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Ashkenazi Jews

Author’s Note: This post has mentions of Nazis, the Holocaust, & Nazi Germany. We completely understand if you wish to skip over this post. We’ll catch you in the next one!

Also known as Ashkenazic Jews, Ashkenazis, or Ashkenazim.

This is a form of distinct ethnic subdivision of the Jewish Diaspora. Emerging from the Jewish communities that consolidated during the 10th century in the Rhineland (Western Germany) & northern France. They migrated there from centers such as the Italian peninsula & the Southern Levant. This includes present-day Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, & Jordan.

After numerous massacres of Jews during the Crusades (11th-13th centuries), they began a gradual eastward migration due to mounting restrictions within the Holy Roman Empire & the favorable policies of Casimir the Great & others.

This diaspora ramped up after the persecution during the Black Death of the 14th century. The bulk of the Ashkenazi Jews had migrated to the Kingdom of Poland (which includes modern-day Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, & parts of Russia). This area became the main center of Ashkenazi Jewry until the Holocaust.

Ashkenazim adapted their traditions, rites, & customs to Europe. They traditionally followed the German rite synagogue ritual & until the Holocaust primarily spoke Yiddish, an offshoot of Middle High German written in a variety of the Hebrew script, with significant Hebrew, Aramaic, & Slavic influences.

The Yiddish language progressively declined in prestige, in favor of national languages & Hebrew, being stigmatized by assimilationists & later also Zionists. Though it was spoken by over 11 million people worldwide before the Holocaust. The Yiddishist movement, which sought to preserve & revive the language, faded through the 20th century. Including Duolingo adding Yiddish as a language.

As a proportion of the world Jewish population, Ashkenazim were estimated to be 3% in the 11th century, rising to 92% in 1930, near the population’s peak. The Ashkenazi population was significantly diminished by the Holocaust carried out by Nazi Germany during WWII, which killed around 6 million Jews. Before WWII, the estimated worldwide Jewish population was 15.3-16.7 million, with 92% being Ashkenazi. As of 2023, the population of Ashkenazim was estimated to be around 10-13 million out of 15.8 million total Jews.

The name Ashkenazi comes from the biblical figure of Ashkenaz. He’s the 1st son of Gomer, grandson of Japhet, great-grandson of Noah, & a Japhetic patriarch in the Table of Nations. The name for Gomer has often been linked to the Cimmerians.

The Biblical Ashkenazis are usually derived from Assyrian Askuza, a people who expelled the Cimmerians from the Armenian area of the Upper Euphrates. The name Askuza is identified with the Scythians.

In Jeremiah 51:27, Ashkenaz figures as 1 of 3 kingdoms in the far north, the others being Minni (or Mannaea), an ancient kingdom that flourished in northwestern Iran, & Arrat (corresponding to Urartu), called on by God to resist Babylon.

Ashkenaz is linked to Scandza/Scanzia (usually identified with Scandinavia), viewed as the cradle of Germanic tribes, in the 6th-century gloss to the Historia Ecclesiastica of Eusebius. In the 10th century, in the History of Armenia of Yovhannes Drasxanakertci, Ashkenaz was associated with Armenia.

As it was occasionally in Jewish usage, where its denotation extended at times to Adiabene, Khazaria, Chimea, & areas to the east. They’re also identified with the Slavim or Slavs. In keeping with the custom of designating areas of Jewish settlement with biblical names, Spain was called Sefarad (Obadiah 20), France was called Tsarefat (I Kings 17:9), & Bohemia was called the Land of Canaan.

Given the close links between the Jewish communities of France & Germany following the Carolingian unification, the term Ashkenazi came to refer to the Jews of both medieval Germany & France.

In later times, the word Ashkenaz is used to designate southern & western Germany, the ritual of which sections differs somewhat from that of eastern Germany & Poland. Thus, the prayer book of Isaiah Horowitz (a prominent rabbi & mystic), & many others, give the piyyutim (a Jewish liturgical poem), according to the Minhag of Ashkenaz & Poland. A Minhag is an accepted tradition or group of traditions in Judaism.

In a religious sense, an Ashkenazi Jew is any Jew whose family tradition & synagogue ritual follow Ashkenazi practices (German rite). Until the Ashkenazi community 1st began to develop in the Early Middle Ages, the centers of Jewish religious authority were in the Islamic world, at Baghdad & Islamic Spain. German Ashkenaz was so geographically distant that it developed a minhag of its own.

The counterpart of Ashkenazi is Sephardic. Since most non-Ashkenazi Orthodox Jews follow Sephardic rabbinical authorities, whether or not they’re ethnically Sephardic. By tradition, a Sephardic or Mizrahi (a.k.a. Oriental Jews; Jews who lived in the Muslim world) who married into an Orthodox or Haredi (a.k.a. ultra-Orthodox) Ashkenazi Jewish family raises her kids to be Ashkenazi Jews.

On the other hand, an Ashkenazi woman who married a Sephardi or Mizrahi is expected to take on Sephardic practices & the kids will “inherit” a Sephardic identity. Though in practice, many families do compromise. A “convert” usually follows the practice of the rabbinical court (beth din) that converted them.

Culturally, an Ashkenazi Jew can be identified by the concept of Yiddishkeit, which means “Jewishness” in the Yiddish language. Before the Haskalah (a.k.a. the Jewish Enlightenment) & the emancipation of Jews in Europe, this meant the study of the Torah & the Talmud for men, & communal life governed by the observance of Jewish Law for men & women.

From the Rhineland to Riga (the largest city in Latvia) to Romania, most Jews prayed in liturgical Ashkenazi Hebrew, & spoke Yiddish in their secular (worldly) lives. But with modernization, Yiddishkeit now includes not just Orthodoxy & Hasidism, but a broader range of movements, ideologies, practices, & traditions in which Ashkenazi have participated & somehow kept a sense of Jewishness. Although pockets of Jews still speak Yiddish, Yiddishkeit can be identified in manners of speech, styles of humor, & in patterns of association.

As Ashkenazi Jews moved away from Europe, mostly in the form of aliyah to Israel. Or immigration to North America, South Africa, Europe (particularly France), & Latin America, the geographic isolation has given way to mixing with other cultures, & with non-Ashkenazi Jews who, similarly, are no longer isolated in distinct geographic locales.

Hebrew has replaced Yiddish as the primary Jewish language for many Ashkenazi Jews. Although many Hasidic & Hareidi groups still use Yiddish in daily life. Aliyah is the immigration of Jews from the diaspora to, historically, the geographic Land of Israel or the Palestine region, where the State of Israel was established.

France’s blended Jewish community is typical of the cultural recombination that’s going on among Jews throughout the world. Although France expelled its original Jewish population in the Middle Ages, by the time of the French Revolution, there were 2 distinct Jewish populations.

One consisted of Sephardic Jews, originally refugees from the Inquisition (which no one expects! Sorry, we’re Monty Python fans here.) & concentrated in the southwest. While the other community was Ashkenazi, concentrated in formerly German Alsace, & mainly speaking a German dialect similar to Yiddish.

The 3rd community of Provencal Jews living in Comtat Venaissin was technically outside France, & was later absorbed into the Sephardim. Comtat Venaissin (called Comtat, for short) was a part of the Papal States from 1274 to 1791.

But after emancipation, a sense of a unified French Jewry emerged, especially when France was wracked by the Dreyfus Affair in the 1890s. (We’ll be doing a post about the Dreyfus Affair.) In the 1920s & 30s, Ashkenazi Jews from Europe arrived in large numbers as refugees from antisemitism, the Russian Revolution, & the economic turmoil of the Great Depression.

By the 1930s, Paris had a vibrant Yiddish culture, & many Jews were involved in diverse political movements. After the Vichy years & the Holocaust, the French Jewish population was augmented once again, 1st by Ashkenazi refugees from Central Europe, & later by Sephardi immigrants & refugees from North Africa, many of them francophone. Francophone refers to people/organizations who use French (language) regularly.

Ashkenazi Jews didn’t transmit their traditions or achievements by text. Instead, these traditions were passed down orally from one generation to the next. The desire to maintain pre-Holocaust traditions relating to Ashkenazi culture has often been met with criticism by Jews in Eastern Europe.

In an ethnic sense, an Ashkenazi Jew is a descendant of the Jews who settled in the Central European region of “Ashkenaz.” For roughly 1,000 years, the Ashkenazim were a reproductively isolated population in Europe.

Despite living in many countries, with little inflow or outflow of countries from migration, conversion, or intermarriage with other groups, including other Jews. Since the mid-20th century, many Ashkenazi Jews have intermarried, both with members of other Jewish communities & non-Jews.

Religious persecution of the Jews in Western & Central Europe led to a significant migration of the Ashkenazi Jews into Eastern Europe. This resulted in a major cultural divide between Western/Central & Eastern Ashkenazi communities. In particular, this was reflected in the division of Yiddish into Western & Eastern Yiddish dialects. As well as in other cultural distinctions: traditions, food, dress, etc.

Initially, the Jews of Eastern Europe enjoyed relative freedom in terms of movement, being invited by the kings of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Over time, the situation was reversed. By the 19th century, the Jews in the West had gradually been integrated into the general society.

While the Eastern Ashkenazi maintained their strict Jewish traditions & were mostly confined to ghettos, especially in the Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire, which incorporated a considerable amount of land where the Eastern Ashkenazi lived: Poland & Lithuania.

