JEWSin the

SOVIET UNIONCitizens and Builders

by PA UL NOVICK and J. M. BUDISH

New Century Publishers • New York

A Note About th e Au th or

Paul Novick is editor of the Morning Freiheit,progressive Jewish daily, and one of its founders(1922). He is the author of a number of pamphlets

on Zionism and other Jewish problems. and of thefollowing books: Palestine, the Arabs, the Jews(1932 ); The Socialist Party (1934) and Europe-:Between War and Peace (1948). Mr. Novickvisited Europe including the Soviet Union in 1929,1932, 1936, and 1946, also Palestine in 1932, andBirobidjan in 1936. For many years associate editorof the Morning Freiheit, he became its editor-in­chief after the death of M. J. Olgin in 1939.

He is a member of the . National Executive Boardof the Jewish Peoples Fraternal Order. the Na­tional Executive Board of the Committee of Amer­ican Jewish Writers, Artists and Scientists, and theNational Executive Board of the Ykuf, of Ambijan,of Morning Freiheit Association .

THE NEW .JEl" IN THE SOVIET UNION

By PAUL NOVICK

TH E Soviet Unio n is the onl y coulIlr)' in Europe wher e,in spite of all th e e tlons of Hitler to exterminate th eJ ewish peopl e, m il lions of Jews h ave survived.

T his is a prim ar y fact in relation to the dev elopment of thcJ ewish peo p le in th e U.S.S.R . since th e birth of Soviet powerin 1917. The surv ival of m ill ion s' of J ews in th e U.S.S.R. is amost imp ort ant feature of th e life of world J ewr y in thepresclll p er iod . This surv iva l thr ows in to relief th e relati on01 the Soviet government toward the J ews as well as allmiuoritv nationalities.

It is amazing and distressing to realiz e that th ere ar e j ew­ish lead ers who try to avoid mention of the fact that in th eSoviet Un ion millions of J ews were saved . Some even ar eannoyed. Certain "sta tisticians," who ar e forc ed to tou chupon th e number of J ews in th e U.S.S.R. , invariably redu ceit by half a million to a mi llion short of the rea l figur e.

The trav eler in pres ent -da y Europe, who so often comesup on the heartrending sight of rem nan ts of J ewri es in var i­ous lands, particularly in Poland, is exhilara ted by th e sigluof big J ewi sh communities in Moscow, Leningrad, and th eUkraine . This is frightfull y importan t lor th e devel opm entof th e J ewish people as a whol e. No hi storian worthy of th enam e will fail to record this fact in emphatic chapters.

The fact (hat the proportion of l iving Jews is so mu chhighe r in th e Soviet Union th an in other countries of Europeis the result of the policy of true equali ty and fri end shi pamo ng races and nationalities.

EVALUATION OF JEWISH DEVELOPMENTIN THE U.S.S.R.

However. the war pla yed havo c with th e reconstructi on of(he eco nom ic and cultural lif e of th e J ewish people in th e

:i

U.S.S.R. At pres ent, an y evaluation of this de velopmentmust of necessity stop at th e year 1939. Nevertheless, theaccomp lishment s betw een 1917 and 1939 ar e worth record - .ing not mer ely for hi storical reasons . They show the meth od- how Jewish life was reconstructed.

Wh at was th e social composition and gen eral sit ua tion ofJ ews in Ru ssia?

The last cens us in tsari st Ru ssia was taken in 1897 andit serves as a guide to th e socia l composit ion of J ews in oldRu ssia. T here is no reason to assume any ma rked chang esin that composition wh en World W ar I broke out. If an y­thing, the situation became wor se, with pogroms in 1903, 1905and other years prior to \\'orld \Var 1, and during th at war,becoming ever bloodier.

Accord ing to th e 1897 census , "gain fully employed" J ewswere distributed as fol lows."

Per Cent2·4

36,331.0

3.011.5

4·7{.6

3·5

Agri cultureSma ll and big industryComme rceTran sportHou se an d other servantsProfession al , socia l and government servic eUnpro ductive and ind efinit e prof essionsOt hers

T he full mean ing of th ese figures emerges when we classifythem accor d ing to socia l stra ta and re la tio n to economic pro­duct ion. Accor d ing to such classification the social composi­t ion of .Jews in old R ussia was as follows:

Workers in big industry\ \' orkers in small shop sArtisans

PerCen t4.0

11.0

18,4

1 T hese and ot he r figur es in this chapter, as well as quota tions , un lessotherwise in dicated , are taken from the hook of th e well -known SovietJ ewish srarisrician . L. Singer , The R enovated People , Moscow. 1911.

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PeasantsClerks, office workersTraders, emp loye rs, i nd efin ite . .

Over 54 per cent ol the Jew s in old Ru ssia wer e engagedin comme rce or belon ged to gen erally unproductive grou ps.

" \Ve shall presently see how the Jews classified as "a rt isans"and " traders" mad e th eir living. Most striking is th e smallnumber of workers employed in big industry. Upon exa m­in ing ea ch of th e cat egories separa tel y we shall realiz e theu tt er hop el essness of the J ews in old Russia from the eco­no m ic stand po in t.

OPPRE SSION IN THE " PALE"

It was th e ge ne ral political situ a tion prevailing in tsari stRu ssia tha t had such a disastrous effect on Jewish lif e. On eresu lt of th e ge ne ra l persecution of Jews in old Rus sia wasthe creation of th e so-call ed Pale of Settl em ent , composed of' 5 gu ber nias, or sta tes, mo stl y a t a low level of industri aldevelopment, including that part of Poland under Rus sianru le . For th e most part J ews were not permitted to live ou t­side th is " Pa le." Into the Pal e 94 per cen t of the six millionRu ssian J ews were crowded, mostly in the cities. Aft er a seri esof law s, ed icts, regulations and ukases, Jews were banishedfrom Mo scow and other citi es ou tside th e Pale, restri cted ,sub jec ted to special "attention." The oppressions culminat edin th e regulations of 1882 (when a wave of pogroms tookpla ce) prohibiting Jews from obtaining land and gen erallymov ing into villages. J ews who had been living in vill agesfor genera tions were banished to the cities (as portrayed , "forinst an ce, by Sholom Aleichem in T evye the Dai ryman ). Hencethe number of peasants as well as workers in big industrywas insi gnificant among Russian Jew s, who wer e for ced tobeco me a city people, a people mostly of trader s and artisans ,sub ject to innumerable restrictions and unpreced en ted perse­cu t ion.

Wh at kind of trad ers and art isans? It will suffice to qu otethe following from a report of a commission of the tsar istgovern me nt h ead ed by Count Pall en :

"T he J ews who wer e pushed out of other occupat ionshave unwillingly begun to engage in trading. Competi ­

I tion among th e trading Jews was sharpen ed as a resul tI of th e regu la tions of May 3, 1882, after which man y J ewsI from oth er pla ces mov ed into th e cities and town s and

compe tition among them becam e more int ens e. Good swhich were form erl y sold in on e or two stor es beganselling in five, ten and even 20 stores and petty shops.All this brought about bitter competition amo ng th eJ ews, who began to press upon each other."

The sam e is tru e of th e artisans-tailors, shoemakers andot he rs. Their "workshops" were situated in crowd ed primi­tive dwellings which oft en consisted of on e room , used asbedroom and living-room . In certain parts of the Pale ofSettlement th e artisans comprised as high as '60 per cent ofthe total J ewish population. Their earnings wer e miserablylow. An investigation by th e J ewi sh Colonization Societ y in1888-9 among Jewish tailors in Poland show ed th at of tho seinv estigated 80 per cen t earn ed less than 25 rubles a monthwith some earning as little as 8-9 rubles a month. Theye ar ly ear nings of th e majo rit y of tailors and carpentersin two gub ernias of th e Ukraine (Volin and Podol) werebetw een 120 and 2 0 0 rubles. (A. Kirzhnitz in Jews in theU.S.S.R., p. 186.)

Competition was murderous . Un employment was chronic.The -skill of man y of the ar tisans was low . No more th an4.000 J ewish youths att ended trade schools in o ld Ru ssia(of a J ewish population of six million).

No wonder paup erization was widespread. In some local it iesof th e Pale as many as 30 per cent of the Jewish populat ionwere in need of charity. Bobrowski, in his work on J ews inthe gubern ia of Grodno, stated : "Quite oft en you find asmany as 12 families in 3-4 rooms . . . . The meal of ent ire

8

families consists of on e pound of br ead , a herring and a fewonio ns." (Q uoted in th e Mo scow Ein ikeit , Feb. I, 1 9~7 ' )

"A NATION OF PAUPERS"

The classi c Yiddish writers, Mend ele Mochel' Slorim, J. L.Peretz, Shal om Alcichern, portrayed th e miser abl e existenceof the J ewish peop le in old Ru ssia. On e of Sha lom Aleicheru'scha rac ters, Men achern Mendl, typified the wid espr ead IlIf t­mentch, lit er all y " living on air. " A. F. Sub otin, in hi s bookon the Pale of Settl ement (St. Petersburg, 1888) tells a weirdstory of th e city of Min sk, and giv es a gla r ing exa m ple 01J e,\"ish parnoses (me ans of livelih ood). This tsarist munici­pal ity sold perm its to J ews, en ti tling th em to wander abo utthe mark et pla ce during fairs , sack in hand or on shoulde r.to pick u p h ay dropped from peasant s' wagons ....

