Special Issue ‘Minorities at War (Part 1): State Policies in Times of Conflict’
This Special Issue explores how periods of conflict influenced the relationship between minority groups in Central and Eastern Europe and their respective host states from the late nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries. The articles featured are based on contributions originally presented at the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies (BASEES) Study Group for Minority History’s second biennial symposium, ‘Minorities at War from Napoleon to Putin’, which was held at the New Europe College in Bucharest on 11-12 May 2023.
‘Minorities at War (Part 1): State Policies in Times of Conflict’, published as a special issue of the Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe (JEMIE), Vol. 23 No. 2 (2024), includes the following articles:
Karina Gaibulina, ‘Subalterns’ in the Russian Imperial ServiceThe Case of Bronisław Zaleski and Iskander Batyrshyn
The text examines one of the most important aspects of Russian imperialism, namely its multiculturalism. The practice of exiling politically uncertain people to the east of the Empire, as well as opening the possibilities for some privileged compradors to pursue careers, were only a tiny fraction of the strategies used by the Russian authorities to involve representatives of various national minorities in (co)building the Empire. It allowed the Russian Empire to use those people’s physical and intellectual potential to expand the state’s borders, including during warfare. The encounter of the Polish exile Bronisław Zaleski and the translator of Tatar origins, Iskander Batyrshyn, during the military campaign against the Khoqand fortress Aq Masjid will serve as an example. By comparing their diaries, which both of them kept throughout the entire expedition, we can gain insights into the intricate nature of their positions within the imperial structure, their reasons for participating in the venture, the impact the hostilities had on the local population, and their perception of this conflict. These documents also reveal patterns of relationship-building between imperial subjects and authorities as well as the role of imperial power in stimulating, restricting or regulating relations between different nations.
Maciej Górny, Majorities at War: Transformation of East Central Europe
The article begins and ends with a discussion of the censuses of East Central Europe before and after the First World War. Both the former and the latter were contested by minority activists despite the enormous changes brought about by the post-war settlement. This paradox can be explained, at least in part, through selected case studies that illustrate the asynchronicity of political, economic, and social transformations. The text discusses first the dynamics of this change: nationalist mobilization in the face of the refugee problem and local military conflicts. Second, it raises the question of the legitimacy of the consolidating national states in the region, especially the desperate and often futile appeals to the population to support the young states in their fight against the national and Bolshevik enemies. Both processes resulted in the construction of national majorities, albeit at different rates. The social and mental changes brought about by war, forced migration, and revolution proceeded much more slowly than the transformation of political discourses, and even more slowly than the language of ethnic statistics in the service of national states.
Giuseppe Motta, The Myth of a Jewish Invasion and the Refugee Question in Romania after the Great War
The idea of a Jewish invasion in Romania appeared during the debates on the first constitution (1866) and was revitalized after 1918, as the recently occupied territory of Bessarabia hosted many Jewish groups fleeing revolutionary Russia, the civil war, and pogroms. In this context, the immigrants were depicted by nationalist propaganda as invaders wishing to exploit Romania’s wealth and hospitality, and this image was combined with the myth of Judeo-Bolshevism. Thanks to the archival sources of the High Commission for Refugees and of relief organizations such as the Joint Distribution Committee, this paper aims to present in detail the controversial encounter between national security policies and humanitarian concerns for the fate of the refugees. At the same time, it will discuss how the refugee question influenced the Romanian political context, fostering sentiments of antisemitism and xenophobic anxiety. As will be argued, the idea of an invasion was very influential before and after World War I, and conditioned not only the definition of the policies regarding citizenship and minorities, but also the whole political discourse and the shaping of Romanian identity. At the same time, the emergence of refugees and the juxtaposition of humanitarian versus national security was not a purely Romanian affair, and in many aspects anticipated the topics of today’s debates.
This article examines the persistence of Tatarophobia against Crimean Tatars in the Russian segment of social media during the first year of the full-scale invasion (24 February 2022–24 February 2023). A total of 4,435 posts from various social media platforms, including Facebook, Odnoklassniki, Telegram, Twitter, and Vkontakte, were analysed. The discourse predominantly echoes Russia’s imperial and Soviet-era narratives, along with xenophobic and oppressive rhetoric exacerbated by the full-fledged invasion. The propaganda seeks to cultivate a negative perception of Crimean Tatars as an ethnic community, manipulating cultural and historical aspects related to them. Additionally, it endeavours to construct an adversarial image of relations between Ukraine and the Crimean Tatars, as well as of Ukraine’s current policies. Russian special services perceive the capacity of Crimean Tatars to self-organize, establish volunteer units, or organize blockades as a threat. The propaganda effort not only fosters harassment and hate speech but also encourages peninsula residents to view them as “unreliable elements” deserving of suppression.
