Dr. Oleg Surovtsev

Professional Background

Oleg Surovtsev received his Ph.D., M.A., and B.A. in history from Chernivtsi National University in Ukraine. During his tenure at the Museum, he was Lecturer at Yuri Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University in Ukraine. For his Charles H. Revson Foundation Fellowship, Dr. Surovtsev conducted research for his project “The Holocaust in Northern Bukovyna and Khotyn District.” Dr. Surovtsev is the author of “The Deportation of the Jewish Population of Northern Bukovyna in 1941-1942 as a Component of the Anti-Jewish Policy of Romanian Authorities” in Problemy istorii Holocostu, 3rd edition (2006); “The ‘Bucovina’ Newspaper as a Source for Study of Anti-Semitic Policies of the Romanian Authorities in Northern Bukovyna in 1941-1944” in Naukovi zapusky Instytutu politychnyh ta etnonatsionalnyh doslidzheni NAN Ukrainy, 31st edition (2006); and “Jewish Slave Labor: Specific Elements of the Final Solution in Nothern Bukovyna in 1941-1944” in Naukovi zapysky z ukrains’koi istorii: Zbirnyk naukovyh statey, 18th edition (2006), among other works. Dr. Srovtsev has language skills in Ukrainian, Russian, Roman, Polish and French.

Fellowship Research

During his tenure at the Center, Dr. Surovtsev studied the fate of Jews in the Northern Bukovyna and Khotyn district during Romanian occupation from 1941 to 1944. He reconstructed the historical events that took place during this time by studying the prewar Jewish society; Nazi and Romanian policy towards Jews; the persecution, mass killings, and deportations of Bukovynian Jews to Transnistria; and the history of the Czernowitz (Cernauti) ghetto and the rescue of Czernowitz Jews. Dr. Surovstev conducted his research using the Museum’s collections from the Romanian National Archives, the Shernivtsi State Oblast Archive, and the former Osobyi Archives in Moscow in addition to other sources.

Dr. Surovtsev was in residence at the Mandel Center from October 1 to December 30, 2008.