Jewish Immigrants from Abroad to Found “model Town” in Bureya: Plans Envisage Big Modern Industrial

Work has been started on the building of a “Socialist model town” in Bureya, the Jewish region in Siberia, for occupation by the Jewish immigrants coming to Bureya from abroad (most of them Russian subjects, who emigrated from Russia years ago), according to the plans of Professor Charles Kunze, of the Department of Sociology of Columbia University in New York, who came to Bureya two years ago, with the expedition of experts sent out to Bureya by the American Jewish Labour Organisation for promoting Jewish colonisation in the Soviet countries, the Icor, after which the new town is being named.

The township will be built between the two Jewish Communes, Icor and Tichonskoy Oktiabr, on the site of a forest which is being cleared to provide room for roads, building plots, etc. It is intended to be a combination of agricultural and industrial activity, providing employment for between five and six thousand people. The plan envisages 25 to 30 buildings of 100 rooms each, all fitted as bed-rooms, since it is intended that the whole life of the inhabitants otherwise will be arranged on communal lines; food will be cooked in communal kitchens and eaten in communal restaurants. There will be communal laundries, and communal children’s homes. The most modern installations are to be provided in water-supply, drainage, electric lighting, telephone, radio, etc. The schools will be graded upward from the elementary school to the technical high school. A preserves factory employing 1,500 workers, a locksmith workshop for 50 workers, a furniture factory, a building works and a butter and cheese factory are among the industrial enterprises planned.

There is also to be a belt of agricultural settlements surrounding the township, and provision is to be made for 2,000 cattle, 2,000 pigs, and 50,000 poultry.

Ten per cent. of the plan is to be carried into effect by the end of the present year, 40 per cent. during the next year, and it is projected that the whole plan should be completed in 1933.

The State has allocated one million roubles for carrying out the plan, and the Icor is to provide the machinery.

Difficulties are already being experienced, however, owing to the serious shortage of labour and machinery. The ten per cent. quota laid down for the present year requires 200 workers, while there are only 100 available, and there seems no likelihood of the plan being carried out even remotely according to schedule.