was the jewish labor bund in czarist russia a "national movement"?

WAS THE JEWISH LABOR BUND IN CZARIST RUSSIA A "NATIONAL MOVEMENT"?
Author(s): Joshua Zimmerman
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Jewish Political Studies Review, Vol. 15, No. 1/2 (Spring 2003), pp. 23-44
Published by: Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25834562 .
Accessed: 30/10/2012 03:03
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
Jewish Political Studies Review.
http://www.jstor.org
WAS THE JEWISH LABOR BUND
IN CZARIST RUSSIA
A "NATIONAL MOVEMENT"?
Joshua Zimmerman
on nineteenth and early twentieth-century
Studies
nationalism
on state-seeking
movements
attainment
have focused
the
for
of
territorial sovereignty.
While often referring to Herzlean
Zionism
as a typical example
secular
nationalism,
of nineteenth-century
the recent
literature
ish Labor
Bund.
on nationalism
makes
no mention
of the Jew
these theoretical
works
By omission,
reflect a
own
consensus
the
its
that the political
Bund,
program
defini
of
as well as
to class
tion as a socialist
party committed
struggle,
it outside
the absence
the group
places
of territorial aspiration,
"
as
movements
in
known
"national.
This es
Europe
commonly
of
say examines theprogram and ideology of theBund in light of the
recent
literature
tion 's demands
with
siecle
the aims
eastern
on
and
that the organiza
argues
were
Russia
consistent
of Imperial
movements
in fin-de
ethnic nationalism
nationalism
the Jews
for
of other
Europe.
Jewish Political Studies Review 15:1-2 (Spring 2003)
23
Joshua Zimmerman
24
studies on nationalism
four groundbreaking
in all the dis
tremendous
attention
scholarly
attracting
appeared,
to
stimulate
debate
within
the inter
and
which
continue
ciplines,
These
Eric
national
academic
works
of
Habsbawm,
community.1
and Anthony
Smith were
Ernest Gellner
Benedict
fol
Anderson,
studies which
and ty
constructed
models
lowed by competing
in the nineteenth
and early twen
of national movements
pologies
the areas of agreement
from this
tieth centuries.2 Among
emerging
In the year
1983,
was a
corpus of literature are that the rise of national movements
that educated
elites played a central role in con
late phenomenon,
and articulating
the demands
of "the na
identifying,
structing,
term
first
in the
and
that
the
itself, "nationalism,"
tion,"
appeared
late eighteenth century.
While
scholars still debate the antiquity of "nations," they
or autonomy
for separation
agree that national movements
origi
in the nineteenth
have
be
Scholars
nated
distinguished
century.3
an inclusive
tween two stages
in the development
of nationalism:
liberal
nationalism,
which
began
with
the French
Revolution
and
ended with German and Italian unification in 1871, and the rise of
in the last third of the
nationalism
integral, or ethno-linguistic,
root
in
nineteenth
which
the
took
multi-national
century,
empires
of central and eastern Europe.4
While
the new literature on nationalism
has certainly had an
on
cannot
historians
this
be
of Zionism,
said for studies of
impact
the Jewish
Czarist
Labor
Russia.5
the dominant
Jewish socialist
Bund,
party in
This
is chiefly due to the decline
in scholarly
in
terest in the Bund, beginning in the early 1980s, which coincided
with
the rise of interest in the phenomenon
of nationalism.6
Con
historians
of the Bund
in the 1960s and
sequently,
researching
1970s did not pay particular attention to the theoretical question
of whether
the movement
should
be defined
as "national"
or only
"socialist," nor did they seek to place the rise of theBund within
the context
of contemporaneous
ethnic nationalisms
in fin-de
eastern Europe.7 At the same time, the new literature on na
as a typical
often referring to Herzlean
Zionism
tionalism, while
siecle
of state-seeking
secular
example
of the Bund. By omission,
these
no mention
makes
nationalism,
theoretical works
reflect a con
sensus that the political program of the Bund, its own definition
as a socialist
party committed
to class
struggle,
as well
as the ab
sence of any territorialaspiration, places it outside the group of
movements
in Europe
known as "national movements."
commonly
But if scholars of the phenomenon
of nationalism
ignored the
Bund altogether,
cannot
be
this
said of historians
of modern
Jew
on their orientation,
ish history, who, depending
locate the Bund
Was theJewish Labor Bund a "National Movement"?
25
or "socialist"
in a "nationalist"
camp. A brief survey is re
In his 10-volume magnum
in the 1920s,
opus completed
vealing.
Shimon Dubnow
the Bund
in the section, "The National
presents
some
while
Salo Baron,
Movement,"
later, writes
thirty years
either
the Bund
in a section entitled, "Varieties
of Jewish nation
Jonathan
Frankel
writes
of "emerging
alism."8 More
recently,
Bund
nationalism"
in his authoritative
while
Yoav
Peled
study,
refers to the Bund's
in
"nationalist
his
ideology"
monograph.9
Ezra Mendelssohn,
in a recent work,
the Bund
similarly
places
about
within
the rubric
of "Jewish
nationalists"
next
to Zionists,
Terri
torialists and Folkists.10 Similarly, Evyatar Friesel, in his popular
Atlas ofModern Jewish History, includes the Bund in his section
on
"Jewish
European
tionalists,"
tionalism.11
Nationalism,"
Jewry, David
who
exemplified
in a
recent history of modern
as "secular
na
to Bundists
a "Yiddishist-populist"
na
of
type
while
Vital
refers
equally prominent historians
dispute the notion that
a Jewish national
Shmuel Ettinger, for
organization.
excludes
the
Bund from his chapter on "The Growth
of
example,
instead placing
the Jewish National
it in the chapter,
Movement,"
However,
the Bund was
"The
Socialist Movement
Jews."12 Similarly,
Robert
Selt
Among
a specialist
on diaspora
denies
zer, himself
nationalism,
clearly
movement"
for the Bund,
"national
the designation
emphasizing
to the primacy
from its commitment
that the Bund never wavered
"The natural
of class
ally of the Jewish proletariat,"
struggle.
Seltzer
"was the proletariat
of other peoples,
its principal
writes,
includ
class,
enemy (apart from the Czarist
regime), the capitalist
ing the Jewish bourgeoisie."13
over how to interpret the Bund
in Jewish
The disagreement
studies on national
and its absence
from general
historiography,
the result of the unique
ism, is primarily
synthesis de
ideological
we now
to
in
Czarist
whom
Jewish
socialists
Russia,
by
veloped
turn.
The National
Program
of the Bund,
1897-1914
The General Jewish Labor Bund ("Union") in Poland and
Russia was founded in October 1897 inVilna and was the first
modern Jewish political party in eastern Europe as well as the
firstmass political party to use Yiddish as its language of agita
tion. By 1905, at the height of its popularity inCzarist Russia, the
was
the single most popular
arguably
became
sia. After World War
I, the Bund
Bund
Jewish party in Rus
active
in independent
Joshua Zimmerman
26
Poland, where, in themunicipal elections of the 1930s, the Bund
won
more
Jewish
votes
than any other Jewish political
party. Fol
of the State of Israel and the
in the Dias
class
working
the emergence
lowing the Holocaust,
of a Yiddish-speaking
disappearance
pora, theBund went into rapid decline and today consists of a few
centers of mostly elderly Yiddish-speaking Jews. Yet during the
first half of the twentiethcentury, the Bund was a major force in
eastern
European
Jewish
life.
