Preamble Narratives and Social Memory - Universidade do Minho

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‘Diaspora Space’ as Heard and ObservedDaiva RepeckaiteI got used to it and learned to behave accordingly, but still, cultured communication, beingconsiderate of the other, are closer to my heart.’ A well-travelled informant from Latvia alsodrew the line between the sophistication of Europe and the primitivism of the ‘Orient’: ‘WeEuropeans see things differently than the locals here. For many people [here] it’s enough toknow a few brands of cars and where to party.’The ex-USSR habitus in Israel is constituted of diverse cultures and ‘liminal’ spaces,which are present ‘here’, but recreate the world of ‘there’. The habitus consists of shared dispositions,such as tastes, jokes, manners and cultural consumption patterns. These patterns aredependent on their sharing in the so-called ‘Cyrillic space’. This way the language as suchbecomes a portable ‘home’ to migrants, which connects them to a shared favorable memoryof cultural life in the USSR: accessibility of ‘high’ culture and good education, which arecontrasted with the situation in Israel. The migrants do not idealize the regime of the formerUSSR, but remain nostalgic to its cultural life and ambivalent to ‘home’ (as the country leftbehind). This way the memory of the ‘lost’ cultural world is sustained in these ‘Cyrillic spaces’,whereas, in the perception of the migrants, this world was lost in the USSR successor states.One of the informants working in a Russian-language bookstore summarizes it: ‘I watchRussian TV, listen to the radio... I don’t have a feeling that I’ve lived in Ukraine. I’m a Russianperson. I don’t even feel Jewish. I am Jewish, but it’s not so interesting for me. Meanwhile, Ireally love Russian culture – literature, art. That’s where my homeland is. But not as a place,rather as a language, culture...’ (interview in Central Tel Aviv)It is mostly the habitus that creates the sense of simultaneous here and there. A youngimmigrant from Tajikistan explains, ‘People come from all kinds of places, but here we areall Russians. We were Jews there and Russians here. In any case, we feel that we have somethingin common, we all came from there’ (interview in Central Tel Aviv).Cultural codesCultural life based on the Russian language is considered a refuge when facing challengingsocio-economic situations (a middle-aged respondent admitted that communicatingwith highly educated Russian speakers and, as much as possible, taking part in culturallife helps her feel she is ‘not at the lowest level’). A survey in the late 1990s found that nearlyall respondents found their language ‘respectful and cultural’, ‘beautiful’ and, paradoxically,relating to their Jewish identity to a higher extent than Hebrew (Ben Rafael, Olshtain &Geijst,1997, p. 371). Therefore the language is not only the link to one’s country of origin. It alsobecomes a link to one’s current life in Israel.Russian language can as well be the language of dissociation as it is of association.The varying degrees of integration, or absorption, as it is called in Israel, produce differencesin power. The power of a ‘cultural juggler’ (an immigrant able to pass as a native), as opposedto that of ‘the ethnic’ (clearly identifiable), is to ‘dose’ one’s identity and only reveal as muchas necessary in a given situation. Especially young immigrants found it important to showhow they have become successful ‘cultural jugglers’, able to balance and freely use multiplesets of cultural codes. These sets entail not only the ‘Russian’ and the Israeli habitus, but alsoNarratives and social memory: theoretical and methodological approaches248
‘Diaspora Space’ as Heard and ObservedDaiva Repeckaiteidentify, for instance, a Russian-speaking cosmopolitan who possesses an Israeli passport.Young middle-class Russian-speakers liked to emphasize that they like reading in Russian,Hebrew and English; many took pride in knowing other languages, keeping in touch withfriends and relatives in other countries (mainly the ‘nodes’ of Russian-speaking diaspora)and considering an international career. Learning other languages was also consideredimportant by older individuals.The solidarity and networks available due to linguistic affinity strengthened their positionin negotiations for a higher status in the receiving society. This created an autonomousspace with an infrastructure for not only preserving the respect and cultural capital enjoyedin the former USSR, but also for alternative employment opportunities. Most authors (e.g.Remennick, 2007) have discussed at length the thriving Russian-language press, culturaland education institutions.One of my fieldwork sites, the Russian Cultural Center in South Tel Aviv, is funded bythe Russian embassy, but employed local Russian-speakers. Its Russian language, computer,art and other lectures create an infrastructure that serves several purposes. Firstly, it createda stepping-stone to the Israeli society, allowing individuals to learn from acknowledged‘co-ethnic’ experts. Secondly, it provided a feeling of community, which is both a communityof memory and a community of habitus. Russian-speakers assembled to watch Soviet orRussian films, appreciate art, which is perceived to be different from modern Israeli artistictrends, and feel the pulse of culture in their former homelands. Thirdly, it created employmentopportunities to artists and educators who might otherwise face downward classmobility in Israel.Both a researcher and a newcomer in Israel can easily be lured into the assumptionthat the Russian language is an equalizing factor and a ‘home’ for everybody meeting thecultural requirement. My participant observations in various cultural and consumer spacesshowed exactly that. My method of learning about the Russian-speakers through everydayinteractions with them may easily lead to constructing a rather romantic picture of solidarityand shared belonging. Yet interviews with rather random individuals, met in those spaces,tell the story of absence and disconnection. Many ethnic, cultural and status hierarchies werebrought along from the former USSR as immigrants arrived in Israel. High culture to a largeextent was produced by Muscovites and Peterburgers. They had better chances of havingtheir education recognized in Israel, and hence more opportunities for class mobility (or,rather, class sustainability). While provincial Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians may alsobe active consumers and to some extent producers of the Russian-speaking cultural productionin Israel, they were sometimes awarded a slightly lower position in the inner culturalhierarchy. Marina Niznik (2003) cites a humorous poem by Gennadii Usim, which contains aconfession of looking down on people speaking Russian dialects (‘impure’ Russian), becomingreligious in Israel or displaying signs of ‘provincialism’. While the not so abundant populationof immigrants from the Baltic States have European identity as a reference point toclaim recognition (middle-aged informant explains, ‘When I tell them I am from Latvia, it’salways met with an ‘Ohhh!’, and I tell them, yes, it’s not your Ukraine or Belarus’), whereasCaucasians and Central Asians often face orientalist attitudes of immigrants from theNarratives and social memory: theoretical and methodological approaches249
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Cinematic Landscape and Social Memo
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comprises both remembering and forg
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include important questions related
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Part ICognitive and Emotional Proce
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Narratives and Social Memory from t
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The Lay Historian: How Ordinary Peo
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Emotional Processes in Elaborating
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The Past and the Present (re)Visite
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Narratives of Death: Journalism and
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Drawings and Narrative: the Inmates
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Preamble Narratives and Social Memory - Universidade do Minho

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