May 18, 1944 – On Stalin’s orders, all Crimean Tatars were forcibly deported from Crimea.

The operation began around 5 AM on May 18, with NKVD officers knocking on every Crimean Tatar home. While 30,000 Crimean Tatar men fought in the Red Army, their wives, children, and elderly relatives were pushed into cattle cars under false accusations of “treason.”

Crimean Tatars were deported to Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, the Urals, and other Soviet republics. According to NKVD reports, by autumn 1944, 193,865 people remained in exile. In the first years, 15–46% of the deported population died from hunger and disease.

A mass return of Crimea’s indigenous people became possible only in the late 1980s, following a long and nonviolent struggle—simply for the right to live at home.

“Tamırlar” is a virtual Museum of Deportation, a multimedia platform preserving the stories of survivors who endured this horrific tragedy.