At its founding congress in 1897, the Bund's national de
mands were limited to equal civil rights for the Jews of Russia
laws. The organization's
and the repeal of anti-Jewish
founders
were
maskilim
and
of
secular
Russian
second-generation
products
an integrationist
to the Jewish
that embraced
solution
education
As assimilationists,
in Russia.
indifferent to
they were
question
and
the
of
"national"
Jewish
national
questions
opposed
principle
ity, which
they believed
Jewish
perpetuated
separateness
rather
than promote social integration. Initially, theBund leaders of that
period
would
envisioned
prepare
of the Jewish masses,
which
the Russification
them for entry into the Russian
labor movement.
But in 1901, just four years after its founding congress, theBund
boldly declared that "the term 'nationality' applies to the Jewish
people" and demanded national rights forRussian Jewry.
The
Bund's
national
program
dates
wing of the party began to coalesce
to 1899, when
a national
around the figure of John
head of the party's
in Geneva.
In the
foreign committee
the
of
Der
committee's
the
pages
organ,
yidsher arbeyter,
foreign
idea crystallized.
term
for
the
Jewish national
the
first
Here,
time,
"nation" was unambiguously
and affirmatively
to the Rus
applied
sian Jews. In the first issue of Der yidisher
under
Mill's
arbeyter
Mill,
editorship, inMarch 1899, we read the following statement: "We
vigorously maintain that the Jewish nation, like all others, should
possess equal political, economic and national rights.We shall
even fight for it."14Moreover, it is inDer yidisher arbeyter that
we find the first clear rejection of linguistic acculturation as a
nor Polaniza
"we
seek neither Russification
goal:
long-term
tion."15 Mill
that the Jews consti
brought these two ideas?first,
to all others, and second,
tuted a nation equal
that the socialist
Bund should include Jewish national rights as a political de
mand?to
the party's Third Congress, held in Bialystok in De
cember
1899.
Despite Mill's strong appeal for the introduction of Jewish
national rights into the party platform, all of approximately
twenty delegates steadfastly rejected Mill's
proposal.16 They
feared
that such
a demand
would
alienate
the Bund
from non
Was theJewish Labor Bund a "National Movement"?
27
and his Geneva
and accused Mill
division
of hav
Jewish workers
a
more
In
become
than
heated
nationalist
socialist.
debate,
ing
to
that threatened
Mill was
accused
of a "nationalist
deviation"
of Jewish workers
the class-consciousness
and could
undermine
lead to chauvinism.
re
to Mill's
reaction
ideas in Kovno
The uniformly negative
new
was.
idea
of
secular
nationalism
how
the
Jewish
veals
just
recalled that themajority of delegates were not in a position
Mill
to intelligently discuss
native of Dvinsk
who
a
the national question. Hillel Katz-Bloom,
at
had been present
the Bund's
First Con
gress and represented Bialystok at the 1899 gathering, similarly
recalled
that the issue of Jewish national
rights was new for most
some considering
them "heretical"
of the delegates,
ideas.17 An
Hurvitz?also
noted that the first time she
other delegate?Tsivia
a
ever seriously
considered
the idea that the Jews constituted
was
at
Mill
the
de
third
later
nation
party
separate
congress.18
the atmosphere:
scribed
The debates were heated and excited. Some of the delegates did
not want to know or hear anything about our changes on the Jew
from head to toe, they refused to
ish question. Cosmopolitans
For them, anything that
even touch upon national questions.
smelled of nationalism, with any relation to national problems,
was treyf.19
In the end,
the delegates
platform. The Bund's
in Kovno
chose
to preserve
the party
third party congress adopted the following
its political
"The
kind of resolution:
demands,
'Bund,'
among
The resolution
civil?not
calls only for equal
national?rights."
on the national
that further discussions
did state, however,
ques
in the pages of Der yidisher arbeyter.20
tion should continue
third and
the Bund's
between
the next sixteen months,
Over
the party debated
the Jewish national
fourth party conferences,
the
of Der yiddisher
in the pages
arbeyter. Moreover,
question
so
was
in
the
national
increasing
assuming
importance
question
cial
movement
importance was
democratic
particular
Of
and Germany.
Austro-Marxist
congress
in Austria-Hungary
the historic
that took place in September 1899 inBrunn.
Because
alities
of the increased
in the Austro-Hungarian
the various nation
between
dis
Austro-Marxists
the
Empire,
tensions
cussed the national question at length.During the course of the
a South Slav delegate,
made
from Trieste,
debate, Etbin Kristan
an argument that would
later be seized upon by the Bund: Kristan
on the national
should endorse
that a resolution
question
argued
Joshua Zimmerman
28
the rights of extra-territorial
nationalities.21
that a free society must unshackle
claimed
The South Slav pro
itself from the assump
tion that a nation must be defined by territory."The principle of a
free society
of the idea
"in the separation
finds its parallel,"
Kristan
declared,
of nation from that of territory. We
it
have to make
clear that equality of rights is possible only if the nation is de
fined not as the population living in one territory,but as the sum
total of all individuals claiming a particular nationality."22 The
the South Slav delegate's
nevertheless,
pro
rejected
Congress,
set out
the
Austro-Marxists
the principles
Instead,
adopted
posal.
in Karl Kautsky's
national
autonomy
writings,
advocating
along
territorial lines.
Three months following the Brunn congress, Mill
readers
of Der
yidisher
that the long awaited
arbeyter
informed
answer
to
the difficult national question had arrived. Distorting the actual
of the Austrian
conclusions
that the so
congress, Mill maintained
was
the
lution to the national
transformation
of
question
Imperial
into a federation
of nationalities
in which
Russia
each nation,
in
be
the
would
The
of
solution
Jews,
granted autonomy.
cluding
or autonomy
federation
"rests on the principle...that
each nation
should have
its own worker's
organization;
[that] each
language,
literature and national
culture be given equal
rights," Mill wrote,
can in any form be against
democrat
that
"no
social
the
adding
each
Mill
two
national
of
strivings
emphasized
folk."23
important
that were
raised at the Brunn congress.
The first was
principles
that all nations had equal rights, and that the development
of their
was
national
and
in
the
literatures
interests
of
cultures,
languages
na
the working
class.
the
of
extra-territorial
Second,
postulate
tional rights was particularly
relevant for the Jewish populations
of Eastern
The
Europe.
South
Slav
delegate
had made
"a
great
distinction between land and the nation (folk), and does not hold
that only a people with territoryshould be regarded as a nation
and can demand
national
rights."24
The penetration of the national idea in the Jewish socialist
camp
culminated
Bialystok
Bund,
in the Bund's
in April
after much
1901. Here,
debate,
historic
fourth party congress,
in
in the landmark resolution, the
hesitatingly
tionality" applied to the Jewish people:
declared
that the term "na
The Congress resolves that a Social Democratic
program must not
allow the oppression of one class at the hands of another, or of
one nation or language by another. The Congress recognizes
that
a state such as Russia, which is made up of many different na
tions, will in the future be transformed into a federation of na
Was theJewish Labor Bund a "National Movement"?
