In 1954, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev transferred Crimea from Russia to Ukraine. Such "gifts" are unprecedented in world history, when this was only the "first" of territorial circulation between the republics within the Soviet Union and did not attract more attention. The question of the ownership of Crimea between the two countries was thus hidden within the Soviet Union for a long time, and did not surface until the collapse of the Soviet Union.
1. Crimea
Surrounded on three sides by the waters of the Black Sea, Crimea is a peninsula of great strategic importance. It has always been a place of contention between Russia and countries such as Turkey, Britain and France.
The Crimean Peninsula is the only autonomous republic in Ukraine, it is located in the southernmost part of Ukraine, south of the Black Sea, east of the Sea of Azov, no land connection with Russia, an area of about 27,000 square kilometers, a population of nearly 2.6 million, of which 1.6 million are Russians, 600,000 Ukrainians, 200,000 Tatars and other ethnic minorities, the capital is located in Simferopol.
Crimea has a subtropical climate, with developed fisheries and abundant agricultural products, especially grapes, and a developed winemaking industry. Crimea has no severe cold in winter and no heat in summer, has a pleasant climate and beautiful scenery, and is a famous tourist health resort in the Soviet Union. In February 1945, the Crimean Conference, in which the heads of state of the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom determined the post-war pattern, was held in its health resort of Yalta.
Historically, from 1443 to 1783, various ethnic groups established the Crimean state. From 1475 to 1774 the country became a vassal state of Turkey. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Cossacks of Zaporizhia waged war against the Turkish Tatars, and the Russian army took the opportunity to carry out the Crimean Expedition (1687-1689), which was officially annexed by Tsarist Russia in 1783. In 1918, Crimea came under the ownership of Russia.
For the battle for Sevastopol and the whole of Crimea, Russia fought a protracted war with Turkey. In the Crimean War that began in 1854, the Turkish and Anglo-French forces were met with 349 days of strenuous resistance from the Black Sea Fleet outside the harbor of Sevastopol, which sank its own ships at critical moments and even outside the port to block the Allied shipping lanes. As a result, although the Russian army retreated to the interior of Ukraine, the "Defense of Sevastopol" became the glory and pride of Russia.
The Autonomous Republic of Crimea was established in October 1921 and remains under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation. In 1946, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued an order downgrading the Autonomous Republic of Crimea to the Status of a Crimean Oblast.
In May 1954, to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the union of Ukraine with the Russian Federation, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR ordered the transfer of crimea oblast to Ukraine. Of the support Khrushchev wanted, support from Ukraine was crucial and decisive for him. More than 30 years later, the impregnable alliance of the Soviet Union would split into 15 countries, and Khrushchev's whim in fact laid the historical roots of Crimea as the center of gravity of the current political conflict in Ukraine.
In 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed, Crimea joined Ukraine as an autonomous republic and was recognized by the international community. Russia has been angry about this. The Russian Parliament unilaterally adopted on 21 May 1992 a resolution on the repeal of the Annexation of Crimea from Russia to Ukraine in February 1954.
On 9 July 1993, a decree was passed on the recovery of the city of Sevastopol, an important naval base in Crimea. While it is not convenient for Russia to make a territorial claim to Ukraine publicly, it is also reluctant to give up Crimea.
This is because, since the 18th century, Crimea has been the base of Tsarist Control over the Black Sea coast, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Balkans. Crimea's geographical location makes it the key to controlling the Black Sea region, especially the western part of the Black Sea. Losing Crimea, Russia's imperial status on the Black Sea and its political influence on the Mediterranean region will be problematic. Maintaining influence over Crimea is an important factor for Russia to maintain its status as a great power and constrain Ukraine politically, economically and militarily.
Ever since Catherine II established the Sevastopol military port in the southwestern tip of Crimea, it was the site and headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
2. Black Sea Fleet
For Russia and Ukraine, Crimea is an untangling knot. The central issue is not entirely in ethnic relations, but in Sevastopol, the former and present military port of the Black Sea Fleet.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, most of the disputes between Russia and Ukraine over Crimea were based on this Sevastopol. In the real world, Sevastopol remains the key to solving Crimea's problems and the crux of Russia-Ukraine relations.
At the NATO summit in Bucharest in 2008, Putin said this: "Ukraine — a historical misunderstanding, a country built on Russian soil." ”
There are at least three trends in Crimea today, one is to return to Russia, and most of the people who hold this view are Russians, on the grounds that Crimea has always belonged to Russia. In this trend, the Sevastopol issue became the focus.
