The Jewish Autonomous Region of Birobidzhan in Siberia

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1231-1952.28.1.08

Keywords:

Jewish Autonomous Region (JAR), Russia, Siberia, Birobidzhan, inter-ethnic relations, ethnopolitics

Abstract

The Jewish Autonomous Region (JAR) of Birobidzhan in Siberia is still alive. The once famous “Siberian Zion”, at the confluence of the Bira and Bidzhan rivers, a stone’s throw away from China and a day from the Pacific Ocean, 9,000 km and six days by train from Moscow, is still a geographical reality. The political class of the Soviet Union decided to create a territory the size of Belgium for a settlement for Jews, choosing a region on the border between China and the Soviet Union. It believed that Soviet Jews needed, like other national minorities, a homeland with a territory. The Soviet regime thus opted to establish an enclave that would become the JAR in 1934. We should note that the creation of the JAR was the first historically fulfilled case of building an officially recognised Jewish national territory since antiquity and well before Israel. Nevertheless, many historians declared this experiment a failure and the history of the Region only tragic. It is interesting to note, however, that the survival of the JAR in post-Soviet Russia has been not only a historical curiosity, a legacy of Soviet national policy, but today – after the collapse of the Soviet Union – it represents a very interesting case study. It is also a topic useful for the analysis and understanding of inter-ethnic relations, cooperation, and coexistence and it is a unique case of geographic resettlement that produced a special case of “local patriotism”, as an example also for different ethnic groups living in the JAR, based on Jewish and Yiddish roots.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

ABRAMSKY, Ch. (1972), ‘The Biro-Bidzhan Project, 1927–1959’, [in:] KOCHAN, L. (ed.) The Jews in Soviet Russia since 1917, London: Oxford University Press for the Institute of Jewish Affairs.
Google Scholar

ALBA, R. and NEE, V. (1997), ‘Rethinking Assimilation Theory for a New Era of Immigration’, International Migration Review, XXX, I, 4, pp. 826–874. https://doi.org/10.1177/019791839703100403
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/019791839703100403

ALBATS, E. (1995), Evreiskii vopros, Moscow, Nezavisimo Izd. PIK.
Google Scholar

ALBERTON, M. (1932), Birobidzhan. Die Judenrepublik, Leipzig–Vienna.
Google Scholar

ALLAIN, A., DUPONT, M. and HEARN, M. (eds.) (1996), Les Fédéralismes, Lille: Presses Universitaires du Septentrion.
Google Scholar

ARNOVITZ, B. (1985), Zion in Siberia, Survey, XXIX, 3, pp. 129–152.
Google Scholar

ARONSON, I. M. (1990), Troubled Waters: The Origins of the 1881 Anti-Jewish Pogroms in Russia, Pittsburgh PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Google Scholar

BACRUSHIN, S.V. (1925), Kazaki na Amure, Izd . Brockhaus-Efron, Leningrad.
Google Scholar

BARON, S. W. (1964), The Russian Jews under Tsars and Soviets, London–New York: Collier-Macmillan.
Google Scholar

BASSANI, L. M., STEWART, W. and VITALE, A. (1995), I Concetti del Federalismo, Milano: Giuffrè.
Google Scholar

BAUMGARTEN, J. (1990), Le yiddish, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Google Scholar

‘Birobidzhan wczoraj i dziś’, monographic issue of Midrasz 6 (2014) .
Google Scholar

BRENNER, F. (1992), A Moment Before: Jews in the Soviet Union, New York: International Center of Photography.
Google Scholar

BROMLEY, Ju. V. (1979), ‘Towards a Typology of Ethnic Processes’, British Journal of Sociology, 3. https://doi.org/10.2307/589912
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/589912

BRUK, B. L. (1928), Birobidzhan, Moscow: Ozet.
Google Scholar

BRYM, R. J. (1994), The Jews of Moscow, Kiev, and Minsk: Identity, Antisemitism, Emigration, New York: New York University Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-13515-8_4
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-13515-8

BUGAENKO, E. (1984), Na beregu Amura. 50 let Evrejskoj Avtonomnoj Oblasti, Stp, Moscow.
Google Scholar

