Jewish mothers want their sons to become doctors. Or lawyers. Or perhaps professors.

Jewish mothers don't want their sons to become revolutionaries.

It's too late to ask Mrs. Bronstein how she felt about the career choice of her son Lev, but our guess is that she wouldn't have liked it. But then, Mrs. Bronstein wouldn't be alone as a Jewish mother with a revolutionary son in turn-of-the-century Russia. If anything, these mothers could have easily formed a club to lament the horrible lives and the horrible pseudonyms their offspring have chosen.

And what Jewish mother would have expected her son to be the head of the biggest army in the world? And what Jewish mother would have wanted her son to become a national scapegoat? And what Jewish mother could have foreseen her son being stabbed to death by an icepick?

Rest in peace, Mrs. Bronstein.