Second, it cannot be separated from Ukraine, and most of the people who hold this opinion are ethnic Ukrainians, on the grounds that Crimea and Ukraine are not only land-linked, but also ethnically identical.
The third is the demand for the independence of Crimea, a trend that is reflected in part by the local "indigenous population", such as the Tatars, and some even russians.
Thanks to the "drunken generosity" made by Khrushchev under the influence of Koneyak, the "gift of the tsar" in his own tsarist dictatorship "transferred" the Crimean Peninsula to Ukraine. In fact, this "conversion" is unacceptable to most ethnic Russians.
The 1970 Nobel Prize-winning writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn had this to say about Crimea's "conversion" to Ukraine:
"How many Russians have experienced with anger and horror the weak-willed, indisputable, indecisive diplomacy of the mainland at that time, the kind of diplomacy that could not be protested, the kind of betrayal that handed over Crimea within 24 hours, the kind of betrayal that will come in every crimean conflict in the future."
But people only notice Khrushchev's arbitrariness and ignore an important fact, that is, there is not a single sentence in the "conversion" of that year, and a text clearly states the question of Sevastopol's whereabouts.
Russia has also incorporated from Ukraine some areas that originally belonged to Ukraine into Russia: parts of Smolensk, Kursk, belgorod on the border with Russia, and Taganrog into rostov oblast. This territorial exchange seems to be closely linked to crimea's "gifts."
The strategic position of the Black Sea Fleet is very important, it can hold the Mediterranean Sea, block the shipping lanes, can form an encirclement posture on the southern flank of Europe, and can also go south to the Indian Ocean to contain the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet. Compared with the strategic position of the Russian Northern Fleet and the Pacific Fleet, the Black Sea Fleet can play a strategic balancing role.
The Ukrainian port city of Sevastopol is like the tip of a knife wedged into the Black Sea. This geopolitical and military tradition did not change with the collapse of the Soviet Union, which russia leased from Ukraine, making it a bridgehead against the EU's eastward expansion.
The Black Sea Fleet has also become an important chip for Russia to exert influence in Ukraine. In fact, the initial deployment of Russian troops in Crimea was a necessary move by the Black Sea Fleet to maintain its own security. On the issue of the Black Sea Fleet, the Transitional Government of Ukraine has also been extra careful. The Ukrainian government did not consider terminating the agreement with Russia on the stationing of the Russian Black Sea Fleet on the Crimean Peninsula.
这代表了乌克兰在现阶段对俄、美、欧关系的现实判断，也折射出黑海舰队的震慑力：它从来就是刀尖上的刀尖，黑海舰队驻扎在“自古兵家必争之地” 。
More than 300 years ago, Peter the Great assembled a powerful Russian naval fleet in St. Petersburg. After famous battles such as the Battle of Gangute on July 27, 1714, and the Battle of Sinop in 1853, the navy became the pride of the Russian nation and became an extremely important armed force in the Russian army.
Therefore, no matter how the state power rises and falls, this country that spans the Eurasian continent and always maintains the world's first country always has an invincible domineering spirit. However, although the land area is vast, and it is bordered by more than a dozen seas such as the Arctic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea, it lacks key ports to these oceans.
In this country, to the north, a long open coastline leads to the Arctic Ocean surrounded by sea ice all year round; to the east, to the Pacific Ocean is not only distant by land, but also has limited warm access to the sea; to the northwest, it takes to cross the narrow Baltic Sea to connect to the Atlantic Ocean; the best sea passage in the country is only the Black Sea in the southwest.
The Black Sea is a closed sea with a narrow Turkish Strait at the exit, so the Black Sea has become a strategic and contentious sphere of influence for Russia since Peter the Great.
The ups and downs of the Black Sea Fleet just outline the history of Russia's rise and fall of great powers.
During World War I, the "October Revolution" broke out in Russia, and the Black Sea Fleet entered the Soviet period. At this time the fleet raised the red flag of the Bolsheviks. However, in the ensuing civil war, in order to prevent the Black Sea Fleet from falling into the hands of the enemy, Lenin ordered the fleet to sink itself on June 18, 1918.
After the end of the Soviet Civil War, the Black Sea Fleet was rebuilt. Ships that had been sunk in the past were salvaged and repaired, and new ships were built and launched.
