A casualty in Crimea: the Truth

BALTIMORE, Maryland March 4, 2014 - Listen to the Russians tell it, the events in Crimea portray a real humanitarian concern for ethnic Russians being suppressed and even physically intimidated during their everyday lives. Listen to the Russians tell it, the Soviet military is a welcome presence in Crimea, with all of the population praising them and actually begging them to stay, forever. Listen to the Russians tell it, the same set of facts is true in Eastern Ukraine, where ethnic Russians are also a majority and are also being suppressed and physically harassed.

The people of Eastern Ukraine see the large scale Russian Military Exercises just across the border in Russia, and hope for the day - which they hope is very close - when those forces will spill across the border and rescue them from their Ukrainian tormentors.

This is the truth according to Moscow. Little by Little, it is turning out not to be entirely true. In fact, western journalists who have descended on Crimea tell of an ethnically divided land with many residents holding pent up hatreds and bias against people they live next to. A wonderful story on the New Yorker's on-line service gives a vignette of Crimean life that rings true for those familiar with the long history of this beautiful but sad peninsula on the north side of the Black Sea. (The New Yorker post is here: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2014/03/russias-invasion-uncorks-ethnic-strife-in-crimea.html) From the time that the Greeks were building a center of civilization at Athens, people from all over the Earth have come to Crimea, and stayed. They were only dislodged when they could not resist the power of the next occupier. One of the most determined group of people who came to Crimea were the Tatars. They came in the Middle Ages, remnants of the invaders who swept out of the Asian Steppes and overran villages and cities, plundering them and then disappering. Many of the descendants of these Tatars got to Crimea and set up house. Only the vicious power of Josef Stalin pried them out of their homes, towns and cities en masse. They were sent off to Central Asia, the ones, that is, who survived the trip. Many did not. Only in recent decades have they returned, little by little. Now they comprise a 12 percent minority of the Crimean population. As one can tell by the New Yorker post, they are still held in suspicion by the descendants of the Russians Stalin sent to Crimea in place of the Tatars.

Another reporter last night said that the ethnic Russians who live here may have been relieved when the soldiers came after events in the Ukrainian Capital of Kiev in recent weeks. There, a pro-Russian President was deposed, replaced by a pro-Western group. The change was sparked by months of demonstrations that culminated in a violent showdown between police and riot police under the control of the government and the demonstrators. The violence, in the course of a few days, left 80 dead and a president on the run. Ethnic Russians wondered what these new leaders had in mind for those it assumed were loyal to the giant acorss the border. But these same reporters who said the ethnic Russians were glad the Russian military was here also said the last thing they wanted was violence. If hostilities break out, the fondness for the Russian military will disipate quickly, reports say.