Divide and conquer is a favorite and time-tested method by which Russia keeps peoples in its empire. Chechens are cruel, Chukchi are stupid, Ukrainians are greedy, Crimean Tatars traitors - familiar narratives? Unfortunately, in some places we are still victims of them. How do Ukrainians overcome propaganda stereotypes about Crimean Tatars? First of all, know more. We have selected 9 books about the true history of Crimea and the Crimean Tatar people, which are worth reading in order to kill (or finish) the chauvinist in yourself.

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Gulnar Abdulaev “History of Crimea. A Short Story of a Great Journey”

From taverns, tribal unions and the first ancient cities to deportations, repressions and eventually occupation, this is a short but comprehensive study of the famous scientist and TV presenter who was forced to leave the peninsula in 2014, but continues to explore the history of Crimea and the Crimean Tatars.

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Rory Finnin “Blood of Others”

Rory Finnin is Professor of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Cambridge. He explores culture, national identity and colonialism in Ukraine. His book, whose full title “The Blood of Others: Stalin's Crimean Crime and the Poetics of Solidarity,” is about the deportation of Crimean Tatars and the “underground” works of dissidents who broke the silence about it both in the Soviet Union and abroad.

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Oleksa Haivoronskyi “Krajina Crimea” 

Detailed study of the architectural heritage of the Crimean Khanate by historian, writer and photographer Oleksy Haivoronsky. This book is not a guide for the tourist. The author focused on readers on the peninsula, so here - a deeper dive into already known historical topics: “These little things are important for us: because for us the Crimea is not a hotel room for the holidays, but our own home, in the walls of which the owner knows every crack.”

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Sergey Gromenko “250 years of falsehood”

Crimea is originally Russian land? Yes, no more. Crimean Tatars are traitors? Don't lie. The peninsula became part of Ukraine illegally, and Crimeans voted unanimously in a referendum to join Russia? The author methodically destroys the myths with which Russia feeds not only its citizens, but also the whole world.

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“History of Crimea and the Crimean Tatar people” (textbook)

A short guide to the history of Crimea for schoolchildren. Special attention is devoted to the origin and history of the Crimean Tatars. The Crimean Khanate, the “black age” of the Crimean Tatar people under the rule of the Russian Empire, the national revival at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the deportation of 1944, the struggle for the right to return to the homeland, the times of independent Ukraine and life under the new Russian occupation - all this in a popular, adapted for children form.

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Natalia Belitzer “Crimean Tatars as an Indigenous People”

“If there was Crimean Tatar autonomy, there would be no annexation,” said human rights activist Natalia Belitzer. In her book, she tells what it is, in fact, such - indigenous peoples, what rights they have under international law, and why Crimean Tatars are by no means a national minority.

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Evgenia Genova “Crimean Tatar Families”

14 stories of Crimean Tatar families united by common pain: memories of wars, persecutions, deportations, repressions. From generation to generation they are pursued by the same enemy, no matter what new name he came up with every time: whether it be the Russian Empire, the USSR, or the Russian Federation.

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Marina Hrymych “Umerovy” 

The history of the struggle of Crimean Tatars for the right to live and work in their homeland through the experience of one family - the Umerovs. A book about the life of Crimean Tatars after deportation, the birth of the national movement, details of the action “Moscow-1987", the backstage of Crimean politics in the 1990s and 2000s and the annexation of Crimea.

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Natalia Smirnova “Crimea Kerima”

Being a Crimean Tatar is a sentence. Carim realized this at 12. Deportation, a terrible journey in a freight car, the loss of relatives, the hard work abroad and the painful longing for the motherland - all this we see with children's eyes.

A recent dialogue between two writers - a Crimean Tatar and a Ukrainian woman - on Russian propaganda myths about Crimean Tatars, see hereto.

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