The Penal Recruit

Born into a prominent Russified family in Ukraine, Osip Rabinovich was an important early writer on Jewish themes in the Russian language. Moving to Odessa in 1845, Rabinovich worked as a lawyer and writer, contributing essays and short stories to literary journals. In fiction and essays, Rabinovich simultaneously attacked what he saw as Jewish passivity and traditionalism while defending Jewish rights and depicting the cruelties of the tsarist regime. He is perhaps best remembered as the editor of the influential but short-lived journal Rassvet, an important organ for promoting Westernization among Russia’s Jews. While he wrote little after the journal was forced to close in 1861, a three-volume edition of his collected works was published in St. Petersburg and Odessa in 1880–1888.