This is a comprehensive and topical history of the Jews in the Soviet Union and is based on firsthand documentary evidence and the application of a pioneering research method into the fate of national minorities. Within a four-part chronological framework, Professor Pinkus examines not only the legal-political status of the Jews, and their reciprocal relationship with the Soviet majority, but also the impact of internal economic, demographic and social processes upon the religious, educational and cultural life of Soviet Jewry. A second layer of analysis describes in depth the complex linkages between the Jews of the Soviet Union, the Jews in other diasporas and the state of Israel itself. The Jews of the Soviet Union marks a major contribution to the historiography and social analysis of its subject and provides a worthy companion to Professor Pinkus's acclaimed documentary study The Soviet Union and the Jews 1948–1967.
Contents
Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. The Jews of Russia: historical background; 2. The Jews of the Soviet Union: the years of construction, 1917–1939; 3. The years of destruction, 1939–1953; 4. The post-Stalin period, 1953–1983; Notes; Select bibliography; Index.
Review
'Through sifting memoirs, newspaper reports, oral histories and official documents, Pinkus recreates the precarious history of the Soviet Jews more fully and vividly than previous writers.' Publishers Weekly
Printer friendly version
Email a colleague