The face of Crimea: Books about the past and present of the peninsula

On May 18, 2025, Ukraine commemorates the victims of the genocide of the Indigenous people of Crimea — Qırımlı — and remembers over 200,000 people who were deported by Soviet authorities in 1944.

Some of them returned home, while others died or settled down in the regions of deportation. Unfortunately, since the Russian occupation of 2014, Crimeans have been forced to leave their homes again and go into temporary exile. Despite its annexation, Crimea continues to be both a character and setting for Ukrainian literature. To learn more about the history and culture of the Crimean peninsula, we have prepared a selection of recently published books about Crimea.

“Free Voices of Crimea” by Olesya Yaremchuk, Anastasiia Levkova, Rustem Khalil, Oleksandra Yefymenko, Eugenia Genova, Eva Raiska and Iryna Slavinska

Vivat, 2025

“Free Voices of Crimea” is a new joint project of PEN Ukraine, The Ukrainians Media, Zmina, and Vivat Publishing House and was created with the support of the National Endowment for Democracy. The book collects the stories of Crimean journalists who became political prisoners. Not all of them were engaged in journalism before the annexation of Crimea, but they consciously took on the risk to continue the struggle and resistance.

The book’s focus on Crimean political prisoners is not accidental, since Russia does not recognize them as citizens of Ukraine, which makes it harder to bring them back to freedom than prisoners of war.

Unlike most books about Crimea, which typically focus on reconstructing the peninsula’s past before the annexation and retelling its history, this work does not depict a Crimea suspended in time. Instead, it presents the region’s present-day reality and the challenges it faces.

Every chapter describes the lives of Crimean journalists before and after their arrests. To create these portraits, the book’s authors spoke with the political prisoners’ loved ones and collected what available information they could about them. In the Ukrainian information space, people living in the occupied territories often remain in the shadows. “Free Voices of Crimea” describes the conditions under which Crimean Tatars work and try to remain free on their own land.

At times, the book encourages us to reconsider how we perceive Crimean Tatars and their needs. In the story of Remzi Bekirov, the author explains that before 2014 there was no souvenir merchandise in Crimea that, for example, offered greetings for Ramadan. Together with his wife, Bekirov created and sold products with Crimean Tatar and Islamic symbols, but after 2014, this became impossible, despite there being no formal ban. This story illustrates not only the oppression in the occupied territories but also the specific nature of life and the needs of Crimean Tatar communities. 

The book brings the names and stories of political prisoners back into the public space, making their work visible.

“House of Salt” by Svitlana Taratorina

Vivat, 2023

“House of Salt” by Svitlana Taratorina is a post-apocalyptic fantasy novel and an alternative history of Crimea, the author’s homeland. The book is dedicated to Taratorina’s grandmother, who is currently waiting to return home.

The title of the novel is not accidental. The author tells the reader about the sunny Kimmerik peninsula that is seized by the Big Brothers and suffers from technogenic disasters called flashes. The peninsula turns into an arid desht. Kimmerick suffers from suer, which means “salty water of the earth,” a mutagen that turns people into “the salted ones.” In one of her interviews, the author admitted that she came up with this image when she learned about the cutoff of fresh water supply from the Dnipro River to Crimea from Ukraine. No surprise that one of the characters of the novel says, “You can’t drink more than four sips of someone else’s water.”

The invaders have to hide at their research station and try to understand the causes of the flashes. It turns out that the suer does not affect all people. The warrior Talavir and the boy Bekir, who lives with his doctor mother, are immune. Humany can be saved by the “Golden Cradle,” a semi-mythical relic which the Big Brothers, the spirits of Kimmerik, and mutated monsters set out to search for. Whoever gets it will have power over the peninsula in their hands.

In her book, Taratorina used allusions to other works of fiction in the fantasy and alternative history genres as well as to films about the post-apocalyptic future. On the pages of this epic novel (560 pages!), we recognize references to George Orwell with his Big Brother, frames or pages from Frank Herbert’s “Dune,” and we recall battle scenes from “Star Wars.”

This novel is not easy to read if you’re new to the genre. From the very first page, the text “attacks” the reader with complex words, laws, post-apocalyptic phenomena, and a new reality that one must get used to.

This novel is composed not only of allusions and references to other literary works. It also contains various parallels with the present time and the history of Crimea. The year of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars by the Soviet authorities, 1944, is mentioned. The novel includes words from the Crimean Tatar language. Taratorina also writes about the peninsula’s traditions, myths, and legends. For her, this is an important part of introducing the reader to a Crimea which has been unknown and forgotten until now.

