Dr Oleg Kozerod's book "The Crucial Years. Jewish Community in Ukraine in the First Postwar Decade (1919-1929)" is one of the first serious publications on this subject. The author included into the book many unpublished documents from different Ukrainian archives and other sources. He depicts how dramatic historical events of 1919-1929 affected the life of Ukrainian Jewry.
The book describes events of the Civil War, accompanied with the increase of anti-Semitism and bloody Jewish pogroms. When the Soviet power was established in Ukraine, Bolsheviks stopped the pogroms. However, the new political regime was very unfavorable for Jews. "The most part of Jews in Russia" had "absolutely nothing to do. But where could they escape? And how can three million people escape?" Some of the Jews emigrated from Ukraine during the Civil War and the first Soviet years, but most of them stayed and accommodated themselves to new life conditions. The author also notes that Bolsheviks already then were against the Jewish emigration from the country. The Soviet terror policy fell on Jews as on all other people. It all resulted in persecution and arrests of Zionists, closing of synagogues and Jewish educational institutions. O.Kozerod's book accumulated interesting comments of foreign and native press concerning the establishment of Soviet power in Ukraine and its attitude to Jews. It analyses communist realized and unrealized projects about changing the structure of the Jewish population. They include the d creation of agricultural settlements in Ukraine, a national Jewish autonomy in the Crimea, Jewish migration to the Far East to Birobidzhan. The documents and facts, given in the book, are
exceptionally cognitive. The book is written in a living, figurative language, and is undoubtedly interesting both for scientists and a wide circle of readers.
Kozerod O. The Crucial Years. Jewish Community in Ukraine in the First Postwar Decade (1919-1929). - Kharkov: Evreiskyi mir, 1998.-221 pp.