Well-known differences in practices include:

• Observance of Passover (Pesach)
  • Ashkenazi Jews traditionally refrain from eating legumes, grain, millet, & rice. Quinoa has become accepted as a food grain in North American communities. Sephardi Jews typically don’t prohibit these foods.
• Notwithstanding stricter requirements for the ACTUAL slaughter, Sephardi Jews permit the rear portions of an animal after proper Halakhic removal of the sciatic nerve. While many Ashkenazi Jews don’t.
• Ashkenazi Jews often name newborns after deceased family members, not after living relatives. Sephardi Jews often name their kids after their grandparents, even if those grandparents are still living. An exception to this is among Dutch Jews, where Ashkenazi for centuries used naming conventions otherwise attributed exclusively to Sephardim, such as Chuts. Chuts is the name given to Jews who immigrated to London from the Netherlands in the 1850s-1860s.
• Ashkenazi tefillins are wound toward the body, not away from it. Ashkenazim put on the tefillin while standing up. Other Jews generally do so while sitting down. A tefillin(s) is/are sets of small black leather boxes with leather straps having scrolls of parchment written with verses of the Torah inside.
• The prayer shawl (tallit/tallis) is worn by all Ashkenazi men AFTER marriage. Except for Western European Ashkenazi men who wear it from the bar mitzvah. In Sephardi or Mizrahi Judaism, the prayer shawl is commonly worn from early childhood.

The term Ashkenazi also refers to the Nusach Ashkenaz, the liturgical tradition used by Ashkenazi Jews in their siddur (prayer book). A nusach is defined by a liturgical tradition’s choice of prayers, the text of prayers & melodies used in the singing of prayers. 2 other major forms of nusach among Ashkenazi Jews are Nusach Sefard (not to be confused with the Sephardic ritual), which is the general Polish Hasidic nusach, and Nusach Ari, used by those in Chabad.

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Ashkenazi Jews

Author’s Note: This post has mentions of Nazis, the Holocaust, & Nazi Germany. We completely understand if you wish to skip over this post. We’ll catch you in the next one!

Also known as Ashkenazic Jews, Ashkenazis, or Ashkenazim.

This is a form of distinct ethnic subdivision of the Jewish Diaspora. Emerging from the Jewish communities that consolidated during the 10th century in the Rhineland (Western Germany) & northern France. They migrated there from centers such as the Italian peninsula & the Southern Levant. This includes present-day Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, & Jordan.

After numerous massacres of Jews during the Crusades (11th-13th centuries), they began a gradual eastward migration due to mounting restrictions within the Holy Roman Empire & the favorable policies of Casimir the Great & others.

This diaspora ramped up after the persecution during the Black Death of the 14th century. The bulk of the Ashkenazi Jews had migrated to the Kingdom of Poland (which includes modern-day Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, & parts of Russia). This area became the main center of Ashkenazi Jewry until the Holocaust.

Ashkenazim adapted their traditions, rites, & customs to Europe. They traditionally followed the German rite synagogue ritual & until the Holocaust primarily spoke Yiddish, an offshoot of Middle High German written in a variety of the Hebrew script, with significant Hebrew, Aramaic, & Slavic influences.

The Yiddish language progressively declined in prestige, in favor of national languages & Hebrew, being stigmatized by assimilationists & later also Zionists. Though it was spoken by over 11 million people worldwide before the Holocaust. The Yiddishist movement, which sought to preserve & revive the language, faded through the 20th century. Including Duolingo adding Yiddish as a language.

As a proportion of the world Jewish population, Ashkenazim were estimated to be 3% in the 11th century, rising to 92% in 1930, near the population’s peak. The Ashkenazi population was significantly diminished by the Holocaust carried out by Nazi Germany during WWII, which killed around 6 million Jews. Before WWII, the estimated worldwide Jewish population was 15.3-16.7 million, with 92% being Ashkenazi. As of 2023, the population of Ashkenazim was estimated to be around 10-13 million out of 15.8 million total Jews.

The name Ashkenazi comes from the biblical figure of Ashkenaz. He’s the 1st son of Gomer, grandson of Japhet, great-grandson of Noah, & a Japhetic patriarch in the Table of Nations. The name for Gomer has often been linked to the Cimmerians.

The Biblical Ashkenazis are usually derived from Assyrian Askuza, a people who expelled the Cimmerians from the Armenian area of the Upper Euphrates. The name Askuza is identified with the Scythians.

In Jeremiah 51:27, Ashkenaz figures as 1 of 3 kingdoms in the far north, the others being Minni (or Mannaea), an ancient kingdom that flourished in northwestern Iran, & Arrat (corresponding to Urartu), called on by God to resist Babylon.

Ashkenaz is linked to Scandza/Scanzia (usually identified with Scandinavia), viewed as the cradle of Germanic tribes, in the 6th-century gloss to the Historia Ecclesiastica of Eusebius. In the 10th century, in the History of Armenia of Yovhannes Drasxanakertci, Ashkenaz was associated with Armenia.

As it was occasionally in Jewish usage, where its denotation extended at times to Adiabene, Khazaria, Chimea, & areas to the east. They’re also identified with the Slavim or Slavs. In keeping with the custom of designating areas of Jewish settlement with biblical names, Spain was called Sefarad (Obadiah 20), France was called Tsarefat (I Kings 17:9), & Bohemia was called the Land of Canaan.

Given the close links between the Jewish communities of France & Germany following the Carolingian unification, the term Ashkenazi came to refer to the Jews of both medieval Germany & France.

In later times, the word Ashkenaz is used to designate southern & western Germany, the ritual of which sections differs somewhat from that of eastern Germany & Poland. Thus, the prayer book of Isaiah Horowitz (a prominent rabbi & mystic), & many others, give the piyyutim (a Jewish liturgical poem), according to the Minhag of Ashkenaz & Poland. A Minhag is an accepted tradition or group of traditions in Judaism.

In a religious sense, an Ashkenazi Jew is any Jew whose family tradition & synagogue ritual follow Ashkenazi practices (German rite). Until the Ashkenazi community 1st began to develop in the Early Middle Ages, the centers of Jewish religious authority were in the Islamic world, at Baghdad & Islamic Spain. German Ashkenaz was so geographically distant that it developed a minhag of its own.

The counterpart of Ashkenazi is Sephardic. Since most non-Ashkenazi Orthodox Jews follow Sephardic rabbinical authorities, whether or not they’re ethnically Sephardic. By tradition, a Sephardic or Mizrahi (a.k.a. Oriental Jews; Jews who lived in the Muslim world) who married into an Orthodox or Haredi (a.k.a. ultra-Orthodox) Ashkenazi Jewish family raises her kids to be Ashkenazi Jews.

On the other hand, an Ashkenazi woman who married a Sephardi or Mizrahi is expected to take on Sephardic practices & the kids will “inherit” a Sephardic identity. Though in practice, many families do compromise. A “convert” usually follows the practice of the rabbinical court (beth din) that converted them.

Culturally, an Ashkenazi Jew can be identified by the concept of Yiddishkeit, which means “Jewishness” in the Yiddish language. Before the Haskalah (a.k.a. the Jewish Enlightenment) & the emancipation of Jews in Europe, this meant the study of the Torah & the Talmud for men, & communal life governed by the observance of Jewish Law for men & women.

From the Rhineland to Riga (the largest city in Latvia) to Romania, most Jews prayed in liturgical Ashkenazi Hebrew, & spoke Yiddish in their secular (worldly) lives. But with modernization, Yiddishkeit now includes not just Orthodoxy & Hasidism, but a broader range of movements, ideologies, practices, & traditions in which Ashkenazi have participated & somehow kept a sense of Jewishness. Although pockets of Jews still speak Yiddish, Yiddishkeit can be identified in manners of speech, styles of humor, & in patterns of association.

As Ashkenazi Jews moved away from Europe, mostly in the form of aliyah to Israel. Or immigration to North America, South Africa, Europe (particularly France), & Latin America, the geographic isolation has given way to mixing with other cultures, & with non-Ashkenazi Jews who, similarly, are no longer isolated in distinct geographic locales.

Hebrew has replaced Yiddish as the primary Jewish language for many Ashkenazi Jews. Although many Hasidic & Hareidi groups still use Yiddish in daily life. Aliyah is the immigration of Jews from the diaspora to, historically, the geographic Land of Israel or the Palestine region, where the State of Israel was established.

France’s blended Jewish community is typical of the cultural recombination that’s going on among Jews throughout the world. Although France expelled its original Jewish population in the Middle Ages, by the time of the French Revolution, there were 2 distinct Jewish populations.

One consisted of Sephardic Jews, originally refugees from the Inquisition (which no one expects! Sorry, we’re Monty Python fans here.) & concentrated in the southwest. While the other community was Ashkenazi, concentrated in formerly German Alsace, & mainly speaking a German dialect similar to Yiddish.

The 3rd community of Provencal Jews living in Comtat Venaissin was technically outside France, & was later absorbed into the Sephardim. Comtat Venaissin (called Comtat, for short) was a part of the Papal States from 1274 to 1791.

But after emancipation, a sense of a unified French Jewry emerged, especially when France was wracked by the Dreyfus Affair in the 1890s. (We’ll be doing a post about the Dreyfus Affair.) In the 1920s & 30s, Ashkenazi Jews from Europe arrived in large numbers as refugees from antisemitism, the Russian Revolution, & the economic turmoil of the Great Depression.

By the 1930s, Paris had a vibrant Yiddish culture, & many Jews were involved in diverse political movements. After the Vichy years & the Holocaust, the French Jewish population was augmented once again, 1st by Ashkenazi refugees from Central Europe, & later by Sephardi immigrants & refugees from North Africa, many of them francophone. Francophone refers to people/organizations who use French (language) regularly.

Ashkenazi Jews didn’t transmit their traditions or achievements by text. Instead, these traditions were passed down orally from one generation to the next. The desire to maintain pre-Holocaust traditions relating to Ashkenazi culture has often been met with criticism by Jews in Eastern Europe.

In an ethnic sense, an Ashkenazi Jew is a descendant of the Jews who settled in the Central European region of “Ashkenaz.” For roughly 1,000 years, the Ashkenazim were a reproductively isolated population in Europe.

Despite living in many countries, with little inflow or outflow of countries from migration, conversion, or intermarriage with other groups, including other Jews. Since the mid-20th century, many Ashkenazi Jews have intermarried, both with members of other Jewish communities & non-Jews.

Religious persecution of the Jews in Western & Central Europe led to a significant migration of the Ashkenazi Jews into Eastern Europe. This resulted in a major cultural divide between Western/Central & Eastern Ashkenazi communities. In particular, this was reflected in the division of Yiddish into Western & Eastern Yiddish dialects. As well as in other cultural distinctions: traditions, food, dress, etc.

