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Veli Ibraimov

Veli Ibraimov (1888–1928) — Chairman of the Central Executive Committee (CEC) of the Crimean ASSR (1924–1928), a Crimean Tatar political and statesman, participant in the national liberation movement of the Crimean Tatars, and a victim of the Stalinist repressions. Executed by firing squad on May 9, 1928, rehabilitated in 1990.

Early Years

Veli Ibraimov was born in 1888 into a poor peasant family. Because of poverty he could not receive a systematic education: at the age of 12 he left school and went to work as a loader and a printing worker. While working for the newspapers "Vatan Hadimi" ("Servant of the Fatherland") and "Terciman" ("Interpreter"), he became acquainted with prominent representatives of the Crimean Tatar intelligentsia — I. Gasprinsky, A. Mediiev, N. Chelebidzhykhan, A.-S. Aivazov, A. Ozenbashly, and D. Seydamet.

Through these acquaintances Ibraimov came to public activity. At first he was an activist of the "Akmecit" cultural and educational society, and in 1916 he was elected chairman of the Crimean Tatar workers' union.

Political Activity (1917–1921)

The February events of 1917 stirred all strata of society and inspired the Crimean Tatars to fight for their rights. Veli Ibraimov became one of the most ardent participants in the national liberation movement of the Crimean Tatars. In March 1917 he was elected a delegate to the All-Crimean Muslim Committee, and in November of that same year a member of the First Kurultai.

Positioning himself on the left, in the autumn of 1918 Veli Ibraimov left the composition of the Kurultai and drew close to the Bolsheviks, joining the RCP(b) that same year. Nevertheless, throughout the entire Civil War he did not break off ties with his former comrades from the Kurultai.

After the Bolsheviks captured Crimea in November 1920, Veli Ibraimov became deputy chairman of the Crimean Revkom. In the summer of 1921 he was appointed chairman of the Special Extraordinary "troika" for the struggle against banditry. In this post he exerted much effort to calm the "white-green" movement — peasant uprisings (most active in the districts of Sevastopol, Yalta, Balaklava, Alushta, Bakhchysarai, and Simferopol), caused by the incompetent policy of the Crimean Revkom, which ignored local conditions and resolved problems through repressions and confiscations.

Veli Ibraimov personally traveled around Crimean villages, explaining the new laws to Crimean Tatar peasants in their native language, which contributed to the gradual fading of the insurgent movement. He also exerted efforts for the proclamation of the Crimean ASSR in November 1921.

The Famine of 1921–1923

In 1921–1923 a terrible famine raged in Crimea, caused both by natural factors and by the policy of War Communism. After the nationalization of land and the introduction of grain requisitioning, most Crimean peasants lost their land and means of subsistence.

Veli Ibraimov, who at the time held the post of People's Commissar of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate of the Crimean ASSR, repeatedly appealed to the Moscow leadership with requests to abolish grain requisitioning and to recognize Crimea as a famine-stricken territory. However, the export of grain out of Crimea only grew. According to researchers' calculations, no fewer than 100,000 people died of famine in Crimea, of whom about 80,000 were Crimean Tatars.

At the Head of the Crimean ASSR (1924–1928)

The central authorities' disregard for the interests of the Crimean Tatars led to a conflict within the government of the Crimean ASSR. On December 15, 1923, a group of Tatar workers turned to Moscow with a collective letter demanding the appointment of local Tatar figures to leading posts. In 1924 the demands were satisfied: Veli Ibraimov became chairman of the Crimean CEC, and Osman Deren-Aierly became chairman of the Council of People's Commissars. However, real power (the oblast committee secretary and the head of the GPU) remained in the hands of non-Tatar appointees.

The period from 1924 to 1928 is considered the "golden age" of the development of the scientific and cultural spheres of Crimean Tatar life. The policy of indigenization (Tatarization) was mostly declaratory in nature, but the positions of the Crimean Tatars were strengthened.

