Migration of the jews from the Ukrainian SSR to the jewish autonomous region (Birobidzhan) during the second half of the 1920-ies - first half of the 1930-ies

The Problem Statement

ukrainian jewish soviet birobidzhan

The history of the Jewish Autonomous Region (Birobidzhan) is little known to modern public. It occasionally causes a certain emotional reaction among them. Only a limited number of amateur historians and researchers know about the problem of organizing the Jewish national unit in the Far East during the communist roots. However, the issue of the resettlement of the Jews to the Far East during the 1920-ies and 1930-ies must be considered in the context of the ruralization of the Jews of the former “pale of settlement” and the solution of the “Jewish issue” by the Communist Party authorities during the abovementioned period. In this historical segment, the Bolsheviks tried to implement, through socio-economic “rehabilitation” of the society, a programme for the Sovietization of the various peoples of the former Russian Empire, as well as to unify and centralize the power.

While embarking on a socialist experiment in Ukraine, the Bolshevik regime was forced to take into account the presence in the republic of a large proportion of national minorities, represented mainly by peasant ethnic groups. An exception was the Jewish national minority, who lived compactly during the beginning of the 1920-ies in the towns of Right-Bank Ukraine. The peculiar way of life and style of life, the difficult economic situation, set before the Bolshevik regime the difficult tasks of conducting socialist experiments among the Jewish community.

The Communist Party political bosses declared that it would provide opportunities for cultural and economic and political development of various national groups, including the Jewish one. According to the slogans declared by the Bolshevik regime, public organizations had the task of directing and coordinating the work to serve the needs of the non-indigenous population of the republic. It also applies to the Jewish community.

The Soviet leadership initially sought to solve the problems of the Jewish community through the Jewish section of the CC(b)U. The district units of the sections were to study the problems of the towns and to solve them. But the Jewish sections were more involved into covert political work in order to identify and destroy elements hostile to the Bolshevik regime, and did nothing for urban beautification. Only 30-35% of Jewish children were enrolled in education. Health care was also insufficient. One hospital often served up to 25-30 settlements. The Jewish population did not see any point in appealing to the local Soviet authorities, encountering hidden and open anti-Semitism there, which led to the illegal restriction of suffrage and violation of existing legislation (Gusev, 1999, p. 79).

In other words, the Soviet leadership formed a new Jewish culture, defining the main directions of development of the Jewish minority and integration of the Jews of the towns into the Soviet community. But in practice, the Jews were covered with oxygen, and they were given the role of a scum of society. All this made the Jews view the Communists as their enemies. The Jews from towns sought to cooperate with Zionist parties and various economic national organizations operating in the towns. This is a very worrying party functionary. In their view, such a situation on the ground led to widespread influence on the Judaism of the Zionist and petty bourgeois parties. The townspeople found support in the Zionist movement in the struggle against the local party apparatus, which represented them as an exploitative element (RSASPH, f. 445, d. 1, p. 86, p. 38).

The Jewish community participated actively in the revolutionary events of 1917 - 1921. An extensive network of the Jewish political parties and public associations operated in Ukraine. Among them, the Zionist parties and organizations had the greatest anti-Bolshevik views. After the establishment of the Bolshevik regime in Ukraine, the Zionists went underground and continued to oppose the Sovietization of the Ukrainian Jewry. During the first half of the 1920-ies, the Zionist movement enjoyed the support of the Jews in cities and towns in Right-Bank Ukraine.

Surveys conducted by the local authorities of the SPD and governmental organizations in 1925 found widespread support for the Jewish organization “Gekholuts”, which operated illegally in Ukraine and covered about 6,000 boys and girls. The organization was in favor of uniting handicraft young people who dissuaded from the possibility of a normal life under Soviet power. They were united in the idea of switching to agriculture so that, as in the Torah, the life of a Jew was full of milk and honey (Naiman, 1998, p. 44). Therefore, the organization and the Soviet system immediately found themselves on different sides of the barricades.

The secret note of the Central Committee of the CP(b)U of December 15, 1924 stated that “the party (Paoley-Zion) is the legal apparatus of the struggle of the Zionist Socialists. It builds its units by utilizing all legal and illegal capabilities. Members of the organization, representing the interests of “Paoley-Zion”, got into agricultural artillery, cooperatives; advocated the resettlement of the Ukrainian Jewry in Palestine. Therefore, one must fight for the elimination of “Geholutz” (RSASPH, f. 445, d. 1, p. 167, p. 1).

