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This volume discusses the participation of Jews as soldiers, journalists, and propagandists in combating the Nazis during the Great Patriotic War, as the period between June 22, 1941, and May 9, 1945 was known in the Soviet Union. The essays included here examine both newly-discovered and previously-neglected oral testimony, poetry, cinema, diaries, memoirs, newspapers, and archives. This is one of the first books to combine the study of Russian and Yiddish materials, reflecting the nature of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, which, for the first time during the Soviet period, included both Yiddish-language and Russian-language writers. This volume will be of use to scholars, teachers, students, and researchers working in Russian and Jewish history.
About the author
Harriet Murav is professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures and Comparative and World Literature at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Hey studies of Dostoyevsky, Russian law and literature, and twentieth century Russian and Yiddish literature are complemented by her most recent monograph, Music from a Speeding Train: Jewish Literature in Post-Revolution Russia (2011). She is the co-editor of Jews in the East European Borderlands: Essays in Honor of John Klier (2012).
Summary
Discusses the participation of Jews as soldiers, journalists, and propagandists in combating the Nazis during the Great Patriotic War, as the period between June 22, 1941, and May 9, 1945 was known in the Soviet Union. The essays included here examine oral testimony, poetry, cinema, diaries, memoirs, newspapers, and archives.
Additional text
“This excellent volume explores the important role that
Soviet Jews played as combatants, journalists, writers, poets, film-makers and
photo-correspondents waging war against the Nazis during the Great Patriotic
War. Rather than focusing on the Holocaust’s victims, these essays tell the
stories of soldiers who fought on and survived the frontlines, and cultural
figures who helped frame the Soviet narrative of the war. By highlighting
Soviet Jewish martial achievement, this book raises awareness of the Jewish
contribution to Soviet victory and counters the wartime and postwar slanders that
Jews sat out the war safe behind the lines. It also draws attention to a wealth
of previously unknown or neglected sources, including diaries, memoirs,
newspapers, poetry, prose and archival documents.”
—Robert Dale, Newcastle University, Journal of Modern
Jewish Studies
