Bund Archive
Russian State Archive of Social and Political History (RGASPI), Moscow
The Bund (Algemeyner Yidisher Arbeter Bund in Lite, Poyln un Rusland) was a Jewish political party espousing social democratic ideology as well as cultural Yiddishism and Jewish national autonomy. The Bund archive, held by the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History (formerly Central Party Archive) in Moscow contains records and printed materials from the "Bund archive abroad", as well as records of local Bundist organizations from the period 1874-1926. This previously inaccessible collection is now available for research in a convenient, fully indexed microfiche format from IDC Publishers.
Repression
The Russian Empire had the largest Jewish population in the world. The census of 1897 enumerated more than five million. In its dealings with the Jews, the Tsarist regime combined strict segregation and sharp discrimination with fiscal exploitation and contemptuous treatment. The laws of 1791 and 1835 confined Russian Jews to fifteen provinces in the western part of the Russian Empire, called the Pale of Settlement (Cherta osedlosti). These territories are now found in the Russian Federation, the Ukraine, Belorussia and Poland. The unceasing repression stemmed from the regime’s extreme Judeophobia. Laws enacted in May 1882, following the wave of pogroms that swept through the Ukraine and Russia in 1881, further restricted Jewish residency and employment rights. Between 1881 and 1914 nearly two million Russian Jews, seeking better economic opportunities and freedom from persecution, emigrated.
The Bund
Algemeyner Yidisher Arbeter Bund in Lite, Poyln un Rusland was a Jewish political party espousing social democratic ideology as well as cultural Yiddishism and Jewish national autonomy. It was founded as a clandestine revolutionary organization in Vilna (now Vilnius in Lithuania) on October 7, 1897. It was dedicated to the overthrow of the Tsarist regime in the Russian Empire and the defence of the Jewish proletariat. The Bund demanded national-cultural autonomy (with Yiddish as its national language) for the Jews, insofar as they constituted a distinct nation and not just a separate religious group. This demand was combined with a belief that the Jews would find their redemption not in the ancient world of Palestine, but rather in Eastern Europe, in the lands where they had been rooted for so long. In contrast to the Poalei Zion movement, the Bund rejected Zionist ideology. Central to its beliefs was the struggle for the national rights of Jews wherever they lived, including the recognition of Yiddish as a national language.
Russia
The Bund joined the Rossiiskaia sotsial-demokarticheskai rabochaia pariia (Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDRP)) as an autonomous organization on several occasions: 1898-1903, 1906-1917. In the 1905 revolution, the Bund led Jewish workers in street battles and on the barricades, forming armed self-defense groups to fight anti-Semitic pogroms in Odessa, Zhitomir and elsewhere. Shortly afterwards the revolution legalized the Bund’s activities, allowing the organization to function openly for the first time.The membership of the Bund in Russia grew constantly. By the time of the October Revolution in 1917 it numbered some 40,000 members resident in 400 localities. However, the assumption of absolute power by the Bolsheviks spelled doom for the Bund in Russia. Some members joined the Communist Party of Bolsheviks, whilst others transferred to the Jewish Social-Democratic Labour Party (Poalei Zion and renamed as the Jewish Communist Labour Party in 1923). The Soviet government disbanded the Social Democratic fraction of the Bund in 1921, as a result of which many leaders of the Bund emigrated to Western Europe. The Russian period in the Bund’s history came to a close.
Federation
Following the dissolution of the Bund in Russia, Poland became the centre of its activity as an independent political party (1919-1948). Romania, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia had autonomous Bund parties. Bundist groups continued to be active in various countries, including Israel, England, France, Argentina and the USA. In the post-war years the Bund (now known as the International Jewish Labour Bund) established itself as a loose federation of national Bundist organizations in several countries, with its centre in the United States. Many Bundist immigrants continued to adhere to the principles through activism within labour and socialist organizations.
