LAUSR

balanced in its conclusions. It is a significant contribution to the literature, and suggests ways in which we can re-think legality in the Russian Empire: a useful final chapter places the case into the wider context of changing legal practices in imperial Russia, highlighting divergent interpretations emerging within Russian bureaucracy. The work has many strengths, though Avrutin could have interrogated the basis for popular beliefs in superstition, magic and conspiracy, all of which play an important role in the narrative, a little more forcefully, not only because of the innate interest of these practices but for the subjective qualities of these terms. This is, overall, a valuable work, clearly-argued and insightful, which contributes much to our understanding of Jewish culture and religion, everyday life and legal practices in the history of imperial Russia.