manifesto, the inhabitants of Crimea admire the genius of the empress, who foresaw the future for hundreds of years ahead. Today it is impossible not to remember how in 1991, Crimea and other Russian lands were thrown out of the Russian universe in a drunken madness. Although, in the end, Crimea, the Russian ancestral land, returned home.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the illegal annexation of Crimea and an attempt to distort the historical truth about the XVIII century Russian incorporation of Crimea.
The Crimean Peninsula was incorporated into the Russian Empire in 1783. The Russian control over the Peninsula did not bring the local population any “peace and prosperity”. Immediately after the Russian takeover, the local peoples living in Crimea (Crimean Tatars, Karaims, Greeks, Armenians, etc.) faced large-scale deportations. Throughout the XVIII and XIX centuries, at least 400.000 Crimean Tatars were forced to leave Crimea, moving to present-day Turkey. In a similar way, the local Karaims and Greeks were resettled to other parts of the Russian Empire.
As a result of these massive deportations and migration, Moscow managed to increase the number of ethnic Russians living in Crimea (who had never lived in this area before the XIX century). Moscow managed to establish a relative majority of ethnic Russians living in Crimea only after the genocidal 1944 deportation of all the Crimean Tatars living in this region.
This article acknowledges the fact that Russian control over Crimea was established only 240 years ago – yet claims that Crimea “has always been Russian” and is “Russian ancestral land”. The history of the Crimean Peninsula lasts for over 2.500 years.
See previous disinformation narratives in our database alleging that Crimean people chose to be with Russia; that Crimea’s reunification with Russia was legal; that Ukraine was led by nationalist extremists and fascists; or that Crimea never belonged to Ukraine or that Crimea is a Russian sovereign region.