A Bundist demonstration, 1917

The General Jewish Labour Union of Lithuania, Poland and Russia, in Yiddish the Algemeyner Yidisher Arbeter Bund in Lite, Poyln un Rusland (אַלגמײַנער ײדישער אַרבײטערסבונד אין ליטאַ, פוילין און רוסלאַנד), generally called The Bund (בונד) or the Jewish Labor Bund, was a Jewish political party operating in several European countries between the 1890s and the 1930s. Members of the Bund were called Bundists. 1917 This image is in the public domain in the United States and possibly other jurisdictions. ... Yiddish (ייִדיש, Jiddisch) is a Germanic language spoken by about four million Jews throughout the world. ... This article describes some ethnic, historic, and cultural aspects of the Jewish identity; for a consideration of the Jewish religion, refer to the article Judaism. ...

History

The Bund was founded in Wilno on October 7, 1897. It sought to unite all Jewish workers in the Russian Empire into a united socialist party. The Russian Empire then included Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine and most of Poland, countries where the majority of the world's Jews then lived. The Bund sought to ally itself with the wider Russian social democratic movement to achieve a democratic and socialist Russia. Within such a Russia, they hoped to see the Jews achieve recognition as a nation with a legal minority status. Vilnius Old Town Vilnius (sometimes Vilna; Polish Wilno, Belarusian Вільня, Russian Вильнюс, see also Cities alternative names) is the capital city of Lithuania. ... 1897 (MDCCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Official language Russian Official Religion Russian Orthodox Christianity Capital Saint Petersburg (Petrograd 1914-1924) Area Approx. ... Socialism is a social and economic system (or the political philosophy advocating such a system) in which the economic means of production are owned and controlled collectively by the people. ... Official language Russian Official Religion Russian Orthodox Christianity Capital Saint Petersburg (Petrograd 1914-1924) Area Approx. ... Social democracy is a political ideology emerging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from supporters of Marxism who believed that the transition to a socialist society could be achieved through democratic evolutionary rather than revolutionary means. ... Democracy (literally rule by the people, from the Greek demos, people, and kratos, rule) is a form of government for a nation state, or for an organization in which all the citizens have an equal vote or voice in shaping policy or electing government officials. ... Socialism refers to a broad array of doctrines or political movements that envisage a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to social control. ...

The Bund was a secular socialist party, opposed to what they saw as the reactionary nature of traditional Jewish life in Russia. Created before the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP), the Bund became a founding collective member of the RSDLP at its first congress in Minsk in March 1898. For the next 5 years, the Bund was recognised as the sole representative of the Jewish workers in the RSDLP, although many Russian socialists of Jewish descent, especially outside of the Pale of Settlement, joined the RSDLP directly. This article concerns secularity, that is, being secular, in various senses. ... The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, or RSDLP (Росси́йская Социа́л-Демократи́ческая Рабо́ча&#1103... Location Location of Minsk, shown within the Minsk Voblast Government Belarus District City Belarus Minsk Voblast Minsk City City 980 (Polatsk) Mayor Mikhail Pavlov Geographical characteristics Area  - City 256 km² Population  - City (2006) 1,780,000 Coordinates Elevation 280. ... 1898 (MDCCCXCVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... The Pale of Settlement (Russian: Черта оседлости - cherta osedlosti) was a western border region of Imperial Russia in which permanent residence of Jews was allowed, extending from the pale or demarcation line, to near the border with eastern/central Europe. ...

