Moisei Rafes, ''Moishe Rafes''
uk, Моисей Григорьевич Рафес, ''Moysey Hryhorovych Rafes'' (3 November 1883 – 1942) was a prominent Jewish politician of the

Ukrainian People's Republic The Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR), or Ukrainian National Republic (UNR), was a country in Eastern Europe that existed between 1917 and 1920. It was declared following the February Revolution in Russia by the First Universal. In March 1 ...

as the Bundist representative. After 1919 he was an official of the

Bolshevik Party " Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first)Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspaper ...

until the rise of

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

, when he was imprisoned. Rafes was a member of the 1917

Russian Constituent Assembly The All Russian Constituent Assembly (Всероссийское Учредительное собрание, Vserossiyskoye Uchreditelnoye sobraniye) was a constituent assembly convened in Russia after the October Revolution of 1917. It met fo ...

and also of the

Central Council of Ukraine The Central Council of Ukraine ( uk, Українська Центральна Рада, ) (also called the Tsentralna Rada or the Central Rada) was the All-Ukrainian council (soviet) that united deputies of soldiers, workers, and peasants deputie ...

, the Petrograd Soviet, headed Jewish Bund in Kiev. In Kiev Rafes became a member of the Regional Committee in Protection of Revolution in Ukraine and served as the General Controller of the

General Secretariat of Ukraine The General Secretariat of Ukraine ( uk, Генеральний секретаріат УЦР—УНР) was the autonomous Ukrainian executive government of the Russian Republic from June 28, 1917 to January 22, 1918. For most of its existence ...

. He was succeeded at this post by another Bundist, Aleksandr Zolotarev. When tensions within the Bund heightened, due to the pro-Bolshevik leaning of a part of the leadership, Moisei Rafes was the leader of the centrist wing of the Bund, while

Mikhail Liber Mikhail Isaakovich Liber (5 June 1880 – 4 October 1937), sometimes known as Mark Liber, was a leader of the General Jewish Workers' Union (the 'Bund'). He also played a role in the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party (RSDRP) and was a l ...

and Benjamin Kheifetz led the rightists. However, Rafes led the scissionist Kombund group in Kiev in February 1919, later joined by similar groups in

Yekaterinoslav Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper Rive ...

Kharkov Kharkiv ( uk, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest city and municipality in Ukraine.

and Poltava, but the Kombund lasted only till May 1919, when it merged into the Komfarband. These moves were apparently motivated by the large-scale

pogrom A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russia ...

s committed by all the armies present in Ukraine at the time, except the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

. After the refusal of the Soviet authorities to authorize the formation of a distinct Jewish Communist Party, Rafes, like other former Bundists

Esther Frumkin Esther Frumkin ( yi, עסטער פרומקין; 1880 – 8 June 1943), born Malkhe Khaye Lifshitz be, Малка Янкелеўна Ліўшыц, translit=Malka Jankyelyeǔna Liǔšyc and also known as Mariya Yakovlevna Frumkina be, Мары́ ...

, Alexander Chemerinsky and Rakhmiel Veinshtain, finally joined the upper echelons of the

Yevsektsiya A Yevsektsiya ( rus, евсекция, p=jɪfˈsʲektsɨjə; yi, יעווסעקציע) was a Jewish section of the Soviet Communist Party. These sections were established in fall of 1918 with consent of Vladimir Lenin to carry communist revolut ...

, the Jewish section of the

Soviet Communist party "Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first)Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspaper ...

(CPSU). Moisei Rafes was at the head of the artistic section of

Sovkino Goskino USSR (russian: link=Yes, Госкино СССР) is the abbreviated name for the USSR State Committee for Cinematography (Государственный комитет по кинематографии СССР) in the Soviet Union. It w ...

and a member of the Sovkino board in the late 1920s and through 1930.

Notes

Sources

1883 births 1942 deaths Politicians from Vilnius People from Vilensky Uyezd Jews from the Russian Empire Jewish Lithuanian politicians Jewish Ukrainian politicians Bundists Ukrainian people of Lithuanian-Jewish descent Communist Party of Ukraine (Soviet Union) politicians Jewish socialists Members of the Central Council of Ukraine State controllers of Ukraine People who died in the Gulag Jews who died in prison custody {{Ukraine-politician-stub