Russian Jews Between the Reds and the Whites, 1917-1920. Oleg Budnitskii

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      Emigration, secular education, and the “proletarianization” of a significant portion of Russia's Jews all served to weaken the system of traditional Jewish values that had previously gone unchallenged. As a result, Jews were increasingly drawn toward politics. This was particularly true of the younger generation. In 1897, the United Jewish Workers' Union of Lithuania, Poland, and Russia (or Bund) was founded at an illegal congress in Vilna. It was both the first social democratic political party in Russia and also the largest Jewish political party. Three Bund members would go on to be founding members of the Russian Social Democratic Party in 1898. The Bund opposed Zionism, and although it espoused a class-based ideology, it also agitated for Jewish cultural autonomy, an issue that was to lead to its split with the Social Democrats in 1903, though they reunited in 1906.

      The year 1899 saw the formation of several Poalei Zion (Workers of Zion) groups, which attempted to combine socialism with Zionism; this was followed in 1903 by the founding of Tseirei Zion (Youth of Zion), which pursued a non-Marxist socialist agenda. In January of 1905, a group of Poalei Zionists who were committed to the creation of a Jewish state (in Palestine or elsewhere) founded the Zionist Socialist Workers' Party, with N. Syrkin at its head. Their more “classical” Zionist counterparts formed the Social Democratic Party Poalei Zion (headed by B. Borokhov) in February of 1906. April of the same year witnessed the founding of the Socialist Jewish Workers Party, headed by Kh. O. Zhitlovskii, which opposed “territorialism” and Zionism. In 1906, the Jewish People's Party (Folkspartei) united the followers of historian and thinker S. M. Dubnov, who believed that Jews were “one people united in spirit” who must agitate for “wide cultural and communal autonomy.” Dubnov believed that Zionism was an opiate for the spiritually feeble and was opposed to emigration to Palestine. Finally, that same year also saw the founding of the Jewish People's Group, with Vinaver at its head. Its membership included most of the Jewish “Kadets.” The members of this group also held anti-Zionist beliefs.⁹⁶

      A number of Jews were also among the leadership of the Russian revolutionary parties, including the Social Democrats (Iu. O. Martov-Tsederbaum, P. B. Aksel'rod, and others), the Social Revolutionaries (G. A. Gershuni, the Gots brothers, and others). Russian anarchism first appeared within the Pale of Settlement (it was centered in Bialystok, Ekaterinoslav, and Odessa) and Jews often constituted a majority in anarchist groups.⁹⁷ The radicalization of Jewish politics was accompanied by the continued integration of the Jewish population into Russian society.⁹⁸ Over the previous half-century, a small but growing segment of Russian Jewry had come to consider themselves “Russian keepers of the Torah.” This relatively small, yet influential, group was more educated and prosperous than the general Jewish population, and was deeply involved in the economy and politics of the Empire. For members of this group, Russian culture was as important as Jewish culture; if the Russian language was not their native tongue (though it often was), they at least used it for professional communication. A number of them played significant roles in the development of Russian culture as well. Not all of the members of this group should be considered assimilationists; adopting Russian culture no longer necessarily entailed disowning one's Jewish heritage or a refusing to participate in issues affecting the Jewish community. Business owners, lawyers, doctors, writers, scientists, and publishers, they believed that liberalization and reforms would allow Jews to live in Russia as well as they did in Western Europe, and they actively collaborated with Russians to that end. They were often just as fervently patriotic as their Russian counterparts.

      Government policy toward the Jews at the turn of the twentieth century continued to demonstrate the same lack of consistency as in earlier periods. On the one hand, decisions undertaken by the Senate and favorable rulings by the Ministry of the Interior resulted in a number of restrictions from the “Temporary Laws” being eased or removed during the period 1897–1907. Surprisingly, these rulings had little to do with political orientation, and Prime Ministers of varying political beliefs (Sviatopolk-Mirskii, Stolypin, Plehve) all softened the authorities' stance towards Jews. Among the restrictions that were lifted were the laws forbidding Jews to live outside of cities and the prohibitions on distilling alcohol.⁹⁹

      However, some restrictions remained, such as those limiting access to education, as well as the laws aimed at keeping Jews out of certain professions. In 1894, seven years after the law imposing quotas on Jews in educational institutions was enacted, Jews still comprised 13.3 percent of all university students (1853 total), while by 1902 the number had dropped to 1250 (7 percent of all students). As a result, many Jewish students went abroad. In 1902 and 1903, between 1,895 and 2,405 Russian Jewish students studied abroad in European institutions (nearly twice the number enrolled in Russia). During the revolutionary years of 1905–7, the number of Jewish students enrolled in Russia increased to 4,266 (12 percent). Restrictive measures were reinstated soon after, and in 1913 there were 2505 enrolled Jewish students (7.3 percent).¹⁰⁰ In 1915 the government passed an initiative granting educational privileges to those who had served in the war (as well as their children) regardless of faith or ethnic status. This increased the percentage of Jewish students to nearly 8 percent (approximately 2,000) of all students enrolled in state universities and institutes in 1916. During the war it was impossible for Jews to study abroad, and studying in private institutes of higher education became the only available option. As the number of Jewish students in private institutions increased, the government considered instituting quotas for Jewish students at private institutions as well. Officials were split into two more or less even camps, and the Emperor eventually decided the matter, siding with those in favor of quotas on May 21, 1916.¹⁰¹ Given the extreme measures taken in government education policy towards the Jews from the mid-1880s to 1914 one cannot help agreeing with Nathans' claim that these events were a kind of “silent pogrom.”¹⁰²

      In 1886, 9,255 Jewish students were enrolled in gimnaziums. In 1911, the number had increased to 17,538, but the percentage had fallen, from 10.2 percent to 9.1 percent of all students enrolled. The number of university students during the same period increased from 1,856 to 3,602, but in terms of percentage there was a decrease from 14.5 percent to 9.4 percent.¹⁰³ Taking into account overall population growth, and the increase in education and numbers of spots for students in universities, it becomes clear that thousands of young people whose parents were unable to pay for their education were prevented from realizing their educational goals.¹⁰⁴ This situation increased the numbers of the “thinking proletariat” that was to produce future revolutionaries.

      The beginning of the twentieth century greeted Russian Jews with another wave of pogroms, which were even more bloody than those of years past. Unchecked antisemitic propaganda found fertile ground among a population whose culture already contained numerous antisemitic aspects. The result was the Kishinev pogrom, which took place during Easter in 1903. The cold-blooded murder of nearly 50 Jews in peacetime shocked both Russian society and the international community at large.¹⁰⁵ СКАЧАТЬ