Moses Litvakoff, for twelve years the editor of the Moscow Communist Yiddish daily, Emes, Central organ of the Jewish Communists, was expelled from the Communist party of Russia today on the order of the committee delegated to cleanse the party ranks of non-Communist elements.
At stated periods every member of the Communist party is called before a party commission in a “chistka” or cleaning, where he must account to the commission for his actions during the period in question. Usually about a third of the party members are expelled in the course of the “chistka.”
Litvakoff was charged with “idealized Bundism, having published in the Emes a series of articles by former Bundists, and surrounding himself with collaborators who were former Bundists with wavering inclinations.” The Bund was the organization of Jewish Socialist workmen formed at the beginning of the twentieth century. They supported the Kerensky regime against the Bolsheviki and were outlawed.
The expulsion aroused consternation in Jewish Communist circles, and soon after an announcement was published by the higher authorities that although technically the question has not yet been settled, the expulsion has been held up and probably Litvakoff will receive a lighter punishment.
Litvakoff was expelled from the Communist party once before, in 1922, but was reinstated soon afterward.
The Communist editor was born in Kiev province in 1875. In his youth he was a Zionist and later a leader of the Socialist Zionists. In 1917, immediately after the March revolution broke out in Russia, Litvakoff became one of the founders of the United Jewish Socialist Workers party, which he represented in the Ukrainian parliament. Ukraine was virtually independent at the time.
When the Bolsheviks extended their government to the Ukraine, Litvakoff and the left wing of his party went over to the Communists. Litvakoff became a leader of the Jewish section of the Communist party, known as the “Yevsektzia.” He is the author of several books on literary subjects and the theater.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
