UNWELCOME AT HOME: POLITICS OF RACE IN CRIMEA IN THE EARLY 1990S

This article employs settler colonial theory to analyze the functioning of race as a discursive practice in early post-Soviet Crimea. Although the official Soviet ideology was anti-racist and promoted "equality" among different nationalities, Crimean Tatars faced discrimination on the basis of belonging to their national group. The fall of the USSR posed a serious threat to the Crimean settler colonial regime. The repatriation of Crimean Tatars, the indigenous people of Crimea, posed a direct demand for decolonization. This article shows how racial relations in Crimea existed in the space of "unspoken" politics, when words contradicted actions and when formalities camouflaged discrimination.