Yevsektsia Exposed Russian Jewry's Status Reviewed
in Citelman's 'Jewish Nationality and Soviet Politics'
Jewish Nationality and Soviet
Politics, by Zvi Y. Gitelman.
Princeton University Press.
Princeton, 1972, 573 pp.
A Review
By ALLEN A. WARSEN
The year 1897 marked an
important date in the history
of the Jewish people. Politi-
cal Zionism came then into
being, and the first Jewish
national socialist party, the
Bund, was formed.
No wonder, "Jewish Na-
tionality and Soviet Politics"
deals with the national pro-
grams of these movements.
Since the Bund's activities
confined to pre-First
War Russia, it .is un-
ndable that the author
u d commence his treatise
by tracing the evolution of
that party's national pro-
gram..
It should be noted, in re-
cent years many books on
the Bund were published.
The latest are "The Jewish
Bund in Russia from Its Ori-
gin to 1905" by Henry J.
Tobias and the four volume
"The History of the Jewish
Labor Bund" published by
Farlag Jnser Tsait in Yid-
dish.
It is noteworthy-that there
were small groups of na-
tionally minded Jewish So-
cialists in Russia even in pre-
Bund days. Abraham Walt,
the later renowned Yiddish
poet Lessin, headed in Minsk
such a group, the "Waltov-
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tses." The members of these
groups were interested both
in socialism and in Jewish
national matters.
A story is told of a nation-
ally minded Socialist, a for-
mer "yeshiva bokher," while'
propagandizing prospective
comrades, still "yeshiva bok-
hrim," quthed "our great
teacher, Karl Marx 'OLOV
HASHOLEM'."-
Nonetheless, it took the
Bund many years to formu-
late and adopt a national
program. It is interesting to
note that the Bund's foremost
theoretician of its national
program was Wladimir Me-
dem, the son of converted
parents, and one of the out-
standing personalities in the
history of the Jewish labor
movement.
However, Medem's views
were opposed not only by
assimilationist Bundists, but
also by those with a more
positive attitude toward Ju-
daism. Esther Frumkin be-
longed to the latter group. A
proposal of hers closely re-
sembles what we now call
"racial balance."
"Even the election of town
officials should be conducted
on the basis of proportional
representation of nationali-
ties. If a certain town has a
total population of 100,000 —
40,000 Jews, 30,000 Poles,
20,000 Bolorussians, and 10,-
000 Russians — and if ten
judges are needed, there
should be four Jews, three
Poles, two Belorussians, and
one Russian elected. This
would prevent national
hatreds from arising because
it would fix national repre-
sentation and the campaign
would not be conducted with
the slogans of "Elect a Jew"
or "Elect a Pole."
Upon joining the Yevsektsia
years later, Esher reversed
herself and became a fanatic
atheist and anti-nationalist.
A critic of the Bund's na-
P icittre3 of aday
are rnernorieJ or
J omorrow
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tional program was also Iosif
Vissarionovich Stalin whom
Aleksandr I. SOlzhenitsyn
sarcastically c a 11 e d "the
Greatest of the Great." Ac-
cording to-Solzhenitsyn, "The
exile of whole nationalities
was both his (Stalin's) major
theoretical contribution and
his boldest experiment." It,
no doubt, would have culmi-
nated in the expulsion of the
Jewish people from their
domiciles.
The severest critic of the
Bund's national program was
no other than Vladimir Ilyich
Lenin. He maintained, "The
idea of a Jewish nationality
runs counter to the interests
of the Jewish proletariat, for
it fosters among them, di-
rectly, a spirit hostile to as-
similation, the spirit of the
`ghetto'."
The author rightly ob-
serves, "The Bund-Lenin de-
bate and the internal debates
in the Bund on the national
question were to color all of
Soviet policy toward the
Jews and the reaction of the
politically conscious Jews to
the Soviets after 1917."
Following the March Revo-
lution of 1917, the Bund's
problems increased, mostly
within the Jewish commun-
ity, It had then to contend
with the opposition of a mul-
tiplicity of religious, Zionist
and other' groups. The
strength of the various or-
ganizations was best reflec-
ted in the results of numer-
ous elections, especially in
the election to the Russian
Constituent Assembly in 1917.
