Studies of the Simon Dubnow Institute, Volume 2

Gabriele Freitag:

Nächstes Jahr in Moskau!

Die Zuwanderung von Juden in die sowjetische Metropole 1917-1932

348 pp., 14,5 x 21,5 cm

Hardcover with dust jacket

Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2004

ISBN 978-3-525-36980-7

Price: 48,90 € (D)

Migration of Jews as a topic for social-historical and cultural historical analysis. After the lifting of restrictions on settlement in czarist Russia, there was a quantitatively important migration of Jews in the aftermath of the February 1917 revolution into the core areas of what was soon to become Soviet Russia. Based on rich source materials, in part only accessible after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Gabriele Freitag describes this mobility from West to East, using the instructive example of Moscow. She looks at the differing forms of settlement among Jews in the metropolis and the ways in which they established themselves in their careers and in society, as well as the political positions they espoused in Moscow in the 1920s and early 30s. On the whole, the author gives less emphasis to the maintenance of traditional ways of life from the shtetl in the urban environment. Rather, she lays stress on the socio-cultural changes within a religious and ethnic minority that was endeavoring to adapt to and fit in with the urban structures of the metropolis in a time of social upheaval. 

The book can be obtained at bookshops or ordered directly from the publishers Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.