Land Policy and the Conflict with Moscow

The new Crimean authorities began actively pursuing a land policy in favor of the Crimean Tatar peasantry, demanding privileges and advantages for the Tatars. However, the plans of the Crimean leadership ran into resistance from Moscow, which was implementing a campaign to resettle Jews to Crimea with the aim of creating a Jewish republic on the peninsula.

The Crimean leaders initially agreed to the resettlement of Jews: in May 1924 the head of the Narkomzem of the Crimean ASSR, Umer Ibraimov (Veli Ibraimov's brother), at the initiative of the chairman of the Crimean CEC and the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, sent a statement to Moscow about the possibility of allocating 50,000 desiatinas of land to receive up to 5,000 Jewish families. However, the document emphasized that resettlement was possible only after the landless Crimean Tatar peasantry had been allotted land. Starting from the second half of 1924, Moscow began to ignore this condition and regularly sent orders to allocate new lands for Jewish settlers, which caused an acute conflict.

Veli Ibraimov regularly spoke with demands to stop the resettlement of Jews to Crimea until the landless Tatars received land. His intransigence on the question of Jewish colonization ultimately decided his fate.

Arrest, Trial, Execution (1928)

Veli Ibraimov foresaw his death. In 1927 he said to the Komsomol worker Bekir Umerov: "They've played with us, Bekir. They've played. Now they're going to kill us." During the last year of his life he survived four assassination attempts, the last of which was carried out on July 12, 1927, by the Red partisan Ibrahim Arif Cholak (it was later Cholak's murder that Ibraimov was accused of).

According to the memoirs of General Ablyakim Gafarov, Stalin personally offered Ibraimov the chance to shoot himself, promising respect for his children, but he refused. On January 6, 1928, a commission of the Central Control Commission of the CC of the VKP(b) was created under the chairmanship of the People's Commissar of Justice M. Yanson (it also included Ya. Peters and M. Krylenko). In mid-January Ibraimov was summoned to Moscow, arrested, and accused of criminal offenses; simultaneously the VTsVK and the SNK of the RSFSR adopted a resolution "On the Land Reform in Crimea."

On January 28–29, 1928, an extraordinary session of the Crimean CEC illegally removed Ibraimov from all posts. M. Kubaev was appointed in his place, and O. Bekirov and A. Sofu were additionally introduced into the CEC, who began to implement measures for the subjugation of the peasantry that Ibraimov had sabotaged. According to OGPU reports, the arrest caused a wave of discontent in Crimea ("the russians' offensive against the Tatars," antisemitic outbursts), especially among the Tatar intelligentsia and students (the Crimean workers' faculty, the Tatar Pedagogical College).

On April 23–28, 1928, in Simferopol, a show trial of a visiting session of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR was held under the chairmanship of A. Solts over 16 persons. Ibraimov was accused of the murder of Cholak, the attempted murder of the poor peasant Seidametov, financial abuses, and "Tatar bourgeois nationalism." In the opinion of the historian V. Broshevan, these accusations had a fabricated criminal character and could not be the real motives for the verdict.

On May 9, 1928, Veli Ibraimov was executed by firing squad. The execution became the starting point for the unfolding of repressions in Crimea.

Rehabilitation and Historical Significance

In June 1990, by a decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the RSFSR, Veli Ibraimov was rehabilitated. Researchers put forward several versions of the reasons for his political destruction:

  • The Jewish factor (R. Kurtiev, P. Garchev): Ibraimov became a victim for his struggle against the Jewish colonization of Crimea.
  • The NEP factor (V. Vozgrin): The reason for the repressions was Ibraimov's activity of deepening the NEP under conditions when the center had already begun its offensive against the private sector.
  • The class factor (Zh. Mona): The policy of the leadership of the Crimean ASSR contributed to a sharp differentiation of the Crimean village, which contradicted the "general line of the party."

The trial against Ibraimov had a political character, although the charges were based on dubious criminal episodes.

Cross-References

  • The Fate of Veli Ibraimov — an article by Tetiana Bykova (Candidate of Historical Sciences) in the newspaper "Krymska Svitlytsia," 2018, No. 19. The main source.