"Out of 498,198 votes cast
for Jewish parties, 417,215
went to Zionist and religious
parties. The Bund received
31,123 votes, the other social-
ist parties 29,322, and the
Poalai Tsion 20,538."
Nonetheless, the Bund was
very prominent in local
soviets (labor councils) and
in city dumas.
The gravest problem it and
the other Jewish parties
faced resulted from the Bol-
shevik seizure of power late
in 1917. It was the problem
of "to be or not to be."
Lenin, too, was faced with
a problem. On becoming
head of the government, he
was eager to win over the
Jewish people to Bolshev-
ism. His problem was—how
and who would do it? The
Bolshevik Party was almost
devoid of Jewish members.
The six Jewish members of
the Bolshevik Central Corn-
mittee-Kamenev, Sokolnikov,
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Trotsky, Uritskii, Sverdlov, agely. Thousands of women have remained slaves to
and Zinoviev were thoroughly were raped and hundreds capital . . . Today the revo-
assimilated and not inter- were left insane as a result lution is only here, next year
ested in the Jewish people of their experiences. Forced —world revolution."
`tributes' and the burning of
and their concerns.
Though the Yevseks op-
Lenin solved this matter entire hamlets were t h e posed Yiddishism as a na-
by creating in 1918 a Com- order of the day."
tionalistic ideology a n d
missariat for Jewish National
At the same time factional feared Yiddish might become
Affairs, the "Evkom," with antagonisms wore away the a "loshen kodesh," a "Holy
Semen Dimanshtain as its strength and energy of the Yiddish," still they employed
Commissar and Ilya Dob- Bund. As a result, some of it as a vehicle in their–activi-
kovskii, a Left Social Revo- the leaders and rank and file ties of "modernizing" and
lutionary, as Vice-Commis- members abandoned it — a "reconstructing" Jewish life.
sar. "It was soon' discovered situation causing splits and They similarly employed the
that Dobkovskii had worked hastening the formation, first, Yiddish newspapers, but the
for the tsarist secret police of the Kombund, then the readers preferred the Pravda"
as an 'agent-provocateur', Jewish Communist Party, the and Isvestiia to the Emes and
and some assured that he Komfarband, and the Yev- Shtern. Yet the Yevsektsia
had been converted to Chris- sektsia. In January 1930 the was successful in its school
tianity." He alto authored a Yevsektsia, too, was liqui- program. The schools, how-
book on Moses Hess. He was dated. The same fate befell ever, were Jewish in form
unceremoniously fired from the Commissariat for Jewish and not in substance. Though
his job.
National Affairs.
Yiddish was the language of
Simultaneously with the
The Yevsektsia, prior to its instruction, few Jewish sub-
establishment of the Commis- liquidation, to our great sor- jects were taught in that
sariat, Jewish Sections (Ev- row and pain, managed to tongue. Jewish history was
reiskii Sectsli) were organ- inflict mortal wounds on the not taught. "Only the history
ized "to agitate among the Jewish community. It suc- of the Jews in Russia was
Jewish workers and to estab- ceeded in abolishing the touched upon."- Hebrew and
lish their dictatorship on the kehillas; depriving the rab- religion were not even touch-
Jewish street."
bis and other religious func- ed upon. Courses in Yiddish
A brief biographical sketch tionaries of the vote and of literature were allowed, but
of Semen Dimanshtain of all political rights; convert- in the selection of literary
whom a great deal has been ing synagogues into clubs; materials, "communist rather
written in Hebrew, Yiddish and destroying the traditional than Jewish criteria were
and Hebrew schools. Even
employed."
and Russian follows:
"Born in 1888, young Di-
"Chaim Nahman
Less successful was the
manshtain grew up in an the foremost Hebrew poet of Yevsektsia in its colonization
Orthodox religious atmos- his time, and other leading efforts. Its policies of collec-
phere. At the age of 12 he Hebrew writers were con- tivizing the Jewish farms
started studying in Yeshivas stantly harassed by the Ev- and integrating them with
. . (including) the famous sektsiia. Maxim Gorkii tried non-Jewish colonies resulted
Yeshiva of Slobodka . . . to secure permission for . in a mass exodus of the set-
(and) the Lubavitcher Yes- 18 prominent Hebrew writers tlers.
