"Ukraine without Jews"? Nationality and belonging in Soviet Ukraine, 1943-1948

This dissertation explores some of the most pressing issues confronting Jews in the newly-liberated Ukraine to reveal how Soviet citizens attempted to articulate, reconstruct, and police the boundaries of their communities following the devastation of war, foreign occupation, and genocide, challenges they shared with millions of other Europeans. Within the context of Soviet Jewish history, this dissertation advocates re-envisioning the years between 1943 and 1948—typically portrayed simply as the period between the Holocaust and the antisemitic policies of Stalin’s final years—as a time of professional, personal, and creative possibilities for Soviet Jews. Such possibilities, which admittedly varied from person to person and place to place as a result of local conditions and relationships, exceeded those available to Jews elsewhere in postwar Eastern Europe, notwithstanding the very real challenges Soviet Jews faced during these years. As I argue, the Jews populating my research were invested in the Soviet project, loyal to their country, and assertive in demanding the rights guaranteed to them both as individuals and as Jews in the Soviet Union