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. 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.

About the Author
Rory Finnin is a professor of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Cambridge.

Reviews
"An erudite, sensitive, deeply scholarly analysis of Ukrainian, Crimean Tatar, Russian, and Turkish poetry, prose, and films that expose Stalin's annihilation of Crimean Tatars. Finnin's work is both welcome and timely in view of the atrocities Russia is currently inflicting on Ukraine, atrocities born of Putin's false historical perceptions and imperialistic longings. Including detailed notes and a coda, this captivating, informative, compelling work elucidates the many nuances of the current situation in Ukraine for the benefit of those who would like to comprehend the incomprehensible." -- D. Hutchins * CHOICE *

"Finnin scrutinizes how collective guilt over the deportation of the Crimean Tatars was processed or denied in Crimean Tatar, Russian, Ukrainian, and Turkish literature, in particular poetic literature and cinema. ... [T]he book ought to be on the reading list of all experts and students of Soviet and post-Soviet studies, as well as general readership, since it is a feast of comparative literature in the Black Sea region, beautifully written with great empathy for the suffering of indigenous peoples there."

-- Filiz Tutku Aydin, University of Ankara * Europe-Asia Studies *
"The book rightfully deserves to be celebrated for author's efforts to bring together literary exchanges in four languages, for pioneering the deep intertextual analysis of the Crimean Tatar literature, for illuminating previously obscured intercultural relations, and above all, for giving justice to centuries of Crimea's colonial condition.... [T]he book should be read by everyone who is not indifferent to the plight of others - academics and nonacademics alike." -- Mariia Shynkarenko * Nationalities Papers *

"Finnin's research is on the cutting edge of Crimean studies... and offers a new way to examine Crimean national identity. Blood of Others is a fine example of comparative literary research and a valuable contribution to the field of human rights discourse."

-- Katya Jordan * Modern Language Review *
"In Blood of Others Rory Finnin has given us a book that tells us much that we should have known long ago, but did not... [It is] a book that honours the courage of righteous speech and behaviour, calls perfidy and injustice by their proper names and thereby becomes a powerful moral statement itself. And it is a book whose eloquence is commensurate with its high purpose." -- Marko Pavlyshyn * Slavonic and East European Review *
"This is interdisciplinary humanities at its best, speaking to social scientist and humanist alike... Against the ongoing trauma of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and occupation of Crimea, Blood of Others is a most timely read, as intellectually stimulating and archivally rich as it is ethically fortifying." -- Edyta M. Bojanowska * Slavic Review *


Awards
Winner of Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Studies in Slavic Languages and Literatures Awarded by the Modern Language Association 2023 (United States) and Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2023 Awarded by Choice Magazine 2023 (United States) and Omeljan Pritsak Book Prize in Ukrainian Studies Awarded by the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 2023 (United States) and USC Book Prize in Literary and Cultural Studies Awarded by the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 2023 (United States) and 2023 AAUS Book Prize Awarded by the American Association of Ukrainian Studies 2023 (United States) and 2023 Best Book in Literary Studies Awarded by American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages 2024 (United States) and 2023 Rothschild Prize Awarded by the Association for the Study of Nationalities 2023 (United States) and 2024 Laura Shannon Prize Awarded by the Nanovic Institute for European Studies 2026 (United States). Short-listed for 2023 Lemkin Book Award Awarded by the Institute for the Study of Genocide 2023 (Canada).



Book Information
ISBN 9781487558253
Author Rory Finnin
Format Paperback
Page Count 352
Imprint University of Toronto Press
Publisher University of Toronto Press
Weight(grams) 460g
Dimensions(mm) 231mm * 152mm * 25mm