Denis Kozlov Lectures on Soviet Jewish Migration during the 1970s-1980s

Dr. Denis Kozlov, the 2017 Ruth and David Musher / JDC Archives Fellow, gave his public presentation on “Soviet Jewish Migrations to the West during the 1970s-1980s and the Problem of Freedom.” He examined several social and intellectual aspects of migrations from the late Soviet Union to the West. Between 1971 and 1989, no fewer than 360,000 ex-Soviet individuals, most of them Jewish, moved to Western countries. Of these, about half went to Israel while the rest settled in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and elsewhere. Many agencies and individuals claimed “freedom” as the idea that propelled migrants to move from the Soviet Union to the Western world. Dr. Kozlov’s talk explored the specific meanings that freedom assumed in this migration landscape.

Dr. Denis Kozlov is an associate professor of Russian history at Dalhousie University in Halifax. His research in the JDC Archives was on the cultural history of migrations from the Soviet Union to the West during the 1970s and 1980s.

The JDC Archives Fellowships allow scholars engaged in graduate level, post-doctoral, or independent study to conduct research in the JDC Archives, either in New York or Jerusalem. All fellows give a public presentation on their research; watch more of these JDC fellowship lectures here.