Overview

As perceived icons of indifferent marginality, disorder, indolence, and parasitism, ""Gypsies"" threatened the Bolsheviks' ideal of New Soviet Men and Women. The early Soviet state feared that its Romani population suffered from an extraordinary and potentially insurmountable cultural ""backwardness,"" and sought to sovietize Roma through a range of nation-building projects. Yet as Brigid O'Keeffe shows in this book, Roma actively engaged with Bolshevik nationality policies, thereby assimilating Soviet culture, social customs, and economic relations. Roma proved the primary agents in the refashioning of so-called ""backwards Gypsies"" into conscious Soviet citizens. New Soviet Gypsies provides a unique history of Roma, an overwhelmingly understudied and misunderstood diasporic people, by focusing on their social and political lives in the early Soviet Union. O'Keeffe illustrates how Roma mobilized and performed ""Gypsiness"" as a means of advancing themselves socially, culturally, and economically as Soviet citizens. Exploring the intersection between nationality, performance, and self-fashioning, O'Keeffe shows that Roma not only defy easy typecasting, but also deserve study as agents of history.

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9781487528294

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Reviews

‘New Soviet Gypsies is an impressive and suggestive study of the link between nation making and citizenship in the early Soviet context. It’s also wonderfully written and richly researched. Anyone interested in the history of nationality in the twentieth century should read it.’ -- Willard Sunderland * Journal of Modern History vol 88:02:2016 * ‘This is a meticulously researched and well-written work… O’Keeffe is very good at showing the proverbial bigger picture within which we ought to locate the attempted Sovietization of Russian Roma.’ -- David Z. Scheffel * Anthropos vol 110:2015 * ‘Brigid O’Keeffe’s book is an intelligent study of Soviet nationalities that an instructor who teaches ethnicity and nationalism in any context should include as required reading in his or her syllabus.’ -- Ali Igmen * American Historical Review, October 2014 * ‘This brilliant new study of the Roma’s plight in the early decades of Soviet power in Russia opens up new avenues of discussion and study of this fascinating ethnic group’s history… This study will certainly become a classic in Roma studies.’ -- David M. Crowe * Slavic Studies vol 73:03:2014 * ‘Stories of trivialization and stylization of local historic culture and their music and language abound in this fascinating account… O’Keeffe’s book is well researched and tells an important tale of Roma history and struggle. Highly recommended. Most levels/Libraries.’ -- L.De Donaan * Choice Magazine, vol 51:06:2014 * ""This book is a welcome addition to the study of minority groups in the former USSR, particularly of a stigmatized group. O’Keefe explores questions that will be of interest to folklorists, anthropologists, linguists, and historians studying the peoples of this region and also minority ethnic identity and how it is negotiated in institutional contexts."" -- Jeanmarie Rouhier-Willoughby * <em>Journal of Folklore Research Reviews</em> *

'New Soviet Gypsies is an impressive and suggestive study of the link between nation making and citizenship in the early Soviet context. It's also wonderfully written and richly researched. Anyone interested in the history of nationality in the twentieth century should read it.' -- Willard Sunderland * Journal of Modern History vol 88:02:2016 * 'This is a meticulously researched and well-written work... O'Keeffe is very good at showing the proverbial bigger picture within which we ought to locate the attempted Sovietization of Russian Roma.' -- David Z. Scheffel * Anthropos vol 110:2015 * 'This brilliant new study of the Roma's plight in the early decades of Soviet power in Russia opens up new avenues of discussion and study of this fascinating ethnic group's history... This study will certainly become a classic in Roma studies.' -- David M. Crowe * Slavic Studies vol 73:03:2014 * 'Stories of trivialization and stylization of local historic culture and their music and language abound in this fascinating account... O'Keeffe's book is well researched and tells an important tale of Roma history and struggle. Highly recommended. Most levels/Libraries.' -- L.De Donaan * Choice Magazine, vol 51:06:2014 * 'Brigid O'Keeffe's book is an intelligent study of Soviet nationalities that an instructor who teaches ethnicity and nationalism in any context should include as required reading in his or her syllabus.' -- Ali Igmen * American Historical Review, October 2014 *

Author Information

Brigid O’Keeffe is an assistant professor in the Department of History at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York.

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