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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.
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