Initially, the Jews of Eastern Europe enjoyed relative freedom in terms of movement, being invited by the kings of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Over time, the situation was reversed. By the 19th century, the Jews in the West had gradually been integrated into the general society.

While the Eastern Ashkenazi maintained their strict Jewish traditions & were mostly confined to ghettos, especially in the Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire, which incorporated a considerable amount of land where the Eastern Ashkenazi lived: Poland & Lithuania.

Well-known differences in practices include:

• Observance of Passover (Pesach)
  • Ashkenazi Jews traditionally refrain from eating legumes, grain, millet, & rice. Quinoa has become accepted as a food grain in North American communities. Sephardi Jews typically don’t prohibit these foods.
• Notwithstanding stricter requirements for the ACTUAL slaughter, Sephardi Jews permit the rear portions of an animal after proper Halakhic removal of the sciatic nerve. While many Ashkenazi Jews don’t.
• Ashkenazi Jews often name newborns after deceased family members, not after living relatives. Sephardi Jews often name their kids after their grandparents, even if those grandparents are still living. An exception to this is among Dutch Jews, where Ashkenazi for centuries used naming conventions otherwise attributed exclusively to Sephardim, such as Chuts. Chuts is the name given to Jews who immigrated to London from the Netherlands in the 1850s-1860s.
• Ashkenazi tefillins are wound toward the body, not away from it. Ashkenazim put on the tefillin while standing up. Other Jews generally do so while sitting down. A tefillin(s) is/are sets of small black leather boxes with leather straps having scrolls of parchment written with verses of the Torah inside.
• The prayer shawl (tallit/tallis) is worn by all Ashkenazi men AFTER marriage. Except for Western European Ashkenazi men who wear it from the bar mitzvah. In Sephardi or Mizrahi Judaism, the prayer shawl is commonly worn from early childhood.

The term Ashkenazi also refers to the Nusach Ashkenaz, the liturgical tradition used by Ashkenazi Jews in their siddur (prayer book). A nusach is defined by a liturgical tradition’s choice of prayers, the text of prayers & melodies used in the singing of prayers. 2 other major forms of nusach among Ashkenazi Jews are Nusach Sefard (not to be confused with the Sephardic ritual), which is the general Polish Hasidic nusach, and Nusach Ari, used by those in Chabad.

Make a one-time donation

Your contribution is appreciated.

Make a monthly donation

Your contribution is appreciated.

Make a yearly donation

Your contribution is appreciated.

Rate this:

Ashkenazi Jews

Author’s Note: This post has mentions of Nazis, the Holocaust, & Nazi Germany. We completely understand if you wish to skip over this post. We’ll catch you in the next one!

Also known as Ashkenazic Jews, Ashkenazis, or Ashkenazim.

This is a form of distinct ethnic subdivision of the Jewish Diaspora. Emerging from the Jewish communities that consolidated during the 10th century in the Rhineland (Western Germany) & northern France. They migrated there from centers such as the Italian peninsula & the Southern Levant. This includes present-day Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, & Jordan.

After numerous massacres of Jews during the Crusades (11th-13th centuries), they began a gradual eastward migration due to mounting restrictions within the Holy Roman Empire & the favorable policies of Casimir the Great & others.

This diaspora ramped up after the persecution during the Black Death of the 14th century. The bulk of the Ashkenazi Jews had migrated to the Kingdom of Poland (which includes modern-day Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, & parts of Russia). This area became the main center of Ashkenazi Jewry until the Holocaust.

Ashkenazim adapted their traditions, rites, & customs to Europe. They traditionally followed the German rite synagogue ritual & until the Holocaust primarily spoke Yiddish, an offshoot of Middle High German written in a variety of the Hebrew script, with significant Hebrew, Aramaic, & Slavic influences.

The Yiddish language progressively declined in prestige, in favor of national languages & Hebrew, being stigmatized by assimilationists & later also Zionists. Though it was spoken by over 11 million people worldwide before the Holocaust. The Yiddishist movement, which sought to preserve & revive the language, faded through the 20th century. Including Duolingo adding Yiddish as a language.

As a proportion of the world Jewish population, Ashkenazim were estimated to be 3% in the 11th century, rising to 92% in 1930, near the population’s peak. The Ashkenazi population was significantly diminished by the Holocaust carried out by Nazi Germany during WWII, which killed around 6 million Jews. Before WWII, the estimated worldwide Jewish population was 15.3-16.7 million, with 92% being Ashkenazi. As of 2023, the population of Ashkenazim was estimated to be around 10-13 million out of 15.8 million total Jews.

The name Ashkenazi comes from the biblical figure of Ashkenaz. He’s the 1st son of Gomer, grandson of Japhet, great-grandson of Noah, & a Japhetic patriarch in the Table of Nations. The name for Gomer has often been linked to the Cimmerians.

The Biblical Ashkenazis are usually derived from Assyrian Askuza, a people who expelled the Cimmerians from the Armenian area of the Upper Euphrates. The name Askuza is identified with the Scythians.

In Jeremiah 51:27, Ashkenaz figures as 1 of 3 kingdoms in the far north, the others being Minni (or Mannaea), an ancient kingdom that flourished in northwestern Iran, & Arrat (corresponding to Urartu), called on by God to resist Babylon.

Ashkenaz is linked to Scandza/Scanzia (usually identified with Scandinavia), viewed as the cradle of Germanic tribes, in the 6th-century gloss to the Historia Ecclesiastica of Eusebius. In the 10th century, in the History of Armenia of Yovhannes Drasxanakertci, Ashkenaz was associated with Armenia.

As it was occasionally in Jewish usage, where its denotation extended at times to Adiabene, Khazaria, Chimea, & areas to the east. They’re also identified with the Slavim or Slavs. In keeping with the custom of designating areas of Jewish settlement with biblical names, Spain was called Sefarad (Obadiah 20), France was called Tsarefat (I Kings 17:9), & Bohemia was called the Land of Canaan.

Given the close links between the Jewish communities of France & Germany following the Carolingian unification, the term Ashkenazi came to refer to the Jews of both medieval Germany & France.

In later times, the word Ashkenaz is used to designate southern & western Germany, the ritual of which sections differs somewhat from that of eastern Germany & Poland. Thus, the prayer book of Isaiah Horowitz (a prominent rabbi & mystic), & many others, give the piyyutim (a Jewish liturgical poem), according to the Minhag of Ashkenaz & Poland. A Minhag is an accepted tradition or group of traditions in Judaism.

In a religious sense, an Ashkenazi Jew is any Jew whose family tradition & synagogue ritual follow Ashkenazi practices (German rite). Until the Ashkenazi community 1st began to develop in the Early Middle Ages, the centers of Jewish religious authority were in the Islamic world, at Baghdad & Islamic Spain. German Ashkenaz was so geographically distant that it developed a minhag of its own.

The counterpart of Ashkenazi is Sephardic. Since most non-Ashkenazi Orthodox Jews follow Sephardic rabbinical authorities, whether or not they’re ethnically Sephardic. By tradition, a Sephardic or Mizrahi (a.k.a. Oriental Jews; Jews who lived in the Muslim world) who married into an Orthodox or Haredi (a.k.a. ultra-Orthodox) Ashkenazi Jewish family raises her kids to be Ashkenazi Jews.

On the other hand, an Ashkenazi woman who married a Sephardi or Mizrahi is expected to take on Sephardic practices & the kids will “inherit” a Sephardic identity. Though in practice, many families do compromise. A “convert” usually follows the practice of the rabbinical court (beth din) that converted them.

Culturally, an Ashkenazi Jew can be identified by the concept of Yiddishkeit, which means “Jewishness” in the Yiddish language. Before the Haskalah (a.k.a. the Jewish Enlightenment) & the emancipation of Jews in Europe, this meant the study of the Torah & the Talmud for men, & communal life governed by the observance of Jewish Law for men & women.

From the Rhineland to Riga (the largest city in Latvia) to Romania, most Jews prayed in liturgical Ashkenazi Hebrew, & spoke Yiddish in their secular (worldly) lives. But with modernization, Yiddishkeit now includes not just Orthodoxy & Hasidism, but a broader range of movements, ideologies, practices, & traditions in which Ashkenazi have participated & somehow kept a sense of Jewishness. Although pockets of Jews still speak Yiddish, Yiddishkeit can be identified in manners of speech, styles of humor, & in patterns of association.

As Ashkenazi Jews moved away from Europe, mostly in the form of aliyah to Israel. Or immigration to North America, South Africa, Europe (particularly France), & Latin America, the geographic isolation has given way to mixing with other cultures, & with non-Ashkenazi Jews who, similarly, are no longer isolated in distinct geographic locales.

Hebrew has replaced Yiddish as the primary Jewish language for many Ashkenazi Jews. Although many Hasidic & Hareidi groups still use Yiddish in daily life. Aliyah is the immigration of Jews from the diaspora to, historically, the geographic Land of Israel or the Palestine region, where the State of Israel was established.

France’s blended Jewish community is typical of the cultural recombination that’s going on among Jews throughout the world. Although France expelled its original Jewish population in the Middle Ages, by the time of the French Revolution, there were 2 distinct Jewish populations.

One consisted of Sephardic Jews, originally refugees from the Inquisition (which no one expects! Sorry, we’re Monty Python fans here.) & concentrated in the southwest. While the other community was Ashkenazi, concentrated in formerly German Alsace, & mainly speaking a German dialect similar to Yiddish.

The 3rd community of Provencal Jews living in Comtat Venaissin was technically outside France, & was later absorbed into the Sephardim. Comtat Venaissin (called Comtat, for short) was a part of the Papal States from 1274 to 1791.

But after emancipation, a sense of a unified French Jewry emerged, especially when France was wracked by the Dreyfus Affair in the 1890s. (We’ll be doing a post about the Dreyfus Affair.) In the 1920s & 30s, Ashkenazi Jews from Europe arrived in large numbers as refugees from antisemitism, the Russian Revolution, & the economic turmoil of the Great Depression.

