Jews in Wartime Urban Space: Ethnic Mobilization and the Formation of a New Community in Kyiv, 1914-1918

Abstract

This dissertation is a case study of wartime Jewish politics and social life Jewish life in Kyiv from 1914 to the end of 1918. The research engages the larger questions of Central and Eastern European history during the Great War in general, and of the Russian Empire in particular—mass mobilization, social engineering, and the emergence of new social and political communities. Kyiv, the capital of the South-Western region of the Russian Empire, was situated in the center of the Pale of Jewish Settlement. During the war, Kyiv was the closest major city to the South-Western front and as such became the transit city for Jews deported for resettlement. Philanthropic activity, developed to aid the Jewish refugees, – the Jewish “home front” – mobilized the Jewish population and significantly democratized communal life. I argue that relief work during the war created a new and officially-sanctioned Jewish public space that enabled the development of a Jewish civil society and established an imagined national community. The wartime turmoil, growing state anti-Semitism, and the activity of Jewish relief organizations all stimulated political activity and furthered the development of a civic collective identity, which enabled an impressive Jewish national movement from 1917–1920. The revolutionary events of 1917 changed Kyiv’s identity and its status in the region. It became the capital city of the Ukrainian state, but also a true Jewish metropolis, the center of regional Jewish political and cultural life. Though the new national freedoms ushered in by the revolution created openings for civic initiatives, it also accentuated the differences between national social groups. The development of the Ukrainian national movement compelled Jews to gravitate to Jewish national organizations, staffed by experienced social and political organizers, which enabled the representation and defense of Jewish national interests. However, Jewish political identity was always multilayered. Jewish nationalism as it emerged in 1917 was not fully developed or exclusive of other allegiances. It coexisted with contested loyalties and identities, constantly adapting to local discourses and remaining advantageously fluid.