Jews and Revolution in Nineteenth-Century Russia

Jews and Revolution in Nineteenth-Century Russia Synopsis

Jews and Revolution in Nineteenth-Century Russia is a carefully researched study of 100 years of Russian-Jewish revolutionary history, exploring the origins and characteristics of Jewish participation in Russian revolutionary politics between 1790 and 1890. Focusing sharply on Jewish motivations and the qualities of Russian Jewish activists, it drastically reverses the traditional historiographical trend of de-Judaising and minimising the role of Jews who joined Russian revolutionary circles, especially during the movement's Populist phase of the 1870s and 1880s. By the same token, it challenges many clichés and assumptions which have governed conventional wisdom on the radical behaviour of so-called assimilationist 'non-Jewish Jews'. This revisionist approach restores a neglected yet important group of Jews to their rightful place in the historical experience of the Jewish people in Russia.