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Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

200 Years Together

Russo-Jewish History



Volume 1 - The Jews Before the Revolution:

Chapter 1: Before the 19th Century (translated by R. Butler and J. Harris)
3

Chapter 2: During the Reign of Alexander 1 40

Chapter 3: During the Reign of Nicholas 1 70

Chapter 4: During the Period of Reforms 101

Chapter 5: After the Murder of Alexander II 142

Chapter 6: In the Russian Revolutionary Movement 165

Chapter 7: The Birth of Zionism 201

Chapter 8: At the Turn of the 20th Century 214

Chapter 9: During the Revolution of 1905 272

Chapter 10: During the Period of Duma 337

Chapter 11: The Jewish and Russian National Consciousness Prior to WW1
368

Chapter 12: During World War 1 388

Volume 2 - The Jews in the Soviet Union:

Chapter 13: The February Revolution 417

Chapter 14: During 1917 430

Chapter 15: Among Bolsheviks 455

Chapter 16: During the Civil War 495

Chapter 17: Emigration Between the Two World Wars 524

Chapter 18: Inthel920's 552

Chapter 19: Inthel930's 610

Chapter 20: In the Camps of GULag 652

Chapter 21: During the Soviet-German War 661

Chapter 22: From the End of the War to Stalin's Death 695

Chapter 23: Before the Six-Day War 710

Chapter 24: Breaking Away from Bolshevism 728

Chapter 25: Accusing Russia 741

Chapter 26: The Beginning of Exodus 758

Chapter 27: About the Assimilation, Author's Afterword 776

Abridged mentions of the main sources cited in notes by the author, source
links 795



{p. 3} Chapter 1: Before the 19th century

From the Beginnings in Khazaria

[G13] In this book the presence of the Jews in Russia prior to 1772 will
not be discussed in detail. However, for a few pages we want to remember
the older epochs.

One could begin, that the paths of Russians and Jews first crossed in the
wars between the Kiev Rus and the Khazars - but that isn't completely
right, since only the upper class of the Khazars were of Hebraic descent,
the tribe itself being a branch of the Turks that had accepted the Jewish
faith.

If one follows the presentation of J. D. Bruzkus, respected Jewish author
of the mid 20th century, a certain part of the Jews from Persia moved
across the Derbent Pass to the lower Volga where Atil [west coast of
Caspian on Volga delta], the capital city of the Khazarian Khanate rose up
starting 724 AD. The tribal princes of the Turkish Khazars, at the time
still idol-worshippers, did not want to accept either the Muslim faith -
lest they should be subordinated to the caliph of Baghdad - nor to
Christianity- lest they come under vassalage to the Byzantine emperor; and
so the clan went over to the Jewish faith in 732.

But there was also a Jewish colony in the Bosporan Kingdom [on the Taman
Peninsula at east end of the Crimea, separating the Black Sea from the Sea
of Azov] to which Hadrian had Jewish captives brought in 137, after the
victory over Bar-Kokhba.

Later a Jewish settlement sustained itself without break under the Goths
and Huns in the Crimea; especially Kaffa (Feodosia) remained Jewish. In 933
Prince Igor [912-945, Grand Prince of Kiev, successor of Oleg, regent after
death of Riurik founder of the Kiev Kingdom in 862] temporarily possessed
Kerch, and his son Sviatoslav [Grand Prince 960-972] [G14] wrested the Don
region from the Khazars. The Kiev Rus already ruled the entire Volga region
including Atil in 909, and Russian ships appeared at Samander [south of
Atil on the west coast of the Caspian]. Descendents of the Khazars were the
Kumyks in the Caucasus. In the Crimea, on the other hand, they combined
with the Polovtsy [nomadic Turkish branch from central Asia, in the
northern Black Sea area and the Caucasus since the 10th century; called
Cuman by western historians; see second map, below] to form the Crimean
Tatars. (But the Karaim [a jewish sect that does not follow the Talmud] and
Jewish residents of the Crimean did not go over to the Muslim Faith.) The



{p. 4} Khazars were finally conquered [much later] by Tamerlane [or Timur,
the 14th century conqueror].

A few researchers however hypothesize (exact proof is absent) that the
Hebrews had wandered to some extent through the south Russian region in
west and northwest direction. Thus the Orientalist and Semitist Abraham
Harkavy for example writes that the Jewish congregation in the future
Russia "emerged from Jews that came from the Black Sea coast and from the
Caucasus, where their ancestors had lived since the Assyrian and Babylonian
captivity." J. D. Bruzkus also leans to this perspective. (Another opinion
suggests it is the remnant of the Ten LostTribes of Israel.) This migration
presumably ended after the conquest of Tmutarakans [eastern shore of the
Kerch straits, overlooking the eastern end of the Crimean Peninsula; the
eastern flank of the old Bosporan Kingdom] (1097) by the Polovtsy.
According to Harkavy's opinion the vernacular of these Jews at least since
the ninth century was Slavic, and only in the 17th century, when the
Ukrainian Jews fled from the pogroms of Chmelnitzki [Bogdan Chmelnitzki,
Ukrainian Cossack, 1593-1657, led the successful Cossack rebellion against
Poland with help from the Crimean Tatars], did Yiddish become the language
of Jews in Poland.

