Paper short abstract:

Raised in a traditional religious Jewish environment, Moisei Krol' was exiled to Siberia in 1890 for anti-government activities. There he undertook an ethnographic study of the Buryats. I examine Krol's views of the Buryats and their effect on his eventual decision to "return to the Jewish people."

Paper long abstract:

Born in 1862 in Ukraine, Moisei A. Krol' received a traditional Jewish religious education. However, as a Russian high school student he embraced secular Western culture and a radical Populist ("Narodnik") ideology. Exiled to southern Siberia in 1890 for radical anti-government activities, he undertook an ethnographic study of the local indigenous people - the Buryats. Despite his somewhat eurocentric and evolutionist views Krol' ended up admiring the Buryats and especially appreciating "a positive role of Buddhism in their life," which he compared to a similar role of Judaism in his own people's lives. While delving deep into another culture, he developed a much greater appreciation for the values subscribed to by his own parents and other ordinary traditional Jews of Russia. As a result, following the end of his exile in 1895, Krol' (a lawyer by training) devoted his entire life to serving various Jewish causes, while also participating in the neo-populist political activities of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. While he did publish a number of important ethnographic works on the Buryats, Krol' did not become a professional anthropologist. In this respect his career differed from that of his friends and fellow-Populists Lev Shternberg, Vladimir Bogoraz and Vladimir Jochelson. This paper explores Krol's experience as ethnographer, focusing on his views of the Buryats and the effect of these views on his decision "to return to the Jewish people."