Documents on Ukrainian-Jewish Identity and Emigration, 1944-1990

This volume provides a unique perspective on the social, cultural and political situation of the Jewish population in postwar Soviet Ukraine. It is based on declassified collections of documents from the Ukrainian central and regional archives. The sources, which have been carefully selected and annotated, provide insight on two levels: they reveal much about the evolution of Ukrainian Jewish identity, the Jewish emigration movement, and the social and political environment in which Ukrainian Jewry acted throughout the post-World War II period, as well as specific features of Jewish communities in various parts of Ukraine. In parallel, they illuminate official decision-making processes and the nature and hierarchy of Jewish policies in particular. The documents published here are appearing for the first time. Until now, most of the information they contain was known only to the participants in these events and to a very narrow circle at the highest echelons of the Soviet party administrative and securityelite for whom they were originally intended.