This volume provides the most up-to-date analysis of the ethnic cleansing of the Crimean Tatars, their exile in Central Asia and their struggle to return to the Crimean homeland. It also traces the formation of this diaspora nation from Mongol times to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
A theme which emerges through the work is the gradual construction of the Crimea as a national homeland by its indigenous Tatar population. It ends with a discussion of the post-Soviet repatriation of the Crimean Tatars to their Russified homeland and the social, emotional and identity problems involved.