Tel Aviv, 2004. 920 p.

 
 
 When an epoch is buried, 
 The funeral psalm does not sound, 
 Nettle, thistle 
 You will have to decorate it. 
 And only gravediggers famously
Work. The case does not wait! 
 And quiet, oh my God, quiet, 
 That you can hear the clock ticking. 
 
 

Anna Akhmatova

The study under consideration is a broad historical canvas covering the period from the time of the Russian Empire (there is also an excursion into the more distant past). until now. History knows many examples of emigrations, migrations, ethnic cleansing, etc.

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purges, genocides, conquests and assimilation, in which entire peoples disappeared, died or dissolved, losing their native culture and identity. What did they leave behind? Why remember them who once lived in distant lands?

The author of the book under review, Semyon Gitlin, tries to answer these questions. Most of his life is connected with Uzbekistan. He was a professor at Tashkent State University, is an Honored Scientist of the Republic of Uzbekistan; since 1993, he has lived in Israel; from 1996 to 2001, he was a research associate at the Cummings Center for Russian and Eastern European Studies at Tel Aviv University. His specialty is national relations in the USSR and Soviet Uzbekistan.

The book can be considered as an attempt to restore one of the elements of the richest ethnocultural mosaic of the Soviet Union. "The nearly two-thousand-year history of Jews in Uzbekistan is coming to an end," the author notes with sadness. For all those who study Russian history, it is important that the traces of those for whom this land has been native for many generations are not covered with the sand of oblivion.

A huge number of facts and extensive use of archives allow S. Gitlin to trace the great role of Jews in the development of Uzbekistan, their contribution to modernization, and their heroism in the Great Patriotic War. The subject of the author's research is both the official policy in relation to this population group, and the fate of individual people, mostly tragic. He is interested not only in famous people who have held prominent government posts, scientists, and artists: the story of the little man appears in the book no less significant and worthy of description. A special chapter of the book is devoted to the destruction and closure of the Jewish theater in Tashkent in the late 1930s.

The author has set himself a large-scale task - to characterize the situation of Jews in the Muslim world in general and in the region in particular, to trace the features of the cultural, economic, and political life of both Central Asian and European Jews. Obviously, any of these topics could well be the subject of separate consideration. Moreover, by placing the Jews as a national minority of Central Asia at the center of his research, S. Gitlin does not focus on the analysis of the development features of this group alone. It needs a broad background, since the history of the Jews is written in a complex historical context, repeating to one degree or another the fate of many national minorities in the Russian Empire and the USSR, while maintaining its own specifics. This is why the book contains a detailed historical narrative that should give the reader an idea of where and how the history of the Central Asian Jews began and was formed. This is a detailed description of the process of conquering Central Asia, the peculiarities of governing the Turkestan region, settlement policy, the establishment of Soviet power, and the transformation of Uzbekistan into one of the leading Soviet republics.

Speaking about the Jews of Central Asia, the author draws a clear distinction between European Jews (Ashkenazim) and Central Asian, or Bukharian, Jews. The first group appeared in Central Asia only as a result of the Russian conquest. It is not surprising that the overwhelming majority of the first European Jews were former military personnel-privates and non-commissioned officers. Officer ranks were not assigned to Jews. Later, artisans, merchants, apothecaries from European Jews appeared in the region, who settled throughout the region. The law allowed not all willing Jews to settle in the Turkestan region, but only those who were qualified-artisans, merchants, and military personnel. Accordingly, with a higher level of education compared to the locals, European Jews began to play an active social role. Among the engineering staff, doctors,booksellers and publishers in the early twentieth century, there were many Jews, despite the oppression of the tsarist authorities.

The formation of Central Asian Jews as a special ethnolinguistic group took place on the territory of modern Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. They have lived here since time immemorial, and their customs and clothing contain strong elements of Tajik and Uzbek culture, although they maintained their isolation and observed Jewish traditions. The fate of the Ashkenazim and Bukharians was different, and it is obvious that the Central Asian Jews remained in general a traditional society, unlike their fellow tribesmen from the European part of Russia.

A significant part of the book is devoted to the policy of the tsarist regime towards Jews, in particular in Central Asia. In general, these are rather tragic pages of Russian history. In this

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The author's balanced position is particularly noteworthy. Against the background of official anti-Semitism, it shows those politicians and individuals who categorically opposed the persecution, took a moral position, and defended the unjustly persecuted.

Separate sections are devoted to the reasons for the mass departure of Jewish youth to the revolution, their fierce service to the Soviet government, especially in the first post-revolutionary years. S. Gitlin notes that many of those who found themselves in the revolution were people who actually broke with Jewry and did not associate themselves with it. It is no coincidence that among the Soviet functionaries of the first decades there were Jews who launched an offensive against Judaism. The book presents a very revealing dialogue between a group of rabbis and L. D. Trotsky. They came to him to ask for a softening of the Bolshevik policy towards Judaism. Hearing from him that he refused to engage in "foreign affairs", one of the rabbis said: "Ah, Lev Davidovich, the Trotskys make the revolution, and the Bronsteins suffer from it" (p. 375).

