Visegrad Lecture Series

Freedom in Exile: Munich Institute, Transnational Scholarship, and Ukrainian-Jewish Relations in the 1950s-1970s

by Olga Petrova, PhD Candidate in Comparative History, CEU Department of Historical Studies, Research Affiliate at CEU Democracy Institute

The year 1963 saw the publication of the “Jewish National Autonomy in Ukraine, 1917-1920” (in Ukrainian), an important work on Ukrainian-Jewish relations, authored by Solomon Goldelman (1885-1974). It was issued by the Institute for the Study of the USSR, also known as the Munich Institute, as part of a series of mimeographed publications dedicated to the national question in the Soviet Union. The Institute, active from 1950 to 1972, operated as part of the CIA activities in Europe.

This project examines the transnational Ukrainian-Jewish dialogue that developed between the 1950s and the 1970s within the Munich Institute’s framework. This dialogue connected Ukrainian and Jewish émigré intellectuals in Europe, the United States, Canada, and Israel. Based on the Munich Institute’s publications and materials at the Blinken OSA Archivum, this presentation explores how the Munich Institute contributed to fostering the links between Ukrainian and Jewish intellectuals in exile.