Ukraine 450,000 ethnic Germans from Ukraine and more than 200,000 Crimean Tatars were victims of forced deportations. Following the death of Stalin in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev became the new leader of the USSR. Having served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukrainian SSR in 1938–49, Khrushchev was intimately familiar with the republic; after taking power union-wide, he began to emphasize "the friendship" between the Ukrainian and Russian nations. In 1954, the 300th anniversary of the Treaty of Pereyaslav was widely celebrated. Crimea was transferred from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR. By 1950, the republic had fully surpassed
I Did What I Did for Maria album, "Definitive Collection", which reached number 1 in the UK Albums Chart in 2005. Paper Lace included this song on their 1974 album, "Paper Lace". I Did What I Did for Maria "I Did What I Did for Maria" is a song recorded by English singer Tony Christie. It was written and produced by Mitch Murray and Peter Callander, who were also responsible for Christie's "Las Vegas" and "Avenues and Alleyways". The song is about a widower who, on the eve of his execution, recalls how he remorselessly avenged his dead wife, hence the title. It was a number 2