“They are engaged in trade, crafts, brokerage, and, most importantly, vodka and other drinking sales...”: Jews of the Taurida Province, the Alcohol Trade, Prostitution, and Antisemitism in Russian Society in the Second Half of the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
Journal: Kulʹtura slavân i kulʹtura evreev: dialog, shodstva, različiâ
Year: 2022

This article analyzes a complex of archival documents and materials, legislative acts and regulations, as well as statistical data on the employment of the Jewish population in the alcohol industry. It considers the scale, degree, and form of Jewish involvement in the industry in the Russian Empire during the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in general and the Taurida province in particular. In order to identify “the moral and economic activities of the Jews, which adv