hiva . . . (He) climaxed his to leave Russia but the Yev-
It is well to remember that
religious - scholarly car e e r sektsia effectively blocked many of Yevsektsia's actions,
when he received rabbinical this attempt. Finally, Felix policies, and failures were
ordination from several rab- -Dzerzhinskii, the Cheka chief, due to external factors. To
bis, including Khaim Ozer was persuaded to intervene resist or counteract them
Gradzenskii of Vilna, one of on their behalf, and Bialik, would have been very dan-
the greatest authorities of Saul Chernikovskii, B. Z. gerous.
the day . . in 1903 or 1904 Dinaburg, Moishe Kleinman,
This review would be in-
he decided to enter a gym- and other leading lights of
nazium . . Preparing as an the Hebrew literary world complete had we failed - to
recount the tragic - end of the
extern . . he was drawn were allowed to leave Russia
leaders of the Evsektsiia.
into the illegal socialist cir- in June 1921."
The former Commissar of the
cles ; . . Arrested in 1906,
The blasphemies of the .
Dimanshtain made a dra- Yevsektsia continued to mul- Commissariat for Jewish Na-
tional Affairs, Semen Diman-
matic escape to Riga where tiply. They even designed an shtain, was purged in 1937
he was rearrested in March and-religious ritual:
and shot in 1938. Moishe Lit-
1908 . . sentenced to five
vakov was purged in 1937,
It
.
.
.
suggested
that
years' exile in Siberia and
jailed
and died in prison.
"greeting
cards
be
sent
on
served some time there be-
Rachmiel Veinshtain was im-
fore fleeing abroad . . . In the anniversary of the Octo-
prisoned in 1938 and com-
Paris . . . was graduated ber Revolution instead of mitted suicide in jail. Esther
}flesh
Hashana,
that
the
tradi-
from a school for "electro-
technicians" and was active tional khalah be baked in Frumkin was arrested in
1938 and sentenced to serve
in the Bolshevik organization shape of a hammer and eight years in a labor camp.
sickle,
and
that
the
answer
1917
.
.
.
returned
. .. In May
to Russia ... became chair- to the 'Four Questions' on . Because of illness, she was
man of the Bolshevik organi- Passover be a recounting of released and died soon after.
zation on the Northern front the history of the October Samuil Agurskii disappeared
in 1948. Yankel Levin was
.. . (More about S.D. to fol- Revolution."
liquidated in 1937. So were
low.)
There was no letdown of many others.
Although the Bund and the their reign of terror:
"Jewish Nationality and
other Jewish parties after
"In Vitebsk in 1920 a Ev-
the Bolshevik coup detat con- sektsiia `Yom Kipurnik' con- Soviet Politics" records an
tinued to function, their exist- sisted of a demcnstration out- important era in the history
ance was precarious and dis- side the main synagogue on of the Russian Jews. It is a
integration unavoidable. It the Day of Atonment.' Using scholarly w o r k, popularly
was caused by internal and axes and saws, the holy ves- written and provides insight
external circumstances. The sels of the proletarian cult, into the forces that trans-
main external factor were the demonstrators created formed Soviet Jewish life.
the Ukrainian pogroms:
such a fearful racket that
"It has been calculated services were disrupted. This Kibutz Pays Alimony
that of the 1,236 pogroms in custom spread to other cities,
TEL AVIV (JTA)—A Tel
the Ukraine in 1918.19, 493 - with torchlight parade s, Aviv District Court judge has
were commited by elements clowns, and free lunches .as ordered a kibutz to pay IL
of the Ukrainian nationalist added embeelishments."
900 a month in alimony to the
military. Their methods were
This is a quote from the divorced wife of one of its
as brutal, if not quite as ef- Yevseks' "Red Hagada." -
members until she finds a
ficient, as those the Nazis
"Slaves we were to capital new home.
were to employ on the same until the October Revolution
Kibutzim have always con-
blood-soaked soil some came and rescued us with a tended that no one forces a
twenty years later. Men mighty hand from the land member to leave after a di-
were buried up to their necks of slavery. And were it not vorce. The judge, however,
and were then killed by the for October, then surely we ruled that the kibutz, as a
hoovers of horses driven and our children and our collective, is responsible for
over them. Children were children's children would its members.
smashed against walls and
their parents butchered say- THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Friday, October 18, 1974-41