T he ma jor ity of J ews form ed a "na tion of paupers," sub­jected to tsarist persecuti on s too numerous to recoun t here.All J ews, even the handful of well-to -do, were, with very fewexce p tions, persecuted and oppressed. There was a numerllsclaus us for J ewish student s in universities , high schools, tr ad eschoo ls (inside the Pal e, J ews wer e admitted on a rat io of10 per cent of all stude n ts; outside th e pal e in St. Peter sburg:J per cen t, and in Moscow 3 per cen t). Ther e wer e oppres­sive res tr ictions on book s and newspap ers in Yiddish, th etheater, schoo ls. Reli giou s institutions were not exemp t frompersec u tion. L ife it self was not safe. From tim e to tim e thetsar ist gove rn me nt organi zed mass looting accompanied byh loodshed- p ogro ms. In Octob er 1905 pogroms took place in0 0 0 cit ies and towns . N earl y 1.000 J ews were kill ed and closeto 2.000 wounded . Ov er 200,000 Jews su ffered. Ther e wasthe horrible pogrom in Kishin ev, .Bessarabia, in 19 ° 3 . Andthe re was the ritual murder frame -up against the Kiev J ew,Mend el Beilis s, in 1912. Jews lived under constant terror.

" No o the r nati onality in Ru ssia," Lenin wrot e in 1914.

"is as oppressed and persecut ee! as ar e th e J ews. An ti-9

Semitism is taking ever deeper roots among the well-to-doelements. Jewish workers are groaning under a doubleyoke, as workers and as Jews. The persecutions again stJ ews have in recent years acquired enormous scope. It isenough to mention the anti-Jewish pogroms and th eBeiliss trial. Under such circumstances the organizedMarxists must give proper attention to the Jewish qu e<­tion.

" It is self-evident that the Jewish question can be seri­ously solved together with the basic questions now on theagenda in Russia. The working class must raise its voice,and particularly loud must be the voice of the Russianworkers in protest against national oppression." (Lenin,Co llecte d TfTorks, Vol. 17, p. 291, Russian edition.)

THE DAWN OF A NEW ERA

T he oppressive regime of old Russia was overthrown byi he org an ized workers in the triumph of the Revolution ofXovcmb er 7. And only eight days later, on November 15,(he week-old Soviet government issued over the signatures ofLenin and Stalin, a historic declaration, written by Stalin,Th e Decla ration of the Rights of Nationalities, heralding th erebir th of peoples and nationalities in a country whi ch here­rof ore had born e th e nam e of "pr ison of nationalities."

The Declaration proclaimed: (1) equality for all nati onal i­ties; (2) the right of self-determination; (3) the abolition ofall national and religious privileges and restrictions; (4) freedevelopment of all national minorities and ethnic groups. Asan immediate result of the revolution, the rebirth of th epa uper ized, pers ecuted Jewish people began.

ERAD ICATION OF ANTI-SEMITISM IN U.S.S.R.

Things began to happen under the Soviets. The struggleto eradicate anti-S emitism, the struggle against pogroms wereser ious matt ers. Anti-Semitism was deeply rooted among th ereact iona ry strata of th e Russian people . The number of

10

tsarist henchmen and their collaborators ran into the mil ­lions. In addition, Denikin, Kolchak, Yudenitch, Petlura andother "white" generals and counterrevolutionaries and inter­ventionists used anti-Semitism as their instrument. A horriblewave of pogroms took place. Over 200,000 Jews were slaugh­tered, mostly in the Ukraine. During the struggle against theseforces of intervention and counterrevolution much effort wasexert ed by the young Soviet state against the pogromists, thean ti-Semites.

On July 27, 1919 a special decree against anti-Semitismwas issued by the Soviet government. Lenin delivered hishistoric phonograph record speech against anti-Semitism:"Shame on cursed tsarism,' Lenin shouted into the re­cording machine, "which tortured and persecuted the Jews !Shame on those who spread animosity to Jews, who spreadha tred against other nations."

But these measures against anti-Semitism and pogroms, noma tte r how much effort they required, were merely the firststeps. There was the hard, long-range job of reconstructingth e social composition of the Jewish people, as well as ofde veloping Jewish culture. This job was started by the People'sCom missar ia t for Nationalities and its subsidiaries headed bySta lin. This Commissariat among others devoted its efforts tothe development of Jewish culture-literature, the theater, thepress, ch ildren's homes and schools.

But "with schools alone you will not go far," Stalin said ,an d it will be well to remember this fundamental aspect ofthe solution of the national and Jewish question in theSoviet Union.

"ACTUAL INEQUALITY IS BASIS OF ALLFRICTION"

In his report, "National Factors in Party and State Develop­me nt," delivered April 23, 1923 at the r sth Congress of theR ussian Communist Party, Stalin said :

"T he trouble is that some nationalities have no prole­II

tar ians of their own, hav e never passed thr ough th e stageof industrial development, or even entered that stage , arefrightfull y backward culturally and are entirely un abl e tota ke advant age of the rights granted th em by th e revolu­tion . T h is, comrades, is a question of gre ater importancethan the question of schools. Some of our comrades her eth ink that the knot can be unravelled by stressing th equ estion of sch ools and language. That is not so, com­ra des. Schools will not get you ver y far . The schools arede velo ping, so ar e the languages; but actu al inequali tyis th e basis of all discord and friction." (Joseph Stalin,Ma rxism and th e National and Colon ial Qu estion , N . Y.,p. 156.)

This gi ves an idea how the Soviet government approachedthe pr obl em of reconstruction of the Jewish people. N ati on alculture? O f course. Prior to World W ar I , Stalin, in his classic,Ma rxism and the National Question, wrote:

"L imi tat ion of freedom of movement, disfranchisem en t,suppressio n of language, restriction of schools, and oth erform s of repression affect the workers no less, if riot mor e,than the bourgeoisie. Such a state of affairs can only sen eto ret ard th e free development of th e int ell ectual for cesof th e proletariat of subject nations. There can be noposs ibility of a full development of the intellectu al facul ­t ies of the Tartar or Jewish work er if he is not allow edto use his native language at meetings and lectures, andif hi s schools are closed down" (p. 17).

BUILDING FOUNDATIONS OF CULTU RE

. As a result of th e views outlined abov e, th e work of develo p­ing the culture of all nationalities within the Soviet Unionwent ah ead at full speed. But this was mer ely the beginning ofthe work of national reconstruction. There was th e hard taskof tr ansforming the luftment chn into productive citizens, ofputting the J ewish peopl e on a sound economic foundatio n,

12

o l developing a J ew ish prole tariat and peasantry with outwn ich no lull -blooded national existen ce is possible.

Alread y carIy in 1919 th e Central Couuuit tce of th e RussianCommunist Party co nside red the qu esi ion 01 utiliz ing u n­se tt led lands lor J cwish co lon iza tio n. As a resul t, in JUl y 01that ycar m easures wer e tak en by the Sovie t gO\-ernlllCnL lorsu ch colonization in the Crimea and th e Ukrain e. This wo rkeven tua lly culm ina ted in th e years 1927-1930 in the cstab­lishmcnt of the following Jewish nationa1 districts : Kah nin­dod, i\' cw-Zlatopol and Stalindorf in th e Ukraine, and onein th e Crimea . By th at time Birobidjan wa s alr ead y d csign a tedas a sp ecial d istri ct for J ewish se t tlc rue n t (M arch ~ 8 . 1928).In th e Jewish national distri cts, wh er e Yiddish wa s an officiallanguage and the school systcm and cul tu r al ins titut ion smainly Jewish , a certain limited Iorm of national self-d et ermi­nation was realized.

Simultaneously, another process LOok place, that of indus­trialization. Pcu y artisans and form er traders (who preferr ednot LO seulc on the land) ,~erc organized into producin g co­operatives. Trade schools wer e established for J ewish you th.\Vith the beginning of the first Five-Y ear Plan in 19~8 a con ­stant str eam of Jews flowed into shops, factories and mines.T en s of thousands of J ews entered gO\'ernment serv ice. inst i tu ­tions of higher edu cation, laboratories, etc. The resul ts o f th isd evelopment appeared in the censuses of 1926 and 1939., According to the census of 1926 there were in th e th enterritory of the Soviet Union 2,672 ,000 J ews, an increase ofnearly 100,000 compared with the number of J ews on th esame territory in 1897 (th a t is, minus Poland, W est ernUkr a ine, Western Belorussia, Bessarabia, Lithuania , Latviaand Estonia, which were all part of Russia in 1897). In viewof th e em ig ra tion of 600 ,000 Jews from the same territorysince 1897 and th e murder of nearly 200 .000 in tsari stpo groms, th e small increase is not surprising.

The cens us o f January 1939 showed a Jewish populati onon th e same territory of 3.020,000, a growth of 348 ,000 . or If)

per cent in 12 years . The social composition revealed by that13

censu s shows a comple te transformation of th e eco nomic struc­tu re of th e J ewish peopl e.

A TRA NSFORMED PEOPLE

The census of 1926 had already showed that 11..1 per centof the gainfully emp loyed J ews were engaged in large scaleindustry; in small industry, 3.7 per cent; as clerks, 24.7 percent; as co-operative and independent artisans, 22.6 per cent :as peasants, 8.3 per cent; while the tnumber of traders droppedto 8.8 per cent. Ten per cent were classified as "unemployed ."Compared with the figur es of 1897 the trend of redistributionis striking, but the census of 1926 could record mer ely th ebeginnings of recon struction. The national agricultural dis­tricts were yet to be established. The first Five -Year Plan wasstill in the offing.

Quite a differ ent picture appears from the census of 1939 ,th e secon d year of the third Five -Year Plan. The Jewishpeopl e, like all Soviet peopl es. alr ead y consisted mainly ofworkers , collective farm ers and the int ellig entsia. classifiedas follow s:

Per Cent'Vorkers and clerk s 71. 2

Collectiv e farm ers :').8Artis ans in co-ope rat ive enterpr ises 16. 1Artisans running' small ind ep end ent en te r-

prises 4.0Others 2.9

These figur es truly reflected a historic turn in th e develop ­ment of the Jewish peopl e in th e U.S.S.R. , whi ch was part of ageneral historic development . th e industrialization of th ecountrv. This is one reason for th e decli ne in th e relative num ­ber of ~ollec t ive farm ers since the census of 1926 , though it wasnot the on ly reason . Another factor in th e reduction of theproportion of th e rural J ewish population was the lack ofmor e free land for colon iza tion in th e Ukraine and Crim ea.