Describing the situation in Central Asia after the establishment of Soviet power, S. Gitlin dwells in detail on such fundamental achievements as the elimination of illiteracy and access to higher education, the emergence of highly qualified specialists among Central Asian Jews, and the new role of women in public life. At the same time, militant atheism could not but affect the community of Bukhara Jews, who suffered from it as well as representatives of other faiths. But even during the Stalinist period and later, the persecution of Judaism in Central Asia was not as devastating as in the European part of the USSR. The author's explanation of this phenomenon deserves special mention. First, Bukharan Jews were less influenced by Jewish assimilators - "enlighteners" (in other words, the local community remained more traditional and monolithic). Secondly, the local leadership, while maintaining an explicit or implicit commitment to Islam, did not take seriously the struggle against religion imposed by Russian atheists (p.519).

This last point seems to be particularly important. Indeed, Islam, as well as other confessions in the former USSR, was persecuted, but it was constantly present in the tradition, which later led to such a rapid, if sometimes painful, revival (high Islam became impoverished in the absence of a genuine Muslim education). Those who are inclined to see modern international relations through the prism of a clash of civilizations, which is often primitively understood as inter-confessional contradictions, will not be without interest to learn how the Islamic tradition helped to mitigate political pressure on Judaism in Central Asia.

The theme of the repressions of the 1930s is given a special place in the book. S. Gitlin cites the terrible documents of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) and the Politburo of the Central Committee, which actually set quotas for the destruction of people - how many kulaks, anti-Soviet elements and others should be identified and destroyed in which republic. Jews shared the tragic fate of all the peoples of the former USSR. The main blow was inflicted, according to available data, on people with higher and secondary education, the cultural layer of the nation was destroyed. "The exact number of Jews among the victims of the" great terror "can only be established by future research by historians, but there is no doubt that the number of repressed Jews was one of the first places after Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Uzbeks, and as a percentage of the entire Jewish population, Jews suffered the heaviest losses" (p. 435).

Speaking about the situation of Jews in Uzbekistan, S. Gitlin cites eyewitness accounts about the traditional kindness of the Uzbek people, about mutual support and understanding. Even at the official level, the attitude was different, more tolerant, although under the influence of the "general line" dismissals, transfers to another job, etc.became common practice. "With the rampant anti-Semitic hysteria in the USSR, much began to change in Uzbekistan. Speaking about this, I would like to note that during this period (late 1940s-early 1950s - I. Z.), state Judeophobia was less felt in Uzbekistan, which, by the way, attracted Jews who lost their jobs from the European part of the country" (p.655).

The author describes in detail the reasons for the mass emigration of Jews from the USSR with the beginning of Perestroika, including from the republics of Central Asia. They are well known and hardly need any comments. It is obvious that the preservation of identity was only one of the motives for the emigration of Jews from the republics of the former USSR to Israel. Other factors, such as security issues, economic problems, etc., also played a role.

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Along with the absolute positive aspects of the peer-reviewed study, I would like to mention a number of points that raise objections or questions. The book is based on the historical and problematic principle. This approach seems to be quite justified, but, unfortunately, it does not save the study from repetitions. For example, the last chapter on contacts between Ashkenazim and Central Asian Jews brings the reader back to the period before 1917, which has already been discussed a lot at the beginning of the book. The author's claim that Jews were completely disenfranchised in Shiite Iran and Yemen is controversial (p. 21). The author was not able to cover all the zigzags of the official policy towards Jews in relation to Uzbekistan, although they themselves are rather convex and interesting. This applies, in particular, to the action being prepared by Stalin to evict Soviet Jews to Siberia.

I would like to see more detailed coverage of relations between Jews and other national minorities in Uzbekistan, as well as an analysis of the differences in their situation in the republic. This, obviously, could be the subject of a separate study.

And finally, such a fundamental work needs a subject index, a general list of sources and literature, and a solid conclusion and conclusions. Moreover, the image of the bursting " melting pot "used by the author in conclusion to characterize the Soviet national policy, which was reduced to" melting down individual national cultures into a single multinational culture", is not entirely correct. And in general, as for the "melting pot", we can say that it could not have an effect even in Israel, including because of the huge Jewish immigration, which preserved Russian culture and did not want to part with it. It is hardly an accident that this book was published in Israel in Russian.

In general, the conducted research seems to be significant and necessary. The author wrote about many unknown pages of history, tragic and instructive; about the civic courage and kindness of people and about unjustified cruelty. An abridged edition of this book in Russia, and possibly in Uzbekistan, would be useful both for the scientific community and for a wide range of readers.

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