At the RSDLP's Second Congress in Brussels and London in August 1903, the Bund's autonomous position within the RSDLP was rejected by a majority of the delegates and the Bund's representatives left the Congress, the first of many splits in the Russian social democratic movement in the years to come. The Bund formally rejoined the RSDLP when all of its faction reunited at the Fourth (Unification) Congress in Stockholm in April 1906, but the party remained fractured along ideological and ethnic lines. The Bund generally sided with the party's Menshevik faction led by Julius Martov and against the Bolshevik faction led by Vladimir Lenin during the factional struggles in the runup to the Russian Revolution of 1917. Nickname: The Capital Of Europe, Comic City City of a 100 Museums Map showing the location of Brussels in Belgium Coordinates: Country Belgium Region Brussels-Capital Region Founded 797 Founded (Region) June 18, 1989 Mayor (Municipality) Freddy Thielemans Area    - City 162 (Region) km²  (62. ... London (pronounced ) is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom. ...   (IPA: ; UN/LOCODE: SE STO) is the capital of Sweden, and consequently the site of its Government and Parliament as well as the residence of the Swedish head of state, King Carl XVI Gustaf. ... Leaders of the Menshevik Party at Norra Bantorget in Stockholm, Sweden, May 1917. ... Julius Martov or L. Martov (Ма́ртов, real name Yuli Osipovich Zederbaum (Russian Ю́лий О́сипович Цедерба́ум)) (November 24, 1873 – April 4, 1923) was born in Constantinople in 1873. ... Leaders of the Bolshevik Party and the Communist International, a painting by Malcolm McAllister on the Pathfinder Mural in New York City and on the cover of the book Lenin’s Final Fight published by Pathfinder. ... Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Russian: , better known by the alias   (Ленин)) (April 22, 1870 – January 24, 1924), was a Russian revolutionary, a communist politician, the main leader of the October Revolution, the first head of Soviet Russia, and the primary theorist of the ideology that has come to be called Leninism, which... The Russian Revolution of 1917 was a series of political events in Russia, involving first the overthrow of the system of autocracy, and then the overthrow of the liberal Provisional Government (Duma), resulting in the establishment of the Soviet power under the control of the Bolshevik party. ...

The Bund strongly opposed Zionism, arguing that emigration to Palestine was a form of escapism. The Bund was internationalist in its socialist orientation, focusing on culture, not a state or a place, as the glue of Jewish "nationalism." In this they borrowed extensively from the Austro-Marxist school, further alienating the Bolsheviks and Lenin. The Bund also promoted the use of Yiddish as a Jewish national language and opposed the Zionist project of reviving Hebrew. Nevertheless, many Bundists were also Zionists, and the Bund suffered from a steady loss of active members to emigration. Many Bundists became active in forming socialist parties in Palestine, and later in Israel. Poster promoting a film about Jewish settlement in Palestine, 1930s: Toward a New Life (in Romanian),The Promised Land (in Hungarian), the small caption (bottom) reads First Palestinian film with sound Zionism is a political movement that supports a homeland for the Jewish people. ... Map of the British Mandate of Palestine. ... Escapism is mental diversion by means of entertainment or recreation, as an escape from the perceived unpleasant aspects of daily reality. ... Internationalism is a political movement which advocates a greater economic and political cooperation between nations for the benefit of all. ... Austromarxism was the left socialist ideology pursued by the Social Democratic Workers Party of Austria during the late decades of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the Austrian First Republic (1918-1934). ... Yiddish (ייִדיש, Jiddisch) is a Germanic language spoken by about four million Jews throughout the world. ... Hebrew redirects here. ...

The Bund won converts mainly among Jewish artisans and workers, but also among the growing Jewish intelligentsia. It acted as both a political party (to the extent that political conditions allowed) and as a trade union. It joined with the Labor Zionists and other groups to form self-defense organisations to protect Jewish communities against pogroms and government troops. During the Russian Revolution of 1905 the Bund headed the revolutionary movement in the Jewish towns, particularly in what is now Belarus. The intelligentsia (from Latin: intelligentia) is a social class of people engaged in complex mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture, encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them (e. ... Labor Zionism (or Labour Zionism) is the traditional left-wing of the Zionist ideology. ... Pogrom (from Russian: ; from громить IPA: - to wreak havoc, to demolish violently) is a form of riot, a massive violent attack on a particular group; ethnic, religious or other, primarily characterized by destruction of their environment (homes, businesses, religious centers). ... The Russian Revolution of 1905 was an empire-wide spasm of both anti-government and undirected violence. ...

