Jews and Revolution in Nineteenth-Century Russia

by Erich Haberer

Overview

Jews and Revolution in Nineteenth Century Russia is a comprehensive study of the participation of Jewish people in the Russian revolutionary movement of the nineteenth century. Approaching the subject from various angles—cultural, sociological, psychological and political—it examines when and why Jews joined the Russian revolution, the importance of their contribution, and the extent to which their roles were determined by their Jewishness. The book offers a new perspective on a Jewish community in the grip of modernity, and a new understanding of those who sought their salvation in revolution.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521460095
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/15/1995
Series:	Cambridge Russian, Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies
Pages:	364
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.29(h) x 1.26(d)

Table of Contents

Preface. 1. Introduction: The beginnings of Russian Jewish radicalism, 1790–1868; Part I. The Chaikovskii Circles: Jewish Radicals in the Formative Stage of Revolutionary Populism: 2. Jewish student activists in St Petersburg; 3. Chaikhovskyist Jews in Moscow, Odessa, and Kiev; 4. The rebellious Jewish youth of Vilna; 5. Socialist Jews and Russian populism; Part II. The Land and Freedom Party: Jews and the Politicisation of Revolutionary Populism, 1875–1879: 6. Jewish 'generals of revolution'; 7. The heresy of political terrorism; Part III. The Party of the People's Will: Jewish Terrorists of Socialist Conviction, 1879–1887: 8. Motives of revolution; 9. Technicians of terrorism; 10. The pogroms of 1881–1882; 11. Epigones and pioneers; 12. Conclusion: Haskalah and the socialist promise of salvation; Appendix; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"...an important contribution to the historiography of both the Populist movement and Jewish radicalism in late Imperial Russia. Haberer successfully challenges key elements of the standard historical narrative on the evolution of Russian Populism, while rooting Jews' revolutionary activity in its specifically Jewish intellectual and socio-psychological context....This important book should be read by all serious students and scholars of the Russian revolutionary movement and of Russian-Jewish history." Slavic and East European Journal

"The author's readiness to confront directly the issue of Jewish participation in Russian radicalism is a welcome contribution to the history of Russian oppositional movements. His arguments will certianly provoke discussion and debate. They deserve a wide audience among all those seeking to grasp the human dimensions to a Utopian cause whose Bolshevik sequel has collapsed in ruin and disillusionment." Canadian Journal of History

"Erich E. Haberer has written an exhaustive book on the participation of individuals of Jewish descent in Russia's nineteenth-century revolutionary struggle....this book should take its place ...as one of the most authoritative works on the subject of Jewish political life in late nineteenth-century Russia." Nationalities Papers

"...Haberer's book is highly informative, without a doubt the most systematic study of the subject....Haberer is to be congratulated on having written an interesting and readable book." Abraham Ascher, Journal of Modern History

"This book is an important advance in our understanding of the Russian revolutionary movement and the role of Jews in it. ...all students of the Russian revolutionary movement and of Russian Jewish history will learn a great deal from this volume." Zvi Gitelman, Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism

From the Publisher

Studies the role played by Jews in three of Russia's major revolutionary movements during the nineteenth century. Although the government experimented with liberal policies toward the Jews in the first half of the century, Jews remained largely outcasts in Russian society with no civil rights and living in very tenuous social and economic conditions. This made some members of the Jewish community -- no longer bound by Orthodoxy's strict religious teachings -- receptive to the blandishments of revolutionary movements that promised freedom and equality. The book is of special interest to students of modern Jewish politics and supplements studies on Jewish participation in Socialist and Communist groups during the twentieth century.

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