Jewish Autonomous Oblast
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The Jewish Autonomous Oblast (Russian: Евре́йская автоно́мная о́бласть, Yevreyskaya avtonomnaya oblast; Yiddish: ייִדישע אווטאָנאָמע געגנט, yidishe avtonome gegnt[11]) forms a federal subject of Russia (an autonomous oblast) situated in the Russian Far East, bordering Khabarovsk Krai and Amur Oblast of Russia and Heilongjiang province of China. Its administrative center is Birobidzhan.
Soviet authorities established the autonomous oblast in 1934. It was the result of Joseph Stalin's nationality policy, which allowed for the Jews of the Soviet Union to receive a territory in which to pursue Yiddish cultural heritage within a socialist framework.[12] According to the 1939 population census, 17,695 Jews lived in the region (16% of the total population). The census of 1959, taken 6 years after Stalin's death, revealed that the Jewish population of the JAO declined to 14,269 persons.[13] As of 2002, 2,327 Jews were living in the JAO (1.2% of the total population), while ethnic Russians made up 90% of the JAO population.
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[edit] Climate
The territory has a monsoonal/anti-cyclonic climate, with warm, wet, humid summers due to the influence of the East Asian monsoon; and cold, dry, windy conditions prevailing in the winter months courtesy of the Siberian high-pressure system.
[edit] Administrative divisions
[edit] Demographics
The Russian census of 2002 reported a total population of 190,915, of which the largest group are the 171,697 ethnic Russians (89.93%), followed by 8,483 ethnic Ukrainians (4.44%). As of the same date, the Jewish community numbered 2,327 persons (1.22%).[14]
The following additional groups were enumerated[by whom?]: 1,196 Tatars (0.63%), 1,182 Belarusians (0.62%), 672 Moldavians (0.35%), 594 Azeris (0.31%), 453 Germans (0.24%), 402 Koreans (0.21%), 401 Mordovians (0.21%), 320 Chuvash (0.17%), 282 Armenians (0.15%), 188 Bashkirs (0.10%), 156 Uzbeks (0.08%), 148 Poles (0.08%), 132 Roma (0.07%), 128 Tajiks (0.07%), 103 Mari (0.05%) and 102 Chinese (0.05%). A total of 95 different ethnic groups was reported.
Vital Statistics for 2007:
- Births: 2,418 (13.02 per 1000, 12.29 in urban areas & 14.46 in rural areas).[15]
- Deaths: 2,794 (15.05 per 1000, 16.08 in urban areas & 13.03 in rural areas).
- Natural Growth Rate: -0.20% per year (-0.38% in urban areas & +0.14% in rural areas).
In 2007, deaths outnumbered births (-376) in urban areas, while rural areas reported a slight excess of births over deaths (+90).
Vital Statistics for 2008:
- Births: 2,582 (13.9 per 1000)
- Deaths: 2,851 (15.4 per 1000)[16]
[edit] History
[edit] Military colonization and the advent of the Trans-Siberian Railway
In December 1858 the Russian government authorized formation of the Amur Cossacks to protect the southeast boundary of Siberia and communications on the Amur and Ussuri rivers. This military colonization included settlers from Transbaikalia. During the years 1858–82, sixty three settlements were founded, including, in 1857, Radde settlement; in 1858, Pashkovo, Pompeyevka, Puzino, Yekaterino-Nikolskoye, Mikhailo-Semyonovskoye, Voskresenovka, Petrovskoye, and Ventzelevo; in 1860, Storozhevoye, Soyuznoye, and Golovino; later in the decade, Babstovo, Bidzhan, and Bashurovo settlements. Expeditions of scientists — including such geographers, ethnographers, naturalists, and botanists as Venyukov, Schrenck, Maksimovich, Radde, and Komarov - promoted the development of the new territories. Their achievements produced the first detailed "map of the Amur land".
Construction began in 1898 on the Trans-Siberian Railway connecting Chita and Vladivostok, starting at each end and meeting halfway. The project produced a large influx of new settlers and the foundation of new settlements. In 1908 Volochayevka, Obluchye, and Bira, Russia stations appeared; in 1910, Birakan, Londoko, and In stations; in 1912, Tikhonkaya station. The railway construction finished in October 1916 with the opening of the 2590 m (8500 ft) Khabarovsk Bridge across the Amur at Khabarovsk. In the pre-revolutionary period most local inhabitants were farmers. The only industrial enterprise was the Tungusskiy timber mill, although gold was mined in the Sutara River, and there were some small railway workshops. During the civil war, the territory of the future Jewish Autonomous Oblast was the scene of terrible battles[vague]. The economy declined, though it was recovering in 1926 and 1927.
