THE JEWISH INTELLIGENTSIA AND RUSSIAN MARXISM

THE JEWISH INTELLIGENTSIA AND RUSSIAN MARXISM

THE JEWISH INTELLIGENTSIA AND RUSSIAN MARXISM A Sociological Study of Intellectual Radicalism And Ideological Divergence Robert J. Brym Assistant Professor of Sociology Memorial University of.newfoundland, StJohn's

Robert J. Brym I 978 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1978 978-0-333-23206-4 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission First published 1978 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD London and Basingstoke Associated companies in Delhi Dublin Hong Kong Johannesburg Lagos Melbourne New York Singapore Tokyo British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Brym, Robert J The Jewish intelligentsia and Russian Marxism r. Communism and intellectuals 2. Party affiliation -Russia 3 Socialist parties 4 Jews in Russia I. Title 301.5'92 JN6598.Ar ISBN 978-1-349-03570-0 ISBN 978-1-349-03568-7 (ebook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-03568-7 I This book is sold subject to the standard conditions ~f the Net Book Agreement

Contents List of Figures Preface r. THEORETICAL PROSPECTUS 2. CLASS AND ETHNIC STRUCTURE TO 1905 9 A. The Jewish Community in Pre-capitalist Poland 9 B. The Decline of Serfdom and the Development of Capitalism in Russia 13 C. Peasant and Working Class Unrest 17 D. The Jews Between Feudalism and Capitalism 23 E. Jewish Workers 30 3 THE EMBEDDING PROCESS 35 A. Classification 35 B. Declassification 46 C. Reclassification 58 4 STRANGERS AND REBELS 73 A. The Jewish Question 74 B. The Role of the Intelligentsia 86 C. The Agents and Character of the Revolution 99 5 ROOTLESS COSMOPOLITANS? 1 1 1.Notes 1 18 Technical Appendix 1 29 Bibliography 133 Index 155 VI Vll r.

List of Figures I. Occupational Distribution of Russian Radicals, I 86o- I 903 (%) 2 2. Social Origins of Russian Intelligenty, I84o-87 (%) 2 3 Jews as a percentage of Russian Radicals, I87s- I 90S and I92I-2 3 4 Occupational Distribution of Jews and non-jews in Russia (figures for Pale only in brackets) 3I 5 Jewish Population in Russia, I897 3I 6. Selected Statistics on Russian Industry, I897 33 7 Classification: Intelligenty by Party and Degree of Embeddedness in Russian Class Structure (%) 44 8. Jews in Russian Universities, I864- I907 55 g. Reclassification: Intelligenty by Party and Region of Recruitment(%) 66 10. European Russia 67 I I. Selected Statistics on Social Composition of Pale, I897 68 I2. Indices of Working Class Urbanity (figures for highly industrialized provinces only in brackets) 70 I 3 Selected Characteristics of the Parties' Industrial Bases 72 I4 Cultural Influences on Intelligenty by Party and Degree of Embeddedness in Russian Class Structure 75 IS Approximate Memberships of Selected Radical Parties in Russia (incl. Poland), Igos-7 79 I6. Number of Striking Workers, Jewish and non-jewish, in Russia, I8gs- I907 gi I 7. The Embedding Process I I I

Preface This monograph is a sociological study of the recruitment of Jewish intellectuals to four Marxist political parties-bolshevik, Menshevik, Bundist and Poalei-Zionist- in turn-of-the-century Russia. Through an examination of biographical and historical sources, it isolates the structural forces which radicalised intellectuals and led them to diverse ideological viewpoints. Unlike many students of the subject I have not sought to employ an explanatory framework which emphasises the structural 'rootlessness' or cultural 'alienation' of intellectuals. Quite the contrary. The thrust of this study is (to paraphrase an expression used by George Homans in a quite different context) aimed at bringing intellectuals back in to society. We can, I submit, learn a good deal more about the behaviour of intellectuals by examining their mutable social connections than by assuming their isolation from social structure. Specifically, the following chapters seek to demonstrate that ideologies are shaped and reshaped by (a) intellectuals' shifting occupational ties in changing social structures; and (b) their learning and relearning of culture patterns associated with different positions in society. During the two and a half years it took to arrive at this conclusion I incurred a large number of debts, both personal and intellectual. An earlier version of this study was written as a University oftoronto Ph.D. thesis and my advisors, Professors Irving M. Zeitlin, Stephen Berkowitz and Dennis Magill offered many valuable criticisms of the preliminary drafts. I was exceedingly fortunate to have on my examination committee three scholars who wrote perceptive critiques of my work: Professors T. B. Bottomore, Anatol Rapaport and Jack Wayne were instrumental in forcing me to clarify a number of primitive ideas. It was partly due to Professor Bottomore's kind assistance and encouragement that the thesis was revised and published. I also profited from conversations and/or correspondence with Professors RobertJohnson,J. Douglas House, Henry Tobias, Charles Woodhouse, Austin Turk, Clinton Herrick, Ezra Mendelsohn, Jacob Schatz miller and Isaac Levi tats; and fellow graduate students Gail Sarginson, Barry Edginton and Karen Anderson. Gayle Kerbel and Sophie Brym helped immeasurably by taking my mind off this project from time to time. And it was largely because my father, Albert, my late uncle, Kalman, and I met in Tiberias that the puzzle I have tried to solve here first presented itself to me. Although all these people are

Vlll Preface complicit in having shaped my thinking, I alone bear full responsibility for whatever weaknesses may be found in this study. I also want to thank the Canada Council for the financial assistance which enabled me to take my Ph.D. degree; the staffs of the YIVO Institute, the Zionist Archives and Library, the Bund Archives, the interlibrary loan department of the Robarts Library, University of Toronto; and the editors of the Journal of Social History and the Scottish Journal of Sociology, who granted me permission to use material from two previously published articles (Brym, 1977a; 1977d). This study is dedicated to my parents. St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada 23 April 1977 R. B. Note: Transliteration was an enduring problem in the preparation of this study. Early on I decided not to use available formal systems because of the confusion which could result from the fact that phonetic equivalents are often rendered differently for different languages. In order to achieve a higher level of standardisation, transliterations are by and large phonetic. Some inconsistencies will, however, be found since I have attempted to retain widely accepted spellings, especially for proper nouns.