Birobidjan: The Story of the First Jewish State

Stalin believed that the Jews were somehow involved in the doctors' plot and planned to have all of Soviet Jewry deported to Birobidjan. (Britanica) In 1952 as a response to the alleged plot, Stalin issued yet another purgatory edict and had doctors and government officials executed. Stalin died early in 1953 and it was rumored to have been artificially induced. Nikita Khrushchev succeeded Malenkov, Stalin's short-termed successor, as the premier8 of the Soviet Union and declared the Jewish state of Birobidjan a failure; he blamed the Jews for their aversion to collective work and discipline. In 1958- when he said this- there were only about 14,000 Jews in Birobidjan out of a total population of just shy of 326,000: 4% of the population. (Demoscope) The figure has since continued to decline to 2,300 Jews out of a total population of 191,000- just over 1%. (J.A.R.)

Today’s fragile Jewish community of the J.A.O, mainly contained within the capital is championed by the Chabad-Lubavitch missionary efforts. The oblast has their own chief rabbi, Rabbi Mordechai Scheiner; he and the Chabad missionaries have set up many Jewish, that is Jewish religious, cultural and nationalistic, structures. The Rabbi is recorded as commenting "Today one can enjoy the benefits of the Yiddish culture and not be afraid to return to their Jewish traditions. It’s safe without any Anti-Semitism and we plan to open the first Jewish day school here". The centerpiece of the 70^th anniversary of the founding of Birobidjan was the unveiling of a monument to the famous Yiddish Author, Shalom Aleichem. It appears that the region is attempting to transform into the idyllic homeland that it was originally envisioned to be, but no serious political commentator accepts it as such. (F.J.C.)

Barnes, K. “Eastern Migration Within the Soviet Union”. Pacific Affairs, V. 7 No. 4 (Dec. 1934). pp 395-405

 "Trans-Siberian Railroad." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 28 Jan. 2010 <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/602319/Trans-Siberian-Railroad>.

"Doctor's Plot." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2 Feb. 2010. <http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/167427/Doctors-Plot>.

“Nikolai Muraviev Amursky.” Brokhaus & Ephron Encyclopedic Dictionary, St. Petersburg. 1907.

A Far East Chanukah, Chabad.org News, Dec 9, 2007. Web. Jan 28, 2010. <http://www.chabad.org/news/article_cdo/aid/608340/jewish/A-Far-East-Chanukah.htm>

Clarkson, J., A History of Russia. New York: Random House, 1961.

Far East Community Prepares for 70^th Anniversary of Jewish Autonomy, FJC News, August 30, 2004. Web. Feb 4, 2010. <http://www.fjc.ru/news/newsArticle.asp?AID=166969>

Jewish Autonomous Region, "JAR- The Government Official Website". Jewish Autonomous Region. 28 Jan. 2010 <http://www.eao.ru/eng/>.

 Time Magazine.“Russia:Biro-Bidjan.”Time Magazine 23 March 1936.

“Birobidzhan.” Jewish Encyclopedia pp 1044-1050. 1971.

Kerner, Robert. "The Russian Eastward Movement: Some Observations on Its Historical Significance." The Pacific Historical Review, Vol. 17, No. 2. (May, 1948), pp. 135-148.

Lustiger, A., Stalin and the Jews. New York: Enigma Books, 2003.

McCannon, J., untitled. The Geographical Review, Vol. 90, No. 4. (Oct., 2000), pp 646-648.

“Tito, Joseph Broz.” New World Encyclopedia 2010. New World Encyclopedia Online. 4 Feb 2010. <http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Josip_Broz_Tito>

Stalin, J.V., “Marxism and the National Question”. J.V. Stalin-Works, Volume 2. Moscow, RSFSR: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1954. pp 300-381

Wischnitzer, M., “The History of the Jews in Russia in Recent Publications.” The Jewish Quarterly Review, Vol 35, No. 4 (April, 1945), pp 393-413.

Official 1959 Soviet Census figures for Jewish Autonomous Oblast, “РГАЭ РФ (быв. ЦГАНХ СССР), фонд 1562, опись 336, ед.хр. 1566а -1566д (Таблица 3,4 Распределение населения по национальности и родному языку )” Retrieved from <http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_nac_59.php?reg=> Feb 3, 2010. This source is brought to find the total population of JAO. The Jewish population figure listed here is the same as the figure listed in the Jewish Encyclopedia.

Maps

NM 53-7, AMS Series N504. American Army Map Service- Army Corps of Engineers, Washington D.C. 1951 as seen on http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ams/eastern_siberia/txu-oclc-6572926-nm53-7.jpg, Accessed Jan. 30, 2010.

A photograph of a 1930's era map found on:

Palomino, M. “Jewish Story about Birobidzhan (Birobidjan) 1928-1970 Geschichte In Chronologie. 2007. Michael Palomino, 31 Jan 2010. <http://www.geschichteinchronologie.ch/index.html>.

Exhibits

Online museum exhibit published by Swarthmore University based upon the book:

Weinberg, R., Stalin's Forgotten Zion. Los Angeles: University of California Press , 1998. Viewable on <http://www.swarthmore.edu/Home/News/biro/html/panel01.html#>

Endnotes

1. This statement is based on extrapolation from modern maps and two antique maps. See references.

2. Russia had lost free access to the Amur River and the Pacific Ocean  to China in 1689.

3. The ride first appeared at the 1964 Worlds' Fair and its purpose was to showcase all the nations of the world (Russians included) in the context of an Elysian universal democracy scenario.

4. The actual acronym was RSFSR. The F stood for “Federative” as this state contained autonomous sub-states.

5. Most of the “historical information” on the website after this time consists of proud quotations of industrial and agricultural output.

6. Although Crimea was not eventually chosen to be the location of the JAO, it was considered because there were already some Jewish  settlements there. 46560 Jewish families liven in settlements; mostly in Crimea lived there (Weinberg)

7. As opposed to the free-market economy, in the command  economy the central government controls all the factories and railroads and  orders them to produce X units in Y time. All decisions must go through the central bureaucracy which increases the response time to any given situation. The Soviet Union was known for shortages and long lines; the command economy was a significant contributor to that situation.

8. The Chairman of the Communist Party is the one who rules the USSR. The “premier” is a more ceremonial task, but the ruler is often referred to as the “premier” nonetheless.