Lost Souls - by Sheila Fitzpatrick (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A vivid history of how Cold War politics helped solve one of the twentieth century's biggest refugee crises

When World War II ended, about one million people whom the Soviet Union claimed as its citizens were outside the borders of the USSR, mostly in the Western-occupied zones of Germany and Austria. These "displaced persons," or DPs--Russians, prewar Soviet citizens, and people from West Ukraine and the Baltic states forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1939--refused to repatriate to the Soviet Union despite its demands. Thus began one of the first big conflicts of the Cold War. In Lost Souls, Sheila Fitzpatrick draws on new archival research, including Soviet interviews with hundreds of DPs, to offer a vivid account of this crisis, from the competitive maneuverings of politicians and diplomats to the everyday lives of DPs.

American enthusiasm for funding the refugee organizations taking care of DPs quickly waned after the war. It was only after DPs were redefined--from "victims of war and Nazism" to "victims of Communism"--in 1947 that a solution was found: the United States would pay for the mass resettlement of DPs in America, Australia, and other countries outside Europe. The Soviet Union protested this "theft" of its citizens. But it was a coup for the United States. The choice of DPs to live a free life in the West, and the West's welcome of them, became an important theme in America's Cold War propaganda battle with the Soviet Union.

A compelling story of the early Cold War, Lost Souls is also a rare chronicle of a refugee crisis that was solved.

Review Quotes

"Lost Souls is an invaluable and provocative history of the postwar displaced-persons crisis. Fitzpatrick neatly demonstrates the multidirectional interaction between local, state, and international actors, as well as the causal connections between postwar displacement and contemporary European nationalisms."---Heather Penatzer, Compact

"An instructive lesson in practical politics as well as history. A new look at a historical problem both logistical and humanitarian, with obvious implications today."-- "Kirkus Reviews"

"Engaging."---Gary Saul Morson, Wall Street Journal

"Fitzpatrick acknowledges her 'personal stake' in this story: her marriage in 1989 to Michael Danos (Mischka in those years), who died ten years later. . . . Vivid, intimate and even moving: the prose brightens and interest quickens whenever Mischka enters the scene."---Susan Pedersen, London Review of Books

"Fitzpatrick offers many memorable individual stories and a detailed depiction of life for those awaiting resettlement--far less grim than one might expect."-- "Foreign Affairs"

"Fitzpatrick's fascinating book chronicles a remarkable success story."---Geoffrey Roberts, Irish Times

"Masterful."-- "The Economist"

"This is a complex, messy story spanning many years and many continents, and Fitzpatrick is to be commended for taking it on. Thanks to her superb use of archival data and her husband's own saga, she has crafted in Lost Souls a detailed account of the significant, sometimes intractable problems faced by displaced Soviets at the end of one war and the start of another."---Andrew M. Mayer, Washington Independent Review of Books

About the Author

Sheila Fitzpatrick is the author of many books, including On Stalin's Team: The Years of Living Dangerously in Soviet Politics (Princeton), The Shortest History of the Soviet Union, and The Russian Revolution. She is professor of history at the Institute of Humanities and Social Science at the Australian Catholic University and Distinguished Service Professor Emerita at the University of Chicago.