CHAVKIN, M. P. (1935), Evrejskaja Avtonomnaja Oblast’ k svoe pervoj godovshine, Emes.
Google Scholar

CLARK, S. L. and GRAHAM, D. R. (1995), ‘The Russian Federation’s Fight for Survival’, Orbis. A Journal of World Affairs, XXXIX, 3, pp. 329–351. https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-4387(95)90036-5
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-4387(95)90036-5

CONNOR, W. (1994), Ethnonationalism. The Quest for Understanding, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691186962
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691186962

DAL’NEVOSTOCHNOE OTDELENIE ROSSIJSKOJ AKADEMII NAUK (Ed) (1999), Evrejskaja Avtronomnaja Oblast’: Enciklopedicheskij Slovar’, Birobidzhan.
Google Scholar

Dal’nevostochnyj Federal’nyj Okrug. Shag v XXI vek. (2001), Izdatel’skij Dom “Priamurskie Vedomosti”, Khabarovsk.
Google Scholar

DIKIJ, A. I. (1994), Evrei v Rossii i v SSSR. Istoricheskij ocherk, Novosibirsk: Blagovest.
Google Scholar

DUCHACEK, I. (1987), Comparative Federalism. The Territorial Dimension of Politics, Lanham, MD and Philadelphia: University Press of America.
Google Scholar

ELAZAR, D. J. (1995), Exploring Federalism, The University of Alabama Press.
Google Scholar

EMIOT, I. (1981), The Birobidzhan Affair. A Yiddish Writer in Siberia, Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society.
Google Scholar

Enciklopedija Chabarovskogo Kraja i Evrejskoj Avtonmnoj Oblasti. Opyt enciklopedicheskogo-geograficheskogo slovarja. Chabarovsk 1995.
Google Scholar

ESMAN, M. J. (1994), Ethnic Politics, Ithaca: Cornell University Press. https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501723971
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501723971

ESTRAIKH, G. ‘Birobidzhan in Khrushev’s Thaw: the Soviet and the Western Outlook’, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, 18 (1), pp. 56–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/14725886.2018.1549196
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14725886.2018.1549196

Evreiskaja Avtonomnaja Oblast’. (1959), Kn. Izdatel’stvo, Khabarovsk.
Google Scholar

EVREISKOE ISTORICHESKOE OBSHESTVO (ed.) (1992), Istoricheskie sud’by evreev v Rossii i SSSR: nachalo dialoga. Sbornik stat’ei. Moskva.
Google Scholar

GANG, J . (1969), The Silent Millions: A History of the Jews in the Soviet Union, New York.
Google Scholar

GESSEN M. (2016), Where the Jews Aren’t: The Sad and Absurd Story of Birobidzhan, Russia’s Jewish Autonomous Region, New York: Schocken.
Google Scholar

GILBOA, Y. (1971), The Black Years of Soviet Jewry. 1939–1953, Boston.
Google Scholar

GITELMAN, Z. (1967), ‘The Jews’, Problems of Communism XVI, 5, pp. 92–102.
Google Scholar

GITELMAN, Z. (1973), Assimilation, Acculturation and National Consciousness Among Soviet Jews, New York.
Google Scholar

GITELMAN, Z. (1991), ‘The Evolution of Jewish Culture and Identity in the Soviet Union’, [in:] ROI’Y, A. and BERKER, A. (eds.), Jewish Culture and Identity in the Soviet Union, New York.
Google Scholar

GITELMAN, Z. (1994), ‘Nationality and Ethnicity in Russia and the Post-Soviet Republics’, [in:] WHITE, S., PRAVDA, A. and GITELMAN, Z., Developments in Russian and Post-Soviet Politics, London: Palgrave, pp. 237–265. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-23461-5_10
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-23461-5_10

GOL’STEJN, M. (1958), Birobidzhancy na Amure, Sovetskij Pisatel’, Khabarovsk.
Google Scholar

GOLDBERG, B. Z. (1961), The Jewish Problem in the Soviet Union: Analysis and Solution, New York: Crown Publishers Inc.
Google Scholar

GOOZNER, M., ‘Jewish Culture Struggles to revive in Russian Far East’, The Chicago Tribune, 30 August 1992 .
Google Scholar