29
tionalities, and that each will enjoy full autonomy, independent
from the territory in which it resides. The congress maintains
the
term "nationality"
should also apply to the Jewish people
[Der
tsuzamenfor halt, az dem bagrif natsyionalitet darf men onvendn
oykhoyfnyidishnfolk].25
Disclosing the hesitancy with which the congress as a whole
endorsed the principle of Jewish national rights, the resolution
concluded with the following statement:
The congress, however, regards it as premature in present circum
stances to put forward the demand of national autonomy for Jews.
The congress maintains
that, for the time being, we should only
struggle for the repeal of all anti-Jewish laws; protest against the
oppression of the Jewish nationality; and guard against inflaming
national feelings that only clouds the class consciousness
of the
to
and
leads
chauvinism.26
proletariat
But
despite
almost
universal
opposition
among
so
European
cialists to the principle of Jewish nationality, for the Bund, the
1901
resolution
constituted
a point
of no return.27 Indeed,
not only
did theBund never retreatfrom the principle of Jewish nationality
but it increasingly
and more vociferously
demanded
that Jewry, as
a whole,
as a national minority.
In the months
be recognized
lead
ing up to the 1905 revolution in Russia, the Bund presented na
tional-cultural
autonomy
as a political
demand.
In a widely
dis
tributed 1904 leaflet with a circulation of 58,000, the central
no
that the demand
for equal
civil rights was
argued
now
was
for
workers
It
sufficient
of
nations.
longer
subjugated
to put forth demands
shared by all oppressed
nations:
necessary
for
(1) the freedom, guaranteed
by law, of cultural development
all nations;
and (2) the equal right to use one's native language
in
committee
all government
tral committee
and
social
proclaimed,
the cen
institutions.28 Jewish workers,
to receive
"must have the opportunity
education in their own language. They must have the right to use
courts of law, in
in all governmental
institutions,
language
etc."
their relations with factory inspectors, at public gatherings,
an official
to make
The decision
national-cultural
autonomy
their
part of the Bund's programwas adopted in the fall of 1905, when
the central committee summoned 30 delegates to Zurich to attend
the party's Sixth Congress.29 The official resolution, passed with
25 votes in favor, and four opposing, called for the equality of all
nationalities,
which
it defined
in an extra-territorial
manner.30
It
called for the promulgation of legal arrangements by the state
recognizing
the right of "nations"
to free cultural
development.31
Joshua Zimmerman
30
solution to the national question in general
By 1905, the Bund's
and
the Jewish
in particular
question
of three demands:
consisted
(1) full civil and political equality for Jews; (2) legislation guar
the right of Jews
anteeing
and all public
institutions;
to use
and
in courts
language
national-cultural
autonomy.32
their native
(3)
The Sixth Congress marked the final triumph of the Bund's na
tional wing.
as the most
Medem
From
1904, Vladimir
emerged
important
on the national
In a series of arti
Bundist
theoretician
question.
in the Bund's
Russian
enti
cles
organ, Vestnik Bunda,
language
tled, "The
constructed
National
and
Question
a theoretical
justification
Social
Medem
Democracy,"
of the Bund's
national
pro
of social democracy.
Medem
gram based on the principles
argued
and Jewish nationalists
assimilationists
that in the debate between
on the future of the Jewish people
and Jewish culture, social de
mocrats
should
remain
neutral.33 Let
it be, Medem
argued,
that the
objective course of history leads either to assimilation or to the
of the Jewish nation
in Eastern
growth and preservation
Europe.
to assimilation,"
wrote.
"We are not opposed
Medem
"We are op
as a goal."
to assimilation
to the striving for assimilation;
posed
are
to
not
"we
On the other hand,
the national
character
opposed
to nationalist
of our culture; we are opposed
Yet
the
politics."34
all attempts
state had to also remain neutral, eschewing
the dominant
culture on a minority
Medem
nationality.
to impose
therefore
argued that all nations deserved the legal right to full freedom of
But one could not simply trust
cultural and national
development.
state
that
institutions would
grant minority
rights for free cultural
such as public
Cultural
services
would
education
development.
have to be removed
from the jurisdiction
of the state and turned
over to each nation's
autonomous
institutions
of terri
regardless
tory.35 Medem's
position,
known
as
"Neutralism,"
became
the
scrutiny
from
semi-official Bundist position during the revolutionary period.
But
beginning
in 1908, Neutralism
came
under
within the party. Publicists such as A. Litvak, Esther Frumkin and
M. Olgin tookMedem to task. How could the party be officially
"neutral" on the question of the future of the Yiddish language
and
culture,
actively
or on
promoting
the future of the Jewish
that national
culture?
it was
people, when
"One
is
clear,"
thing
Frumkin wrote in 1908, "Only those who believe in the future of
Yiddish
and
can
consciously
How
improvement.
is alien
language which
of the mother tongue?"36
work for its development,
enhancement
can those who...train
their children
in a
to the Jewish masses...fight
for the rights
Was theJewish Labor Bund a "National Movement"?
During the following yearMedem
31
set about clarifying his po
to the mood
of cos
alien
have
long since become
are we
wrote
neither
idola
in
Medem
"but
1909,
mopolitanism,"
trous worshippers
arti
of the national
idea."37 It was A. Litvak's
"We
sition.
cle, however, in the pages of the St. Petersburg Yiddish daily, Der
fraynd, thatpromptedMedem to give his complete response to his
critics. Litvak had questioned the suitability of Neutralism to the
did itmean, he asked, to be
of the party. What
conditions
on the question
the Jewish nation will flour
of whether
"neutral"
on the question
of the fate
ish or become
extinct, or be "neutral"
current
of theYiddish
stand on such
Medem
language and culture? Did the Bund trulyhave no
issues?38
replied to Litvak in a 1910 article, entitled, "Nation
the beginnings
In this piece, we observe
to a more positive
shift from neutralism
to acknowledge
of the Jewish future, when he began
affirmation
and
indifference
term
both
the
that
itself, "neutralism,"
implied
as
on
"one
and
such questions
schools,
language
inactivity. Thus,
for or against a folk
has to come out one way or another?either
state if one de
has to openly
and in such questions...one
school;
alism
or
'Neutralism'"39
theoretical
of Medem's
a national
school or not. Neutralism
is, then, possible
only
in principle,
severing one's
by doing nothing; to be neutral means,
reiterated his
self from [party] work."40 At the same time, Medem
There
of the Jewish future was
view that a prognosis
impossible.
times more honest than mysti
is a thousand
fore, "our neutralism
sires
cal nationalism."41
and Litvak, M. Olgin
the debate between Medem
Following
a
criticized
anti-neutralist
in
forceful
polemic.42 Olgin
responded
or
to speak Russian
continued
who
intellectuals
those Bundist
that Yid
lives. It was a fact, Olgin wrote,
Polish
in their private
"I
to many party intellectuals.
a foreign
dish remained
language
do not know a single intelligent [person] who speaks Yiddish
in
to speak
children."43 By continuing
our chil
in private
and Polish
Russian
life, "we are assimilating
are no
the 'leftist' Jewish
In this way, we,
dren!