During World War II, the Black Sea Fleet played an important role, in addition to naval battles, the Black Sea Fleet's naval forces also heroically killed the enemy on land. After World War II, the Black Sea Fleet was expanded into a modern strategic fleet. In addition to the black overseas, its scope of action also extended southward to the Mediterranean Sea. The Black Sea Fleet gradually became an irreplaceable force for the Soviet Union to develop and consolidate maritime hegemony.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fate of the Black Sea Fleet became uncertain, and the question of its ownership remained a difficult problem that plagued Russian-Ukrainian relations, and the struggle between the two sides continued until 1997.
In 1997, Russia and Ukraine reached an agreement on the stationing of troops in the Crimean Peninsula by the Russian Black Sea Fleet and an agreement on supplementary terms, stipulating that the Russian fleet would be stationed for 20 years, and the former would pay the latter $98 million per year as a berthing fee. Since then, the status of the Black Sea Fleet after the Cold War has become clear.
But by this time the Black Sea Fleet was no longer the size it once was. Years of economic decay and financial constraints have caused the fleet to fall into disrepair. In addition, in 1995, Russia and Ukraine divided the fleet in two, ukraine received less than one-fifth of the ships, and the rest of the part belonging to Ukraine was sold to Russia at a discount.
The agreement is under agreement, and there are still contradictions between Russia and Ukraine from time to time, and the stationing of the Russian Black Sea Fleet has often become the focus of tension between the two countries.
After the pro-Russian faction Yanukovych took power in Ukraine in 2010, Russia and Ukraine immediately began to address issues such as the Black Sea Fleet that affected the development of bilateral relations. In April of that year, the presidents of Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement in Kharkiv, Ukraine, to extend the duration of the russian Black Sea Fleet's presence in Ukraine. According to this agreement, the term of use of the Base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet is extended for 25 years after 2017 and may be extended for a further 5 years, that is, until 2042 or 2047.
Although Russia has 4 major fleets of the Navy, the scarcity of access to the sea makes the position of the Navy slightly embarrassing. The Black Sea Fleet is the only all-weather fleet in the Navy that is not afraid of a frozen siege, and its main base and fleet headquarters are located in Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula.
3. Throat point
"Russia is big, but there is no way back!" Behind it is Moscow. "During the war in Moscow's defense, there was a saying circulating in the Red Army of the Soviet Union.
Today, militarily, under the pressure of the US-led NATO, Russia is still facing such an unfavorable international environment. It can be said that the Black Sea Fleet is the fulcrum that maintains Moscow's expansion into the Black Sea and even the Mediterranean Sea.
The strategic position of the Black Sea Fleet is very important, it can hold the Mediterranean Sea, block the shipping lanes, form an encirclement posture on the southern flank of Europe, and also go south to the Indian Ocean to contain the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet. Compared with the strategic position of the Russian Northern Fleet and the Pacific Fleet, the Black Sea Fleet can play a strategic balancing role.
60% of Russia's annual exports of foreign trade goods are transported abroad through the Black Sea into the Mediterranean Sea, which is also extremely important to the Russian economy.
Even when the Soviet Union had almost exhausted its economic energy because of the Cold War, Russia never relaxed its emphasis on the Black Sea Fleet after its disintegration.
In 1992, russian President Boris Yeltsin, who had just taken office, said that if anyone tried to unilaterally change the status of the Black Sea Fleet, Russia "would have to put the fleet under its own jurisdiction and integrate it into the CIS strategic forces."
However, the Black Sea Fleet also has weaknesses: First, the sea outlet is easily blocked, and strategic mobility is inconvenient. The Black Sea is a closed water, with only the Bosphorus and Dardanelles in Turkey connected to the Mediterranean Sea. Turkey is a member of NATO, so the entry and exit of ships into and out of the strait is subject to human constraints.
Second, it is far away from other fleets and strategic support is inconvenient. Russia's Northern Fleet, Baltic Fleet, Black Sea Fleet and Pacific Fleet are geographically independent, cannot be united, and are thousands of nautical miles apart, so that the four fleets are deployed in 12 sea areas separated from each other, and the sea connection between them is through a long sea route. Geographical separation made it difficult for the Black Sea Fleet to maneuver and support forces between the Other Fleets.
The Black Sea Fleet is an important part of Russia's national power, and the Black Sea Fleet is inseparable from Crimea.
Crimea, a Russian bridgehead with a history of more than 200 years, cannot be lost, and is Russia's bottom line. Whoever influences Russia to go out, Russia will go to war with whom!
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