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The approximately 250,000 Jews 011 land in 1!J26 were scat­tered over five districts, th ree in the Ukraine and two in theCrimea. The possibilities lor colonization in the Ukraine andthe Crimea were almost exhausted. In addition there were,prior to the turn to industrialization, a number of J ews whoengaged in "near-town" farm ing, tilling the soil on the out­skirts of the towns. The wave of industrialization swept th iselement off the soil in which it was not rooted, and into thefactories. These developments mainly accounted for the reduc­tion of the Jewish farming population by over two per centbetween the two census.

In spite of this shortcoming, i.e., the comparatively smallproportion of farmers, the over-all picture is that of a rebornpeople. Gone are the "traders" of old who, together with otherunproductive elements, comprised over 50 per cent of theJewish population! Gone are the "artisans" of old! Gone arethe parnoses of the paupers of Minsk! Gone are the paupers,the luitmentchn. Menachern Mendl became a character of abygone period, to be seen only in Sholom Aleichern's worksand on the stage.

JEWISH WORKERS IN LARGE SCALEIND USTRY

As shown by the above-table, artisans still comprised a largepercentage of the Jewish population, over 20 per cent . Butby 1939 this artisan element was quite different from that ofth e period covered by the census of 1926. The overwhelmingmajority of these artisans were employed in industrial co­operatives. Their standards of living and importance in th egeneral economy of the country differed considerably fromthat of 1926, not to speak of pre-revolutionary days .

One may be justified in complaining that while the figureof 71.2 per cent for "workers and clerks" may be too general,other figures compiled in 1936 classifying "workers and clerks"in industry according to their special functions shed morelight on this category of th e 1939 census. In that year (1936)

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lilt disui oution of Jewish work ers and others engaged inindustry ran as follows:

Wor kersApprenticesEngineers, techniciansClerksService personne l

U'kra in ePerCent

6,p

3·513·i

It~

BelorussiaPerCellt

i3· 83·3y.8

2·9

I t can therefore be safe ly stated that the majority of thos ee mployed in industry as per the census of 1939 were workers.

Whilc the cens us of 1926 shows a J ewish pro letariat ofmerely u yo.ooo, this category ha d grown in the 1939 census toioo,ooo ! The traders of 1926 (8.8 per cent) , the unemployed( 10 per cen t), many of the clerks (24.i per cent), the people 01

, indefinite professions, part of the art isans and mainly th eyou th were drawn into productive labor. The problem posedby Stalin in 1923, when he pointed out that some nationali ­tie s "have no proletarians of their own," was solved .

What hind of pro letariat? The statistics for 1936 also classi­Iied th e J ewish workers according to ind ustries. This showedtha t in th e Ukraine, metal wor kers, including workers inmach ine tool industrics , occupied first pl ace (28'3 per cent).Needl e workers carn e sccond ( 16. 2 pt!r cent ). There wer e en­tire ly new itcms -Jewish work ers engage d in mining (3.3 pCI'ce n t), in che mical industrics (2.8 pCI' cent) . Not only did th eJ ews of th e U .S.S.R . become a productiv e people, but this pro­du ctivit y it self was of a high cr quality. The proletariat ofform er years was not only small but also engaged primarily inlight industries. in the needle trades and pctty industry.

GRO WTH OF JEWISH INTELLIGENT SIA

The J cwish intelligentsia had grown tremendously. Priorto th e revolution there were on th e territory of th e U.S .S.R. (asco nst itu ted in 1939) 1 -;",00 wrircrs and artists, 4,!>00 per son s:

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3 1•0 0 0

3° .0 0 0

li ·o OO

cn gaged in medi cine and s.uuuu iou. 500 lawy er s. etc. Almosta ll of them made their Jiving by serving th e pauperizedJewish population. The picture for the period prior to\\ 'odd \Var I I changed beyond recognition. as will be seenfrom th e following statistics on the composition of th e Jewishinl elligelltsia in 1936 :

En gin eers . a rc h itec ts and co ns truc to rsT echnical personnelAgronom sOther agro-rechnical personnelScience workers (professors. teachers in higher

schools of learning) i.oOUTeach ers in elementary and high schools 'lti.oooC u ltu ra l and ed uc a t io na l workers (journal ·

ists , librarians. dub directors)Art ' workersDoctorsOther medical personnel

\\lith the 1Il1llll:ruS clausus a thing of the " past , with fulleq ua li ty not merely on paper but in actuality, the number ofJ ew ish pupils in public and hi gh schools reached th e figur eof 425.000. In 1936 there wer e 62,000 J ewish students in allhi gh er in stitutions of learning a nd 32,000 in th e technicalschoo ls a nd co lleges.

J ewish cu ltu re flourish ed. During m y visit to th e U .S.S.R . inthat yea r ( 1936) I visited Jewish elementary schools and tech ­ni cum s in Od essa . Minsk. Berd irch ev and other cit ies. Scor esof tho usa nds of J ewish children were getting th eir ed uc a t ionin J ewi sh schoo ls. Ther e wer e ten Jewish sta te th eat er s in1939. wi th [ " ' 0 dr amatic schools (one in Moscow and anotherin Kie\ )

The p u bl ica t io n of Yiddish books gr ew by leaps and bounds.\\'h ile in 1913 onl y i 3 titles wer e published on th e territorywhi ch was part of the U .S.S.R . prior to th e last war, 339 wer epu b l ished in 1938 in 1, ~151 .000 copies. In 1940, aft er west ernLk ra ine and Belorussia wer e returned to th e U. S.S.R ., th e

vt

Emes Ver lag (the Truth Pu bl ishing H ou se) in Moscow aloneissued a book every day ; there were also other important J ew­ish p ub lishing hou ses in Kiev, Kharkov and Min sk.

Bot h econo mica lly and culturally the transformation of theJewish people in the course of approximately 15 to 18 yearswas phenomenal.

WAR , EVACUATION, RE.EVACUATION;DESTRUCTION AND RECONSTRUCTION

After \ '\Torl d War II broke out, the foundations of theJewish people in the U.S.S.R. were shattered. It is estimatedthat b¥ June 1941, when Hitler attacked, there were fivemillion Jews in the U.S.S.R ., the increase resulting from thereturn of western Ukraine and Belorussia as well as Bessa­rabia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to the Soviet Union in1939-1940. With the exception of Moscow and Leningrad,where large masses of Jews reside, the overwhelming majorityof Soviet Jews lived in the territories which were in the courseof the war overrun by H itler. Nearlv two million of themperished in the area wllich fell to th e Nazis in the first impactof the attack, before the rapidly organized evacuation of theJ ewish people before the onrush of the Nazi war machinecould become full y effective. If there ar e nevertheless nowabout three million Jews in the U.S.S.R. , including over onemillion Jews in the Ukraine, hundreds of thousands in Belo ­russia , Bessarabia, tens of thousands in Lithu an ia, etc. , it isa result of the superhuman effort on the part of th e SovietgO\'er nme n t in evacuating th e J ews from the regions about tobe occupi ed by th e Nazis to Uzbeki stan , Kazakh stan , Bashkiria,th e Kuibishev region , western Siberia, and other 'regions ofsafety.

It is worth rem embering th at almo st all Jews now living inthe U.S.S.R., about thre e million of them , were evacuated ,including the J ews of Moscow and Leningrad, and were movedhundreds and even thousands of mil es away from th e battle­front. The story of this evacuation has yet 'to be told. It is a

18

story of pain and sacrifi ce, of shattered families, of mothersand children "living" on trains for many weeks, watchingother trains speed westward toward th e front. It is a story ofheroism, of enormous sacrifice on the part of the Soviet gov­ern me nt , which need ed th e trains to move armies, factories.

All measur es were taken to prev ent Jews from falling pr eyto th e hordes of Hitler. Hundreds of thousands of Polish Jews ,who flocked across the Soviet border when Hitler invadedPoland , were also eva cuat ed int o th e int erior of the U.S.S.R.After th e war ended, 160,000 of th ese Polish Jew s were helpedto return to Poland, to look for th e remnants of their families;many of the Jews who wanted to remain in the U.S.S.R. wereasked by the Committee of Polish Patriots to return hom e tohelp build a new Pol and. The Ukraine and other ar eas tempo­ra rily occupied by Hitler , whi ch pra cti call y had no J ews leftat the time of liberation, again became the hom e of teemin gJ ewish communities (Kiev and Od essa, over 100,000 each ;Kh ark ov, go,ooo; Dniepropetrovsk, 70,000, etc.).

The Soviet Jews, together with th e Ukrainians, Belorussians ,and oth er Soviet peoples, are now working at the harel, pain­ful task of rebuilding their cit ies, towns, collective farms andmines devastated by the enemy. I saw the destruction on mytrips through th e Ukraine, Belorussia, Lithuania and centralpart s of th e U.S.S.R. This destru ction , this sacrifi ce on th epa rt of th e U.S.S.R ., a sacrifice which saved the citi es andtow ns of Ame rica and oth er count r ies, must be rem embered .It mu st be remembered when qu esti ons of reparations areconside red, when th e subj ect of real , friendly relations be­tween the U .S.A. and th e U.S.S.R. is approached .

VEST IGES OF HITLER'S ANTI -SEM ITICPROP AGAND A

R econ stru ction meant-and mean s-more th an th e rebuild­ing of hou ses, factori es, min es, hospitals. etc. There had totake pla ce spir itual reconstruction as well.

The Nazi-fascist propaganda of the Hitlerites mad e an irn­19

print her e and th er e. The pr opa ganda against Sociali sm,against collectiviza tion, gained some recruits, particularlyamong former factory owners, kulaks or their famili es. T he seeleme n ts were receptive to anti-Semiti c propaganda. .

