The Untold History of Crimean Tatars

For centuries, Crimea has been at the heart of Russia’s colonial ambitions, and its indigenous people, the Crimean Tatars, have faced relentless persecution. The most devastating chapter came in 1944, when the Soviet regime, in its effort to create the myth of a “Russian Crimea”, brutally deported the entire Crimean Tatar population to remote parts of the USSR, banning them from returning for decades.

Despite this forced exile, the Crimean Tatars have never stopped fighting for their land, rights, and culture — even as Russia’s latest occupation of Crimea, which began in 2014, continues to suppress them today. In this documentary, Ukraїner explores how Russia has systematically erased, rewritten, and weaponised Crimean Tatar history.

Through eyewitness accounts and archival documents, we reveal the truth about Russia’s crimes against the Crimean Tatars — the story it doesn’t want the world to know.

The project is made by Ukrainer and Ukrainian NGO PR Army as a part of campaign “Where Are Our People?”.