[edit] Jewish settlement and development in the region
On March 28, 1928, the Presidium of the General Executive Committee of the USSR passed the decree "On the attaching for Komzet of free territory near the Amur River in the Far East for settlement of the working Jews." The decree meant "a possibility of establishment of a Jewish administrative territorial unit on the territory of the called region".[17]
On August 20, 1930 the General Executive Committee of RSFSR accepted the decree "On formation of the Birobidzhan national region in the structure of the Far Eastern Territory". The State Planning Committee considered the Birobidzhan national region as a separate economic unit. In 1932 the first scheduled figures of the region development were considered and authorized.[by whom?][17]
On May 7, 1934, the Presidium of the General Executive Committee accepted the decree on its transformation into the Jewish Autonomous Region within the Russian Federation. In 1938, with formation of the Khabarovsk Territory, the Jewish Autonomous Region (JAR) was included in its structure.[17]
According to Joseph Stalin's national policy, each of the national groups that formed the Soviet Union would receive a territory in which to pursue cultural autonomy in a socialist framework. In that sense, it also responded to two supposed threats to the Soviet state:
- Judaism, which ran counter to official state policy of atheism
- Zionism — the advocacy of a Jewish national state in Palestine — which countered Soviet views of nationalism.
The Soviets envisaged setting up 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 only regarded a group as a nation if it 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 as an ideological alternative to Zionism and the theory put forward by Socialist Zionists such as Ber Borochov that the Jewish Question could be resolved by creating a Jewish territory in Palestine. Thus Birobidzhan was important for propaganda purposes as an argument against Zionism which was a rival ideology to Marxism among left-wing Jews.
Another important goal of the Birobidzhan project involved increasing settlement in the remote Soviet Far East, especially along the vulnerable border with China. In 1928, there was virtually no settlement in the area, while Jews had deep roots in the western half of the Soviet Union, in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia proper. In fact, there had initially been proposals to create a Jewish Soviet Republic in the Crimea or in part of Ukraine but these were rejected because of fears of antagonizing non-Jews in those regions.
Birobidzhan had a harsh geography and climate: the landscape largely swampland, and any new settlers would have to build their lives from scratch.
By the 1930s, a massive propaganda campaign developed to induce more Jewish settlers to move there. The campaign partly incorporated the standard Soviet propaganda tools of the era, and included posters and Yiddish-language novels describing a socialist utopia there. Other methods bordered on the bizarre. In one instance, leaflets promoting Birobidzhan were dropped from an airplane over a Jewish neighborhood in Belarus. In another instance, a government-produced Yiddish film called Seekers of Happiness told the story of a Jewish family that fled the Great Depression in the United States to make a new life for itself in Birobidzhan.
As the Jewish population grew, so did the impact of Yiddish culture on the region. Settlers established a Yiddish newspaper, the Birobidzhaner Shtern (Cyrillic: Биробиджанер Штерн, Hebrew: ביראָבידזשאַנער שטערן, "Star of Birobidzhan"); a theater troupe was created; and streets being built in the new city were named after prominent Yiddish authors such as Sholom Aleichem and Y. L. Peretz. The Yiddish language was deliberately bolstered as a basis for efforts to secularize the Jewish population and, despite the general curtailment of this action as described immediately below, the Birobidzhaner Shtern continues to publish a section in Yiddish.
Valdgeym, a Jewish settlement within the Jewish Autonomous Oblast,[18] dates from 1928 and formed the first collective farm established in the oblast.[19] In 1980 a Yiddish school was opened in the settlement.[20] Amurzet also has a history of Jewish settlement in the JAO.[21][22] For the period 1929 through 1939, this village was the center of Jewish settlement south of Birobidzhan.[23] The present day Jewish community members hold Kabalat Shabbat ceremonies and gatherings that feature songs in Yiddish, Jewish cuisine, and broad information presenting historical facts on Jewish culture. Many descendants of the founders of this settlement, which was established just after the turn of the 20th century, have left their native village. Those who remained here in Amurzet, especially those having relatives in Israel, are learning about the traditions and roots of the Jewish people.[24] The population of Amurzet, as estimated in late 2006, is 5,213.[25] Smidovich is another early Jewish settlement in the JAO.
