Abstract: New statistics on partitions (called cranks) are defined which combinatorially prove Ramanujan's congruences for the partition function modulo 5, 7, 11, and 25. Explicit bijections are given for the equinumerous crank classes. The cranks are closely related to the t-core of a partition. Using q-series, some explicit formulas are given for the number of partitions which are t-cores. Some related questions for self-conjugate and distinct partitions are discussed.