Soviet Transnationalism: Urban Milieus, Deterritorialization, and People's Friendship in the Late Soviet Union

Florin, Moritz; Zeller, Manfred

doi:10.1353/imp.2018.0095

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…In fact, the Soviet link between a nation and its territory usually became most apparent when it was broken: the deportation of national groups in the wake of the Second World War and their subsequent desire to return to their homes is a well-known example (Conquest 1970; Nekrich 1978). The impact of economic development and labor migration after the Second World War is a more subtle, less studied, and perhaps even more important case, as recent calls for a “transnational turn” of Soviet nationality studies have rightly pointed out (Siegelbaum and Moch 2016; Florin and Zeller 2018). While nationwide industrialization and socioeconomic modernization changed the composition of local communities (Kotov 2001, 83–88), the political regulation of nationality did not adapt.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soviet National Autonomy in the 1920s: The Dilemmas of Ukraine’s Jewish Population

Raspe

2022

Nationalities Papers

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This article examines the Soviet system of territorial autonomy by studying its impact on the Jewish population of Soviet Ukraine in the 1920s. While the new Soviet state created national republics, districts, and village councils for its non-Russian nationalities, Ukraine’s Jewish population was faced with a dilemma: Ukrainian Jews lived predominantly in cities, but urban space could not be claimed for Jewish territorial autonomy because the Soviet government hoped that peasant immigration would produce a Ukrainian working class. Without an autonomous status, many Jews felt threatened by the increasing influx of Ukrainians and the spread of Ukrainian-language institutions. Offered as a consolation prize, the Soviet Yiddishization initiative failed to cater to the needs of many Jews who preferred the Russian language as a means for social mobility. Attempts to resettle urban Jews in compact agricultural colonies suitable for territorial autonomy never reached the necessary scale. In conclusion, this article argues that the incompatibility of Soviet territorial autonomy with Ukrainian Jewish needs anticipated the Soviet state’s inability to accommodate the increasingly urban, heterogeneous, transnational, multilingual, and mobile society that emerged in the postwar Soviet Union.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%