The Drama of Slavuta

Available for the first time in English, The Drama of Slavuta draws on Jewish sources and official Tsarist government archives in providing insight into the shutdown of a major nineteenth-century Jewish printing establishment during the reign of Tsar Nicholas I (1825-1855), when the persecution of Jews and suppression of Jewish culture reached unprecedented heights in Russia. The eminent historian Saul M. Ginsburg, who authored the original manuscript, successfully weaves an account of the persecution of the printing establishment's Hasidic owners, the Brothers Shapiro, into the larger scheme of official persecution of all Jews and thereby provides chilling insight into contemporary Russian attitudes towards Jews and Jewish culture.