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Memoirs of a Jewish Revolutionary MEMOIRS OF A JEWISH REVOLUTIONARY Hersh Mendel MEMOIRS OF A JEWISH REVOLUTIONARY With a Preface by Isaac Deutscher PLUfO 4� PRESS First published in English 1989 by Pluto Press 11-21 Northdown Street, London N1 9BN Distributed in the USA by Unwin HymanInc 8 Winchester Place, Winchester MA 01890, USA Translation copyright© 1989 Robert Michaels First published in Hebrew as: Zikhroynesfun a Yidishn Revolutsioner Copyright© 1959I.L. Peretz Library, Tel Aviv Published in German as: Erinnerungen einesjiidischen Revolutionilrs Copyright© 1979 Rotbuch Verlag, West Berlin Preface to the Yiddish edition copyright © Tamara Deutscher Translator's note copyright© 1984, 1987 Robert Michaels Grateful acknowledgement is made for permission to reproduce the following: Selection from Writings of Leon Trotsky 1934-35 reprinted by permission of Pathfinder Press copyright© 1971 and 1974 by PathfinderPress; exchange between J.S. Hertz and Hersh Mendel from Unser Tsait 1960-1 reproduced here in translation by permission of Unser Tsait and i.S. Hertz; exchange between Hersh Mendel and Leon Trotsky from International information Bulletin No. 1, 1935, reproduced by permission of the Socialist Workers Party, New York. Photographs reproduced by permission of J.S. Hertz; S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main; Progress Publishers, Moscow; Institut fiir Marxismus-Leninismus, Berlin; Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Warsaw; Tamara Deutscher. Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders. Any omissions will be rectified in subsequent editions if requested. BritishLibrary Cataloguing in Publication Data Mendel, Hersh Memoirs of a Jewish revolutionary. l. Mendel, Hersh 2. Jews-Poland- Biography 3. Jewish radicals-Poland -Biography I. Title 943.8'004924 DS135.P63M465 ISBN 0-7453-0264-5 CONTENTS TRANSLATOR'S NOTE viii PREFACE TO THE YIDDISH EDITION xiii PART 1 My Childhood 27 Spring Approaches 32 Spring 38 Downhill 43 The Fog Grows Denser 49 My First Strike 53 PART2 I Become a Bundist 61 My First May Day Demonstration 67 My Second Strike 73 The Warsaw Conference of the Bund in July 1912 77 My Father's Strike 81 The Saxony Garden 86 My First Arrest 90 In Pawiak Prison 97 My Trial 105 Off to the Prison in Lomi:a 109 My Release 116 Historic Days for the Jewish People 119 My First Illegal Trip 126 In Paris without a Home 130 PARTJ On the Eve of the War 139 The War 142 I Leave Paris 146 I Return to Paris 150 PART4 The March Revolution 157 In Russia 162 The October Revolution 167 Against Kornilov 173 Back in Moscow 180 My Trip to the Ukraine 185 In Warsaw 189 PARTS I Become a Member of the Communist Party 195 I Become a Member of the Revolutionary War Committee 201 The Death Sentence 204 Off to Soviet Russia 208 My Imprisonment in Brest 213 One More Arrest 218 My Prison Wanderings 225 My Trial in Grodno 232 At Lukishka 236 Back in Bia�ystok 244 On the Way to My Release 247 On the Road 25 1 At the Lenin School 256 Forced Collectivization 263 The Decision 268 Back to Warsaw 273 PART6 We Found a Faction 28 1 Our Opposition 286 My Arrest in Vienna 295 My Second Trip to Paris 305 Once Again in Warsaw 313 My Third Stay in Paris 319 AFTERWORD 327 Appendix 1: Exchange Between Hertz and Mendel 331 Appendix 2: Exchange Between Mendel and Trotsky 346 Index 357 Translator's Note The following edition of Hersh Mendel's memoirs was translated from Nele Low-Beer's and Jakob Moneta's German translation and checked line for line against the Yiddish original. Isaac Deutscher's preface to the original edition, on the other hand, was translated from the Yiddish and checked against the German translation. Substantial discrepancies be­ tween the Yiddish and German translations of Deutscher's Polish-language preface are duly noted in the present edition. Aside from the footnote on page xviii by Isaac Deutscher, the footnotes in this translation have either been taken from the German edition (de­ noted by the abbreviation "GE") or added by the present translator (as denoted by the abbreviation "trans."). Several errors in dates appear in Hersh Mendel's text, which, in keep­ ing with the author's wishes, have been corrected for this edition. In his reply to a critic, which appeared in the Bundist journal Unser Tsait (Our Times) Nos� 1-2, January-February 1961,1 the author remarks: "1. In re­ gard to three inaccuracies in the dates: these mistakes are indeed mine and are truly regretable. I noticed them earlier, but it was already too late to correct them. When the book is translated, the errors and the dates will be set straight." The critic, J .S. Hertz, notes in his very unfa­ vorable and rather idiotic review "Remembered or Invented"(Unser Tsait No. 11, November 19602) that theauthor mistakenly refers to the news­ paper in which