The 1944 Soviet Deportation of Crimean Tatars to Uzbekistan and the Urals as Special Settlers (J. Otto Pohl, 2024)

They had loaded a recorded total of 180,014 Crimean Tatars into train wagons and sent the echelons eastward

This brought the total number of Crimean Tatars evicted from Crimea in May 1944 up to 191,044.

A report from 10 V 1944 from head of the NKVD Beria, to head of the GKO (State Defense Committee) Stalin accused the Crimean Tatars of mass treason claiming that over 20,000 had defected from the Red Army in 1941 and gone over with their arms to fight with the Germans.

The number of Crimean Tatars to assist the German occupation in any way was a small minority.

Malaria, malnutrition, and other maladies claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Crimean Tatar lives during their first couple of years in Uzbekistan.

On 28 IV 1956, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet passed an ukaz freeing the Crimean Tatars along with Balkars, Turks, Kurds, and Hemshils from the special settlement restrictions.

This decree, however, also prohibited these people from returning to their previous areas of settlement or returning to them any of the property they lost during their resettlement.

But, even then unlike the Kalmyks, Chechens, Ingush, Balkars, and Karachais they were not allowed to return to their homeland during his tenure.

J. Otto Pohl The 1944 Soviet Deportation of Crimean Tatars to Uzbekistan and the Urals as Special Settlers