Intro, article and comment by G. HILLIG and G. KOSACH

The documents published below are dated 1926-1927 and are kept in the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI, f. 495, op. 81, ed. xr. 64). This is a memo from the Gdud-Haavod delegation that was in Moscow in mid-May 1926 (it included Mendel-Menachem Elkind 1, Israel Shohat 2, and B. Mekhonai 3) to the Eastern section of the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI), and a letter from a member of the Central Committee of the left Gdud-Haavod faction, M. Elkind, dated September 13, 1927., also written in Moscow, to the Secretariat of the Eastern Division of the ICCI, and finally, written two weeks later (September 29, 1927), the response of the eastern secretariat to M. Elkind. All these documents relate to contacts between the Comintern and one of the left - wing organizations operating in Palestine at that time, the Gdud-Haavoda (Gdud) - Workers ' (Labor) Battalion. The circumstances of its origin and evolution are worthy of attention.

The first two documents published below * contain the autographs of M. Elkind and give an idea of the history, ideological attitudes and organizational structure of Gdud. However, the data contained in them must be supplemented.

Founded in 1920, the Gdud is one of the most prominent movements (although it has never been numerous) in the spectrum of left-wing organizations, created by members of the third wave

* Publications retain the spelling and punctuation of the originals. - Ed.

1 Was born on July 9, 1897 in Berislav, Kherson province, in the family of a philistine. In July 1919, "out of Zionist beliefs," he left for Palestine. - Central Archive of State Security of the Russian Federation. Ed. hr. 155578, l. 8. In Palestine, he became one of the founders of the Gdud movement.

2 Was born in 1886 in the town of Lyskovo, Grodno province, in the family of a landowner. In 1904, he moved to Palestine. Participated in the Eighth Zionist Congress in The Hague (1907). One of the founders of the World Socialist Workers ' Union - Poalei Zion (see below), as well as other Zionist organizations - Bar Giora (1907), Hashomer movement (Guardian-1909), Haganah (Defense), Gdud Haavoda and the Histadrut Trade Union Federation (see below). In 1919, he joined the Ahdut Haavoda party (see below), but later left it. In 1930, he participated in the creation of the Hapoel (Worker) sports movement. After the founding of the State of Israel, he was appointed Legal Adviser to the Ministry of Police. He died in 1961 in Tel Aviv (the authors are sincerely grateful to the Israeli researcher S. Baranovsky for the information provided).

3 Unfortunately, the identity of this person could not be established. All that is known is that he did not return to Palestine and went to study at one of the Soviet higher educational institutions.

4 "During the heyday of Gdud - 1920-1926 -" through its ranks passed the Holy Spirit of the Gdud. 2 thousand people" [Short Jewish Encyclopedia, 1982, column 45]. (In one of the publications of 1926, it was reported that "in just 5 years, 4,000 people passed through Gdud.") Celebration of the five-year anniversary of Gdud [Jewish Proletarian Thought, 1926, column 65]. The Israeli researcher Henry Nir, a specialist in the history of the Kibbutzian movement, noted that "through its ranks (Gduda. - G. H., G. K.) in the first five years, more than 3,000 people passed; however, it never had more than 700 members", while usually the number of participants in this organization "fluctuated between 500 and 600 people" [Near, 1992, p. 73-74].

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Jewish immigration-Aliyah5 to the borders of Palestine, which was then under the mandate administration of Great Britain. Most of the members of the Gdud came from Russia and undoubtedly experienced the impact of the revolutionary events that took place in their country of origin in October 1917 while solving their national tasks. Perhaps the most striking indicator of this was the very name of the organization, which resembled the Russian equivalent - "trudovye armii", those formations of the Red Army that were established at the beginning of 1920 to restore the national economy on the initiative of L. D. Trotsky, then head of the Soviet military department.6

The influence of the Russian October was also clearly felt in the sphere of ideological constructions of the Gdud participants. Their idea of creating a "Jewish territorial center" in Palestine suggested that it would arise only " on the basis of communist construction." In other words, there was to be a General Workers ' Organization in Palestine - a single commune of Jewish proletarians. As the core of this commune, of course, the Gdud itself was considered, embodying its idea in the principles of the "communist" way of life and life of its supporters.7 However, the same idea was fixed in its organizational structure. But while the Gdud originally consisted of small groups whose members worked together as they moved around the country in search of work in agriculture, industry, road, railway, and housing construction, by the end of 1921 some of its members had established two permanent settlements in the Jezreel Valley: Kibbutzim Ein Harod and Tel Yosef. The Gdud showed a tendency to eliminate the "nomadism", gradually turning (the completion of this process dates back to the end of the 1920s) into an organization of workers belonging to its kibbutzim [Near, 1992, p.137-138]. However, the change in the organizational structure caused internal tensions, splits, and eventually the appearance of two opposing factions in the Gdud ranks [Near, 1992, p. 114; Merchav, 1972, p.58].

In December 1926, at a meeting of the Gdud Council in Tel Yosef, its left-wing faction (Gdud Hasmol, which included 195 members) was expelled from the movement [Near, 1992, p. 143]. The majority of the organization (294 people at the time of the split [Near, 1992, p. 143; Merchav, 1972, p. 58]) joined the ideologically close Kibbutz federation Hakibbutz Hamehad (United Kibbutz) three years later. However, both factions remained committed to the idea of creating a "Jewish communist community"in Palestine.

So, if the first of the following documents was submitted to the ECCI by the delegation of another united Gdud (it included leading figures from both factions), then the second one was submitted by the leader of the "left Gdud". Naturally, the question arises: what made both the entire organization and one of its factions establish relations with the Comintern? It would seem that the Gdud (including its" left " branch) and the Comintern could be united by a single goal - the creation of a communist society, and they should strive to establish strong contacts between themselves. But Gdud's "communism" was nationally nuanced. As for many left-wing Zionists in the 1920s and 1930s, the construction of a" communist "Palestine was seen as essentially a secondary task, since it was, if not defined, then closely linked to the creation of a "communist" Palestine.