Bund Archive
The archive of the Algemeyner Yidisher Arbeter Bund in Lite, Poyln un Rusland ("Russian Bund") consists of records and printed matter from "Bund archive abroad" and records of local Bundist organizations. The Bund archive was founded in 1899 in Geneva to facilitate the collection and preservation of vital organizational records, mainly of the Zagranichnyi komitet (Abroad Committee) and printed matter (leaflets, journals, etc). The choice of place was necessitated by harsh political conditions in Russia where, due to political repression, the Bund remained underground. In 1919 the Bund Archive was transferred to Berlin where it established a headquarters in the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) building. Once again, unfavourable political conditions prevented the archives from being moved to Poland, which by then had become the centre of the Bund movement.
The largest part of the Bund collection held in RGASPI was bought during the period 1924-1927. At the end of 1924 N.S. Angarskii (a representative from the Lenin Institute) and ISTPART (Istoriko-Partiinaia Komissia, which gathered documents concerning the history of the communist and socialist movements in Russia), began negotiations with one of the holders, Franz Kurskii, of the "Bund archives abroad" and representatives of the Polish Bund in order to buy the Bund’s archive and library. Some documents were copied under F. Kurskii’s supervision. However, the documents were not just retyped. Remarks about and explanations of unclear passages were made, nicknames were replaced by original names and data was checked. In certain cases, the text even had to be "decoded" and "deciphered". Additionally, the Lenin Institute obtained a portion of printed and hectographic Bund materials. This collection was held first at the Lenin Institute and then in the Central Party archive, where the documents were disclosed and catalogued in two inventories (opisi). The other part of the collection was received from the Revolution Museum in Leningrad and deals with the history of the Bund in Bolshevik Russia.
The collection
The archive of the Algemeyner Yidisher Arbeter Bund in Lite, Poyln un Rusland, held by RGASPI (fond 271), consists of records and printed materials from "Bund archive abroad," as well as records of local Bundist organizations from the period 1874-1926. The first part (opis’ 1) covers predominantly the pre-Revolutionary period of the Bund’s history from 1894-1917. The majority of records from opis’ 2 date from 1917-1921 and deal with the history of the Bund in Bolshevik Russia. The records within the collection are catalogued thematically and chronologically.
The archival collection contains documents on the following topics:
• History of Jews in Eastern Europe (Russia, Poland, the Ukraine); Anti-Semitism in Tsarist Russia; pogroms, Yiddish culture.
• Jewish Labour movement in the Russian Empire: before the rise of Bund; Bund in Russia 1897-1923 (including records of the Bund Foreign Committee in Geneva, 1898-1919; of the Central Bureau of Bundist Groups Abroad, and of Bund cells in the Tsarist army).
• Russian revolutionary parties: Narodnaia Volia, Rossiiskaia Sotsial-Demokraticheskaia Rabochaia Partiia (RSDRP); The Mensheviks, the Bolsheviks, the Socialist Revolutionary Party (SR); Revolutions of 1905 and 1917 in Russia; Jews in Russian revolutionary parties, biographies.
• Jewish political movements (Zionism, Poalei Zion, Zionist-Socialists, Territorialists, Folkists, religious groups, biographies).
• International socialist movement: Socialist International, Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), socialist parties in Germany, Great Britain, France and other European countries, biographies; correspondence of prominent leaders of socialist movements such as K. Kautsky, A. Bebel, L. Trotsky, A. Plekhanov.
• Bundist publications range from leaflets and pamphlets to complete runs of periodicals. Included are illegal propaganda pamphlets and periodicals from the Bund’s earliest period, which were published abroad and subsequently smuggled into Russia as well as proclamations and brochures printed in clandestine printing shops inside Russia.
• The collection also includes photographs, posters, minutes, reports, correspondence, financial ledgers, manuscripts and biographical materials.
RGASPI
The Russian State Archive of Social and Economic History (RGASPI; formerly Centre for the Preservation and Study of the Archives of Contemporary History, a.k.a. RTsKhIDNI) is the keeper of the former Central Party Archive. RGASPI possesses the richest collection of documents and materials concerning the social and political history of Russia and many countries of Europe, Asia and America. Its holdings consist of more than 1.6 million files, 9,300 photographs and 8,600 metres of film. It also houses the documents of different political parties, social democratic, communist, and international organizations; the correspondence of well-known political figures; historical evidence of the French Revolution of the eighteenth century and the 1848 revolutions in Europe; Communist Union; and the 1st, 2nd and 3rd International.