Like other socialist parties in Russia, the Bund welcomed the February Revolution of 1917, but it did not support the October Revolution in which the Bolsheviks seized power. Like Mensheviks and other non-Bolshevik parties, the Bund called for the convening of the Russian Constituent Assembly long demanded by all Social Democratic factions. The Bund's key leader in Petrograd during these months was Mikhail Liber, who was to be roundly denounced by Lenin. With the Russian Civil War and the increase in anti-Semitic pogroms by nationalists and Whites, the Bund was obliged to recognise the Soviet government and its militants fought in the Red Army in large numbers. Given the polarised situation, the Bund split, losing its left wing led by Heifez to the Bolsheviks, who were soon followed by the center faction led by Moyshe Rafes. The rump was to join with the United Jewish Socialist Party in forming the Jewish Communist Bund or Kombund, which, in turn, joined the Bolshevik Party in 1921. By 1922 the Bund had ceased to exist as an independent party in the newly formed Soviet Union. Many former Bundists perished during Stalin's purges in the 1930s. The February Revolution (N.S.: March Revolution) of 1917 in Russia was the first stage of the Russian Revolution of 1917. ... Bolshevik (1920), by Boris Kustodiev. ... The Russian Constituent Assembly (Всероссийское Учредительное Собрание, Vserossiyskoye Uchreditelnoye Sobranie) was a democratically elected constitutional body convened in Russia after the overthrow of Tsar Nicholas II. It met for 13 hours, 4 p. ... Saint Petersburg  listen (Russian: Санкт-Петербу́рг, English transliteration: Sankt-Peterburg), colloquially known as Питер (transliterated Piter), formerly known as Leningrad (Ленингра́д, 1924–1991... Mikhail Liber (May 24, 1880 Old Style-October 4, 1937, born Mikhail Isaakovich Goldman) was a leader of the Jewish Bund. ... Combatants Red Army (Bolsheviks) White Army (Monarchists, SRs, Anti-Communists) Green Army (Peasants and Nationalists) Black Army (Anarchists) Commanders Leon Trotsky Mikhail Tukhachevsky Semyon Budyonny Lavr Kornilov, Alexander Kolchak, Anton Denikin, Pyotr Wrangel Alexander Antonov, Nikifor Grigoriev Nestor Makhno Strength 5,427,273 (peak) +1,000,000 Casualties 939,755... The White movement, whose military arm is known as the White Army (Белая Армия) or White Guard (Белая Гвардия, белогвардейцы) and whose members are known as Whites (Белые, or the derogatory Беляки) or White Russians (a term which has other meanings) comprised some of the Russian forces, both political and military, which opposed the Bolsheviks after the... Soviet redirects here. ... The short forms Red Army and RKKA refer to the Workers and Peasants Red Army, (in Russian: Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия - Raboche-Krestyanskaya Krasnaya Armiya), the armed forces first organized by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918. ... Stalin redirects here. ... The Great Purge (Russian: , transliterated Bolshaya chistka) is the name given to campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin during the late 1930s. ...

Poland and Lithuania became independent in 1918, and the Bund continued to operate in these countries, particularly in the heavily Jewish towns of eastern Poland. It also became active among the Jewish emigré community in New York. In Poland, the Bundists argued that Jews should stay and fight for socialism rather than emigrate. When the Revisionist Zionist leader Vladimir Jabotinsky toured Poland urging the "evacuation" of European Jewry, the Bundists accused him of abetting anti-Semitism. Another non-Zionist Yiddishist Jewish party at the time in Lithuania and Poland was the Folkspartei. 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... Official language(s) English de facto Capital Albany Largest city New York City Area  Ranked 27th  - Total 54,520 sq mi (141,205 km²)  - Width 285 miles (455 km)  - Length 330 miles (530 km)  - % water 13. ... Revisionist Zionism is a right wing tendency within the Zionist movement. ... Zeev Jabotinsky in military uniform Zeev Vladimir (Evgenevich) Jabotinsky (or Zhabotinski) (October 18, 1880 - August 4, 1940) was a Zionist leader, author, orator, and founder of the Jewish Legion in World War I. During World War II a similar and larger unit known as the Jewish Brigade would follow. ... The Folkspartei (yiddish: Yidishe folkspartay; Peoples Democratic Party, folkist party) was founded after the 1905 pogroms in Russia by Simon Dubnow and Israel Efrojkin. ...

During World War II the Bund continued to operate as an underground organization in Poland. In 1942, the Bundist Marek Edelman became a cofounder of the Jewish Fighting Organization that led the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and was also part of the Polish resistance movement Armia Krajowa (Home Army), which fought against the Nazis in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Nazi Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Harry Truman Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead... Marek Edelman, Warsaw University, Warsaw (Poland), April 26, 2005 Marek Edelman (b. ... The Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa (ŻOB, Polish for the Jewish Fighting Organization) - a World War II resistance movement, which supposedly was instrumental in engineering the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (ZZW fighters from second Jewish resistance organisation claim otherwise). ... Combatants Nazi Germany Polish and Jewish collaborators Jewish resistance (Å»OB, Å»ZW) Armia Krajowa Commanders Jürgen Stroop Mordechai Anielewicz†, Dawid Apfelbaum†, PaweÅ‚ Frenkiel†, Icchak Cukierman, Marek Edelman, Zivia Lubetkin, Henryk IwaÅ„ski Strength 2,054, including 821 Waffen SS At least 56,065 civilians, 750-1,000 insurgents Casualties Officially... A resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups, dedicated to fighting an invader in an occupied country through either the use of physical force, or nonviolence. ... The Armia Krajowa (Home Army) or AK functioned as the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II in German-occupied Poland, which was active in all areas of the country from September 1939 until its disbanding in January 1945. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1944 calendar). ... Combatants Poland Germany Commanders Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski, Antoni ChruÅ›ciel, Tadeusz PeÅ‚czyÅ„ski Erich von dem Bach, Rainer Stahel, Heinz Reinefarth, Bronislav Kaminski Strength 50,000 troops 25,000 troops Casualties 18,000 killed, 12,000 wounded, 15,000 taken prisoner 250,000 civilians killed 10,000 killed...

