Soviet Russia this month celebrated the first anniversary of the proclamation of Biro-Bidjan as an autonomous Jewish region with the customary fanfare in the press. The Jewish papers in particular, as would naturally be expected, printed a great deal about the region, reviewing the accomplishments of a year and describing the plans and personalities bulking large in the future of the Russian Jewish state.
They agree that great progress has been made during the twelve months since May 9, 1934 when the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets proclaimed Biro-Bidjan an autonomous Jewish region. They point out that in recent years sentiment with respect to the new region in the Far East of Siberia has changed and that the Comzet, the government organization for settling Jews on the land, is now flooded with applications from prospective settlers. The old problem of re-emigration is dead, since the conditions that formerly led settlers to abandon the region no longer exist.
POINTS TO PROGRESS
“During the past year,” declares the Emes, Communist Yiddish daily, “the Jewish autonomous region has taken great forward strides. The area under cultivation has increased twenty per cent. Ten thousand hectares of land have been ameliorated, the industrial and co-operative enterprises have been consolidated, and have produced the quotas assigned to them. There is a more systematic house-building activity. The town of Biro-Bidjan, the center of the region, has had new roads built, post and telegraph services have been improved and the budget for cultural work has been increased by 6,000,000 roubles this year.
“There are ninety schools in the region, attended by more than 10,000 children. There is a State theatre, a talkie cinema, ten hospitals, a radio station, etc.
RE-EMIGRATION CHECKED
“Re-emigration has completely stopped this year. Many who had left Biro-Bidjan are now anxious to be sent back there. The Comzet is flooded with applications from settlers to allow friends and relatives to join them.
“One of the most important problems for the whole of the Far East, and particularly for the Jewish autonomous region, is to increase as rapidly as possible the population which is needed for building up the Region and mastering its natural wealth.
“Immigration plans for 1935 foresee an immigration of 4,000 families, or 12,000 souls, which is more than the total number who have till now established themselves in Biro-Bidjan.
CALLED JEWISH NATIONAL STATE
“The biggest point about the Jewish autonomous region is the growing feeling of a State among the masses both of the Jewish autonomous region and throughout the Soviet Republic,” the paper writes. “How true are Kalinin’s words, that we look upon Biro-Bidjan as a Jewish National State and that Biro-Bidjan interests us as a Jewish State unit, where every Jew in five or six years’ time will be like the German in the Soviet Union, who knows that there is a German Soviet Republic on the Volga, or the Tartar who knows that there is a Tartar Republic.
“The idea is taking hold of the Jewish masses. That applies not only to those who believe and work in the Jewish autonomous region, but also outside its boundaries. It finds expression in the achievements of hundreds of skilled workers, specialists, and cultural workers who went together to work in Biro-Bidjan, in order to build up the Jewish Region. Biro-Bidjan will grow into a real Socialist Jewish center of culture, and everyone who cherishes this idea should help,” the paper concludes.
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.
