a meeting of representatives of the Crimean Tatar people
on 6-7 October 1973 (2 pages).
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“Executing the will of the people,” says the beginning of the document, “the representatives exchanged information on the current position regarding the national question … and on the current tasks of rendering help to the Party in the solution of the question.”
The information sheet reports on the documents: “Countrywide Demand for Answers to the Politburo” (this issue CCE 31.20) and the appeal “Halt the anti-socialist activity of chauvinists” (this issue CCE 31.22). It condemns attempts to get Crimean Tatars who are communists to oppose the national movement (but expresses confidence that they will “remain loyal to their people … to their Party duty and conscience”). It recalls the promise, given by Andropov six years earlier when receiving Crimean Tatar delegates, to review “criminal cases fabricated in order to weaken the national movement”.
It reports on the situation in the Crimea:
“… Regional newspapers are running persecution campaigns against the Crimean Tatars who have returned to their homeland, with verbiage about the plunder of the land and water of the Crimea. A number of trials have been concocted for violations of the residence regulations … A special regime has been created for Crimean Tatars — special settlements in their native land.”
The representatives discussed the question of rendering assistance to the families of those in prison.
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A Chronicle of Current Events 