KADYSHEVICH, M. (1931), Birobidzhan – strana bol’shich vozmozhnostej, Moscow: Izdanie CS OZET.
Google Scholar

KAGEDAN, A . (1987), The Formation of Soviet Jewish Territorial Units, 1924–1937, Michigan: Ann Arbor.
Google Scholar

KAGEDAN, A . (1994), Soviet Zion. The Quest for a Russian Jewish Homeland, Basingstoke.
Google Scholar

KOBLENZ, B. (1934), Waldheim, Moscow: Izdatel’stvo Emes.
Google Scholar

KOCHAN, L. (ed.) (1972), The Jews in Soviet Russia since 1917, London: Oxford University Press.
Google Scholar

KOLARZ, W. (1954), The Peoples of the Soviet Far East, New York.
Google Scholar

KOSTYRCHENKO, G. (1994), V plenu u krasnogo faraona: politicheskie presledovania evreev v SSSR v poslednee stalinskoe desiatiletie. Dokumental’noe issledovanie, Mezhdunarodnye Otnoshenija, Moscow.
Google Scholar

KOSTYRCHENKO, G. (1995), Out of the Red Shadow: Anti-Semitism in Stalin’s Russia, Prometheus Books, Amherst New York.
Google Scholar

KUCHENBECKER, A. (1997), ‘Ein «Rotes Palastina» im Fernen Osten der Sowjetunion. Die Verbannung einer Idee’, Archiv für Sozialgeschichte, XXXVII, pp. 255–282.
Google Scholar

KUCHENBECKER, A. (2000), Zionismus ohne Zion: Idee und Geschichte eines jüdischen Staates in Sowiet-Fernost, Berlin: Metropol.
Google Scholar

KUDISH, E. J. (2000), Stern – zvezda moja zavetnaja, Pravitel’stvo Evrejskoj Avtonomnoj Oblasti / Birobidzhaner Stern, Birobidzhan.
Google Scholar

KURENCOVA, G. E. (1967), Ocherk rastitelnosti Evrejskoj Avt. Oblasti, Dalnevostochnoe Knizhnoe Izdatel’stvo, Vladivostok.
Google Scholar

LESKOV, N. S. (1994), Evrei v Rossii: neskol’ko zamechanii po evreiskomu voprosu. Izd, Moscow: Put’.
Google Scholar

LEVIN, N. (1988), The Jews in the Soviet Union since 1917: Paradox of Survival, New York: New York University Press. https://doi.org/10.1163/221023990X00895
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/221023990X00895

LUSTIGER, A. (2003), Stalin and the Jews, New York: Enigma Books.
Google Scholar

LVAVI, Y. (1965), The Jewish Colonization of Birobidzhan, The Historical Society of Israel, Jerusalem.
Google Scholar

LVAVI, Y. (1971) ‘Jewish Agricultural Settlement in the USSR’, Soviet Jewish Affairs 1, pp. 91–100. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501677108577083
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13501677108577083

MAKSIMOVSKA, A. (2018),‘«Zoo» i «makieta». O dominujących sposobach pisania o Birobidżanie’, Adeptus 11, pp. 1–18. https://doi.org/10.11649/a.1721
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.11649/a.1721

MARONEY, E. (2010), The Other Zions: The Lost Histories of Jewish Nations, Plymouth: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc.
Google Scholar

MEREZHIN, L. (1929), Chto takoe Birobidzhan?, Moscow: Izd. CP Ozet.
Google Scholar

NIVAT, A. (2013), La République juive de Staline, Paris: Fayard.
Google Scholar

NOSOV, S. (1996), ‘Federalism and anarchy in Russia today’, [in:] ALLAIN, A., DUPONT, M. and HEARN, M. (eds.), Les Fédéralismes, Lille: Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, pp. 205–209.
Google Scholar

PARK, R. E. and BURGESS, E. W. (1921), Introduction to the Science of Sociology, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Google Scholar

PARRISH, M. (1996), The Lesser Terror: Soviet State Security. 1939–1953, London.
Google Scholar

PINKUS, B. (1984), The Soviet Government and the Jews. 1948–1967, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511897306
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511897306

PINKUS, B. (1988), The Jews of the Soviet Union. The History of a National Minority, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511523717
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511523717

