Jewish political parties in the focus of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine during the second bolshevik occupation of Ukraine (january – august 1919): an analysis of Politburo minutes

Abstract

The aim of the study is to examine the policy of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine toward Jewish political forces during the second Bolshevik occupation of Ukrainian territory (January – August 1919). The methodology is based on a comprehensive analysis of primary archival sources – the minutes of the Politburo of the CC CP(b)U meetings from April to August 1919. The chronological approach to the presentation of the material allows for a reconstruction o f the evolution of the party leadership’s policy toward Jewish parties and organisations. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the systematic introduction into scholarly circ u l ati on of previously little-known Politburo minutes of the CC CP(b)U, which enable the tracing of the internal dynamics of policy toward Jewish political forces. For the first time, the study comprehensively reveals the specific features of the Bolshevik v e rsi on of internationalism in Ukraine under the conditions of War Communism in 1919. The conclusions establish that the policy of the CC CP(b)U toward Jewish political parties in 1919 aimed at their complete organizational integration into the CP(b)U witho u t p reserving autonomous national structures. The « Jewish vector » of Bolshe vik policy in Ukraine in 1919 became not only a test of the strength of their internationalism but also a vivid example of how declared « ideological purity » came into conflict with t he realities of armed struggle for power and mass violence. This policy in itiated the process of dissolving left-wing Jewish parties (in particular, the Kombund and the left wing of Poalei Zion) into the CP(b)U, creating prerequisites for their full abso r p tio n in subsequent years and laying the groundwork for the « korenizatsiia » practice of the 1920s, when cultural autonomy was possible only under full political subordination to the party. At the same time, its rigidity complicated the legitimation of Sov i e t p ower among parts of the Jewish political forces, which, amid pogroms an d instability, were forced to choose between dissolution, emigration, or underground activity.