Crimea, a large peninsula sitting out in the Black Sea, was originally the home of the Crimean Tartars and was part of the Russian Empire from 1783. By the time of the 1917 Russian Revolution, Crimea was made up of a mixed population including Tartars, Muslims and Kariate Jews.
As World War I was still raging across Europe, the Germans took advantage of the turmoil in Russia by invading Crimea in