While Victoria Khiterer is hardly the first scholar to study Kiev's pre-revolutionary Jewish community—indeed, parts of her book, for example the chapter on the pogroms, have been amply covered elsewhere—her monograph nevertheless makes a valuable contribution to the study of Kiev's history. Khiterer makes generous use of published sources, newspapers, and some 35 archival fondy, most of them housed in various Kiev archives. Most importantly, she brings to life many of Kiev's key Jewish leaders, especially the “Sugar Kings,” Israel Brodskii (1823–88) and sons Lazar' (1848–1904) and Lev (1852–1923).

The “real kings on the Jewish street (137),” the Brodskiis built and financed the city's best hospital and clinics, providing the only place where Jewish and Christian women could receive free medical care in childbirth. A skilled diplomat, Lazar' used his enormous wealth and powerful connections to defuse hostility and prevent mass violence and expulsions, especially between the violent pogrom years of 1881 and 1905. Lev's gambling, womanizing, and “bohemian way of life (171)” produced some juicy scandals, but both Brodskii brothers contributed vast sums for schools, museums, synagogues, welfare organizations, and the needs of veterans. Because of the pogrom of 1905 and the suppression of liberal gains of that year, Lev “abandoned the idea of the assimilation of Jews into Russian culture and emphasized the importance of preserving Jewish national identity (176),” thereby symbolizing the attitudinal transition of many Kiev Jews. Skeptical of Zionism, Lev became a fervent proponent of Jewish emigration to America.

Expulsion of Jews commonly occurred in Kiev, and for propertied Jews expulsion often meant bankruptcy since they could not sell their abandoned property in short periods of time. Liberalized residence rights often followed complaints that prices soared for civilians and garrisoned troops when Jewish merchants and vendors were forced to leave. Bribery became entrenched, an important income source for local police, but Khiterer also observes throughout that circumvention of repressive rules took many forms.

Khiterer offers a particularly good chapter on education. The fight to open Jewish schools in Kiev went on for decades. Officials realized that Jews would be less likely to migrate into the city if there were no Jewish schools. Many Jews declined to send their children to Russian schools for fear that they would lose their faith. Moreover, many poor Jews knew only Yiddish, and not Russian. So, for years Jewish schools operated clandestinely. Whether through personal connections or bribery, “King of Kiev Jews” Lazar Brodskii finally won permission to open a state (but self-financed) elementary school for Jews in 1901 (304). The school opened in November 1904, only to be destroyed by the pogrom a year later after Police Chief Viacheslav Tsikhotskii refused to protect it. Brodskii had established a precedent, however, and in 1907 four private Jewish schools were allowed to open (including two for girls), as well as a kindergarten and a Jewish library. These were significant accomplishments, Khiterer notes, as neither Poles nor Ukrainians were allowed to open national schools in the city.

Khiterer's conclusions are not particularly novel. Most Kiev Jews lived in desperate poverty, fearful as well of the notorious police round-ups and expulsions (police took special pride in rounding up Jews on Saturdays). Kiev's acculturated Jewish elite “rarely interacted with their poor coreligionists (334).” Their strategy of community protection through negotiation and bribery ultimately failed. Radicalism ensued, especially among the young. Indeed, conflict between the elite and the masses forced the creation of two rabbinical districts in 1906, one for the upscale districts where the wealthy lived, the other for the impoverished and angry masses. Regardless, the beauty of this well-written book lies in the personal sketches of individuals who helped comprise the complex fabric of Kiev Jewish life: Among them, tycoon David Margolin, who introduced the Russian Empire's first electric trams; developer Lev Ginzburg, who built many of Kiev's most important buildings; long-time state-sponsored Rabbi Evsei Tsukkerman, whose conciliatory, non-confrontational tactics failed to stave off police and mob violence; “Sonia,” the teenaged runaway rescued by Jewish philanthropy; and police-agent turned Stolypin-assassin Dmitrii Bogrov. Sadly, she concludes, Kiev's “long anti-Semitic tradition” (427) provided fertile ground for the real inferno that would come with the Nazi occupation in 1941.