Investor Presentaiton
the modernization of the Soviet Jewish population."164 The groups were originally created at the
start of the Civil War and before Stalin's official nationalities policy for the purpose of bringing
Jews into the Bolshevik Party. 165 However, they soon became an important tool in the
implementation of Stalin's assimilation policy when it was formed in the early 1920s.
Despite being government promoted groups that worked towards secularizing Judaism,
they "also provided many Soviet Jews with their first administrative experience and actively
"166
promoted Jewish political participation." The Evsektsiia in particular had a strong commitment
"to the economic rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Soviet Jewish population."167 While
there were some positive effects that these groups had on the Jewish community, they were
largely unpopular because of the change they were created to produce: specifically, redefining
"Jewish identity and national consciousness in such a way as to provide Soviet Jews with the
opportunity simultaneously to achieve political-economic-social integration into the rest of
Soviet society, while maintaining and developing in new ways their national identity and
consciousness."168 Jews were essentially expected to accept the national identity the Soviet
government created for them.
This artificial nationality was a mixture of Yiddish culture with Bolshevik and
Communist messaging. Overall, it was highly unpopular because many Jews wanted to achieve
"national, as well as political, integration into the Russian-dominated Soviet European
164 Zvi Gitelman, Jewish Nationality and Soviet Politics: The Jewish Sections of the CPSU, 1917-1930,
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1972), 491.
165
Sloin, The Jewish revolution in Belorussia, 30.
166 Gitelman, Jewish Nationality and Soviet Politics, 486-487.
167 Ibid, 486-487.
168
Gitelman, Assimiliation, Acculturation, and National Consciousness, 16.
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