POLONSKY, A. (2011), The Jews in Poland and Russia. 1914–2008, Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 3. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvv4180c
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvv4180c

RAPOPORT, L. (1990), Stalin’s War against the Jews: the Doctor’s Plot and the Soviet Solution, New York: Free Press.
Google Scholar

RAPOPORT, L. (1991), The Doctor’s Plot of 1953, Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
Google Scholar

RG DAL’INFORM (2001), Evrejskaja Avtonomnaja Oblast’. Na rubezhe tysjacheletij, Khabarovsk.
Google Scholar

RO’I, Y. (ed.) (1995), Jews and Jewish Life in Russia and the Soviet Union, England and Portland, OR: Frank Cass & Co., Newbury Park.
Google Scholar

RO’I, Y. and BEKER, A. (eds.) (1991), Jewish Culture and Identity in the Soviet Union, New York: New York University Press.
Google Scholar

ROTSCHILD, J. (1981), Ethnopolitics. A Conceptual Framework, New York: Columbia University Press. https://doi.org/10.7312/roth91044
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7312/roth91044

ROVNER, A. L. (2014), In the Shadow of Zion. Promised Lands Before Israel, New York: New York University Press.
Google Scholar

SCHAPIRO, L. (1986), Organizatsija KPSS Evrejskoj Avtonomnoj Oblasti. 1934–1985, Khabarovsk: Chronika.
Google Scholar

SCHLESINGER, R. (1970), Federalism in Central and Eastern Europe, Westport, Conn: Grenwood Press Publishers.
Google Scholar

SCHNAPPER, D. (1980), Juifs et israëlites, Paris: Galimard.
Google Scholar

SCHWARZ, S. M. (1951), The Jews in the Soviet Union, Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.
Google Scholar

SERGEEV, O. I. (1983), Kazachestvo na russkom Dal’nem Vostoke v. XVII-XIV vv, Moscow: Nauka.
Google Scholar

SHARLET, R. (1994), ‘The Prospects for Federalism in Russian Constitutional Politics’, Publius. The Journal of Federalism XXIV, 2, pp. 115–127. https://doi.org/10.2307/3330725
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3330725

SMITH, A. D. (1981), The Ethnic Revival, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Google Scholar

SMITH, A. D. (1986), The Ethnic Origins of Nations, Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Google Scholar

SOLZHENITSYN, A. (2003), Deux siècles ensemble, 1917–1972. Juifs et Russes pendant le période soviétique, Paris: Fayard, T. II.
Google Scholar

SREBRNIK, H. F. (2006), ‘Birobidzhan: A remnant of history. The Jewish Autonomous Region in the Russian far east’, Jewish Current (July–August), pp. 16–18.
Google Scholar

SREBRNIK, H. F. (2008), Jerusalem on the Amur: Birobidzhan and the Canadian Jewish communist movement, 1924–1951, Montreal: McGill Queen’s University Press.
Google Scholar

SREBRNIK, H. F. (2010), Dreams of nationhood: American Jewish communists & the Soviet Birobidzhan project, 1924–1952, Academic Studies Press, Boston. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1zxsj1m
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1zxsj1m

STALIN, J. V. (1913), ‘Marxism and the National Question’, first published in: Prosveshcheniye 3–5, (March–May).
Google Scholar

STEPHAN, J. J. (1994), A Far Eastern Jewish Homeland, Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Google Scholar

STOLBERG, E.-M. (1999a), ‘Birobidzhan: v poiskach evrejskoj rodiny’, Zhurnal Diaspory, 1 .
Google Scholar

STOLBERG, E.-M. (1999b), ‘Birobidzhan: nezbyvshajasja mechta ob evrejskoj rodine’, Zhurnal Diaspory, 1, pp. 144–158.
Google Scholar

TAYLOR, B. D. (2011), State building in Putin’s Russia. Policing and coercion after communism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511974144
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511974144

THUBRON, C. (2000), In Siberia, London: Perennial.
Google Scholar

UDOVENKO, V. G. (1957), Evrejskaja Avtonomnaja Oblast’, Moscow: Dal’nyj Vostok.
Google Scholar