Even in thos e parts of th e Ukraine and Belorussia wh ichenjoyed Soviet power for twent y years or mor e prior to theNazi onslaught (it was onl y after 1~21 that Sov iet Ukraineand Belorussi a wer e rid of th e coun terrev olu tionary andwhite guardist bands) th er e wer e in all probability re mna ntsof a nt i-Sem itic sentiments of th e da ys of tsar ism, th e Pilsud sky,Pet lura, Denikin and oth er whit e guard ist and int erv entioni sthordes. In western Ukraine and Belorussia , in Lithuania,Latvia, Bessarabia, th e situ ation was wors e. Up un til 1939­1~40 these parts wer e rul ed by fascist and semi-fas cist ant i­Semitic governments . The short period during whi ch th eseterritories wer e u nder Soviet rule was bar elv sufficient forerad ica ting anti-Semitism, just as there was no time to over­come , by edu cation and oth er means (such as colle ctivization)capitalistic and kulak influences left by the old regime. Here ,the Nazis came upon fertile ground.

Quite naturally, they made extensive use of anti-Semiticpropaganda. In all occupied territories, as well as all alongth e front , and even in the Soviet hinter land close to th e frontthere was a constant ban-age of such propaganda. The millionsof prisoners of war and civilians taken to Germany for slavelabor were con tamina ted by it. Obviously, the problem oferad ica t ing the effects of Nazi propaganda-against Sovieti sm,against collectivization, against Sociali sm gen erally, as well asant i-Sem itic propaganda-posed itself as on e of the mostser ious task s of postwar recons tru cti on.

THE TR UTH vs. SENSAT IONA LISM

Sovi et lead ers publicl y recogniz ed it as such and were pr e­pared for this task even prior to th e defeat of Hitler.

Ant i-Scmit ism was a part of th e gen eral problem of postwa rre-ed uca tion. This evil was, in Iart , one of th e first th e Soviet

gOHTlllllcnt went after. l nuucdiatelv alter liberai iou a "igor-ous campaign against anti-Semitism bcgan. •

Before I left for Europe, in 1946, there appeared in theJewish Daily Forward and other anti-Soviet publicationsstories about pogroms in Kiev, Kharkov and other localities,particularly in the Ukraine. It was clear from the outset thatno such things could have taken place under Soviet rule,even immediately after liberation. Nevertheless, while Iwas in Kiev, at the end of that year, I made inquiries aboutthese reports. I spoke to people in Moscow and to intimateFriends arriving from Kharkov, There was, of course, notruth in the stories about pogroms! No such things occurred!The anti-Semites remembered too well that under Soviet ruleone is severely punished for such acts.

The vestiges of Hitlerism were expressed in "mild" forms.Sometimes one would make an insulting remark, even thoughthe word "Jew" would rarely be mentioned. In the long linesbefore food shops some one would pass a remark that it wasall "their" fault. Some individuals would try to create ani­mosity toward Jews without openly admitting being anti­Semitic. On rare occasions an anti-Semitic insult was hurled.Most Jews hardly encountered any expression of anti-Semitism.SOllie, however, came in contact with this evil.

That is how the situation presented itself immediately alterliberation. Again, such anti-Semitic expressions as were en­countered were part of the general legacy of Nazism.

In a rclat ivelv short t ime even thc "milder" forms ofanti-Semitism began to disappear, too. Soviet life returnedto its old self. The process was faster in the central parts ofthe country. in the Russian R epublic. or in those parts of theUkrainian and Belorussian R epubl ics which enjoyed Sovietrule since 19:?O and 192 1, as I had the occasion to witnesswhen I was there at the end of 1946. It took longer in westernUkraine and Belorussia. in Lithuania and Latvia . ;'\0 doubtthere are still hidden anti-Semites in these latter parts and itwill take time before they are smoked out or die a naturaldeath. .

The bands that were roaming the woods along the Soviet­Polish frontier were out to kill Jews, as they were out to killrepresentatives of the Soviet government. They were foughtand exterminated by the Soviets as enemies of the State. Thesuccessful struggle against these bands was another blow atanti-Semitism.

FRIENDSHIP-A BASIC TENETNaturally, alongside sterner measures, or warnings, Soviet

education, in schools, universities, clubs and factories is tak­ing effect.

One must constantly be aware of one of the basic tenets ofSoviet life, one of the foundations of Soviet power-friendshipamong nationalities. Anti-Semitism is simply an anachronismunder Soviet rule. There might be hidden remnants here andthere, just as there might be former capitalists or kulakslying low, masking themselves. Such characters are eitherunmasked when put to test, or are assimilated. But just asanti-Sovietism is incomparable with Soviet life. so is anti­Semitism.

One of the features of the struggle against anti-Semitism isthat this evil is rarely singled out. The struggle is againstracism generally, as the enemy of the State. It is constantlypointed out that the Soviet Union consists of many nationali­ties and races and that this Union held together and wasvictorious because it is built on friendship among nationali­ties and races. One hears and sees these slogans during parades,in speeches of Soviet leaders and army commanders, in theclassroom, the club, the army barrack. And of course thereis article 123 of the Soviet constitution outlawing discrimina­tions of, as well as privileges for, any nationality or race.

Last but not least, there is the unified effort of Jews andnon-Jews to rebuild, to make life easier.

REBUILDING JEWISH CULTURESoviet Jews, together with all Soviet citizens, are now en-

gaged in peaceful rcconstruct iou. are bending their efforts forthe success of the preselll, the fourth, Five Year Plan. Slowlytheir economic and cultural life is being restored.

Conditions generally are by Jar not the same as they were in1941. This naturally is equally true about facilities for Jewishculture. For instance, while the publishing house of NationalMinorities in the Ukraine before the war issued hundreds ofthousands of Jewish books (over 840,000 in 1936), there wasnot one Jewish print shop after liberation. The building ofthe Jewish State Theater in Kiev was destroyed, and thetheater company has its home now temporarily in the city ofChernovits.

The Jewish State Theater of Belorussia, which recentlyreturned to Minsk from evacuation in Siberia, is minus a play­house; it plays twice a week in the only theater left in theBelorussian capital which belongs to the main Belorussianstate · troupe. These examples indicate that it will take sometime to restore cultural life to what it was before the war asthe basis for its continued development. But Jewish life isbeing built.

There is vibrant Jewish life in the U.S.S.R. Cultural activi­ties of broad scope go on. I witnessed these activities myselfduring my stay in the Soviet Union from the middle of Sep­tember 1946 to the early part of January 1947. Upon myreturn to America I stated that thes e activities are on theupgrade, on the evidence of my own eyes and on what I knewabout the plans of the various cultural institutions, the Jewishtheaters, publishing houses, writers' groups, children's schools,etc. I also knew about the plans for the intensified buildingof Birobidjan. Subsequent developments substantiated thesepredictions.

Finally, and most important, I became convinced that inthe Soviet Union, as everywhere, the interest of the Jewishmasses in Jewish affairs was heightened as a result of the war.This estimate was proved accurate by developments this year,both in the building of Jewish culture in the U.S.S.R. gen­erally, and in Birobidjan.

CULTURAL ACTIVIT}'

Du r ing th e tw o mouths 1 SPC Ilt in M oscow ill th c win ter of194{i, 1 wi tnessed m ore J ewi sh cu ltural even ts tha n are avail­ab le in Ne w York, wi th it s 0 \'e1: two m ill ion J ews, An evc ui ngof Yiddish lit erature took pl ace in the most prom in en t co ncertan d lecture h all in Mo scow , th at of the Pol yt cchn ical Mu seum .Posters in Ru ssian th rough ou t th e city h er ald ed "A n Ev eningof j ewish Literature." D avid Ber gelson, Itzik Feffer , Aa ronKu shn irov , L eon Kwitko, Samuel Halkin a nd o the rs read fro mthe ir work s, while Prof. 1. Dobrushin read a sho rt p ap er (i nYidd ish) on the ro le of Yiddish li terature in th e p rese n t peri od .T he re was n o mu sical progr am - onl y th e reading of Yiddishl ite ra turc. O ver 1,000 peopl e came , including many youngpeo ple and stude n ts.

The J ewi sh State T he a te r in M oscow , whe re a bo ut :!:,o, oooJ ew s live, is o ne of th e best in the Sovie t U n io n. It is a inostimportant J ew ish nation al in stitution for th e ent ire ./c,, ·ishpeo ple. It ha s au a r tist ic a nd technical per sonnel of close to

4 0 0 people-which g ives an idea of the scope of this am azin gcult ura l o rga n iza t ion. Attach ed to it and under it s di rectionis a d ram ati c sch ool with a bou t 60 stu de nts whi ch is tr ain ingyou ng pe op le for th e J ewi sh st age. The th eat er -cond uctsco u rses in J ewish lit erature for the ge ne ra l public. 011 Mon ­days (whe n there are no performan ces) th e th eat er orga nizeseve n ings .of J ewish lit erature, J ewish folk songs and songs o fmod ern J ewi sh po et s and com p osers .

The J ewi sh n ew sp ap er , Einikeit , whi ch appea rs in M oscow.also arra nges " l ite ra ry M ondays" wh en J ewi sh writ ers readthe ir newl y cre a ted work s, participated in by J ewish singersof the Bol shoi Theat er (eq u ivale n t, say, to th e M etropolitanOp era House of N ew York ), or the cantor of th e main syna ­gog ue (I att ended several suc h eve n ings). The Union of J ewi shwriter s (sec tion of th e All -Sovi et 'Vriter s Union) a rra ngesregular even ings wh en J ewish writers read th eir works.

It would tak e too mu ch space to en u me ra te th e J ewi shcultu ral a ffa irs I witnessed in Moscow. Ki ev (ca p ita l of th e

:!,l

• Ukraine), Minsk (capita l ol Bclorussiu), and Viln a (cap ita lo[L ith uan ia). 1 a tte nded a ga the r ing in th e j ewish ch ild re n'sschoo l in Viln a, a sta te school, of cours e. During m y sta y inthe U.S.S.R . 1 also clipped from Einikeit items rcgardingJ ewish cu lt ura l events in scores of ci ties in th e Ukr ain e, Belo­ru ssia, Lithuan ia, as well as in th e Ru ssian Soviet Fed erat edSocialist R ep ubl ic, ou tside of Moscow (Len ing rad, Kuibishev,Gorki, l\I agni wgorsk, etc.). It is impossible to list th em here.1 will, however, dwell u pon on e affair which is of particu larsignificance . It will g ive an id ea of how diff er ently J ew ishculture is be ing develop ed in a Socialist country. It will al soa nswer th e qu estion about assimilation in the U.S .S.R.

