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A Lebanese ex-colleague had come across an article which implied that the Russian Communist Revolution was a Jewish conspiracy. He asked me to do some research and let him have my views on this subject. I thought that this may of interest to forum members who are students of history. I would, however, stress the fact that my views are arrived at after reading about 20 articles on the causes of the Communist revolution all available on the internet. I would be most interested in hearing from Israeli/Jewish members.
There are three main questions to answer.
1. Why did Jews support Bolshevik revolution?
2. Why so many early leaders were Jewish?
3. Was Bolshevik revolution a Jewish conspiracy?
.
In 1791, Catherine created as the restrictive area for Jewish habitation, which later became known as the “Pale of settlement”. This was located off the Western regions of the Tsarist Empire and the only area where the Jews were allowed to have permanent residency. For nearly 200 years Jews had been persecuted and treated as second class citizens of Russia. The assassination of Alexander II on March 1, 1881, was blamed on the Jews, set off the first major round of violent anti-Semitic activities also known as pogroms.
Marxism; in theory at least; promised equality and justice for all, an end to the ethnic persecution and discrimination and economic and social parity for all. Since the group that had has suffered more inequality and injustice, and discrimination for the last 200 years were the Jews; attraction of Marxism/Communism to the Jewish population is understandable and it is no wonder that the Jewish intelligentsia of the day fell under the spell of Marxism’s siren song.
Therefore, when following the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II in February 1917, Russia was declared a republic and run by a provisional government; the news was welcomed by the Jewish population. Indeed, the new government abolished all legal restrictions based on religion, race, or nationality. This meant nearly 5 and half million Russian Jews were emancipated, free and equal citizens of Russia almost overnight.
The Jews; like most of the serfs; revelled in these new rights, issuing a plethora of new publications, artistic creations & newspapers. Majority of leaders of the new Russian gov’t had been moderate centrists, making the large Jewish minority almost euphoric.
Jews were quite justified in their euphoria because as soon as the as the civil war broke out; the anti-Bolshevik support came mainly from the right wing dominated by anti- Bolshevik and the violently anti-Semitic section of the Russian population. The White Army soldiers conducted massive pogroms against the Jews.
Hence, most probably the main reason for the Jewish support for the Communist cause was the historical treatment of the Jewish population during the Tzarist Russia.
In October 1917 (6 months later) the Provisional Gov’t was dissolved and replaced by the Bolsheviks made up of workers, soldiers and professional revolutionaries; a number of whom were the Jews, many of whom had rejected their own Jewishness in support of Communism.
However, not all Russian Jews supported the Bolsheviks. In the subsequent election of the Congress of Russian Jews, the majority of Jews supported Jewish parties representing the center of the political spectrum with the Bolsheviks having only a small percentage of the Jewish vote. Instead, the Jewish community was well represented among the Mensheviks.
(After a dispute over the part membership requirements, Russian Socialist Democratic Labour party or the SDLP, split into two factions, the Bolsheviks /Leninists and the Mensheviks led by Martov who was also Jewish).
Out of the Russian population of about 170-million at the onset of the1917; the Jews numbered about 5.5-million, constituting just over 3% of the Russian masses. Therefore it can be safely argued that even though an inordinate percentage of the Communist intelligentsia and the Party were Jewish, that did not make the Russian Revolution a Jewish phenomenon.
Certainly, there were many Jews who, in their heart of hearts, still maintained their fealty to their old political parties and their old way of life such as their Zionism, their liberalism and their religious Orthodoxy. But as the new Soviet Union rose from the ashes of the Revolution, the Civil War, the Soviet-Ukrainian War and the Soviet-Polish War, the Jews made their peace with the new Communist state which had committed itself against the forces of reaction and anti-Semitism.
Additionally, despite the fact that that the economic system the new regime introduced, the “War Communism” destroyed the very basis of Jewish life in Eastern Europe for centuries; such as the market economy; as well as the free liberal professions that Jews had entered into en masse; the overwhelming support of the Jewish intelligentsia for the Communism/ Bolsheviks cannot be denied. The only possible explanation could be that this was because of the Red Army made anti-Semitism a crime against the state, outlawed pogroms, and even prosecuted anti-Semitism in its ranks.
One could also say that Jewish intellectuals such as writers, painters, sculptors, novelists, short-story writers saw in the Revolution vast opportunities for creative liberation and hence supported the Bolsheviks en mass.
A young intellectual named Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov better known as Vladimir Lenin, along with Georgi Plenkov had been one of the founding members of the SDLP. In 1902 he published “What is to be done” outlining his view of the party's task and methodology; to form "the vanguard” of the proletariat. (The original term Bolsheviks. the Leninist wing of the SDLP was derived from bolshinstvo, Russian for "majority").
