*After [[Joseph Stalin]]’s death [[Nikita Khrushchev]], a Ukrainian, assumed power. Pandering to Ukrainian supporters, he unilaterally decreed that henceforth Crimea would be part of the Ukrainian SSR, not the Russian SSR. Since all 15 Republics of the [[USSR]] were under tight rule from [[Moscow]], the switch was a distinction without a difference — until the USSR fell apart. | *After [[Joseph Stalin]]’s death [[Nikita Khrushchev]], a Ukrainian, assumed power. Pandering to Ukrainian supporters, he unilaterally decreed that henceforth Crimea would be part of the Ukrainian SSR, not the Russian SSR. Since all 15 Republics of the [[USSR]] were under tight rule from [[Moscow]], the switch was a distinction without a difference — until the USSR fell apart. |