In 1944 Joseph Stalin accused the entire Crimean Tatar nation of collaborating with the Nazis, and sentenced them to exile.

Like thousands of other Crimean Tatars, Musa's family was driven out of its home, they were loaded onto a cattle wagon and deported to Uzbek SSR.

Deported to the Mirzachul district of Tashkent oblast, he began working in a cotton mill despite being only 13 years old, and was frequently beaten by the commandants, on one occasion to the point of unconsciousness for being late to regular registration, something required of all Crimean Tatars in exile under the "special settler" system.

[6] During the era of Leonid Brezhnev the Crimean Tatar repatriation movement was supported by Soviet human rights activists, such as Petro Grigorenko and Andrei Sakharov.

[1][4][2] On 4 July 1978, Russian dissident Andrei Sakharov sent a letter to Leonid Brezhnev and asked him to assure the return of justice to Crimean Tatars.