[G15] In various manners the Jews also came to Kiev and settled there.
Already under Igor, the lower part of the city was called "Kosary"; in 933
Igor brought Jews that had been taken captive in Kerch. Then in 965 Jews
taken captive in the Crimea were brought there; in 969 Kosaren from Atil
and Samander, in 989 from Cherson and in 1017 from Tmutarakan. In Kiev
western Jews also emerged.: in connection with the caravan traffic from
west to east, and starting at the end of the eleventh century, maybe on
account of the persecution in Europe during the first Crusade.

Later researchers confirm likewise that in the 11th century, the "Jewish
element" in Kiev is to be derived from the Khazars. Still earlier, at the
turn of the 10th century the presence of a "khazar force and a khazar
garrison," was chronicled in Kiev. And already "in the first half of the
11th century the jewish-khazar element in Kiev played "a significant roll."
In the 9th and 10th century, Kiev was multinational and tolerant.

At the end of the 10th century, in the time when Prince Vladimir [Vladimir
I. Svyatoslavich 980-1015, the Saint, Grand Prince of Kiev] was choosing a
new faith for the Russians, there were not a few Jews in Kiev, and among
them were found educated men that suggested taking on the Jewish faith. The
choice fell out otherwise than it had 250 hears earlier in the Khazar
Kingdom. Karamsin [1766-1826, Russian historian] relates it like this:
"After he (Vladimir) had listened to the Jews, he asked where their
homeland was. 'In Jerusalem/ answered the delegates, 'but God has chased us
in his anger and sent us into a foreign land.' 'And you, whom God has
punished, dare to teach others?' said Vladimir. 'We do not want to lose our
fatherland like you have.'" After the Christianization of the Rus,
according to Bruzkus, a portion of the Khazar Jews in Kiev also went over
to Christianity and afterwards in Novgorod perhaps one of them - Luka
Zhidyata - was even one of the first bishops and spiritual writers.

Christianity and Judaism being side-by-side in Kiev inevitably led to the
learned zealously contrasting them. From that emerged the work significant
to Russian literature, "Sermon on Law and Grace" ([by Hilarion, first
Russian Metropolitan] middle 11th century), which



{p. 5} contributed to the settling of a Christian consciousness for the
Russians that lasted for centuries. [G16] "The polemic here is as fresh and
lively as in the letters of the apostles." In any case, it was the first
century of Christianity in Russia. For the Russian neophytes of that time,
the Jews were interesting, especially in connection to thei r religious
presentation, and even in Kiev there were opportunities for contact with
them. The interest was greater than later in the 18th century, when they
again were physically close.

Then, for more than a century, the Jews took part in the expanded commerce
of Kiev. "In the new city wall (completed in 1037) there was the Jews'
Gate, which closed in the Jewish quarter." The Kiev Jews were not subjected
to any limitations, and the princes did not handle themselves hostilely,
but rather indeed vouchsafed to them protection, especially Sviatopolk
Iziaslavich [Prince of Novgorod 1078-1087, Grand Prince of Kiev 1093-1113],
since the trade and enterprising spirit of the Jews brought the princes
financial advantage.

In 1113, Vladimir (later called "Monomakh"), out of qualms of conscience,
even after the death of Sviatopolk, hesitated to ascend the Kiev Throne
prior to one of the Svyatoslavich's, and "exploiting the anarchy, rioters
plundered the house of the regimental commander Putiata and all Jews that
had stood under the special protection of the greedy Sviatopolk in the
capital city.... One reason for the Kiev revolt was apparently the usury of
the Jews: probably, exploiting the shortage of money of the time, they
enslaved the debtors with exorbitant interest." (For example there are
indications in the "Statute" of Vladimir Monomakh that Kiev money-lenders
received interest up to 50% per annum.) Karamsin therein appeals to the
Chronicles and an extrapolation by Basil Tatistcheff [1686-1750; student of
Peter the Great, first Russian historian]. In Tatistcheff we find moreover:
"Afterwards they clubbed down many Jews and plundered their houses, because
they had brought about many sicknesses to Christians and commerce with them
had brought about great damage. Many of them, who had gathered in their
synagogue seeking protection, defended themselves, as well as they could,
and redeemed time until Vladimir would arrive." But when he had come, "the
Kievites pleaded with him for retribution toward the [G17] Jews, because
they had taken all th