In addition to “Geholuts”, the Zionist-Socialist Party (ZSP), the Party of Socialist-Workers (PSW), as well as youth organizations were active in the towns: the Unified All-Russian Organization of Zionist Youth (UAOZY), the Zionist-Socialist Union of Youth (ZSUY), child's group (Hoshover, Hashoir) (CSAPOU, f. 1, d. 20, c. 2019, pp. 50-51). Zionist organizations also fought communist propaganda published by the local press. Leaflets were distributed; secret evenings and meetings were organized. In particular, a leaflet was issued to the Congress of National Minorities, which called on the Jewish craftsmen, artisans and workers to fight against “wrongdoing by the RCP (b) in the Jewish issue” (RSASPH, f. 445, d. 1, с. 167, р. 9). In a leaflet of August 31, 1926, the Shepetivka unit of “Geholuts” emphasized: “The policy of Jewish section led to the terrible impoverishment of the Jewish mass. Even moving to Kherson steppes cannot bring them out of poverty” (RSASPH, f. 445, d. 1, p. 167, p. 60).

In reporting the SPD of the republic to the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) B, prepared in September 1925, it was noted that the Chekists were faced with an extraordinary nature, the administrative measures to combat the Zionist movement are not succeeding, as the forces of the Zionists from the environment of the Jewish mass are growing with tremendous force, where the main contingent is the youth. It was stated that they needed to fight all Jewish people. It was concluded that the struggle against the economic becomes a struggle against the people (Gusev, 1999, p. 84).

Various methods and techniques were used to organize their work among the Jewish population of towns of the Jewish section. Among them are the repressive and encouraging ones. The first one was to arrest members of the Zionist underground, discredit its activists, and organize demonstration trials. The second one included measures of socio-economic stimulation of participation of the Jews of the towns in the implementation of the Bolshevik programmes, namely enrollment to the Komsomol units, participation in the work of local councils, transition to the occupation of “socially useful” work.

At the end of 1924, the Soviet authorities moved to implement a programme of state resettlement to the south of Ukraine and the Crimea. The slogan is: “Solve the problem of Right-Bank towns by engaging the Jews in agriculture”. The slogans and goals of the state resettlement campaign were written off from the slogans of the Zionist parties and the Jewish non-governmental organizations, but only the accents were changed: resettlement not to Palestine but to the south of Ukraine and Crimea.

The programme was to be implemented by the State Committee for Land Management of Jewish Workers and the voluntary organization SLMJW - Society for Land Management of Jewish Workers. As early as December 11, 1925, the Main Bureau of Jewish sections under the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Ukraine at the meeting of December 11, 1925, resolved: “to involve the widest masses of the Jewish population, including some prominent but not active Zionists, in the SLMJW, and give orders to local sections to conduct intensify the fight against the Zionists, actively involve the SLMJW” (RSASPH, f. 445, d. 1, p. 152, p. 55). The Society worked under the auspices of the Main Bureau of Jewish section of the CC CP(b) U and the NKVD of Ukraine. Initially, in addition to conducting displacement measures, the SLMJW had, under the guise of surveying the economic status of the Jewish of the towns, to identify active participants in anti-Soviet organizations. In late 1925, the leadership of the All-Ukrainian SLMJW sent a secret report to the CPC of the USSR concerning the situation of the Jewish population of Right-Bank Ukraine (RSASPH, f. 445, d. 1, p. 86, p. 20, 28, 30). All the facts in the report spoke of the success of the anti-Soviet element. After considering the report, the CPC of the USSR decided that, in addition to the administrative and criminal prosecution of the Zionist underground, to carry out counter-attacks, using the Zionist Party slogans to quickly launch a migrant campaign (RSASPH, f. 445, d. 1, p. 86, p. 31).

Another decision of the meeting was to involve former members of the Zionist underground in the society, who would, through their speeches, agitate for the participation of Jews in the resettlement and rehabilitation programs of the town. At the same time, the management of the All-Ukrainian SLMJW made changes in the charter of the company. In July 1926, the SLMJW Central Board ordered the local branches of the SLMJW to involve the Jewish non-labor elements and former members of the Zionist movement in the society (CSASAAU, f. 413, d. 1, p. 165, p. 55).

The local authorities, the society together with the Jewish section clearly performed the tasks of the CC CP(b) U on resettlement. In October 1926, the secretariat of the CEC of the USSR considered the petition for a presidium of the CEC of the Ukrainian SSR “On the allocation of free land in the regions of the Russian Federation for the resettlement of Jews” (Chyrko, 1995, p. 74). During 1927, the CEC of the USSR, together with the All-Union Resettlement Committee, elaborated a programme of resettlement to Birobidzhan district of Khabarovsk Territory of the Russian SFSR. During the first year, the All-Union Resettlement Committee planned to resettle 12 000 Jewish immigrants in Birobidzhan. In 1927, the committee sent a list of tasks for dealing with the Jewish settlers to the local Soviet authorities.

