Books by Elizabeth White
A Modern History of Russian Childhood: From the Late Imperial Period to the Collapse of the Soviet Union
Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2020
The Disentanglement of Populations. Migration, Expulsion and Displacement in Post-War Europe, 1944-9
Palgrave , 2011
The Socialist Alternative to Bolshevik Russia: The Socialist -Revolutionary Party in Emigration, 1921-1939
Routledge, 2011
Papers by Elizabeth White
Comparativ. Zeitschrift fur Globalgeschichte und Vergleichende Gesellshaftsforschung, 2017
This article examines the development of refugee protection in the interwar years. It argues that... more This article examines the development of refugee protection in the interwar years. It argues that the legal framework was pushed by refugee lawyers and jurists who helped create the category of 'refugee' as a legal person in need of special protections and in possession of certain rights.
Relief, reconstruction and the rights of the child: The case of Russian displaced children in Constantinople, 1920-22
N. Baron (Ed.), Displaced Children in Russia and Eastern Europe, 1915-1953 (70-96). Brill Academic Publishers., 2017
This chapter examines the displacement and resettlement of the Russian children who were evacuate... more This chapter examines the displacement and resettlement of the Russian children who were evacuated across the Black Sea from Ukraine, southern Russia and Crimea in 1920 at the end of the Russian Civil War.2 Their displacement had begun long before they left Russia itself. But the children’s arrival in Constantinople was to be just the start of a further series of migrations, firstly into the Balkans, Central Europe or France; later, for some, to the French colonies or North or South America.
The League of Nations' Work on Social Issues. Visions, Endeavours and Experiments. , 2016
In September 1921 the Council of the League of Nations appointed Norwegian polar explorer, scient... more In September 1921 the Council of the League of Nations appointed Norwegian polar explorer, scientist, diplomat and international celebrity, Fridtjof Nansen as High Commissioner for Russian Refugees. His remit was to deal with the crisis situation caused in 1920 by the arrival in Constantinople of hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Russian Civil War. Refugee work had not been included in the League's Covenant in 1919. However, the unprecedented number of refugees was considered too great for humanitarian agencies such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) or the Allied armies that had supported the Whites in the Civil War and now occupied the city. The ICRC and the English Save the Children Fund (SCF), through its newly formed international network in Geneva, L' Union Internationale de Secours aux Enfants (UISE) were instrumental in urging the League to make refugees objects of international politics and humanitarian action. Nansen was chosen as he had successfully helped the League organise the repatriation of POWs from the Central Powers from the Soviet Union. He was viewed as someone who could work with the Soviet government and the Allies at this point hoped that the Bolshevik regime could be persuaded to take the refugees back. Once established, The High Commission for Russian Refugees had a skeletal staff (mostly English) headed by a Major Thomas Frank Johnson in Geneva, with delegates based in European states where substantial numbers of refugees eventually arrived, namely Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and France. Many of the initial delegates, or regional contacts, were already employed in their locations by the ICRC or UISE. The High Commission later took on responsibility for Greek, Armenian and Assyrian refugees and the word Russian was dropped from its title (hereafter, HCR). An Advisory Committee of Private Organizations was set up in October 1921 to help the HCR by providing information and links with refugee communities. Russian refugee organisations were represented on the Advisory Committee, including the main one, Zemgor. Zemgor was founded in Paris in 1921 by a group of leading anti-Bolshevik social activists and politicians to represent the Russian refugee community abroad. It was recognised by the League and national governments and was responsible for receiving and distributing funds donated by states and humanitarian organisations to help the refugees during the interwar period. 1 The HCR ga e no money to refugee organisations and was not directly involved in relief work. Nansen and his staff were not tasked with protecting individual refugees but with ending, or in the parlance of the day, "liquidating" the refugee problem for the Allies. The British and French-who had financial responsibility for White Army units in the camps-hoped that the refugees could be persuaded to return to Russia. Russian refugee organisations and most refugees rejected this idea, either as they remained committed to the anti-Bolshevik cause, or because they feared for their safety if they returned and there was 1
Revolutionary Russia, 2013
This article examines the attempts made by Russian émigré activists in inter-war Europe to educat... more This article examines the attempts made by Russian émigré activists in inter-war Europe to educate Russian refugee children in a network of national Russian schools. This formed an important aspect of the émigré elite's mission of 'saving' Russian culture abroad as well as their attempts to prevent assimilation. It is argued that although these schools gave the opportunity of education to thousands of vulnerable and marginalised children, the network thrived mainly due to support from outside actors, in particular the Czechoslovak state. The evidence supports the argument that the Russian refugees in the 1920s could often be flexible and pragmatic where their children were concerned.
'The return of evacuated children to Leningrad, 1944-46.'
