Mikhail Gershenzon

Born in Kishinev, Russia, today Chisinau, Moldova, Mikhail Gershenzon received a traditional Jewish education and then studied at the Technical University of Berlin and at Moscow University. In the late 1890s, he began writing about Russian history and literature. Identifying with Russian culture, though never converting to Christianity, he was an antinationalist who rejected Zionism. In the early years of the Soviet regime, Gershenzon wrote about Pushkin and Turgenev and on Jewish faith, literature, and history. He also served on the board of the People’s Commissariat for Education.