If you read Francine Klagsbrun's biography of Golda Meir there is an interesting section on the short period where Golda served as the first Israeli ambassador to the Soviet Union. It sheds some light on the complicated relationship between the USSR and Jews. Also, one of the most harrowing books on the Soviet Union I have ever read is The Forsaken by Tim Tzouliadis. It chronicles a few thousand Americans who naively joined the communist revolution and ended up in the gulag in the 1930s, persecuted by Stalin and abandoned by America. Both books highly recommended.
There was always a Jewish question for Soviet leaders from the beginning. Before the Bolshevik Revolution, Zionism and Marxism were competing for the same minds and hearts. For Marxists, the Proletarian Revolution would cure the problems caused by national differences and animosities because national identities would be erased. Zionism emerged to protect even if it meant transforming Jewish identity. Their competition played out in different ways depending upon the circumstances--Jews tended to support the Bolsheviks rather than the forces fighting to restore the Czar in the civil war; many Jews were caught up in Stalin's purges in the 1930s because of their leadership roles or their positions as intellectuals. The determination to modernize the Soviet Union and protect the regime produced enormous brutality--starvation in the Ukraine with millions killed if the rulers considered it necessary to build a modern infrastructure despite the toll. All of this took place in the name of an equality that did not include the privileged elite with access to food and services the masses could only dream about as they were living in crowded apartments where kitchens and bathrooms had to be shared.
I want to read the Natan Sharansky. I heard him interviewed on a Zoom call a few months back through Ohev Shalom in D.C. Chaim Potok also has a book, Gates of November, about Jews in the Soviet Union.
I completely relate to what you were taught, though I don’t remember it being as bad in the 80s in private school because we still were seeing so much footage and oppression out of the USSR and Eastern Bloc. We knew it was a horrible place to live.
But something really shifted in the mid-90s in college. By the time I was in grad school for history in the early 2000s, Ostalgia in Germany had kicked in and spread west. Sadly, this didn’t just affect views on the GDR, but also the Soviet Union! OY!
I think there exists this denial where people look back and think, “Well, maybe it could be brutal. But it wouldn’t have been that way for me.” Or “maybe if the whole world had gotten its act together, the USSR could have been paradise. The idea was good. Execution, not so much.” Neither are rooted in reality.
I liked to comparison of the Soviet Jews to Pesah and the exodus. From 1989 and through the 90s, when the soviet regime fell and over a million Jews fled the USSR to Israel is very much a modern day exodus story (and also my story :) ).
Sure my family didn't have to travel 40 years in the desert, but flew a connect flight through Budapest. But we did reach the promised land all the same.
If you read Francine Klagsbrun's biography of Golda Meir there is an interesting section on the short period where Golda served as the first Israeli ambassador to the Soviet Union. It sheds some light on the complicated relationship between the USSR and Jews. Also, one of the most harrowing books on the Soviet Union I have ever read is The Forsaken by Tim Tzouliadis. It chronicles a few thousand Americans who naively joined the communist revolution and ended up in the gulag in the 1930s, persecuted by Stalin and abandoned by America. Both books highly recommended.
Chag Pesach Sameach!
There was always a Jewish question for Soviet leaders from the beginning. Before the Bolshevik Revolution, Zionism and Marxism were competing for the same minds and hearts. For Marxists, the Proletarian Revolution would cure the problems caused by national differences and animosities because national identities would be erased. Zionism emerged to protect even if it meant transforming Jewish identity. Their competition played out in different ways depending upon the circumstances--Jews tended to support the Bolsheviks rather than the forces fighting to restore the Czar in the civil war; many Jews were caught up in Stalin's purges in the 1930s because of their leadership roles or their positions as intellectuals. The determination to modernize the Soviet Union and protect the regime produced enormous brutality--starvation in the Ukraine with millions killed if the rulers considered it necessary to build a modern infrastructure despite the toll. All of this took place in the name of an equality that did not include the privileged elite with access to food and services the masses could only dream about as they were living in crowded apartments where kitchens and bathrooms had to be shared.
Chag Pesach Sameach!
I want to read the Natan Sharansky. I heard him interviewed on a Zoom call a few months back through Ohev Shalom in D.C. Chaim Potok also has a book, Gates of November, about Jews in the Soviet Union.
I completely relate to what you were taught, though I don’t remember it being as bad in the 80s in private school because we still were seeing so much footage and oppression out of the USSR and Eastern Bloc. We knew it was a horrible place to live.
But something really shifted in the mid-90s in college. By the time I was in grad school for history in the early 2000s, Ostalgia in Germany had kicked in and spread west. Sadly, this didn’t just affect views on the GDR, but also the Soviet Union! OY!
I think there exists this denial where people look back and think, “Well, maybe it could be brutal. But it wouldn’t have been that way for me.” Or “maybe if the whole world had gotten its act together, the USSR could have been paradise. The idea was good. Execution, not so much.” Neither are rooted in reality.
Lovely post.
I liked to comparison of the Soviet Jews to Pesah and the exodus. From 1989 and through the 90s, when the soviet regime fell and over a million Jews fled the USSR to Israel is very much a modern day exodus story (and also my story :) ).
Sure my family didn't have to travel 40 years in the desert, but flew a connect flight through Budapest. But we did reach the promised land all the same.
Chag Pesach Sameach!