In J. Reinisch, & E. White (Eds.), The Disentanglement of Populations Migration, Expulsion and Displacement in postwar Europe, 1944-49, 251-270. Palgrave Macmillan, 2011
Europe-Asia Studies, 2007
This article focuses on the civilian return to Leningrad after the end of the Blockade and in the... more This article focuses on the civilian return to Leningrad after the end of the Blockade and in the
immediate post-war period. It examines how the authorities tried to control movement back to the city
but proved to be overwhelmed by vast numbers of civilians returning with or without permission. It
describes post-war living conditions, explores the official historical narrative of resilience and recovery,
and provides a critique of the alternative historical narrative that claimed there was no post-war 'return
to normalcy' and that Leningrad became a different city after the war.
immediate post-war period. It examines how the authorities tried to control movement back to the city
but proved to be overwhelmed by vast numbers of civilians returning with or without permission. It
describes post-war living conditions, explores the official historical narrative of resilience and recovery,
and provides a critique of the alternative historical narrative that claimed there was no post-war 'return
to normalcy' and that Leningrad became a different city after the war.
The Evacuation of Soviet Children during the Great Patriotic War
in Martin Parsons (ed) Children, The Invisible Victims of War, DSM Publishers, 2006
Russian Review, 2007
During the late 1920s Victor Chernov and some other Socialist Revolutionaries (SR) in the emigrat... more During the late 1920s Victor Chernov and some other Socialist Revolutionaries (SR) in the emigration broke sharply with traditional SR thinking on the nationalities question. Chernov (1876-1952), one of Russia's most well known revolutionaries, had been a founder of the SR party in 1902 and was considered its leader and chief theoretician. He had been minister of agriculture in the Provisional Government and elected chair of the Constituent Assembly when it met in January 1918. After the assembly was dissolved he participated in anti-Bolshevik socialist governments in the Volga region and Siberia, but had to leave Russia in 1920. He had very difficult relations with the SRs in Paris and kept his legitimacy as leader through his membership of the Foreign Delegation and his control of the larger Prague SR group. 1 When this group split in 1927, he formed a breakaway group, which he insisted represented the SR party abroad. This split is usually ascribed to émigré factionalism, but the cause was an issue of profound importance to the SRs. In 1926 Chernov had created the Socialist League of a New East (Sotsialisticheskaia Liga Novogo Vostoka), which called for the break-up of the USSR into independent nation-states, including a Russian one. This proposal was so unacceptable to fellow SRs that adherence to the Socialist League was considered incompatible with party membership. 2 The position the Socialist League adopted on Ukrainian independence was one of the primary reasons that other SRs rejected it. This article describes the attitude of Russian SRs toward Ukraine and the Ukrainian SRs. The Socialist League was largely a project between Russian and Ukrainian SRs. It claimed that the Bolshevik regime was a colonial one and a national oppressor of the other Soviet Republics. 3 The idea that Ukraine had a colonial relationship to Russia was utterly unacceptable to the majority of SRs, as was the idea that Ukrainian separatism was a radical and progressive movement. 1 SRs settled in Czechoslovakia with government support. They published the influential journal Volia Rossii and the party organ Revoliutsionnaia Rossiia. The Prague Group remained true to the revolutionary traditions of narodnichevstvo. The "Paris SRs" (Alexander Kerensky, Vladimir Zenzinov, Vadim Rudnev, Nikolai Avksentiev, and Mark Vishnyak) had a different political development in emigration, consciously merging with the émigré mainstream with its focus on Russian high culture and religion.
Revolutionary Russia , 2006
This article examines the analysis of the Russian peasantry during NEP that was made by
members... more This article examines the analysis of the Russian peasantry during NEP that was made by
members of the Socialist Revolutionary Party (SRs) in emigration. They saw evidence that
peasant behaviour in this period justified narodnik beliefs. It also discusses the SR
programme for modernisation, to which the usual ‘alternative’ to Stalinism – Bukharinism
– owed something. Their analysis of the correlation of social forces led the SRs to believe that
the peasantry would bring the Soviet regime down. These hopes were disappointed and it is
suggested that the SRs’ weakness, particularly that of their leader, Viktor Chernov, lay in
their failure to understand how power operated in the Bolshevik state
members of the Socialist Revolutionary Party (SRs) in emigration. They saw evidence that
peasant behaviour in this period justified narodnik beliefs. It also discusses the SR
programme for modernisation, to which the usual ‘alternative’ to Stalinism – Bukharinism
– owed something. Their analysis of the correlation of social forces led the SRs to believe that
the peasantry would bring the Soviet regime down. These hopes were disappointed and it is
suggested that the SRs’ weakness, particularly that of their leader, Viktor Chernov, lay in
their failure to understand how power operated in the Bolshevik state
Book Reviews by Elizabeth White
Journal of Family History, 2022
Slavic Review, 2018
