'The Best Fruit of the Russian Revolution': Jewish Autonomy in Ukraine, 1917-1918

• In Event: The Greater War as a Turning Point in East European Jewish History

Abstract

The revolutionary events that followed World War I are associated with anti-Jewish violence in Ukraine and have, therefore, established a negative view of Ukrainian-Jewish relations. This period, however, also witnessed negotiations of Ukrainian and Jewish visions of autonomy that translated into an independent Ukrainian People’s Republic (UNR) and the law of national-personal autonomy for Ukraine’s Jews. The Jewish Socialist-Labor Confederation Poalei Zion even went as far as to declare this UNR’s law as “the best fruit of the Russian Revolution” in September 1918. This paper focuses on these negotiations and argues that they signaled ideological affinities and cooperation between Ukrainians and Jews in times of both opportunity and turmoil.

Author

• Olga Petrova, Central European U (Hungary)