The history of Crimea has been inseparably connected with the history of Russia since 1783, when the empress Ekaterina II accepted Crimea into Russia. With the disintegration of the unified country in 1991, Crimea, which in 1954 was transferred from RSFSR to Ukrainian SSR, ended up in another state, and its inhabitants became citizens of another country.
The processes of reunion of Crimea and Sevastopol with its mother country, Russia, required a lot of effort from the Crimeans and the Sevastopol people. It was in Crimea that on January 20, 1991, the first referendum in the history of USSR about the restoration of the Crimean Autonomous SSR took place. The historical significance of this referendum is in the fact that this was the first attempt to determine the fate of Crimea based on the direct expression of the will of its citizens. Altogether from January 1991 to August 1992 four referendums were organized in Crimea. Three of them were organized in 1991: on January 20, an all-Crimea one, on March 17, an all-Union one, on December 1, an all-Ukrainian one. Another all-Ukrainian referendum planned for August 2, 1992, did not take place due to the request of the Supreme Rada of Ukraine to cancel it. As it is, before 2014 the will of the electorate of Crimea – to be united with Russia – had not been implemented by the state authorities of Ukraine.
