Communist Bund (Ukraine)

The Communist Bund (Kombund) was a Jewish Communist political party in Ukraine and Bielorussia, formed after a split in the General Jewish Labour Bund (Bund). In late 1918 Bund branches in cities like Bobruisk, Ekaterinoburg and Odessa formed 'leftwing Bund groups'. In February 1919 these groups (representing the majority in Ukrainian Bund movement) adopted the name 'Communist Bund', constituting themselves as an independent party of the Jewish proletariat. The Kombund supported Jewish national autonomy.[1][2][3] The Communist Bund supported the Soviet side in the Russian Civil War.[4][5]

Moisei Rafes was the leader of the party. Rafes had been a leading figure in the Bund in Ukraine.[1]

Whilst the Communist Party (bolsheviks) of Ukraine (CP(b)U) recognized the need to collaborate with the Ukrainian Kombund, they refused to recognize the Kombund as a communist party. CP(b)U held that the Kombund was a middle class movement and its members were not given responsibilities in different Soviets. Nor did CP(b)U accept that the Kombund merge into the party.[6]

In May 1919 Kombund and the United Jewish Communist Party merged, forming the Ukrainian Communist Union, 'Komfarband'.[1][2][5][7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Levin, Nora (1990). The Jews in the Soviet Union Since 1917: Paradox of Survival. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 978-0-8147-5051-3. Retrieved 2009-11-10.
  2. 1 2 Ben-Sasson, Haim Hillel. A History of the Jewish People. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1976. p. 966
  3. Pinkus, Benjamin. Jews of the Soviet Union: A History of a National Minority. [S.l.]: Cambridge, 1990. p. 128
  4. Wood, Elizabeth A. Performing Justice: Agitation Trials in Early Soviet Russia. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2005. p. 261
  5. 1 2 Ben-Śaśon, Ḥayim Hilel, and Michael Brenner. Geschichte des jüdischen Volkes: von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart. München: Beck, 2007. p. 1186
  6. Baruch Gurevitz (15 September 1980). National Communism in the Soviet Union, 1918-28. University of Pittsburgh Pre. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-8229-7736-0.
  7. Gilboa, Jehoshua A. A Language Silenced: The Suppression of Hebrew Literature and Culture in the Soviet Union. Rutherford [N.J.]: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1982. p. 282
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