"""Ukraine without Jews""? Nationality and belonging in Soviet Ukraine, 1943-1948"

This dissertation explores some of the most pressing issues confronting Jews in the newly-liberated Ukraine to reveal how Soviet citizens attempted to articulate, reconstruct, and police the boundaries of their communities following the devastation of war, foreign occupation, and genocide, challenges they shared with millions of other Europeans. Within the context of Soviet Jewish history, this dissertation advocates re-envisioning the years between 1943 and 1948—typically portrayed simply as the period between the Holocaust and the antisemitic policies of Stalin’s final years—as a time of professional, personal, and creative possibilities for Soviet Jews. Such possibilities, which admittedly varied from person to person and place to place as a result of local conditions and relationships, exceeded those available to Jews elsewhere in postwar Eastern Europe, notwithstanding the very real challenges Soviet Jews faced during these years. As I argue, the Jews populating my research were invested in the Soviet project, loyal to their country, and assertive in demanding the rights guaranteed to them both as individuals and as Jews in the Soviet Union.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Jakel, Elana

Contributors dc:contributor

• Koenker, Diane P.
• Steinberg, Mark D.
• Murav, Harriet
• Avrutin, Eugene M.

• Soviet Jewry
• Ukrainian Jewry
• Holocaust
• postwar
• Post-WWII Europe
• Soviet history
• ethnic relations

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2014 Elana Jakel

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/49830

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/49830