intelligentsia,
of the Bund's
The "tragedy"
better than the assimilationists."44
the home
with
his wife
and
intelligentsia, Olgin maintained, was that togetherwith the pro
to harbor the
Yiddish
culture, many continued
to "to inhabit an
a man of culture meant
to
be
that
assumption
the Jewish
outside
other cultural world,
sphere."45 Neutralism,
motion
of secular
then,was used to justify such a state of affairs. The party could
no longer afford to philosophize about a prognosis of the Jewish
on the question
of the future of the Jewish
future. Neutrality
was no longer viable.46
ple and its culture
peo
Joshua Zimmerman
32
The
in cultural
involvement
Bund's
work
and
programmatic
discussions in the years 1907-1910 set the stage for an historic
party conference. Taking place in October 1910 in Lemberg,
attended
the Bund's
eighth party conference.47
twenty-five people
a virtual "who's
included
who"
of the Bundist
The participants
Bronislav
Hen
Noah
Medem,
world,
Grosser,
including
Portnoy,
rik Erlich,
For
Esther
and Vladimir
the
Frumkin,
Kossovsky.48
first time in the Bund's history,Yiddish replaced Russian as the
official
language
of the conference.
on issues
on
life.
the ques
First,
relating
tion of kultur-arbeyt,
the conference
called on its local organiza
as well as to join ex
for workers
tions to found cultural societies
a resolution
the
conference
associations.49
Second,
passed
isting
focused
party conference
to
communal
Jewish
specifically
The
eighth
regarding
and
the Shabbat
Sunday
its discussions
rest day
in Russia,
demanding
the "legally guaranteed right of the Jewish proletariat to observe
the Shabbat."50
the conference
Third,
called
for the democratiza
tion of the kehillah, which it demanded become a democratically
elected body.51The Bund issued the following resolution on the
language
and school
questions:
of national-cultural
Until the realization
autonomy which will
and cultural matters to the
transfer responsibility for educational
nations themselves, it is necessary to work for the establishment
of a government school for each national group in the general
inwhich its own language will be used. All limitations
population
on the use of one's mother tongue in public life, assemblies,
the
et
must
business
be
abolished.
cetera,
institutions,
school,
press,
In the struggle to achieve these demands, it is necessary to se
cure the rights for the Yiddish
language, to whom they are denied
more than any other language and which, moreover,
is not even
while
the
other
non-dominant
officially recognized,
languages
benefit from at least partial recognition.52
Following the demands for the rightsof theYiddish language,
the Bund passed the following resolution on relations with other
Jewish
parties.
"While
making
clear
its reservations
nationalist trendswhich turn the struggle forYiddish
strument with which
tariat,"
the resolution
to blunt
the class
stated,
"Jewish
about
those
into an in
consciousness
of the prole
must
Social
Democracy...
conduct the struggle against the assimilationists and Hebraists to
ensure that in all areas of Jewish life, especially, in the schools
and
cultural
institutions,
the Yiddish
language
receives
the
prominent position itmerits as the national language of the Jewish
people."
Was theJewish Labor Bund a "National Movement"?
33
The eighth conference of the Bund constituted a significant
to Di
shtime fun bund, the Bund's
illegal
was
to send a message
to the Gen
intended
organ,
the folk masses
and Polish
tile world:
"Russian
of
society...[and]
learn that the Jewish people
strive for an inde
all nations
should
or
not become
cultural
that it will
Russified
existence;
pendent
milestone.
According
the conference
Polanized; that it requires Jewish schools in which the Yiddish
language will be recognized as fully equal."53 By the following
the eighth conference
year, in 1911, the Bund had characterized
our national
a landmark
event that "concretized
program."54
1912 May Day
new
as
A
leaflet,with a circulation of 25,000, echoed the
on language
the slogan of
rights, advancing
emphasis
our
to
the
mother
national
tongue in schools,
rights;
right
"equal
state institutions."
in
unions
trade
and
all
courts, public meetings,
party's
It continued that the Bund vociferously demanded "the legally
guaranteed
right for the Jewish worker
article on the conference,
In a detailed
marked
that:
to a Shabbas
Vladimir
rest day!"55
re
Kossovsky
responses provided by the conference testify to the deep or
ganic interest in the national needs and requirements of the Jew
in general, and
ish proletariat and of the broad popular masses
testify to a readiness to defend with the greatest energy the de
mands ensuing from these needs, externally as well as internally,
within the Jewish environment proper.56
The
Thus,
a progression
for
from the demand
in 1910, there was
an
on
as
a
to
to
the
of
Jews
nation
emphasis
rights
rights
a secular national
culture through the formation of a Yid
political
develop
dish school
The
wider
network.
resolutions of the 1910 Bund conference reflected a
transformation
in Russian-Jewish
political
life. Since
the
dissolution of the Second Duma in the summer of 1907 and the
repressions that followed, all Jewish political parties gradually
shifted
from political
agitation
to cultural
and
communal
work.57
It is thus not surprising that issues relating to Jewish communal
and cultural life began to preoccupy the Bund, whose increasing
on the mother tongue as the source of its national
ideol
emphasis
move
the themes of many other national minority
ogy mirrored
in eastern Europe.58
ments
Joshua Zimmerman
34
of Nationalism
Theories
national
the development
of the Bund's
reviewed
Having
us
now
to
the
and
its
national
Bund
let
program,
attempt
position
in
the typologies
of national movements
program within
presented
This will bring us closer to an
the new literature on nationalism.
a variety
in this essay: was Bundism
posed
swering the question
or was
to those movements
it external
of Jewish nationalism
in the new literature?
referred to as "national"
commonly
Anderson,
Smith, and Eric Hobsbawm?
Anthony
scholars of nationalism?have
argued that a vision of
a
some
of a
is
of
land,
necessary
component
territory,
an
a
to
movement.
is
nation
Anderson,
imag
According
Benedict
three major
a sovereign
national
ined political communitywhich dreams of being free, and that the
of this freedom
that
the transition
similarly argues
to a nation or national movement
"a movement
towards a universally
is the sovereign
state.59 Smith
from an ethnic group (ethnie)
involves,
among other factors,
for the
'homeland'
recognized
a
He
contin
demarcated
compact,
clearly
territory."
community;
ues that "a nation needs before all else, a national
territory or
must
not
The
terrain
and
homeland,
just anywhere.
geographic
an
be
historic homeland."60
Hobsbawm
similarly
simultaneously
the
While
territory at the center of the national movement.
places
gauge
and
emblem
nationalisms that developed between 1880-1914 in Europe could
them
include, he acknowledges,
"any body of people
considering
he modifies
this view, arguing that the demand
selves a 'nation,'"
in the final analysis,
the right to a
for national
rights "meant,
state
and
within
their terri
separate,
sovereign,
independent
and ethnicity "became
the central,
tory."61 Thus, even if language
and increasingly
Hobsbawm
would
tial element.
the decisive...criterion
still place
the vision
of potential
nationhood,"
of a territory as an essen
view emerges from scholars whose models
of
are not premised
on territory. In the early
the American
devel
1970s,
scientist, Walker
Connor,
political
term
to
the
movements
"ethnonationalism"
denote
those
oped
A very different
movements
national
whose primary loyalty is to the nation rather than to the state. By
"nation"
from "state," Walker
drew atten
clearly distinguishing
tion to the dramatic
national
movements
of
among stateless
spread
"self-aware
ethnic groups" within
the multi-national
of
empires
In particular, Connor
central and eastern Europe.62
the
emphasized
revolutionary
potential
of
the
concept
of
national
self
determination which entered the political lexicon in nineteenth
century Europe and became a leadingWilsonian principle during
Was theJewish Labor Bund a "National Movement"?
