Eugene M. Kulischer
Encyclopedia
Eugene M. Kulischer was a Russian American sociologist, an authority on demography
Demography
Demography is the statistical study of human population. It can be a very general science that can be applied to any kind of dynamic human population, that is, one that changes over time or space...

, migration, and manpower, and an expert on Russia. Kulischer coined the phrase “displaced persons” and was among the first to seek to document the number of persons lost in the Holocaust as well as the subsequent relocation of millions of Europeans after World War II.

Biography

Born in Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....

 in 1881 he died in Washington D.C, on April 2, 1956. Like his father, Michael Kulischer a noted Russian historian, he insisted that no migration occurs in isolation. Along with his brother Alexander, he worked on Kriegs-und Wanderzüge, Weltgeschichte als Völkerbewegung (War and Migration; World History as Peoples' Movements), (Berlin-Leipzig, Walter de Gruyter, 1932) and Europe on the Move: War and Population Changes, 1917-1947. They were intended to show that migrations and wars go hand-in-hand.

In a way, Kulischer was himself an example of a displaced person. Following the Russian Revolution (1917), he fled Russia for Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 in 1920. Following the collapse of the Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...

, he fled Germany for Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

. In 1936 he went to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. In 1941 — at the age of 60 — Kulischer "crossed clandestinely the demarcation line between the occupied and the unoccupied parts of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

" and went to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

; his brother Alexander, "when crossing the demarcation line, was arrested by Pétain's gendarmes
Gendarmerie
A gendarmerie or gendarmery is a military force charged with police duties among civilian populations. Members of such a force are typically called "gendarmes". The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary describes a gendarme as "a soldier who is employed on police duties" and a "gendarmery, -erie" as...

 and died in a concentration camp.”

Work

In the United States Kulischer “served successively as consultant or staff member of the International Labor Office, the Office of Strategic Services, the Bureau of the Census, the Department of the Army, and the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

. His major works include The Displacement of Population in Europe (Montreal, 1943), and Europe on the Move (New York, 1948)” . At the heart of Kulischer's work is a simple axiom: individual short-distance movements in their combined action create great population shifts . An expansion of that concept is his oft quoted dictum:

“The migratory movement is at once perpetual, partial, and universal. It never ceases, it affects every people, but at a given moment it sets in motion only a small number of each population; hence the illusion of immobility. In fact, there is never a moment of immobility for any people, because no migration remains isolated” .


With that paragraph Kulischer created a bridge linking the migration of individuals and the demographic fact of great migrations. Kulischer and his brother, along with millions of others, tried to put Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 as far behind them as they could on the eve of World War II. All of them had their own reasons. Some left because of their ethnicity, others because of their religion. Some left because of their politics, and others because they feared the upheaval they were sure was looming on the horizon. For Kulischer and his brother the reason was close at hand. Not only were they Jewish, they forecast the outcome of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 based on demographic trends. They reasoned that Russia and Germany were on a collision course and Germany would lose .

“Man's history,” Kulischer remarked, “is the story of his wanderings” . From the standpoint of the sociology of knowledge
Sociology of knowledge
The Sociology of knowledge is the study of the relationship between human thought and the social context within which it arises, and of the effects prevailing ideas have on societies...

 he added, “Most scholars are rooted in their environment. They differ in their ability to outgrow it” . By combining those two statements we have Kulischer and a great many of his peers who lived as exiles abroad and grew as they moved, for instance Austrian Social Scientists in Exile 1933-1945
Austrian Social Scientists in Exile 1933-1945
With the rise of National Socialism numerous artists, scientists and writers fled to other lands. Among them were many Austrian social scientists. Often they left because of their ancestry and frequently because of their political views...

..

As Jackson and Howe recently observed in evaluating the impact of migrations:

"E. M. Kulischer once reminded his readers that in A.D. 900 Berlin had no Germans, Moscow had no Russians, Budapest had no Hungarians, Madrid was a Moorish settlement, and Constantinople had hardly any Turks. He added that the Normans had not yet settled in Great Britain and before the sixteenth century there were no Europeans living in North or South America, Australia, New Zealand, or South Africa."

Publications

Eugene M. Kulischer published several books, a selection:
  • 1932. Kriegs- und Wanderzüge. Weltgeschichte als Völkerbewegung. Witk Alexander Kulischer. Berlin/Leipzig 1932.
  • 1943. The Displacement of Population in Europe. Montreal 1943.
  • 1948. Europe on the Move: War and Population Changes, 1917-1947. New York 1948.

Further reading

  • A. J. Jaffe (1962). “Notes on the Population Theory of Eugene M. Kulischer”. In: The Milbank Memeorial Fund Quarterly, Vol. 40, No. 2. (April 1962). pp. 187–206.
  • Richard Jackson
    Richard Jackson
    Richard Jackson is an English professional footballer.-Scarborough:Jackson was born in Whitby and began his career at the then Natiowide Division Three club, Scarborough, as a trainee in August 1997. He made his first appearance for the club in a league game in November 1997 against Doncaster...

     and Neil Howe
    Neil Howe
    Neil Howe is an American historian, economist, and demographer. He is best known for his work with William Strauss on social generations and generational cycles in American history. He is currently the president of LifeCourse Associates, a consulting company he founded with Strauss to apply...

    (2008). “The Graying of the Great Powers”. In: Demography and Geopolitics in the 21st Century. Washington 2008, p. 15.
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