Blood of Others
Stalin's Crimean Atrocity and the Poetics of Solidarity
University of Toronto Press · Print & ebook · January 29, 2024
In the spring of 1944, Stalin deported the Crimean Tatars, a small Sunni Muslim nation, from their ancestral homeland on the Black Sea peninsula.
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- Who it’s for
- Rory Finnin traces how poetry and prose broke silence about the Crimean Tatar deportation.
- Themes
- Crimean Tatar deportation, Literature and solidarity, Black Sea cultural history
- Genres
- Ukraine History, Soviet-Era Russia, Genocide & War Crimes
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In the spring of 1944, Stalin deported the Crimean Tatars, a small Sunni Muslim nation, from their ancestral homeland on the Black Sea peninsula. The gravity of this event, which ultimately claimed the lives of tens of thousands of victims, was shrouded in secrecy after the Second World War. What broke the silence in Soviet Russia, Soviet Ukraine, and the Republic of Turkey were works of literature.
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These texts of poetry and prose – some passed hand-to-hand underground, others published to controversy – shocked the conscience of readers and sought to move them to action. Blood of Others presents these works as vivid evidence of literature’s power to lift our moral horizons. In bringing these remarkable texts to light and contextualizing them among Russian, Turkish, and Ukrainian representations of Crimea from 1783, Rory Finnin provides an innovative cultural history of the Black Sea region. He reveals how a "poetics of solidarity" promoted empathy and support for an oppressed people through complex provocations of guilt rather than shame. Forging new roads between Slavic studies and Middle Eastern studies, Blood of Others is a compelling and timely exploration of the ideas and identities coursing between Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine – three countries determining the fate of a volatile and geopolitically pivotal part of our world.
Crimea in Literature
Rory Finnin traces how poetry and prose broke silence about the Crimean Tatar deportation.
Come here for
- Literary responses to the 1944 deportation of the Crimean Tatars
- Russian, Turkish, and Ukrainian representations of Crimea since 1783
Expect
- Works of poetry and prose, underground and published
- A cultural history of the Black Sea region
Where it sits
| Soviet-Era Russia | 47% |
|---|---|
| Genocide & War Crimes | 28% |
| Ukraine History | 28% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Eastern European History
- East European Literary Criticism
- European Lit Crit
- Authors
- Rory Finnin
- Publisher
- University of Toronto Press
- Published
- January 29, 2024
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Crimean Tatar deportation · Literature and solidarity · Black Sea cultural history
- Reading lane
- Eastern European History