Later, the government, dissatisfied with the course of the settlement of the Crimea, put forward a new idea - the entrenchment of the city of Birobidzhan and the land boundary with it under auspices of Committee of SLMJW, approved by the resolution of the CEC Secretariat of the USSR in March 1928. At the same time the government approved the resolution “On the Economic Arrangement of the Jewish Towns” (September 1928), and Presidium of the Council of nationalities “On the Economic Arrangement of the Able Bodied Jewish Population”. The resolutions dealt mainly with the elimination of unemployment among the Jewish population, the retraining of the inhabitants of the towns, the need for full registration of the Jews through the People's Commissar of Labour, etc. SLMJW had to provide a financial assistance to families of the poor IDPs, where possible, to find work for them, to provide them with school, to assist local labour exchanges, and mutual aid committees (CSASAAU, f. 571, d. 1, c. 265, p. 8).

On March 28, 1928, the meeting of the Presidium of the CEC of the USSR concerning the Jewish resettlement in Birobidzhan district was held. At the meeting, the CEC Presidium decided to enshrine under auspices of Committee of SLMJW of Birobidzhan District in the Far East with a focus on establishing a national Jewish administrative unit there. Committee of SLMJW immediately submitted all operational work on the settlement of Birobidzhan to the central board of SLMJW. The SLMJW Central Board was fully engaged in addressing the issue of the Jewish resettlement in the Far East (Chetyire goda OZET, 1930, p. 48).

Despite the setbacks in the Crimea and Ukraine, the idea of consolidation of the Jewish population in the USSR continued to develop during 1928 - 1929. In order to compactly settle the Jews of Ukraine, representatives of the Jewish section, SLMJW and other organizations offered to use the territory of the Briansk, Pskov, Smolensk, Smolensk regions and Salsk district in the North Caucasus region and, eventually, the areas of the Far East. By agreement between the resettled civic organizations, sponsors, and American businessman Williams during the second half of the 1920-ies, the territory for the Jewish autonomy was defined - in the area of Tikhonkaya station (Birobidzhan suburb), although no Jews lived here until 1928.

The Presidium of the CEC of the USSR noted that the main task of conducting the resettlement campaign should be the resettlement to the Far East, Sakhalin and Karelo-Murmansk region simultaneously with the beginning in these areas of railway and industrial construction.

The work on organizing mass resettlement of the Jews to “autonomy” territory began in Ukraine. In May 1928 the first group of the Jewish migrants was sent to Birobidzhan. A special commission was set up to serve the first batch of migrants travelling to Birobidzhan via Kharkiv. It was noted that 162 IDPs from 13 different points passed through Kharkiv station. Rallies, general meetings of employees at city factories and plants were held at the stations.

Propaganda of the resettlement process was also conducted by the country's top political leadership. In his speech at the II Congress of the SLMJW, M.I. Kalinin noted: “Take, for example, Berdychiv. There are leather factories in Berdychiv. The average wage of workers there is 100-120 rubles. It is clear that they will go to Birobidzhan only if significant material incentives are created for them...” (Kozerod, 2002, p. 143).

In the same year, the SLMJW Central Board concluded a corresponding agreement with the Far Eastern Migration Office. Under the agreement, all the work on preparation of funds (except land management), namely road, land reclamation, hydrotechnical works, as well as administrative and housing construction for the Jewish displaced persons, was transferred to the SLMJW in the person of its Birobidzhan representation. By the time of the organization of agricultural, credit and consumer cooperative societies, SLMJW had to deal with the provision of displaced persons with everything necessary for their economic development in the area (Kozerod, 2002, p. 49). The first migrant groups began arriving in Birobidzhan in late April 1928.

UkrSLMJW joined the campaign to resettle Jewishness in Ukraine in Birobidzhan in the spring of 1928. Authorities, together with the Ukrainian Society, elaborated an agitation program called “Dispersive the malicious evidence of a new area, which is widespread as well known by the Zionists among the Jewish poor men in the USSR and in the Foreign Press” (Zvit Pravlinnia Vseukrozetu. XII 1928, 1928, p. 7). During the campaign, branches of the Society in Ukraine conducted a bi-weekly campaign on the implementation of the SLMJW lottery and the promotion of the migrant campaign in Birobidzhan (Zvit Pravlinnia Vseukrozetu za chas z 1926 to 15.XII. 1928, 1928, p. 11).

