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Abstract
The Russian Civil War saw an influx of bundists, including many party leaders, into the Russian Communist Party. This article will follow the career of one leading bundist from his first days in the Bund through his death in 1937, with particular emphasis on 1918-19, when he pivoted away from the anti-Communist faction of the Bund that he led to become a major figure in the Soviet Union. Using newspapers, memoirs, and archival documents, this article examines various motivations for his volte-face, including the German Revolution, antisemitic violence committed by the military of the Ukrainian Directorate, and the seeming success of the Communist project, to shed light on the relationship between Jews, radicalism, a,nd the Soviet Union.
Key words: Bund, Ukraine, pogroms, Communism
Most histories of the Russian Revolution in 1917 emphasize the Bolshevik conquest of Russia. As important, but not nearly as well understood, was the success of Lenin's Bolshevik Party and its Communist successors in conquering the hearts and minds of their opponents. From their absorption of Trotsky's Mezhraiontsy (Interregionalists) in the summer of 1917 through the consolidation of Communist rule in 1922, Lenin's party demonstrated an uncanny ability to win over and absorb members-particularly leaders-of rival organizations. These leaders played crucial roles in building the Soviet state, industry, and military in the years leading up to World War II and in some cases even beyond. Some, like Trotsky, fell afoul of the Soviet regime early on. Others survived until the Great Purges. A few even lived long enough to die of old age, years after World War II. Within the Jewish community, these individuals proved especially influential, redefining Jewish life in the Soviet Union in the interwar period.
As important as this phenomenon was, little work has been done to attempt to understand these individuals or their experiences. Zvi Gitelman and Elissa Bemporad have done much to expand our understanding of Jewish leadership in the early Soviet Union, yet we still have not grappled with how those leaders entered the Soviet system to begin with. This is especially true regarding Jewish leaders in Ukraine, home to the largest share of Jewish socialists-whether in the Bund (the largest Jewish Marxist party in Russia) or other parties-during the Russian Revolution. To go...