By the 1930s, Paris had a vibrant Yiddish culture, & many Jews were involved in diverse political movements. After the Vichy years & the Holocaust, the French Jewish population was augmented once again, 1st by Ashkenazi refugees from Central Europe, & later by Sephardi immigrants & refugees from North Africa, many of them francophone. Francophone refers to people/organizations who use French (language) regularly.

Ashkenazi Jews didn’t transmit their traditions or achievements by text. Instead, these traditions were passed down orally from one generation to the next. The desire to maintain pre-Holocaust traditions relating to Ashkenazi culture has often been met with criticism by Jews in Eastern Europe.

In an ethnic sense, an Ashkenazi Jew is a descendant of the Jews who settled in the Central European region of “Ashkenaz.” For roughly 1,000 years, the Ashkenazim were a reproductively isolated population in Europe.

Despite living in many countries, with little inflow or outflow of countries from migration, conversion, or intermarriage with other groups, including other Jews. Since the mid-20th century, many Ashkenazi Jews have intermarried, both with members of other Jewish communities & non-Jews.

Religious persecution of the Jews in Western & Central Europe led to a significant migration of the Ashkenazi Jews into Eastern Europe. This resulted in a major cultural divide between Western/Central & Eastern Ashkenazi communities. In particular, this was reflected in the division of Yiddish into Western & Eastern Yiddish dialects. As well as in other cultural distinctions: traditions, food, dress, etc.

Initially, the Jews of Eastern Europe enjoyed relative freedom in terms of movement, being invited by the kings of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Over time, the situation was reversed. By the 19th century, the Jews in the West had gradually been integrated into the general society.

While the Eastern Ashkenazi maintained their strict Jewish traditions & were mostly confined to ghettos, especially in the Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire, which incorporated a considerable amount of land where the Eastern Ashkenazi lived: Poland & Lithuania.

Well-known differences in practices include:

• Observance of Passover (Pesach)
  • Ashkenazi Jews traditionally refrain from eating legumes, grain, millet, & rice. Quinoa has become accepted as a food grain in North American communities. Sephardi Jews typically don’t prohibit these foods.
• Notwithstanding stricter requirements for the ACTUAL slaughter, Sephardi Jews permit the rear portions of an animal after proper Halakhic removal of the sciatic nerve. While many Ashkenazi Jews don’t.
• Ashkenazi Jews often name newborns after deceased family members, not after living relatives. Sephardi Jews often name their kids after their grandparents, even if those grandparents are still living. An exception to this is among Dutch Jews, where Ashkenazi for centuries used naming conventions otherwise attributed exclusively to Sephardim, such as Chuts. Chuts is the name given to Jews who immigrated to London from the Netherlands in the 1850s-1860s.
• Ashkenazi tefillins are wound toward the body, not away from it. Ashkenazim put on the tefillin while standing up. Other Jews generally do so while sitting down. A tefillin(s) is/are sets of small black leather boxes with leather straps having scrolls of parchment written with verses of the Torah inside.
• The prayer shawl (tallit/tallis) is worn by all Ashkenazi men AFTER marriage. Except for Western European Ashkenazi men who wear it from the bar mitzvah. In Sephardi or Mizrahi Judaism, the prayer shawl is commonly worn from early childhood.

The term Ashkenazi also refers to the Nusach Ashkenaz, the liturgical tradition used by Ashkenazi Jews in their siddur (prayer book). A nusach is defined by a liturgical tradition’s choice of prayers, the text of prayers & melodies used in the singing of prayers. 2 other major forms of nusach among Ashkenazi Jews are Nusach Sefard (not to be confused with the Sephardic ritual), which is the general Polish Hasidic nusach, and Nusach Ari, used by those in Chabad.

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https://www.europesays.com/dk/107761/ Russian opposition party-congress in Berlin: Fear that Yashin might become a “Mini-Putin” #berlin #DianaResnik #Euronews #Germany #IgorKachetkov #IlyaYashin #OppositionPoliticians #PartyCongress #PartyProgram #Russia #RussianOpposition #RussianRevolution

Russian opposition party-congress in Berlin: Fear that Yashin might become a “Mini-Putin”

Delegates of the new Russian opposition party Peaceful Russia gathered in Berlin on June 12 and 13 for…
#Germany #DE #Europe #EU #Europa #Berlin #DianaResnik #Euronews #IgorKachetkov #IlyaYashin #oppositionpoliticians #partycongress #partyprogram #Russia #Russianopposition #RussianRevolution
https://www.europesays.com/germany/36306/

Pluralistic: Molly Crabapple's 'Here Where We Live Is Our Country' (01 Jun 2026)

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://pluralistic.net/2026/06/01/doikayt/

Pluralistic: Molly Crabapple's 'Here Where We Live Is Our Country' (01 Jun 2026)

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://pluralistic.net/2026/06/01/doikayt/

Pluralistic: Molly Crabapple's 'Here Where We Live Is Our Country' (01 Jun 2026)

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://pluralistic.net/2026/06/01/doikayt/

Pluralistic: Molly Crabapple's 'Here Where We Live Is Our Country' (01 Jun 2026)

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://pluralistic.net/2026/06/01/doikayt/

Pluralistic: Molly Crabapple's 'Here Where We Live Is Our Country' (01 Jun 2026)

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://pluralistic.net/2026/06/01/doikayt/

Goldman had been positive about the Russian revolution of 1917 initially, but did have her thoughts on state communism and the suppression of free speech. After arriving in Russia she found out her fears were very much justified. When the couple saw that strikes were being violently suppressed, they decided to leave, and eventually moved to Berlin.

Goldman couldn't acclimate in German left-wing spaces as she was too critical of the communist experiment in Russia, so she moved to London in 1924, where she received similar reactions.

#EmmaGoldman #AlexanderBerkman #RussianRevolution

Goldman had been positive about the Russian revolution of 1917 initially, but did have her thoughts on state communism and the suppression of free speech. After arriving in Russia she found out her fears were very much justified. When the couple saw that strikes were being violently suppressed, they decided to leave, and eventually moved to Berlin.

Goldman couldn't acclimate in German left-wing spaces as she was too critical of the communist experiment in Russia, so she moved to London in 1924, where she received similar reactions.

#EmmaGoldman #AlexanderBerkman #RussianRevolution

Goldman had been positive about the Russian revolution of 1917 initially, but did have her thoughts on state communism and the suppression of free speech. After arriving in Russia she found out her fears were very much justified. When the couple saw that strikes were being violently suppressed, they decided to leave, and eventually moved to Berlin.

Goldman couldn't acclimate in German left-wing spaces as she was too critical of the communist experiment in Russia, so she moved to London in 1924, where she received similar reactions.

#EmmaGoldman #AlexanderBerkman #RussianRevolution

Goldman had been positive about the Russian revolution of 1917 initially, but did have her thoughts on state communism and the suppression of free speech. After arriving in Russia she found out her fears were very much justified. When the couple saw that strikes were being violently suppressed, they decided to leave, and eventually moved to Berlin.

Goldman couldn't acclimate in German left-wing spaces as she was too critical of the communist experiment in Russia, so she moved to London in 1924, where she received similar reactions.

#EmmaGoldman #AlexanderBerkman #RussianRevolution

She was released in 1916, but re-arrested a few months later, and stayed in prison without trial until 1918. Unable to participate in direct political action, she used her time in prison to write.

She celebrated the Russian Revolution of 1917 from prison but was very critical of the immediate aftermath as well. She praised Lenin and Trotsky for the revolution but didn't agree with certain decisions, such as the abolition of press freedom and the restriction of suffrage. She also disagreed with their agrarian policy of distributing land to individual peasants rather than nationalizing it, and their support for the right of nations to self-determination. Luxemburg was a firm internationalist, and she saw self-determination as enhancing nationalism and undermining the unification of the proletariat.

#RosaLuxemburg #RussianRevolution

She was released in 1916, but re-arrested a few months later, and stayed in prison without trial until 1918. Unable to participate in direct political action, she used her time in prison to write.

She celebrated the Russian Revolution of 1917 from prison but was very critical of the immediate aftermath as well. She praised Lenin and Trotsky for the revolution but didn't agree with certain decisions, such as the abolition of press freedom and the restriction of suffrage. She also disagreed with their agrarian policy of distributing land to individual peasants rather than nationalizing it, and their support for the right of nations to self-determination. Luxemburg was a firm internationalist, and she saw self-determination as enhancing nationalism and undermining the unification of the proletariat.

#RosaLuxemburg #RussianRevolution

She was released in 1916, but re-arrested a few months later, and stayed in prison without trial until 1918. Unable to participate in direct political action, she used her time in prison to write.

She celebrated the Russian Revolution of 1917 from prison but was very critical of the immediate aftermath as well. She praised Lenin and Trotsky for the revolution but didn't agree with certain decisions, such as the abolition of press freedom and the restriction of suffrage. She also disagreed with their agrarian policy of distributing land to individual peasants rather than nationalizing it, and their support for the right of nations to self-determination. Luxemburg was a firm internationalist, and she saw self-determination as enhancing nationalism and undermining the unification of the proletariat.

#RosaLuxemburg #RussianRevolution

She was released in 1916, but re-arrested a few months later, and stayed in prison without trial until 1918. Unable to participate in direct political action, she used her time in prison to write.

She celebrated the Russian Revolution of 1917 from prison but was very critical of the immediate aftermath as well. She praised Lenin and Trotsky for the revolution but didn't agree with certain decisions, such as the abolition of press freedom and the restriction of suffrage. She also disagreed with their agrarian policy of distributing land to individual peasants rather than nationalizing it, and their support for the right of nations to self-determination. Luxemburg was a firm internationalist, and she saw self-determination as enhancing nationalism and undermining the unification of the proletariat.

