Description
Book SynopsisWhether voluntary or coerced, hopeful or desperate, people moved in unprecedented numbers across Russia''s vast territory during the twentieth century. Broad Is My Native Land is the first history of late imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet Russia through the lens of migration. Lewis H. Siegelbaum and Leslie Page Moch tell the stories of Russians on the move, capturing the rich variety of their experiences by distinguishing among categories of migrantssettlers, seasonal workers, migrants to the city, career and military migrants, evacuees and refugees, deportees, and itinerants. So vast and diverse was Russian political space that in their journeys, migrants often crossed multiple cultural, linguistic, and administrative borders. By comparing the institutions and experiences of migration across the century and placing Russia in an international context, Siegelbaum and Moch have made a magisterial contribution to both the history of Russia and the study of global migration.The a
Trade Review
The main merit of this work lies in its systematic approach, which allows authors to reveal the central place of migration in the history of Russia in the twentieth century. At the same time it greatly complements existing work on migration in Russia, dedicated primarily deportations, exile and other forms of forced migration.
-- Gijs Kessler * Laboratorium: Russian Review of Social Research *
Siegelbaum and Moch argue that, in reality, throughout three distinct periods in Russian history—the late imperial era, the Soviet years, and today—the phenomenon has been far more complex. The authors address what all this movement meant to these different groups and to society at large, offering insights into a little-understood aspect of Russian history.
-- Robert Legvold * Foreign Affairs *
The work is chronologically ambitious—spanning the entire twentiethcentury and covering three different political systems—and thematically comprehensive.... Most importantly, by bringing a plethora of life stories into what could easily have been a dry, state-centric narrative, [the authors] provide a deeply human history of migration—the lives that it made, the lives that it changed, and the lives that it destroyed.
-- Ian W. Campbell * The Journal of Interdisciplinary History *
This major work shows both the diversity and significance of migrations in twentieth-century Russia. A thought-provoking read, the book is recommended to all students and scholars of modern Russian history.
-- Denis Kozlov * Slavic Review *
A learned and highly readable work of spatial history, Broad Is My Native Land rescues the voices of accidental stories and life trajectories in this general vein, sharing the everyday tales of internal Russian/Soviet mobility beneath these sedentarist regimes and their useful, if mundane, aggregations of data that make settlement in Russia appear more legible, progressive, and common than it really was.
-- Steven Seegel * American Historical Review *
Table of ContentsIntroduction1. Resettlers2. Seasonal Migrants3. Migrants to the City4. Career Migrants5. Military Migrants6. Refugees and Evacuees7. Deportees8. ItinerantsConclusionSelected Bibliography
Index