In October 1946 th e J ewish Anti-Fascist Committee arrangeda reception for the ed itor of the N ew York Morning Freih eit.Pre-cut a t th is rece ption wer e, besides the abov e mention edand ot her J ewi sh writ ers, th e foll owing: David Saslavsky, oncof the editors of Pravda ; Dr. Lena Stern, ph ysicist of int ern a­tional fame; Dr. Boris Shimelevit ch , head of the lar gest ho s­p ital in th e U .S.S.R ., the Moscow Botkin Hospital : Acad emi ­cia n Boris Zbarsky, hero of Socialist Labor (it was he wh opreserved Len in 's bod y); Aaron Trainin, int ernationally prom­incnt jurid ical expe rt, member of th e Sovi et legal staff a t th eNuremberg tri al ; Gen eral A. W ershigora, hero of th e Sovie tUnion, a R ussian ; Colonel L. Linkow-Batia, a Belorussian :Maxim R ylsky, one of the for emo st Ukrainian po et s, depu tyof the Supreme Sovie t, and oth er s, " 'h at was the particularsignifica nce of thi s gathering?

FALLAC IOUS THEORY OF ASSIMI LAT ION

I) Jewish lea de rs. cu lt u ral work ers , ar e not isolated froIIIleaders and cult ura l work ers of oth er nationalities. It was forthis reaso n tha t non -Jews attended a fun ction of th e J ewis h..\ n ti -Fascist Co mm ittee for th e ed itor of a J e\\'ish pro gr essivenc\\"spap er in the U .S.A.

~) At th at ga thc r ing the Ukrainian pa ct aJ1(~ deput y. Rylsk v.chided th e Moscow J ewish writ ers for negl ecting to send th ei r

25

writings to Kiev , where a Jewish Almanac was in prepar at ion. •1 thought how unlikely it would be for some of th e best kno wnAmeri can IXlets to chide Jewish writ ers in New York forneglecting to send th eir writings to a . J ewish publica tion in,say, Chi cago . ... I was able to sec, as I saw afte rwards inMinsk , Kiev, Vilna, that the development of Jewi sh cultureis not merely the job of J ewish cultural lead ers; tha t suchJ ewish lead ers ar e being encouraged by non -Jews in th e de­velopm ent of Jewish cultural values .

3) The th eory of "assimilation through equ alit y" is fal­lacious. An article in Congress W eekly prior to my dep art ur efor Europe, was thus captioned: "Assim ilation ThroughEquality." The writer drew an analogy between th e U.S.A.and the U.S.S.R. and came to the conclusion th at in bothcountries this type of assimilation is taking place. I remem­bered that article well while I observed th e peopl e at thatrecep tion and list ened to the speeches. I saw and felt " 'hythe writ er of that article was wron g.

That som e Soviet Jews get assimilated, as is the case wit hm all)' American Jews , is quite tru e, though, I am not surethat th e term "assimilation" can be applied th ere . 'Vho is anassimilated Jew in in th e U.S.S.R.? Is a general of the SovietAr my who does not speak Yiddi sh assimilated? Maybe. Butyon oft en meet such a gen eral in the Jewish th eater, and asa citizen of the Soviet Union, which pro vid es for the develop­me nt of the culture of th e various nationalities, he is int erestedin J ewish culture, as in the dev elopment of Birobidjan.

Assimilation, in the U.S.A. and other coun tri es, takes placebecause of in equality, becaus e some Jews are afraid to readJ ewish newspapers in public. A J ewish gen eral in the Ame­ri can army (if there is one in pea ce tim e) would cert ainly bea[raid to read a J ewish newspaper; or to go to the Jewi shth eat er . That would be "improper " indeed! A J ewish genera lin the U.S.S.R. (and ther e ar e man y of them ) is not afr aid ,and can not be.

At that reception ther e was pr esent, as alr ead y me ntioned.the head of th e larg est Soviet hospital . Dr . Sh irnel evi tch . Hi s

26

counterp art in New York would cert a in ly hesitate to come toa reception for an ed itor of a Jewish newspaper. It wouldmost certa in ly have been " imprope r" for him to sing Yiddishsongs in p u blic. But Dr. Shim elevit ch was not afraid to singfor everyone to hear! T eiere Malk e, gesunt solstu sein (dearMalk e, keep in good health), and it was in "good ton e," too .Nay, it was th e natural thin g! As to the non-J ewish partici­pants, th ey not only consider Jewish culture one of the Sovietcu ltu res, th ey are interested in its deve lopment!

ASPECTS OF JEWISH LIFE IN THE U.S.S.R.

T he position of the Jew in the U.S.S.R. is differ ent fromtha t in our own country. The term "assimilation" do es notexac tly apply in the U.S.S.R . though some Sovi et J ews ar enot parti cipating in J ewish activities and do not speak or readYiddi sh. Generally, however, there is an intensified na tion alconsciousness among Soviet Jews. And inasmuch as Jewi shact ivit ies and Jewish culture are part of general Sovi et lif e;inasm uch as Birobidjan is being built by the J ewish peopl ewit h ge nero us assistance of the government and the non-Jews,the in terest am ong the Jewish people for the se things is wid e­sprea d .

The fac ts are that, although there are now about th e samenu mber of J ews in th e U.S.S.R. as th ere were at th e beginningof 1939, J ewish books are having a greater circulation. Thefact is tha t J ewish theaters in Moscow , Minsk, T chernovitz,Tashke nt, Ri ga , Od essa, etc., are well attended and ticke ts forcerta in performances ar e hard to get. The sam e is th e case inKiev, Kharkov, Vilna, Kuibishev and oth er citi es in whi chJ ewish th eaters tour. Traveli ng dramatic groups are organizedby govern me n t cu lt ural agen cies to visit small towns , as areconce rts of J ewish folk songs, lit erar y even ings, etc. ShalomAleichem affairs in th e various cit ies and town s invariablytur n int o mass demonstrations for Jewish cu lture participatedin by repr esentatives of the government and cultural andparty in stitutions.

J ewi sh lile in th e U.S.S.R. is conce ntrated in, and is gi n.:nexpre ssion by, the following institutions:

J) The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee in Mo scow, whi chmay be considered th e leadership of Jewish life in th e U.S.S.R.The Committee keeps in touch with th e various J ewi shcultu ral and o the r activities throughout th e U.S.S.R . bothdirectly and throu gh it s newspap er Einik eit;

2) The J ew ish Stat e Theat er head ed by th e Moscow theateran d dr amati c scho ol;

:l) The J e" 'ish \Vriters Associations, one in each of the sixre pu blics: Russia, Ukraine, Belorussia, Lithuania, Latvia an dMoldavia . Jewish literary magazines ar e now publish ed inMoscow , Kiev , Minsk, Vilna;

4) Publishin g houses head ed by th e Eme s Publishing H ou sein Moscow ;

5) The Division for J ewi sh Culture at th e Ukrainian Acad ­emy of Sci en ce in Kiev and the J ewish Mus eum in Viln a, bothinstitutions of national scop e;

fi) Jewish children's schools which are to be found now inVilna, Kalmus, Tchernovitz, and other pla ces.

This doe s not exh aust J ewish activities in th e various CO Ill ­

mu n ities and coll ectiv e farm s. And th er e is Bir obidjan, whi chis a chap ter by itself-an extre mely important cha pte r. ind eed .

Then , the re ar e J ewish re lig ious activit ies. I visit ed thema in synagogue in Moscow during Yom Kippnr. It wa s over ­cro wde d . with people outside list ening to th e cant or throughloud sp eak ers. I spoke 10 the Chief Rabbi Solomon Shliffer,a nd th e th en head of th e ;\[OS(O\\· keliilla , Samuel Chobrutskv.I visit ed synag og ues in Kiev , Viln a. Berditch ev, Zhytomir.There are ab ou t :l0o organized religious com m u n ities in th eU.S.S.R . with a budget running into scor es of millions ofru bles.

Ther e arc no Jewish char it ies- be cause there a re no ch ar itiesin gen eral. The;'e ar e no separate J ewish hospitals becaus e allho sp itals are non-sectarian and non-religious. There ' are nore l ief activities. These forms of "J ewish activities" whi chdo m ina te J e" 'ish lif e in th e U ,S.A. wer e render ed obsol et e

28

in th e U.S.S.R ., as they will be in every country wher e un ­employme n t and discrimination are abolished.

JEW ISH STA TEH OOD

H owever , the development of Jewish culture, the changesin th e social composition of the jewish people, and oth erach ieveme n ts, tr emendous as the v were , were still not sufficientto place the Jcws on a basis of ft;1l equality with other nation­a lities. The J ews still lacked-statehood.

On March 28, 1928, a territory in the Far East of theU.S.S.R . in the general domain of Khabarovsk, lying betweenthe Amur Riv er to the south and the Khingan Mountainsto th e north, was designated by the Soviet governmellt forJ ewish settl ement , and in 1934 it became the Jewish Aurono­mo us Region with full self-government.

