LEADER 03972cam a2200433Ia 4500001 81781 005 20240621173545.0 008 030402s2001 xx rb 000 0 eng d 035 (OCoLC)ocm52570524 035 81781 049 LHMA 040 LHM |beng |erda |cLHM 090 DS135.R92 |bS522 2001 100 1 Shneer, David, |d1972- 245 12 A revolution in the making : |bYiddish and the creation of Soviet-Jewish culture / |cby David Benjamin Shneer. 264 1 [Place of publication not identified] : |b[publisher not identified], |c2001. 300 2, xxxvii, 558 pages 336 text |btxt |2rdacontent 337 unmediated |bn |2rdamedia 338 volume |bnc |2rdacarrier 502 Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Berkeley, 2001. 504 Includes bibliographical references (pages 538-558). 520 In the 1920s, the Soviet Union was the only country in the world to have state-sponsored Yiddish language publishing houses, writers' groups, courts, city councils, and a school system. These institutions were created for Jews by Jewish activists, who took advantage of the Soviet state's support for its ethnic minorities to build a Soviet Jewish culture in Yiddish. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the Soviet Union invested greatly in developing social, political, and cultural infrastructures for its national minorities both to foster each nationalities' own culture and as part of its empire-building project to bring these nationalities into the Soviet Union. Within these policies, each nation' language was the key signifier of its ethnic difference. For Jews, Yiddish was that signifier. More than nationalities policy, I am interested in Soviet Jewish activists' own voice and actions in the creation of a national culture and, more important, in how those actions themselves defined state policy. Jewish activists were interested in building a Soviet Jewish culture, because they were striving for a national revolution-the creation of a new Jewish culture through which Jews would identify as Jews on new, secular, Soviet terms. I rely on the theoretical framework of the neo-formalist Tel-Aviv school and the idea of secular polysystems to explain both why socialist Jews were participating in a national revolution, and why Soviet state building and Yiddish cultural production were not mutually exclusive. Finally, I explore the ways in which Jews were part of, not apart from, the Soviet system and Jewish history. Soviet Jewish culture worked within contemporary Jewish national and cultural trends of the 1920s and simultaneously participated in the larger project of propagating the Soviet state and its ideology. Soviet Jewish activists were not nationalists or Soviets, but were both simultaneously. By focusing on cultural production, I directly address some of the painful truths about Jews' own implication and imbrication in the Soviet system and insert their role in twentieth-century Jewish culture into the narrative of Jewish history. 530 Electronic version(s) |bavailable internally at USHMM. 533 Photocopy. |bAnn Arbor, Mich. : |cUMI Dissertation Services, |d2003. |e23 cm. 590 Dissertations and Theses 591 Record updated by Marcive processing 21 June 2024 650 0 Jews |zSoviet Union |xIntellectual life. 650 0 Yiddish language |xSocial aspects |zSoviet Union. 650 0 Yiddish literature |zSoviet Union |xHistory and criticism. 650 0 Jews |zSoviet Union |xIdentity. 650 0 Jews |xCultural assimilation |zSoviet Union. 650 0 Jewish socialists |zSoviet Union |xHistory. 856 41 |uhttp://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=725904841&sid=67&Fmt=6&clientId=54617&RQT=309&VName=PQD |zElectronic version from ProQuest 956 41 |u http://dc.ushmm.org/library/bib81781/3019804.pdf |z Hosted by USHMM. 994 X0 |bLHM 852 0 |bstacks |hDS135.R92 |iS522 2001 852 |bwww 852 0 |bebook