This book examines different facets of a Belgian-Hungarian project, which saw around twenty thous... more This book examines different facets of a Belgian-Hungarian project, which saw around twenty thousand Hungarian children come to Belgium for "holidays" between 1923 and 1927. There is a focus on the thousand or so who stayed on and became migrants in the more traditional sense. This was one of many examples of child migration in the interwar period, often in the guise of child "rescue" projects, which can be placed along a spectrum from benign to abusive. The author's research framework looks at how social identities, particularly childhood or "being a child," are affected by migration. The author argues that processes of migration strongly influence individual and collective social identities. The book is divided into three parts. The first looks at "States, Institutions, and the Welfare of Children," examining the macro-level migratory regime and the meso-level institutions involved in the socio-historical context. The Belgian Catholic Church took the lead role in the program as it felt it could increase its role in Belgian society through visible participation in popular child-centered international humanitarianism. It also wanted to improve Belgium's international image, tarnished by its occupation of the Ruhr in 1923. The involvement of the Hungarian state, social organizations, and churches was also motivated by national concerns, as they hoped to use these international child schemes to win sympathy and support for the revision of the "unjust" 1920 Treaty of Trianon, when Hungary was forced to cede 71% of its prewar territory and 64% of its prewar population. The second part of the book, "The Family Network-the Best Interests of the Child," examines how the families involved were affected and how they maintained and negotiated transnational practices and facilitated the children's integration. The author skillfully shows how important the Hungarian children-"Walking Red Tulips" working to create "the International of Love"-were to Hungarian nationalists (Jewish Hungarian children were not allowed onto the project). They were also important, however, to the families who made the decision to send them away and to those who took them in to stay. For many of the Belgian families, joining the child relief project was a highly visible way of demonstrating a Catholic identity, not only in the sense of offering charity but also in possessing many children in a multi-generational family structure. Hungarian families were motivated by poverty and this created some power imbalance with feelings of shame and gratitude. The author argues, however, that the organizers of the child relief project successfully created a transnational humanitarian community linking Belgian and Hungarian families, which was strengthened by family correspondence and the circulation of photographs. For many, this link continued through further generations. The third part, "Children-Migrants-Identities: Between Motherland and Home," is about remembering and imagining childhood, based on interviews with surviving participants, now in their late nineties. The author has tried to uncover what the
English Historical Review, 2016
While some popular images of twentieth-century Russian history can be rather motionless ones of t... more While some popular images of twentieth-century Russian history can be rather motionless ones of the eternal slumbering Russian village or a society of atomised individuals frozen and paralysed under the all-seeing totalitarian gaze of 'Big Brother' or stagnating in identikit apartments in 'late socialism', most academics (and inhabitants of the Russian political space) instead see constant upheaval and movement as a key experience across the twentieth century. This fascinating book uniquely brings together as many of these different stories of human movements as it possibly can, presenting a new perspective on Russian history through the lens of migration. The authors, Lewis H. Siegelbaum and Leslie Page Moch, set out to analyse 'varieties of migration practiced in Russian political space during the twentieth century' during three different governments-Imperial Russia, the Soviet Union and the modern Russian Federation. These include peasant resettlement, urbanisation, wartime evacuation, de-kulakisation, military mobilisation, internal exile, nomadic lives and the deportation of nationalities. The book takes both a 'top-down' and 'bottom-up' approach. First, the authors examine the variety of migration regimes formulated and projected by state power, which they present as the 'policies, practices, and infrastructure designed to both foster and limit human movement'. This is balanced by a look at migrants' own repertoires, conceived as 'practices, their relationships and networks of contact that permitted adaption to particular migration regimes'. Migrant repertoires and state regimes sometimes clashed, but sometimes supported each other. Chapter One looks at those who chose to resettle within Russia, mainly peasants. The Imperial Russian state encouraged Slavic East peasants to move to Siberia and Kazakhstan to colonise and 'civilise' those areas, while forestalling Chinese dominance there, while the Soviet state wanted to align the population with the development of natural resources or move more 'reliable' elements into border areas for state security needs. Chapter Two looks at the persistence and proliferation of seasonal and temporary labour migration across the period, from the well-known peasant otkhodniki of the late Imperial period, informal (and illegal) working arrangements during the Soviet period, to the current migrants from the Caucasus and Central Asia, who now come to Russian cities to work as unskilled labourers or vendors of flowers, fruit and vegetables. Chapter Three examines urbanisation, and shows how all three governments tried to control movement to the city as well as welcome it. They identify and describe three major waves of urbanisation, that in the late nineteenth century, the 1930s (which apparently saw the highest rate of urbanisation in human history) and the late Soviet period, which saw constant emigration from rural areas, especially by the young. Chapter Four is devoted to career migrants, and focuses on the professional trajectories of Tsarist
To the Tashkent Station. Evacuation and Survival in the Soviet Union at War
The Soviet and Post Soviet Review , 2011
The Narodniks in the Russian Revolution. Russia's Socialist-Revolutionaries in 1917—A Documentary History. Socialist History Occasional Papers Series, No. 25
Canadian Slavonic Papers, 2009