World
War
I. "In
its pristine
form," Walker
writes,
35
"the doctrine
makes ethnicity the ultimate measure of political legitimacy, by
holding that any self-differentiatingpeople, simply because it is a
has
people,
cent article,
it so desire, to rule itself."63 In a re
the right, should
Connor
that varying degrees
of auton
acknowledged
omy within a largermultinational state could just as well satisfy
an ethnonational
movement.
ity of ethnonational
"in
In fact, Connor
found that the major
statehood. Rather,
did not demand
cases
we have data,
for
which
of
majority
movements
the overwhelming
to settle for something
less than independ
they are often prepared
movements
that did not de
those ethnonational
ence." Among
that
Connor
found
the
mand
specific goals
independence,
ranged
over a broad
demands
between
for limited cultural
spectrum
autonomy
to full control
over
all
internal affairs of a given
with the exception of foreign policy.64
region
In his masterful
1985 study, the Social
Preconditions
of Na
ex
in Europe,
the Czech
historian Miroslav
tional Revival
Hroch
of non-dominant
ethnic groups, or
amined the national movements
in nineteenth
and early twentieth-century
"small nations,"
Europe.
in Europe, Hroch
Nationalism
argued, had two basic expressions:
or
and in the non-historical,
in the ruling, or historic
nations,
a
the comparative
nations. Using
"small"
method, Hroch makes
a movement
and one
that is "national"
distinction
between
are always
movements
While
"nationalist"
that is "nationalist."65
focus more on the demand
for
state seeking, national movements
an
state.
cultural
within
Hroch
de
therefore
autonomy
imperial
as "the struggle for equal
fines a national movement
rights, for
a
in
for
share
and
economic
national
culture,
prosperity,
language
clear
for social liberation and for political autonomy: [this is what I
He continues
with the following
movement."66
term], a national
statement: "The current tendency to speak of them as 'nationalist'
stricto sensu
is some
For nationalism
leads to serious confusion.
an
which
absolute
that
outlook
else:
priority
gives
namely,
thing
to the values of the nation over all other values and interests"61
The editors of a recent anthology on nationalism similarly chal
lenge
the generally
accepted
view
that national
movements
can
only be satisfied by the ultimate achievement of territorial sover
eignty. It is possible, they argued, to satisfy national grievances
"within a variety of state forms or political arrangements, of
careful allowance
federal ones or those making
are the most familiar.
autonomies
Indeed," Geoff Eley
the First World War
G. Suny write, "it was probably
which
for cultural
and Ronald
and the tri
umph ofWilsonian principles in 1917-1919 thatmade full politi
cal sovereignty the leading demand of even the smallest national
Joshua Zimmerman
36
minority,
whatever
the realism
or viability.
Until
then, the princi
ple of nationality might be articulated just as well through the call
with
of lan
autonomy,
special
regard for matters
of
and
institutions
freedom."68
guage,
learning,
religious
The
by the American
important work
sociologist,
Rogers
notes
that the literature on nationalism
has
Brubaker,
similarly
movements.
But Brubaker maintains
that
focused on state-seeking
for cultural
as a national minority without
the fight for recognition
demands
a
of
constitutes
distinct
nationalism.
type
"They
separation
"make claims on the grounds
of their na
too," Brubaker
writes,
that make
it is such claims
them a national mi
Indeed
tionality.
for
a
stances
nationalist
involve
characteristically
nority....Minority
in
rather
than
'national'
self-understanding
specifically
merely
for state recognition
of their distinct
'ethnic'
terms, a demand
and the assertion
of certain collective,
ethno cultural nationality,
or
to
cultural
political
nationality-based
rights."69 Ac-cording
an
a
na
to
elite group
be part of
the claim by
Brubaker,
minority
tionality and to demand collective rights for that group should be
included
in typologies
of national
movements.
As
he states:
Three elements are characteristic of the political stance [of a na
tional minority]: (1) the public claim to membership
of an ethno
or politically
cultural nation different from the numerically
dominant ethno cultural nation; (2) the demand for state recogni
tion of this distinct ethno cultural nationality; and (3) the asser
tion, on the basis of this ethno cultural nationality, of certain col
lective cultural or political rights.70
is to monopolize
of the elite group's
purposes
of
their
national
group.
representation
One
mate
the legiti
Conclusion
Most
leaders
of the Bund,
particularly
the more
well-known
interwar leaders, would have clearly rejected the idea that they
that could be defined as a variant of na
leading a movement
tionalism.
strict
of international Marxism,
adherents
the
Being
Bund
and
cultivated
alliances
with
non-Jewish
steadfastly
sought
to enter into any All
and consistently
socialist
refused
parties
or fronts. Many
Jewish
coalitions
Jewish
thus
contemporaries
were
a renegade
the Bund
considered
radical
outside
group operating
as a whole.
the interests of the Jewish community
"May we per
which
has acquired
such an important
the...Bund,
haps consider
Was theJewish Labor Bund a "National Movement"?
37
movement
role in the revolutionary
of our times, as a defender of
our national
needs?"
asked Shimon Dubnov
in the winter of 1905.
He continued:
"As a party with an exclusively
class
proletarian
platform, the Bund consciously and knowingly works, not for the
good of the Jewish people as a whole, but only for the good of
one party,
and
the smallest
party at that. For
the Bund,
the strug
gle between the interests of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat
completely displaces the struggle for our general national
needs."71
We
seen
have
that some
Jewish
historians
subsequently
shared Dubnov's view. And yet, in the period between 1907 and
World War II, theBund in fact cooperated with other Jewish po
litical parties in the formation of Jewish cultural and educational
associations.72
To begin answering the question posed in this essay, it is im
portant
Jewish
to consider
three criteria. First, did
or "nationality"
a
as
"nation"
people
Bund's
program
the Bund
define
the
to
all
others,
equal
and on what basis did theymake such a claim? Second, did the
demand
certain
rights for the whole
of Jewry or
simply those pertaining to the Jewishworking class? Third, whom
did theBund claim to represent?Addressing these three questions
highlights the definitional problems and uniqueness of Bundism.
Representing
ern Russia,
ethnic group in west
the only sizable non-territorial
the Bund demanded
rights for the Jews as a
general
whole (equal civil rights, abolition of the Pale, separate schools,
and the Sabbath rest day), while claiming sole representation of
the Jewish working
class,
a small
percentage
lation in late Imperial Russia. Despite
of the Jewish
popu
the exclusion of the Bund
and the contemporary
literature on nationalism,
never
that the organization
intellectuals
Jewish
I would
interests of the Jews as a whole,
argue
a type of mi
indeed constituted
in Czarist Russia
from the general
claims
by some
the
represented
that the Bund
nority national
movement.
