Yuri Slezkine - The Jewish Century

The Jewish Century

Yuri Slezkine

Copyright 2004 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street,
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press,
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Slezkine, Yuri, 1956
The Jewish century / Yuri Slezkine.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-691-11995-3 (alk. paper)
1. JewsEuropeEconomic conditions. 2. JewsEuropeSocial conditions. 3. JewsRussiaEconomic conditions19th century. 4. JewsRussiaEconomic conditions20th century. 5. JewsRussiaSocial conditions19th century. 6. Jews RussiaSocial conditions20th century. 7. RussiaEthnic relations. 8. Russia CivilizationJewish influences. 9. Civilization, ModernJewish influences. 10. Social integrationRussia. 11. CapitalismSocial aspects. 12. Entrepreneurship
Social aspects. I. Title.
DS140.5.S59 2004
940.04924dc22 2003069322

British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available

This book has been composed in Galliard text with Bodega Sans Display

Printed on acid-free paper.

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Printed in the United States of America

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

CHAPTER 1
Mercurys Sandals: The Jews and Other Nomads

CHAPTER 2
Swanns Nose: The Jews and Other Moderns

CHAPTER 3
Babels First Love: The Jews and the Russian Revolution

CHAPTER 4
Hodls Choice: The Jews and Three Promised Lands

Growing up in the Soviet Union, I was close to both my grandmothers. One, Angelina Ivanovna Zhdanovich, was born 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 Argentina, and returned in 1931 to take part in the building of socialism. 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.

Various drafts of this book have been read by numerous friends and colleagues: Margaret Lavinia Anderson, Andrew E. Barshay, David Biale, Victoria E. Bonnell, Rogers Brubaker, John M. Efron, Terence Emmons, Sheila Fitzpatrick, Gregory Freidin, Gabriele Freitag, 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 disagreed 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 Revolution suggested the structure of the last chapter and the concept of the Jewish Century. Two seminars, at the University of Chicago and Stanford University, resulted in several substantive revisions. Several presentationsat Berkeley, Harvard, Vassar, Yale, and the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvanialed to useful discussions. A number of colleagues, including Jamsheed K. Choksy, Istvn Dek, David Frick, Donghui He, Andrew C. Janos, Tabitha M. Kanogo, Brian E. Kassof, Peter Kenez, G. V. Kostyrchenko, Matthew Lenoe, Ethan M. Pollock, Frank E. Sysyn, and Frederic E. Wakeman, Jr., helped by responding to specific queries. At Princeton University Press, Brigitta van Rheinberg presided over the project, Lauren Lepow improved the text, and Alison Kalett attended to every detail.

The funding for the research and writing was provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (which also supplied good weather and much lively companionship). Eleonor Gilburd was an incomparable research assistant; Jarrod Tanny was a great help in the final stages of writing; Vassar College, Pinar Batur, and John M. Vander-Lippe combined to make the spring semester of 2002 pleasant as well as productive; and the History Department at Berkeley has been, for over a decade, an extremely enjoyable and stimulating place to work.

The Jewish Century

The Modern Age is the Jewish Age, and the twentieth century, in particular, is the Jewish Century. Modernization is about everyone becoming urban, mobile, literate, articulate, intellectually intricate, physically fastidious, and occupationally flexible. It is about learning how to cultivate people and symbols, not fields or herds. It is about pursuing wealth for the sake of learning, learning for the sake of wealth, and both wealth and learning for their own sake. It is about transforming peasants and princes into merchants and priests, replacing inherited privilege with acquired prestige, and dismantling social estates for the benefit of individuals, nuclear families, and book-reading tribes (nations). Modernization, in other words, is about everyone becoming Jewish.

Some peasants and princes have done better than others, but no one is better at being Jewish than the Jews themselves. In the age of capital, they are the most creative entrepreneurs; in the age of alienation, they are the most experienced exiles; and in the age of expertise, they are the most proficient professionals. Some of the oldest Jewish specialtiescommerce, law, medicine, textual interpretation, and cultural mediationhave become the most fundamental (and the most Jewish) of all modern pursuits. It is by being exemplary ancients that the Jews have become model moderns.