Lenin had many Jews among his close associates. Alexander Guchkov, the Russian minister of War in the Russian Provisional Government after Tsar Nicholas II abdicated in March 1917, told the British military attaché, General Alfred Knox, that “the extreme element consists of Jews and imbeciles. Churchill named Maxim Litvinoff, Trotsky, Grigory Zinoviev, Radek, and Leonid Krassin as the ones who provided Communism with the ideological leadership. It was influence of these early Jewish intellectuals in the Russian Revolution, and by extension in the Communism that led to the claim by the anti-communist forces that Soviet Communism was a Jewish plot with anti-Semitic voices painting Soviet Communism as “Jewish Bolshevism”.
The proponents of this theory hold the view that since nearly all of the Jewish luminaries of the era, such as Trotsky, Julius Martov, Marc Chagall, Vera Inber, Simon Dubnov and Vasily Shulgin supported the Communist Revolution; the driving power of the revolution came from Jewish leaders without which the Communist Revolution would have failed.
In fact Trotsky and the larger number of Jewish revolutionaries, activists and followers who were attracted to Communism in the late 19th century were hard-core Marxists and happened to be Jews only by virtue of the accident of birth. According to many later Jews; “They appeared under Russian pseudonyms because they were ashamed of their Jewish origins. It would be better to say that their Jewish names are pseudonyms; they are not rooted in our people.” In my personal opinion, the Jewish intellectuals were attracted by a “Utopian” ideal what they thought Communism/Marxism represented and was far removed from the persecution of the Tzarist regime.
With 100 years of hindsight, it is still difficult to understand what really attracted so many Jews of the Russian empire to communism. Were their actions infused with Jewishness, a sense of Jewish mission like the ’Tikkun Olam' (A Jewish concept defined by acts of kindness performed to perfect or repair the world. The phrase is found in the Mishnah, a body of classical rabbinic teachings) and “light unto the nations” values we hear about today, or were their actions strictly pragmatic as a minority group struggling to be part of larger society? The answer lies somewhere in the middle.
Solzhenitsyn awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970, spent much of his life in Soviet prison camps, enduring persecution when he wrote about his experiences. In an interview he said that Russia must come to terms with the Stalinist and revolutionary genocides and that its Jewish population should be as offended at their own role in the purges as they are at the Soviet power. In his latest book Solzhenitsyn, deals with one of the last taboos of the communist revolution: that Jews were as much perpetrators of the repression as it's victims.
Brutal reality is that the situation Jews were born into in the 19th-century ‘Pale of Settlement’ areas, has no parallel with today’s Jewish experience. Instead, this bears some resemblance to the situation of the Palestinians living under the present day state of Israel. All one can opine is that there was a spark in the Jewish community amidst unique circumstances of radical change that pushed it to the leadership in the Marxist movement. However, a satisfactory explanation of this phenomenon is still to be found.
I would conclude by re-asserting my earlier statement “Even though a very large percentage of the Communist intelligentsia and the SDLP Party were Jewish, that did not make the Russian Revolution a Jewish phenomenon”
There are three main questions to answer.
1. Why did Jews support Bolshevik revolution?
2. Why so many early leaders were Jewish?
3. Was Bolshevik revolution a Jewish conspiracy?
.
In 1791, Catherine created as the restrictive area for Jewish habitation, which later became known as the “Pale of settlement”. This was located off the Western regions of the Tsarist Empire and the only area where the Jews were allowed to have permanent residency. For nearly 200 years Jews had been persecuted and treated as second class citizens of Russia. The assassination of Alexander II on March 1, 1881, was blamed on the Jews, set off the first major round of violent anti-Semitic activities also known as pogroms.
Marxism; in theory at least; promised equality and justice for all, an end to the ethnic persecution and discrimination and economic and social parity for all. Since the group that had has suffered more inequality and injustice, and discrimination for the last 200 years were the Jews; attraction of Marxism/Communism to the Jewish population is understandable and it is no wonder that the Jewish intelligentsia of the day fell under the spell of Marxism’s siren song.
Therefore, when following the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II in February 1917, Russia was declared a republic and run by a provisional government; the news was welcomed by the Jewish population. Indeed, the new government abolished all legal restrictions based on religion, race, or nationality. This meant nearly 5 and half million Russian Jews were emancipated, free and equal citizens of Russia almost overnight.
The Jews; like most of the serfs; revelled in these new rights, issuing a plethora of new publications, artistic creations & newspapers. Majority of leaders of the new Russian gov’t had been moderate centrists, making the large Jewish minority almost euphoric.
Jews were quite justified in their euphoria because as soon as the as the civil war broke out; the anti-Bolshevik support came mainly from the right wing dominated by anti- Bolshevik and the violently anti-Semitic section of the Russian population. The White Army soldiers conducted massive pogroms against the Jews.
Hence, most probably the main reason for the Jewish support for the Communist cause was the historical treatment of the Jewish population during the Tzarist Russia.
In October 1917 (6 months later) the Provisional Gov’t was dissolved and replaced by the Bolsheviks made up of workers, soldiers and professional revolutionaries; a number of whom were the Jews, many of whom had rejected their own Jewishness in support of Communism.
However, not all Russian Jews supported the Bolsheviks. In the subsequent election of the Congress of Russian Jews, the majority of Jews supported Jewish parties representing the center of the political spectrum with the Bolsheviks having only a small percentage of the Jewish vote. Instead, the Jewish community was well represented among the Mensheviks.
