Authors

Discussion

This paper explores the subject of Jewish aid work and its articulation with the emergence of the Soviet power in Ukraine. During the revolution and civil war in Ukraine that followed the collapse of the Russian empire in 1917, the Jewish population was subjected to a vast campaign of persecution and pogroms that resulted in the direct deaths of 100,000 people. Jewish aid committees, partly emerging from the experience of the First World War, organised help for pogroms victims as early as 1918. 

How was this aid organised? Through which organisations and committees? Which funds? How was the link organised between aid for victims, community and political activism, and public denunciation of the violence committed? Using a rare source, namely the testimony of a Jewish aid worker in Podolia, Eli Gumener, written in 1921, this presentation will also seek to go beyond the organisational and institutional dimension by analysing the aid actually provided on the ground.

Finally, this paper will address the progressive taking-over of the Jewish aid organisations by the Soviet regime. The experience of the revolutionary period presents several continuities with the organisation of humanitarian aid during the First World War, as well as innovations. It shows both the adaptability of Jewish activists during the revolutionary period and institutional innovations. Political activists as well as humanitarian workers developed tactics and strategies to navigate a period of political chaos and mass violence and were ultimately forced to serve under the authority of the Soviet regime. This case will therefore lead to reflect on the relationships between State authorities and humanitarian organisations and their limited room for manoeuvre in times of crisis.