Russian State Archive of Social and Political History (RGASPI), Moscow
The Bund (Algemeyner Yidisher Arbeter Bund in Lite, Poyln un Rusland) was a Jewish political party espousing social democratic ideology as well as cultural Yiddishism and Jewish national autonomy. The Bund archive, held by the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History (formerly Central Party Archive) in Moscow contains records and printed materials from the "Bund archive abroad", as well as records of local Bundist organizations from the period 1874-1926. This previously inaccessible collection is now available for research in a convenient, fully indexed microfiche format from IDC Publishers.
Repression
The Russian Empire had the largest Jewish population in the world. The census of 1897 enumerated more than five million. In its dealings with the Jews, the Tsarist regime combined strict segregation and sharp discrimination with fiscal exploitation and contemptuous treatment. The laws of 1791 and 1835 confined Russian Jews to fifteen provinces in the western part of the Russian Empire, called the Pale of Settlement (Cherta osedlosti). These territories are now found in the Russian Federation, the Ukraine, Belorussia and Poland. The unceasing repression stemmed from the regime’s extreme Judeophobia. Laws enacted in May 1882, following the wave of pogroms that swept through the Ukraine and Russia in 1881, further restricted Jewish residency and employment rights. Between 1881 and 1914 nearly two million Russian Jews, seeking better economic opportunities and freedom from persecution, emigrated.
The Bund
Algemeyner Yidisher Arbeter Bund in Lite, Poyln un Rusland was a Jewish political party espousing social democratic ideology as well as cultural Yiddishism and Jewish national autonomy. It was founded as a clandestine revolutionary organization in Vilna (now Vilnius in Lithuania) on October 7, 1897. It was dedicated to the overthrow of the Tsarist regime in the Russian Empire and the defence of the Jewish proletariat. The Bund demanded national-cultural autonomy (with Yiddish as its national language) for the Jews, insofar as they constituted a distinct nation and not just a separate religious group. This demand was combined with a belief that the Jews would find their redemption not in the ancient world of Palestine, but rather in Eastern Europe, in the lands where they had been rooted for so long. In contrast to the Poalei Zion movement, the Bund rejected Zionist ideology. Central to its beliefs was the struggle for the national rights of Jews wherever they lived, including the recognition of Yiddish as a national language.
Russia
The Bund joined the Rossiiskaia sotsial-demokarticheskai rabochaia pariia (Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDRP)) as an autonomous organization on several occasions: 1898-1903, 1906-1917. In the 1905 revolution, the Bund led Jewish workers in street battles and on the barricades, forming armed self-defense groups to fight anti-Semitic pogroms in Odessa, Zhitomir and elsewhere. Shortly afterwards the revolution legalized the Bund’s activities, allowing the organization to function openly for the first time.The membership of the Bund in Russia grew constantly. By the time of the October Revolution in 1917 it numbered some 40,000 members resident in 400 localities. However, the assumption of absolute power by the Bolsheviks spelled doom for the Bund in Russia. Some members joined the Communist Party of Bolsheviks, whilst others transferred to the Jewish Social-Democratic Labour Party (Poalei Zion and renamed as the Jewish Communist Labour Party in 1923). The Soviet government disbanded the Social Democratic fraction of the Bund in 1921, as a result of which many leaders of the Bund emigrated to Western Europe. The Russian period in the Bund’s history came to a close.
Federation
Following the dissolution of the Bund in Russia, Poland became the centre of its activity as an independent political party (1919-1948). Romania, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia had autonomous Bund parties. Bundist groups continued to be active in various countries, including Israel, England, France, Argentina and the USA. In the post-war years the Bund (now known as the International Jewish Labour Bund) established itself as a loose federation of national Bundist organizations in several countries, with its centre in the United States. Many Bundist immigrants continued to adhere to the principles through activism within labour and socialist organizations.
