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When Sonia Met Boris When Sonia Met Boris When Sonia Met Boris An Oral History of Jewish Life under Stalin ANNA SHTERNSHIS 1 1 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America. © Oxford University Press 2017 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Shternshis, Anna, author. Title: When Sonia met Boris : an oral history of Jewish life under Stalin / Anna Shternshis. Description: New York : Oxford University Press, [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2016033941| ISBN 9780190223106 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780190223120 (ebook epub) Subjects: LCSH: Jews—Soviet Union—Interviews. | Jews—Soviet Union—Social conditions. | Jews—Soviet Union—Economic conditions. | Jews—Employment—Soviet Union. | Discrimination in employment—Soviet Union. | Jews—Soviet Union—Identity. | Interviews. Classification: LCC DS134.85 .S58 2017 | DDC 305.892/4047—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016033941 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed by Edwards Brothers Malloy, United States of America To Bella and Arkady Shternshis, with love Contents Acknowledgments ix Part I Oral History and the First Generation of Soviet Jews 1 WHEN ONLY MEMORIES TELL THE TRUTH 3 2 WHO GETS TO TELL THE STORY: Oral Histories of the First Soviet Jewish Generation 9 Part II The Making of a Soviet Jewish Family 3 BOYS ARE LIKE A GLASS, GIRLS ARE LIKE CLOTH: Raising Jewish Children in the 1930s 25 4 WEDDINGS BETWEEN ERRANDS: Love and Family during the Soviet Jewish Golden Age 34 5 LOST, FOUND, AND GUILTY: The War and the Family 47 6 HOW NOT TO LEARN ABOUT ANTISEMITISM AT HOME: Soviet Jewish Family Values after the War 75 Part III From Enthusiasm to More Enthusiasm: Jews in the Soviet Workplace 7 WHAT MY COUNTRY NEEDS AND WHERE MY AUNT LIVES: Choosing a Profession in Stalin’s Soviet Union 95 8 THE RIGHT SPECIALISTS WITH THE WRONG PASSPORTS: The Search for Employment 111 9 “YOU DON’T SEEM LIKE A JEW AT ALL”: The Atmosphere at Work 122 10 JEWISH DOCTORS AND THE DOCTORS’ PLOT 159 viii | CONTENTS 11 THE HAPPIEST MEMORIES: Life in the World of Soviet Yiddish Culture 175 Epilogue: Soviet Jewish Oral Histories: Past and Future 189 Appendix 1: Methodology 197 Appendix 2: Statistical Distribution of Interviewees 199 Notes 203 Bibliography 225 Index 241 Acknowledgments This book took twelve years to write, and I could not have done it without the input of my wonderful colleagues, friends, and family members. Doris Bergen helped me to think through the entire concept of the book and pro- vided perceptive comments on the entire manuscript. Our numerous dis- cussions of how people make decisions under duress, and how they reflect about these choices, informed almost every sentence. Zvi Gitelman, always my first-go- to colleague and mentor, helped to emphasize the fundamental direction of the project and make decisions about the uses of oral history. Lynne Viola pointed to crucial issues relating to the nature of Soviet history, and important policies that informed the lives of my interviewees. Arkady Zeltser provided amazing insights and interpretations on the Soviet Jewish experience, and helped to correct a lot of factual mistakes (all those that remain were introduced after he finished reading!). Olga Gershenson sug- gested that I reframe the book as a story about people, rather than trends, and also suggested looking into narrative analysis theories. David Shneer encouraged me to think broader about the nature of the Soviet Jewish expe- rience and about meanings of identity. Ato Quayson pointed out the impor- tance of Vladimir Propp and stressed the significance of genres in analyzing narratives, a suggestion that changed the interpretive framework. Naomi Seidman shared her deep insight on how gender is discussed in Jewish culture and thus helped me to understand the interviewees better. I thank Jeffrey Veidlinger for his suggestions about how to read and interpret Soviet oral history and for sharing, many times, his own work-in- progress. Scott Ury encouraged me to ask (and answer) bigger questions and challenge the established wisdom. Bob Weinberg gave very careful and useful suggestions about almost every page of the manuscript. Mikhail Krutikov proposed so many innovative ways to analyze the historical data from testimonies x | Acknowledgments and, as usual, came up with (correct) interpretations I did not even sus- pect would be possible! My work with Pavel Lion (better known as Psoy Korolenko) helped me visualize the relationship between public and pri- vate spheres of Soviet Jewish life. I also thank Mordechai Altshuler, Vadim