VAISERMAN, D. (1999), Birobidzhan, mechti i tragedija. Istorija EAO v sudbach i dokumentach, Khabarovsk: Riotip.
Google Scholar

VITALE, A. (1998), ‘L’evoluzione dei rapporti interetnici nello spazio ex sovietico’, Futuribili, 1–2, pp. 257–275.
Google Scholar

VITALE, A. (1999), ‘Decentramento e autonomia: pratica e conseguenze di un mito obsoleto’, Élites III, 2 (aprile-maggio), pp. 6–20.
Google Scholar

VITALE, A. (2005 a), ‘Birobidzhan: la «Prima Israele»’, Galatea – European Magazine, Lugano, Switzerland.
Google Scholar

VITALE, A. (2005), La Regione Ebraica in Russia. Birobidzhan, la “Prima Israele”, Giampiero Casagrande Editore, Lugano, Switzerland.
Google Scholar

VITALE, A. (2007), El Primer Israel, Ediciones Le Monde Diplomatique – Buenos Aires: El Dipló/ Capital Intelectual, (Prólogo de D. Muchnik).
Google Scholar

VITALE, A. (2014), ‘The Jewish Autonomous Region in Siberia. Multicultural Heritage and Coexistence’, Studia z Geografii Politycznej i Historycznej, 3, pp. 151–170.
Google Scholar

VITALE, A. (2015), ‘Ethnopolitics as Co-operation and Coexistence: The Case study of the Jewish Autonomous Region in Siberia’, Politeja 31, 2, pp. 123–142. https://doi.org/10.12797/Polite-ja.12.2015.31_2.09
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.12797/Politeja.12.2015.31_2.09

VLADYKINA, E. M. (2016), ‘Development Peculiarities of Ethnocultural Environment of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in the 1920–1950-s’, Journal Of Siberian Federal University – Humanities and Social Sciences 6, pp. 1277–1286. https://doi.org/10.17516/1997-1370-2016-9-6-1277-1286
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.17516/1997-1370-2016-9-6-1277-1286

WAKSBERG, A. (1994), Stalin against Jews, New York: Knopf.
Google Scholar

WALDENBERG, M. (1992), Kwestie Narodowe w Europie Srodkowo-Wschodniej. Dzieje. Idee, Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN. (Trad. ital.: Il Saggiatore, Milano 1994).
Google Scholar

WEHLER, H.-U. (2001), Nationalismus: Geschichte, Formen, Folgen, Verlag C.H. Beck oHG, München. https://doi.org/10.17104/9783406692710
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.17104/9783406692710

WEINBERG, R. (1993), ‘Purge and Politics in the Periphery: Birobidzhan in 1937’, Slavic Review LII, 1, pp. 13–27. https://doi.org/10.2307/2499582
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2499582

WEINBERG, R. (1995), ‘Birobidzhan and Solving the «Jewish Question»: the Making of a Jewish Paeasantry’, [in:] RO’I ,Y. (ed.), Jews and Jewish Life in Russia and the Soviet Union, Cummings Center Series, Ilford.
Google Scholar

WEINBERG, R.,(1996), ‘Jewish Revival in Birobidzhan in the Mirror of «Birobidzhanskaja Zvezda»’, East European Jewish Affairs XXVI, 1, pp. 35–53. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501679608577817
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13501679608577817

WEINBERG, R., GITELMAN, Z. and BRADLEY, B. (1998), Stalin’s Forgotten Zion. Birobidzhan and the Making of a Soviet Jewish Homeland, Berkeley: Berkeley University of California Press.
Google Scholar

WHITE, S., PRAVDA, A. and GITELMAN, Z. (eds.) (1994), Developments in Russian & Post-Soviet Politics, London: McMillan Press Ltd, Chatham.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-23461-5

ZASLAVSKY, V. and BRYM, R. (1983), Soviet-Jewish Emigration and Soviet Nationality Policy, New York: St. Martin Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-06436-6
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-06436-6

Downloads

Published

2021-06-30

How to Cite

Vitale, A. (2021). The Jewish Autonomous Region of Birobidzhan in Siberia. European Spatial Research and Policy, 28(1), 161–184. https://doi.org/10.18778/1231-1952.28.1.08

Issue

Section

Articles