The problem of Sevastopol's status in the context of the 1991 referendums

The article analyzes two referendums that took place in Sevastopol in 1991 and related to the issue of its administrative-territorial status: the referendum on January 20, 1991 on the status of Crimea (with a separate vote on the status of Sevastopol) and the referendum on December 1, 1991 on the independence of Ukraine. The research focuses on reconstructing the reasons for the city's participation in the January 20 vote on the "re–establishment of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic" and the appearance of the wording on the "union-republican" status of Sevastopol, as well as the consequences of the double vote, including the redistribution of power in the Sevastopol City Council in favor of the part of the deputy corps that followed in February–March 1991. It was determined to ignore the popular will on the issue of Sevastopol's status, to subordinate itself to the Crimean "party vertical" and at the same time – the loyal attitude to the issue of Ukraine's independence, which was put to a referendum by the leadership of the Ukrainian SSR after the adoption of the "Act of Independence" on December 1. The article analyzes the process of preparation for voting in Crimea and Sevastopol by local authorities in the context of the events that took place in Ukraine, the impact on this process of interaction between official structures and informal factors, public sentiment and their compliance with the results, and the course of vote counting in Sevastopol. Based on the results of the study, it was concluded that the official results of the vote on the independence of Ukraine in Sevastopol were significantly distorted in a "positive" way and did not correspond to the real sentiments of the citizens.