Aliyah 5 (Hebrew) - Ascent (to Palestine/Eretz Yisrael). A religiously colored term in Zionist political discourse, meaning both the process of Jewish resettlement to a "historical" homeland and individual groups of immigrants who arrived there at a certain time or from a certain country. The third aliyah (1919-1923), representing immigrants from Russia, included young pioneers (halutsim), members of the Hekhalutz and Hashomer Hatzair (Young Guardian) movements that appealed to socialism.

6 As G. Nir noted, "there is no doubt, however, that many young pioneers, inspired by the example of the Soviet revolution, were clearly aware of this parallelism" [Near, p. 73-74].

7 When publishing an article in the Moscow magazine Jewish Proletarian Thought, an organ of the Central Committee of the Jewish Communist Workers ' Party (Poalei - Zion) on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the creation of the Gdud, the leader of its Palestinian branch, publicist Z. M. Abramovich, called the Gdud "the largest workers 'cooperative organization" and reported further: "All products of the Gdud and all earnings of its members go to the common pot. The principle of equal earnings and the same way of life is perfectly implemented there, as nowhere else" [Abramovich, 1926, column 43].

8 The Jezreel Valley, in northern Israel, runs between the mountains of Samaria and the Gilboa Mountains in the direction of Haifa. In the Russian transcription, it is also known as the Ezdrelon Valley (as it is also called in the published documents).

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the possibility of creating a "Jewish national home" there. The boundaries of this "communist" society were clearly limited by the Yishuv9. The Comintern, on the other hand, was an association of "internationalists" who believed that the solution of any national tasks (secondary in their significance) was determined by the victory of the principles of communism on a global scale. Moreover, precisely because of these differences in the priorities of goals and objectives, Zionism (including its "socialist" tendencies) was severely and uncompromisingly condemned in 1920 at the Second Congress of the Comintern.10

Nevertheless, in its practical activities, the ECCI never gave up the possibility of contacts with various "socialist" and "communist" groups within the Zionist movement. 11 Gdud was by no means an exception. If anti-Zionism became an instrument of suppression, it was only at the internal Soviet level; outside the Soviet Union, it served as a tool for expanding the Comintern's influence. This was almost the first case in the Middle East: here the ECCI, guided by considerations not of theory at all, but of practice, needed to create a "support link" of the future "socialist revolution"within the borders of this regional space. But in 1924, such a "link" was created - it became a small group of former poalizionists12, which transformed into the Palestinian Communist Party (PKP), a member section of the Comintern. The very possibility of such a transformation was determined by the course of the Comintern - its new supporters gave up their " nationalist illusions "and turned into an organization that" revolutionized "the Arab"working masses". From now on, any other" socialist "or" communist " current in the ranks of the Yishuv (Gdud was again no exception here) was to support the PKK line being defined in the Soviet capital and eventually join its ranks. Other options for their interaction with the Comintern of the ECCI were discarded in advance.

Тем не менее сказанное выше вовсе не отвечает на уже поставленный вопрос: что заставляло Гдуд стремиться к контактам с Коминтерном? Ни фракция большинства в этой организации, ни ее левое крыло, как свидетельствуют публикуемые документы, вовсе не собирались отказываться от сионистской идеи в ее "коммунистическом" облачении, как, впрочем, и были, мягко говоря, критичны в отношении возможностей палестинской секции Коминтерна - ПКП.

В одной из своих работ израильский исследователь Анита Шапира подчеркивала, что первопроходцы третьей алии, включившие в свой состав и будущих членов Гдуда, испытывали "особое отношение" к Советскому Союзу в силу того, что их вдохновляли идеи российского

Yishuv 9 (Hebrew) - The Jewish population of Palestine, as well as the totality of political, social and economic institutions created by it before 1948 (the time of the creation of the State of Israel).

10 As a result of the discussion on the "Theses on National and colonial Questions" discussed by the Second Congress of the Comintern, an addition was made to the text of this document directly related to the attitude towards Zionism. It read as follows: "A vivid example of the deception of the working masses of an oppressed nation, produced by the combined efforts of the Entente imperialism and the bourgeoisie of the respective nation, is the Palestinian enterprise of the Zionists, as well as Zionism in general, which, under the guise of creating a Jewish state in Palestine, sacrifices itself to British exploitation... the Arab working population of Palestine, where Jewish working people are only a small minority" [The Second Congress of the Comintern..., 1934, p. 495]. For more information on the discussion on this issue, see [Kosach, 2001, pp. 155-167].

11 These are contacts from 1920-1922 with the World Jewish Socialist Workers ' Union-Poalei Zion (Workers of Zion), as well as its affiliated sections in various countries (including Palestine). During the 1920s, the Red International of Trade Unions (Profintern), which operated in 1921-1937 under the leadership of the Comintern, maintained ties with the Histadrut, the General Union of Jewish Workers in Palestine.

12 The first Poalei-Zion cells appeared at the turn of 1900-1901 in the cities of the "pale of settlement". The theoretical basis of poalizionism was the ideas of Ber Borokhov, which were based on the need for Jewish workers to have "conditions of production" (including the national state), the acquisition of which in the conditions of "merciless national competition" in Russia and other countries of "dispersion" was impossible. On the contrary, such a possibility arose in Palestine/Eretz Israel, where Jewish workers, having created their own state, could then join the "class struggle" with their own bourgeoisie and join the "world army of the proletariat" fighting for the " socialist transformation of the world." At the beginning of the 20th century, Poalei-Zion sections also appeared outside of Russia (including in 1905 and in Palestine), and in 1907, at their conference in The Hague, the World Jewish Socialist Union - Poalei-Zion was created.

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October [Shapira, 1988, p. 166-167]. Well, this point of view cannot be ignored, but it is obvious that the contacts of both Gdud factions with the Comintern could not be based solely on sentimental memories of the "old motherland" 13.

