page_title: Autonomous Republic of Crimea
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Autonomous Republic of Crimea / Background
caption_attribution_description: Українська: Указ Президії Верховної Ради СРСР "Про передачу Кримської області зі складу РРФСР до складу УРСР"English: Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR "About the transfer of the Crimean Oblast from the RSFSR to the USSR"Русский: Указ Президиума Верховного Совета СССР "О передаче Крымской области из состава РСФСР в состав УССР", публикация в "Ведомостях Верховного Совета СССР" от 9 марта 1954, стр. 1.
context_page_description: The Autonomous Republic of Crimea is, de jure, an autonomous republic of Ukraine encompassing most of Crimea that was annexed by the Russian Federation in 2014.
  Crimea was historically under the control of the Russian Empire from 1783 to 1917 and Soviet Union from 1918 to 1991. Following the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Russian Civil War, it was established in 1921 as the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in the USSR. During World War II, Crimea was downgraded to the Crimean Oblast after its entire indigenous population, the Crimean Tatars were deported to Central Asia, an act recognized as a genocide by Ukraine and 3 other countries. In 1954, it was transferred to the Ukrainian SSR from the Russian SFSR. Later, following a referendum on 20 January 1991, it was upgraded to the status of an autonomous republic within the Ukrainian SSR. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 and Ukraine became an independent country, Crimea remained part of the newly independent Ukraine.
context_section_description: Crimea first came under Russian control in 1783 when the Crimean Khanate was annexed by the Russian Empire and this was formally recognised in 1792 when the peninsula was ceded to Russia by the Ottoman Empire under the Treaty of Jassy reaffirming the 1783 Russo-Turkish agreement on recognition of Crimea as a Russian territory. Thereafter, Russian rule in Crimea spanned a period of 171 years, punctuated by short periods during political upheavals and wars, which ended on 19 February 1954 when the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet issued a decree administratively transferring the Crimean Oblast from the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, within the Soviet Union on the basis of "the integral character of the economy, the territorial proximity and the close economic and cultural ties between the Crimea Province and the Ukrainian SSR.":
  Following a referendum on 20 January 1991 in which over 94% backed the proposal, the Crimean Oblast was upgraded to the status of an autonomous republic on 12 February 1991 by the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR. When the Soviet Union collapsed and Ukraine became an independent country, Crimea remained a republic within the newly independent Ukraine leading to tensions between Russia and Ukraine as the Black Sea Fleet was based on the peninsula.
caption: Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet "On the transfer of the Crimean Oblast"
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