IV.jpg  Ilya Vovshin is a Doctoral fellow of the Jewish History Department at Haifa University.
His research project investigates the economic, political, social and cultural activity of the prominent
entrepreneurial Russian-Jewish Gintsburg family (1830-1917) in the context of Jewish life in Russia
and the development of the Russian economy and society in the late Tsarist period. Its goal is to provide an
explanation for the meteoric rise of the Gintsburgs, their economic success, their position, influence and
gradual decline. By analyzing the history of the family, revealed not only the techniques by which the
Jewish plutocrats made their money, but also how they translated their wealth into high social status
and political power on the Jewish street and within Russian society. Once put in its broader context,
this will enable to reach a clear understanding of the nature and development of the Russian-Jewish
plutocracy and its significance for the history of Russian Jewry and the Russian Empire as a whole.