Today, in temporarily occupied Crimea, Russian occupiers and local collaborators are celebrating events dedicated to the 35th anniversary of the Crimean referendum, which was held on January 20, 1991. Later, the Verkhovna Rada of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea declared January 20 as the Day of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. After the Russian occupation of Crimea, January 20 was established as the "Day of the Republic of Crimea."

I do not exclude that among Ukrainian politicians, there will also be those who will gladly congratulate the society "on the holiday." After all, there are enough useful idiots in the Ukrainian political scene.

To explain the essence of the referendum “on the state and legal status of Crimea,” held at the end of the USSR’s existence on January 20, 1991, it is necessary to make a brief historical excursus on Crimea.

1. The Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Crimean ASSR), established on October 18, 1921, was liquidated on June 30, 1945, by the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR "On the transformation of the Crimean ASSR into the Crimean Oblast of the RSFSR."

The law of the Russian RSFSR "On the abolition of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR and on the transformation of the Crimean ASSR into the Crimean Oblast" dated June 25, 1946, which approved the abolition of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR and the transformation of the Crimean ASSR into the Crimean Oblast, cited as the reason for their liquidation that "many Chechens and Crimean Tatars joined German-organized volunteer units and fought alongside German troops against units of the Red Army, ... whereas the majority of the population of the Chechen-Ingush and Crimean ASSRs did not resist these traitors of the Motherland, ... consequently, the Chechens and Crimean Tatars were resettled to other regions of the USSR..."

Thus, the Kremlin’s logic was obvious: no indigenous peoples on their land because they were expelled – therefore, no autonomy.

2. The Crimean Tatar people were forcibly held in special settlements until the approval on November 11, 1989, of the Declaration of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR "On recognizing illegal and criminal repressive acts against peoples subjected to forced resettlement and ensuring their rights."

The Crimean Tatar national movement, one of the largest national-democratic movements during the USSR, focused its demands and actions during exile on achieving two interconnected goals – the return of the Crimean Tatar people to their homeland and the restoration of their national-territorial autonomy. It was precisely to achieve these goals that the Crimean Tatar people and national movement participants sacrificed themselves, courageously enduring the hardships and deprivations of Soviet prisons and camps, and openly opposing the authoritarian regime.

3. The mass demonstrations of Crimean Tatars in the summer of 1987 on Red Square in Moscow demanding return to Crimea and restoration of national autonomy, which attracted the world's attention to the tragedy of the Crimean Tatar people, forced the USSR political leadership to publicly state its position, which practically justified the deportation of the Crimean Tatars.

The State Commission, established on July 9, 1987, by the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee and headed by the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR A.A. Gromyko, after a year of its "work," on June 9, 1988, issued a decision justifying the impossibility and impracticality of both the return of Crimean Tatars to Crimea and the need to change the regional status of Crimea.

This decision caused an explosion of outrage among the Crimean Tatar people and served as a kind of trigger that began the mass de facto return of Crimean Tatars to their homeland.

4. The mass return of Crimean Tatars, which started despite the official position of the Soviet authorities and grew daily, as well as dynamic political processes in the USSR, including the adoption of the above-mentioned Declaration "On recognizing illegal and criminal repressive acts against peoples subjected to forced resettlement and ensuring their rights," forced the Kremlin and the Crimean Communist authorities to urgently create new obstacles that could prevent, amid the inevitable return of the indigenous people of Crimea, the restoration of their national-territorial autonomy.

Another factor that forced Moscow to change its previous statement about the sufficiency of Crimea’s existing regional status, voiced by A. Gromyko in 1988, was the rapid strengthening of the national-democratic movement in Ukraine, perceived by the Kremlin as a harbinger of Ukraine’s independence.

Thus, these two factors, —

1. The mass return of the Crimean Tatar people and their aspiration for self-determination in the form of national-territorial autonomy in their homeland,
2. The Ukrainian nation's aspiration for independence, prompted Moscow to urgently hold the referendum "on the state and legal status of Crimea" in January 1991.

5. Following direct instructions from Moscow, the decision to hold the referendum on January 20, 1991, was made at the session of the Crimean Regional Council of People's Deputies held from September 7 to 13, 1990. The main idea of the referendum initiators – to substitute the subject of self-determination in Crimea – was cynically written in the decision as follows: "The Crimean Regional Council of People's Deputies believes that the determination of Crimea’s state status should be based on the will of the people of Crimea."

In fact, a few months before the collapse of the USSR and with the complete connivance of the then leadership of the Ukrainian SSR, a time bomb with a slow ticking mechanism was planted, intended by Moscow to be triggered in case of the impossibility of further keeping Ukraine under its control.

The Crimean Tatar people, most of whom were still in places of exile, declared a total boycott of the planned referendum; no Crimean Tatar among the tens of thousands who had by that time managed to return to Crimea participated in the referendum.

However, despite the resolute protests of Crimean Tatars against ignoring the indigenous people's right to self-determination on their land and the cynicism of determining Crimea’s status by voting of citizens who settled on the peninsula after the deportation of Crimean Tatars, the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic on February 12, 1991, adopted the Resolution "On the restoration of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic."

Thus, on the territory of Ukraine, several months before its declaration of independence, Crimean autonomy was created, where the legislative monopoly of the Russian ethnic majority was established with the absolute suppression of the rights of the Crimean Tatar people and ethnic Ukrainians.