About the book: 2021 / In the last decades of the Russian Empire, one of the most painful public issues was the question of national rights . Russia's large Jewish population was legally discriminated against. In the western provinces it was faced with the national demands of its neighbors - Poles, Ukrainians, Lithuanians and other ethnic groups settled more compactly than the Jews. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the education and political activity of Jews grew, they had a conscious national, religious and cultural identity and demanded not only civil, but also national equality. The aspirations of the Jewish population of Russia were given ideological form by the historian Semyon Dubnov (1860–1941), who developed the concept of national extra-territorial autonomy. From Dubnov’s point of view, the unity of a nation is ensured not so much by its own state, but by voluntary adherence to a common system of cultural values ​​and collective historical memory. The demand for national extra-territorial autonomy by 1917 was included in the programs of all Jewish parties and organizations in Russia. Simon Rabinovich teaches at Northeastern University (Boston, USA), a specialist in the history of Jews in Russia, Europe and the USA.