#RosaLuxemburg #RussianRevolution

https://www.europesays.com/people/52570/ Is Sergey Brin Out to Destroy America? #plutocracy #RussianRevolution #SergeyBrin

Russia’s 1917 ‘October Revolution’ took place in November.

The second part of the Russian Revolution happened in what we now call November because Russia didn't switch to the current ‘Gregorian’ calendar system until after the revolution.

#FactOfTheDay #Russia #OctoberRevolution #RussianRevolution

Russia’s 1917 ‘October Revolution’ took place in November.

The second part of the Russian Revolution happened in what we now call November because Russia didn't switch to the current ‘Gregorian’ calendar system until after the revolution.

#FactOfTheDay #Russia #OctoberRevolution #RussianRevolution

Russia’s 1917 ‘October Revolution’ took place in November.

The second part of the Russian Revolution happened in what we now call November because Russia didn't switch to the current ‘Gregorian’ calendar system until after the revolution.

#FactOfTheDay #Russia #OctoberRevolution #RussianRevolution

“So the #Revolution of 1688-9 – like the #FrenchRevolution, and the #MexicanRevolution, and the #RussianRevolution – was a competition between two groups who thought that the polity had to be radically transformed” fivebooks.com/best-books/r...

The Glorious Revolution

“So the #Revolution of 1688-9 – like the #FrenchRevolution, and the #MexicanRevolution, and the #RussianRevolution – was a competition between two groups who thought that the polity had to be radically transformed” fivebooks.com/best-books/r...

The Glorious Revolution

From the Library of Dr. Oliver Sacks: Book Review #10: To The Finland Station by Edmind Wilson

NOTE: Today’s book review was inspired by another book entitled Letters. That book was a memoir of scientist and storyteller Dr. Oliver Sacks, told through a lifetime of his personal correspondence with friends, family, patients and many other interesting people. Over the course of his letter writing, Dr. Sacks often made reference to the written works of others. Today’s book is one such work that he referenced.  

The Context in Which Dr. Sacks Made Reference to To The Finland Station by Edmund Wilson

In August of 1963, Oliver Sacks wrote a letter to his friend Jonathan Miller and Miller’s wife, Rachel. In 1963, Miller had resigned his position in the comedy troupe Beyond the Fringe and was setting the groundwork for a move into the world of theatrical directing. Beyond the Fringe had been achieving a great deal of success up until this point and had moved to London to continue their work in a larger market when Miller had stepped aside. All throughout this transitional period, Miller and Sacks had kept in touch via letters and phone calls. As was always the case with these two friends, Sacks was highly supportive of his friend and had suggested that, instead of newspaper interviews and magazine articles, Miller should write a book. It was during this conversation that Sacks mentioned Lionel Trilling, along with a fellow literary critic named Edmund Wilson.

“I am constantly reading you, or about you, and am overjoyed at the incredible opportunities opening out in every direction. I hope that you will soon find the leisure and incentive to write a book, innumerable books – for incessant flittering in magazines, though it’s a great way to start (didn’t Trilling and Wilson all start this way) may finally be rather destructive, and also tend to make you static in a way.”  

• Oliver Sacks, August 21, 1963, pg 63 of the book Letters 

A Brief Summary of To The Finland Station  by Edmund Wilson

Like the book mentioned in my previous post in this series (Trilling’s The Liberal Imagination, ), the focus of Edmund Wilson’s best known book, To The Finland Station, focuses on the social dynamic at play between historical events and great works of literature and whether the historic events inform and shape the great works of literature or whether writers can shape the times in which they live by virtue of their words. In Trilling’s book, he examined this relationship through a series of essays about post-war America. In To The Finland Station, Edmund Wilson does the same but, instead, directs his attention (and ours) to the birth of Socialism via two great revolutions…the French Revolution and the Soviet Revolution. 

In order to examine each great societal change experienced in these two important countries, Wilson first delves deeply into the writings of French historian Jules Michelet and his seminal work, Histoire De France, to which he dedicates almost a full third of the book. Michelet’s work was noteworthy because of the minute detail in which he recorded the events leading up to the actual French Revolution and because he did so by writing about the lives of ordinary French citizens. His emphasis on the importance of regular citizens was a marked departure from previous histories of France which, instead, limited themselves to chronicling the lives of the aristocracy. If you are familiar with the musical about the French Revolution, Les Miz, you will remember that the grand finale song in that play is called “Do You Hear The People Sing?” So, did Jules Michelet’s tome help to steel the resolve of the citizenry to rise up and eventually overthrow those in positions of power in their royal courts or was he merely a journalist who reported what he saw happening around him? 

In the larger, closing portion of To The Finland Station, Wilson does a deep dive into the lives of the leaders of the Communist Revolution in Russia, namely Karl Marx and Leon Trotsky (and the book The Communist Manifesto) and then, into the life of Vladimir Lenin. Wilson spends a lot of time informing the reader of the inner workings of the lives of these men and their families. He talks a lot about the collaborative nature of the relationship between Marx and Trotsky, specifically about how their ideas merged and changed and how they tested out their theories in various European countries before placing them all in their one final book. As for Lenin, Wilson devotes a lot of pages to describing his upbringing and how he rose through the ranks of the communist world as it existed during the time of the Tsar.

The title of Wilson’s book, To The Finland Station, refers to a train station that sits in St,. Petersburg, Russia, on the border between Russia and Finland. At one point in Lenin’s life, he went into exile in Europe. When the time was right to overthrow the Tsarist regime and revolution was truly at hand, Lenin made his triumphant return to Russian soil by crossing over via that train station known as the Finland Station. The Finland Station was originally built with a special lounge area for the Tsar and his family so, returning via this station was more than an exercise in logistics for Lenin, it held valuable symbolic importance as the site of his return, as welt.

The impact of the writings of Lenin, Marx and Trotsky were groundbreaking at the time of the Revolution and continue to be felt throughout the world of geopolitics to this very day. Did those words lead explicitly to revolution or were they merely putting words into the mouths of regular Russians citizens and giving life to their discontent? In the case of both Russia and France, Wilson states the cases for both possibilities and leaves it up to us to decide for sure which we feel is the more reasonable answer.

My Thoughts on To The Finland Station by Edmund Wilson (for what that is worth). 

When Oliver Sacks was writing to his friend Jonathan Miller, he mentioned both Lionel Trilling and Edmund Wilson together as connected writers. For that reason, I read both author’s best known works back to back. As you may recall from my review of The Liberal Imagination, I did not like that book at all. I found Trilling’s tone to be highly condescending, to the point of being almost unreadable. Admittedly, The Liberal Imagination is one book that I was unable to finish. I loathed it that much. Fortunately for me, To The Finland Station by Edmund Wilson was a far more inviting and accessible look into the idea of history and literature and the ways they influence one another. Whereas Trilling’s writer’s voice struck me more as a lecturer or pontificator, Wilson’s voice was more that of a congenial storyteller. Needless to say, if I were to recommend one book of the two for you to read on this topic it would be To The Finland Station. 

I enjoyed how Wilson was able to simply and easily discuss the importance of how each writer’s style reflected the tenor of the times they were in, such as how Jules Michelet, by focussing so much on the events that marked the lives of ordinary French citizens, in turn, helped those same citizens feel as though their lives mattered and that their opinions counted. The same was true, initially for Marx and Trotsky and then, by extension, for Lenin. In fact, once To The Finland Station was published, Edmund Wilson found himself on the receiving end of criticism for how sympathetically he portrayed the architects of the Russian Revolution. By portraying Marx, Trotsky and Lenin in human terms, many critics felt Wilson was simply peddling propaganda supplied and endorsed by members of the Communist Party itself. His book was published during WWII. The criticism bothered him so much that in 1972, Wilson published an addendum to his book in which he stated that his original desire was not to venerate these men as saints or heroes but, instead, to investigate them from the point of view that their initial dreams had been to overthrow, what they deemed to be an oppressive society, and install what they believed to be a better, fairer governing system for their people. For that perspective, he believed that an investigation into people who tried to describe or create better worlds was worth doing and, as such, he stood by his work.

Oliver Sacks would have read Trilling and Wilson’s books when he and his friend, Jonathan Miller, were both experiencing fundamental changes in their lives, too. It only stands to reason that at this time in his life, Sacks would have been drawn to books about change as a means of understanding his own world and all that was happening to it. Other than his reference to Trilling and Wilson in this one letter to Jonathan Miller, Sacks makes no further mention of either author. From that I conclude that he took their essays under advisement and incorporated their wisdom into his own life accordingly and moved on with the process of becoming who he was meant to be. I have done likewise. 

-The link to the official website for Edmund Wilson can be found here.

-The link for the official website for French writer and historian Jules Michelet can be found here.

-The official websites for Russian writers and politicians Karl Marx, Leon Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin can be found here, here and here.

-The link to the official website for the train station mentioned in the title of Wilson’s book, To The Finland Station, can be found here. ***As noted in this link, the song “West End Girls” by The Pet Shop Boys contains a lyric about travelling from “Lake Geneva to the Finland Station”. This line refers to the route that Lenin would have travelled by train when returning to Russia during WWI and the Russian Revolution. Singer Neil Tennant was a history major and Russian scholar.

-The link to the official website for Dr. Oliver Sacks can be found here.

***As always, all original content contained within this post remains the sole property of the author. No portion of this book shall be reblogged, copied or shared in any manner without the express written consent of the author. ©2026 http://www.tommacinneswriter.com

From the Library of Dr. Oliver Sacks: Book Review #10: To The Finland Station by Edmind Wilson

NOTE: Today’s book review was inspired by another book entitled Letters. That book was a memoir of scientist and storyteller Dr. Oliver Sacks, told through a lifetime of his personal correspondence with friends, family, patients and many other interesting people. Over the course of his letter writing, Dr. Sacks often made reference to the written works of others. Today’s book is one such work that he referenced.  