[edit] Stalin and the Doctors' Plot
The Birobidzhan experiment ground to a halt in the mid-1930s, during Stalin's first campaign of purges. Soviet authorities arrested and executed Jewish leaders, and Yiddish schools were shut down. Shortly after this, World War II brought to an abrupt end to concerted efforts to bring Jews east.
After the war ended in 1945 the idea of Birobidzhan as a potential home for Jewish refugees revived slightly. Efforts in this direction ended, however, with the Doctors' plot, the establishment of Israel as a Jewish state, and Stalin's second wave of purges shortly before his death. Once again, the Jewish leadership was arrested and efforts were made to stamp out Yiddish culture—even the Judaica collection in the local library was burned. In the ensuing years the idea of an autonomous Jewish region in the Soviet Union was all but forgotten[citation needed].
Some scholars such as Louis Rapoport, Jonathan Brent and Vladimir Naumov[citation needed] assert that Stalin had devised a plan to deport all of the Jews of the Soviet Union to Birobidzhan much as he had internally deported other national minorities such as the Crimean Tatars and Volga Germans, forcing them to move thousands of miles from their homes. The Doctors' Plot may have been[original research?] the first element of this plan. If so, the plan was aborted by Stalin's death on March 5, 1953.
In 1991 the Jewish Autonomous Oblast moved from the jurisdiction of Khabarovsk Krai to the jurisdiction of the Federation, but by that time most of the Jews had gone and the remaining Jews now constituted less than two percent of the local population. Nevertheless, Yiddish is once again taught in the schools, a Yiddish radio station is in operation, and as noted above, the Birobidzhaner Shtern includes a section in Yiddish.
L'Chayim, Comrade Stalin!, a documentary on Stalin's creation of the Jewish Autonomous Region and its settlement, was released by The Cinema Guild in 2003. In addition to being a history of the creation of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, the film features scenes of contemporary Birobidzhan and interviews with Jewish residents.
[edit] Education
The Birobidzhan Jewish National University works in cooperation with the local Jewish community of Birobidzhan. The university, uniquely in the Russian Far East, uses as the basis of its teaching the study of the Hebrew language, history and classic Jewish texts.[26]
In recent years, the Jewish Autonomous Oblast has grown interested in its Jewish roots. Students study Hebrew and Yiddish at a Jewish school and at the Birobidzhan Jewish National University. In 1989, the Jewish center founded its Sunday school, where children study Yiddish, learn Jewish folk dances, and memorize dates from the history of Israel. The Israeli government helps fund the program.[27]
Birobidzhan has several state-run schools that teach Yiddish, a Yiddish school for religious instruction and a kindergarten. The five to seven year-olds spend two lessons a week learning to speak Yiddish, as well as being taught Jewish songs, dance and traditions.[28] Today, the city’s 14 public schools must teach Yiddish and Jewish tradition. The school Menora was created in 1991. It is a public school that offers a half-day Yiddish and Jewish curriculum for those parents who choose it. About half the school’s 120 pupils are enrolled in the Yiddish course. Many of them continue on to Public School No. 2, which offers the same half-day Yiddish/Jewish curriculum from first through 12th grade. Yiddish also is offered at Birobidzhan’s Pedagogical Institute, one of the few university-level Yiddish courses in the country.[29]
In 2007 Yiddish studies professor Boris Kotlerman of Bar-Ilan University launched "The First Birobidzhan International Summer Program for Yiddish Language and Culture".[30]
[edit] Economy
The economy depends on mining (gold, tin, iron, and graphite), lumber, limited agriculture, and light manufacturing (mainly textiles and food processing).
[edit] Amur Bridge Project
Valery Solomonovich Gurevich, government vice-chairman of Russia’s Jewish Autonomous Oblast said[when?] that China and Russia will start construction of the Amur Bridge Project at the end of 2007. The bridge will link Nizhneleninskoye in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast with Tongjiang in Heilongjiang Province.[31] The 2,197-meter-long bridge, with an estimated investment of nearly US$230 million, is expected to be finished by the end of 2010, Gurevich said.[32] Gurevich said that the proposal to construct a bridge across the river was actually made by Russia, in view of growing cargo transportation demands. "The bridge, in the bold estimate, will be finished in three years," Gurevich said.[33]
[edit] See also
- Israel
- Beit T'shuva
- Boris "Dov" Kaufman
- History of the Jews in Russia and Soviet Union
- In Search of Happiness
- Jews and Judaism in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast
- Territorialism
- Yevsektsiya
- Proposals for a Jewish state
[edit] References
- ^ Президент Российской Федерации. Указ №849 от 13 мая 2000 г. «О полномочном представителе Президента Российской Федерации в федеральном округе». Вступил в силу 13 мая 2000 г. Опубликован: "Собрание законодательства РФ", №20, ст. 2112, 15 мая 2000 г. (President of the Russian Federation. Decree #849 of May 13, 2000 On the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in a Federal District. Effective as of May 13, 2000).
