Jewish Social Studies

It is generally assumed that during the civil war after the Revolution, Russian Jews sided with the Bolsheviks primarily because they were the least antisemitic party at the time. Yet Daniel Pasmanik, a little-known Zionist leader and ideologist, supported the White movement during the civil war, and after his immigration to Paris he even championed fascism to reunite Russia, which had been fragmented by the Bolsheviks. A careful examination of Pasmanik’s writings from his Zionist and anti-Bolshevist years reveals his dual nationalism, providing a more nuanced picture of Zionism and Russia in the revolutionary period. Furthermore, such an examination illuminates several reasons behind Jews’ support of the White movement despite its antisemitism.