The Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry

“The remarkable diaries of Zinaida Poliakova, deftly edited by ChaeRan Freeze, open onto the world of the “Russian Rothschilds,” a world of high culture, vast privilege and the skillful, constant fashioning of a hybrid Jewish-Russian identity. Whether the topic was a game of dominos or a royal reception, a music lesson or a marriage, Poliakova took up her pen and left us an invaluable, detailed record of her day-to-day life. The four diaries included in this volume, translated by Gregory Freeze, cover Poliakova’s Russian years, 1875-1887. For the entire life of Poliakova, we turn to ChaeRan Freeze’s superb biographical essay, which extends Poliakova’s story to fin-de-siècle Paris; the whirlwind of the Holocaust; and the harsh realities, both personal and financial, of her postwar life in England. Taken together, the life and diaries of Zinaida Poliakova comprise an important contribution to modern Jewish history.” —Esther H. Schor, Leonard L. Milberg ’53 Professor of American Jewish Studies and Professor of English, Princeton University

“An extraordinarily rich source that will become an essential resource for scholars and students, this book transforms our understanding of the place of the Jewish business elite in imperial Russia. ChaeRan Freeze’s brilliant introduction illuminates not just the lives of its Russian protagonists but the world of the great Jewish business dynasties in the first age of globalization — and it does so from a shockingly intimate and surprisingly unfamiliar angle. This is a major contribution to the field; it deserves a wide audience.” —Abigail Green, University of Oxford, author of “Moses Montefiore: Jewish Liberator, Imperial Hero”

“Introduced by an excellent discussion of the lives, self-understanding and fate of Zinaida Poliakova and her family, this impressively annotated translation of Poliakova’s diaries provides a revealing depiction of the world of the Jewish elite in late Imperial Russia as experienced by a young woman from one its most prominent families.” —William G. Wagner, Brown Professor of History Emeritus, Williams College

“Readers of 19th-century novels will be fascinated to recognize the real-life parallels to upper-class heroines such as Eliot’s Dorothea Brooke, Flaubert’s Mme. Bovary, or Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. A unique and invaluable source for anyone interested in the history of Jews, Russia or women.” —Gabriella Safran, Eva Chernov Lokey Professor in Jewish Studies, Slavic Department, Stanford University

"The research that went into this publication is truly outstanding, covering a wide range of subjects that until now have remained understudied, such as the role of Jewish entrepreneurs in the Russian economy, the everyday life of privileged Russian Jewish families, and the role of women in developing a modern hybrid Russian-Jewish identity.” - Mikhail Krutikov, The Russian Review