- ^ Госстандарт Российской Федерации. №ОК 024-95 27 декабря 1995 г. «Общероссийский классификатор экономических регионов. 2. Экономические районы», в ред. Изменения №5/2001 ОКЭР. (Gosstandart of the Russian Federation. #OK 024-95 December 27, 1995 Russian Classification of Economic Regions. 2. Economic Regions, as amended by the Amendment #5/2001 OKER. ).
- ^ According to Article 68.1 of the Constitution of Russia, Russian is the official language on the whole territory of the Russian Federation. Article 68.2 further stipulates that only the republics have the right to establish official languages other than Russian.
- ^ a b c Федеральная служба государственной статистики (Federal State Statistics Service) (2004-05-21). "Численность населения России, субъектов Российской Федерации в составе федеральных округов, районов, городских поселений, сельских населённых пунктов – районных центров и сельских населённых пунктов с населением 3 тысячи и более человек (Population of Russia, its federal districts, federal subjects, districts, urban localities, rural localities—administrative centers, and rural localities with population of over 3,000)" (in Russian). Всероссийская перепись населения 2002 года (All-Russia Population Census of 2002). Federal State Statistics Service. http://perepis2002.ru/ct/html/TOM_01_04_1.htm. Retrieved 2010-03-01.
- ^ The value of density was calculated automatically by dividing the 2002 Census population by the area specified in the infobox. Please note that this value may not be accurate as the area specified in the infobox is not necessarily reported for the same year as the Census (2002).
- ^ Федеральная служба государственной статистики (Federal State Statistics Service) (2004-05-21). "Территория, число районов, населённых пунктов и сельских администраций по субъектам Российской Федерации (Territory, Number of Districts, Inhabited Localities, and Rural Administration by Federal Subjects of the Russian Federation)" (in Russian). Всероссийская перепись населения 2002 года (All-Russia Population Census of 2002). Federal State Statistics Service. http://perepis2002.ru/ct/html/TOM_01_03.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-17.
- ^ Charter, Article 4
- ^ Charter, Article 22
- ^ Official website of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast. Biography of Nikolay Mikhaylovich Volkov
- ^ Charter, Article 15
- ^ In standard Yiddish: ייִדישע אױטאָנאָמע געגנט, yidishe oytonome gegnt.
- ^ "The National and State Structure". USSR '86 Yearbook. Novosti Press Agency. 1986.
- ^ "Всесоюзная перепись населения 1959 года. Национальный состав населения по регионам России" (in en). «Демоскоп». http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_nac_59.php?reg=14. Retrieved 2008-11-28.
- ^ Mark Tolts: The Post-Soviet Jewish Population in Russia and the World. Published in: Jews in Russia and Eastern Europe, 2004, No. 1 (52), p. 51.
- ^ "Федеральная служба государственной статистики". http://www.gks.ru.
- ^ Evrstat.ru
- ^ a b c Establishment and Development of the JAR Jewish Autonomous Region official government website. Accessed 2007-08-30
- ^ "Jewish Autonomous Oblast". Travel East Russia. http://www.traveleastrussia.com/jewish.html. Retrieved 2009-02-18.
- ^ "Stalin's forgotten Zion: the harsh realities of Birobidzhan". Swarthmore. http://www.swarthmore.edu/Home/News/biro/html/panel13.html.
- ^ Pinkus, Benjamin (1990). "The Post-Stalin period, 1953–83". The Jews of the Soviet Union: the History of a national minority. Cambridge University Press. p. 272. ISBN 9780521389266. http://books.google.com/books?id=52Ew77pZsNUC&pg=PA272&lpg=PA272&dq=waldheim+birobidzhan&source=web&ots=59ePnekVgd&sig=WSkb_3rku-AYgt8hqfmgvFIsuiU#PPA209,M1. Retrieved 2009-02-18.
- ^ "Amurzet, Russia map". Travel Post. http://www.travelpost.com/AS/Russia/Birobijan/Amurzet/1408075. Retrieved 2009-02-18.