The massacre of Polish Jewry during the Holocaust destroyed both its base and, in the eyes of many surviving Polish Jews, its ideological validity. By 1945 few of the surviving eastern European Jews believed any longer in the Bund's particular vision of socialism or in a future for the Jews in Europe, and most of the survivors emigrated, to Israel or to America. Concentration camp inmates during the Holocaust The Holocaust was Nazi Germanys systematic genocide (ethnic cleansing) of various ethnic, religious, national, and secular groups during World War II. Early elements include the Kristallnacht pogrom and the T-4 Euthanasia Program established by Hitler that killed some 200,000 people. ... 1945 (MCMVL) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ...

However, the Bund took part in the post-war elections of 1947 on a common ticket with the (non-communist) Polish Socialist Party (PPS) and gained its first and only parliamentary seat in its Polish history, plus several seats in municipal councils. Under pressure from Soviet-installed Communist authorities, the Bund's leaders 'voluntarily' disbanded the party in 1948-1949 against the opposition of many activists. The latter included Marek Edelman, who later was to take part in the Polish anticommunist opposition in the 1970s, and a member of the Sejm after the fall of the Communist regime in 1989. The Polish Socialist Party (Polska Partia Socjalistyczna, PPS) was one of the two most important Polish political parties from its inception in 1892 until 1948, when it merged with the Stalinist Polish Workers Party (PPR) to form the Polish United Workers Party (PZPR), the ruling party in the Peoples... Marek Edelman, Warsaw University, Warsaw (Poland), April 26, 2005 Marek Edelman (b. ... The Sejm building in Warsaw. ...

The Bund survives as a minor political movement in Jewish communities in the United States, where from the 1950s on it operated a summer camp called Camp Hemshekh in the Catskills region of New York State, as well as in Canada and Australia. In the United Kingdom, the Jewish Socialist Group claims to continue the work of the Bund. The remnant of the original Bund remains an official affiliate of the Socialist International. The official symbol of Socialist International The Socialist International is a worldwide organization of social democratic, labor, and democratic socialist political parties. ...

The politics of the Bund were influential amongst African American socialists and communists from the end of the nineteenth century^{[citation needed]}. An African American (also Afro-American, Black American, or simply black) is a member of an ethnic group in the United States whose ancestors, usually in predominant part, were indigenous to Africa. ... Socialism is any economic system in which the means of production are owned and controlled collectively or a political philosophy advocating such a system. ... This article is about communism as a form of society, as an ideology advocating that form of society, and as a popular movement. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In 1997 commemorative events were organised to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Bund in New York City, London, Warsaw and Brussels, where the chairwoman of the Belgian chapter, herself 100 year old, was present. 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A centenary is an event to celebrate the 100th anniversary of an event. ... Warsaw (Polish: , , in full The Capital City of Warsaw, Polish: Miasto Stołeczne Warszawa) is the capital of Poland and its largest city. ...

See also

• Tsukunft
• Yevsektsiya

Tsukunft or Cukunft (yiddish future)was the youth organization of the Bund. ... Yevsektsiya (alternative spelling: Yevsektsia), Russian: ЕвСекция, the abbreviation of the phrase Еврейская секция (Yevreyskaya sektsiya) was the Jewish section of the Soviet Communist party created to challenge and eventually destroy...

External links

• Exhibit: The Story of the Jewish Labor Bund, 1897-1997
• Bund Archives and Library, YIVO
• The Bund Archive in RGASPI is available on microfiche
• Finding Aid to The Bund Archive in RGASPI (in English and Russian)
• Un Mouvement Juif Revolutionnaire: Le Bund (in French)
• In Love and In Struggle: The Musical Legacy of the Jewish Labor Bund
• Sholem Aleichem College, Melbourne, apparently the world's only surviving Bundist school
• the Bundist Voice, the website spreading the Bundist ideas and outlooks