Book Review
Soviet Jewish Emigrés in Limbo
The Free World, by David Bezmozgis (US, UK, Canada, 2011)
Review by Beryl Belsky
Although most Soviet Jews were secular and assimilated, they were not immune to the rabid anti-Zionism directed against Israel by the Soviet regime, much of which was thinly disguised antisemitism. As a result, some suffered discrimination at universities, in the work place, and in other areas of life. After the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, when the anti-Zionism campaign rose to new heights, emigration applications began to multiply. The right of Soviet Jews to emigrate became a high-profile issue following the aborted hijacking attempt in 1970 by a group of refuseniks who tried to escape to the West.
Emigration was a difficult and risky process, the first condition being family reunification and a formal petition from a relative abroad. Once an application was made, not only the applicant, but their entire family, were likely to lose their jobs and status, and there was no guarantee that they would be allowed to leave. Applicants were regarded as “traitors to the motherland” and on leaving would lose their Soviet citizenship. International pressure following the trial and imprisonment of the hijackers forced the regime to increase the emigration quota, and gradually the trickle became a stream.
In the beginning, the majority of Soviet Jews went to Israel, but increasingly, once they arrived in Vienna to be processed and flown to the Jewish state, they “dropped out,” preferring to try their luck and apply to a "freer" and less dangerous country – the U.S., Canada or Australia. They would consequently be moved to another center in Europe where they would bide their time and pray that the precious visa would come through.
This, briefly, is the background to David Bezmozgis’ first full-length novel, The Free World. Bezmozgis experienced refugee status himself in 1980, at the age of seven, when his family left Riga, Latvia, waited in transit in Italy, and finally obtained visas to immigrate to Canada. His story centers on a three-generational family, the Krasnanskys − patriarch Samuil (who had changed his family name to a more Russian one so that he wouldn’t be identified as a Jew) and matriarch Emma, sons Alec and Karl, their wives Polina and Rosa, and Karl and Rosa’s two young sons. None of them, except Rosa, could be labeled “Zionists,” and she wants to go to Israel mainly because her parents are there. Samuil, the most interesting and developed of the characters, had no desire to emigrate at all. He is a loyal Soviet citizen, a decorated war hero and a man of status, who loses everything, including his war medals, after his sons apply to leave. Emma, his wife, irritates him because of her mother-coddling and affinity toward Jewish religious rituals. Alec and Karl are opportunists, the former a somewhat weak, aimless, but basically kindhearted, womanizer, the latter a more threatening character who becomes involved in illicit dealings in Italy. Polina, who is not Jewish, had been Alec’s mistress in Riga and was enticed by him to have an abortion, marry him and escape to the West.
The story takes place in the late 1970s, in Rome and in the coastal town of Ladispoli, where the Krasnanskys, and thousands of other Soviet Jewish refugees, are awaiting visas to the West. After a relative in Chicago who is supposed to sponsor them lets them down, the Krasnanskys are now trying to get into Canada. Bezmozgis describes a community of stateless citizens, who have been dumped in Italy to be cared for in a perfunctory and bureaucratic way by HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) and the Joint (Joint Distribution Committee). They vie with each other for accommodation and jobs and some exercise the wheeling and dealing skills they acquired in the Soviet Union, in order to survive. They attend Hebrew classes and cultural events at the Kadima Jewish Center, principally in order to meet and socialize, and they sightsee in nearby Rome. Most have to remain there for many months.
Bezmozgis’ tone is ironic (including the title he gives to the book), except in the flashbacks to Samuil’s childhood and adolescence, when he becomes more serious. His characters are not necessarily likable One feels some sympathy for Polina, and perhaps a little for Emma and for Samuil (who, Bezmozgis claims, is modeled on his own grandfather), although the latter’s bitterness and rigidity are somewhat of a deterrent. Perhaps in a caricaturist sort of way the Krasnanskys represent a typical Soviet Jewish émigré family.
Bezmozgis’s book gives us an interesting insight into a population that many of us had heard about but knew little of, and into the trials they had to endure in order to get to the putative land of golden opportunity. We also learn something of what life in the Soviet Union was like for families like the Krasnanskys in the 1970s, as well as in the earlier days, prior to and during World War II. Samuil’s conversion to devout communism, for example, had occurred after he witnessed his father and grandfather being murdered by "Whites" (Cossacks). He lost his brother during the Great Patriotic War, as it was called in the Soviet Union, and, as noted, became a decorated war hero. Although being Jewish in the Soviet Union was never an easy burden to bear, and even those who became devout communists did not escape persecution, until the emigration applications, Samuil had remained a respected Party man, with a managerial position, and accompanying limousine and driver.
One thing is clear from the story as well as in reality: the vast majority of the emigrants were ordinary people seeking a better life, if not for themselves, then at least for their children. Most were successful in attaining this goal. Witness, for example, the fame and fortune joint Google founder Sergey Brin has achieved since he emigrated from the Soviet Union to the U.S. with his family in 1979, at age six!