With its emphasis on Yiddish
language and culture, and the
and
administration
rights of the Jewish vernacular
move
national
other contemporaneous
courts, the Bund mirrored
of nationalism
have repeatedly
ments
Scholars
in eastern Europe.
in the nation-formation
of language
the importance
emphasized
process
Europe.
among
In his
ethnic
groups
on
nationalism,
study
non-dominant
important
in schools,
in
particularly
Seton
Hugh
Watson writes that "in the case of the new nations of nineteenth
factor in the crea
the main
and early twentieth century Europe,
was
consciousness
tion of national
language."73 Other authorities
and Peter
Joshua Fishman
on nationalism,
such as Walker
Connor,
served to carve out ethnic bor
Alter similarly argue that language
Joshua Zimmerman
38
ders
and
therefore
ity.74The Bund's
markers
became
and
even
symbols
of ethnic
application of the nationality principle to the
and its eventual
Jews of Czarist Russia,
rejection of assimilation
on the national
in fact predicated
vernacular.
ism, was
Ironically,
the Bund's
who made Yid
itwas
Russian-speaking
intelligentsia
dish themain legitimizing factor in their demand for the recogni
tion of a separate Jewish nationality.75
on
has generally
the literature on nationalism
While
focused
recent
national
works
considered
above
movements,
state-seeking
in nine
that many ethnic nationalisms
empirically,
sover
to
lacked
territorial
aspirations
teenth-century
Europe
on
set
their
the
attainment
and
focus
national
instead
of
eignty,
cultural autonomy within a multinational
setting. Until World War
have
shown,
I, the national
movements
and
of non-dominant
ethnic
in Aus
groups
Russia,
Slovaks,
including Czechs,
Bela
Croations,
Lithuanians,
Latvians,
autonomous
for
generally
fought
rights
In some
such as the Czech
instances,
in Czarist
tria-Hungary
Romanians,
Transylvanian
russians
and Ukrainains,
rather than separation.76
leaders explicitly
the breakup
of Austria
case, national
opposed
so
its
of
international
Thus, despite
unique
synthesis
Hungary.77
the
Bund's
cialism
and diaspora
demands
for
lan
nationalism,
guage rights and autonomy placed
tional
movements
pre-World
War
it alongside other ethnic na
in the multinational
that emerged
I central and eastern Europe.
empires
of
Notes
I would
like to warmly thank Shaul Stampfer and Shmuel Sandier
for their comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of this essay.
1. Eric Hobsbawm
and Terence Ranger, The Invention of Tradition
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983); Benedict Ander
son, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread
(London and New York: Verso,
of Nationalism
1983); Ernest Gell
and Nationalism
ner, Nations
Press,
(Ithaca: Cornell University
1983), and Anthony Smith, Theories
of Nationalism
(New York:
Homes & Meier,
1983).
2. These
Precondi
include, among others, Miroslav
Hroch, Social
in Europe
tions of National
Revival
(Cambridge: Cambridge Uni
1985; reprint, Columbia
Press, 2000);
versity Press,
University
and the State (Chicago: University of
John Breuilly, Nationalism
Since
Chicago Press, 1985); E. Hobsbawm, Nation and Nationalism
1780
Liah
Press,
(Cambridge:
Cambridge
University
1990),
to Modernity
Five Roads
Greenfeld, Nationalism:
(Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992); and Rogers Brubaker, Na
Was theJewish Labor Bund a "National Movement"?
39
tionalism
3.
4.
5.
6.
Reframed
(Cambridge:
Press,
Cambridge
University
1996).
Liah Greenfield,
cited above, argues that national sentiment was
in
present
England as far back as the early sixteenth century. More
recently, Adrian Hastings has challenged Greenfied's
thesis, push
ing back the origins of self-determining nations and national sen
timent to late medieval
See Adrian Hastings,
The Con
England.
struction of Nationhood:
and Nationalism
Ethnicity, Religion
ac
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997). Yet Hastings
that "As a political theory?that
each 'nation' should
knowledges
have its own 'state'?[nationalism]
belongs to the nineteenth cen
tury." Ibid., pp. 3-4.
the distinction
Recently, however, some scholars have challenged
between "ethnic" and "civic" nationalism,
arguing that the two
are more similar than has previously
been
types of movements
thought. See David A. Bell's comments in, "The Unbearable
Light
ness of Being French: Law, Republicanism
and National
Identity at
the End of the Old Regime," American Historical
Review
106, no.
4 (October 2001): 1215-1217;
and Bernard Yack, "The Myth of the
Civic Nation,"
in Theorizing Nationalism
Ronald Beiner (ed.) (Al
SUNY Press, 1999), pp. 103-118. Walker Connor has
bany, NY:
argued that the term "nationalism"
only applies to the ethnic form,
"civic nationalism"
whereas
is too often confused with the phe
nomenon of patriotism. See Walker Connor, "A Primer for Analyz
in Ethnic Conflict: Religion, Identity
ing Ethno national Conflict,"
and Politics, S.A. Giannakos
(ed.) (Athens: Ohio University Press,
2002), p. 24.
See, for example, the recent anthology of studies on Jewish nation
alism, which reveals the impact of the general literature on nation
alism. Le'umiyut
Shimoni
(ed.) (Tel
upolitikah yehudit, Gideon
an
For
roots of Zionism,
of
the
ethnic
Aviv, 1996).
important study
see Shmuel
which
takes into account
theories of nationalism,
Sandier, The State of Israel, the Land of Israel (Westport, Conn.:
Greenwood
Press, 1993), ch. 2. For a discussion of the duel lega
see Zvi Gitelman, "A Centenary of
cies of Zionism and Bundism,
Jewish Politics in Eastern Europe: The Legacy of the Bund and the
East European
Politics and Society
Zionist Movement,"
11, no. 3
(Fall 1997):543-559.
Jewish labor movement was a dominant theme in East Euro
pean Jewish historiography between the 1960s and early 1980s, at a
time when the categories of class, race and gender (rather than "the
K.
attracted much
attention.
See Bernard
nation")
scholarly
the General
Jewish Workers
of Futility:
Johnpoll, The Politics
1917-1943
Bund of Poland,
Press,
(Ithaca: Cornell University
the Formative
Ezra
Class
Mendelsohn,
1967);
Struggle in the Pale:
in Tsarist Russia
years of the Jewish Workers Movement
(Cam
The
Press,
1970); Henry Tobias,
University
bridge: Cambridge
Jewish Bund in Russia from its Origins to 1905 (Stanford: Stanford
The
40 Joshua Zimmerman
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
University Press, 1972); Jonathan Frankel, Prophecy and Politics.
and the Russian Jews, 1862-1917
Nationalism,
Socialism,
(Cam
1981); and Moshe Mishkin
bridge: Cambridge University Press,
1981).
sky, Reshit tnuat ha-poalim ha-yehudit be-rusya (Tel Aviv,
"Yesodot
shel
Also see Moshe Mishkinsky,
leumiyim be-hithavuta
tenuat ha-poalim
(me-reshita ve-ad
1901)"
ha-yehudit be-russya
of Jerusalem,
1965). Since the
(Ph.D. Diss., Hebrew University
Zionism
and
have
become
1980s,
Orthodoxy
early
increasingly
comments in the intro
dominant themes. See Ezra Mendelsohn's
duction to Essential Papers on Jews and the Left (New York: New
York University Press, 1997).
