Yevsektsiya

A Yevsektsiya^[1] (Russian: евсекция^[2], IPA: [jɪfˈsʲektsɨjə]; Yiddish: יעווסעקציע) was a Jewish section of the Soviet Communist Party. These sections were established in fall of 1918 with consent of Vladimir Lenin to carry communist revolution to the Jewish masses.^[3] The Yevsektsiya published a Yiddish periodical, der Emes.^[4]

Mission

The Yevsektsiya sought to draw Jewish workers into the revolutionary organisations; chairman Semyon Dimanstein, at the first conference in October 1918, pointed out that, "when the October revolution came, the Jewish workers had remained totally passive ... and a large part of them were even against the revolution. The revolution did not reach the Jewish street. Everything remained as before".^[5]

History

The Yevsektsiya remained fairly isolated from both the Jewish intelligentsia and working class.^[4] The sections were staffed mostly by Jewish ex-members of the Bund, which eventually joined the Soviet Communist Party as the Kombund in 1921,^[3] and the United Jewish Socialist Workers Party.^[6]

Former elements of the Bund and Faraynigte were historically hostile to Zionism. As they later joined Yevsektsiya, they deemed Russian Zionist organisations to be counter-revolutionary, and critiqued them. Delegates to a Zionist congress in March 1919 complained about administrative harassment of their activities - not from government agencies, but from Jewish communists.^[6] At the Yevsektsiya's second conference in July 1919, it demanded that the Zionist organizations be dissolved.^[6] After an appeal from the Zionists, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee issued a decree in that the Zionist organisation was not counter-revolutionary and its activities should not be disrupted.^[4] The campaign continued, however. In 1920, the first All-Russian Zionist Congress was disrupted by members of the Cheka and a female representative of the Yevsektsiya.^[7] At its third conference in July 1921, the Yevsektsiya demanded the "total liquidation" of Zionism.^[6]

According to Richard Pipes, "in time, every Jewish cultural and social organization came under assault".^[3] The section in Rostov-on-Don persecuted local Jewish leaders, both Zionist and religious, and especially the sixth Chabad rebbe Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn^[8]

The Yevsektsiya attempted to use its influence to cut off state funds to Habima Theatre, branding it counter-revolutionary.^[4] The theatre left Russia to go on tour in 1926, before settling in Mandatory Palestine in 1928 to become Israel's national theatre.^[9]

Dissolution

The Yevsektsia were disbanded as no longer needed in 1929. Many leading members were murdered during the Great Purge of the late 1930s, including Chairman Dimanstein.^[3] Executed in 1938, he was posthumously rehabilitated in 1955, two years after the death of Joseph Stalin.

See also

• History of the Jews in Russia
• Communist Party of the Soviet Union
• Bolsheviks
• Birobidzhan
• Komzet
• Jewish Communist Party (Poalei Zion)^[10][11]
• Bundism
• Central Bureau of the Lithuanian Sections of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)

References

Further reading

• Gitelman, Zvi. Jewish Nationality and Soviet Politics: The Jewish Sections of the CPSU, Princeton, 1972.
• Dubnow, Simon. History of the Jews in Russia and Poland from the earliest times until the present day in three volumes, updated by author in 1938.
• Дубнов, Семён Маркович. Новейшая история еврейского народа (1789—1914) в 3х томах. (С эпилогом 1938 г.). Иерусалим-Москва, Мосты культуры, 2002. (in Russian)
• Костырченко, Геннадий. Тайная политика Сталина. Власть и антисемитизм. Москва, 2001.
• Евреи в Советской России (1917—1967). Иерусалим, Библиотека-Алия, 1975. (in Russian)

External links

• Revolution and Emancipation, The Yevsektsii at Beyond the Pale exhibition