Table Of ContentThe Jewish Century
The Jewish Century
Yuri Slezkine
PRINCE TON UNIVERSIT Y PRESS
PRINCE TON AND OXFORD
Copyright©2004byPrincetonUniversityPress
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Slezkine,Yuri,1956–
TheJewishcentury/YuriSlezkine.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-691-11995-3(alk.paper)
1.Jews—Europe—Economicconditions.2.Jews—Europe—Socialconditions.
3.Jews—Russia—Economicconditions—19thcentury.4.Jews—Russia—Economic
conditions—20thcentury.5.Jews—Russia—Socialconditions—19thcentury.6.Jews—
Russia—Socialconditions—20thcentury.7.Russia—Ethnicrelations.8.Russia—
Civilization—Jewishinfluences.9.Civilization,Modern—Jewishinfluences.
10.Socialintegration—Russia.11.Capitalism—Socialaspects.12.Entrepreneurship—
Socialaspects.I.Title.
DS140.5.S59 2004
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1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
CHAPTER 1
Mercury’s Sandals: The Jews and Other Nomads 4
CHAPTER 2
Swann’s Nose: The Jews and Other Moderns 40
CHAPTER 3
Babel’s First Love: The Jews and the Russian Revolution 105
CHAPTER 4
Hodl’s Choice: The Jews and Three Promised Lands 204
Notes 373
Index 413
Preface
Growing up in
theSovietUnion,Iwasclosetobothmygrandmothers.
One, Angelina Ivanovna Zhdanovich, wasborn to a gentry family,
attended an institute for noble maidens, graduated from the Maly
Theater acting school in Moscow, and was overtaken by the Red
Army in Vladikavkaz in 1920. She took great pride in her Cossack
ancestors and lost everything she owned in the revolution. At the
end of her life, she was a loyal Soviet citizen at peace with her past
and at home in her country. The other, Berta (Brokhe) Iosifovna
Kostrinskaia, was born in the Pale of Settlement, never graduated
from school, went to prison as a Communist, emigrated to Argen-
tina,andreturnedin1931totakepartinthebuildingofsocialism.
In her old age, she took great pride in her Jewish ancestors and
considered most of her life to have been a mistake. This book is
dedicated to her memory.
Acknowledgments
Various drafts
of this book have been read by numerous friends and
colleagues:MargaretLaviniaAnderson,AndrewE.Barshay,David
Biale, Victoria E. Bonnell, Rogers Brubaker, John M. Efron, Ter-
ence Emmons, Sheila Fitzpatrick, Gregory Freidin, Gabriele Frei-
tag, Jon Gjerde, Konstantin Gurevich, Benjamin Harshav, David
A. Hollinger, Sergey Ivanov, Joachim Klein, Masha Lipman, Lisa
Little, Martin Malia, Tim McDaniel, Elizabeth McGuire, Joel
Mokyr, Eric Naiman, Norman M. Naimark, Benjamin Nathans,
Irina Paperno, Igor Primakov, Nicholas V. Riasanovsky, Irwin
Scheiner, James J. Sheehan, Peter Slezkine, Ronald Grigor Suny,
Maria Volkenshtein, Edward W. Walker, Amir Weiner, Wen-hsin
Yeh, Victor Zaslavsky, Reginald E. Zelnik, and Viktor M. Zhivov.
Most of them disagreed with some of my arguments, some dis-
agreed with most, and none (except for Lisa Little, who vowed to
share all, and Peter Slezkine, who has no choice) is responsible for
any. Two people deserve special mention: Gabriele Freitag, whose
dissertation and conversation gave me the idea to write this book,
and Benjamin Harshav, whose book Language in Time of Revolu-
tion suggested the structure of the last chapter and the concept of
the“JewishCentury.”Twoseminars,attheUniversityofChicago
and Stanford University, resulted in several substantive revisions.
Several presentations—at Berkeley, Harvard, Vassar, Yale, and the
CenterforAdvancedJudaicStudiesattheUniversityofPennsylva-
nia—led to useful discussions. A number of colleagues, including
Jamsheed K. Choksy, Istva´n Dea´k, David Frick, Donghui He, An-
drew C. Janos, Tabitha M. Kanogo, Brian E. Kassof, Peter Kenez,
G. V. Kostyrchenko, Matthew Lenoe, Ethan M. Pollock, Frank E.
Sysyn,andFredericE.Wakeman,Jr.,helpedbyrespondingtospe-
cificqueries.AtPrincetonUniversityPress,BrigittavanRheinberg
