Yevsektsiya

Yevsektsiya (alternative spelling: Yevsektsia), Russian: ЕвСекция, the abbreviation of the phrase "Еврейская секция" (Yevreyskaya sektsiya) was the Jewish section of the Soviet Communist party which opposed the Bund and Zionist parties. The Yevsektsiya referred to these Jewish organizations as "bourgeois nationalists" and instead sought to popularize Marxism among the Jewish working class. An important aim of the Yevsektsiya was to mobilize the Jewish diaspora in favor of the Soviet regime. The founding conference of Yevsektsiya took place on October 20, 1918. [http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/print?tbl=RSDCOI&id=3ae6a811c] For most of its existence, the Yevsektsya was headed by Semyon Dimanstein.

Persons of Jewish origin were disproportionately represented in the Russian revolutionary leadership. However, most of them were hostile to traditional Jewish culture and Jewish political parties, and adamantly opposed to "Jewish cultural particularism". Yevsektsiya members were sometimes derogatorily called "Yevseki" (pl.).

The Yevsektsia was disbanded in 1929, after the creation of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast. Many of its members perished in the Great Purge. Dimanstein was arrested and received death sentence in 1938 and was executed. He was rehabilitated in 1955, 2 years after the death of Joseph Stalin.

See also

*Jewish Bolshevism
*History of the Jews in Russia and Soviet Union
*Communist Party of the Soviet Union
*Bolshevik
*Birobidzhan
*Komzet
*Jewish Communist Party (Poalei Zion)

External links

* [http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/beyond-the-pale/english/41.html Revolution and Emancipation] , [http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/beyond-the-pale/english/43.html The Yevsektsii] at [http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/beyond-the-pale/index.html Beyond the Pale] exhibition