Digital Humanities
My DPhil, ‘The Frozen River: Politics and Society on the Edge of Soviet Ukraine, 1924–1934’, examines how the Dniester River – the border between Ukraine and Romania – impacted politics and society in the Soviet Union. During collectivisation and famine, thousands of villagers tried to cross the Dniester, often on foot over the winter ice, while the OGPU’s border guards tried to stop them. Using recently declassified Soviet borderguard records alongside hydrological and meteorological data, I show who fled, when, why, and how.
Mapping Soviet Famine Emigration
This map shows the points on the Dniester where Soviet peasants crossed successfully. It covers 293 successful crossings whose place is known; darker dots mean more crossings. Most got across on the lower Dniester near Cioburciu (53) and at Speia (42). Fewer crossed at Rybnitsa, but almost all who tried there succeeded: 18 of 19.
This map shows the home villages of the people who crossed the Dniester and reached Romania in 1932. It covers the 198 successful crossers whose origins are known; darker dots mean more people. Speia (36), Cioburciu (35) and Molovata (33) sent the most. Every one of the 33 people from Molovata who tried to cross reached the Romanian bank.
Lastly, this map traces failed crossers from their home villages to the places where they tried to cross. Darker dots mean more failed crossers from that village. Most came from the lower Dniester, around Cioburciu, Corotna and Hlinaia, and tried to cross close to home. Those from further away, some from as far as Ufa and Sverdlovsk, fared worse: only 2 of 13 got across, against 197 of 469 from the river villages.
Coding Emigration Outcomes
This table shows what climactic conditions led to Soviet citizens trying to cross the Dniester on a given day. It shows a regression of the number of people who tried to cross (recorded by the OGPU) against three conditions on that day: whether the ice was thick enough to walk on, fog, and snow or rain (recorded by Soviet meteorologists and hydrologists). When the ice could be walked on, about 13 more people tried to cross each day. Fog and precipitation made no measurable difference.
