In four dense volumes, Gary Berkovich lifts the veil on an overlooked aspect of the architectural scene in Russia: the intense engagement of the Jews in the professional life from the late czarist period to the end of the USSR. In an extraordinary gallery of portraits, he reveals their contribution to the emergence of radical theories and innovative designs, but also to regressive strategies of Stalinism. An important contribution to the sociology of architecture in the 20th century. (Jean-Louis Cohen, NYU Institute for the Arts, New York)