Special Issue ‘Minorities at War (Part 2): Minority Agency in Times of Conflict’
The articles in this issue underscore the role of minority agency during times of conflict at the local, national, and regional levels. It examines how minorities self-organize in response to crises, the role of civic organizations and diasporas in providing aid during wartime, and the impact of war on the creation and evolution of minority identities. Additionally, it explores the living memories of past traumas among survivors and their descendants. The articles featured in this issue are based on contributions originally presented at the BASEES Study Group for Minority History’s second official biennial symposium, “Minorities at War from Napoleon to Putin,” held at the New Europe College in Bucharest, Romania, from 11-12 May 2023.
‘Minorities at War (Part 2): Minority Agency in Times of Conflict’, published as a special issue of the Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe (JEMIE), Vol. 23 No. 3 (2024), includes the following articles:
Jan Rybak, How the Jews of Austria Went to War in 1914
When the First World War broke out, Jews in the Habsburg Empire found themselves in a series of overlapping conflicts and crisis – young men were drafted and sent to the front, the Russian army threatened Galicia and Bukovina, Jews’ loyalty was questioned, and the nationalist and imperial rhetoric of the day left little room for ambiguities or second thoughts. This article analyses how Jews responded to the outbreak of the war and its multiple crises, as well as how they aimed to position themselves in the tense weeks of summer 1914. As seemingly every nation and community went to war, Jews needed to take part too. They did so in public assemblies where they recalled the eternal figures of Jewish heroism, through prayers for victory over the Muscovite archenemy of the Jewish people, and by public expressions of loyalty in a space where ‘nation’, ‘empire’, and other (ascribed) categories continuously overlapped and reinforced each other. This article analyses Jewish responses to the outbreak of the war in the Cisleithanian half of the Habsburg monarchy. It thereby not only highlights the interdependence of Jews and wider society, but also suggests that traditional approaches to explain the Jewish experience in the Habsburg lands in the beginning of the Great War ought to be reconsidered.
Anca Filipovici, Fighting Antisemitism: Underground Resistance of the Zionist Youth During the Holocaust in Romania
In 1930s Romania, Zionist youth organizations saw a resurgence amid increasing antisemitism and the global political mobilization of young people. These organizations underwent specific stages, throughout the totalitarian regimes of the Second World War, including a semi-legal period during the beginnings of the oppression, followed by an underground phase from 1942 onwards. This shift occurred when the Jewish Federation was replaced by the Jewish Council (Centrala), a state-controlled entity representing the Jewish community. This paper explores the clandestine Zionist non-armed resistance efforts carried out by youth organizations in Romania from 1942 to 1944, drawing on archives from the Romanian Secret Police (Siguranța). Focusing on the support received from Jewish networks abroad, the discussion highlights the actions of the Gordonia and Dror youth organizations. Notably, members of these groups faced convictions by the Court Martial in 1944 for aiding refugee Jews in crossing the Romanian border and preparing for emigration to Palestine. The argument posits that these acts of defiance constituted a form of Jewish resistance. The overall research endeavour seeks to provide a comprehensive history of Jewish youth activism during tumultuous times – an often-overlooked aspect in the broader narrative of the Holocaust in Romania.
Pavlos Ioannis Koktsidis, Calling the Big Brother: Turkish Cypriot Vulnerability and the Geopolitics of Kin-State Intervention
This article explores the development of minority and kin-state relations during times of conflict and transition, focusing on the interaction between the Turkish Cypriot ethnic minority and its kin-state Turkey from 1950 to 1974. The study challenges common perceptions that small and vulnerable minorities lack autonomous and effective agency and illustrates the significance of geopolitical drives for kin-state support. The Turkish Cypriot mobilization in the period under investigation provides proof of the effectiveness of minorities mobilizing kin-state support as a means of empowering their domestic security status. The study shows that an accurate grasp of geopolitical correlations, combined with goal-persistence and the willingness to co-opt, have assisted the Turkish Cypriot minority’s bid to entangle Turkey’s geostrategic interests in Cyprus. Essentially, the coupling of Turkish Cypriot calls for protection with Turkey’s broader geostrategic objectives, motivated a relationship of mutual strategic empowerment for the weak ethnic minority and its powerful kin-state. Yet the long-term incongruity of security objectives has significantly reduced the minority’s autonomous agency, inaugurating a new chapter of vulnerability.
Elmira Muratova, Displacement and Belonging: Redefining ‘Homeland’ and ‘Return’ among Crimean Tatars
This article examines Crimean Tatar perceptions of ‘homeland’ and ‘return’ following the 2014 annexation of Crimea, contrasting these views with those of Crimean Tatars in exile after the 1944 deportation. I argue that while nearly all aspects of homeland perception among exiled Crimean Tatars – such as an identity marker, a mythologized final destination, and the place where their community reside – are still evident in the narratives of those displaced after 2014, their emphasis and meaning have shifted. For those displaced post-2014, Crimea is primarily viewed as the place where their community lives and where most aspire to return. This article is based on interviews with Crimean Tatar internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Ukraine and forced migrants abroad, contributing to broader discussions on agency, displacement and belonging.
Study Group for Minority History 