Crimean Tatars in the Soviet Union, with Greta Uehling

Today's voicemails are taken from Greta Uehling's book, Beyond Memory: The Crimean Tatars' Deportation and Return. 

In this episode, I talk about the history of the Crimean Tatars, a group considered to be Europe's oldest surviving Muslim community. On the 18th of May 1944, Joseph Stalin ordered the en masse deportation of 191,000 Crimean Tatars, signalling an astounding break from previous Soviet policy towards ethnic groups in the late 1920s. I consider how the study of Crimean Tatars challenges the idea that Europe and Asia are 'different' from each other and how the Crimean Tatars have formed a unique sense of belonging in this world.