4
This article was downloaded by: [University of California Santa Cruz] On: 17 November 2014, At: 21:10 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Nationalities Papers: The Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cnap20 Jews and the imperial state: identification politics in Tsarist Russia Eliyana R. Adler a a University of Maryland Published online: 02 Aug 2012. To cite this article: Eliyana R. Adler (2012) Jews and the imperial state: identification politics in Tsarist Russia, Nationalities Papers: The Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity, 40:5, 813-815, DOI: 10.1080/00905992.2012.689134 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00905992.2012.689134 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms- and-conditions

Jews and the imperial state: identification politics in Tsarist Russia

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Page 1: Jews and the imperial state: identification politics in Tsarist Russia

This article was downloaded by: [University of California Santa Cruz]On: 17 November 2014, At: 21:10Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Nationalities Papers: The Journal ofNationalism and EthnicityPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cnap20

Jews and the imperial state:identification politics in Tsarist RussiaEliyana R. Adler aa University of MarylandPublished online: 02 Aug 2012.

To cite this article: Eliyana R. Adler (2012) Jews and the imperial state: identification politics inTsarist Russia, Nationalities Papers: The Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity, 40:5, 813-815, DOI:10.1080/00905992.2012.689134

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00905992.2012.689134

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the“Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis,our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as tothe accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinionsand views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors,and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Contentshould not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sourcesof information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims,proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever orhowsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arisingout of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Anysubstantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms &Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

Page 2: Jews and the imperial state: identification politics in Tsarist Russia

conditions and actors (p. 18). Like most contributors, Sasse points out that the leverage of

the EU greatly disappears after accession, when the role of the domestic factors increases

even more. After distinguishing between “hard” and “soft” instruments of conditionality,

Sasse remarks (p. 22) that “only two minority groups were consistently stressed in the

Regular [Monitoring] Reports: the Russophone minority in Estonia and Latvia, and the

Roma minorities of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.

This ‘hierarchy’ of minority issues reflects the EU’s interest in good relations with its

most powerful neighbor and energy supplier Russia and its own soft security concerns

linked to migration. Furthermore, a non-territorialized, internally diverse and margina-

lized minority like the Roma is politically less of a group to focus on, compared with ter-

ritorialized and politically mobilized minorities, such as the Hungarians in Slovakia and

Romania and the Turks in Bulgaria.” The Roma, she adds, undoubtedly “face severe pro-

blems of systematic discrimination and social exclusion, segregation and poverty, but this

is not a feature specific to the candidate countries”.

Indeed. The enforced expulsion of the Roma from countries like France and Italy in

2010 plainly indicates that the accusation of applying “double standards” is not unjustified,

as it proves that domestic actors bent on building electoral capital by exploiting anxiety

and prejudice are not a trait characteristic of Central and Eastern Europe alone.

Michael Shafir

Babes-Bolyai University, Romania

[email protected]

# 2012, Michael Shafir

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00905992.2012.688266

Jews and the imperial state: identification politics in Tsarist Russia, by Eugene

M. Avrutin, Ithaca and London, Cornell University Press, 2010, 232 pp., US$39.95 (hard-

cover). ISBN 978-0-8014-4862-1

Part of a generation of scholars that began its dissertation research as archival collections

in the former Soviet Union were opening up, Eugene Avrutin took a different tack from

many of his peers. Whereas other students of imperial Russian history arrived at the

archives with set and easily defined topics, and then searched out appropriate sources,

Avrutin seems to have allowed the sources to define the topic. The “identification politics”

of the title is the result. By paying close attention to the laws passed by the state and the

responses of the Jews, Avrutin has carved out a new area of scholarship. Rather than pro-

viding new information on a single aspect of the Russian Jewish experience, he suggests an

entirely new approach to understanding the mutually reinforcing interactions between

Jews and the state.

Certainly there are precedents for examining imperial efforts to control the Jewish

population through legislation. Indeed, the earliest historians of Russian Jewry, some of

them trained as lawyers, devoted much of their efforts to codifying the dizzying array

of laws directed at the Jews. Two major factors differentiate this book. Firstly Avrutin con-

textualizes the administrative development of the Russian Empire with that of other Euro-

pean states and shows where the efforts to change the Jewish community fit into this

broader project. Secondly, he portrays how the Jews reacted to the changes, highlighting

the interrelationship. In his own words, “. . . Jews and the Imperial State provides a case

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study of how one imperial population, the Jews, shaped the world in which they lived by

negotiating with what were often perceived as contradictory and highly restrictive laws

and institutions” (3–4).

The first chapter, “Making Jews Legible,” focuses on the earliest attempts of the

Russian government to regularize its newly incorporated Jewish population. Avrutin

manages to show how a variety of laws ranging from restrictions on traditional attire to

the abolition of local religious self-governance were all part of a greater effort to transition

from a system that interacted with populations according to their collective identity toward

one that interacted with individuals. As Avrutin points out, the Jews had no tradition of

keeping records of births, deaths, and other life cycle events. Nor did they see any intrinsic

value in such an endeavor. This would frustrate the state’s project and later lead to major

problems and manifold petitions.

