Speaker Series- Evacuee Encounters on the Soviet Home Front During the Second World War

Please join us at the Bong Center for our Speaker Series showcasing Natalie Belsky. Belsky is an Assistant Professor of History in the Department of History, Political Science, and International Studies at the University of Minnesota Duluth.
Her book 𝘌𝘷𝘢𝘤𝘶𝘦𝘦 𝘌𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘵 𝘏𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘍𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘵 𝘋𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘞𝘢𝘳 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. See less