Gennady Estraikh's well-researched account of Soviet Jewry between Iosif Stalin's death in 1953 and the 1967 war between Israel and its Arab neighbors is the penultimate volume of a planned six-volume history of Jews in the Soviet Union. Drawing upon memoirs, newspapers, periodicals, and archival material in English, Russian, and Yiddish, Estraikh provides a comprehensive overview of the main currents of the Kremlin's policies toward Jews during the rule of Nikita Khrushchev and the initial years of the Leonid Brezhnev era. One strength of the book is the author's emphasis on placing the Jewish experience in the context of general developments in Soviet politics and society. The book is encyclopedic in coverage and will be essential reading about many aspects of the Soviet Jewish experience in the mid-twentieth century.
Many of the themes Estraikh explores will not be new to the informed reader. But much of the material significantly deepens and broadens our understanding of the Doctors’ Plot; the fate of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee; Birobidzhan; rumors of the mass expulsion of Jews to the eastern territories of the country; discussions of the Holocaust (and Babyn Yar in particular); prosecution of Jews for alleged economic crimes, and Yiddish publishing. Estraikh is a master of informative and perceptive vignettes that illustrate the all-too-real tragic trials and tribulations of the Jewish intelligentsia in the tumultuous years after the end of World War II. His reflections on Aron Vergelis, editor of the journal Sovetish Heymland (Soviet Homeland), is especially enlightening as is his analysis of how Soviet authorities handled the publication of The Diary of Anne Frank and the lesser-known diary by Masha Rolnikaite, as well as the existence of hundreds of Holocaust memorials established by Jewish communities in towns, cities, and villages.
After Stalin, 1953–1967 reads in places like a who's who of Jewish cultural, literary, religious, and political personages who were involved in public Jewish life. The fact that many of them all too frequently ran afoul of the government and sometimes found themselves in prison merits the attention Estraikh devotes to them. The narrative would have benefited from trimming some of the material with regard to writings on the Holocaust and other examples of writing in Yiddish and Russian on Jewish themes. Although focus on Jewish public intellectuals reflects the sources available to scholars, Estraikh's volume suffers from the lack of extended discussion of the fabric of everyday life of the vast majority of Soviet Jews who were not in the public eye. As he notes, Soviet Jewry was in fact diverse in terms of geography, culture, and socio-economic characteristics. Similarly, the lure of acculturation, integration, and assimilation into mainstream Soviet society—especially the opportunities available to Jews who came of age after the death of Stalin—deserves more consideration. This reviewer also wishes Estraikh offered an analysis of how gender affected Soviet Jewry's responses to official state policy. The role of gender within and without Soviet Jewish communities also warrant analysis. The government's suppression of Judaism and prohibition on most public expressions of religious life is well known, but what role, if any, did Jewish women play as a conduit of Jewish tradition and culture? The author provides a fascinating account of Jewish foodways, but who did the cooking? I doubt it was Jewish men. Did Jewish women impart other aspects of traditional Jewish life within the confines of family life? Did they continue the practice of passing on religious customs and rituals (such as the lighting of Sabbath candles on Friday evenings) and, if so, how did this influence Jewish identity?
The book would benefit from a concise statement of the book's thesis in the introduction and a conclusion that elaborates on how the events described in the book laid the groundwork for the post-1967 period, when many Soviet Jews experienced a national awakening and sought to emigrate. But as Estraikh notes, most Soviet Jews led contented lives and did not seek to start new lives abroad. Moreover, the author leaves some quotations and information unattributed. For example, what is the source of the assertion that the wife of the top-ranking Party official in Birobidzhan planned to poison Lazar Kaganovich with tainted gefilte fish? But these are minor quibbles. After Stalin, 1953–1967 is an excellent example of historical research and analysis and deserves the careful consideration of readers interested in the history of Soviet Jewry.
