Half a century of resistance
Crimean Tatars from exile to return (1941-1991 years)
by Bekirova Hulnara
The book is devoted to the most tragic period of the history of the Crimean Tatar people - the deportation of 1944. It describes the lives of the expelled people in foreign lands as well as tells us a story of long and self-sacrificing struggle of the Crimean Tatars for the right to return to their homeland. It is a detailed research of the history of the Crimean Tatar national movement and contains a lot of quotes from the Crimean Tatars’ self-publishing press as well as citations from the traditionally friendly to the Crimean Tatars Moscow editions of that times. An author also reinforced her research by analysis of many documents that were found in the Crimean, Kyiv and Moscow archives as well as by the interview with the most famous and respected member of the movement, leader of Crimean Tatar people Mustafa Djemilev, who was a prisoner of conscience many times during Soviet era. Mustafa Djemilev also wrote an introduction to the book. According to the author, resistance of Crimean Tatars to the criminal policy of the Moscow authorities and the refusal of Russian authorities to fulfil the just demands of the Crimean Tatar people are two different fronts of the national struggle of Crimean Tatar people. Despite the victory of the Crimean Tatars and their return to their homeland a quarter century ago, the struggle at the both fronts continues.