Memet İsmail Qubayev (; 1885 – after 1937) was a Soviet Crimean Tatar politician who served as Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the

Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic Several different governments controlled the Crimean Peninsula during the period of the Soviet Union, from the 1920s to 1991. The government of Crimea from 1921 to 1936 was the Crimean Autonomous Socialist Soviet Republic, which was an Autonomo ...

from 1928 to 1931. During Qubayev's tenure, thousands of Crimean Tatars lost their land and were deported to the Urals as part of collectivisation and

dekulakization Dekulakization (; ) was the Soviet campaign of Political repression in the Soviet Union#Collectivization, political repressions, including arrests, deportations, or executions of millions of supposed kulaks (prosperous peasants) and their familie ...

campaigns.

Biography

Memet İsmail Qubayev was born in 1885 in the village of Körbekül (now known as ), in the

Taurida Governorate Taurida Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Russian Empire. It included the territory of the Crimean Peninsula and the mainland between the lower Dnieper River with the coasts of the Black Sea and Sea o ...

of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. By trade, Qubayev was a shoemaker, and he was illiterate. He first began to align with communism in 1918, as part of a general shift by

Crimean Tatars Crimean Tatars (), or simply Crimeans (), are an Eastern European Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group and nation indigenous to Crimea. Their ethnogenesis lasted thousands of years in Crimea and the northern regions along the coast of the Blac ...

from Milliy Firqa to the Russian Communist Party. During the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

, he was a member of a partisan detachment. He was also involved in spreading propaganda opposing the

White movement The White movement,. The old spelling was retained by the Whites to differentiate from the Reds. also known as the Whites, was one of the main factions of the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922. It was led mainly by the Right-wing politics, right- ...

South Russia South Russia may refer to: * Southern Russia * South Russia (1919–1920), a territory that existed during the Russian Civil War in Ukraine and the north Caucasus See also * South Russian Ovcharka, a breed of sheepdog * Southern Russian dialects ...

, for which he was imprisoned. After Crimean Tatar communist leader Veli İbraimov was removed from his position as Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Crimean ASSR, Qubayev was selected as his replacement, becoming chairman on 28 January 1928. During İbraimov's subsequent murder trial, Qubayev served as a public prosecutor alongside fellow Crimean Tatar communists

İlyas Tarhan İlyas Ümer oğlu Tarhan (; 1900 – 17 April 1938) was a Soviet Crimean Tatar journalist, playwright, and politician who served as Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Crimean ASSR from 1931 to 1937. He was also an editor of th ...

, , and Abdulkadyr Gralov. During Qubayev's rule,

was actively carried out, leading to the dispossession and deportation of thousands of

kulak Kulak ( ; rus, кула́к, r=kulák, p=kʊˈɫak, a=Ru-кулак.ogg; plural: кулаки́, ''kulakí'', 'fist' or 'tight-fisted'), also kurkul () or golchomag (, plural: ), was the term which was used to describe peasants who owned over ...

s. According to a 1938 report by , chief of the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

in the Crimean ASSR, 16,000 people were stripped of their property and set to be evicted on 26 March 1930. 4,325 families from the Crimean ASSR were sent into exile between 1930 and 1931, with 2,772 being sent to the Ural Mountains and 1,553 to the

Northern Krai Northern Krai () was an administrative-territorial unit (''krai'') of the Russian SFSR from 1929 to 1936. Its seat was in the city of Arkhangelsk. The krai was located in the north of European Russia, and its territory is currently divided betwe ...

. By 1 May 1931, had been collectivised, primarily from Crimean Tatars. Qubayev protested these measures at a local party conference in

Dzhankoi Raion Dzhankoi Raion (, , ) is one of the 25 regions of Crimea, currently subject to a territorial dispute between the Russian Federation and Ukraine. Population: It is located in the northern part of the Crimean steppe near the Syvash Bay. The city of ...

, accusing the Soviet government of practicing

Great Russian chauvinism Great Russian chauvinism () is a term defined by the early Soviet government officials, most notably Vladimir Lenin, to describe an ideology of the "dominant exploiting classes of the nation, holding a dominant (sovereign) position in the state, de ...

in a matter that was destructive to Crimea's peoples, primarily the Crimean Tatars. In response to these statements, Qubayev was forcefully removed from the party and his position as Chairman of the Central Executive Committee. On 3 February 1937, Qubayev was arrested by the Soviet authorities and charged with involvement in a counter-revolutionary action and anti-Soviet agitation. On 29 June 1937, he was found guilty and sentenced to ten years of hard labour. On 12 June 1968, nearly 30 years after originally being charged, Qubayev was rehabilitated by the Soviet government.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Qubayev, Memet 1885 births Year of death unknown Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Crimean Tatar politicians Great Purge victims from Ukraine People from Yaltinsky Uyezd