Jews and Muslims in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union

Book excerpt: The Russian Empire and the Soviet Union were multiethnic and multireligious empires, which ruled over a large number of Jews and Muslims. In many ways these two non-Christian minorities presented similar challenges to the imperial order. Which policies did the state pursue toward Jews and Muslims? How did Jews and Muslims attempt to advance their interests in the political sphere? Which role did they play in the imperial army? What did the Jewish and Muslim Enlightenment movements have in common? In which respects were the experiences of Jews and Muslims fundamentally different? This book brings together specialists in Russian-Jewish and Russian-Muslim history and offers perspectives for a comparative approach to the history of Jews and Muslims in Russia.