Milli Firka

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Milli Firka (Cyrillic Милли фирка, lit. People's Party ) was a Muslim party founded in 1917 in the Crimea . In 1921 she was involved in the establishment of the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of Crimea .

history

After the February Revolution of 1917 , efforts were made to achieve territorial autonomy in the Crimea . In June 1917, the latent hostilities between the local government organs of the Provisional Government and the Crimean Tatars led to open conflict and the establishment of the Milli Firka party founded by the radical leaders of the Crimean Tatar intellectuals. Its main purpose was to give a political identity to the aspirations for the autonomy of the Crimean Tatars. Many members of the party leadership studied in Ottoman and Western universities, which is why they were referred to by Soviet historians as " Turkish and foreign agents".

Milli Firka began publishing Tatar newspapers that were critical of the Provisional Government's domestic policy.

After the Tatar leaders Noman Çelebicihan and Sabarow were arrested on July 23, 1917 on the orders of Bogdanow, the chairman of the Crimean Commissariat, the hope of cooperation between Milli Firka and the Petrograd government was finally dashed.

Until October 1917, the Crimean Tatar organizations were the only forces wielding power in the Crimea alongside the seamen stationed near Sevastopol , while the strength of the Provisional Government was at its lowest point. In November, the Tatar leadership in Khan palace of Bakhchisaray a Kurultai convened in which members of all elements of the Tatar population should be gathered. In the course of the next month a new constitution was accepted, which was the basis for the establishment of the People's Republic of Crimea .

At the same time, the liberal Ukrainians and Russians established a provincial assembly in Sevastopol in Crimea. In the elections for the first constituent assembly of Crimea, which took place two weeks later, Milli Firka received 31% of the vote.

After the Bolsheviks conquered the Crimea in January 1918, which in turn was annexed by the German Reich in April , a new leadership under the Lipka-Tatar lieutenant general of the Russian army Maciej Sulkiewicz was installed there as prime minister. Under his new government, all sections of the population should have equal rights. The coat of arms seal of the new state should represent both the heraldic animal of the Milli Firka and that of the former independent state of Crimea.

In the course of the Russian Civil War , the White Army was in the process of retaking the Crimea from the German Army, which withdrew in November 1918. The new Prime Minister of Crimea was the Crimean-Karaean crop scientist Solomon Krym, under whose government the Crimean Tatars again had practically no say. While power over the Crimea wavered between the whites and the Bolsheviks, the Crimean Tatars were only spectators on the political stage. There were also divisions among the Crimean Tatar politicians. The moderate section of Milli Firka, made up of Tatar landowners, teachers and two editors of Tatar newspapers, supported Solomon Krym's government, while the nationalist right wing did not recognize Krym's government and continued to seek an independent Crimea. They also asked the League of Nations to recognize the independent state. The left part allied with the left Russian groups in the cities of Crimea and eventually made contacts with the Bolsheviks.

In April 1919, the Bolsheviks captured the entire peninsula and were supported by the left wing of the Milli Firka. In return, many of the new government positions were offered to these Crimean Tatars. At the same time, a new Bolshevik newspaper was founded, which was published in Crimean Tatar and represented Tatar interests.

In June 1919 the White Army under General Denikin recaptured the Crimea. The Milli Firka was banned along with all other non-Russian nationalist parties. The members of the Milli Firka joined the Bolshevik underground en masse in the Crimea. In October 1920 the Bolsheviks finally re-conquered the Crimea, which the left wing of the Milli Firka viewed as "liberation".

Stalin carried out government reforms that provided that all autonomous regions could be ruled exclusively by Russians and Ukrainians, which damaged the good relationship between the Milli Firka and the Bolsheviks. Several Tatar leaders, including the chairman of the left wing of the Milli Firka, Noman Çelebicihan, were executed by the Bolsheviks. In an official letter from the Milli Firka to the Bolshevik leadership of Crimea, the Tatars stated that the goals of the Milli Firka and those of the Communist Party were similar and only differed in the temporal, local and methodological ways in which socialism was implemented .

In November 1920, the commissioner Nikolai Bystrykh began to fight the "counterrevolutionary" " bourgeoisie and the anarchists " under the orders of the chief of the Cheka Béla Kun , which in their opinion also included the "White Guards" and "Tatar nationalists". The same Tatars who fought against Denikin carried out their partisan actions against Kun's armed forces. This made Kun's task difficult, which is why the Bolsheviks tried instead in the summer of 1921 with the tactic of promising the Tatars autonomy and participation in the government. The Bolshevik government offered amnesty to the Tatar partisans and members of the Milli Firka, who also went underground during Kun's purges . In return, the Milli Firka announced that it was again ready to negotiate with the Soviets.

On September 23, 1921, Tatar and non-Tatar representatives of Crimea met in Simferopol . Members of the Milli Firka and Russian communists discussed the future of Crimea there. As a result of this meeting, on October 21, 1921, the founding of the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of Crimea was announced. The Crimean Tatars noted, however, that the autonomy of this new Soviet republic was limited solely to non-controversial government affairs. So they sent a delegation to Moscow and promised the Soviet government full support, provided the Milli Firka were recognized as the official political body of the Crimean Tatars and whose party leaders were given important positions in the new Crimean government. In response, the Moscow government allegedly published a proclamation on January 10, 1922, granting the Crimean Tatars greater autonomy. However, the existence of this proclamation is disputed.

The Tatar communist leader Mirsäjet Chäjdär uly Soltanghäliew appointed many members of his committee from among the Milli Firka.

Views

Members of the Milli Firka support the idea of confiscation of church property and private property. The party stood in opposition to the conservative clergy and Russian liberals and sought closer cooperation with the socialist parties. This made it the first true revolutionary Crimean Tatar party. After the November Revolution, many party members joined the Bolsheviks and became important party and government officials in the early 1920s.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Philipp Ther, Holm Sundhaussen: Nationality Conflicts in the 20th Century: Causes of Inter-Ethnic Violence in Comparison in the Google Book Search. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 2001, ISBN 3-447-04494-2 , pp. 90, 103.
  2. ^ HB Paksoy: Essays on Central Asia . in the Google book search Carrie / EUI, 1999, OCLC 45603165 , p. 188.