You can help expand this article with text translated from
the corresponding article in Russian. (November 2010) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
|
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]
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]
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]
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.