Altskan, Olena Bagno, Elissa Bemporad, Robert Brym, Oleg Budnitsky, Jonathan Dekel Chen, Israel Cohen, Diana Dimitru, Gennady Estraikh, Kiril Feferman, Laurie Fialkoff, Gabriel Finder, David Fishman, ChaeRan Freeze, Willi Goetschel, Sol Goldberg, Marat Grinberg, Anat Helman, Sam Kassow, Zohar Weiman Kellman, Jeffrey Kopstein, Gennady Kostyrchenko, Zeev Levin, Michael Marrus, Dan Michman, Andrea Most, Harriet Murav, Melanie Newton, Derek Penslar, Larissa Remmenick, James Retallack, Sveta Robeman, Yaakov Roi, Moshe Rossman, Gabriella Safran, Maxim D. Shrayer, Alison Smith, Susan Solomon, Catherine Wanner, Karen Weisman, Piotr Wrobel, Carol Zemel and many others for discussing the project, answering my questions, providing insights, clarifying inconsistencies, and above all for being great colleagues and friends. None of these individuals of course, are responsible for any mistakes or problems in the book. I thank Anna Rodzevich, Josh Tapper, Simran Karir, and Symon Foren for being wonderful research assistants. Special thanks go to Gregory Eady, who designed the tables, and to Natasha Richichi-Fried for creating the bibliogra- phy. Thank you Janet Hyer, Dan Rosenberg, and Nick Underwood for editing and proofreading the manuscript. A very special-thank you goes to Nancy Toff, the editor of the Oral History series at Oxford University Press, whose close reading, razor- sharp advice, and advocacy for the reader improved clarity, helped me to rephrase key ideas, and transformed the manuscript into an actual book. I also thank the entire team of Oxford University Press, including Julia Turner, Elda Granata, and Steve Dodson for their profession- alism and help. Earlier versions of parts of chapters 3, 4, 5, and 6 appeared in following publications: “From the Red Cradle: Memories of Jewish Family Life in the Soviet Union” in Catherine Wanner, editor, State Secularism and Lived Religion in Soviet Russia and Ukraine (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 63–92; “Choosing a Spouse in the USSR: Gender Differences and the Jewish Ethnic Factor,” Jews in Russia and Eastern Europe, Winter 2, no. 51 (2003), 5–30; and “Salo in Challah: Soviet Jew’s Experience of Food in the 1920s- 1950s,” in Jews and Their Foodways: Studies in Contemporary Jewry. An Annual XXVIII, edited by Anat Helman. (Jerusalem: Oxford University Press, 2015), 10–27. Acknowledgments | xi Funding for this work was made possible with the help of generous sup- port from the Insight Grant and the Standard Research Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and two grants from Rabbi Israel Miller Fund for Shoah Education, Research, and Documentation of the Мaterial Claims Conference against Germany (grant 1413 and grant S028), both of which were received jointly with Zvi Gitelman. I conducted the field work in Philadelphia when I was a fellow at the Herbert D. Katz Centre for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, and I am extremely grateful to the center and to David Ruderman for his support of this project. I have benefited tremendously from working at the University of Toronto— being affiliated with the department of Germanic Languages and Literatures and enjoying support from all my colleagues there, especially Markus Stock who created a wonderful atmosphere of collegiality. Very spe- cial thanks go to Dale Gebhardt, who helped me to manage the logistics of complex projects, always striving to keep a great sense of humor in face of terrifying paperwork. Being at the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies changed the way I understand Russian Jewish culture. I thank Ato Quayson, Hui Kian Kwee, Antonela Arhin, Ken McDonald, Kevin O’Neill, and the late Richard Iton, for true interdisciplinary dialogue (and fun dis- cussions at the coffee machine!). The Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies has been my intellectual home at the University of Toronto for so many years. Its support for Yiddish, Russian Jewish Studies and interdisci- plinary approaches has been exemplary. I thank the former directors of the center— David Novak, Derek Penslar, Hindy Najman, and especially Jeffrey Kopstein— for their personal and institutional support of this project. Sol Goldberg, Emily Springgay, and Galina Vaisman made the center the most welcoming place on campus, and I thank them for their professionalism and tireless work. The fact that I am able to finish this book while directing the Center is yet another testament to their incredible talents and dedication. The book is based on interviews with 474 individuals who lived through very difficult times in the Soviet Union.
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