SUMMARY:

This article by a leading Russia ethnographer N. Iukhneva attempts to develop a conception of the emergence of the specific subethnic group of Russian Jews. This group is characterized by its adherence to the Russian language and its biculturalism. Based on theoretical and terminological apparatus of Soviet ethnography, Iukhneva argues that acculturation under certain circumstances can lead not to complete assimilation but rather to the emergence of a subethnic group. Iukhneva believes that “ethnos” is the basic unit within the Jewish civilization. In Eastern Europe, Ashkenazi Jews constituted a Jewish ethnos with its own culture and language. With the incorporation of Poland into the Russian Empire, a significant majority of Ashkenazi Jews became subjects of the Russian empire, too. By the beginning of the 20th century, modernization processes within Ashkenazi Jewish communities led to the emergence of the Russian Jewish subethnic group. This group was characterized by the use of Russian as a secular language, a combination of Jewish and Russian culture, and self-perception in ethnic rather then religious terms. The process of this group’s emergence was interrupted in 1917 for three decades. It resumed after World War II and was complicated by the growing interest in the national Jewish past and traditions as well as by emigration to Israel in the conditions of the repressive Soviet emigration policies. In the post-Soviet conditions a range of factors stimulates the growth of the specifically Russian Jewish population (as opposed to the processes of assimilation under the USSR). At the same time, the disappearance of the Ashkenazi ethnos in the tragedy of the Holocaust will lead the Russian Jewish subethnic group to break apart: those Russian Jews, who remained in Russia, will become part of the Russian ethnos, whereas those, who migrated to Israel, will form part of the Israeli ethnos.