In the years following the Russian Revolution; a bitter civil war was waged between the Bolsheviks; with their Red Army of Workers and Peasants on the one side; and the various groups that constituted the anti-Bolshevik movement on the other. The major anti-Bolshevik force was the White Army; whose leadership consisted of former officers of the Russian imperial army. In the received—and simplified—version of this history; those Jews who were drawn into the political and military conflict were overwhelmingly affiliated with the Reds; while from the start; the Whites orchestrated campaigns of anti-Jewish violence; leading to the deaths of thousands of Jews in pogroms in the Ukraine and elsewhere.In Russian Jews Between the Reds and the Whites; 1917-1920; Oleg Budnitskii provides the first comprehensive historical account of the role of Jews in the Russian Civil War. According to Budnitskii; Jews were both victims and executioners; and while they were among the founders of the Soviet state; they also played an important role in the establishment of the anti-Bolshevik factions. He offers a far more nuanced picture of the policies of the White leadership toward the Jews than has been previously available; exploring such issues as the role of prominent Jewish politicians in the establishment of the White movement of southern Russia; the "Jewish Question" in the White ideology and its international aspects; and the attempts of the Russian Orthodox Church and White diplomacy to forestall the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.The relationship between the Jews and the Reds was no less complicated. Nearly all of the Jewish political parties severely disapproved of the Bolshevik coup; and the Red Army was hardly without sin when it came to pogroms against the Jews. Budnitskii offers a fresh assessment of the part played by Jews in the establishment of the Soviet state; of the turn in the policies of Jewish socialist parties after the first wave of mass pogroms and their efforts to attract Jews to the Red Army; of Bolshevik policies concerning the Jewish population; and of how these stances changed radically over the course of the Civil War.
#2949774 in Books University of Pennsylvania Press 2006-05-10Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.02 x .65 x 5.98l; .97 #File Name: 0812219511288 pages
Review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. How doomsayers' stories were formed; challenged; testedBy Midwest Book ReviewIn Doomsayers: Anglo-American Prophecy In The Age Of Revolution; Susan Juster (Associate Professor of History at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor); provides a perceptive and informative survey of the apocalyptic prophets of the 1790's and early 1800's. Visionaries (or perhaps simply deluded individuals); used the era's budding proliferation of newspapers; corresponding societies; penny pamphlets; voluntary associations and more to spread their predictions and prophecies. The foretellings of several hundred men and women in Britain and North America are deftly reviewed to give a general impression of how doomsayers' stories were formed; challenged; tested; and often ultimately discarded. Presenting the struggle between would-be prophets and their critics as part of a larger shift in societal norms in the age; Doomsayers is a thought-provoking; meticulously researched; accessibly presented and highly recommended account of an historically influential social and cultural phenomena.