“The Lost Island: A book of reportage from the occupied Crimea” by Natalia Humeniuk

 The Old Lion Publishing House, 2020

Crimea became Russia’s first victim in the war against Ukraine. Journalists write reports, record interviews, and collect memories of everyone who saw the Russian invasion with their own eyes.

Natalia Humeniuk is a Ukrainian journalist. Between 2014 and 2019, she traveled to occupied Crimea to collect people’s testimonies, amounting to evidence of Russian aggression. After the occupation, Crimea became an island for Ukrainians – cut off politically, culturally, and informationally.

“For me, not talking about the reality of Crimea means giving it away, accepting the status quo. Of course, one can wait until a big Western media outlet legally enters there, and yet it’s not their story, not their wound,” Humeniuk says.

Humeniuk emphasizes that the situation in Crimea is changing and that we cannot remain focused only on the events of 2014. She says that it is necessary to stay alert and maintain contact with our people under occupation, to tell their stories not only to Ukrainians but to the whole world.

The book is about civic activists, Ukrainian language teachers, retired Ukrainian soldiers, the qırımlı (Crimean Tatars), and relatives of filmmaker Oleg Sentsov and others who have been unjustly arrested. The situation on the peninsula continues to get worse and worse. Crimeans are forced to obtain Russian passports, remove Ukrainian license plates from their cars, and are forbidden to run businesses or practice Islam. The qırımlı are accused of terrorism and extremism, imprisoned, and unlawfully tried.

Let’s not forget that the separatists are reaping the bitter fruits of the “Crimean Spring” (that is the way Russian propaganda calls the process of annexation of the peninsula). Some activists still believe in Ukraine and wait for liberation, but the majority of respondents are coming to terms with reality and getting used to living by the Russian laws.

Foreign rights sold to German language.

“There is Land Beyond Perekop” by Anastasiia Levkova

Laboratoriya, 2023

The author of the “There is Land Beyond Perekop” (Perekop is the name of a settlement on the isthmus that connects Crimea to mainland Ukraine) is the coordinator of the literary contest Crimean Fig/Qırım inciri and the co-editor of the “Qırım inciri. Çavir” anthologies of Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar prose, poetry, and translations. Levkova’s work and creativity are deeply intertwined with the peninsula. According to her, this book is an ode to Crimea, covering the period from the late 1980s to August 2014.

The main character and narrator is a girl with Russian blood in her veins whose family has a dubious past: her grandfather was a KGB lieutenant colonel. At the same time, she is friends with Ukrainian Aliona and qırımlı Aliya. Readers go through the stages of growing up with the protagonists. We see how a small and immature girl becomes a conscious citizen. Her choice is to be Ukrainian, despite her own family history.

The title of the novel challenges the Crimean saying, “Beyond Perekop, there is no land.” It reflects a long-standing political and cultural divide between the peninsula and the mainland.

The most disturbing part is that, for Ukrainians, this saying was also relevant. The author believes that no one was truly interested in the land beyond the isthmus. Ukrainians were interested in Crimea mainly as a seaside and resort destination. The lives of the Qırımlı and the Karaites (Indigenous peoples of the peninsula) were not connected to broader Ukrainian culture or society.

Life on the peninsula changed on February 27, 2014, and Crimeans were forced to choose: to leave for the mainland, to remain under occupation and wait for liberation, or to become part of the new system.

The novel includes friendship, first love, a family story that often intertwines with the history of a people, coming of age, and the search for an answer to the question “Who am I?”

The novel is based on stories of real people. The author conducted around 200 interviews with Crimeans to form a comprehensive image of the peninsula. Literary scholar Rostyslav Semkiv calls the novel both cultural and ethnographic, as it focuses primarily on identity – Ukrainian, Crimean Tatar, and pro-Russian.

Foreign rights sold to Slovakian language

“History of Crimea: A short story of a long journey” by Gulnara Abdulayeva

Vikhola, 2024

The publication of “The History of Crimea” is a great event. Its author, Gulnara Abdulayeva, is a historian of Crimean Tatar origin who specializes in the history of Crimea and the Crimean Tatars.

The book shows a balanced viewpoint on the history of Crimea and a well-substantiated dismantling of Russian myths about the peninsula. The author offers a detailed exploration of the Crimean Tatars’ fight for freedom and their historical statehood, shedding light on the governmental organization of the Khanate (the process of electing khans) and delivering an in-depth narrative on the era of the Crimean Democratic Republic as well as the broader modern history of Crimea.