A careful reading of the documents submitted to the ECCI staff shows that the Gdud (and its left-wing offshoot) deliberately emphasized its desire to help preserve the "proletarian" purity of Jewish immigrants to Palestine. Its purpose was to prevent the spread of "petty-bourgeois" sentiments and everyday life among them. In other words, the Gdud tried to " resurrect "the already fading ideals of" socialist " Zionism in order to influence the formation of the Jewish-Palestinian national community and ultimately become its leading center, rallying and uniting all other elements of the Yishuv around itself.

Could actions in this direction be successful? Apparently, yes, since the Yishuv was still going through its formative phase. It continued to experience the complex impact of incoming immigration flows to Palestine, as well as emigration from that country. It continued to form party structures and power institutions, which was an indicator of internal social mobility that never stopped for a moment. The Jewish-Palestinian national community was still far from being considered an accomplished reality - it was still a phenomenon in its infancy. Gdud's supporters believed (and they probably sincerely believed it, but they did not want to become Communists in the Soviet way14) that turning to the Comintern would help them gain the support of a seemingly powerful external force in order to realize their own internal Palestinian political tasks. The response of the eastern secretariat of the ECCI (although formally directed to the "left Gdud", but, in fact, concerned it with both factions), as well as numerous notes on the texts of the two documents preceding it, proved that this was an illusion. The Comintern not only did not intend to recognize the Gdud (or its left-wing faction) as a sympathetic or affiliated organization (to do this, it had to disavow the provisions of the document adopted at its Second Congress, which contained a condemnation of Zionism, and recognize the legality of forming a Yishuv), but also drew an equal sign between this movement and the leading "bourgeois" parties of the Jewish- the Palestinian community. He harshly declared his support for the PKK and the importance for Gdud of adopting anti-Zionist positions, including the establishment of allied relations between it and what was then called the "Arab national revolutionary movement". At best, he was encouraged to follow the course of the Palestinian Communists (who had already entered the era of "Arabization"[15], which only meant that the PKK was moving infinitely further away from the national environment in which it had emerged).

And what about Gdud?

We have already mentioned the actual dissolution of its majority in the broader Kibbutzian federation. The unsuccessful attempt of his left faction to gain recognition of the Comintern on its own was, in turn, one of the reasons for its degradation. But this process was also influenced by the internal Palestinian socio-economic situation, which resulted from the global economic crisis of the late 1920s.-

Hamoledet hayashana 13 (Hebrew) is a common and nostalgic metaphor for Russia (in the broad sense of the term) in the discourse (which has had a profound and lasting impact on Israeli culture and worldview) of the participants in this wave of Jewish immigration to Palestine.

14 This was true even for representatives of the left-wing faction in Gdud. Thus, its leader, M. Elkind, shortly before his final departure from Palestine in 1927, answering the question of his sister: "Tell me, Mendel, are you really a communist?", said: "A party member must behave in accordance with instructions from above. I can't follow any instructions from above, I can only follow my conscience. I have never been a member of the Communist Party." by: Am-Shalem, 1961, p. 17].

15 The course pursued by the ECCI in relation to the Communist parties of the Arab world (primarily the PKK). This course required an increasing number of representatives of the "indigenous" Arab population in the membership sections of the Comintern in the Middle East, as well as the transfer of leadership positions in these sections to Arab Communists. The goal of "Arabization"was to allow the Communist parties to penetrate "into the depths of the working-class and peasant masses" of the Arab world.

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Almost a third of the members of the Gdud Hasmol were forced to leave for the Soviet Union after 1928. 16 The construction of a" communist society " in Palestine (as well as the realization of the goals of Zionism) now looked out of perspective. At the same time, the "left Gdud" (initiated by M. Elkind) appealed to the Soviet leadership to provide its members with the opportunity to settle in one of the new Jewish districts on the territory of the Soviet Union. Soon the necessary permission was obtained [Heller, 1931, p. 308.]. In 1928, the Voio-Nova agricultural commune was founded in the Evpatoria district of the Crimean ASSR17. The commune was headed by M. Elkind (but only until the beginning of 1931). The fate of the commune (as well as the fate of the initiator of the move) was tragic: domestic disorder, the deliberate dissolution of supporters of the "left Gdud" among immigrants from Jewish towns in Ukraine and Belarus, the transformation into a collective farm, the eradication of the Kibbutzian "heresy" and its replacement by Soviet ideology, and finally the political repressions of the second half of the 1930s. In mid-1937, M. Elkind was arrested on the standard charge of "collaborating with British intelligence" and shot in February 1938. In 1941. Crimea was occupied by the Nazis (Hillig, 2005).

I

To the Executive Committee of the Communist International in the Eastern Division From the delegation of the Palestinian Commune Gdud-Avoda

Executive Summary

I. About Gdud-Avoda.

The Gdud Labor Commune in Palestine has been in existence for 5 years and now has about 700 members. This commune differs significantly from other collective farms, both Palestinian and Russian, in its economic and organizational structure.

1) Gdud (as we will call our commune for brevity in the future) It is not concentrated in a single geographical location, but is scattered in different parts of Palestine (Upper Galilee, Ezdrelon Valley, Haifa, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem) and consists of eight local groups, of which the smallest has 20 members and the largest has 240 members.

2) The Gdm does not deal with just one sector of the economy. It has agricultural groups (like agricultural communes in Russia) and urban groups. Three urban groups-Haifa, Aful 18 and Tel Aviv-are engaged in more or less homogeneous work, building houses and highways, but Jerusalem (the largest of the urban groups) has quarry workers, stonemasons, locksmiths, fitters.

16 The difficult economic situation forced not only members of the "left Gdud"to leave Palestine. If in 1925 on each steamer of the Odessa-Jaffa line of the joint-stock company "Soviet Merchant Fleet" from 250 to 300 passengers went to Palestine, and no more than 12 people returned from Palestine, then in 1927 the situation changed dramatically. In the "Report on the work of the Main Agency Sovtorgflot in the Middle East for 1927", it was noted that "a significant difference in the receipts of pounds sterling is explained for [19]26 by a more intensive movement of re-emigrants from Jaffa to the USSR" [RGAE, f. 7795, op. 1, ed. xr. 667, l. 97; and also: RGAE, f. 7795, op. 1, ed. hr. 325, l. 4].

