Jewish Students of the Kyiv commercial institute: under the scrutiny of the imperial authorities

The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze the manifestations of the Russian Empire's anti-Semitic policies in higher education in Ukraine at the beginning of the 20th century by reconstructing the impact of imperial policy on the lives of students at the Kyiv Commercial Institute. The research methodology is based on general and specialized scientific methods, including deduction, induction, structural-system, comparative-historical, problem-chronological, and interdisciplinary approaches. The scientific novelty lies in uncovering specific examples of the Russian Empire’s anti-Semitic policies in Kyiv’s higher education in the early 20th century and their impact, as well as documenting instances of societal circumvention of these policies, which became an effective tool in resisting the imperial regime and indirectly hastened its collapse. Conclusions. The intensification of anti-Semitic policies in the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century is confirmed by the example of students at the Kyiv Commercial Institute. Given that ethnic-religious persecution in the 20th century was an atavism for European state policies, this also demonstrates the backwardness of the Russian Empire and questions its belonging to the European civilizational space. The opposition to this imperial policy by Ukrainian society illustrates both its tolerance and its commitment to European civilizational values, as well as an underlying opposition to the Russian Empire. Similarly, the Jewish community's pursuit of higher economic education, despite government obstacles, highlights their active role in Ukraine's economic life at the beginning of the 20th century, as well as their development of mechanisms to overcome these obstacles. Moreover, the Russian Empire's anti-Semitic policy fostered growing anti-imperial and revolutionary sentiments among Jewish youth and students in general, which objectively weakened the state and led it to collapse. These conclusions and generalizations may also serve as a basis for predicting the fate of the Russian Federation.