Masha Gessen

Birobidzhan—a region in Russia's far east which during the Soviet period was the location for an ill-fated Soviet project to create a secular Jewish territory—is normally relegated to the rank of odd footnote to broader narratives of Jewish history. Masha Gessen uses the 20th-century history of the region, and the career of the Yiddish-language author and cultural activist David Bergelson, to look at the history of Russian Jewry. I think Gessen does a good job of setting out the kind of symbolic space occupied by the concept of Birobidzhan and the Jewish Autonomous Region for various groups, but I wished they had spent more time on the area itself. Even by the end of the book, I don't think I had more than a hazy sense of it and its population.… (more)

Riveting. Disturbing. The obvious-and borne out- implications for America are chilling. An excellent coherent history and how that history plays out in individual lives gives a stunning look into the present situation. An amazing book. I learned so much about Russian history and world views. The totalitarian playbook, in use currently in use by the alt right here, is well worn and unimaginative. Accuse your enemies of being pediphiles is the play. Outlaw and demonize homosexuals is the play. Oppress women in the name of promoting family values is the play. Russia is a traumatized country in a suicidal death spiral, and we are not far behind.… (more)