I shall not go into details of Birobidjan's development."I merel y wish to quote from an editorial in the MoscowEinik eit of May 31, 1947, where the reasons for the pr escntstepp ed-up Birobidjan activities are given. The editorial pointsout that J ews have equal opportunities in all part of th e

.S.S.R . Why , then , should they go to Birobidjanr The an ­swer . Ei ni ke it states, is as follows:

"The new settlers had their opportunities in Vinnitza ,Bershad , Kiev, Bobruisk, but they , as Soviet patriots, fccItha t they are needed in Birobidjan ... in the JewishAutonomous Region. Thereby the sense of national dig ­nit y plays a great role; they desire to actively participat ein the upbuilding of the only j ewish Soviet State in th eworld. "

.4ct iv el y participate. For in a general way all Jews in th eU.S.S.R. are interested in the Birobidjan development. Jewishstat ehood there will enrich th eir life, too, will give them asense of full equality with other nationalities. Jewish culture

1 T'h is topic is bein g trea ted hy J. ,I. Budi sh .

29

throughout the U.S.S.R. will derive strength from Birobidjan,where Yiddish is the language of the state and all its institu­tions. In the technicums and universities, in the laboratories,as well as in the mines, factories and fields of Birobidjan newterms for the Yiddish language are being coined. As statedin a recent article A. Bachmutsky, Deputy to the SupremeSoviet of the U.S.S.R from Birobidjan, the goal is that Yiddishshould in the immediate future be the language of institutionsof higher learning. Already, Yiddish is obligatory for non­Jewish children as well.

A full-blooded Jewish nation is being developed in theU.S.S.R., a nation with its own language and culture, its owneconomy, participated in by Jewish workers in factories andmines and Jewish farmers, a nation enjoying full equalityamong the numerous peoples of the U.S.S.R., equal amongequals. A Jewish nation-truly reborn-or born.

A JE \\ . , H ST AT E RI SES 11'\ BIROBIDJAN

A No :e About the Au h or

.J. M. Budish is Exe cutive Vice P resident 01 tileAm erican Committee for Birobidjan (Am hijan ),an . organ iza tio n de vot ed to tile settlement andrehabilitation in Birobidjan of th e Jews who sur ­vived the war of annihilation waged agains t th emby th e Nazis .

Mr. Budish is an eco nom ist and expert on Sovie ta ffa irs.

A JEWISH STATE'RISES IN BIROBIDJAN

By J. 1\'1. BUDISH

TH E thirtiet h an niversarv of th e Un io n of Sovi et Sociali stR epu bli c ; has special sign ificance for th e J ewish people.IL is in that co u lll ry that a new era dawned for th e J ews

bringing them ho pe, enco urage men t and promise a t th e tim eof their greates t d istress .T hc new d a y had its crowningachievement in the esta blishment and development o r th eJewish Autonomous R eg io n. Birobidjan has become a nanchor for our ho pes, ren ewing ou r faith in ma n's progressand the certainty that nation al an d ra cia l equ alit y will co n­quer all forms of nat io nal and racial di scriminat ion a ndoppression,

The designation in 1928 of th e territory of Birob idj a n forJewish settlement ha d a twofold purpose. I n the Europeanpart of the Soviet Un io n, the fund of un occupied, cu lt i­vable land that cou ld be mad e avai lable for J ew s desiringto take up 'far m ing was practica lly ex ha us ted. Biro bid ja n p ro­vided opportunities for ad d itio nal su bs ta nt ial number s ofJews to settle on la nd a nd eng age in ag r icu ltu re . for estr y.fishing. etc. But. above a ll, Birobidjan pr esent ed th e J ew s o fthe Soviet Union wit h th e opportunit y to d evelop th eir ownstatehood.

The late president of the U.S. S.R. , Mi cha el I. Kalin in , ex­plained these purposes in an ad d ress to th e work er s o f thei\f O.5COW industries o n M ay zR. 1934. Said Ka linin :

"Three m illion Soviet J ews are th e onl y na tionality inthe U.S.S.R. that has no sta te hoo d.... In th e JewishAutonomous R eg ion , Birobid jan, th ere will d evelop agreat socialist construc t io n and h and in hand with it a

~~:;~I:~~(~?C~II:~\ J~~v~S!;'C~l~:~~"~~;e ~I ' 1~)~~~';l ~;:t P\~.~g~e tl;~~33

hard, almost virgin nature of the region, through the ·great creative effort that it demands.... Just like theearly American cowboys, the Birobidjan people will haveto conquer nature. Naturally, the development of a greatregion is a time-consuming process . . . . I consider Biro­bid jan as a Jewish national state. The elevat ion of Biro­bidjan to the status of an Autonomous R egion [in 1934]is a result of the will of the Jewish masses to strengthenthe work in Birobid jan and deve lop J ewish nationalstatehood.... As to the transformation of this regioninto a Republic, it is merely a matter of time .... Tocreate a republic out of a region will be easier than it wasto transform a district [county] into a region. The eleva­tion of the Region to the status of R ep u blic depends onthe efforts of the toiling Jews themselves."

A RICH AREA

Birobidjan is located in the Far Eastern territory of thcSoviet Union, in the bend of the Amur R iver above Man­churia. Its area is fifteen thousand square miles. It extendsfrom the city of Ob luchie in the west almost up to thecity of Khabarovsk on the east-a distance of 200 mi les alongthe Trans-Siberian Railroad. It is bounded on the southby the Amur River which separates the region from Man­ch uria for a distance of over four hundred miles. Althoughit lies about five thousand miles east of Moscow, it is nofurther from the equator than Duluth, Minnesota, Paris, orMontreal, Its climate is similar to that of the states of Maineand Minnesota, but has much more sunshine. This climateis quite favorable for such crops as spring wheat, early varie­ties of maize, po tatoes, oats, soy beans, rice, grapes and . allvegetables. The ab undance of fine flowers make it one of theleading honey-producing areas of the Soviet Union. Its cli­mate and vegetation make the region adaptable for larg e­scale livestock-raising.

Heav y woods cover about 32 per cent of the en tire areaand the timber resources are estimated at two and one-half

34

billion cubi c Ieet. This form s an exce llen t basis for the build­ing and furniture industries and for the production of pulpand paper. The forests teem with fur-bearing animals, includ­ing some valuable species such as sables, foxes, bears, racoons,sq uirrels, deer , etc.

The northern part of the Jewish Autonomous Region iscovered by th e foothills of the Khingan Mountains aboundingin r ich dep osit s of useful minerals: coal, iron ore , molybdenum,lead , magnesite, dolomite, gold and graphite. Recently, larg edeposits of tin were discovered in Birobidjan. The region ha spr actically inexhaustible supplies of construction minerals,such as lim estone, marble, clay and sand, and some 40,000

acre s of peat deposits.T he region derives its name from the two rivers, Bira and

Bidj an , running from north to south and emptying into theAm ur Riv er. The total length of all rivers and lakes of th e[ewish Au tonomous Region is some 2,000 miles . The lak esand rivers of Birobidjan abound in fish, supplying the basi sfor a th rivin g fishing and canning industry. The hardy,hea lthy clima te and rich natural resources of Birobidjanhave mad e possible for the new Jewish settlers, with the as­sista nce of the U.S.S.R . as a whole, to develop in a compara­tively sho rt tim e agriculture and industries which have madeth e reg ion not only self-sustaining but also enabled it to pro ­"id e sur pluses for the Red Army during World War II andto offer a have n for thousands of Jewish war orphans, evacueesan d ref ugee J ews in th e pr esent period of postwar rehabilita­tio n.

JEWS ROOTE D IN THE LAND

There ar e abou t 2,000,000 acres of tillable soil in the region .Up to th e establishme nt of th e J ewish Autonomous R egion ,the ar ea und er cultivation was so small that th e averagean nual incr ease in the cultivated areas amounted to onlv afew hundred acres. In th e past ten year s, howev er, mor e thanIi .000 acres of for est land hav e been cleared and 84.000 acres

3:;

ol \'irgin land were br uu ght under cult iva tio n. During thesame period, 27,000 acres 01 marshland wer e dr ain ed. At pres­em, me rcgion has a LOLaI culuvatcd ar ea ol 12:kj50 acr es,and it is increasing rapidly.

•\lust sign ifican t is tne transformation of th e new J ewishsettlers, former artisans and trading people into hi ghl y skilledfarmers. One of the oldest JewIsh corlectivc farms in theregion, \\ 'a ldheim, was represented at th e .-\ 11 Un ion .-\ gri­cuu .ual Exhibition in Mos cow in 19:18-19-11 a nd receiv edpremiums for many of its excellent crops.

Cattle-breeding has also made record gailb . Almost two­.hi rds of th e six ty-six collective farms in th e region have threera tt le-farms each; onc-quarter have four each and te n per ce n ttwo each. There are :100 head of cattle in each kolkhoz farmand up to 600 cattle in each of the five state farms 01 theregion. A beginning has also been made in hors e-raising andthe region has five horse-breed ing farms .

Another important branch of agriculture is apiculture:there is hardly a kolkhoz in Birobidjan without a be ehive.At prcsent there are 84 beehouscs in the colleci ive farms,with 1O,0no hives. The prescnt piau provides for . increasingthe number of bcehouses to 2,5°0 , with 25°.000 hiv es whichwould provide 5,000 tons of honey a year.

It is important LO emphasize that the new J ewish settlersin their struggle LO conqucr this virgin land have succ eedednot only in developing a large cultivated area and cstah lish ingmany successfu l collective farms, but have also developedoutstanding J cwish agricu lturists well -known throughout th ecnt ire Far East.

INDUSTRI AL CENTER RISES

The progrcss of industrial development has paralleled thatof agricu lture. At the time Biro b id jan was designated forJewish settlement there were practically no industries th ere .The only railroad station within the region at which th eTrans-Siberia n express wo u ld stop fo r a m inute was Tikhon-

36

kaya (in En gli sh it mean s " 'q ~ iet")-a little village of a ~ew

h undred peop le. Out of this village gr t:w the present capitalof the J ewish .\ ULOnomOUS R egion , Birobidjan Cit y, with a

po pu lat ion of 5.°,°0.0 . .. . . .Birobidjan City IS a thr iving, industr-ial, agr icultura l and

cultu ral cen ter of th e region. It ha s many fine buildings, pavedstree ts. aspha lt side walks, and in 1946 it also got a systemof water supp ly and sewage disposal.

