THE STUDY OF THE JEWS in the Soviet Union is a field that has been radically transformed in the years since the collapse of that state in 1991, with the ending of ideological constraints and the opening of archives. However, there are still many problems in relating the history of the Jews there. The Soviet system was highly centralized and, generally speaking, local developments reflect what was happening at the centre. The system was highly repressive, and many of the specific features of Jewish life—religion, independent schools, independent newspapers, different political orientations—were either illegal or strictly controlled by the Soviets. As a result, the record of how people reacted to the creation of the new political order is still difficult to reconstruct.

The Jewish experience of Soviet power altered considerably during the seventy years of communist rule. The 1920s saw the rapid integration of Jews into Soviet life and the flourishing of the attempt to create a Soviet Jewish culture based on Yiddish. The 1930s had many negative features, but most Jews still probably felt that their experience of the USSR was positive. The war years were mixed. On the one hand, the Jews were deeply conscious of popular hostility and the sympathy of significant elements within the population for what the Nazis were doing to the Jews.