Karaite Separatism in Nineteenth-Century Russia: Joseph Solomon Lutski's Epistle of Israel'sDeliverance by Philip E. MillerReview by: John D. KlierThe Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 74, No. 2 (Apr., 1996), pp. 329-330Published by: the Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School ofSlavonic and East European StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4212094 .

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REVIEWS 329

Red Petrograd: Revolution in the Factories, 1917-I918 (Cambridge, I983), G. S. Smith's Songs to Seven Strings: Russian Guitar Poetry and Soviet 'Mass Song' (Bloomington, I984), E. D. Uvarova's Estradnyi teatr (Moscow, I983), Iu. Dmitriev's Tsirk v Rossii ot istokov do I9I7 goda (Moscow, I977), J. Riordan's Sport in Soviet Society (Cambridge, I977), and N. Zorkaia's Na rubezhe stoletii (Moscow, 1976). (Indeed, only about a dozen works published outside North America are listed.)

Here, though, is the point to return to the term used in the opening paragraph, perspektivnyi. If some of the generalizations here are slightly vacuous, that does reflect what is to some extent a genuine conceptual vacuum. A certain degree of methodological confusion is undoubtedly preferable to the fossilized dogmatism which mainstream Soviet historians applied to pre-revolutionary working-class culture, and which also had its insidious effects on Western historians. In any case, despite the fact that it fails to give readers, especially student readers, a complete, or even representative, appraisal of late imperial Russian popular culture, or suggest connections between this period and those that preceded or followed it, this collection does convey many individual points of offbeat information, and raise a large number of questions for future consideration and debate; in part if not in whole, it conveys enthusiasm for a new and exciting subject area. And that, after all, is what really matters.

School of Slavonic and East European Studies CATRIONA KELLY University of London

Miller, Philip E. Karaite Separatism in Nineteenth-Century Russia: J}oseph Solomon Lutski's Epistle of Israel's Deliverance. Monographs of the Hebrew Union College, i6. Hebrew Union College Press, Cincinnati, OH, I993. XX + 252 pp. Bibliography. Notes. Map. Appendices. $49.95.

THE words of the Prophet Isaiah, 'the smallest shall become a thousand, and the least a mighty nation' (60:22), was a popular verse for the Karaites, a Jewish sect found primarily in the Crimea, Lithuania and Galicia. And with good reason: the importance of this community far exceeded their weight in numbers, which never amounted to more than i 0,000 in any recorded census. For example, the Karaite Isaac of Troki (I 553-94) authored an anti-Christian polemic which inspired Voltaire. Efforts to establish Karaite origins (variously said to lie with the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel or the Khazars) helped produce the world-famous Firkovich collections of Jewish manuscripts, currently housed in the Russian National Library in St Petersburg. The insistence of the Karaites on their unique origins was a device utilized to free themselves from restrictive legislation imposed by the tsarist authorities on the majority rabbinic Jewish community. This differentiation saved the Karaites in the short term: convinced of their Turkic origins, the occupying Nazis did not exterminate the Karaites of the Crimea. Ironically, this proved a pyrrhic victory. As a minuscule ethnic group, which had sundered its ties with the Jewish community, contemporary Karaites have virtually disappeared. Only a small community survives ironically in Israel. All that remains of the

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330 THE SLAVONIC REVIEW

famous Karaite community of Troki is an extended family whose elders are the last dying link with Karaite identity.

Philip Miller's book surveys the first efforts of the Karaites to distinguish themselves: a translation of Isaac ben Solomon's account of a delegation to St Petersburg which secured a Karaite exemption in I 795 from a double tax imposed on rabbinic Jews, and a lengthy Hebrew account, with Miller's English translation, of Joseph Solomon Lutski's Epistle of Israel's Deliverance, detailing an equally successful Karaite attempt to gain exemption frorrr the military recruitment required ofJewish townspeople in I827. Miller provides detailed and generally accurate background for these works. He errs, however, in claiming that there is no Russian confirmation of some of the privileges granted the Karaites in I 795, for it is clearly set out in the enabling legislation. These accounts illustrate clearly that the Karaites still considered themselves part of the Jewish people during this period: only gradually did the Karaite leadership recognize the utility of completely separating themselves from rabbinicJews.

The unresolved question, which these documents illuminate but do not resolve, is the Russian motivation for granting Karaite exemptions. The usual explanation that the Karaites successfully emphasized their alleged rejection of the Talmnud does not appear as a motif in any of these accounts, nor is it mentioned in Russian legislation. The wording of the Russian legislation of I 795 implies that the architect of the Karaites' special status was the Governor-General of the Crimea and royal favourite Platon Zubov. The historian Iulii Gessen is probably right to suggest that Zubov was well compensated by the Karaites for his services.

The exemption from military service is even more problematic. The exemption itself was granted to a Karaite delegation to St Petersburg dramatically, in the course of a few days, at the end of I827. Their apparent benefactor on this occasion was the influential Count Viktor Kochubei, who had Crimean connections. This whole episode is filled with anomalies. The decree of exemption itself does not appear in the codification of Russian law, and it is not mentioned in legislation of I828 elaborating the original recruitment law of I 827, although promulgated well after the granting of the Karaite exemption. Yet soon thereafter, in I829, Karaites were specifically exempted from a decree expelling rabbinic Jews from Nikolaev and Sevasto- pol'. There are no clues as to why the Karaites had acquired an apparent 'most favoured nation status' in the eyes of Russian legislators. As Miller suggests, this is clearly a theme for some archival digging.

Miller's translation and annotation provides the Karaite version of these events, and is a valuable contribution to Karaite historiography. It serves too as a reminder of the great mysteries which still surround this tiny community.

Department of Hebrew andJewish Studies JOHN D. KLIER University College London

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