“What do we know about Crimea?” is a 6-episode podcast exploring the history of Crimea and the Crimean Tatars to better understand the peninsula's past, its ties to Ukraine, and how that past influences us today.

Episode 5. "All-Union Health Resort": how the USSR reshaped Crimea and erased its past

How did Soviet policy transform not only Crimea itself, but also the way we perceive it today? And why do some of the myths created back then still persist?

The Soviet image of Crimea was one of the sea, health resorts, palaces, and the "All-Union Health Resort." Yet behind this polished facade lay a dark history: Red Terror, famine, repressions, the suppression of the Crimean Tatar national movement, and the systematic erasure of historical memory.

In this video, Tetiana Bykova, PhD in History and Research Fellow at the Institute of History of Ukraine (NASU), explains how the Soviet restructuring of Crimea began after Bolshevik rule was established.

We analyze the Red Terror of 1920–1921 and its mechanisms of repression, the causes and aftermath of the 1921–1923 famine, the formation of the Crimean ASSR, and the policy of "Tatarization." Why did the Bolsheviks initially find it beneficial to support Crimean Tatar culture? How was Crimea supposed to serve as a "model" Muslim republic for Soviet foreign policy? And why was this direction abruptly abandoned by the late 1920s?

Furthermore, we explore how the myth of Crimea as an "All-Union Health Resort" was built alongside ongoing purges. We cover repressions against the Crimean Tatar political and cultural elite, the trial of Veli Ibraimov, the destruction of the intelligentsia in the 1930s, alphabet reforms, and the deliberate rupture of the nation's connection to its cultural heritage.

This podcast was created by Crimea Vox with the support of International Media Support (IMS).