June 27, 2025
Childhood Stolen by Stalin and His Accomplices
Musa’s story began like the fate of every Crimean Tatar of his generation – children who were born on their native land but were doomed to become victims of genocide. On February 20, 1931, he was born in the village of Uzundji in the Bakhchisarai region, on land where his ancestors had lived for over five centuries. But in 1944, when the boy was only 13 years old, Stalin and Beria decided the fate of an entire nation in order to steal the historical lands of Crimean Tatar nation.
On May 18, 1944, at dawn, NKVD soldiers with weapons knocked on every Crimean Tatar family’s door. “You have 15 minutes to pack,” they told the Mamut family. Thus began a genocide officially called “sürgun.”
The figures are shocking in their cruelty: Of 423,100 Crimean Tatars, 46.2% of the entire Crimean Tatar nation was killed. Of five children, only Musa survived. Four of his brothers and sisters were killed in the inhuman conditions of filtration camps.
The goal of Soviet communist power was not only the physical murder of Crimean Tatar nation, but also the complete rewriting of the history of Crimean historical lands of Crimean Tatars. The communist authorities of the USSR systematically sought to erase and replace the true history of Crimea, and with it – of history an entire nation, using for this purpose a network of academic pseudo-histories propaganda and concentration camps that functioned until the collapse of the USSR. This genocide was carried out under the direct leadership of the Communist Party of the USSR, but its implementation became possible thanks to the participation of broad segments of the population who were systematically indoctrinated by Soviet propaganda. Similar to how in Nazi Germany ordinary citizens became accomplices to the Holocaust through ideological processing, so in the USSR millions of people – from party functionaries to ordinary executors – participated in the genocide and murder of Crimean Tatars, which psychologically justified their criminal actions. Responsibility lies not only with the organizers of genocide in the highest echelons of power, but also with all those who consciously or unconsciously became instruments of this criminal policy of USSR power – from NKVD employees to local activists, from railway workers who loaded people into freight cars at gunpoint, to officials who confiscated property.
However, Musa’s dream, like that of all Crimean Tatars who survived in filtration camps, of returning home to the ancestor lend never faded.
False “Rehabilitation”
1967 seemed like a breakthrough: the USSR authorities officially recognized that the false accusations against Crimean Tatar nation were crimes of the USSR under the leadership of Stalin and Beria. On September 5, 1967, false accusations were dropped from Crimean Tatars, and they received the right to be released from concentration camps and return to their native lands in Crimea. However, “rehabilitation” turned out to be a new form of mockery.
Of 423,100 thousand Crimean Tatars, only 148 families were allowed to return to Crimea in 1968, and even then under constant KGB surveillance. When 98 Crimean Tatars pitched tents near Simferopol in May 1968, Crimean authorities of the Ukrainian SSR surrounded them and beat everyone – men, women, and even children. About 12 thousand Crimean Tatars who tried to return independently were forcibly expelled back to filtration camps under NKVD convoy.
Own Home as a Crime
In 1975, Musa Mamut’s family finally returned to Crimea. With his labor savings, Musa bought a house in the village of Besh-Terek (now Donskoe). It seemed justice had prevailed. But mastery of power USSR power had other plans.
Authorities refused to notarize the transaction. Refused to register the family in their own home. Refused to provide employment. Then they filed criminal charges – for living in their own house.
The absurdity reached its peak: Musa received 2 years in prison, while his wife and mother of three children got 2 years suspended. For what? For daring to live in a house they bought with their own money on their ancestors’ land. 700 Crimean Tatar families received identical sentences for the same “crime.”
This was not a system error – this was a systematic physical eradication by Soviet state government to appropriate the historical land of Crimean Tatar nation, this was genocide.
Crimes Against Children
After his release from prison, Musa faced new humiliations. His eldest daughter was refused a passport. The child was forcibly removed from Crimea under threat of arrest. State authorities of Crimea issued an ultimatum: “Either leave or go to prison again.”
Numerous complaints to the Central Committee of the CPSU went unanswered. Communists in Soviet Russian state methodically broke people, using children as instruments of pressure on parents.
