Copyright 2014 Elana Jakel “UKRAINE WITHOUT JEWS”? NATIONALITY AND BELONGING IN SOVIET UKRAINE, 1943-1948 BY ELANA JAKEL DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2014 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor Diane P. Koenker, Chair Professor Mark D. Steinberg Professor Harriet Murav Associate Professor Eugene M. Avrutin ii ABSTRACT This dissertation explores some of the most pressing issues confronting Jews in the newly-liberated Ukraine to reveal how Soviet citizens attempted to articulate, reconstruct, and police the boundaries of their communities following the devastation of war, foreign occupation, and genocide, challenges they shared with millions of other Europeans. Within the context of Soviet Jewish history, this dissertation advocates re-envisioning the years between 1943 and 1948—typically portrayed simply as the period between the Holocaust and the antisemitic policies of Stalin’s final years—as a time of professional, personal, and creative possibilities for Soviet Jews. Such possibilities, which admittedly varied from person to person and place to place as a result of local conditions and relationships, exceeded those available to Jews elsewhere in postwar Eastern Europe, notwithstanding the very real challenges Soviet Jews faced during these years. As I argue, the Jews populating my research were invested in the Soviet project, loyal to their country, and assertive in demanding the rights guaranteed to them both as individuals and as Jews in the Soviet Union. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to begin by dedicating this work to my late grandmother, Grace Luehm Iberg, who was always my biggest supporter. I cannot adequately express my love and appreciation for her and for my parents, Jeanette and Dave Heideman. My mother deserves an extra thank you for proofreading nearly everything I have ever written—or at least everything that was not completed at the last second. I could not have completed this project without the support, encouragement, and patience of my dissertation committee, Diane Koenker, Mark Steinberg, Harriet Murav, and Eugene Avrutin. I thank them for their valuable guidance in seeing this project through. John Randolph and Carol Symes also deserve special mention for their mentoring over the years. So many people deserve credit for the help, inspiration, and support that they have provided to me that I will, inevitably but unintentionally, overlook someone here. For their friendship, support, and commiseration, I thank Michelle Beer, Andy Bruno, Sharyl Corrado, Andrew Demshuk, Tara Fallon, Aileen Friesen, Jess Kamm Broomell, Greg Kveberg, Rebecca Mitchell, Jesse Murray, Karen Phoenix, Melissa Schoenenberg, and Dmitry Tartakovsky. I am equally certain that I would not have survived graduate school without the entertainment, exercise, and unconditional love provided by Lilly, my faithful canine companion. Sally West fostered my interest in Russian history and encouraged me to explore this interest in graduate school. Fedja Buric, Antoinette Burton, Andrew Demshuk, Kerry Pimblott, Dana Rabin, John Randolph, Karen Rodriguez’G, Cliff Spargo, and Anika Walke have all provided valuable feedback on various sections of the dissertation. I would also like to thank the participants in the Russian studies kruzhok and the Jewish Studies Workshop at the University of Illinois for their valuable suggestions on various chapters; Matti Bunzl, Bruce Rosenstock, and iv Michael Rothberg deserve special mention for many stimulating discussions. Others who have commented on portions of this dissertation include participants in the SSRC dissertation development workshop and the session of the International Forum of Young Scholars on East European Jewry that I attended, as well as fellows and colleagues at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. This work also has benefitted from feedback by participants in the following workshops: the “Russian-Jewish Studies Training Workshop for Junior Scholars” (University of Illinois, 2006); “Annihilation, Archive, Autobiography: Networks of Testimony in German- Occupied Europe” (University of Illinois, 2011), and “Citizenship, Modernisation and Dissent: The Soviet Nationalities Question in Ukraine after 1945” (University of Toronto, 2012). I owe a deep debt of gratitude to my colleagues at the Center for Studies of History and Culture of East European Jews in Kyiv and at the Jewish Heritage Centre “Petersburg Judaica” in St. Petersburg, without whom I could never have undertaken this research. In particular, Valerii Dymshits, Leonid Finberg, and Alla Sokolova were instrumental, and I am deeply grateful to them for their assistance with my project. I would also like to thank Heather Coleman, Olesya Shayduk-Immerman, Lauren McCarthy, Jan Surer, and the many other colleagues and friends with whom I spent time with while doing research in Russia and Ukraine. In Washington, D.C., Vadim Altskan, Michlean Amir, Ron Coleman, and Vincent Slatt insured that my time as a fellow at the Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies was a productive one. Since my recent return to the Mandel Center as an employee, Robert Williams, Krista Hegburg, and Elizabeth Anthony have provided much-needed moral support as I attempted to prepare this dissertation for deposit while settling into a new job. v At the University of Illinois, I have benefited from the financial and institutional support of the Department of History, the Graduate College, the Program in Jewish Culture and Society, and the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center. The History Department staff has also given invaluable support, and I would like to particularly thank Tom Bedwell, Stephanie Landess, and Elaine Sampson. Craig Alexander in the Program in Jewish Culture and Society has been an equally helpful presence and friendly face. A fellowship from the U.S. Student Fulbright Program enabled my research in Russia, and a fellowship from IREX (International Research & Exchanges Board) with funds provided by the United States Department of State through the Title VIII Program and the IREX Scholar Support Fund supported my research in Ukraine. In addition, this dissertation was made possible in part by funds granted to the author through a Charles H. Revson Foundation Fellowship at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. None of these organizations are responsible for the views expressed herein. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ARCHIVAL ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................. vii LIST OF OTHER ABBREVIATIONS, ACRONYMS, AND RUSSIAN TERMS .................... viii INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER ONE: RETURNING HOME ..................................................................................... 21 CHAPTER TWO: SUSPECT LABOR ........................................................................................ 57 CHAPTER THREE: JEWS AND COMMUNITY..................................................................... 100 CHAPTER FOUR: IDENTITY AND JUSTICE ........................................................................ 161 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 191 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................... 194 vii LIST OF ARCHIVAL ABBREVIATIONS Archives and Repositories DAKO State Archive of Kyiv Oblast' GARF State Archive of the Russian Federation MI-VNLU Manuscript Institute of the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine RGALI Russian State Archive of Literature and Art RGASPI Russian State Archive of Social and Political History TsDAHO Central State Archive of Public Organizations of Ukraine TsDAVO Central State Archive of the Highest Organs of Government and Administration of Ukraine USHMM United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Documentation ark. arkush (Ukrainian), sheet(s) d. delo (Russian), file f. fond (Rus., Ukr.), collection l./ll. list/listy (Rus.), sheet(s) op. opis´ (Rus., Ukr.), inventory spr. sprava (Ukr.), file t. tom (Rus., Ukr.), volume viii LIST OF OTHER ABBREVIATIONS, ACRONYMS, AND RUSSIAN TERMS gorsovet city soviet Gulag Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps JAR Jewish Autonomous Region (Birobidzhan) JAC Jewish Antifascist Committee JDC American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee or Joint Joint American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee or JDC kolkhoz collective farm kolkhoznik collective farmer KP(b)U Communist Party of Ukraine (Bolshevik) NKVD People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs Obkom Oblast' committee oblast' region Oblispolkom Oblast' Executive Committee raion district raikom district committee Raiispolkom District Executive Committee’s RSFSR Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic Sovinformburo Soviet Information Bureau SSSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics TsK KP(b)U Central Committee of the Ukrainian Communist Party (Bolshevik) UkrGOSET Ukrainian State Yiddish Theater ix UkrNKVD Ukrainian People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs UkrSSR Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics 1 INTRODUCTION