Cycles and Revolutions

The Russian Revolution and its aftermath was a unique period in which the Jewish people took an active part in dismantling their societal constraints and paid for it with their lives. The instrumental role of Soviet Jewry in the creation of the Russian Revolution began as a hope for positive social change and quickly devolved into some of the most oppressive anti-Semitism of the modern age. CYCLES AND REVOLUTIONS creates a clear picture of the lives of Jewish nationals in the Russian Empire around the birth of the Soviet Union, and uses that picture to explore the impetus for and ramifications of taking social action against governmental injustice. It investigates the lasting effects that action can have on individual and community identity, elucidating not only Jewish life in that era, but also the current issues of cultural identity affecting every Jew born from this largely unexplored hardship.