"Crimean California", or Why the Americans failed to separate the Crimea from the USSR

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The question of the need to create autonomy for Jews was raised even during Lenin's life in 1918. This was done by the Jewish Commissariat, created after the October Revolution, a government body from the People's Commissariat for Nationalities of the RSFSR. In addition to solving problems of political education of Jews, the commissariat also developed options for their compact residence for the formation of their national republic.

How and when did the idea of creating a Jewish state on the Crimean Peninsula come up

The author of the idea to organize a Jewish state in Crimea was an American of Russian origin Iosif Borisovich Rosen, head of the Russian department of the Joint Charitable Foundation. In the USSR, his ideas were actively supported by journalist Abram Bragin, Deputy People's Commissar for National Affairs Grigory Broydo, economic figure and economist Mikhail Lurie, known under the pseudonym Yuri Larin.

To consider this issue in 1923, by decree of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), a special commission was organized: it was headed by the deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR A. Tsyurupa. The organization "Joint" pledged to provide financial support, which for the realization of the goal created the American Jewish agronomic corporation "Agro-Joint". After agreeing on a number of issues, in December 1924 the Soviet government and "Agro-Joint" signed an official agreement on the provision of monetary assistance at a certain percentage.

How the USSR planned to agrarianize the Jews

Jews, traditionally involved in small-scale crafts, trade and finance, practically lost their livelihoods during the chaos of revolutions and the ensuing Civil War. In order to engage them in another activity for earning money, the Soviet government decided to attract the Jewish poor to physical labor. Since during this period the industry in the country practically did not function, the area of involvement in the work was chosen in the agricultural direction, planning to make peasants out of Jews.

In August 1924, the Committee for the Land Arrangement of Jewish Workers, created to support the resettlement movement, proposed using uninhabited lands in the northern and northeastern parts of Crimea for settlement. Six months later, the first Jewish families from Belarus, Bulgaria and Ukraine began to arrive in the Evpatoria and Dzhankoy ratsons, where more than 340,000 hectares were allocated for resettlement.

With the help of loans from Agro-Joint, by the end of 1925, more than 180 national collective farms were functioning on the peninsula, in which several thousand Jews worked. Due to the high rates of resettlement and the improvement of the conditions for moving, by 1932 there were already 86 ethnic settlements in the Crimea, numbering over 20,000 people. However, from the same year, a noticeable outflow of newly-made peasants began from agricultural settlements. The reason for their departure was both the reduction in financial support from the American fund and the final decision of the authorities to create Jewish autonomy not in Crimea, but in the Far East - in Birobidzhan.

Sly Americans, or how the United States tried to implement the "Crimean California" plan and separate the peninsula from the USSR

In the post-revolutionary period, the young state was in dire need of money, which was no secret for pragmatic Americans. Using this circumstance, the Joint organization, on behalf of the influential US millionaires, offered the Soviet leadership a 9 million loan for the country on the security of the Crimean lands.

After the consent of the leader of the revolution, the territory of Crimea was divided into shares, issuing a limited number of state bills for them. In the shortest possible time, the securities were sold to 200 shareholders, among whom were representatives of the Roosevelt and Hoover clan, as well as the management of the Joint Fund, including its head Lewis Marshall.

Under the terms of the agreement, the Soviet government received a 10-year loan of $ 900,000 annually with five percent per annum. If the money was not returned until 1954, the pledged peninsula became "Crimean California", that is, it became the property of buyers of bills.

How Roosevelt drove Stalin into a corner and how the leader of all nations solved the issue of atomic blackmail and the creation of Jewish autonomy

Problems with payments began with the Soviets in 1941, and at the end of 1943, US President Roosevelt made it clear to Stalin that he would not be able to open a 2nd front and continue deliveries under Lend-Lease. He explained the reason with the demands of the Jewish lobby: either to pay off the debt on promissory notes, or to create an independent Jewish Republic in the future "Crimean California".

At a time when all funds were spent on the country's defense, it was unrealistic to pay off the loan debt. Therefore, Stalin promised to fulfill the second requirement and its main conditions: to deport the Crimean Tatars who did not want to share their territory with the new settlers; to make the head of the republic Solomon Mikhoels - an actor and theater director who actively advocated such an education in Crimea.

In May 1944, almost 192,000 persons of Tatar nationality were removed from the peninsula without explaining the true reason. Then, less than three weeks later, the Americans finally opened the Second Front. On this, the establishment of the republic stalled until 1945. Having tested atomic bombs in Japan in August, America put forward an ultimatum: to complete the process of creating a Jewish state, including in it the territories of the Kherson and Odessa regions, as well as the Black Sea coast to the border of Abkhazia; relocate the Black Sea Fleet to another permanent location.

In case of non-fulfillment of the ultimatum, the Americans threatened to start nuclear bombing of the USSR in the future. Lacking his own atomic weapons in the country, Stalin ordered the construction of the Transpolar Highway, designed, in the event of a threat of attack, to evacuate the population of the central part to the very depths of Russia. In addition, the government began to actively support the Jews who were fighting for the creation of their own state in Palestine; and also engage in the development of its own nuclear bomb.

In 1949, the Soviet Union acquired atomic weapons, and US blackmail became irrelevant. However, there were promissory notes and the threat of the transfer of Crimea to the ownership of the Americans. Stalin foresaw this moment too: after the death of the leader, just before the end of the term of the bills, Khrushchev put Stalin's plan into practice - he made Crimea a part of the Ukrainian SSR. Thus, the securities turned into nothing and the Americans had to forget about the "Crimean-Californian" project forever.

The Crimean peninsula is very fond of almost all Russian rulers. So, Empress Catherine II traveled across the Crimea. There were truths and fictions about the Tauride voyage.