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The book also offers excellent coverage of lesser-known topics in the history of the peninsula, such as the man-made famine in Crimea from 1921 to 1923 and the Soviet repressions of the 1930s. It dismantles a number of Russian and Soviet stereotypes, such as the myth of slavery and the treatment of Christians in the Crimean Khanate (a narrative promoted to incite interethnic and interfaith hostility) and the claim of widespread collaboration among Crimean Tatars during World War II. As the author points out, when it came to accusations of collaboration, the Soviet Union’s goal was “to start interethnic enmity, not to question where the data came from, since party decisions and its internal statistics were not subject to discussion.”

“The Wild West of Eastern Europe” by Pavlo Kazarin

 Vivat, 2021/ibidem 2024

This book comprises a series of essays by Ukrainian journalist Pavlo Kazarin. The author emphasizes that “this book is simply an attempt to make sense of the people and events that have changed us.” Although the entire work isn’t focused solely on the peninsula, Crimea appears repeatedly throughout the essays. Kazarin, who was born in Crimea and spent 30 years there, dedicates the opening chapter to his native land, which is now under enemy control.

The author writes about the issue of national identity on the peninsula, the shock of rapid changes that, for example, saw Ukrainian flags on government buildings replaced by Russian ones, the rise of the Ukrainian blog sphere as an alternative source of information, and more. One chapter is devoted to reflections on the “empire of evil” – the multi-level expansionist policies of the Kremlin.

In an essay written before the full-scale invasion, the journalist states: “The war is not about physical survival, but about questions of self-identification and self-actualization.” Kazarin analyzes the situation in Ukraine, drawing parallels with Israel and Yugoslavia, and reflects on the consequences of decades of pro-Russian sentiment for the country.

One section of the book delves into the information space, where the author reflects on a world in which “media ‘for everyone’ have given way to media ‘for their own.’” Looking ahead, Kazarin expresses confidence that “we’ve started to emerge from the swamp,” and maintains that “all our disagreements are simply growing pains.” Kazarin’s work carries the tone of a forewarning of significant transformation, one which is rooted in his own experiences and emotional perspective.

The book is available in English and German (ibidem, 2024).

“Qırım inciri. Çavir” by Alim Aliev and Anastasiia Levkova

 The Old Lion Publishing House, 2021

Every year, as a result of the Crimean Fig/Qırım inciri project, an anthology of the same name is published by the Old Lion Publishing House. The book includes prose and poetry, children’s literature about Crimea in Ukrainian, prose and poetry in the Crimean Tatar language, as well as translated works of art from Ukrainian to Crimean Tatar and vice versa.

The diversity of genres makes it possible to hear the voices of contemporary literature and learn more about the culture and life of Crimea, both the occupied and the one that was before 2014.

“Kerim’s Crimea” by Nataliia Smyrnova

Portal, 2021

In preparation for writing this book, the author researched not only the history and reasons for the deportation of the Crimean Tatars but also studied their culture, traditions, everyday life, crafts, and cuisine. This is what the book’s 12-year-old Kerim tells readers about while his people are experiencing one of the most difficult times in their long history.

In speaking about her book, Smyrnova admitted that she couldn’t directly write about the reasons for the deportation because neither little Kerim, nor his father, nor his grandfather knew them. The Qırımlı were deported from their homes in freight trains, and Kerim’s family went through this experience as well.

Despite the injustice, the deaths, and the lack of food and water, these people continued to believe in a better future. In the story, Kerim’s grandfather, Asan, becomes a symbol of wisdom and integrity. His character resembles Moses, whose destiny is to lead his people home after wandering through the desert. He tells his grandson legends and parables, passes on wisdom, and nurtures a sense of patriotism. The grandfather says: “We can achieve anything when we are together.”

Kerim tells about historical events with a certain innocence – the way a child would. The story describes traditional ceremonies, and we see them through the eyes of a boy who attends a wedding and learns folk songs and dances.

Despite the challenging topic – one that is difficult to talk about with both children and adults – this book is life-affirming. It is about hope and victory, important truths that encourage us to stay united in order to resist the enemy. The author identifies the reason behind the Qırımlı’s cohesion as their desire not to lose themselves entirely, to preserve their identity.

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Translation: Iryna Saviuk

Copy editing: Jayson MacLean