BORIS FRUMKIN

BORIS FRUMKIN (b. 1872)

            He was born in Minsk, Byelorussia.  He completed his doctoral degree in humanities and philosophy at the University of Geneva.  He was a pioneer in the Jewish labor movement.  He was a member of the foreign committee of the Bund and secretary for the central bureau of the Bund’s organization abroad.  He took part in important Bundist conferences and meetings.  Together with F. Kurski and M. Vinokur, in 1913 he prepared a lengthy work on the Bund in the revolutionary years of 1905-1906, which was published in 1913 in German in Archiv für Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik (Archive for social sciences and social politics); it was translated into Yiddish by Yoysef Leshtshinski and published as “Der bund in di revolutsyonere yorn 1905-06” in Warsaw in 1930.  He published a research piece, “Zubatovshchina i evreiskoe rabochee dvizhenie” (The Zubatov regime [Tsarist secret police] and the Jewish labor movement) in Perezhitoie (The past) (St. Petersburg) 3 (1911).  He contributed to the illegal and legal Bundist press in Yiddish and Russian.  He was co-editor of: Arbayter bletel (Workers’ flyer) in the late 1890s and Der minsker arbayter (The Minsk worker) in the early years of the twentieth century—both illegal in Minsk; Der veker (The alarm), the first illegal, trade union publication in Warsaw (1898-1903), also editor for a time; Arbayter shtime (Workers’ voice), illegal (1897-1905); Folkstsaytung (People’s newspaper) in Vilna (1906-1907); Nasha tribuna (Our tribune); Di tsayt (The times); Unzer tsayt (Our times) in St. Petersburg (1913-1914).  He also placed work in Tsukunft (Future) and other serials in New York.  Among his pen names: Nelin.  At the time of the split in the Bund in 1920, he joined the “Kombund” (Communist Labor Bund).  Until the early 1930s he lived in Moscow.  Subsequent details remain unknown.

Sources: Vladimir Medem, Fun mayn lebn (Of my life), vols. 1 and 2 (New York, 1923); A. Kirzhnits, Yidishe prese in der gevezener rusisher imperye, 1823-1916 (The Yiddish press in the former Russian empire, 1823-1916) (Moscow, 1930), see index; John Mill, Pyonern un boyer (Pioneers and builders) vols. 1 and 2 (New York, 1946), see index; F. Kurski, Gezamlte shriftn (Collected writings) (New York, 1952), see index; Geshikhte fun bund (History of the Bund), vols. 1-3 (New York, 1960, 1962, 1966).

Khayim Leyb Fuks