Yiddish and the Creation of Soviet Jewish Culture
1918–1930

This book explores the ways in which Jews were part of, not apart from, both the Soviet system and Jewish history.

David Shneer (Author)

9780521104647, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 19 March 2009

312 pages, 5 b/w illus. 10 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.46 kg

"This book is a welcome addition to the literature on Jews in eastern Europe. It will appeal to readers in the fields of Russian, Jewish and cultural studies. It could also interest people delving into the cultural aspects of the Jewish past." - Allan Laine Kagedan, Carleton University

Yiddish and the Creation of Soviet Jewish Culture gives voice to the activists empowered by the state to create a Soviet Jewish national culture. These activists were striving for a national revolution to create a new culture for Jews to identify as Jews on new, secular, Soviet terms. This book explores the ways in which Jews were part of, not apart from, both the Soviet system and Jewish history. Soviet Jewish culture worked within contemporary Jewish national and cultural trends and simultaneously participated in the larger project of propagating the Soviet state and ideology. Soviet Jewish activists were not nationalists or Soviets, but both at once. David Shneer addresses some of the painful truths about Jews' own implication and imbrication in the Soviet system and inserts their role in twentieth-century Jewish culture into the narrative of Jewish history.

Introduction
1. Soviet nationalities policies and the making of the Soviet Yiddish Intelligentsia
2. Ideology and Jewish language politics: How Yiddish became the national language of Soviet Jewry
3. Modernising Yiddish
4. Who owns the means of cultural production? The Soviet Yiddish publishing industry of the 1920s
5. Engineers of Jewish souls: Soviet Yiddish writers envisioning the Jewish past, present and future
6. Becoming revolutionary: Izi Kharik and the question of aesthetics, politics and ideology
Afterword. How does the story end?
Appendices
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Judaism [HRJ], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], European history [HBJD]