Extensive industrial, agricultural and cultural development of Biro-Bidjan, Jewish autonomous region in Siberia, is provided for in Soviet Russia’s third Five-Year Plan.
Plans for industrial development are based on exploitation of the region’s immense natural resources. Mining of huge peat reserves will begin in 1940, stone quarrying will be developed and factories for production of cement, bricks and tiles will be opened.
A graphite factory will be opened in 1941 to utilize the immense graphite resources of the Biro and Stalinsk districts. The plans also provide for the opening of leather, textiles and bread plants in the city of Biro-Bidjan.
The ambitious building plans include construction of an iron bridge across the River Bira, a new theater in Biro-Bidjan at a cost of some 5,000,000 rubles, a central electric station, waterworks and drainage in Biro-Bidjan.
A great increase in the number and scope of the existing 64 collective farms, of which 18 are Jewish, is provided in the plan. Special attention will be paid to development of the dairy, poultry and vegetable farming, as well as cattle breeding. The first vegetable farm will be established in 1940 on a tract of 18,000 hectares.
The capital investment in schools and other cultural institutions, which amounted to 5,600,000 rubles during the second Five-Year Plan, will amount to 17,600,000 rubles in the coming five years.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
