Between New York and Moscow: the Fate of the Bund Archives

Abstract

In the article ‘The Historical Consciousness of the Early Bund’ the historian H. J. Tobias remarked: ‘The Bundists began to describe their history within a few years after the founding of their organization. That they felt the need to write it is in itself important, for it reflected their strong self-consciousness and their desire to explain why they had appeared on the political scene.’1 Writing the history of their party, continues Tobias, ‘helped to commemorate the past and to demonstrate the value of the organization.’ These comments about the early years of the Bund apply in equal measure to the entire course of the Bund’s history. The large number of memoirs by Bund leaders and activists, and a multitude of monographs, histories, and other writings by Bundist authors, point to a strong sense of pride in the accomplishments of their party and to a deeply ingrained need to leave a record for posterity. The spirit of historical consciousness also permeated the work of the Bund Archives, the repository of the Bund’s historical records. Founded almost at the same time as the Bund itself, the Archives very soon became one of the movement’s legends, in which even the modest task of gathering and preserving Party documents was seen as a revolutionary deed. The Archive is spoken of with reverence in the Bund, as a great treasure worthy of sacrifices.