From the fate of Russian emigrants in Israel in the late XX – early XXI centuries: an unusual finding in the scientist’s personal archive

Abstract

The paper presents some main features of the daily life of Russian emigrants who arrived in Israel as part of the Big Aliyah in the 1990s on the example of the details of the emigrant period in the life of Nadezhda Osipovna Fedorova (19212018), the widow of the peoples writer of the Komi Republic Gennady Aleksandrovich Fedorov (19091991). The sources of the work were the letters of N.O. Fedorova from Bishkek and Ashkelon to Syktyvkar to the literary critic I.M. Vaneeva (19332010), discovered in the personal archive of the scientist and poet A.E. Vaneev (19332001). Wide chronological coverage of correspondence (19911994; 19972010) and the volume of the archive file (226 pp.) allow presenting the reasons for N.O. Fedorovas departure from Russia, the specifics of adaptation in a new social environment, some aspects of the everyday culture into which Russian Jews were immersed, finding out the role of correspondence with Russian friends and colleagues in the life of immigrants. The results of the work lead to a conclusion that the emigrants compensated for the absence of the previous social historical ground by stable bilateral contacts with the country of origin. The Big Aliyah emigrants did not get lost in the culture of the host country: adopting the experience of Arab-Israeli relations perception, local norms and customs, they brought Russian (Soviet) traditions and holidays into the culture of the indigenous population.