Soviet Jewish Migrants in Italy: The Position of the Italian Government

• In Event: The Question of Belonging: New Perspectives on Late Soviet Jewish Emigration

Abstract

On the basis of archival evidence, this paper discusses the position that the Italian authorities adopted vis-à-vis the extensive presence of Jewish migrants from the Soviet Union in the national territory of Italy during the 1970s and 1980s. Soviet Jewish migrations are often, and justly, studied with a focus on the migrants themselves. The present paper adopts a different approach, examining the perspective of the Italian side, a crucial participant in the strategic operation of moving people from the Soviet Union to the West. Arguably, the Italian official stance to a large extent conditioned and determined the trajectories of this population movement.

Author

• Denis Kozlov, Dalhousie U (Canada)