Abstract
This dissertation examines the Jewish Question in the Imperial Russian Press. It uses a dataset of 100 digitally available newspapers and journals to quantitatively and qualitatively analyze how frequently and in what context the Imperial Russian press mentioned Jewish people, and how that discourse changed over time and across genres. It addresses several key themes: the relationship between Russia’s Jewish and Christian populations, the effects of state and public discourse on Jews, and how all of this broadens our perspective on the “Jewish Question” in Imperial Russia.
The existing historiography on Jews in Imperial Russia has not adequately examined Jews in the Russian press. Though scholars have analyzed the social and legal ramifications of the Jewish Question and explored Jewish life in Imperial Russia, they only occasionally incorporate the press into their research and thus omit important source material on Russia’s Jews. Similarly, the relatively few studies of the Russian press focus on specific journals or topics and do not perform any substantive quantitative analysis to discover trends in the discourse.
This dissertation argues that the Russian press did not make Jews a central focus, but increased attention during the Great Reforms and especially in the later decades. The press informed readers about the state’s Jewish policy and shaped public perception of Jews – for better or worse. The policy and discourse – which ranged from assimilationist to separationist – reflected not only attitudes and expectations with respect to Jews, but the broader dynamics of state policy-making, growing anxiety about economic and ethno-confessional questions, and the impact of the transnational (a result of the communications revolution and “cultural transfer” generated by globalization). All this provides a more nuanced, complex, and dynamic picture of Russian policy and perception of the Jewish population amidst the modernization of a multi- national empire. The “Jewish Question,” in short, was closely intertwined with a host of other questions. The discourse does not fit into a reductionist antisemitic paradigm; Jews had defenders as well as detractors; most important, the discourse about Jews was part of a larger discourse seeking to communicate or correct state policy.