The well-known J ewish writ er, S. Gordon, in th e summerof 1946 visi ted ll irobidjan aft er an abs en ce of ten years. H er eis hi s own descr ip tion of hi s impression s:

" I was u nab le to recogni ze it ," says Mr. Gordon. " Biro bid­jan is at present a term design ating exce lle n t hi ghw ays, as­phalted sidewalks, b ig bu ild ings, wat er su pp ly, sewerage,squares and stree ts lin ed with tr ees and shru bs." H e describ esthe various streets start ing from the gre a t bri ck railroad sta ­tio n, one of the most beautiful in th e en tire Far Ea st, on th eOctober Street-"an exce p tionally beautiful street, with twoan d th ree-story brick buildings, and with tree-lined asphaltside walks." T he n, pa ssing to Kalininsk and Waldheim Str eet swhere the major public in stitutions are concentrated, such asthe Birobi djan Machin e Tractor Station, the Mu sic school,the R ad io Broadcastin g sta tion , the Medical school, the Nor­mal school, th e Coll ege for Railroad Technicians, th e build­ings of the R egion al and County go vern me n ts, th e MovingPictu re house at th e cen tral square, and start ing from th ere.the Sholom Ale ichern Stree t, and th e Lenin Str eet with itsfu rnitu re pla n t, wagon and wh eel plant, the four -stor y build­ing of the newspap er , Bir obidjan Sht ern, the Jewish Stat ethea ter , the large building of the Ten-Year school, th e hot elwith telephon e serv ice in each room and a central heatingsystem. and th e side str eets with th eir factories including thepl vwood Factory, th e til e plant, the ma chine shop, th e severalbri ck pla nts . the saw and lumber mill and th e pl ant for theprodu ct ion of doors, windo ws and other pr efabricated partsfor hou ses. th e large clo th ing factory em ploying over 1.000

people . the dep artmen t stores, th e "g astronorn" (grocery,

37

delicatessen store) , numerous other sto res, the Pa rk of Cultureand Rest with its stadium for sports, th e numerous small fac­tories and co-operatives, en terprises producing kit chenware,food products, soft drinks, etc. All of this made th e impres­sion upon Mr. Gordon, "of a big city. "

"The more I walk the streets of Birobidjan, the more I havethe feeling," continues Mr. Gordon, "that I am not in the FarEast but somewh ere in the South. The center of the city, wit hits brightly-lit brick buildings and thickly-treed lanes is verysimilar to that of the center of Evpatoria, Feodo sia, andJ ankoy . You have the feeling that these streets will bring youto th e seashore."

Among the older industrial establishment s in the cityare the large clothing factor y, furniture factor y, lea ther fac­tory, sawmill , plywood plant, barrel plant, wagon plant, brickwork s, mechanized bakery, printing shop, electri c pow er sta­tion and several food and beverage producing plan ts. Thelarge machine and automobile repair shops which servicethe eigh t machine tractor stations of the region are rapidlybecoming the initial units for a machine producing and re­pairing industry. 'Wor ld War II retarded th e rapid indu s­tr ial development of Birobidjan. However, immediatel y afterthe war , new industrial construction began again on a largescale. On the Birofeld Highway, not far from the Ci ty ofBirobidjan, a new tile factory with a capacity of 350,000 tilesa year has just started.

The building of a large textile mill was started in March.t945, and the first completed section of this mill was put int ooperation in 1947. The production capacity of this combinewhen completed with 6,7&0 spindles and 190 loom s, will befive million meters of fabrics a year . It will al so produce largequantities of felt and yarn for the knit-goods industry. A newshoe factory began production in August, 1946. It s to tal initialcapacity will be 15;000 pairs a year. However, the plant pro­"ides for the extension of its capacity to 100,000 pairs a year.:\ large confectionary factor y is in operation now .

38

EXPANDING THE INDUSTRIAL AREA

Birobidjan City is not the only industria l center of theRegion. Near Londoko at Teploye Ozero (Wa rm Lak e) th econstruction of a large cement p la nt has begun. This will bcthe biggest cement plant in the ent ire Far East . In th etown of Birokan th e first pulp and pap er plant of Bir obidj anhas ju st been put in operation.

T here are, in th e J ewish Au ton omous Region, 60 su bstan­tial industrial enterpr ises, not coun t ing th e numerou s co-ope ra­t ive factor ies. It is a matt er of genera l knowledge that th eu-rm "Sta kha no vite work er " is used in the U.S.S.R. to desi g­nate the most highly skillf u l and pr odu ctiv e industrial work erswho make up only a few per cen t of th e total number. Thetotal n umber of workers in th e various industrial ent erprisesof Birobidj an who have merited the titl e "Stakhanovite work ­ers " exceeds 2,000. The cit y of Obluchie, and the town s oflzvcstkovaia, Teploye-Ozero, Londoko, Khingan, Kimk an ,Biro ka n, In n, Sta li nsk and Bir o ar e also important industrialrenters of the J ewish Autonomou s Re gion. All towns ha veproducers co-operatives in th e lumber and woodworking in­.lustries, the production of tar , and fishing and canning, etc.In addition, most of th e town s hav e also important la rge-scaleind ustria l enterprises.

Obluchie has great ra ilroad shops: it is th e cen ter for thenearby Sutari Go ld ·Wor ks. has a school for locomotive en gi­neers, severa l h igh scho ols. a th eat er, several clubs, libraries,hosp itals, a Park of Culture and Rest , a sports stadium ,motion picture theater, etc.

Londoko is the center of th e lim e industry. The lime planthas a capacity of 80,0 0 0 tons a year.

Kh ingan is the cente r of the re cently di scover ed ri ch tindeposits: it is a bOOnHO\\'n pl ann ed for abou t 3 0, 0 0 0 work er sto be employed in th e tin min es and smelt ers .

Teploye-Ozero is th e cente r of the cement industry withthe bigges t cemen t pl ant in th e en tire Far East .

Biro ka n is the cen ter of th e marble and pap er industri es.

39

The marble produced in Birokan is of green-red colors, alllon gth e best in th e U.S.S.R ., and was used for th e construction 01th e beautiful ' Belorussian station of th e Mo scow subway. In

, 1947, there was put in to ope ra tion in Birokan th e first pap ermill of the Region.

N ot fa r from Birokan is th e fam ou s resort town of Kuldu rwith it s hot spr ings, kn own for their curative effects for rh cu ­matism and dige stive troubles, with its mod ern hospital build­ings. The town of Inn is the center of locomotive repair shop sa nd auxiliary industries, and also th e cent er for tr aining rail ­road tr an sport ati on work ers and technicians . The town 01Sta linsk is di stin guished by its modern Agri cultural Coll egewith it s Exp erim ental R esearch Stations th at are su p plyingt he R egion with an increasing number of scientific agri cul ·t uri sts,

The Ush uman coal mines have started to produce coal dur­ing th e prese n t year. A pencil factor y from local 'graph ite andceda r wood is bein g built. During th e war th e Re gion start edth e production of parachutes and trailers for military vehi cles.These war industries are now being conv ert ed to peacetim eproduction.

The const ruc tion and railroad industri es ar e making rapidst r ides . The building of improved hi ghways , hou sing facili ties.schools and public buildings is one of the major tasks of th eJ ewish Aut on omous Re gion at pres ent. While Birobidjan hasall th e necessary raw materials and can easily obtain th eneed ed labor force , since tens of thousands of new settl ersarc app lying dail y for admission to Birobidjan, th e R egionsuffers from an acute shortage of construction ma chiner y.

Ther e ar e twenty railroad stations within th e geographicallimits of Birobidjan. There are large railroad depots andshops at Obluchie, Tnn and Birobidjan City . While th er ewere no J ewish railroad work ers among th e original J e\\'ishsettlers of Birobidjan a substantial number of hi ghl y skilledlocomo tive engineers. for em en and conductors . sta tionmas­ters. etc.. hav e been trained in th e R egion . A number of newrailroad branch lines are under construction. con nec t ing such

40

JEWISH SELF·GOVERNMENT

llirobidjan enjoys full self-goverument in all local affairs,including regional agriculture and industrial planning anddevelopment, police, militia, health and sanitation, localtaxation and the collection of federal taxes. The local authori­ties are elected by the local population, and the Region isrepresented on the Council of Nationalities of the SupremeSoviet of the U.S.S.R. Elections of Deputies to local Sovietsand regional Legislature of the Jewish Autonomous Regionwere held in December, 1947. All citizens eighteen years ofage and over have a right to vote. About 2.000 candidateshad been nominated for the various regional and ·municipaloffices throughout the Region. A candidate must receive anabsolute majority of all the votes cast to be elected. In caseno candidate gets an absolute majority, a run-oil election isheld. Birobidjan is the only place in the world where allballots are printed in Yiddish. In individual cases, ballotsprinted in Russian are provided for voters of other nationali­ties who do not know the Yiddish language.

The Municipal Council of Birobidjan City consists of 73members. Out of these 73 Deputies elected in December, 1947,45 are Jews and 28 are non-Jews, representing the variousother nationalities of this capital city. Among the membersof the Municipal Council there are II with a university edu­cation and 25 with a secondary education. There are 29women Deputies.

The budgetary income of the Jewish Autonomous Regionin I~H6 reached 43,555,000 rubles, and the expendituresamounted to 41,452,000. The budgetary appropriations forI~H7 are 52 ,266,000 rubles, an increase of 29 per cent as against19-16. The savings of the residents of Birobidjan were, be­sides. large enough to enable them to purchase Soviet State

oj!

Bonds of the May, 19 '!7, Loan to the amount of 18,;$i;$,OOOrubles. '

By the establishment of the Jewish Autonomous Region,the Soviet Union presented the Jews with the opportunityof acquiring all the attributes of a nation, thus enabling themLa develop their own culture, national in form and Socialistin content, on the basis of the historic continuity of thecultural heritage of the Jewish people.

The sound economic, social and political foundations havemade possible for the Jewish Autonomous Region to developwithin the short time of only thirteen years into one of themost important centers of Jewish culture in the world . " 'cshall briefly describe its major cultural achievements.