The Context in Which Dr. Sacks Made Reference to To The Finland Station by Edmund Wilson

In August of 1963, Oliver Sacks wrote a letter to his friend Jonathan Miller and Miller’s wife, Rachel. In 1963, Miller had resigned his position in the comedy troupe Beyond the Fringe and was setting the groundwork for a move into the world of theatrical directing. Beyond the Fringe had been achieving a great deal of success up until this point and had moved to London to continue their work in a larger market when Miller had stepped aside. All throughout this transitional period, Miller and Sacks had kept in touch via letters and phone calls. As was always the case with these two friends, Sacks was highly supportive of his friend and had suggested that, instead of newspaper interviews and magazine articles, Miller should write a book. It was during this conversation that Sacks mentioned Lionel Trilling, along with a fellow literary critic named Edmund Wilson.

“I am constantly reading you, or about you, and am overjoyed at the incredible opportunities opening out in every direction. I hope that you will soon find the leisure and incentive to write a book, innumerable books – for incessant flittering in magazines, though it’s a great way to start (didn’t Trilling and Wilson all start this way) may finally be rather destructive, and also tend to make you static in a way.”  

• Oliver Sacks, August 21, 1963, pg 63 of the book Letters 

A Brief Summary of To The Finland Station  by Edmund Wilson

Like the book mentioned in my previous post in this series (Trilling’s The Liberal Imagination, ), the focus of Edmund Wilson’s best known book, To The Finland Station, focuses on the social dynamic at play between historical events and great works of literature and whether the historic events inform and shape the great works of literature or whether writers can shape the times in which they live by virtue of their words. In Trilling’s book, he examined this relationship through a series of essays about post-war America. In To The Finland Station, Edmund Wilson does the same but, instead, directs his attention (and ours) to the birth of Socialism via two great revolutions…the French Revolution and the Soviet Revolution. 

In order to examine each great societal change experienced in these two important countries, Wilson first delves deeply into the writings of French historian Jules Michelet and his seminal work, Histoire De France, to which he dedicates almost a full third of the book. Michelet’s work was noteworthy because of the minute detail in which he recorded the events leading up to the actual French Revolution and because he did so by writing about the lives of ordinary French citizens. His emphasis on the importance of regular citizens was a marked departure from previous histories of France which, instead, limited themselves to chronicling the lives of the aristocracy. If you are familiar with the musical about the French Revolution, Les Miz, you will remember that the grand finale song in that play is called “Do You Hear The People Sing?” So, did Jules Michelet’s tome help to steel the resolve of the citizenry to rise up and eventually overthrow those in positions of power in their royal courts or was he merely a journalist who reported what he saw happening around him? 

In the larger, closing portion of To The Finland Station, Wilson does a deep dive into the lives of the leaders of the Communist Revolution in Russia, namely Karl Marx and Leon Trotsky (and the book The Communist Manifesto) and then, into the life of Vladimir Lenin. Wilson spends a lot of time informing the reader of the inner workings of the lives of these men and their families. He talks a lot about the collaborative nature of the relationship between Marx and Trotsky, specifically about how their ideas merged and changed and how they tested out their theories in various European countries before placing them all in their one final book. As for Lenin, Wilson devotes a lot of pages to describing his upbringing and how he rose through the ranks of the communist world as it existed during the time of the Tsar.

The title of Wilson’s book, To The Finland Station, refers to a train station that sits in St,. Petersburg, Russia, on the border between Russia and Finland. At one point in Lenin’s life, he went into exile in Europe. When the time was right to overthrow the Tsarist regime and revolution was truly at hand, Lenin made his triumphant return to Russian soil by crossing over via that train station known as the Finland Station. The Finland Station was originally built with a special lounge area for the Tsar and his family so, returning via this station was more than an exercise in logistics for Lenin, it held valuable symbolic importance as the site of his return, as welt.

The impact of the writings of Lenin, Marx and Trotsky were groundbreaking at the time of the Revolution and continue to be felt throughout the world of geopolitics to this very day. Did those words lead explicitly to revolution or were they merely putting words into the mouths of regular Russians citizens and giving life to their discontent? In the case of both Russia and France, Wilson states the cases for both possibilities and leaves it up to us to decide for sure which we feel is the more reasonable answer.

My Thoughts on To The Finland Station by Edmund Wilson (for what that is worth). 

When Oliver Sacks was writing to his friend Jonathan Miller, he mentioned both Lionel Trilling and Edmund Wilson together as connected writers. For that reason, I read both author’s best known works back to back. As you may recall from my review of The Liberal Imagination, I did not like that book at all. I found Trilling’s tone to be highly condescending, to the point of being almost unreadable. Admittedly, The Liberal Imagination is one book that I was unable to finish. I loathed it that much. Fortunately for me, To The Finland Station by Edmund Wilson was a far more inviting and accessible look into the idea of history and literature and the ways they influence one another. Whereas Trilling’s writer’s voice struck me more as a lecturer or pontificator, Wilson’s voice was more that of a congenial storyteller. Needless to say, if I were to recommend one book of the two for you to read on this topic it would be To The Finland Station. 

I enjoyed how Wilson was able to simply and easily discuss the importance of how each writer’s style reflected the tenor of the times they were in, such as how Jules Michelet, by focussing so much on the events that marked the lives of ordinary French citizens, in turn, helped those same citizens feel as though their lives mattered and that their opinions counted. The same was true, initially for Marx and Trotsky and then, by extension, for Lenin. In fact, once To The Finland Station was published, Edmund Wilson found himself on the receiving end of criticism for how sympathetically he portrayed the architects of the Russian Revolution. By portraying Marx, Trotsky and Lenin in human terms, many critics felt Wilson was simply peddling propaganda supplied and endorsed by members of the Communist Party itself. His book was published during WWII. The criticism bothered him so much that in 1972, Wilson published an addendum to his book in which he stated that his original desire was not to venerate these men as saints or heroes but, instead, to investigate them from the point of view that their initial dreams had been to overthrow, what they deemed to be an oppressive society, and install what they believed to be a better, fairer governing system for their people. For that perspective, he believed that an investigation into people who tried to describe or create better worlds was worth doing and, as such, he stood by his work.

Oliver Sacks would have read Trilling and Wilson’s books when he and his friend, Jonathan Miller, were both experiencing fundamental changes in their lives, too. It only stands to reason that at this time in his life, Sacks would have been drawn to books about change as a means of understanding his own world and all that was happening to it. Other than his reference to Trilling and Wilson in this one letter to Jonathan Miller, Sacks makes no further mention of either author. From that I conclude that he took their essays under advisement and incorporated their wisdom into his own life accordingly and moved on with the process of becoming who he was meant to be. I have done likewise. 

-The link to the official website for Edmund Wilson can be found here.

-The link for the official website for French writer and historian Jules Michelet can be found here.

-The official websites for Russian writers and politicians Karl Marx, Leon Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin can be found here, here and here.

-The link to the official website for the train station mentioned in the title of Wilson’s book, To The Finland Station, can be found here. ***As noted in this link, the song “West End Girls” by The Pet Shop Boys contains a lyric about travelling from “Lake Geneva to the Finland Station”. This line refers to the route that Lenin would have travelled by train when returning to Russia during WWI and the Russian Revolution. Singer Neil Tennant was a history major and Russian scholar.

-The link to the official website for Dr. Oliver Sacks can be found here.

***As always, all original content contained within this post remains the sole property of the author. No portion of this book shall be reblogged, copied or shared in any manner without the express written consent of the author. ©2026 http://www.tommacinneswriter.com

From the Library of Dr. Oliver Sacks: Book Review #10: To The Finland Station by Edmind Wilson

NOTE: Today’s book review was inspired by another book entitled Letters. That book was a memoir of scientist and storyteller Dr. Oliver Sacks, told through a lifetime of his personal correspondence with friends, family, patients and many other interesting people. Over the course of his letter writing, Dr. Sacks often made reference to the written works of others. Today’s book is one such work that he referenced.  

The Context in Which Dr. Sacks Made Reference to To The Finland Station by Edmund Wilson

In August of 1963, Oliver Sacks wrote a letter to his friend Jonathan Miller and Miller’s wife, Rachel. In 1963, Miller had resigned his position in the comedy troupe Beyond the Fringe and was setting the groundwork for a move into the world of theatrical directing. Beyond the Fringe had been achieving a great deal of success up until this point and had moved to London to continue their work in a larger market when Miller had stepped aside. All throughout this transitional period, Miller and Sacks had kept in touch via letters and phone calls. As was always the case with these two friends, Sacks was highly supportive of his friend and had suggested that, instead of newspaper interviews and magazine articles, Miller should write a book. It was during this conversation that Sacks mentioned Lionel Trilling, along with a fellow literary critic named Edmund Wilson.

“I am constantly reading you, or about you, and am overjoyed at the incredible opportunities opening out in every direction. I hope that you will soon find the leisure and incentive to write a book, innumerable books – for incessant flittering in magazines, though it’s a great way to start (didn’t Trilling and Wilson all start this way) may finally be rather destructive, and also tend to make you static in a way.”  

• Oliver Sacks, August 21, 1963, pg 63 of the book Letters 

A Brief Summary of To The Finland Station  by Edmund Wilson

Like the book mentioned in my previous post in this series (Trilling’s The Liberal Imagination, ), the focus of Edmund Wilson’s best known book, To The Finland Station, focuses on the social dynamic at play between historical events and great works of literature and whether the historic events inform and shape the great works of literature or whether writers can shape the times in which they live by virtue of their words. In Trilling’s book, he examined this relationship through a series of essays about post-war America. In To The Finland Station, Edmund Wilson does the same but, instead, directs his attention (and ours) to the birth of Socialism via two great revolutions…the French Revolution and the Soviet Revolution. 

In order to examine each great societal change experienced in these two important countries, Wilson first delves deeply into the writings of French historian Jules Michelet and his seminal work, Histoire De France, to which he dedicates almost a full third of the book. Michelet’s work was noteworthy because of the minute detail in which he recorded the events leading up to the actual French Revolution and because he did so by writing about the lives of ordinary French citizens. His emphasis on the importance of regular citizens was a marked departure from previous histories of France which, instead, limited themselves to chronicling the lives of the aristocracy. If you are familiar with the musical about the French Revolution, Les Miz, you will remember that the grand finale song in that play is called “Do You Hear The People Sing?” So, did Jules Michelet’s tome help to steel the resolve of the citizenry to rise up and eventually overthrow those in positions of power in their royal courts or was he merely a journalist who reported what he saw happening around him? 