Representative works during this period include J. S. Hertz, G. Aronson,
and S. Dubnov (eds.), Di geshikhte fun bund, vols. 1-2 (New York, 1960
1962); Mishkinsky, "Yesodot leumiyim"; Mishkinsky, Reshit tnuat ha
poalim ha-yehudit; Mendelsohn, Class Struggle in the Pale; Tobias, The
Jewish Bund; Allan K. Wildman, "Russian and Jewish Social Democracy,"
inRevolution and Politics inRussia: Essays inMemory ofB.I. Nicolaevsky,
Alexander and JanetRabinowitch (eds.) (Bloomington: Indiana University
Press, 1972), pp. 75-87; Frankel, Prophecy and Politics.
Shimon Dubnow, History
1973),
of the Jews (South Brunswick,
"The
Salo
Modern Age,"
in Great Ages of the
5:701-706;
Baron,
Jewish People, Leo W. Schwarz (ed.) (New York,
1956), pp. 356
and Religion
357; Salo Baron, Modern Nationalism
(New York,
1960), p. 224.
Frankel, Prophecy and Politics, p. 171; Yoav Peled, Class and Eth
the Political
nicity in the Pale:
Economy
of Jewish Workers'
in Late Imperial Russia
Nationalism
St. Martin's
(New York:
Press, 1989), p. 1.
Ezra Mendelsohn,
On Modern
Jewish Politics
(Oxford: Oxford
18.
Press,
p.
1993),
University
David Vital, A People Apart: the Jews of Europe,
1789-1938
(Ox
ford: Oxford University Press ,1999), p. 517.
H.H. Ben-Sasson
(ed.), A History of the Jewish People
(Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1976), pp. 908-914.
Robert Seltzer, Jewish People, Jewish Thought: the Jewish Experi
ence inHistory (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall,
1980), pp.
639-640.
Der yidisher arbeyter 6 (March 1899), p. 11.
Der yidisher arbeyter, 8 (Aug. 1899), p. 44.
Mill, Pionern un boyer (New York: Der Veker, 1949), II, p. 66.
Hillel Katz-Blum,
Zikhroynes fun a bundist: bilder fun unter
erdishn lebn in tsarishn rusland (New York: Arbeter Ring, 1940),
p. 184.
Cited
in Wildman,
"Russian
and Jewish Social Democracy,"
pp.
84-85.
19.
John Mill,
(January
"Di natsyonale
1918): 117.
frage un der
'bund'," Di
Tsukunft no. 2
Was theJewish Labor Bund a "National Movement"?
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
41
"Der driter tsuzamenfor fun dem algemaynem
idishen arbeyter
bund in rusland un poyln," Der yidisher arbeyter, no. 9 (1900):7.
"The Social Democrats
and the Conflict
of
Arthur G. Kogan,
Nationalities
in the Habsburg
Journal
Monarchy,"
of Modern
1949):208-210.
History 21, no. 3 (September
tiber die Verhandlungen
des Gesamtparteitages
der
Protokoll
in Osterreich
sozialdemokratischen
(Vienna,
1899),
Arbeiterpartei
"The Social Democrats
and the Conflict of
p. 85, cited in Kogan,
in the Habsburg Monarchy,"
Nationalities
p. 209.
"Di natsyionale
Mill,
frage oyf dem kongres fun der estraykher
in
Der yidisher arbeyter, no. 8 (Decem
brin,"
sotsyal-demokratye
ber 1899):25.
Ibid., p. 27. See also Frankel, Prophecy and Politics, pp. 218-219.
"Der ferter kongres fun algemaynem
idishen arbeyter-bund
in
rusland un poyln," Der yidisher arbeyter, no. 12 (1901), p. 99; For
a partial translation in English, see Paul R. Mendes-Flohr
and Je
huda Reinharz
(eds.), The Jew in the Modern World (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1980), pp. 340-341; and Frankel, p. 220.
"Der ferter kongres...," p. 100; Frankel, pp. 220-221. For a full re
resolutions and protocols, see
print of the Bund's Fourth Congress
k istorii evreiskago rabochego dvizheniia
Bund, Materialy
(St. Pe
tersburg, 1906), pp. 111-128; N. Bukhbinder, Di geshikhte fun der
in rusland (Vilna, 1931), pp. 104-112.
yidisher arbeter-bavegung
to
national
idea among many leading Euro
the
Jewish
Opposition
pean socialists partly stemmed from the widely accepted position
that a nation had to include a common territory. In 1912, after
and na
eleven years of open attacks on the Bund's
"separatism"
tionalist deviation, the Russian Social Democrats made their oppo
in Stalin's
sition to the principle of Jewish nationality official
and the National
tract, Marxism
Question, where the nation was
defined as "a historically evolved, stable community of language,
in
life, and psychological
make-up manifested
territory, economic
a community of culture." The Jews, itwas thus argued, were not a
nation, since common territory was one of the aspects of nation
autonomy
hood, and that the Bund's program of national-cultural
was a form of right-wing deviationism.
"Vos toren mir itst nit fargesen?"
Bund Archive, File MG7/20;
1904, Central Committee of the Bund.
n.p., December
in Di geshikhte fun
J.S. Hertz, "Di ershte ruslender revolutsye,"
11:250.
Bund,
Ibid., p. 253.
It is significant here that the term "nation" is now applied regularly
to the Jews in the Bundist press. We thus observe a critical shift in
re
the language employed by the Bund in the period 1901-1905,
new
line.
official
the
flecting
Ibid.
S.
For a summary of Medem's
theory of neutralism, see Koppel
Pinson, "Arkady Kremer, Vladimir Medem, and the Ideology of the
42 Joshua Zimmerman
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.
53.
54.
55.
56.
57.
in Emancipation
A.
Jewish Bund,"
and Counter-Emancipation,
and Pe
Duker, et. al. (eds.) (New York: Ktav, 1974): pp. 298-313;
led, Class and Ethnicity in the Pale, pp. 58-61.
un di natsionale frage," inMedem,
"Di sotsial-demokratie
Vladimir
medem tsum tsvantsigstn y or tsayt, pp. 189-190.
For a concise summary of Medem's
position, see Yoav Peled, "The
of
National
Cultural
the First One Hundred
Autonomy:
Concept
in Eastern Europe, pp.
in Jack Jacobs (ed.), Jewish Politics
Years,"
225-258.
E-R
1908), pp. 86-87,
[Esther Frumkin], Di naye tsayt (Vilna,
cited in Goldsmith, Modern
Yiddish Culture (London,
1976; reprint
(New York: Fordham University Press, 1997), p. 216.
Di naye tsayt 7 (1909), p. 47, cited in Pinson, "Arkady Kremer,
and the Ideology of the Jewish Bund," p. 302.