Vojo Nova 17 (Esperanto) - new life.

18 Afula is a city in the southern part of the Palestinian Galilee, now in Israel.

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3) The economic relations of the members of the Gdud and the Gdud, as a whole, to the farms in which its members work are also heterogeneous. In agriculture, members of the Gdud perform the role of not only workers, but also owners who manage the farm owned by the Gdud, as a collective, while in urban groups, members of the Gdud mostly work as hired workers, day or piece-by-piece, however, in urban groups, the Gdud has its own workshops (carpentry, locksmith), and quarries, which work on order and on the market. These features of the economic structure of Gdud indicate that its various groups are not connected by the unity of the production process. Gdud is not just a manufacturing community. So what unites all the Gdud comrades into a single whole? What is the inner content of this social organism?

This content is twofold: economic and ideological.

1) From an economic point of view, the Gdud, as a single entity, is a single consumer commune that meets all the needs of its members, both material and cultural, at the expense of the income of these members received in the general cash register of the Gdud. At the same time, the Gdud performs another economic function-the arrangement of its members in work, it seeks out work for them, identifies them for work and transfers them from one place of work to another, if it is profitable or necessary for it.

2) From an ideological point of view, the Gdud is a labor movement based on the goal of creating a communist society in Palestine, while simultaneously fulfilling the national task of promoting the creation of a Jewish labor center in Palestine. At the same time, the Gdud specifically proceeds in its activities from the fact of the spontaneous process of concentration of the Jewish masses in Palestine. The Gdud takes into account the migration laboring Jewish elements to Palestine as a progressive factor contributing to the industrialization of the country and creating the prerequisites for a social revolution along with the recovery of the Jewish economy. 19

The realization of this goal is possible only as a result of a very complex and intricate process of class struggle, in which the Gdud has set itself the task of taking an active part and performing a pioneer task in it. By the very fact of its existence in Palestine, or rather by the struggle for its existence, the Gdud participates in the processes that spontaneously lead to the realization of its ultimate goal. In these processes, the Gdud participates not as an inert particle drawn by the general current, but as a conscious vanguard of the Jewish working class, guided in the daily class struggle by its ultimate historical goal. In addition to this participation in the general historical process, the Gdud performs special pioneer tasks aimed at achieving its ultimate goal. The fulfillment of these tasks is conditioned and follows from the peculiarities of the economic structure of Gduda.

1) By satisfying all the needs of its members, starting with food and ending with the upbringing of children, in a collective way, the Gdud carried out the division of labor that exists in the society around us only in the field of production, also in the field of consumption, and thus destroyed the economic content of the main cell of bourgeois life - the family, created the basis for a communist society. By concentrating the satisfaction of all needs in the hands of special institutions, the Gdud thereby freed its comrades from spending most of their leisure time on small everyday and everyday tasks.-

19 In the context of Gdud's ideas (like all left-wing Zionists), the economic development of Palestine was the task of the Jewish bourgeoisie. Only the creation of national statehood became the point at which the Jewish "proletariat" could enter into a "class" confrontation with its Jewish antagonist.

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They are designed to meet different needs. This leisure time is used to enhance the cultural level of members, meet their various cultural needs, and develop their class identity.

2) By creating several collective farms in which the majority of its members work, and by taking the wages of each member to the general cash register of the Gdud, the Gdud deprives all of them of that direct, often economic, egoistic incentive. In order to organize its collective economy and stimulate the productivity of its members, the Gdud must instill in its members new psychological foundations of economic activity, the foundations on which the economy of a communist society will be based. Finding these new foundations and ways to introduce these foundations into the psychology of workers is Gdud's second pioneering task in relation to building a communist society. We emphasize the word "pioneer", because we do not harbor the illusions of the utopian socialists of the last century that it will be possible under the bourgeois regime to transfer the entire national economy, or at least a significant part of it, to a collective form. But we believe that in an era that is the eve of the world social revolution, it is of great importance to develop the internal foundations of economic, psychological, cultural and everyday life, on which a mass collective movement should be based, which can arise immediately after the social revolution and which will be able to develop successfully if the main milestones of its path are planned in advance. It is this paving of the way for a mass collective movement that we call pioneer tasks.

3) Along with these pioneering tasks of a collectivist nature, which are organically linked to its economic structure, the Gdud also sets itself a whole series of pioneering tasks of a national nature in relation to the resettlement of Jewish labor elements to Palestine. These tasks are penetration into areas of the most difficult physical labor, where the proletarian Jewish mass in Palestine does not go very willingly, until methods are found and introduced to facilitate work; reclamation and first settlement of swampy and desert areas associated with danger to health. The particular difficulties associated with these tasks discourage the majority of Jewish immigrants coming to Palestine, 20 and this is why the national colonization societies (Zionist Organization 21 and Jewish Colonization Society USA22), which do not have any sympathy for collectivism, are still forced to finance our collective farms and enterprises that have their own resources. national pioneer significance.

Summarizing all that we have said about the activities of the Gdud aimed at achieving its ultimate goal, we can briefly formulate its social role in this way.

1) As one of the organized groups of the Palestinian working class, the Gdud takes an active and conscious part in the class struggle against the capitalist system.

2) As a kind of social and economic organization, the Gdud performs special pioneering tasks to prepare the internal foundations of communist society and to establish a Jewish labor center in Palestine.23

To assess the significance of the Gdud among the Jewish working class of Palestine, we must add the following::

20 The part of this sentence following the footnote is marked with a double line in the margin.

21 World Zionist Organization (WZO), founded in 1897 at the First Zionist Congress in Basel.

22 This abbreviation is not clear. In all likelihood, this is the Palestine Land Development Co. (PLDC), a society formed in 1908 on the initiative of the WSO to acquire land plots in Palestine.

