Kyiv's Jewish community provides a case study of social changes caused by war. During World War I, the wave of refugees from the front zone changed the social profile of cities of the Russian Empire, and Kyiv was no exception. It became the transit city for deported Jews and other refugees on their way to places of resettlement. The social activity of the Jewish community in Kyiv created new forms of communal organization, often connected to relief work. Establishing relief organizations and working with refugees from the western and north-western imperial provinces, Jewish activists could test new notions of modern Jewish politics and society (secular and national-minded). The wartime turmoil, growing state anti-Semitism, and the work of Jewish relief organizations stimulated political activity and further development of a civic collective identity, which enabled an impressive Jewish national movement in 1917-20.
Larysa Bilous is a PhD candidate in Russian History and East European Studies at the University of Alberta. She received her BA and MA from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. The topic of her doctoral dissertation (supervisor: Dr. Heather Coleman) is "Jews in Wartime Urban Space: Ethnic Mobilization and the Formation of a New Political Identity in Kyiv, 1914-1918."