In Search of Identity: How the Crimean Tatars Became Indigenous Peoples of Crimea

The Qurultay of 1991, the first National Convention since their return to Crimea declared Crimean Tatars indigenous peoples of Crimea, articulating their exclusive rights to the land and its resources. It was indeed the first time since korenizatsiia that the Crimean Tatars embraced indigeneity as a mobilizing political identity, aligning themselves with the global indigenous movement. The choice of this mobilizing framework is not self-evident. First, the Crimean Tatars shared more commonalities with other Soviet “deported nationalities”, than with First Nations in Canada or Maori in New Zealand. Second, it is intuitive to suggest that in light of the prevailing Soviet-era classifications on “backward indigenous people” and “developed nations”, Crimean Tatars, who consider themselves an urbanized modern nation would find it contradictory to also identify as indigenous. Finally, while the global indigenous movement poses itself as a counterforce to the capitalist West, Crimean Tatars support the market economy and identify with European liberal values. In light of these paradoxes, this talk asks why Crimean Tatars chose to embrace indigenous identity and align with the global indigenous movement? How this indigenous political identity has been used as a tactic in the Crimean Tatars’ struggle for self-determination? To answer these questions, I will tackle the role of the state in shaping identities, the change in socio-economic conditions in the aftermath of the Soviet collapse, the rise and victories of the global indigenous movement, and the role of the intelligentsia in revisioning national history and popularizing the term “indigenous peoples”.

Mariia (Masha) Shynkarenko is a PhD Candidate in Politics Department at The New School. Her dissertation explores the instrumentalization of collective identities as tactics of resistance in the Crimean Tatars’ movement for self-determination. Her broader academic interests include nonviolent civil resistance, authoritarianism, and politics of history. Masha is currently an International Graduate Visiting Student at CERES and a Visiting Scholar in The Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia at NYU. Her article “Compliant Subjects? How the Tatars in Crimea Resist Russian Occupation” just came out in Communist and Post-communist Studies journal.