23 This sentence is marked in the margins with a double line and a question mark.

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1) The collectivist form of the Gdud protects the proletarian character of the elements in it and prevents them from passing into the petty bourgeois class-a phenomenon very common in Palestine, as a country of immigration. A worker who is located outside the Gdud, who has achieved a certain degree of qualification and knowledge of local conditions, has the opportunity to exploit "green" and unskilled workers and immigrants and through this exploitation pass the stage of" initial accumulation", after which he turns into an entrepreneur24. A worker who links his fate with the Gdud cannot improve his position in any other way than by improving the social position of the collective, which in turn depends on the position of the working class as a whole. The absence of this possibility develops and strengthens the class consciousness of the Gdud worker.

2) In fact, the Gdud now contains the more radical working element of Palestine, and the Gdud is being formed into a revolutionary economic organization similar, mutatis mutandis, to the "minority movement" in England, 26 whose members stand on the basis of the revolutionary class struggle and form the most progressive core in the professional organization of the workers.

II. Political group in Gdud.

One of the social and historical functions of the Gdud is its participation, as an organized whole, in the class struggle, understood in the broad sense of the word, i.e., both economic and political. Without an everyday political program in the narrow sense of the word (minimum program), the Gdud solves every political question that comes up in the course of the class struggle in Palestine from the point of view of its ultimate goal, and where this point of view allows itself to be interpreted in different directions, the Gdud's line of conduct is determined by the majority. The overwhelming majority of Gdud's comrades do not belong to any political party. They are not satisfied with the program of the right-wing workers ' parties that currently prevail among the Jewish workers of Palestine, 27 and at the same time they differ from the P. K. P. mainly on the national question and tactics in Palestine.28

The process of ideological differentiation and revaluation of values that is now taking place among all workers in Palestine due to the extraordinary increase in immigration to the country29 and the changing nature of Jewish colonization of Palestine, and in particular the formulation of a number of general political issues in Gdud, contributed to the crystallization of the political group within Gdud. This group is currently developing its own political program and has already clarified its position on some important issues. The starting point of the group's program is the final goal of the Gdud. On the political pathways leading to achieving this goal, the Group-

24 There is a question mark in the margin next to the words "after which he turns into an entrepreneur".

25 The part of the sentence following the footnote is marked with an underlined question mark in the margin.

26 The Minority Movement in England was the coordinating center of revolutionary trade unionist movements, which claimed to create a united trade union front in the country, under the ideological auspices of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Created in 1924.

27 This refers primarily to Ahdut Haavoda (Union of Labor), the leading political party of the Yishuv, headed by D. Ben-Gurion. It was created in March 1919 at the founding congress in the settlement of Petah Tikva by the majority of the Palestinian Poalizionist organization, united with the right-wing "Workers '" party Hapoel Hatzair (Young Worker). The most important task of Ahdut Haavod, which controlled the Histadrut, was to "build nation" and develop contacts with the VSO, including joining its ranks.

28 The next part of the sentence is underlined with a wavy line and marked with a question mark in the margin.

29 The increase in Jewish immigration to Palestine in 1924-1925 was associated with the rise of anti-Semitism in Poland, as well as with the introduction of immigration quotas for those wishing to enter the United States.

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The PA considers the social revolution and the overthrow of the rule of imperialism in general, in particular British imperialism in Palestine. Thus, the group is oriented towards the Comintern, but at the same time there is a fundamental difference between the group and the Communist Party in their assessment of the significance of Jewish immigration and the Jewish population in Palestine, and in the resulting questions of the Communist Party's tactics in Palestine.

The Group considers it still premature to raise the issue of these differences with the Comintern and thereby postpones the question of its membership in the Comintern, 30 but at the same time it considers it timely and expedient to coordinate certain actions aimed at common goals.31 This coordination can take shape in the establishment of permanent relations (1) between the political group and the Comintern, and (2) between the Gdud and various institutions and organizations of the USSR.

The links between the Comintern and the political group should be based on the fact that the Comintern views our group as a revolutionary force directed against British imperialism, which will play an active role both in the struggle against the British regime and in the social revolution in Palestine.33

The immediate concrete tasks of the group are to create the prerequisites that ensure the strength of the subjective factor of the revolutionary process - the Palestinian workers ' and national liberation movement. These tasks are as follows:

1) The struggle for a united front in the Palestinian trade union movement on a Palestinian scale (the return of expelled members of the workers ' faction 34 to the trade union organization) and on a global scale (the merger of the Amsterdam International 35 with the Profintern).36.

2) The creation of a united Jewish-Arab front against British imperialism instead of the Arab-Jewish antagonism that now exists under the influence of the British.

3) Cultural and educational work among the Gdud and surrounding working groups, aimed at raising class consciousness, and revolutionizing the working class of Palestine.

4) Organization and strengthening of the class armed force 37.

In order to establish a general contact in the implementation of the first two tasks and to find out the specific forms of your assistance in the implementation of the last two tasks, we will have to continue our negotiations in private conversations.

30 The words "disagrees with the Comintern and thereby postpones the question of joining the Comintern" are underlined and marked with a question mark.

31 The words" considers a certain coordination to be timely and appropriate " are underlined with a wavy line.

32 The part of this section following the footnote is underlined with a wavy line and marked with a question mark.

33 This entire paragraph is marked in the margins with a squiggly line.

34 Workers ' Faction - a trade union association in the Histadrut that operated under the leadership of the PKP. It was created in November 1922, and in 1924 it was excluded from the ranks of this trade union federation.

35 The Amsterdam International of Trade Unions (1919-1945) was an international federation of reformist social democratic trade unions.

36 This section is marked in the margins with a straight bold line.

37 Between 1921 and 1926, a secret military organization called Hakibbutz existed in Gdud. Its creation was justified by the possibility of conflict with the British mandate authorities, Arab armed detachments, as well as with "bourgeois Zionists". Apparently, I. Shokhat and M. Elkind were its direct supervisors. There are suggestions that the Gdud delegation, which was in Moscow in May 1926, negotiated for financial assistance from the Comintern for the purchase of weapons, as well as for the purchase of airplanes and the training of Jewish-Palestinian youth, of course, members of the Gdud, in Soviet air force schools. p. 128-154].

