Lunch Lecture Series: From Grodno to Chicago to Pavlodar

Lunch Lecture Series

From Grodno to Chicago to Pavlodar:
The Life and Death of a Yiddish Revolutionary

Co-hosted with the Russian and Slavic Studies Program

This talk will trace the revolutionary career of Samuil Agursky (1884-1947), a leading figure of the Evsektskiia, the Jewish section of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Generally dismissed today as a political opportunist and traitor to his people, Agursky serves as an important exemplar of many trends that roiled the Jewish world of the early 20th century. His shifting ideological loyalties, geographic mobility, and ultimate betrayal at the hands of the very system he helped to create all speak to the dizzying and fraught nature of the encounter between Jewish radicalism and Soviet state socialism.

SAMUEL CASPER teaches modern Russian, Jewish, and European history at Hunter College. He received a Ph.D. in history from the University of Pennsylvania in 2018; his dissertation explored the Soviet party-state’s campaign to exonerate individuals executed under Stalin. His research interests include Soviet history, Russian-Jewish history, transitional justice, and perpetrator studies.

Wednesday, September 25, 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm

Presidents Conference Room (E1700)

Join us for lunch!
RSVP by September 18th to receive a lunch. Please specify if you require a kosher option.

RSVP to HCJS@hunter.cuny.edu

Space is limited, RSVP is required. Add a note in your RSVP letting us know if you are a Hunter student, faculty member, alumni, auditor or part of the NYC community.

ID Required
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