Authors

Helen Stuhr-Rommereim¹;  ¹ University of St Andrews, UK

Discussion

This paper explores the intersection of identities and vectors of solidarity in "The Thorn Bush" ("Ternovyi kust," 1906) by Jewish Russian writer David Aizman, which depicts the revolutionary events of 1905 within a Jewish community in southern Russia. "The Thorn Bush" exemplifies the vibrant economy of politically-engaged Russian-language literary activity outside of the Russian Empire, and in its border regions, at the turn of the century. It was written in Russian while Aizman was living abroad in Paris, published by Ladyzhnikov’s publishing house in Berlin with the support of Maxim Gorky, and first performed in Terijoki, now Zelenogorsk, in the Grand Duchy of Finland (Russian Empire). This paper analyzes the play within two frames at their intersection: in terms of how it reflects the complex negotiation of multiple liberation narratives—confessional/national, class, and civic/political—that characterized the 1905 mass uprisings, and as a work oriented toward a cosmopolitan readership and audience abroad. It considers the play in conversation with other responses to 1905 by Jewish Russian authors (Semyon Yushkevich and S. An-sky) and with Gorky’s theatre works from the same period.