Please join us at the Bong Center for our Speaker Series showcasing Natalie Belsky. Belsky is Assistant Professor of History in the Department of History, Political Science and International Studies at University of Minnesota Duluth.
Her book ๐๐ท๐ข๐ค๐ถ๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐๐ฏ๐ค๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฐ๐ท๐ช๐ฆ๐ต ๐๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ต ๐๐ถ๐ณ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐๐ฆ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐๐ข๐ณ is the first to examine the experiences of the millions of Soviet civilians evacuated to the interior of the country during the Second World War in the context of their encounters and relations with local communities and populations across Soviet Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Siberia, and the Urals.
The book considers the impact of this episode of massive population displacement across Eurasia on individuals, communities, and society more broadly. It explores how the challenges associated with wartime displacement gave rise to tensions between evacuees and local residents. These frictions, in turn, forced individuals to interrogate the meaning, terms, and limitations of citizenship and belonging in the Soviet Union. Evacuation thus played a critical role in the changing relationship between citizens and the Soviet state in the war and postwar periods. Furthermore, this study pays particular attention to the plight of Soviet Jewish evacuees, who constitute the largest contingent of Holocaust survivors in Europe, and the rise of anti-Semitism on the Soviet home front during the war.
This volume will be of interest to students and scholars of the Second World War, migration and displacement, the Holocaust, Soviet Jewish history, and the Soviet experience more broadly.
Please join us to learn more about Belsky and her book.
