Crossing the River Between Worlds: Soviet Famine, Romanian Antisemitism and Illegal Migration over the Dniester River in 1932

This article provides a transnational microhistory of the Dniester River – the border between Soviet Ukraine and the Kingdom of Romania – in March 1932. On the Soviet side of the river, the onset of famine prompted hundreds of starving Soviet Ukrainian peasants to migrate to Bessarabia; on the Romanian side, state-sponsored antisemitism drove Bessarabian Jews to migrate to Soviet Ukraine. I argue that the border was porous because both groups of migrants instrumentalised climactic conditions – the freezing of the Dniester during an unprecedented cold snap – and cross-border networks in ways that states could not control. While primarily highlighting similarities, this article also presents differences between the two groups: Soviet Ukrainian peasants primarily crossed in family units and utilised firsthand knowledge of the border; Bessarabian Jews crossed in small groups and relied on people-smugglers to travel to the Dniester and across into Soviet Ukraine.