Hi y'all,
Maybe somebody out there can answer something for me. Nowadays, the derogatory Russian word for Jew is "Zhid," which I've always thought was taken from the German and always had a negative connotation. However, I've been reading Solshenitsyn's book 200 Years Together (the Russian edition) and he quotes old documents from the 11th century using the word, not only before there was any contact between German Jews or Germans in general and Russia, but in a largely value-neutral context (this is about the time Vladimir converted the Rus' to Christianity). For instance, the Khazar Empire is refered to as "Zemlya Zhidovskaya," "Land of the Zhids," which nowadays sounds hugely offensive but seems to be used in a value-neutral sense in the documents he's quoting. Moreover, the Khazars weren't German Jews and, according to Sol anyway, there was a Khazar regiment in Kiev until the 10th century? Anybody know anything about this? I can't seem to get an answer wherever I turn.
According to the Russian Chronicle, anyway (I don't know exactly from when it dates), representatives of the Kievan Khazars visited/were summoned by Vladmir during his quest for a faith and tried to convert to Judaism. Anybody know if this is generally accepted by historians as true?
Thanks! Spasibo!
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com