Lost Souls - Soviet Displaced Persons and the Birth of the Cold War

"A history of the roughly half a million Soviet "displaced persons" post-WWII that looks at how ordinary people caught up in the deepening Cold War sought resettlement"--

About the author

Sheila Fitzpatrick is the author of many books, including On Stalin’s Team: The Years of Living Dangerously in Soviet Politics (Princeton), The Shortest History of the Soviet Union, and The Russian Revolution. She is professor of history at the Institute of Humanities and Social Science at the Australian Catholic University and Distinguished Service Professor Emerita at the University of Chicago.

Summary

A vivid history of how Cold War politics helped solve one of the twentieth century’s biggest refugee crises

When World War II ended, about one million people whom the Soviet Union claimed as its citizens were outside the borders of the USSR, mostly in the Western-occupied zones of Germany and Austria. These “displaced persons,” or DPs—Russians, prewar Soviet citizens, and people from West Ukraine and the Baltic states forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1939—refused to repatriate to the Soviet Union despite its demands. Thus began one of the first big conflicts of the Cold War. In Lost Souls, Sheila Fitzpatrick draws on new archival research, including Soviet interviews with hundreds of DPs, to offer a vivid account of this crisis, from the competitive maneuverings of politicians and diplomats to the everyday lives of DPs.

American enthusiasm for funding the refugee organizations taking care of DPs quickly waned after the war. It was only after DPs were redefined—from “victims of war and Nazism” to “victims of Communism”—in 1947 that a solution was found: the United States would pay for the mass resettlement of DPs in America, Australia, and other countries outside Europe. The Soviet Union protested this “theft” of its citizens. But it was a coup for the United States. The choice of DPs to live a free life in the West, and the West’s welcome of them, became an important theme in America’s Cold War propaganda battle with the Soviet Union.

A compelling story of the early Cold War, Lost Souls is also a rare chronicle of a refugee crisis that was solved.

Additional text

"An instructive lesson in practical politics as well as history. A new look at a historical problem both logistical and humanitarian, with obvious implications today."

Product details

• Authors: Sheila Fitzpatrick, Fitzpatrick Sheila
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 12.11.2024
• EAN: 9780691230023
• ISBN: 978-0-691-23002-3
• No. of pages: 352
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History; Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000, Human Rights, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Emigration & Immigration, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Human Rights, Fascism & Nazism, Migration, immigration & emigration, Migration, immigration and emigration, Far-right political ideologies and movements, Civil rights & citizenship, Human rights, civil rights, Former Soviet Union, USSR (Europe), USSR, Soviet Union, The Cold War, c 1945 to c 2000 (Post-war period), c 1945 to c 1990 (the Cold War period), Cold wars and proxy conflicts, HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century / General, HISTORY / Russia / General