Abstract
Lenin believed that nations first emerged during the transition from feudalism to capitalism and that under Communism they would eventually fuse. Following the Revolution, however, the Bolsheviks took over an enormous country with over a hundred recognized national or ethnic groups2 at various levels of economic development. They concluded that Soviet reality demanded the creation of a federal state with fifteen national republics and many smaller divisions (autonomous republics, autonomous regions and national districts), each associated with a particular ethnic group.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
This section is a slightly revised version of Robert J. Brym, “From ‘the Soviet people’ to the refugee crisis in Russia” in Rozalina Ryvkina and Rostislav Turovskiy, The Refugee Crisis in Russia, Robert Brym (ed.), P. Patchet-Golubev, trans., (Toronto: York Lanes Press, 1993), 1–4.
J. Bromley et al., Present-Day Ethnic Processes in the USSR (Moscow: Progress Publishers 1982 [1977]), 269–70.
Victor Zaslavsky and Robert J. Brym, Soviet-Jewish Emigration and Soviet Nationality Policy (London: Macmillan, 1983).
Birobidzhan, the officially designated Jewish autonomous region near China, is largely a fiction. Only 0.6 per cent of Soviet Jews lived there in 1989. See Felix Ryansky, “Jews and Cossacks in the Jewish Autonomous Region”, Refuge, vol. 12, no. 4, 1992, 19–21.
Rasma Karklins, Ethnic Relations in the USSR: The Perspective from Below (London: Unwin Hyman, 1986).
Rasma Karklins, “Nationality policy and ethnic relations in the USSR” in James R. Millar (ed.), Politics, Work, and Daily Life in the USSR: A Survey of Former Soviet Citizens (Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 305–31.
The following sketch is based mainly on Mordechai Altshuler, “The Jewish Community in the Soviet Union: A Socio-Demographic Analysis” (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1979) (in Hebrew)
Jonathan Frankel, “The Soviet regime and anti-Zionism: An analysis” in Yaacov Ro’i and Avi Beker (eds.), Jewish Culture and Identity in the Soviet Union (New York and London: New York University Press, 1991), 310–54
Yehoshua A. Gilboa, The Black Years of Soviet Jewry, 1939–1953, translated by Yosef Shachter and Dov Ben-Abba, (Boston: Little, Brown, 1971)
Zvi Gitelman, Jewish Nationality and Soviet Politics: The Jewish Sections of the CPSU, 1917–1930 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972)
Solomon M. Schwarz, The Jews in the Soviet Union (Syracuse NY: Syracuse University Press, 1951); and Zaslavsky and Brym.
“Meetings between representatives of the French Socialist Party and Soviet leaders (1956)” in Benjamin Pinkus (ed.), The Soviet Government and the Jews 1948–1967 (Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 58.
Moscow Helsinki Monitoring Group, Discrimination Against Jews Enrolling at Moscow State University, 1979, Document 112 (n.p.: 5 November 1979, mimeograph).
Theodore Friedgut, “Soviet Jewry: The silent majority”, Soviet Jewish Affairs, vol. 10, no. 2, 1980, 3–19.
Larisa Bogoraz, “Do I feel I belong to the Jewish people?” in Aleksandr Voronel, Viktor Yakhot and Moshe Decter (eds.), I am a Jew: Essays on Jewish Identity in the Soviet Union (New York: Academic Committee on Soviet Jewry and Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, 1973), 63–4.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1994 The Institute of Jewish Affairs Limited
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Brym, R.J. (1994). The Jews in Soviet and Post-Soviet Society. In: Spier, H. (eds) The Jews of Moscow, Kiev and Minsk. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-13515-8_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-13515-8_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-13517-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-13515-8
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)