From the start of military actions in August 1914, the Jewish population of Russia’s World War I frontal zone directly experienced various forms of the Russian army’s hostility: local deportations, executions on trumped-up charges, lootings, and beatings by soldiers and officers became daily tribulations. In January 1915, the supreme command of the Russian army issued a special declaration that termed the Jewish population of both Russia and occupied Galicia – an enemy, warning that harsh repressive measures would be adopted against the Jews. The principal measure was massive expulsions from entire gubernias, affecting hundreds of thousands of people in the winter-spring of 1915. When the Russian army withdrew from Poland, Ukraine and Lithuania in the summer-fall of 1915, a large-scale wave of fierce pogroms swept over Jewish towns, and an enormous flood of Jewish refugees inundated the army’s rear. In reaction, the Russian government was forced partially to rescind the Pale of Settlement, thus implementing one of the Jews’ main long-standing demands. These events were a stark manifestation of the systemic crisis encompassing Russia before the revolution.
Goldin's book investigates important aspects of this topic: what in reality did the Jews experience in the zone of the military authorities’ responsibility; how and why did the Russian army declared them enemies in this region, where three quarters of world Jewry were living? Book's analysis of relations between the Russian army and the Jews during the war provides a basis for posing new questions and refining already existing conceptions about the events of 1914-1917.