As military conscription, education and mobility increasingly brought the state and the

Jews into closer contact, exact records became a necessity. Chapter two, “The Power of

Documentation,” looks at how developments in the latter half of the nineteenth century

necessitated exact records. This period also brought out the inherent flaws in the

system, including the difficulty of correctly capturing Jewish names in official documents

and the confusion brought on by frequent relocation. Indeed, Avrutin shows that the wide-

spread view of Jews as draft-dodgers had more to do with faulty record keeping than with

resistance to conscription.

In “Movement and Residence,” Avrutin moves into the turn-of-the-century period, and

the introduction and re-introduction of residency requirements on Jews. After several

decades of allowing many categories of Jews to move outside of the saturated Pale of

Jewish Settlement, the government began to reverse its policies. Avrutin shows how

Jews took advantages of loopholes in the tremendously complex laws, and how they

responded to the resultant expulsions. The use of petitions, legal decisions, contemporary

manuals, and documentation from various panels and committees tasked with clarifying

the laws graphically illustrates the confounding nature of the issue, as well as the pain

it caused to individuals and families.

Inasmuch as the tsarist government sought to regularize the Jews, at times they defied

easy categorization. The fourth chapter examines two main categories of “invisible Jews.”

Avrutin documents how both converted Jews and those entirely lacking paperwork tried to

maneuver within the system, as well as outside of it. The numbers of former Jews,

although not large, were significant enough to attract government attention by the end

of the century. Gradually the very rights that originally induced many of these people

to adopt Christian faiths were taken away from them as the state sought to keep track

of even those who had left their Judaism behind decades before. Meanwhile the growth

of the revolutionary movement and its need for false documentation coincided with a

similar need within Jewish communities.

The fifth and final chapter treats Jewish names, a topic raised in passing in several of

the previous chapters. Avrutin shows that the increasing frequency of name change

requests leading up to the First World War had to do with growing ethnic tensions and

ongoing problems with records on the Jewish side. However, at the same time, the auto-

cracy was more and more concerned with keeping track of its subjects and less willing to

consider even very reasonable requests. Once again, however, the different customs of

naming and the arcane nature of the laws led to confusion and repression.

The book ends with an elegant epilogue, suggesting how the imperial policies of

identification continued into the Soviet period. This is an excellent point, and well

worthy of mention, but given the originality and complexity of the book’s subject, a

814 Book Reviews

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more traditional conclusion would have been useful as well. Avrutin leads the reader on a

fascinating trip through the late imperial period, but he does not fully articulate either his

goals or findings at the end of the path. He raises many important arguments and insights

about Imperial Russia and the Jewish experience there in the course of the book. This

would have been the place to bring them together and demonstrate what identification poli-

tics adds to our understanding of the period.

The use of primary sources in this work is highly effective. Avrutin took advantage of

petitions from numerous archives and his examples show the real struggles faced by indi-

viduals and the state. The chronological sweep of the book, as well as its broad topic,

required erudition in a huge array of topics. Avrutin’s footnotes are truly impressive as

he demonstrates knowledge of the development of European legal and administrative

systems, all aspects of Russian society and governance, and Jewish history and culture.

Thorough coverage of so many topics would not be possible for any scholar, and of

course there are some gaps. In the fifth chapter, for example, the brief overview of

Jewish naming practices cannot do justice to a system developed over centuries. Avrutin’s

examples are only for male naming customs and he does not adequately explain to those

unfamiliar with Hebrew and Yiddish orthography why transliteration proved to be such a

problem. He also refers to two former Jews brought in as experts to help the authorities

make sense of the problems, without discussing the dramatically different reputations

and achievements of Yakov Brafman and Daniel Khvol’son.

Jews and the Imperial State is an important book with an original and thoughtful

perspective. The expectation of background knowledge would make it awkward to use

in an undergraduate classroom, but it would be ideal for a graduate seminar. I applaud

Eugene Avrutin for finding a new angle to approach a familiar subject. His introduction

of identification politics into the discussion of ethnicity in imperial Russia will surely

spark ongoing scholarly discussions.

Eliyana R. Adler

University of Maryland

[email protected]

# 2012, Eliyana R. Adler

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00905992.2012.689134

Ferghana Valley: The Heart of Central Asia, by S. Frederick Starr (ed.), Armonk, NY,

M.E. Sharpe, 2011, 442 pp., US$104.95 (hardcover), ISBN 978-0-7656-2998-2, US$39.95

(paperback), ISBN 978-0-7656-2999-9

How does one write an account of the cultural and religious trend-setter of Central Asia,

influential politically and crucial economically in the region, whose complex dynamics

capture key issues facing post-Soviet Central Asia broadly? This difficult task is executed

rather well under the coordination of Fred Starr, the prolific and influential scholar, who

argues that to understand the Ferghana Valley is to understand Central Asia itself. The

Ferghana Valley was the most densely populated rural area of the former U.S.S.R., the

seat of the lucrative cotton monoculture that began under Russian imperial administration

and made into the hard currency-earning agri-industrial machine for the Union. Cotton

was one central driving force behind the tremendous changes across the 20th century in

this expansive valley that stretches some 300 km across and 100 km at its widest. Its

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