“Distance acquaintance”. The sources of information about Jews in the 18th century Russian empire (before the partitions of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth)

Abstract

The paper analyzes various types of information about Jews in the Russian Empire in the 18th century (the main attention is paid to the period before the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth). The author draws a wide range of both published and little-known archival materials. Several “zones of interaction” with the Jewish topics in the Russian society are considered: intellectual tradition, everyday practices and new forms of Russian imperial culture.