Anna Shoykhet (Reznik). Autobiography. Edited and introduced by Valery Dymshits and Timur Fishel

The memoirs of Anna Shoykhet (Reznik) cover the first half of her long life. She describes her childhood in the Ukrainian shtetl of Dashev and her youth in the nearby regional town of Gaysin. Her recollections contain descriptions of the banditry and pogroms that took place during the civil war. Having spent the 1920s in Berdichev, in the 1930s Shoykhet studied and worked in Kyiv. She was evacuated to Central Asia with her family during the Great Patriotic War, and returned to her home in Kyiv at the end of hostilities. Her biography captures the life trajectory of a typical middle-class Jewish woman in the USSR.

Gennady and Elena Estraikh. A Soviet Jewish Family’ s Story of Emigration

Elena and Gennady Estraikh applied for permission to emigrate from the USSR at the peak of the Jewish «exodus» to Israel in 1979, but they were turned down and became refuseniks. Nobody informed them as to why their application was unsuccessful. An official simply told them — no written explanation was provided — that their emigration was not in the interest of the state. Unlike many others awaiting an Israeli visa, Gennady managed to keep his job and even get promoted. In due course, Elena also found work that suited her qualifications.

Writing four decades later, the Estraikhs do not heroize themselves. Their recollections are simply episodes from the life of a Soviet Jewish family at the end of 1970s and beyond.

Irena Vladimirsky and Maria Krotova. Baron Alfred de Gunzbourg and the Development of the Russian Gold Mine Industry

This chapter explores one of the lesser-known members of the famous Gunzbourg family, Baron Alfred de Gunzbourg, the fifth son of Baron Horace de Gunzbourg. There is little research on Baron Alfred de Gunzbourg. Even the considerable literature on the Lena Massacre (spring 1912), which took place on the grounds of the Gunzbourg family’s gold mines in the Olekminsk-Vitim taiga, does not mention his name despite the fact that he was the managing director of the Lena Goldfields joint-stock company. Alfred was the only family member who chose to manage the company, and he often visited the mines for weeks or months at a time. This study is based on documents and materials from archives and collections in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. It is intended to aid understanding of the history of the Russian gold industry, particularly Baron Alfred de Gunzbourg’s role in the implementation of technical innovations, the development of new approaches to management, the introduction of professional qualifications for workers, and labor legislation in relation to Siberian climate conditions and cultural traditions.