(After a dispute over the part membership requirements, Russian Socialist Democratic Labour party or the SDLP, split into two factions, the Bolsheviks /Leninists and the Mensheviks led by Martov who was also Jewish).
Out of the Russian population of about 170-million at the onset of the1917; the Jews numbered about 5.5-million, constituting just over 3% of the Russian masses. Therefore it can be safely argued that even though an inordinate percentage of the Communist intelligentsia and the Party were Jewish, that did not make the Russian Revolution a Jewish phenomenon.
Certainly, there were many Jews who, in their heart of hearts, still maintained their fealty to their old political parties and their old way of life such as their Zionism, their liberalism and their religious Orthodoxy. But as the new Soviet Union rose from the ashes of the Revolution, the Civil War, the Soviet-Ukrainian War and the Soviet-Polish War, the Jews made their peace with the new Communist state which had committed itself against the forces of reaction and anti-Semitism.
Additionally, despite the fact that that the economic system the new regime introduced, the “War Communism” destroyed the very basis of Jewish life in Eastern Europe for centuries; such as the market economy; as well as the free liberal professions that Jews had entered into en masse; the overwhelming support of the Jewish intelligentsia for the Communism/ Bolsheviks cannot be denied. The only possible explanation could be that this was because of the Red Army made anti-Semitism a crime against the state, outlawed pogroms, and even prosecuted anti-Semitism in its ranks.
One could also say that Jewish intellectuals such as writers, painters, sculptors, novelists, short-story writers saw in the Revolution vast opportunities for creative liberation and hence supported the Bolsheviks en mass.
A young intellectual named Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov better known as Vladimir Lenin, along with Georgi Plenkov had been one of the founding members of the SDLP. In 1902 he published “What is to be done” outlining his view of the party's task and methodology; to form "the vanguard” of the proletariat. (The original term Bolsheviks. the Leninist wing of the SDLP was derived from bolshinstvo, Russian for "majority").
Lenin had many Jews among his close associates. Alexander Guchkov, the Russian minister of War in the Russian Provisional Government after Tsar Nicholas II abdicated in March 1917, told the British military attaché, General Alfred Knox, that “the extreme element consists of Jews and imbeciles. Churchill named Maxim Litvinoff, Trotsky, Grigory Zinoviev, Radek, and Leonid Krassin as the ones who provided Communism with the ideological leadership. It was influence of these early Jewish intellectuals in the Russian Revolution, and by extension in the Communism that led to the claim by the anti-communist forces that Soviet Communism was a Jewish plot with anti-Semitic voices painting Soviet Communism as “Jewish Bolshevism”.
The proponents of this theory hold the view that since nearly all of the Jewish luminaries of the era, such as Trotsky, Julius Martov, Marc Chagall, Vera Inber, Simon Dubnov and Vasily Shulgin supported the Communist Revolution; the driving power of the revolution came from Jewish leaders without which the Communist Revolution would have failed.
In fact Trotsky and the larger number of Jewish revolutionaries, activists and followers who were attracted to Communism in the late 19th century were hard-core Marxists and happened to be Jews only by virtue of the accident of birth. According to many later Jews; “They appeared under Russian pseudonyms because they were ashamed of their Jewish origins. It would be better to say that their Jewish names are pseudonyms; they are not rooted in our people.” In my personal opinion, the Jewish intellectuals were attracted by a “Utopian” ideal what they thought Communism/Marxism represented and was far removed from the persecution of the Tzarist regime.
With 100 years of hindsight, it is still difficult to understand what really attracted so many Jews of the Russian empire to communism. Were their actions infused with Jewishness, a sense of Jewish mission like the ’Tikkun Olam' (A Jewish concept defined by acts of kindness performed to perfect or repair the world. The phrase is found in the Mishnah, a body of classical rabbinic teachings) and “light unto the nations” values we hear about today, or were their actions strictly pragmatic as a minority group struggling to be part of larger society? The answer lies somewhere in the middle.
Solzhenitsyn awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970, spent much of his life in Soviet prison camps, enduring persecution when he wrote about his experiences. In an interview he said that Russia must come to terms with the Stalinist and revolutionary genocides and that its Jewish population should be as offended at their own role in the purges as they are at the Soviet power. In his latest book Solzhenitsyn, deals with one of the last taboos of the communist revolution: that Jews were as much perpetrators of the repression as it's victims.
Brutal reality is that the situation Jews were born into in the 19th-century ‘Pale of Settlement’ areas, has no parallel with today’s Jewish experience. Instead, this bears some resemblance to the situation of the Palestinians living under the present day state of Israel. All one can opine is that there was a spark in the Jewish community amidst unique circumstances of radical change that pushed it to the leadership in the Marxist movement. However, a satisfactory explanation of this phenomenon is still to be found.
I would conclude by re-asserting my earlier statement “Even though a very large percentage of the Communist intelligentsia and the SDLP Party were Jewish, that did not make the Russian Revolution a Jewish phenomenon”
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