Voices from the Soviet edge : southern migrants in Leningrad and Moscow / Jeff Sahadeo.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sahadeo, Jeff, 1967- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Migration, Internal--Soviet Union--History.

Migration, Internal.

Migration, Internal--Caucasus, South--History--20th century.

Migration, Internal--Asia, Central--History--20th century.

Saint Petersburg (Russia)--Ethnic relations.

Saint Petersburg (Russia).

Moscow (Russia)--Ethnic relations.

Moscow (Russia).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (288 pages)

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, New York ; London : Cornell University Press, [2019]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Jeff Sahadeo reveals the complex and fascinating stories of migrant populations in Leningrad and Moscow. Voices from the Soviet Edge focuses on the hundreds of thousands of Uzbeks, Tajiks, Georgians, Azerbaijanis, and others who arrived toward the end of the Soviet era, seeking opportunity at the privileged heart of the USSR. Through the extensive oral histories Sahadeo has collected, he shows how the energy of these migrants, denigrated as "Blacks" by some Russians, transformed their families' lives and created inter-republican networks, altering society and community in both the center and the periphery of life in the "two capitals. "Voices from the Soviet Edge connects Leningrad and Moscow to transnational trends of core-periphery movement and marks them as global cities. In examining Soviet concepts such as "friendship of peoples" alongside ethnic and national differences, Sahadeo shows how those ideas became racialized but could also be deployed to advance migrant aspirations. He exposes the Brezhnev era as a time of dynamism and opportunity, and Leningrad and Moscow not as isolated outposts of privilege but at the heart of any number of systems that linked the disparate regions of the USSR into a whole. In the 1980's, as the Soviet Union crumbled, migration increased. These later migrants were the forbears of contemporary Muslims from former Soviet spaces who now confront significant discrimination in European Russia. As Sahadeo demonstrates, the two cities benefited from 1980's' migration but also became communities where racism and exclusion coexisted with citizenship and Soviet identity.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Note on Terminology

Introduction: Journeys to the Core(s)

1. Global, Soviet Cities

2. Friendship, Freedom, Mobility, and the Elder Brother

3. Making a Place in the Two Capitals

4. Race and Racism

5. Becoming Svoi: Belonging in the Two Capitals

6. Life on the Margins

7. Perestroika

Conclusion: Red or Black?

Appendix: Oral Histories

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-5017-3821-6

OCLC:

1056202912