Crimean autonomism in the context of the Crimean problem's emergence in Russian-Ukrainian relations (case study of 1918)

The paper examines the peculiarities of the development of Crimean autonomism in the context of the emergence within Russian-Ukrainian relations of 1918 - during the collapse of the Russian Empire and the Civil War in Russia. The shifts in the internal and external balance of power for post-imperial Russia, caused by the Febrarian and the Bolshevik Revolutions, as well as the process of state demarcation between Soviet Russia and the Ukrainian People's Republic, are analyzed. The forced recognition of the Ukrainian People's Republic by the leadership of the RSFSR is noted. This process was facilitated by the conclusion of the Brest Peace between the Soviet Russia and the states of the Quadruple Alliance headed by Germany. The prerequisites for the emergence of the Crimean problem in Russian-Ukrainian relations, the relationship of this problem with the occupation of the Crimea by Kaiser's Germany are analyzed. The features and models of the development of the Crimean autonomism are considered, as well as the reasons for the denial by the subjects of Crimean autonomism of the plans of the leadership of the UPR and the Ukrainian State of Hetman P.P. Skoropadsky on the incorporation of Crimea into Ukraine. Also centripetal tendencies in the development of Crimean autonomy in relation to Russian statehood, centrifugal aspirations of the Crimean Tatar political elites are considered.