Between Perestroika and the War in Ukraine: Alternative Temporalities in Eastern European and Jewish Histories
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the ensuing Russo-Ukraine War has led to an intensive set of re-evaluations regarding the recent history of the region. Central in these debates is the question of Soviet legacy: to what extent current events are rooted in late Soviet politics and culture and how the history of the Soviet collapse foreshadowed today's political and cultural fault lines. At the same time, Jewish life in the post-Soviet space, often reduced to a narrative of either migration or "nationalization" within the newly established states, deserves reconsideration.
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| Wo: | Research Center for the History of Transformations (RECET), University of Vienna |
Conference
Conference in cooperation with the Leonid Nevzlin Research Center for Russian and East European Jewry (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem); Leibniz-Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung (ZZF), Potsdam; Central European University (CEU), Vienna; Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe, Marburg; Bundesinstitut für Kultur und Geschichte des östlichen Europa (BKGE), Oldenburg; Nordost-Institut an der Universität Hamburg; Heinrich Heine Universität Düsseldorf; Forschungsverbund Ambivalenzen des Sowjetischen.
Rather than conceptualizing the era since Perestroika solely through the lens of emigration, it is timely to focus on Jewish agency and subjectivity in the era of reforms and change: the emergence of new localisms and mythologies, patterns of cooperation and tension with surrounding societies, and other forms of lived experience. At the same time, Jewish life in the post-Soviet space, often reduced to a narrative of either migration or "nationalization" within the newly established states, deserves reconsideration. Rather than conceptualizing the era since Perestroika solely through the lens of emigration, it is timely to
focus on Jewish agency and subjectivity in the era of reforms and change: the emergence of new localisms and mythologies, patterns of cooperation and tension with surrounding societies, and other forms of lived experience.
Hosted by the University of Vienna's Research Center for the History of Transformations (RECET), this two-day international conference aims to bring together scholars from two fields that too often work separately: Soviet/post-Soviet history and Jewish studies. lts aim is to challenge the dominant narratives of both fields by telling the story of Jewish 'staying' as well as 'leaving' and refocus the attention of research onto communities outside the large metropoles.
Program
Day 1, 29 June
09:30-10:00 Opening Remarks
Jannis Panagiotidis (U Vienna), Semion Goldin (Hebrew U), Juliane Fürst (ZZF/CEU), Awi Blumenfeld (Vienna)
10:00-11:30 Jewish Revivalist Practices in the late Soviet Union
Ulrike Huhn (U Düsseldorf), Racing into the past. Jewish intellectuals in search of their identity and the rediscovery of the shtetl in the late Soviet Union
Velvl Chernin (EACJ Institute Herzliya/Bar-Ilan U), The Revival of Yiddish Theater in Ukraine as Part of the Jewish Policy of the Ukrainian SSR Authorities in the Late 1980s
Benjamin Arenstein (U Chicago), Poetry and Perestroika: Reimaging Jewish Culture in the South Caucasus through Jemal Ajiashvili’s Hebrew-Georgian Translations
Chair/Discussant: Semion Goldin (Hebrew U)
11:30-11:45 Coffee Break
11:45-13:15 Jews and other National Projects
Kunduz Niiazova (Hebrew U), Jewish intellectual networks in Kyrgyzstan
Samuel Finkelman (Vanderbilt U), Jewkrainophilia: Jewish Advocacy for Ukrainian Nationalism from Perestroika to the Russo-Ukrainian War
Paula Oppermann (Historical Commission, Berlin), From Unity to Alienation? Latvian Jewish Intellectuals in the Perestroika and Politics of Independence, 1986-2004
Chair/Discussant: Juliane Fürst (ZZF/CEU)
13:15-14:30 Lunch Break
14:30-16:00 Soviet and Jewish Memory
James Casteel (Carleton U), Entangled Memories of the End of Empires among Migrants from the former Soviet Union in Germany
Alisa Abramov (Bar-Ilan U), The Lost "Renaissance" of the Caucasian Mountain Jews (1900-1920) and Post-Soviet Memory Politics
Alina Rebel (Bar-Ilan U), The Cinematic Jew Between Perestroika and Putin: Alternative Temporalities of Jewish Otherness in Contemporary Russian Screen Culture
Chair/Discussant: Kirsten Bönker (IKGN)
16:00-16:30 Coffee Break
16:30-18:00 War & Memory
Marina Sapritsky-Nahum (LSE/UCL), From post-Soviet Jews to Ukrainian Jews: Memory Politics Shaped by War
Anna Shternshis (U Toronto) & Rebecca Kobrin (Columbia U), Narratives of Jewish Refugees from Ukraine in the wake of Russia's Invasion, 2022–2026
Aleksei Surin (Bar-Ilan U), Full-Scale Invasion as Rupture and “Return”: Russian-Speaking Jewish Authors and Temporal Collapse after February 2022
Chair/Discussant: Anke Hilbrenner (U Düsseldorf)
19:00 Dinner
Day 2, 30 June
09:00-11:00 Walking Tour “Vienna as a Transit Hub for Jewish Refugees and Migrants during the Cold War”
Walking tour to landmarks of Jewish transit and settlement in Vienna’s Second District led by Daniel Jerke (U Vienna)
11:00-12:30 Citizenship and Identity
Frank Bösch (ZZF), Jewish Migration, German Bureaucracy, and the Transformation of Soviet Identity past 1990
Irina Nicorici (Jewish History Museum, Chișinău), The Curious Case of Soviet Citizenship for Sale
Alexandra Zborovsky (U Pennsylvania), Soviet Jewish Migration and Citizenship: From Soviet Practices of Denaturalization to the Israeli Law of Return
Chair/Discussant: Philipp Lenhard (INJÖST/U Vienna)
12:30-14:00 Lunch Break
14:00-15:30 Identity and Agency in Migration
Larissa Remennick (Bar-Ilan U), Choosing One or Being Both: The Identity Dilemmas of Russian-Jewish Mixed Ethnics Living in Russia and in Israel
Alexander Schneidmesser (U Vienna), Past, Community, Dialogue, and Challenges: Post-Soviet Germans and Jews in Germany, 1990–2024
Jannis Panagiotidis (U Vienna), “Jews, Russians, Whites”: Post-Soviet Jews in German Migration Debates
Chair/Discussant: Tatsiana Astrouskaya (Herder Institute)
15:30-15:45 Coffee Break
15:45-17:15 Things and Lifeworlds of Migration
Anna Novikov (Johanna-Stahl-Zentrum for Jewish History and Culture, Würzburg), Between Post-Soviet, Jewish and German: Microhistories of Integration in Würzburg’s Jewish Community
Dina Fainberg (City St George’s U), Lives in Transit: the Material Culture of Soviet Jewish Emigration to Israel, 1985-1995
Victoria Smolkin (Wesleyan U), Provody: Soviet Jewish Emigres and the Worlds They Left Behind
Chair/Discussant: Jannis Panagiotidis (RECET)
17:15-18:00 Final Discussion
Semion Goldin (Hebrew U), Anna Shternshis (U Toronto), Juliane Fürst (ZZF/CEU), Jan-Claas Behrends (ZZF/Viadrina); chair: Jannis Panagiotidis (U Vienna)
