CORRESPONDENCE WITH S.M. DIMANSHTEIN1

After March 25, 1919 — before May 6, 1920

Note from S.M. Dimanshtein

Comrade Vladimir Ilyich!

Could we discuss the attitude towards the newly formed Communist "Bund"? Please set a time.

Dimanshtein.

Note from V.I. Lenin

Tomorrow at 11 o'clock there will be a meeting of the Politburo.

Do you request to postpone?

— or to be heard?

(I am in favor of a compromise with the new Bund: to negotiate and make some concessions), and what about you?

Fund 2, op. 1, file 9072 — autographs.

1 The exact date of the correspondence between V.I. Lenin and S.M. Dimanshtein could not be established. On March 25, 1919, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) was formed. On May 6, 1920, in the minutes No. 7 of the meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee, the issue was first mentioned: "On the conditions for accepting the Bund into the RCP" and the decision on it: "To entrust Kamenev, Stalin, and Preobrazhensky to meet with representatives of the Bund and hear their proposals" (RCHIDNI, f. 17, op. 3, file 75, p. 3). The published document is dated based on these two facts.

The final decision was made at the meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) on June 18, 1920: "The Central Committee of the RCP, having heard the report on the organizational proposals of the Bund, considers that such a resolution, which makes the unification with the Communist Party dependent on the approval by the Central Committee of the RCP of such organizational forms that ensure the isolation of the Bund as a national organization, raises doubts about the depth of the evolution that the leading body of the Bund has undergone. In view of this, the Central Committee of the RCP rejects the proposal of the Bund and deems it necessary to clarify this issue before the workers who follow the Bund, in order to accelerate their transition to the RCP.

At the same time, the Central Committee entrusts the Organizational Bureau to develop organizational forms best suited to the living conditions of the Jewish proletariat, with the mandatory use of the native language in places where Jewish masses are concentrated, in accordance with the instructions published in No. 13 of 'Izvestia of the Central Committee'" (RCHIDNI, f. 17, op. 3, file 89, p. 3).

This refers to the instruction of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) of February 26, 1920, on work among national minorities — see: Izvestia of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), No. 13, March 2, 1920.

The Communist Bund — organizations of the left wing of the Bund, which declared in 1919 their desire to join the Comintern. In 1920, after the self-dissolution of the Bund, most members of these organizations joined the RCP(b).