Crimea in the Jewish Imagination: An Introduction

Abstract

This special issue of East European Jewish Affairs was conceived between Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its violent invasion of Ukraine eight years later. In February 2014, troops without identifying insignias appeared in Crimea; following an unmonitored referendum, Russia subsequently annexed the peninsula (an acquisition that most of the world has never formally recognized). Ukraine was unprepared to respond militarily. Shortly after the annexation of Crimea, Russia-backed separatists declared “independent” republics in the Eastern Donbas region of Ukraine, whose ceasefire line with Kyiv-controlled areas turned into a proxy front line in the simmering conflict between Ukraine and Russia. In February 2022, the Russian Federation launched an unprovoked attack on the entire country. Many of the rockets that landed on Ukrainian cities, killing large numbers of civilians, originated in Russia-occupied Crimea. This has added new tragic pages to the story of Crimea, which is inextricable from the historical narratives of the many populations who have inhabited the peninsula. Jewish populations have been part of Crimea’s history, entering it on the side of perpetrators and victims of political campaigns, sometimes imagining the peninsula as a Jewish homeland, and in some cases, offering metaphors for the plight of other communities. Our goal as editors has been to delve deeper into the role Crimea has played in the Jewish imagination. Russian president Vladimir Putin has accused Ukrainians (including Ukraine’s ethnically Jewish president, Volodymyr Zelensky) of fascist sentiments. These claims exploit a grain of historical truth: during World War II a radical branch of the anti-Soviet Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), headed by Stepan Bandera, opportunistically aligned itself with Nazi Germany in an effort to break free from the Soviet Union. Although a majority of Ukrainians never supported this movement, some Ukrainians have remembered Bandera as a hero who attempted to lead an anti-Soviet independence movement. Some political leaders and artists have sought to confront the Bandera legacy: while former president Viktor Yushchenko named Bandera a “hero of the people” in 2010, his successor, Viktor Yanukovych, revoked the title. President Zelensky, who poked fun at the cult of Bandera in his comedy before coming to office, has distanced himself from this legacy, while acknowledging the importance of national heroes. Films and literary works have provoked conversation about the minority of Ukrainians who aligned themselves with Nazism during World War II. But Bandera has become a convenient password for those seeking to undermine Ukraine’s current bid for self-determination.