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Relations between the Gdud and institutions and organizations of the USSR may have the following specific content::

a) Exchange of experience and achievements in the construction of collectivist forms of economy and forms of communal life between Russian collective farms and the Gdud.

b) Improvement of the staff of children's homes in Gduda in the corresponding model institutions of the USSR.

c) Relations with experimental and scientific institutions of the People's Commissariat of Land 38 and CIT 39. These links between the Gdud and the above-mentioned institutions of the U.S.S.R., while being quite legal in Palestine, besides their direct usefulness, which consists, on the one hand, in assisting the Gdud in carrying out its pioneering constructive tasks, 40 and, on the other hand, in popularizing the U.S.S.R. as a center and boss 41 for workers ' organizations of all kinds, 42 It also has an indirect meaning, as a means of masking the illegal connections that must be established between the Comintern and the Gdud political group.

With a friendly greeting

The Palestinian organization Gdud-Avoda.

M. Elkind. I. Shokhat. B. Mekhonai

Marks on the document:

The Gdud organization is sympathetic to the USSR, especially its left wing. It is worth starting a relationship with her, she can be used for information purposes at least.

15 / V 26 Kitaygorodsky 44.

Source: RGASPI. F. 495. Op. 81. Ed. hr. 64. l. 42-49 (original).

II

Classified

stamp "IKKI Archive"

Executive Committee of the Comintern

Secretariat of the Eastern Division

Moscow

About Gdud Labor (left) in Palestine

1. Gdud-Avoda (left) is a union of communes of urban and agricultural workers. It unites 4 communal groups with a total number of comrades in 230 people. Urban groups are located in Jerusalem, Jaffa, and Haifa, while agricultural groups are located in Tel Yosef. City groups work mainly for the construction company-

38 People's Commissariat of Agriculture.

39 The Central Institute of Labor in Moscow, established in 1920 to research and disseminate methods of labor activity based on the theory of Taylorism.

40 The word "constructive" is underlined.

41 The word" chef " is underlined with a wavy line.

42 The words "to assist the Gdudu in carrying out its pioneering constructive tasks, on the other hand, to popularize the USSR as a center and boss for workers' organizations of all kinds " are marked in the margins.

43 The words "masking those illegal connections that need to be established" are underlined with a wavy line and marked with the same line in the margins.

44 Palya Volkovich Kitaygorodsky, was born in 1883 in the town of Gorodishche, Kiev province. Since 1919, he worked in the RCP (b). In 1922-1927, he was a political assistant at the Eastern secretariat of the ECCI. Arrested and killed in 1937 [RGASPI, f. 495, op. 65a, ed. chr. 816].

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they receive contracts to work as a labor artel. Contracts are sometimes taken out of the specified cities, in various places in Palestine, Transjordan and Syria, and sometimes temporary groups are organized from members of the Gdud to perform certain work. The Jerusalem group also has its own workshops - carpentry and locksmith. The Tel Yosef Group operates a large-scale agricultural enterprise owned by a de facto Zionist organization and operated by a self-governing collective of agricultural workers. In this collective, a group of comrades belonging to the Gdud-Avoda (left) is a minority (60 out of 190), which is forced out of the farm for political reasons. Urban groups work for private employers (contractors) and are more or less provided with jobs, despite the poor state of the labor market in Palestine.

2. The Gdud Labor Movement is an organic part of the specific movement that exists among the Jewish workers of Palestine under the name of the collectivist movement. This movement, which has 4 to 5 thousand members (15 to 20% of the total number of trade union members), is a purely economic movement in its form, but was initially connected by a certain ideological basis. Members of this movement are organized in communal or artel groups, each of which has from 10 to 250 comrades. Each group is an independent economic unit, which earns its livelihood by the common labor of its members. These groups find a place to apply their work in three areas:: 1) in large agricultural farms based on the funds of the Zionist organization, which transfers these farms to them for use; 2) in private plantation farms, where they receive contracts for processing plantations; 3) in the construction business, where groups receive artel work from construction contractors. The ideological basis of this movement was a special theory of constructive socialism45, which drew its elements from the utopian socialism of the last century, on the one hand, and from the guild socialism 46 of England and France of the post-war (pre-war. - Authors) of the period, on the other hand.

3. The concrete historical prerequisites that determined this collectivist movement and its theory - constructive socialism-were:

a) The first wave of Jewish immigration to Palestine after the war, which brought about ten thousand people, of whom almost none had the capital necessary for the establishment of the economy, and these people were socialist-minded.

b) The lack of a developed private capitalist economy in Palestine that could absorb this immigration as wage laborers.

(c) The existence of colonization funds in the possession of a Zionist organization that intended to use these funds for the settlement of Palestine by Jews in some economic form.

Based on these premises, the theory of constructive socialism claimed that a Jewish socialist community would be built in Palestine.-

45 The concept of the Socialist Revolutionary V. M. Chernov (1873-1952), described in his work "Constructive Socialism, Vol. 1" (Prague, 1925). He believed that socialist activity passes through several stages in its development. If initially it should be determined by the imperatives of national and "inter-class solidarity," then later by the tasks of the class struggle for the creation of a"workers' government."

46 Guild socialism-syndicalist doctrine of the realization of socialism in Great Britain. According to it, employees of certain nationalized industries must join production associations, or guilds. In 1915, the National Guilds League was organized, which soon came to dominate the British trade union movement. Failure to implement "socialist principles" in the builders ' guilds led to its dissolution in 1925.

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With the help of the Zionist organization's colonization funds, Palestine will enter the realm of socialism, bypassing the capitalist form of economy. In fact, a number of large collective farms (from 30 to 40) were created, built with funds from the Zionist organization and managed by collectives of workers; road and construction artels and the central organization were created, which again received a number of road and construction works from the Zionist organization and with its support also from the government.

