Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject Orientalism / Sinology - Islamic Studies, grade: 92, Ben Gurion University, course: Tsars, Comrades and Prophets: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Islam in Russia and the Former Soviet Union, language: English, abstract: For almost a millennium Russia has interacted with Islam. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Islam has had a considerable impact on the formation of a new Russian identity. The "ideological and cultural vacuum" generated by the enormous political change hampers the creation of this identity. In the new liberty, formerly excluded and suppressed minorities strive for self-determination and recognition of their rights. The following study briefly depicts the new political situation. Further it analyzes the policies of the post-Soviet Russian Federation government and its consequences for Russian Muslims; it compares them with the policies of the Central Asian state of Uzbekistan. Using Turkey as a specific example, conclusions are drawn about the effects of this new socio-political climate on Russian Muslims.

In this magisterial and exciting book, Ulam offers a brilliant history of Russian political and intellectual life in those critical years from 1855 to 1884 and describes the successive conspiracies that shook the edifice of tsarist autocracy.

In stark contrast to the popular "clash of civilizations" theory that sees Islam inevitably in conflict with the West, Robert D. Crews reveals the remarkable ways in which Russia constructed an empire with broad Muslim support. For Prophet and Tsar unearths the fascinating relationship between an empire and its subjects. As America and Western Europe debate how best to secure the allegiances of their Muslim populations, Crews offers a unique and critical historical vantage point.

This first volume of the trilogy traces Trotsky's political development.

This book is a portrait of the Petaluma Jewish community from the early years of the century to the present day. Kenneth L. Kann interviewed more than two hundred residents, representing three generations of Jewish Americans. The picture that emerges from their testimony is of a wonderfully animated and fractious community. Its history blends many of the familiar themes of American Jewish life into a richly individual tapestry. In the first few decades of this century, many Jewish immigrants from Russia and Eastern Europe wound up in Petaluma. This first generation of chicken farmers consisted largely of educated, often professional men and women; many were drawn to chicken farming as much by Marxist or Zionist beliefs in the dignity of labor as by economic necessity. They helped establish the particular character of a community, with its combination of arduous work and cultural aspiration.

Featuring a number of pioneering essays by the internationally known Russian cultural historians Boris Uspenskij and Victor Zhivov, this collection includes a number of essays appearing in English for the fi rst time. Focusing on several of the most interesting and problematic aspects of Russia's cultural development, these essaysexamine the survival and the reconceptualization of the past in later cultural systems and some of the key transformations of Russian cultural consciousness. The essays in this collection contain some important examples of Russian cultural semiotics and remain indispensable contributions to the history of Russian civilization.

This 3-part biography of Leon Trotsky was hailed by Graham Greene as one of “the greatest . . . in the English language”—a must read for those interested in the history of Soviet Russia and international communism. Few political figures of the twentieth century have aroused such intensities of fierce admiration and reactionary fear as Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky. His extraordinary life and extensive writings have left an indelible mark on the revolutionary consciousness. Yet there was once a danger that his life and influence would be relegated to the footnotes of history. Published over the course of ten years, beginning in 1954, Deutscher’s magisterial three-volume biography turned back the tide of Stalin’s propaganda, and has since been praised by everyone from Tony Blair to Graham Greene. In this definitive work, now reissued in a single volume, Trotsky’s true stature emerges as the most heroic, and ultimately tragic, character of the Russian Revolution.