- ^ "Festive Mood Mounts For Jews In Russia's Far East". Birobidjan, Russia: The Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS. 2004-11-24. http://www.fjc.ru/news/newsArticle.asp?AID=225680. Retrieved 2009-02-18.
- ^ "A Jew Receives State Award in Jewish Autonomous Republic". Birobidjan, RU: The Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS. 2004-08-31. http://www.fjc.ru/news/newsArticle.asp?AID=170388. Retrieved 2009-02-18.
- ^ "Remote Far East Village Mobilizes for Purim". Birobidjan, Russia: The Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS. 2005-03-10. http://www.fjc.ru/news/newsArticle.asp?AID=267005. Retrieved 2009-02-18.
- ^ "Population of Amurzet". http://population-of.com/en/Russia/89/Amurzet/.
- ^ "39 registered religious organizations are operating in the region in 2007, December 1". Birobidzhan, RU: Jewish Autonomous Region official government website. 2008. http://www.eao.ru/eng/?p=365. Retrieved 2009-02-18.\
- ^ Working, Russell (2000-01-14). "Jewish oblast retains identity despite emigration". Birobidzhan, Russia: Vladivostok News. http://vn.vladnews.ru/Arch/2000/ISS207/focus.html. Retrieved 2009-02-18.
- ^ Steen, Michael (2000-01-12). "Soviet-era Jewish homeland struggles on". Reuters. Kulanu. http://www.kulanu.org/links/birodidzhan.php. Retrieved 2009-02-18.
- ^ Fishkoff, Sue (2004-09-16). "In Stalin’s ex-Jewish homeland, it’s think Yiddish and act Yiddish". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Birobidzhan, Russia: NCSJ. http://www.ncsj.org/AuxPages/091304JTA_Birobid.shtml#0916. Retrieved 2009-02-18.
- ^ "The 2nd Birobidzhan International Summer Yiddish Program". 2all.co.il. 2008. http://www.2all.co.il/web/Sites/yiddishproject/. Retrieved 2009-03-06.
- ^ Jia, Bian (2007-06-19). "Proposed bridge to boost bilateral trade". China Daily. p. 20. http://en.bcnq.com/bizchina/2007-06/28/content_5421141.htm.
- ^ Dong, Bei (2007-06-18). "China-Russia Trade to Top US$40b". Peking, CN: China Daily. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2007-06/18/content_896308.htm. Retrieved 2009-03-06.
- ^ "Cross-border bridge on Heilong River to bring Russia closer". Peking, CN: China Daily. 2007-06-28. http://en.bcnq.com/bizchina/2007-06/28/content_5421141.htm. Retrieved 2009-03-06.
[edit] Further reading
- Weinberg, Robert (1998). Stalin's Forgotten Zion: Birobidzhan and the Making of a Soviet Jewish Homeland: An Illustrated History, 1928-1996. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520209909.
- Shternshis, Anna (2006-04-30). Soviet and Kosher: Jewish Popular Culture in the Soviet Union, 1923-1939. Indiana University Press. ISBN 9780253218414.
[edit] Sources
- №40-ОЗ 8 октября 1997 г. «Устав Еврейской автономной области (в ред. 7 ноября 2008 г.)», в ред. Закона №543-ОЗ от 29 апреля 2009 г. «О внесении изменений в статью 17 Устава Еврейской автономной области». Вступил в силу со дня официального опубликования. Опубликован: "Биробиджанская звезда", №125 (15577), 4 ноября 1997 г. (#40-OZ October 8, 1997 Charter of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, as amended by the Law #543-OZ of April 29, 2009 On Amending Article 17 of the Charter of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast. Effective as of the official publication date).
[edit] Films
- L'Chayim, Comrade Stalin (2002) at the Internet Movie Database (English)
There is also a musical called "Soviet Zion" by Giles Howe and Katy Lipson about the lives of three families who were amongst the region's initial Jewish settlers. A preview showcase of this was performed in The Rosemary Branch Theatre, London, in October 2009 in advance of a workshop production which will be performed this summer in both Manchester and London. Audio and video footage of this new musical can be found at www.sovietzion.com
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jewish Autonomous Oblast |
- (English) Official website
- (English) Stalin's Forgotten Zion: Birobidzhan and the Making of a Soviet Jewish Homeland: An Illustrated History, 1928-1996
- (Russian) Birobidzhan: Dream of a Jewish Homeland That Never Came True by Eve-Maria Stolberg (Russian Archipelago)
- A 1939 Soviet pamphlet about the JAO
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