Vladimir Medem,
Der fraynd no. 139 (St. Petersburg, 1910), reprinted inMenes, Der
yidisher gedenk in der nayer tsayt (New York, 1957), p. 127.
V. Medem,
"Natsionalizm
oder
3-4
'neytralizm',"
Tsay-fragen
(Vilna, 1910), pp. 15-25. The article was reprinted in V. Medem,
1938), pp. 112
Zikhroynes un artiklin (Warsaw: Farlag "Yiddish,"
134.
Medem, Zikhroynes un artiklin, p. 123.
Cited in Pinson, "Arkady Kremer, Vladimir Medem,
and the Ideol
ogy of the Jewish Bund," p. 306.
It was, in fact, Bronislaw Grosser's
in Zeltser
defense of Medem,
"Tsu
di
5
[B. Grosser],
(Vilna,
1910),
shtrayt-frage," Tsau-frage
pp. 68-83, that prompted Olgin's
reply.
Olgin, "Di yidishe shprakh in unzer privat-leven," Fragen fun le
ben 1 (Vilna, July 1911), p. 40.
Ibid., p. 41.
Ibid., p. 43.
Ibid., p. 48.
Berikht funder 8-ter konferents fun bund (1910), pp. 3-4.
25 yor: zamlbukh (Warsaw: Di Velt,
1922), p. 118; S. Dubnov
Erlich, "In di yorn fun reaktsye," Di geshikhte fun bund, 11:576.
Berikht funder 8-ter konferents fun bund, p. 74.
Ibid., p. 76.
Ibid.
M. Rafes, Ocherki po istorii Bunda (Moscow,
1923), cited in The
Jew in theModern World, Reinharz and Medes-Flohr,
p. 421.
Di shtime fun bund 3 (1910), p. 3.
Di shtime fun bund 4 (April, 1911), p. 4.
Bund Archive, RG1400 MG7,
folder 20. May Day
leaflet, 1912.
Central Committee of the Bund.
Otkliki bunda 5 (1911), cited inMedem,
The Life of a Legendary
Socialist, note on p. 474.
See Christoph Gassenschmidt,
Jewish Liberal Politics
in Tsarist
1900-1914:
the
Modernization
Russia,
of Russian
Jewry (New
York: New York University Press, 1995), pp. 56-71, which is one
Was theJewish Labor Bund a "National Movement"?
43
of the few works that focuses on Jewish political
life in Russia be
tween 1907 and 1914.
58. On the role of language in the growth of national consciousness
in
eastern Europe,
and the
see, among others, Breuilly, Nationalism
Nations
State, ch. 3; and the introduction to Hugh Seton-Watson's
and States: an Enquiry into the Origins of Nations and the Politics
Press, 1977).
(Boulder: Westview
ofNationalism
59. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, p. 7.
"
60. Anthony Smith, "The Origins of Nations,
Ethnic and Racial Stud
a Reader,
ies 12 (July 1989), reprinted in Becoming National:
Geoff Eley and Ronald Grigor Suny (eds.) (New York: Oxford Uni
versity Press, 1996), pp. 119-120.
Since 1780, p. 102.
61. Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism
62. See Walker Connor, "The Politics of Ethnonationalism,"
Journal of
no.
1
International
"Nation
(1973): 1-20; Connor,
Affairs 27,
or
no.
World
Politics
3 (April
25,
Nation-Destroying,"
Building
and Connor, "A nation is a nation, is a state, is an
1972):319-355;
ethnic group is a...," Ethnic and Racial Studies
1, no. 4 (October
1978):377-400.
or Nation-Destroying,"
63.
Connor, "Nation-Building
p. 331.
64. Walker Connor, "A Primer for Analyzing Ethnonational
Conflict,"
pp. 31 and 40.
in
Social
Preconditions
Revival
65. Miroslav
Hroch,
of National
66.
67.
68.
69.
70.
71.
72.
73.
74.
Press,
1985; reprint,
(Cambridge:
Cambridge University
Europe
New York: Columbia University Press, 2000).
on Nation
M. Hroch, "How Much Does Nation Formation Depend
alism?," East European Politics and Society 4 (Winter 1990).
to the Fully Formed Nation:
M. Hroch, "From National Movement
198
in Europe/'
New Left Review
the Nation-Building
Process
p. 62.
1993), in Becoming National,
(March-April
a
to Becoming
Introduction
and Suny (eds.),
National:
Eley
10.
Reader, p.
Brubaker, Nationalism
Reframed, pp. 5-6.
Ibid., p. 60.
and History: Letters on Old and New Ju
S. Dubnow, Nationalism
daism Koppel S. Pinson (ed.) (Philadelphia,
1958), p. 208.
On the participation of the Bund in cultural work after 1905, see
the Bund and the
my Poles, Jews and the Politics
of Nationality:
Polish Socialist Party in Late Tsarist Russia
(forthcoming, Madi
son: University of Wisconsin
Press, 2003), ch. 9.
Nations
and
States, p. 9.
Seton-Watson,
the Quest for Understand
See Walker Connor, Ethnonationalism:
Princeton
153; Joshua
Press,
1994),
University
ing (Princeton:
Two Integrative
and Nationalism:
Fishman,
Essays
Language
1972); and Peter Alter, National
(Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House,
ism (second ed.) (London and New York: Edward Arnold, 1994), p.
43.
44 Joshua Zimmerman
the
leaders defended
fact that the Bund's Russian-speaking
rights of Jews as a separate nationality is not unique in the history
In many cases,
of the nation formation process in eastern Europe.
non-dominant
ethnic groups
so-called "national awakeners"
among
in eastern Europe were secular elites who had adopted either the
state language or the nearest language of high culture. A good ex
ample is Frantisek Palacky, the founder of modern Czech historiog
raphy and of Czech nationalism, who wrote his first works on the
history of the Czech people in German [Geschichte von Bohmen, 5
The founders of national movements were often
vol. (1836-67)].
patriotic elites who initially agitated for a national revival not in
the vernacular but in the language of the state.
76. On the nation-formation process in eastern Europe, see J6zef Chle
in Europe. Nation-Forming
bowczyk, On Small and Young Nations
in East-Central
Processes
in Ethnic Borderlands
(Wro
Europe
claw: Polskie Towarzystwo
of
1980). For examples
Historyczne,
see
and their demands,
works on individual national movements
P. Vakar, Belorussia:
The Making
Nicholas
(Cam
of a Nation
R.
Harvard University
Press,
1956); Constantine
bridge, Mass.:
(New York: Lithuanian
Jurgela, History of the Lithuanian Nation
Cultural Institute, 1948); and Jean-Paul Himka, Galician
Villagers
in the Nineteenth Century
and the Ukrainian National Movement
(New York: St. Martin's Press, 1988).
77. On the Czech national movement, see Arnost Klima, "The Czechs,"
inHistorical
in Europe
in The National Question
Context M. Teich
and R. Porter (eds.)
Press,
(Cambridge:
Cambridge
University
and Joseph F. Zacek, "Nationalism
in Czecho
1993), pp. 228-247;
in Eastern Europe, Peter Sugar and Ivo J.
inNationalism
slovakia,"
Lederer (eds.) (Seattle: University of Washington
Press, 1969), pp.
166-192.
75.
The

Download Report