In the larger, closing portion of To The Finland Station, Wilson does a deep dive into the lives of the leaders of the Communist Revolution in Russia, namely Karl Marx and Leon Trotsky (and the book The Communist Manifesto) and then, into the life of Vladimir Lenin. Wilson spends a lot of time informing the reader of the inner workings of the lives of these men and their families. He talks a lot about the collaborative nature of the relationship between Marx and Trotsky, specifically about how their ideas merged and changed and how they tested out their theories in various European countries before placing them all in their one final book. As for Lenin, Wilson devotes a lot of pages to describing his upbringing and how he rose through the ranks of the communist world as it existed during the time of the Tsar.

The title of Wilson’s book, To The Finland Station, refers to a train station that sits in St,. Petersburg, Russia, on the border between Russia and Finland. At one point in Lenin’s life, he went into exile in Europe. When the time was right to overthrow the Tsarist regime and revolution was truly at hand, Lenin made his triumphant return to Russian soil by crossing over via that train station known as the Finland Station. The Finland Station was originally built with a special lounge area for the Tsar and his family so, returning via this station was more than an exercise in logistics for Lenin, it held valuable symbolic importance as the site of his return, as welt.

The impact of the writings of Lenin, Marx and Trotsky were groundbreaking at the time of the Revolution and continue to be felt throughout the world of geopolitics to this very day. Did those words lead explicitly to revolution or were they merely putting words into the mouths of regular Russians citizens and giving life to their discontent? In the case of both Russia and France, Wilson states the cases for both possibilities and leaves it up to us to decide for sure which we feel is the more reasonable answer.

My Thoughts on To The Finland Station by Edmund Wilson (for what that is worth). 

When Oliver Sacks was writing to his friend Jonathan Miller, he mentioned both Lionel Trilling and Edmund Wilson together as connected writers. For that reason, I read both author’s best known works back to back. As you may recall from my review of The Liberal Imagination, I did not like that book at all. I found Trilling’s tone to be highly condescending, to the point of being almost unreadable. Admittedly, The Liberal Imagination is one book that I was unable to finish. I loathed it that much. Fortunately for me, To The Finland Station by Edmund Wilson was a far more inviting and accessible look into the idea of history and literature and the ways they influence one another. Whereas Trilling’s writer’s voice struck me more as a lecturer or pontificator, Wilson’s voice was more that of a congenial storyteller. Needless to say, if I were to recommend one book of the two for you to read on this topic it would be To The Finland Station. 

I enjoyed how Wilson was able to simply and easily discuss the importance of how each writer’s style reflected the tenor of the times they were in, such as how Jules Michelet, by focussing so much on the events that marked the lives of ordinary French citizens, in turn, helped those same citizens feel as though their lives mattered and that their opinions counted. The same was true, initially for Marx and Trotsky and then, by extension, for Lenin. In fact, once To The Finland Station was published, Edmund Wilson found himself on the receiving end of criticism for how sympathetically he portrayed the architects of the Russian Revolution. By portraying Marx, Trotsky and Lenin in human terms, many critics felt Wilson was simply peddling propaganda supplied and endorsed by members of the Communist Party itself. His book was published during WWII. The criticism bothered him so much that in 1972, Wilson published an addendum to his book in which he stated that his original desire was not to venerate these men as saints or heroes but, instead, to investigate them from the point of view that their initial dreams had been to overthrow, what they deemed to be an oppressive society, and install what they believed to be a better, fairer governing system for their people. For that perspective, he believed that an investigation into people who tried to describe or create better worlds was worth doing and, as such, he stood by his work.

Oliver Sacks would have read Trilling and Wilson’s books when he and his friend, Jonathan Miller, were both experiencing fundamental changes in their lives, too. It only stands to reason that at this time in his life, Sacks would have been drawn to books about change as a means of understanding his own world and all that was happening to it. Other than his reference to Trilling and Wilson in this one letter to Jonathan Miller, Sacks makes no further mention of either author. From that I conclude that he took their essays under advisement and incorporated their wisdom into his own life accordingly and moved on with the process of becoming who he was meant to be. I have done likewise. 

-The link to the official website for Edmund Wilson can be found here.

-The link for the official website for French writer and historian Jules Michelet can be found here.

-The official websites for Russian writers and politicians Karl Marx, Leon Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin can be found here, here and here.

-The link to the official website for the train station mentioned in the title of Wilson’s book, To The Finland Station, can be found here. ***As noted in this link, the song “West End Girls” by The Pet Shop Boys contains a lyric about travelling from “Lake Geneva to the Finland Station”. This line refers to the route that Lenin would have travelled by train when returning to Russia during WWI and the Russian Revolution. Singer Neil Tennant was a history major and Russian scholar.

-The link to the official website for Dr. Oliver Sacks can be found here.

***As always, all original content contained within this post remains the sole property of the author. No portion of this book shall be reblogged, copied or shared in any manner without the express written consent of the author. ©2026 http://www.tommacinneswriter.com

From the Library of Dr. Oliver Sacks: Book Review #10: To The Finland Station by Edmind Wilson

NOTE: Today’s book review was inspired by another book entitled Letters. That book was a memoir of scientist and storyteller Dr. Oliver Sacks, told through a lifetime of his personal correspondence with friends, family, patients and many other interesting people. Over the course of his letter writing, Dr. Sacks often made reference to the written works of others. Today’s book is one such work that he referenced.  

The Context in Which Dr. Sacks Made Reference to To The Finland Station by Edmund Wilson

In August of 1963, Oliver Sacks wrote a letter to his friend Jonathan Miller and Miller’s wife, Rachel. In 1963, Miller had resigned his position in the comedy troupe Beyond the Fringe and was setting the groundwork for a move into the world of theatrical directing. Beyond the Fringe had been achieving a great deal of success up until this point and had moved to London to continue their work in a larger market when Miller had stepped aside. All throughout this transitional period, Miller and Sacks had kept in touch via letters and phone calls. As was always the case with these two friends, Sacks was highly supportive of his friend and had suggested that, instead of newspaper interviews and magazine articles, Miller should write a book. It was during this conversation that Sacks mentioned Lionel Trilling, along with a fellow literary critic named Edmund Wilson.

“I am constantly reading you, or about you, and am overjoyed at the incredible opportunities opening out in every direction. I hope that you will soon find the leisure and incentive to write a book, innumerable books – for incessant flittering in magazines, though it’s a great way to start (didn’t Trilling and Wilson all start this way) may finally be rather destructive, and also tend to make you static in a way.”  

• Oliver Sacks, August 21, 1963, pg 63 of the book Letters 

A Brief Summary of To The Finland Station  by Edmund Wilson

Like the book mentioned in my previous post in this series (Trilling’s The Liberal Imagination, ), the focus of Edmund Wilson’s best known book, To The Finland Station, focuses on the social dynamic at play between historical events and great works of literature and whether the historic events inform and shape the great works of literature or whether writers can shape the times in which they live by virtue of their words. In Trilling’s book, he examined this relationship through a series of essays about post-war America. In To The Finland Station, Edmund Wilson does the same but, instead, directs his attention (and ours) to the birth of Socialism via two great revolutions…the French Revolution and the Soviet Revolution. 

In order to examine each great societal change experienced in these two important countries, Wilson first delves deeply into the writings of French historian Jules Michelet and his seminal work, Histoire De France, to which he dedicates almost a full third of the book. Michelet’s work was noteworthy because of the minute detail in which he recorded the events leading up to the actual French Revolution and because he did so by writing about the lives of ordinary French citizens. His emphasis on the importance of regular citizens was a marked departure from previous histories of France which, instead, limited themselves to chronicling the lives of the aristocracy. If you are familiar with the musical about the French Revolution, Les Miz, you will remember that the grand finale song in that play is called “Do You Hear The People Sing?” So, did Jules Michelet’s tome help to steel the resolve of the citizenry to rise up and eventually overthrow those in positions of power in their royal courts or was he merely a journalist who reported what he saw happening around him? 

In the larger, closing portion of To The Finland Station, Wilson does a deep dive into the lives of the leaders of the Communist Revolution in Russia, namely Karl Marx and Leon Trotsky (and the book The Communist Manifesto) and then, into the life of Vladimir Lenin. Wilson spends a lot of time informing the reader of the inner workings of the lives of these men and their families. He talks a lot about the collaborative nature of the relationship between Marx and Trotsky, specifically about how their ideas merged and changed and how they tested out their theories in various European countries before placing them all in their one final book. As for Lenin, Wilson devotes a lot of pages to describing his upbringing and how he rose through the ranks of the communist world as it existed during the time of the Tsar.

The title of Wilson’s book, To The Finland Station, refers to a train station that sits in St,. Petersburg, Russia, on the border between Russia and Finland. At one point in Lenin’s life, he went into exile in Europe. When the time was right to overthrow the Tsarist regime and revolution was truly at hand, Lenin made his triumphant return to Russian soil by crossing over via that train station known as the Finland Station. The Finland Station was originally built with a special lounge area for the Tsar and his family so, returning via this station was more than an exercise in logistics for Lenin, it held valuable symbolic importance as the site of his return, as welt.

The impact of the writings of Lenin, Marx and Trotsky were groundbreaking at the time of the Revolution and continue to be felt throughout the world of geopolitics to this very day. Did those words lead explicitly to revolution or were they merely putting words into the mouths of regular Russians citizens and giving life to their discontent? In the case of both Russia and France, Wilson states the cases for both possibilities and leaves it up to us to decide for sure which we feel is the more reasonable answer.

My Thoughts on To The Finland Station by Edmund Wilson (for what that is worth). 

