MM_Dandy wrote:Or before that, whenever it was that the Soviets made Crimea part of the Ukraine.
1954, under the leadership of Comrade Khrushchev.
MM_Dandy wrote:I suppose back then, though, they pretty much considered one part of the Union the same as any other.
I think that was supposed to be the idea.
It sure seems like that would have diminished the problem - it may not have eliminated it, though, since other parts of the Ukraine are quite "Russian".
Papa Stalin is often considered the author of many of today's ethnic troubles, for arranging people and boundaries in a way that conflict was likely to erupt if ever they found themselves out from under the Soviet Union. Possibly deliberately.