VSKOL'Z' IZ RIMA. LA FORMAZIONE DI VLADIMIR ZE'EV JABOTINSKY TRA RUSSIA E ITALIA.

The purpose of this research is to examine the origins of the political thought of Vladimir Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the apostate of Zionism - who, in 1925, founded the World Union of Zionist Revisionists, to claim the need of a revision of Zionist politics, for a return to Theodor Herzl’s vision and basis: in other words, for a forthright open political activity aiming at a Jewish majority in a Jewish State. The complexity of Jabotinsky’s personality pushed me to further investigate the figure of this intellectual engagé - born in Odessa, Russian by culture and Italian by choice -, focusing on his formative years, with particular reference to the period (1898-1901) he spent in Italy. My intention is to place Jabotinsky’s reflection in the framework of the artistic and philosophic currents of fin de siècle Europe. I will try to break the rigid schematism that so far has underlined all definition of Jabotinsky and to bring his thought and action back to their contradicting specificity, and I will endeavour to point out the deep cultural, social and political influence of the Russian and Italian milieu. The Jabotinsky’s Italian stay is extremely significant, not just because it offers a new and more complete key to understanding his “political journey”, but also because the articles and the original works published over the three years he spent in Rome enrich the Russian Italian text of a new and original voice.