When Oliver Sacks was writing to his friend Jonathan Miller, he mentioned both Lionel Trilling and Edmund Wilson together as connected writers. For that reason, I read both author’s best known works back to back. As you may recall from my review of The Liberal Imagination, I did not like that book at all. I found Trilling’s tone to be highly condescending, to the point of being almost unreadable. Admittedly, The Liberal Imagination is one book that I was unable to finish. I loathed it that much. Fortunately for me, To The Finland Station by Edmund Wilson was a far more inviting and accessible look into the idea of history and literature and the ways they influence one another. Whereas Trilling’s writer’s voice struck me more as a lecturer or pontificator, Wilson’s voice was more that of a congenial storyteller. Needless to say, if I were to recommend one book of the two for you to read on this topic it would be To The Finland Station. 

I enjoyed how Wilson was able to simply and easily discuss the importance of how each writer’s style reflected the tenor of the times they were in, such as how Jules Michelet, by focussing so much on the events that marked the lives of ordinary French citizens, in turn, helped those same citizens feel as though their lives mattered and that their opinions counted. The same was true, initially for Marx and Trotsky and then, by extension, for Lenin. In fact, once To The Finland Station was published, Edmund Wilson found himself on the receiving end of criticism for how sympathetically he portrayed the architects of the Russian Revolution. By portraying Marx, Trotsky and Lenin in human terms, many critics felt Wilson was simply peddling propaganda supplied and endorsed by members of the Communist Party itself. His book was published during WWII. The criticism bothered him so much that in 1972, Wilson published an addendum to his book in which he stated that his original desire was not to venerate these men as saints or heroes but, instead, to investigate them from the point of view that their initial dreams had been to overthrow, what they deemed to be an oppressive society, and install what they believed to be a better, fairer governing system for their people. For that perspective, he believed that an investigation into people who tried to describe or create better worlds was worth doing and, as such, he stood by his work.

Oliver Sacks would have read Trilling and Wilson’s books when he and his friend, Jonathan Miller, were both experiencing fundamental changes in their lives, too. It only stands to reason that at this time in his life, Sacks would have been drawn to books about change as a means of understanding his own world and all that was happening to it. Other than his reference to Trilling and Wilson in this one letter to Jonathan Miller, Sacks makes no further mention of either author. From that I conclude that he took their essays under advisement and incorporated their wisdom into his own life accordingly and moved on with the process of becoming who he was meant to be. I have done likewise. 

-The link to the official website for Edmund Wilson can be found here.

-The link for the official website for French writer and historian Jules Michelet can be found here.

-The official websites for Russian writers and politicians Karl Marx, Leon Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin can be found here, here and here.

-The link to the official website for the train station mentioned in the title of Wilson’s book, To The Finland Station, can be found here. ***As noted in this link, the song “West End Girls” by The Pet Shop Boys contains a lyric about travelling from “Lake Geneva to the Finland Station”. This line refers to the route that Lenin would have travelled by train when returning to Russia during WWI and the Russian Revolution. Singer Neil Tennant was a history major and Russian scholar.

-The link to the official website for Dr. Oliver Sacks can be found here.

***As always, all original content contained within this post remains the sole property of the author. No portion of this book shall be reblogged, copied or shared in any manner without the express written consent of the author. ©2026 http://www.tommacinneswriter.com

How do revolutions even work?

https://tankie.tube/videos/watch/bad96c60-b9be-43bf-bb2d-9c48ff061558

How do revolutions even work?

https://tankie.tube/videos/watch/bad96c60-b9be-43bf-bb2d-9c48ff061558

How do revolutions even work?

https://tankie.tube/w/p5epijw479xVsMWT4CdrG5

How do revolutions even work?

https://tankie.tube/videos/watch/bad96c60-b9be-43bf-bb2d-9c48ff061558

Gotta clean up all the old revolutionaries

Gotta clean up all the old revolutionaries

Gotta clean up all the old revolutionaries

Gotta clean up all the old revolutionaries

https://piefed.social/c/tankiejerk/p/1465208/gotta-clean-up-all-the-old-revolutionaries

How Soviets Reimagined Museums

https://tankie.tube/videos/watch/922b3f72-e8f8-49c1-96d1-78860028e46a

How Soviets Reimagined Museums

https://tankie.tube/videos/watch/922b3f72-e8f8-49c1-96d1-78860028e46a

How Soviets Reimagined Museums

https://tankie.tube/videos/watch/922b3f72-e8f8-49c1-96d1-78860028e46a

How Soviets Reimagined Museums

https://tankie.tube/w/j3SJqVNAG2guVWnwgzMjg5

Very short video from Kings & Generals (from YT). All anarchist should be in the public domain, so ... enjoy.

"Explore the Makhnovshchina, a fascinating anarchist territory in southeast Ukraine from 1917-1921. 🚩 Led by Nestor Makhno, this movement was organized into autonomous, directly democratic communes. They first fought the Whites in the Russian Civil War, then allied with the Bolsheviks. The alliance eventually broke down, and the Bolsheviks destroyed the Makhnovshchina. It remains one of the few examples of a long-surviving anarchist society."

#anarchism #ukraine #history #RussianRevolution #makhno

Very short video from Kings & Generals (from YT). All anarchist should be in the public domain, so ... enjoy.

"Explore the Makhnovshchina, a fascinating anarchist territory in southeast Ukraine from 1917-1921. 🚩 Led by Nestor Makhno, this movement was organized into autonomous, directly democratic communes. They first fought the Whites in the Russian Civil War, then allied with the Bolsheviks. The alliance eventually broke down, and the Bolsheviks destroyed the Makhnovshchina. It remains one of the few examples of a long-surviving anarchist society."

#anarchism #ukraine #history #RussianRevolution #makhno

Very short video from Kings & Generals (from YT). All anarchist should be in the public domain, so ... enjoy.

"Explore the Makhnovshchina, a fascinating anarchist territory in southeast Ukraine from 1917-1921. 🚩 Led by Nestor Makhno, this movement was organized into autonomous, directly democratic communes. They first fought the Whites in the Russian Civil War, then allied with the Bolsheviks. The alliance eventually broke down, and the Bolsheviks destroyed the Makhnovshchina. It remains one of the few examples of a long-surviving anarchist society."

#anarchism #ukraine #history #RussianRevolution #makhno

Very short video from Kings & Generals (from YT). All anarchist should be in the public domain, so ... enjoy.

"Explore the Makhnovshchina, a fascinating anarchist territory in southeast Ukraine from 1917-1921. 🚩 Led by Nestor Makhno, this movement was organized into autonomous, directly democratic communes. They first fought the Whites in the Russian Civil War, then allied with the Bolsheviks. The alliance eventually broke down, and the Bolsheviks destroyed the Makhnovshchina. It remains one of the few examples of a long-surviving anarchist society."

#anarchism #ukraine #history #RussianRevolution #makhno

Very short video from Kings & Generals (from YT). All anarchist should be in the public domain, so ... enjoy.

"Explore the Makhnovshchina, a fascinating anarchist territory in southeast Ukraine from 1917-1921. 🚩 Led by Nestor Makhno, this movement was organized into autonomous, directly democratic communes. They first fought the Whites in the Russian Civil War, then allied with the Bolsheviks. The alliance eventually broke down, and the Bolsheviks destroyed the Makhnovshchina. It remains one of the few examples of a long-surviving anarchist society."

#anarchism #ukraine #history #RussianRevolution #makhno

Don't bring guillotines, just do this!

#revolution #marxism #communism #socialism #russianrevolution #octoberrevolution #meme #memes #guillotine

Don't bring guillotines, just do this!

#revolution #marxism #communism #socialism #russianrevolution #octoberrevolution #meme #memes #guillotine

Don't bring guillotines, just do this!

#revolution #marxism #communism #socialism #russianrevolution #octoberrevolution #meme #memes #guillotine

Don't bring guillotines, just do this!

#revolution #marxism #communism #socialism #russianrevolution #octoberrevolution #meme #memes #guillotine

A potentially very timely reminder from @wikipedia that OTD in 1905 the crew of the #Russian battleship #Potemkin mutinied and started the first #RussianRevolution which was a ‘dress rehearsal’ for the #socialist revolution in 1915. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_battleship_Potemkin

#StandWithUkraine #RussiaIsATerroristState

A potentially very timely reminder from @wikipedia that OTD in 1905 the crew of the #Russian battleship #Potemkin mutinied and started the first #RussianRevolution which was a ‘dress rehearsal’ for the #socialist revolution in 1915. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_battleship_Potemkin

#StandWithUkraine #RussiaIsATerroristState

A potentially very timely reminder from @wikipedia that OTD in 1905 the crew of the #Russian battleship #Potemkin mutinied and started the first #RussianRevolution which was a ‘dress rehearsal’ for the #socialist revolution in 1915. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_battleship_Potemkin

#StandWithUkraine #RussiaIsATerroristState

A CLEVER HISTORICAL FANTASIA inspired by the brief time Trotsky and his family spent in New York has a distinctively Nabokovian flair in its juggling of fact and fiction. You’re likely to find it either delightful or infuriating. B PLUS

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bronshtein-in-the-bronx-robert-littell/1145515773?ean=9781641296861

@bookstodon

#book #Books #bookreview #bookreviews #bookstodon #fiction #historicalfiction #russianrevolution #SovietUnion #Trotsky

Vasily Grossman on the Stalinist betrayal of the Russian Revolution:

#LIfeandFate #VasilyGrossman #RussianRevolution #Socialism #Marxism #Literature

𝗪𝗜𝗞𝗜𝗣𝗘𝗗𝗜𝗔'𝗦 𝗙𝗘𝗔𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘𝗗 𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗜𝗖𝗟𝗘

✧ Anna Filosofova ✧

Anna Filosofova (1837–1912) was a Russian feminist of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Born into a noble family, she married Vladimir Filosofov at a young age and had six children. Concerned with the plight of serfs, Filosofova became a feminist in the late 1850s, educated in the salon of Maria Trubnikova. Alongside Trubnikova and Nadezh...

#Filosofova #RussianRevolution #Trubnikova #Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Filosofova