The project focuses on the analysis of the socio-demographic, economic and political transformations in the Siberian "Jewish street” during the first two decades of Soviet power. Turning to Siberian issue will expand our understanding of possible regional variations in the logic of the development of Russian Jewry as a “national minority” in the context of the early Soviet state. How did Siberian Jewry react to the change of political regimes and the powerful ideological propaganda of the Soviets? Did Jews beyond the Urals see themselves as part of Russian Jewry and how was it expressed? How did the image of Siberian Jewry transform in the conditions of Soviet realities? How did migration from the West affect what was happening inside Siberian Jewry? These are key research questions.
The project is a comprehensive regional research based on the methods of social, institutional and personal history. The project includes both archival and library work in 6 cities of Siberia (Omsk, Tomsk, Tyumen, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk), as well as in Moscow and Jerusalem. As a result of the project it is planned to prepare a monograph with the working title “Making Jews Soviet“: Bolshevik experiment in Siberian conditions, 1920-1930s”.
Dr. Victoria Gerasimova, Omsk State University.
In the picture: The former synagogue's building, 1971, Tara, Omsk Oblast, USSR. (Original image is kept in storages of Tara Local Lore Museum).