In mid-April 1928, UkrSLMJW received a task from the SLMJW Central Board for the society to work in Birobidzhan. Based on the tasks of the All-Union SLMJW, the Ukrainian Presidency of the SLMJW held a joint meeting of all delegates of the Society at the All-Union Congress of cult educators and local delegates. The meeting was attended by 50 people. The meeting resulted in the adoption of a program of work by UkrSLMJW to relocate the Jewish residents of Ukraine to Birobidzhan. The programme emphasized the need to familiarize the Jewish poor in Ukraine with what constitutes Birobidzhan District in the Far East, to cover all difficulties in the relocation area; developing and implementing a plan for the pre-recruitment of resettlement candidates; acquaintance of the Jewish population with the basic knowledge of agriculture and soil and climate peculiarities of the region through the involvement of the Jewish intellectuals, agronomists, propagandists; conducting agitation among the migrants so that the resettlement takes place in cooperative and collective forms, a constant emphasis on the priority of collective forms of labour (Zvit Pravlinnia Vseukrozetu za chas z 1926 to 15.XII. 1928, 1928, p. 8).

The selection of displaced persons took place by preventing the socially unreliable, the demoralized Jewish migrants (SARF, f. 9498, d. 1, p. 408, p. 2). That is, members of the Zionist movement and “disenfranchised” were not allowed to move to Birobidzhan. In the first months of its operation, Ukr SLMJW encountered great difficulties due to the lack of a prepared resettlement plan, material base for resettlement to Birobidzhan; the state authorities did not take into account the difficult natural conditions of the region, putting forward relocation control figures. It seems that the beginning of the resettlement campaign in Birobidzhan is not only the desire of the Soviet authorities to ensure the work of the poor Jews of Right-Bank of Ukraine, but the desire to resolve the Jewish issue immediately.

Commenting on the work of the Second All-Ukrainian Congress of the TZET, the newspaper “Vesti AUCEC” wrote: “The resolution of the Presidium of the CEC of the USSR on the appointment of Birobidzhan for the resettlement of Jews was approved in March, and already in May the resettlement of the Jews began. The first difficulties were the unpreparedness of the administration, its lack of skills, lack of money and cattle. From the 4 million hectares in Birobidzhan, only 500,000 hectares can be considered suitable for agriculture, but the area also needs land improvement, construction of roads etc”. (Blium, 1996, p. 21).

The work of the society was constantly behind schedule, especially in the construction of roads and hydraulic measures. However, by the joint efforts of Ukr SLMJW and the All-Union TZET, 2 000 Jewish displaced persons were displaced by the beginning of 1930 in Birobidzhan.

In 1930, at the second All-Union Congress of the SLMJW, it was decided to increase the resettlement of large groups and large mechanized collective farms to Birobidzhan. Moreover, the branches of the company had to carry out measures to eliminate kulaks, to combat trade elements among the migrants (OZET. S'ezd 2-y, 1931, p. 7).

Resettlement to Birobidzhan came to the fore in the conduct of resettlement activities by the Ukrainian SLMJW. Funds received from the campaign accounts were accumulated and sent to the Birobidzhan project. Such use of funds and change of accents caused a negative reaction among the executives and ordinary members of the Ukrainian SLMJW. Discussions begun within the organization that led to accusations against the Ukrainian leadership's of manifestations of local nationalism. In particular, in August 1932, Kyiv District Branch adopted a resolution stating that first-class resettlement to Ukrainian foundations was nationalism, the creation of national Jewish districts in Ukraine was also nationalism, and the creation of a national Jewish district in Birobidzhan was a manifestation of international friendship and class understanding. (CSAPOU, f. 1, d. 20, c. 5288, p. 3).

The Conclusions

Thus, from the very beginning, the Birobidzhan Campaign was doomed to failure. And not only because the Jews, instead of the sunny and warm banks of the Jordan River, received a permanent taiga of the Amur River. The reason for the failure was another: the unwillingness of the state apparatus to create conditions for the reception and service of the Jewish IDPs. There were no mobile programmes. The state authorities moved away from the resettlement campaign. Only slogans were proclaimed, and it was only verbal point there was a lack of progress. Almost all of the activities were funded and supported by voluntary Jewish societies - Agro-Joint, SLMJW. Since the early 1930-ies, the IDP migration to the JAR laid the foundation for full control of the state regime of the SLMJW. Units of the Society were opened even in Buryatia. During the mid-30-ies the value of the company was leveled. Only the central board of the SLMJW, the Belarusian and the Ukrainian SLMJW were working on the implementation of the migration programme. The work of the society was a drop in the sea of the state indifference to the problems of resettlement. Even during the best years of 1935 - 1936, the Jewish population of Birobidzhan did not exceed 20 000 people, mostly from Ukraine.

Bibliography