The cultural development of Birobidjan is of special his­toric significance. At present Birobidjan is the only Jewishcommunity where Yiddish culture embraces every humanendeavor - as the superstructure of the production relation­ships of the Region. It is the only center where Yiddish cul­ture is developing on the sure foundation of the entire eco­nomic, social and political life. Here Yiddish isthe languageof the community in its everyday life: in the marketplace,in government institutions, in the schools as the languageof instruction, in the courts, in industry, trade and transpor­tation ,

DEVELOPING JEWISH CULTURE

The Yiddish school system of Birobidjan has no parallelanywhere in the world. There are nurseries, kindergartens,elementary schools, high schools, four colleges, a music school,a school for physical culture, courses of kindergarten teachers,agricultural experimental and research stations, evening andday schools for adults, schools for civics, libraries, readingrooms and' clubs. The writer had the opportunity to visit thepublic schools, high schools and colleges of Birobidjan. Itwas a real thrill to watch the classes in mathematics, physics,chemistry and natural sciences conducted in the Yiddish

42

language, and examine the student's notebo?ks .i~. the samelanguage. The educational standards of the Birobidjan schoolsand colleges are second to none. They would do credit tosimilar educational institutions anywhere. Even though theRegion still lacks adequate school equipment and suppliesand is short of textbooks, the school educational level com­pares favorably with that prevailing in most civilized coun­tries.

The four-year normal school for teachers in the City ofBirobidjan has already . supplied the Region with severalhundred teachers. Of the four experimental research stationsin the various districts of the Region, one is devoted to allcrops while the other three specialize respectively in seeds,vegetables and fruits . In this connection, we should mentionthe Yiddish scientific publications of the staff of the collegeand experimental stations, including B. Gottlieb, Zolotnitzkyand D. Sokol sky on such subjects as the various crops -of theJewish Autonomous Region.

The Medical College in the City of Birobidjan offers a four­year course for assistant physicians. The railroad college hasalready given the Region 625 railway technicians. The seven­year music school graduated 80 students in 1947 and its pres­ent enrollment consists of some 100 students of violin, piano,clarinet and bayan (a local musical instrument). In 1947, abeginning has been made for the establishment of an artschool for children. The well-known Leningrad Jewish painter,Tsimerinov, has settled in Birobidjan and conducts two artschools for talented children, one at the House of Pioneersand the other at the Children's Home for war orphans. Somefifty children attend these two schools. At this writing, wehave received word that first steps have been taken to estab­lish a full-fledged Jewish State Unive:sity in Birobidjan City.

STUDY OF YIDDISH OBLIGATORY

Last year the study of the Yiddish language was madeobligatory for the non-Jewish schools of the Region. This

43

year , a sp ecial textbook, Yiddish fur Non-J ew s, has been pub­lished by H . Rabinko, It seems to us that this is the onlycase where a textbook of that nature ha s become a ne cessit yfor units of th e regular sch ool system an ywh er e in the world.

Among other cul tu ral in stitutions ar e th e J ewish StateTheat er, whi ch is the pride of th e Region; th e Central Librarybearing the name of Sholorn Al cich em in Birobidjan Cit y,whi ch h as a tota l of 150,000 volumes ( 1 10, 0 0 0 titl es), includ­ing some 2 9. 0 0 0 on judaica : 29 libraries throughout theR egi on , -14 reading rooms, 24 clubs, six hou ses of cultu re,2 7 sta tio na ry and 10 port abl e movin g pi cture hou ses, 15

ra d io sub-s tatio ns, numerous ch or uses and musi c ense m bles,severa l voca tional schoo ls, park s of rest and cu ltu re and theR egional m use um devoted to the flora, fauna and p al eon tol­ogy of Birobidjan and th e history of R egional development ,to exh ibits of J ewi sh cu lt ure, from anc ient times to th e pr es­e n t, in cluding a sp ecial department - "The j ew and HumanC u ltu re' t-sdevo tcd to th e con tr ibu tions of suc h ou tstand ingJ ews as Spi noza, Marx, H ein e, Mend elssohn, Ruben stein, etc.

The ra pid development of educational institutions in Biro­bidjan is re flected in a gro wth of th e ed uca tiona l budget :2, 4 0 0, 000 r ubles in 19 34; 18,400,000 in 1946 ; th e appropria ­tion for 1947 is over 22 ,000,000 rubles.

Birob idjan press and lit er ature deserve mu ch more sp acetha n we can give it h er e. The R egi on h as one Yiddish news­pap er in the Cit y of Birobidjan, Der Stern (T he Sta r), andsevera l in the va r ious di stri ct cen ters. A number of talentedwrit er s and poet s, dramatists and pla sti c ar tists has grownup during thi s shor t peri od of time in th e J ewi sh Autonom ou sR egion and hav e a prominent pla ce am on g th e J ewi sh writersof the Sovi et U n ion and throughout th e world . The sma llgro u p of Bir obidjan painter s-L. Sevin, N. Gor shm an, Sismana nd Ro senblit- ar e d istinguished by th eir full appreciationof th e spec ific cha rac ter of th e Biro bidj an land scap e and th enatural. ind us tr ia l and social lif e of th e Re gion. Their stud ies.sketc hes a nd paintings reflect the pi on eer in g lif e and rap idco nstruction o f th e J ewi sh Au ton om ou s R egion .

4-l

NEW IMMIGRATION FACILITATED

Early in 1947 the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Unionissued instructions to all Soviet Republics to facilitate inevery possible way the immigration of new Jewish settlers teBirobidjan. In 1946, 600 Jewish families arrived in Birobidjanfrom other parts of U.S.S.R. In 1947, 1,500 Jewish familiesarrived in Birobidjan in six large contingents, in addition tohundreds of Jewish war orphans and numerous Jewish fami ­lies who arrived in small groups. During the month of De­cember, three additional contingents of new Jewish settlersleft for Birobidjan; on December 6, 255 Jewish familiesfrom Crimea left the city of Evpatoria for Birobidjan; onDecember 14, 248 Jewish families left Kherson, and onDecember 28, 114 Jewish families left the city of Nikolaievfor the same destination, making a total of 617 families inthe month of December alone. According to the availablelatest official data, 20,000 Jews from the war ravaged regionsof the U.S.S.R . were settled in Birobidjan during the 18months up to the end of 1947. (See U.S.S.R. InformationBulletin, published by the Soviet Embassy in Washington,D.C., April 28, 1948, p. 256.)

The latest report of the new Governor, M. Levitin, justelected by the Legislature of the Region, dated February10, 1948, states that in the month of January, 1948 alone, thenumber of new Jewish arrivals in Rirobidjan reached 2,000.The Jewish Autonomous Region has, since the conclusion ofthe war , accepted thousands of refugee and evacuee Jewishwar orphans and is maintaining them with the co-operationof the American Birobidjan Committee. Four special chil­dren's homes in Rirobidjan City, Londoko, Waldheirn andBira have been organized for that purpose. "

There is an increasing popular desire among the Jewishmasses of the Soviet Regions that had been occupied andlargely destroyed by the Nazis to go to Rirobidjan and par­ticipate in the upbuilding of this .Jf~wish state. To quote onlytwo instances: Efraim Granovsky, a Crimean farmer, writes

4S

in the name of fifty farm families: "We are envious of thefortunate Jews who have already arrived in Birobidjan; ouraspiration to. settle in the Jewish Autonomous Region is verygreat." Another Jew, Haim Heis, states: "My strongest desireis to go to Birobidjan and contribute with my own labor tothe building up of the Jewish Autonomous Region. I am notafraid of any difficulties. I know how to work." .

The natural resources of Birobidjan make possible for it toabsorb hundreds of thousands of new settlers and provide ahigh standard of living. The real difficulty arises from thelack of housing facilities and marginal machinery and tools.Under present conditions, keeping in mind the unprecedenteddestruction suffered by the Soviet Union in the war, thesemarginal facilities can be provided locally only relativelyslowly. The great number of Jews seeking an opportunity togo to Birobidjan are thus unable to be received immediately.The co-operation of American Jews would play an importantpart in facilitating and hastening the development of theJewish Autonomous Region.

BIROBIDJAN AND PALESTINE

It is impossible to overestimate the historic significance ofthe Jewish Autonomous Region to the Jews of the world. Ithas supplied an unchallengable answer to all anti-Jewishcalumnies slandering the Jews as unfit for anything but trad­ing, brokerage and similar "unproductive" operations. Buthere is Birobidjan-a land built up by the hardihood andlabor of Jewish pioneers. Here is a self-governing Jewish com­munity that has developed thriving industries and agricultureas well as splendid cultural institutions, highways, transpor­ration, that. has built cities, towns and villages by its tirelessand efficient labor. The historic accomplishment of the Jewishpeople in the Jewish Autonomous Region has added to thedignity of the Jews everywhere, and has becom e a factor intheir struggle for recognition and equality.

The Fact that the jews have gained all the attributes of a46

nation in Birobidjan ha s contributed enormously to the ob­taining of the decision of t?e Unite~ Nations in favor of anindepend ent J ewish sta te III Palestine, The warm supportg iven to tha t decision by the delegation from the Soviet Unionundoubtedl y was based on the same philosophy of that coun­try whi ch mad e it extend every facility to its own Jews toenable them to establish a state-unit. For, if it is the inherentrig h t of the J ews of the Soviet Union to build up a Jewishsta te, and the y have shown their capacity to do so, there iscer tainly no reason why the same right should be denied tothe Jew ish people of Pal estine, who have shown the samepio neer ing spirit and capacity, and the same devotion andasp ira tion to develop a Jewish state there.

Bir obidjan is a convincing example to every civilized coun­try that fu ll equality for the Jewish people, as well as for allnational minorities, is within the reach of the democraticforces of the community. What has been achieved in onegrea t coun try can and must be achieved in every democraticcou ntry. Jewis h equali ty, the development of Jewish cultufeon a basis of the historic continuity of the Jewish culturalheritage, has bee n proved by Birobidjan to be of benefit notonly to the Jews bu t to the country as a whole. It lends en­couragement and confidence in the struggle of all progressiveforces for the elimina tion of bigotry, discrimination and anti­Semitism. