Lord and Peasant in Russia from the Ninth to the Nineteenth Century.

Slovenian historiography has to a large degree ignored children and childhood. This disregard seems unjustified, since the lives of young people offer us valuable and often alternative insights into various periods of Slovenian history. The author synthesizes the phenomenon of the wartime exile of Slovenes to neighbouring countries and illustrates it using children's experiences. Research of children's experiences of war and exile reflects both the dynamics of wartime migration and the consequences in the Slovenian cultural area. The paper on children's experiences of exile is placed in the socio-historical context of the Second World War. In terms of methodology it uses a combination of classical historical methodology and oral history; it is based on the relevant historical literature, an analysis of historical materials from throughout the entire post-war era, and various oral testimonies obtained from people in their later years.

Childhood in exile

Based on conventional learning and supported in no small measure by stereotypes, agriculture as a vocation was not considered as part of the occupational profile of Jewish society in Eastern Europe until the Second World War. However, various studies show that in different regions in this area, primarily Lithuania, White Russia, north eastern Poland, and Bessarabia, tens of thousands of Jews made a living from direct engagement in various branches of agriculture, including field crops, orchards, lake fishing, etc. These Jews lived mainly in the rural areas and were a factor, and at times a highly significant one, in the local demographic and economic structure. The first part of this article examines the question whether these Jews, who were part of the general rural society living in the countryside, developed a certain type of rural cultural identity. This question is discussed by examining various aspects of their attitude towards nature. The second part of the article considers the possible influence of the agricultural occupation on the shaping of a unique peasant cultural identity among these rural Jews and the ways they coped with the accompanying religious, social and cultural implications.

Mordechai Zalkin

Papers

Can Jews Become Farmers? Rurality, Peasantry and Cultural Identity in the World of the Rural Jew in Nineteenth-Century Eastern Europe

Lithuanian Jewry and the Concept of ‘East European Jewry’