More than half of Kerch's Italians opposed the move to hand over their land to the collective farm, and those who could, fled and tried to return to Italy.

With the outbreak of World War II and the invasion of the Soviet Union by the Wehrmacht in June 1941, the population of Italian origin residing there were declared an enemy of the people and, on the basis of a census carried out by the German Wehrmacht, were deported to Kazakhstan and Siberia in three waves of deportations for alleged collaboration with the enemy "for their own security".

On 12 September 2015, a delegation of the 'Cerkio' association (an organization that represents ethnic Italians in Crimea) led by its president, Giulia Giacchetti Boico, and Silvio Berlusconi, met Vladimir Putin in Yalta.

After the medieval crusades, Genoese and Venetian merchants discovered Crimea as a favorable location for their trade missions to Asia.

They founded the towns of Balaklava, Yalta, Alushta, Sudak, Feodosia and Kerch as branches on the southern coast, which still exist today.

[4] In 1340 Toloktomur, then emir of Solgat, in Crimea, offered the city of Kerch with its port and surrounding area to the Venetians, so that they would be as complete masters of it as the Genoese Kafa (Italian: Caffa).

In general, the colonists were attracted by the promise of good earnings, abundance of fish in the seas surrounding Crimea, fertile land to cultivate.

After this period the young people take Russian citizenship, which here does not create any difficulty, and thus achieve the dual purpose of greater freedom and profit for their businesses by avoiding military service both in Italy and in Russia[15]In 1830 and in 1870, two distinct migrations arrived in Kerch from the cities of Trani, Bisceglie and Molfetta.

A later wave of Italians came at the beginning of 20th century, invited by Imperial Russian authorities to develop agricultural activities, mainly grape cultivation.

From Kerch, the Italians moved to Feodosiya (the former Genoese colony of Caffa), Simferopol, Mariupol and to other Imperial Russian seaports of the Black Sea, such as Batumi and Novorossiysk.

Some moved to Kafa, Simferopol, Odessa, Mykolaiv, Mariupol, Berdyansk and some other Black Sea ports, such as Batumi and Novorossiysk.

They were relatives and acquaintances of the emigrants of 1820 attracted by advantageous offers of land which the tsar sold at a good price, after which the agricultural population of Kerch prevailed.

On 18 March 1918, the Italian royal agent of Kafa informed the minister that the return migration had to be stopped due to the military invasion of Odesa by troops of the German Empire and Austria-Hungary (Operation Faustschlag).

The Italian military mission communicates that it has been decided that no amnesty will be granted to citizens guilty of desertion during the ongoing war.

[22] Pyotr Wrangel, general of the White Army, helped approximately 150,000 people escape to Constantinople between April and November 1920.

Among them were numerous Italian families from Kerch, some of whom had to wait up to two years to obtain permission to enter Italy due to bureaucratic problems.

They infiltrated the community, gave standard Italian language lessons, carried out anti-fascist propaganda and reported to the NKVD.

Italian teachers were fired by school authorities for being incompetent in educating children in the USSR and were exchanged for Moscow staff oriented towards party guidelines.

The initiative received the full support of the Soviet authorities, but encountered strong resistance, especially among wealthy Italians in Kerch.

The largest collective farm was the Armenian one, followed by the Italian one with 870 hectares of land and a herd of 80 cows, 200 sheep and pigs and a dozen horses.

More than half of Kerch's Italians opposed the move to hand over their land to the collective farm, and those who could, fled and tried to return to Italy.

[27] In particular, 204 Italians were accused of spying for Italy and counter-revolutionary activity, arrested, tortured and summarily sentenced to years of forced labor in the gulags of Kazakhstan and Siberia, where most were exposed to cold, hunger and succumbed to fatigue.

They asked for help to return to Italy, their ancestral homeland, or for intervention to obtain a residence permit, which was denied by the Soviet authorities.

The requests for repatriation were much higher than the forecasts of the consul general of Odessa, who reported repression, searches, seizures, arrests and deportations of Italians during collectivization.

With the outbreak of World War II and the invasion of the Soviet Union by the Wehrmacht in June 1941,[34] the population of Italian origin residing there was declared an enemy of the people and, on the basis of a census carried out by the German Wehrmacht, was deported to Kazakhstan and Siberia in three waves of deportations for alleged collaboration with the enemy "for their own security".

Bartolomeo Evangelista, accused by the Soviet authorities of having continued to carry out his duties as chief engineer at the Kerch dry dock during the German occupation of the city, reported: On the night of 29 January 1942 I was taken from the pre-trial detention cell to Major Khvatov, head of the NKVD of the city of Kerch.

[...][38]Most of the children and elderly people deported to the Russian Far East died from fatigue, cold, hunger and disease during a week-long journey.

These include increases in pensions, discounts on medicines and transport, exemption from school fees, free colonies for children and economic support for the return to Crimea for those still living in the places of deportation.

[47][48] On 28 July 2008, under the presidency of Giulia Giacchetti Boico, the association CERKIO (Community of Emigrants in the Region of Krimea - Italians of Origin) was founded.

On 12 September 2015, a delegation of the 'Cerkio' association (an organization that represents ethnic Italians in Crimea) led by its president, Giulia Giacchetti Boico, and Silvio Berlusconi met Vladimir Putin in Yalta.