Poles, Jews, and the Politics of Nationality: The Bund and the Polish Socialist Party in Late Czarist Russia, 1892--1914

380 Pages·2003·10.41 MB·English

by  Joshua D. Zimmerman

Poles, Jews, and the Politics of Nationality

Poles, Jews,
and the Politics
of Nationality
■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■
The Bund and the
Polish Socialist Party
in Late Tsarist Russia,
1892–1914
JOSHUA D. ZIMMERMAN
The University of Wisconsin Press
The University of Wisconsin Press
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Madison, Wisconsin 53711
www.wisc.edu/wisconsinpress/
3 Henrietta Street
London WC2E 8LU, England
Copyright © 2004
The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
All rights reserved
5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Zimmerman, Joshua D.
Poles, Jews, and the politics of nationality : the Bund and the Polish
Socialist Party in late Tsarist Russia, 1892–1914 / Joshua D. Zimmerman.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-299-19460-4 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Poland—Politics and government—1796–1918. 2. Jews—Poland—
Politics and government. 3. Socialism—Poland—History. 4. Poland—
Ethnic relations. 5. Ogólny Żydowski Zwia˛zek Robotniczy “Bund” w
Polsce. 6. Polska Partia Socjalistyczna. I. Title.
DK4381 .Z56 2004
320.53’12’0943809041—dc21 2003008903
For my parents, who raised me in a warm and loving
home imbued with intellectual liveliness, humor, great
music, and a profound respect for the academic pursuit

Contents
Maps, Tables, Figures, and Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Note on Transliterations, Dates, and Terms xiv
Introduction 3
■1. Industrialization and the Rise 9
of the Polish Socialist Party
in Tsarist Russia, 1892–97
■2. The First Sproutings of the Jewish 36
Socialist Movement, 1890–95
■3. Into the Polish Heartland: 69
The Spread of the Jewish
Movement to Warsaw, 1895–97
■4. Organizational Breakthrough: 83
The Formation of the Jewish
Labor Bund, 1897–98
■5. Ideological Transformation: 106
The Turn to a National
Program, 1899–1901
■6. Polish Socialism Responds: 126
The First Years of the PPS
Yiddish Press, 1898–1902
■7. Toward a Recognition of Jewish 165
Nationality: The PPS and
Its Jewish Section, 1902–4
■8. The 1905Revolution in Russia 191
and the Transformation
of PPS-Bund Relations
■9. From Politics to the New Yiddish 227
Culture: The Bund in the Period
of Revolutionary Defeat, 1907–11
■10. The PPS and the Jewish Question 255
on the Eve of the First World War
Conclusion 273
Abbreviations 279
Notes 281
Bibliography 333
Index 349
Maps, Tables, Figures,
and Illustrations
Maps
1 Pale of Settlement xvi
2 Congress Poland xvii
Tables
1.1 Population growth in the 13
Kingdom of Poland
1.2 Towns of ten thousand or more 13
inhabitants in the Kingdom of Poland
1.3 Development of industry in the 14
Kingdom of Poland
1.4 Jewish population in the Kingdom 15
of Poland by language, 1897
1.5 Jewish population in the Pale 15
of Settlement by language, 1897
1.6 Jewish population in ten major cities 16
in the Kingdom of Poland, 1897
1.7 Jewish population in twelve major 16
cities of the Northwest Provinces, 1897
1.8 The Jewish working class in the Pale 17
of Settlement and Kingdom
of Poland, 1898–99
1.9 The growth of the working-class 18
movement in the Kingdom
of Poland, 1889–92
2.1 Ethnic composition in the Pale 37
of Settlement and the Kingdom
of Poland by language, 1897
2.2 Population of the Kingdom 37
of Poland by language, 1897
2.3 Population of the Northwest 38
Provinces of the Pale of Settlement
by language, 1897
ix