Russian Jewish journal founded by Adolph Landau and published in Saint Petersburg between 1881 and 1906. Voskhod (Dawn) began as a monthly. After its first year of publication, a weekly entitled Nedel’naia khronika Voskhoda (Weekly Chronicle of Voskhod) was added. In practice the journal was edited inter alia by Shmuel Grusenberg, Simon Dubnow, and Yehudah Leib Gordon. In April 1899, Landau sold Voskhod to a “young men’s” group, which included Leon Bramson, the historian Saul Ginsburg, Matthew (Matityahu) Posner, Iulii (Julius) Brutskus, and others. In November 1899, both the weekly Voskhod and its monthly version changed their names to Knizhki Voskhoda (Voskhod Booklets). In 1901, the editorial board co-opted Maksim Vinaver and Leopold Sev (who from 1903 was for all practical purposes its editor in chief). The monthly journal ceased publication in March 1906, and its weekly supplement followed suit at the end of June of that year.
The large number of subscribers to Voskhod proves both its influence on the Russian Jewish intelligentsia, and the growth of that intelligentsia. This total rose from 1,000 in 1881 to approximately 2,800 four years later. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the number of subscribers had climbed to 5,000, including more than 1,000 in Saint Petersburg. From 1885 to 1899, Voskhod was the only Russian Jewish journal, and its goals were synonymous with the credo of the Russian Jewish intelligentsia: full emancipation for Russian Jewry; education of the latter for productive work; denunciation of the state-run press’s anti-Jewish bias; and acquisition of the support of liberal public opinion. Over the course of time, Voskhod attempted to foster feelings of national self-consciousness and to raise the cultural standards of the masses. As a literary journal it frequently published fiction, mostly in translation. Prominent among the many articles on Jewish history were those of the historians Sergei Bershadskii and Simon Dubnow.
During the 1881–1882 pogroms, Voskhod called on its readers to organize self-defense units, bitterly attacked the antisemitic authorities and press, and denounced the indifference of liberals to the Jews’ suffering. When massive pogroms occurred between 1903 and 1906, the journal described the events in detail and called again for the establishment of an effective self-defense mechanism. Nonetheless, most of the writing centered on the domestic issues of religious education, emigration, and productivization, especially concerning agricultural settlement. After an ordinance in 1887 established quotas for Jews in educational institutions, the journal backed Jewish private schools and the “reformed heder.” More than anything else, it perceived its role as encouraging Russian Jewish intelligentsia to establish close ties with the masses and to work for improving their lot.
Voskhod’s demise left a void that many journals tried to fill. One of these called itself Novyi voskhod (New Voskhod; 1910–1915), and some editors of this new periodical had originally worked for Voskhod.
Viktor Kel’ner, “Adol’f Landau: Izdatel’, redaktor, publitsist,” Vestnik Evreiskogo universiteta 2.20 (1999): 238–273; A. R. Rumiantsev, comp., Voskhod—Knizhki voskhoda: Rospis’ soderzhaniia 1881–1906 (St. Petersburg, 2001); Yehuda Slutsky, Ha-‘Itonut ha-Yehudit-Rusit be-me’ah ha-tesha‘-‘esreh (Jerusalem, 1970); Yehuda Slutsky, Ha-‘Itonut ha-Yehudit-Rusit be-me’ah ha-‘esrim, 1900–1918 (Tel Aviv, 1978).
Translated from Hebrew by David Fachler; revised by Avraham Greenbaum