Iulii Martov, the Bund and the National Question

This paper will examine the complex relationship of Iulii (Julius) Martov – the pre-eminent leader of the Menshevik wing of Russia’s Social Democratic Workers’ Party (RSDRP) – to the Bund (General Jewish Workers’ Association [Bund] in Lithuania, Poland, and Russia) and the Jewish national question. The paper will outline Martov’s 1903 opposition to Bund autonomy, contrast that with his famous 1895 speech advocating autonomy, republished by the Bund as “A Turning Point in the History of the Jewish Workers' Movement”, and use these two “antipodes” to assess his political positions during the years of war and revolution. One incident captures part of this. In 1919, as civil war raged between Red and White Armies in Soviet Russia, Grigorii Aronson – a long-time member of the Bund – suggested to Martov a position of neutrality because the White Armies “were essentially armies of peasants in revolt against Bolshevik oppression”. Martov responded “with great passion,” challenging Aronson’s position. He referenced “the trail of pogroms” which the White Armies left behind wherever they went, concluding: “Don’t you remember, in the past, when we had to make up our minds whether a political movement was progressive or reactionary, we found ‘Jew-baiting’ was a pretty good acid test? Should I have to remind you, who are a Bundist, of this litmus-paper test”? The paper is based on original translations of archival material on the Bund and the RSDRP, and will include, as an appendix, a first-ever English-language translation of Martov’s 1894 speech.