4. In all this movement, the Gdud-Labor Movement, which had 500 to 700 members, united in 5 to 8 groups, occupied a prominent place. Its specific weight in the movement was much greater than its quantitative weight (10-20% of the total collectivist movement). Its social significance was due to the fact that, as the largest of the collectives, it always raised questions about the collectivist movement as a whole, its goals and prospects, while smaller collectives usually had little interest in these issues, and therefore were less prepared to solve them. In addition, the Gdud-Labor Movement was mostly non-party and, while still standing on the platform of constructive socialism, approached all questions that arose before the workers of Palestine solely from the interests of this movement, as an end in itself. This favourably distinguished it in the eyes of the collectives from the reformist parties, which, in many questions that arose before the collectivist movement, had to take into account not only the interests of the movement as such, but also various, sometimes contradictory, interests of the whole Zionist, due to their close organic connection with the Zionist organization.

5. The increase in Jewish immigration to Palestine, which took on a massive character (40,000 people during 1924-6), caused very serious changes in the prerequisites for Jewish colonization in Palestine:

(a) Among the immigrants, in addition to the poor, there were a considerable number with means who wanted to establish a private capitalist economy in Palestine.

b) The rapid growth of the number of immigrants, and in particular the number of poor immigrants, was not matched by the growth of the Zionist organization's colonization funds. These funds proved powerless to provide the means of production and subsistence for all poor immigrants. Most of them had to rely on the absorption capacity of the newly created private capitalist economy.

c) Among the members of the world Zionist organization, a concrete and direct interest has emerged in the economic forms of colonization activities of the Zionist apparatus in Palestine. This interest, thanks to the petty-bourgeois membership of the Zionist organization, led to the rejection of collectivist and cooperative forms of economy, which had previously been created by colonization funds at the request of the first settlers, and to the support of small-scale farming. All these changes in the process of Jewish colonization of Palestine led in a short time to such a change in the relationship between collectivist and private capitalist forms of economy in favor of the latter that the theory of reformist constructive socialism had to collapse, and the collectivist movement in Palestine had to go through a double crisis: a) ideological - because of the collapse of the theory of constructive socialism; b) economic-organizational - because of competition with private capitalist forms of economy, in particular, because of the withdrawal of qualified comrades from communes to the private capitalist labor market.

6. This crisis led the managers of Gdud-Avoda to the following conclusions::

a) That under the existing bourgeois system it is impossible to think of building a socialist society by means of constructivism - the construction of collective farms;

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b) That under this system there is also no possibility of full and normal development of existing collectives;

c) That the struggle for the existence and development of collectives is, first of all, a struggle for the overthrow of the existing system and for the creation of a proletarian dictatorship, in which the successful development of collectivist forms of economy and social life is only conceivable.

These conclusions have found a wide response in Gduda and in some other groups. At that time, the reformist leaders of the Jewish trade union organization and the Ahdut Haavoda party that dominated it engaged in a fierce struggle with the left wing of Gdud, which resulted in the split of Gdud, which was carried out by the right wing on the advice of trade union leaders.

7. The politicization of the Gdud (left) raises the question of its relations with all the political forces and groups that exist in the environment in which it has to operate. With the overwhelming power of the reformist trade union apparatus and the dominant reformist parties against them, the Gdud needs the moral and political support of its allies and like-minded people. Gduda's platform determines its possible allies in advance. They are in the camp of the Comintern, which is waging a worldwide struggle to achieve the goal that the Gdud has also set for itself. There are, however, some very important obstacles in the way between us and the representative of the Comintern in Palestine, the PKK.

There are fundamental differences between us and the PKK in the area of the national question. We believe that the PKK underestimates the Jewish population of Palestine, including Jewish workers, as a real political force that must be taken into account in the fight against British imperialism in Palestine, and focuses too unilaterally on the Arab national movement. These fundamental differences are also related to tactical motives that keep us from being too closely associated with the PKK. We believe that until the PKK's position on the Jewish national question in Palestine changes, not only can it not count on being a mass party of the Jewish worker in Palestine, but, on the contrary, it will be viewed by the vast majority of Jewish workers as a hostile party. A close connection between us and the PKK will place us in the same isolated position as the Jewish working masses, which is highly undesirable for us.

At the same time, we consider it possible to work in contact with the PKK on all those issues on which we have no fundamental differences, and openly present a united front with the party on these issues. Such issues now include almost the entire field of trade union work, the struggle for unity 47, the work of the International Labour Organization 48, and so on.

8. While maintaining a well-defined line of demarcation between us and the PKK, we consider it necessary, however, for the Comintern to recognize us as a friendly political workers ' group. This recognition is important to us primarily for its moral significance, but we believe that its inevitable consequence should be a change in the relationship between us and the PKK. Recognizing that it is perfectly acceptable to openly criticize our positions on any issue and in any forum, starting with meetings of the Gdud and ending with trade union congresses, we believe that-

47 We are talking about the possibility of joint actions with the Communists in the development of the "Ihud" ("Unity") Movement, which was patronized by the Histadrut Workers ' Faction that was attached to the PKK. Created as the Palestinian equivalent of the English "Minority Movement". It existed in 1926-1927. It set itself the task of creating an "international Jewish-Arab workers' front."

48 International Organization for Assistance to the Fighters of the Revolution (International Red Aid), established as one of the organizations operating under the auspices of the Comintern, in 1922. She provided assistance to victims of the "white terror".

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In the future, however, the disorganizing methods of struggle used by the PKK in relation to the reformist parties, and so far also in relation to us, will be unacceptable in relation to us.

Our connection with the Comintern should enable us to put questions and proposals concerning the political life of Palestine before it for discussion, as well as to enable us to train our comrades in the Comintern Universities.49 On the other hand, we consider ourselves bound to place at the disposal of the Comintern our technical forces and economic connections for carrying out those works which we have a positive attitude towards in principle.

With friendly greetings M. Elkind

member of the Central Committee of Gdud-Avoda (left) Moscow, 13.9.27

Source: RGASPI. F. 495. Op. 81. Ed. hr. 64. l. 3-6 (original).

