Beyond Memory: The Crimean Tatars' Deportation and Return

Anthropology, History and the Critical Imagination

by Greta Lynn Uehling, John L. Comaroff (Editor), Ann Laura Stoler (Editor)

In the final days of World War II, Stalin ordered the deportation of the entire Crimean Tatar population, nearly 200,000 people. Beyond Memory offers the first ethnographic exploration of this event, as well as the 50 year movement for repatriation. Many of the Crimean Tatars have returned in a process that involves squatting on vacant land and self-immolation. Uehling asks how they became willing to die for their national collectivity. She provides a fine-grained analysis of how "memories," sentiments, and dreams of a homeland never seen came to be shared. Uehling suggests the second-generation has a surprisingly instrumental role to play. The way children correct and intervene in parental narratives, dissidents challenge interrogators, and speakers borrow and trade lines index this social aspect of memory.

Genres: Nonfiction

307 pages, Paperback

First published November 27, 2004

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an excellent balance of academic analysis of memory and storytelling with a thoroughly researched narrative of the Crimean Tatars. Uehling doesn't shy away from showing two (or more) contradictory stories, but she represents her Crimean Tatar interlocutors with respect and ultimately with support for their territorial claims. The book resonates in a sad way, because now Crimean Tatars have experienced another wave of displacement, which many of them feared even during Uehlings research. Very informative and highly recommended.

[Mujda · Rating 5 out of 5]

https://anchor.fm/voicemailsfromhisto...

In this episode, I talk about the history of the Crimean Tatars, a group considered to be Europe's oldest surviving Muslim community. On the 18th of May 1944, Joseph Stalin ordered the en masse deportation of 191,000 Crimean Tatars, signalling an astounding break from previous Soviet policy towards ethnic groups in the late 1920s. I consider how the study of Crimean Tatars challenges the idea that Europe and Asia are 'different' from each other and how the Crimean Tatars have formed a unique sense of belonging in this world.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This ias quite a detailed monograph of an ethnic group that has largely gone unnoticed by much of the world. Besides the obvious story the author is portraying, I found the demonstration of memory theory to be fascinating.