V. I.

Lenin

Among the various representatives of Marxism in Russia the Jewish
Marxists, or, to be more exact, some of them—those known as the
Bundists—are carrying out a policy of separatism . From the
history of the working-class movement it is known that the Bundists
left the Party in 1903, when the majority of the party of the
working class refused to accept their demand to be recognised as the
“sole” representatives of the Jewish proletariat.

This exit from the Party was a manifestation of separatism deeply
harmful to the working-class movement. But, in fact, the Jewish workers
have entered and continue to enter the Party everywhere in spite of the
Bund. Side by side with the separate (isolated) organisations of
the Bundists, there have always existed general organisations of the workers—Jewish, Russian, Polish, Lithuanian,
Latvian, etc.

From the history of Marxism in Russia we know, further more, that when
the Bund in 1906 again returned to the Party, the Party stipulated the
condition that separatism should cease, i.e., that there should be local
unity of all the Marxist workers of whatever nationality. But this condition was not fulfilled by the Bundists,
despite its special confirmation by a special decision of the
Party in December
1908. [1]

That, shortly, is the history of Bundist separatism in
Russia. Unfortunately, it is little known to the workers, and little
thought is given to it. Those having the closest practical acquaintance
with this history are the Polish, the Lithuanian (especially in Vilna in
1907) and the Latvian Marxists (at the same time, in Riga), and the
Marxists of South and Western Russia; It is well known, incidentally, that the Caucasian Marxists, including all the Caucasian
Mensheviks, have until quite recently maintained local unity and
even fusion of the workers of all nationalities, and have condemned the
separatism of the Bundists.

We should also note that the prominent Bundist, Medem, in the
well-known book, Forms of the National Movement (St. Petersburg,
1910), admits that the Bundists have never implemented unity in the
localities, i.e., they have always been separatists.

In the international working-class movement, the question of separatism
came to the front most urgently in 1910, at the Copenhagen Congress. The
Czechs came forward as separatists in Austria, and destroyed the
unity that had existed previously between the Czech and German workers. The
International Congress at Copenhagen unanimously condemned
separatism, but the Czechs have unfortunately remained separatists right up
to the present.

Feeling themselves isolated in the proletarian International, the Czech
separatists spent a long time searching unsuccessfully for supporters. Only
now have they found some—in the Bundists and liquidators . The
Čechoslavische Sozialdemokrat , the bit of a journal published
by the separatists in German, printed an article in its issue No. 3
(Prague, April 15, 1913) under the title “A Turn for the Better”. This
“turn” that is supposed to be for the “better” (actually, towards
separatism) the Czech separatists saw—where do you think, reader? In
Nasha Zarya , [2] the liquidators’ journal, in an article by the
Bundist V. Kosovsky!

At last the Czech separatists are not alone in the proletarian
International! Naturally they are glad to be able to rope in even
liquidators, even Bundists. But all class-conscious workers in Russia
should give this fact some thought:
the Czech separatists, unanimously condemned by the International, are
clinging to the coat-tails of liquidators and Bundists.

Only that complete unity (in every locality, and from top to bottom) of
the workers of all nations, which has existed so long and so successfully
in the Caucasus, corresponds to the interests and tasks of the workers’
movement.