III

September 29, 1927 Dear friend,

After reviewing the situation in Gdud-Avoda, we can see that this group still has many nationalist and opportunist remnants. It has not yet completely freed itself from the influence of the "theory" of constructive socialism, which is reflected in the overestimation of the importance it attaches to collectives. On the other hand, this group does not yet attach sufficient importance to the political struggle of the working class under the leadership of the Communist Party. And most importantly, this group still has nationalist prejudices, which is reflected in the ambivalent attitude towards the Arab national liberation movement, which, on the one hand, they correctly assess as a revolutionary, anti-imperialist movement, and on the other hand-mixing this movement with some of its current reactionary leaders-they present it as a movement reactionary.

Needless to say, such chauvinistic views inevitably lead members of the Gdud to purely colonialist views with the[social-]d [emocratic] Agdud-Labor party, 50 about the opposition of the interests of Jewish and Arab workers, to a completely false and unacceptable assessment of the PKK as a party that tends to turn into a "purely Arab" party, "unable to protect the interests of Jewish workers."

Noting that your work among Jewish workers has also resonated with members of agricultural collectives, we suggest that you strengthen your work among these groups of workers.

It is necessary to patiently and persistently explain to these workers the fallacy of their views, conducting propaganda among them mainly along the lines of explaining the identity of the interests of Jewish and Arab workers, the utopian and reactionary nature of the ideas of constructive socialism, the need to fight British imperialism and Zionism (in all its varieties) as its agent, and the bloc of the working-class movement the Arabic national rev [olution] movement.

49 Communist universities and educational institutions of the Comintern.

50 Ahdut Haavoda.

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When working in the ranks of the Gdud (as well as other teams), it is necessary to simultaneously contact not only its leaders, but mainly its ordinary members.

It is necessary to conduct propaganda for strengthening their trade union activities, in particular, involving them in the ranks of the Unity movement51. In particular, it is necessary to insist on the importance of the trade union organization of Arab workers.

It is necessary to achieve convergence of agricultural enterprises. collectives with Arab fellahs and agricultural enterprises. workers for a united struggle against the British administration and landowners.

Marks on the text:

B. Vasiliev 52.

"Report" Gdud-Avoda has a single] project. The goal is to get land for their immigrants in the USSR 53. We are the right people here.

But the report raised a number of questions, which we address in our letter to Abuziyama. 55

I/X W. Wright 56

This letter does not at all answer the questions raised in Elkind's letter, which need to be answered.

B. Vasiliev 2/X

Source: RGASPI. F. 495. Op. 81. Ed. hr. 64. l. 1-2 (typescript, without signature).

list of literature

Абрамович З. Gdud-Goavoda. (Letter from Palestine) // Jewish Proletarian Thought, Moscow, N 37-39. January 1926.

The Second Congress of the Comintern (July-August 1920). Moscow, 1934.

Jewish proletarian thought. N 37-39. Moscow, January 1926.

Kosach G. G. Red Flag over the Middle East? Communist Parties of Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon in the 20-30s. Moscow, 2001.

Brief Jewish Encyclopedia, Vol. 2. Jerusalem, 1982.

RGASPI (Russian State Archive of Socio-political History). f. 495.

RGAE (Russian State Archive of Economics). F. 7795. Op. 1. Ed. hr. 667. L. 97.

Hillig G. "Voyo-Nova" in the Crimea-a forgotten agricultural community (kibbutz). Marburg, 2005.

Tsakhor S. Vaadat habirur lebdikat "hakibbutz hahashai" be Gdud Haavoda (Commission to Investigate the "secret Kibbutz" in Gdud Haavoda) // Cathedra. Jerusalem. N 53. December 1990.

51 The Ihud Movement.

52 Boris Afanasyevich Vasiliev (pseudonyms-Orthodox, Saul, Leonid, Golodberg). Born in 1889 in Tambov. Since 1904, member of the RSDLP. From 1926 to 1934, he was a member of the Political Secretariat of the ICCI, as well as the Far and Middle East Departments of the Eastern secretariat of the ICCI. In January 1938, he was arrested and executed [RGASPI, f. 495, op. 65a, ed. hr. 5303].

53 This note proves that M. Elkind actually negotiated in Moscow for the relocation of supporters of the "left Gdud" to the Soviet Union.

54 The words "in connection" are underlined in the text.

55 Abuzam is the pseudonym of Wolf Averbuch, the first PKP leader. Born in 1889 in the town of Berezino, Minsk province. Member of the Poalei-Zion since 1912. In 1921, he left for Palestine. In 1930, he was recalled to Moscow to work in the Eastern secretariat of the ECCI. In 1936, he was accused of "espionage activities", "Zionism" and "torpedoing Arabization", arrested and shot [RGASPI, f. 495, op. 212, ed. ch. 182].

56 Pseudonym of Vasily Ivanovich Solovyov. Born in 1990 in Lojnitz (Latvia). Since 1913, member of the RSDLP. In 1926-1928, he was a member of the Far and Middle East Departments of the ECCI Eastern secretariat. He died in 1939 [RGASPI, f. 495, op. 65a, ed. hr. 140526].

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Am-Shalem D. Parashat hayyav hatrahiym shel Menachem Elkind (The story of the tragic life of Menachem Elkind) / / Hanahal sorem. N 6 (112). February 1961.

Heller O. Der Untergang des Judentums. Die Judenfrage / Ihre Kritik / Ihre Losung durch den Sozialismus. Wien-Berlin, 1931.

Merchav P. Die israelische Linke. Zionismus und Arbeiterbewegung in der Geschichte Israels. Frankfurt/M., 1972.

Near H. The Kibbutz Movement. A History. Vol. I. Oxford, 1992.

Shapira A. Black Night - White Snow: Attitudes of the Palestinian Labour Movement to the Russian Revolution, 1917 - 1929 // Studies on Contemporary Jewry. An Annual. 1988. N IV.

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