Crimea during WW1

This #Bonusnote was created to supplement the #Detailnote "14_A New Nation", and covers the Crimean Peninsula during the first World War.

• The Crimean People's Republic was established on December 25, 1917. It constituted one of the first attempts by an Islamic group to build a secular state.
• In January 1918, the Bolsheviks took over and subsequently declared the Taurida Republic.
• They were soon overrun by German forces, who let it remain independent of Ukraine.
• In September 1918, Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky declared an economic blockade and forced the region to join the Hetmanate.
• This didn't last long, as the German retreat brought to power a new government led by Solomon Krym.
• From June 1919, Crimea was under the control of the White Army, first under General Denikin and then under General Wrangel.
• Wrangel wanted to restore the Russian Empire out of this territory but was defeated by the Bolsheviks. They entered Yalta on November 17 and massacred 50,000 officers and soldiers left behind by Wrangel (who fled the peninsula), the largest mass killing of the war.