Review by Beryl Belsky
Although most Soviet Jews were secular and assimilated, they were not immune to the rabid anti-Zionism directed against Israel by the Soviet regime, much of which was thinly disguised antisemitism. As a result, some suffered discrimination at universities, in the work place, and in other areas of life. After the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, when the anti-Zionism campaign rose to new heights, emigration applications began to multiply. The right of Soviet Jews to emigrate became a high-profile issue following the aborted hijacking attempt in 1970 by a group of refuseniks who tried to escape to the West.
Emigration was a difficult and risky process, the first condition being family reunification and a formal petition from a relative abroad. Once an application was made, not only the applicant, but their entire family, were likely to lose their jobs and status, and there was no guarantee that they would be allowed to leave. Applicants were regarded as “traitors to the motherland” and on leaving would lose their Soviet citizenship. International pressure following the trial and imprisonment of the hijackers forced the regime to increase the emigration quota, and gradually the trickle became a stream.
In the beginning, the majority of Soviet Jews went to Israel, but increasingly, once they arrived in Vienna to be processed and flown to the Jewish state, they “dropped out,” preferring to try their luck and apply to a "freer" and less dangerous country – the U.S., Canada or Australia. They would consequently be moved to another center in Europe where they would bide their time and pray that the precious visa would come through.
This, briefly, is the background to David Bezmozgis’ first full-length novel, The Free World. Bezmozgis experienced refugee status himself in 1980, at the age of seven, when his family left Riga, Latvia, waited in transit in Italy, and finally obtained visas to immigrate to Canada. His story centers on a three-generational family, the Krasnanskys − patriarch Samuil (who had changed his family name to a more Russian one so that he wouldn’t be identified as a Jew) and matriarch Emma, sons Alec and Karl, their wives Polina and Rosa, and Karl and Rosa’s two young sons. None of them, except Rosa, could be labeled “Zionists,” and she wants to go to Israel mainly because her parents are there. Samuil, the most interesting and developed of the characters, had no desire to emigrate at all. He is a loyal Soviet citizen, a decorated war hero and a man of status, who loses everything, including his war medals, after his sons apply to leave. Emma, his wife, irritates him because of her mother-coddling and affinity toward Jewish religious rituals. Alec and Karl are opportunists, the former a somewhat weak, aimless, but basically kindhearted, womanizer, the latter a more threatening character who becomes involved in illicit dealings in Italy. Polina, who is not Jewish, had been Alec’s mistress in Riga and was enticed by him to have an abortion, marry him and escape to the West.
The story takes place in the late 1970s, in Rome and in the coastal town of Ladispoli, where the Krasnanskys, and thousands of other Soviet Jewish refugees, are awaiting visas to the West. After a relative in Chicago who is supposed to sponsor them lets them down, the Krasnanskys are now trying to get into Canada. Bezmozgis describes a community of stateless citizens, who have been dumped in Italy to be cared for in a perfunctory and bureaucratic way by HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) and the Joint (Joint Distribution Committee). They vie with each other for accommodation and jobs and some exercise the wheeling and dealing skills they acquired in the Soviet Union, in order to survive. They attend Hebrew classes and cultural events at the Kadima Jewish Center, principally in order to meet and socialize, and they sightsee in nearby Rome. Most have to remain there for many months.
Bezmozgis’ tone is ironic (including the title he gives to the book), except in the flashbacks to Samuil’s childhood and adolescence, when he becomes more serious. His characters are not necessarily likable One feels some sympathy for Polina, and perhaps a little for Emma and for Samuil (who, Bezmozgis claims, is modeled on his own grandfather), although the latter’s bitterness and rigidity are somewhat of a deterrent. Perhaps in a caricaturist sort of way the Krasnanskys represent a typical Soviet Jewish émigré family.
Bezmozgis’s book gives us an interesting insight into a population that many of us had heard about but knew little of, and into the trials they had to endure in order to get to the putative land of golden opportunity. We also learn something of what life in the Soviet Union was like for families like the Krasnanskys in the 1970s, as well as in the earlier days, prior to and during World War II. Samuil’s conversion to devout communism, for example, had occurred after he witnessed his father and grandfather being murdered by "Whites" (Cossacks). He lost his brother during the Great Patriotic War, as it was called in the Soviet Union, and, as noted, became a decorated war hero. Although being Jewish in the Soviet Union was never an easy burden to bear, and even those who became devout communists did not escape persecution, until the emigration applications, Samuil had remained a respected Party man, with a managerial position, and accompanying limousine and driver.
One thing is clear from the story as well as in reality: the vast majority of the emigrants were ordinary people seeking a better life, if not for themselves, then at least for their children. Most were successful in attaining this goal. Witness, for example, the fame and fortune joint Google founder Sergey Brin has achieved since he emigrated from the Soviet Union to the U.S. with his family in 1979, at age six!
Zelda Katz (Israel): The review made me want to read the book and I intend to look for it. I recently met some people who described the community discussed in the book and it peaked my curiosity.
