The Russian Revolution and the First Communists in Palestine

This essay focuses on another dramatic event that occurred in 1917 and had a tremendous impact on the 20th century: the October Revolution. Davidi examines the impact of the Revolution on the local arena through the story of the Socialist Workers Party established in Palestine in October 1919, whose founders defined themselves as communists. Davidi places the party’s activity in the political and social context in which it was founded: in the world – the Bolshevik revolution and the establishment of the Third International; in Palestine – the entrenchment of the British colonial regime; and in the yishuv – the communists’ confrontation with the Zionist parties. Although the party changed its name in 1923 (this time into Yiddish), its short-lived history illuminates hopes and dreams, crises and failures, which are with us to this day.