Peretz published his article imploring the Jewish workers to go to the synagogue as der Moment. The article appeared, according to Hertz, in Haynt (page 88). He further notes that Hersh Mend&l incor­ rectly refers to the "Cominform" in place of the "Profintem" (page t:rl). Hertz points out that Hersh Mendel errs in writing that the latter's first trial took place in March 1912 (page 106). He also insists that Hersh 1 See Appendix I. 2 For Hertz's review, which manifests a Fundamental social-democratic beliefin bourgeois legalism, see Appendix I. viii TRANSLATOR'S NOTE Mendel errs in stating that Mickiewicz, the chairman of the purge com­ mission in Moscow, was Jewish (page 271). In referring to the date of Lyova Sedov's death as August 1938 (page 319) as well as in stating that Adolf (Rudolf Klement) was murdered in July 1939 (page 321), Hersh Mendel is in error. Italicized words and phrases in this edition which convey emphasis are the author's own. In keeping with English style and usage, however, fo reign words, particularly those in Yiddish, Hebrew, Russian and Polish, have been italicizedby the translator. Likewise, newspaper names and titles of literary works appear in italics. In the one and a half years I have spent translating and producing this book, I have received a great deal of aid from many quarters. In particu­ lar, the staff of the East Europe Reading Room of the Staatsbibliothek in West Berlin devoted a great deal of time in helping me decipher, de­ fine, and transliterate various Russian and Polish words. Their thor­ oughness and readiness in helping m� to smooth out some of the rough edges is much appreciated. The YIVO Institute in New York City as well as a certain professor in Te l Aviv, whose name I have unfortunately for­ gotten, supplied me with the names of the Polish Tr otskyists' various publications. It was also this same professor who led me to J.S. Hertz's review of Hersh Mendel's book as well as Hersh Mendel's reply to it. Special thanks goes to Wolfgang Plum of Delta Schnelldruck GmbH in West Berlin, who placed his typesetting equipment and shop at my dis­ posal and who was always ready to offer his advice on various technical matters. Lastly, I would like to thank my dear friend Jeff Pott for reading and editing the proofs. It is largely due to his helpful and very necessary edit­ ing work that the present translation has assumed the shape which it has. The responsibility for this translation, its strengths as well as its weak­ nesses, naturally rests with the translator. West Berlin, 17 May 1984 TRANSLA10R'S NOTE ix In preparing this volume for publication, a number of additional acknowledgements are in order. I wish to thank the Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, for permitting me to photograph pictures from books in its collection and for the general use of its own reproduction department. Elena S. Danielson, assistant archivist at Stanford Universi­ ty's HooverInstitution, was very helpfulin putting me on the track of some of the publications of the PolishLeft Opposition and for providing me with the register of Boris I. Nicolaevsky's collection of papers of Leon Trotsky and Lyova Sedov. For his encouragement and his recognition of the importance of these memoirs, I thank Holger Behm of RotbuchVerlag in West Berlin. Warmest thanks go to members of theinternational Spartacist tendency for encourag­ ing me to publish this book and for suggesting prospective publishers. It is the Spartacists' socialist program and their dedication to preserving and enriching the Trotskyist archival heritage which generally inspired this translation. (For their review of Hersh Mendel's book, see "Memoirs of a Revolutionary Jewish Worker", Spartacist English-language edition No. 41-42, Winter 1987-88.) Finally, if it weren't for the perceptive eyeof Gloria Rom, certain incon­ sistencies and blunders may have made their way into the finished work. It is a great honor to be able to pr�sent to English-speaking readers Hersh Mendel's remarkable Memoirs of a Jewish Revolutionary. For its honesty, its revolutionary passion, its portrayal of a relatively unknown chapter in the history of socialism, this work is unsurpassed in the working-class literature of our time. It stands out as a forthright statement of the yearn­ ings and struggles of thousands upon thousands of nameless and faceless Jewish, Polish and Russian revolutionaries whose life's work was devoted to and culminated in the great Russian Revolution. Indeed, the fact that Hersh Mendel wrotethese memoirs almost two decades afterhe broke from Marxism testifies to the power of the Bolshevik idea of socialist world revolution and the depth of his dedication to it. Memoirs of a Jewish Revolutionary is a book about Polandthe oppress­ ed and Polandthe oppressor.
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