The government operated in Simferopol and controlled the territory of the Crimean peninsula from 1918 to 1919. It had two compositions: the government of Matvey Sulkevich (German-oriented government) and the government of Solomon Krym (part of the White movement).

 

German troops occupied the Crimean peninsula in April 1918 and entered Simferopol on April 21. On the same day, the Temporary Bureau of the Crimean Tatar Parliament was established to assume control over Crimea. The German command appointed General Matvey Sulkevich the Prime Minister. He began to form the Government and acted as the Minister of Internal and Military Affairs as well. The Government included Jafer Seidamet, the leader of the Crimean Tatars (Minister of Foreign Affairs), Thomas Rapp, German colonist (Minister of Agriculture), Vladimir Tatishchev (Minister of Finance), and others.

 

On June 25, 1918, the Declaration of the Crimean Regional Government was approved. It proclaimed the independence of the peninsula and the neutrality against all the belligerent powers. The Government observed loyalty to the German command and resisted the attempts of Pavel Skoropadsky to include Crimea in the Ukrainian State. The Russian laws adopted before the October Coup were preserved on the territory of the peninsula, the citizenship of Crimea was introduced, Russian, Crimean Tatar, and German were declared the state languages. It was supposed to hold elections to the Crimean parliament.

 

In October 1918, representatives of the Constitutional Democratic Party (Kadets) decided to remove the cabinet of Sulkevich from power with the support of the German command. They informed the leadership of the Volunteer Army in Yekaterinodar about the upcoming coup and asked for military support. Commander of the Volunteer Army Anton Denikin agreed and sent detachments of volunteers to Crimea. At the same time, the White leadership refused to support the government of Sulkevich because of the upcoming withdrawal of German troops. The cabinet of Sulkevich resigned on November 14–15, 1918, after the defeat of Germany in World War I. Warships of the Entente Powers arrived in Crimea at the end of November.

 

The second Crimean Regional Government was headed by the Kadet Solomon Krym. The cabinet included Kadets Maxim Vinaver (Minister of Foreign Affairs), Vladimir Nabokov (Minister of Justice), Nikolay Bogdanov (Minister of Internal Affairs), and others. The Government supported the idea of ​​a united and indivisible Russia and considered itself the prototype of the future All-Russian Government. It had an agreement with the leadership of the Whites on its non-interference in the internal affairs of the Crimea and the complete independence of the Volunteer Army in military command. Since the Crimean Tatars refused to enter the Government and evaded mobilization into the Volunteer Army, the Bureau of the Crimean Tatar Parliament was accused of having ties with Turkey to secede from Russia and was arrested.

 

Soviet troops under the command of Pavel Dybenko approached Perekop at the end of March 1919. Members of the government left the peninsula in April and it was soon occupied by the Reds.