Semion Goldin | Russian Army and Jewish Population during WWI: Some Lessons for Ukraine

The Department of Middle Eastern Studies at CU FA and the Prague Centre for Jewish Studies at CU FA cordially invite you to a guest lecture by Dr Semion Goldin from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The lecture entitled “Russian Army and Jewish Population during WWI: Some Lessons for Ukraine” will take place on Tuesday, 15April 2025 at 2:10 pm at the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at CU FA in Celetná 20, room C240.

Dr Semion Goldin is a research fellow at the Leonid Nevzlin Research Center for Russian and East European Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He also serves as the Head of the Department of Russian and Slavic Studies at this university. His most recent book, The Russian Army and the Jewish Population, 1914–1917: Libel, Persecution, Reaction, was published in 2022 as part of the Palgrave Critical Studies of Antisemitism and Racism series.

Annotation

The brutal violence of Russian troops towards civilians in Ukraine recently shocked the world. However, looking back one hundred years, we can see a similar picture: the Jewish population in Russia’s World War I frontal zone directly experienced various forms of hostility from the Russian army. Local deportations, executions on trumped-up charges, humiliations, lootings, and beatings by soldiers and officers became daily tribulations. In this lecture, we will discuss the reasons for such violence by the Russian military, and we will see the approach to the civilian population during the war in Ukraine as a direct continuation of a well-established “tradition” in the Russian military mindset and behavior.