Excitement, Uncertainty, and Nostalgia
Everyday Objects of Soviet-Jewish Refuseniks
The aim of the research project is to examine the refusenik movement by focusing on objects Soviet Jews owned and used. With the theoretical approach of material culture, it will provide a new understanding of the expectations, hopes, and fears, as well as the social, religious, and cultural changes that refuseniks experienced before and during their migration process. Likewise, it will explore late socialist society from the perspective of the Jewish minority, asking which ideas of (Soviet-)Jewish belongings prevailed and why they (re-)emerged since the 1970s. In addition, the perspective on personal belongings also provides indirect indications of the refuseniks’ perception of their new surroundings.
The project follows methodologically in the footsteps of the ethnologist Hans Peter Hahn, who argues that the disclosure of object ambiguity is one of the most important surplus values of material culture, as it reveals previously hidden views of social and cultural developments in society. In line with Hahn's thinking, an examination of everyday objects in and from the Soviet Union as Soviet, Jewish, and Soviet-Jewish at the same time, and the description of their different meanings, is the starting point of the research.
Refusenik [Russian: ‘otkaznik’] is a terminological derivation from the English verb ‘(to) refuse’. The term refers to Jewish citizens from the Soviet Union who tried to leave the country during late socialism. Even though this process was very challenging, more than 250,000 Jews were able to emigrate legally between 1971 and 1987. Immediately after refuseniks handed in the request, they felt the consequences of the decision on a professional and personal level: Numerous refuseniks lost their jobs or the permission to study. Many friends and family members turned away from them. When they finally obtained permission to start a new life outside the country, they had to leave almost everything behind.