Bund Archive
The archive of the Algemeyner Yidisher Arbeter Bund in Lite, Poyln un Rusland ("Russian Bund") consists of records and printed matter from "Bund archive abroad" and records of local Bundist organizations. The Bund archive was founded in 1899 in Geneva to facilitate the collection and preservation of vital organizational records, mainly of the Zagranichnyi komitet (Abroad Committee) and printed matter (leaflets, journals, etc). The choice of place was necessitated by harsh political conditions in Russia where, due to political repression, the Bund remained underground. In 1919 the Bund Archive was transferred to Berlin where it established a headquarters in the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) building. Once again, unfavourable political conditions prevented the archives from being moved to Poland, which by then had become the centre of the Bund movement.
The largest part of the Bund collection held in RGASPI was bought during the period 1924-1927. At the end of 1924 N.S. Angarskii (a representative from the Lenin Institute) and ISTPART (Istoriko-Partiinaia Komissia, which gathered documents concerning the history of the communist and socialist movements in Russia), began negotiations with one of the holders, Franz Kurskii, of the "Bund archives abroad" and representatives of the Polish Bund in order to buy the Bund’s archive and library. Some documents were copied under F. Kurskii’s supervision. However, the documents were not just retyped. Remarks about and explanations of unclear passages were made, nicknames were replaced by original names and data was checked. In certain cases, the text even had to be "decoded" and "deciphered". Additionally, the Lenin Institute obtained a portion of printed and hectographic Bund materials. This collection was held first at the Lenin Institute and then in the Central Party archive, where the documents were disclosed and catalogued in two inventories (opisi). The other part of the collection was received from the Revolution Museum in Leningrad and deals with the history of the Bund in Bolshevik Russia.
The collection
The archive of the Algemeyner Yidisher Arbeter Bund in Lite, Poyln un Rusland, held by RGASPI (fond 271), consists of records and printed materials from "Bund archive abroad," as well as records of local Bundist organizations from the period 1874-1926. The first part (opis’ 1) covers predominantly the pre-Revolutionary period of the Bund’s history from 1894-1917. The majority of records from opis’ 2 date from 1917-1921 and deal with the history of the Bund in Bolshevik Russia. The records within the collection are catalogued thematically and chronologically.
The archival collection contains documents on the following topics:
• History of Jews in Eastern Europe (Russia, Poland, the Ukraine); Anti-Semitism in Tsarist Russia; pogroms, Yiddish culture.
• Jewish Labour movement in the Russian Empire: before the rise of Bund; Bund in Russia 1897-1923 (including records of the Bund Foreign Committee in Geneva, 1898-1919; of the Central Bureau of Bundist Groups Abroad, and of Bund cells in the Tsarist army).
• Russian revolutionary parties: Narodnaia Volia, Rossiiskaia Sotsial-Demokraticheskaia Rabochaia Partiia (RSDRP); The Mensheviks, the Bolsheviks, the Socialist Revolutionary Party (SR); Revolutions of 1905 and 1917 in Russia; Jews in Russian revolutionary parties, biographies.
• Jewish political movements (Zionism, Poalei Zion, Zionist-Socialists, Territorialists, Folkists, religious groups, biographies).
• International socialist movement: Socialist International, Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), socialist parties in Germany, Great Britain, France and other European countries, biographies; correspondence of prominent leaders of socialist movements such as K. Kautsky, A. Bebel, L. Trotsky, A. Plekhanov.
• Bundist publications range from leaflets and pamphlets to complete runs of periodicals. Included are illegal propaganda pamphlets and periodicals from the Bund’s earliest period, which were published abroad and subsequently smuggled into Russia as well as proclamations and brochures printed in clandestine printing shops inside Russia.
• The collection also includes photographs, posters, minutes, reports, correspondence, financial ledgers, manuscripts and biographical materials.
RGASPI
The Russian State Archive of Social and Economic History (RGASPI; formerly Centre for the Preservation and Study of the Archives of Contemporary History, a.k.a. RTsKhIDNI) is the keeper of the former Central Party Archive. RGASPI possesses the richest collection of documents and materials concerning the social and political history of Russia and many countries of Europe, Asia and America. Its holdings consist of more than 1.6 million files, 9,300 photographs and 8,600 metres of film. It also houses the documents of different political parties, social democratic, communist, and international organizations; the correspondence of well-known political figures; historical evidence of the French Revolution of the eighteenth century and the 1848 revolutions in Europe; Communist Union; and the 1st, 2nd and 3rd International.