www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Autonomous_Republic -> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Autonomous_Republic
It has an area of 35,700 km (13,895 mi) and a population of approximately 212,000 ( 20 1995), of which only about 2 21 percent is 22 Jewish: the remainder is 23 Russian (approximately 85 percent), 24 Ukrainian, and 25 Korean. The economy is based on mining ( 27 gold, 28 tin, 29 iron, and 30 graphite), 31 lumber, limited 32 agriculture, and 33 light manufacturing (mainly 34 textiles and 35 food processing). The Jewish 42 Autonomous Republic was founded in 43 1928 as the 44 Jewish National District. It was the result of 45 Vladimir Lenin's nationality policy, by which each of the national groups that formed the 46 Soviet Union would receive a territory in which to pursue cultural autonomy in a socialist framework. In that sense, it was also a response to two supposed threats to the Soviet state: 47 Judaism, which ran counter to official 48 state atheism; The idea was to create a new Soviet Zion, where a proletarian 51 Jewish culture could be developed. Stalin's theory on the 54 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 55 homeland as an ideological alternative to 56 Zionism and the theory put forward by Socialist Zionists such as 57 Ber Borochov that the Jewish Question could be resolved by creating a Jewish territory in 58 Palestine. Thus Birobidzhan was important for propaganda purposes as an argument against Zionism which was a rival ideology to 59 Marxism among 60 left-wing Jews. The propaganda impact was so effective that several thousand Jews immigrated to Birobidzhan from outside of the Soviet Union, including several hundred from 61 Palestine who had become disillusioned with the Zionist experience. With 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. In 1928, there was virtually no settlement in the area, while Jews had deep roots in the western half of the Soviet Union, in 62 Ukraine, 63 Belorussia and Russia proper. In fact, there had initially been proposals to create a Jewish Soviet Republic in the 64 Crimea or in part of the 65 Ukraine but these were rejected because of fears of antagonising non-Jews in those regions. 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 66 Stalin was also motivated by 67 anti-Semitism in selecting Birobidzhan: he wanted to keep the Jews as far away from the centers of power of possible. To his credit, however, it must be said that the Ukrainians and 68 Crimeans were reluctant to have a Jewish national home carved out of their territory, even though most Soviet Jews lived there, and there were very few alternative territories without rival national claims to them. Despite the hardships, a trickle of Jewish settlers arrived. By the 69 1930s the Jewish National District was promoted to the status of an 70 Autonomous Region and a massive propaganda campaign was underway to induce more Jewish settlers to move there. Some of these incorporated the standard Soviet propaganda tools of the era, and included posters and Yiddish-language novels describing a socialist utopia there. In one instance, leaflets promoting Birobidzhan were dropped from an airplane over a Jewish neighborhood in 71 Belorussia. In another instance, a government-produced Yiddish film called Seekers of Happiness told the story of a Jewish family that fled the 72 Depression in the 73 United States to make a new life for itself in Birobidzhan. As the Jewish population grew, so did the impact of 74 Yiddish culture on the region. A Yiddish newspaper, Der Birobidzhaner Shtern (Birobidzhaner SHtern, "Star of Birobidzhan"), was established; At the same time, some efforts were also made to Russify Yiddish culture: the most notable of these was an attempt to replace the 77 Hebrew alphabet used for writing Yiddish with the 78 Cyrillic one. 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, 79 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 80 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 81 Doctors' plot, the establishment of 82 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 83 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. Some scholars such as Louis Rapoport, Jonathan Brent and Vladimir Naumov 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 84 Crimean Tartars and 85 Volga Germans, forcing them to move thousands of miles from their homes. The Doctors' Plot may have been the first element of this plan. If so the plan was aborted by Stalin's death on 86 March 5, 87 1953. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and new liberal emigration policies, most of the remaining Jewish population left for 88 Germany and Israel. In 89 1991, the Jewish Autonomous Region was elevated to the status of an Autonomous Republic, 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, the Birobidzhaner Shtern publishes a Yiddish edition, and a Yiddish radio station still operates. Some political observers - particularly those sympathetic to the 90 Palestinian cause in the 91 Middle East - have proposed resurrecting the Jewish Autonomous Republic as both an alternative to 92 Israel as the Jewish national homeland and as a permanent solution to the ongoing Arab-Jewish difficulties, but the idea has yet to demonstrate that it has garnered any significant support from the world community at large. In addition to being a history of the creation of the proposed Jewish homeland the film features scenes of contemporary Birobidzhan and interviews with Jewish residents. All text is available under the terms of the 113 GNU Free Documentation License (see 114 Copyrights for details). Wikipedia is powered by 116 MediaWiki, an open source 117 wiki engine.
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