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8320 km from Moscow
Was founded: in 1931
Zone time: Moscow +7
Population: 100.000
Average temperatures: January -22, April +3, July +20, October +2
History
The Jewish National District was founded with the help of in 1928 as. It was the result of Stalin's nationality policy, by which each of the national groups that formed the Soviet Union would receive a territory in which to pursue cultural autonomy in a socialist framework. The idea was to create a new "Soviet Zion", where a proletarian Jewish culture could be developed. Yiddish, rather than Hebrew, would be the national language, and a new socialist literature and arts would replace religion as the primary expression of culture.
Stalin's theory on the National Question held that a group could only be a nation if they had a territory, and since there was no Jewish territory, per se, the Jews were not a nation and did not have national rights. Jewish Communists argued that the way to solve this ideological dilemma was by creating a Jewish territory, hence the ideological motivation for the Jewish Autonomous Oblast.
Politically, it was also considered desirable to create a Soviet Jewish homeland.The propaganda impact was so effective that several thousand Jews immigrated to Birobidzhan from outside of the Soviet Union. In hindsight, it can be said that the experiment was doomed from the start. Another important goal of the Birobidzhan project was to increase settlement in the remote Soviet Far East, especially along the vulnerable border with China.
The geography and climate of Birobidzhan were harsh, and any new settlers would have to build their lives from scratch. Some have even claimed that Stalin was also motivated by anti-Semitism in selecting Birobidzhan: he wanted to keep the Jews as far away from the centers of power as possible. Despite the hardships, a trickle of Jewish settlers arrived.
The Birobidzhan experiment ground to a halt in the mid-1930s, during Stalin's first campaign of purges. Jewish leaders were arrested and executed, and Yiddish schools were shut down. Shortly after this, World War II brought concerted efforts to bring Jews east to an abrupt end. There was a slight revival in the Birobidzhan idea after the war as a potential home for Jewish refugees.
During that time, the Jewish population of the region peaked at almost one-third of the total. Efforts in this direction ended, however, with the establishment of Israel as a Jewish state, and Stalin's second wave of purges shortly before his death. Today, students can take Hebrew and Yiddish lessons, as well as Jewish culture classes at schools and two institutes in town. Most of the Jewish population has left for Israel, Europe or the US, and by some estimates only 3,000 Jews remain in Birobidzhan.
Thing to see and do
Regional Museum with the stuffed Siberian tiger and a room devoted to the Jewish history of the region.
A Jewish community center with the new sianagogue next to it.
