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A Jewish Woman of Distinction: The Life and Diaries of Zinaida Poliakova
Contributor(s): Freeze, ChaeRan Y. (Author), Freeze, Gregory L. (Translator)

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 ISBN: 1684580021     ISBN-13: 9781684580026
Publisher: Brandeis University Press
OUR PRICE: $94.50  

Binding Type: Hardcover - See All Available Formats & Editions
Published: December 2019
* Out of Print *
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Political Science | World - Russian & Former Soviet Union
- Social Science | Jewish Studies
- Social Science | Women's Studies
Physical Information: 400 pages
Themes:
- Cultural Region - Russia
- Ethnic Orientation - Jewish
- Sex & Gender - Feminine
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
Zinaida Poliakova (1863-1953) was the eldest daughter of Lazar Solomonovich Poliakov, one of the three brothers known as the Russian Rothschilds. They were moguls who dominated Russian finance and business and built almost a quarter of the railroad lines in Imperial Russia.
For more than seventy-five years, Poliakova kept detailed diaries of her world, giving us a rare look into the exclusive world of Jewish elites in Moscow and St. Petersburg. These rare documents reveal how Jews successfully integrated into Russian aristocratic society through their intimate friendships and patronage of the arts and philanthropy. And they did it all without converting--in fact, while staunchly demonstrating their Jewishness.

Poliakova's life was marked by her dual identity as a Russian and a Jew. She cultivated aristocratic sensibilities and lived an extraordinarily lifestyle, and yet she was limited by the confessional laws of the empire and religious laws that governed her household. She brought her Russian tastes, habits, and sociability to France following her marriage to Reuben Gubbay (the grandson of Sir Albert Abdullah Sassoon). And she had to face the loss of almost all her family members and friends during the Holocaust.

Women's voices are often lost in the sweep of history, and so A Jewish Women of Distinction is an exceptional, much-needed collection. These newly discovered primary sources will change the way we understand the full breadth of the Russian Jewish experience.

Contributor Bio(s): Freeze, Gregory L.: - Gregory L. Freeze is the Victor and Gwendolyn Beinfield Professor of History at Brandeis University.
 
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