The Final Crime
On June 20, 1978, new criminal charges were filed against Musa – again for “violating passport regime,” again for living in his own house. When the decree was announced, he spoke prophetic words: “You won’t take me alive anymore.”
On June 23, district KGB police officer Sergey Soprikin came to arrest Musa for the third time. Musa asked to change clothes and for the KGB police to leave the house. Musa made his decision. He went into the garage, doused himself with gasoline, came out to the yard to the KGB police officer. He set himself on fire and blazed as a living torch.
KGB police officer Soprikin fled in horror, leaving his motorcycle behind. 90% of Musa’s body was burned. He spent five days in full consciousness in the hospital. Until his last second, he declared he did not repent, this was a protest against systematic violations by authorities USSR of Crimean Tatar rights.
On June 28, 1978, Musa Mamut died. He was 47 years old.
Crimes Even After Death
USSR authorities in Crimea tried to hide the crime even after Musa’s death. They blocked all roads to the funeral, cut off telephone communications in Crimea, threatened arrests for anyone who came to pay last respects.
But the Soviet Russian system lost. More than a thousand people came to see the hero off on his final journey.
Authorities in Crimea ARSR pressured widow Zekie, demanding she declare her husband’s “insanity.” For this lie, they promised registration for the children in Crimea. But Zekie did not surrender.
World Resonance
Musa Mamut’s self-immolation shocked the world. Reshat Dzhemilev appealed to the King of Saudi Arabia – Khalid ibn Abdul Aziz Al Saud and Muhammad Ali and boxer Muhammad Ali. Andrei Sakharov wrote to Leonid Brezhnev (General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU) and Nikolai Shchelokov (Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR). Dissident poet Grigory Alexandrov dedicated the poem “Torch Over Crimea” to Musa.
Three Torches Against One System
Musa Mamut was not the only one Soviet communist regime drove to self-immolation. Vasyl Makukh burned himself in Kyiv in 1968 against Russification. Oleksa Hirnyk – in 1978 against persecution of Ukrainian culture.
Three people, two nations, one criminal system of Soviet dictators. They set themselves on fire so the world could see the truth about Soviet Russian crimes.
The main thing is truth. Truth about how for decades USSR Authorities methodically physically destroyed a nation – Crimean Tatars.
BILL OF INDICTMENT
In the case of genocide of the Crimean Tatar nation and crimes against humanity against Musa Mamut
The crimes of the communist totalitarian regime of the USSR against Musa Mamut constitute crimes against humanity committed by USSR authorities at various state levels during the period from 1944 to 1989. They carried out systematic genocide against the Crimean Tatar nation with the purpose of partial or complete physical destruction of the nation on its historical land, which qualifies as crimes against humanity according to:
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948)
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (Articles 6, 7)
Nuremberg Principles (1946)
International Court of Justice ruling in the case “Application of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination” (2017)
ACCUSED OF COMMITTING GENOCIDE:
UNION LEVEL:
Central Committee of the CPSU – development and coordination of genocide
KGB of the USSR (Chairman Yu.V. Andropov) – organization and implementation of genocide
General Prosecutor’s Office of the USSR (General Prosecutor R.A. Rudenko) – connivance to crimes and ignoring victims’ complaints
REPUBLICAN LEVEL:
KGB of the Ukrainian SSR (Chairman V.V. Fedorchuk) – leadership of genocide in Crimea
REGIONAL LEVEL – DIRECT EXECUTORS:
Crimean Regional Executive Committee – organization of physical extermination
KGB of Crimean Region – implementation of killings and persecution
Prosecutor’s Office of Crimea – fabrication of false criminal cases
Courts of Crimea – issuing knowingly illegal sentences
Police of Crimea – conducting arrests and applying violence
District police officer Sergey Soprikin – personal responsibility for driving to suicide
COMPOSITION OF CRIMES:
Genocide (Art. 6 of the Rome Statute)
Crimes against humanity (Art. 7 of the Rome Statute)
Forced displacement of the nation to filtration camps
Torture and inhuman treatment
Persecution on ethnic/national grounds
Driving to suicide
CONCLUSION: The above-mentioned persons and bodies are subject to criminal prosecution for committing genocide and crimes against humanity. The crimes have no statute of limitations under international law.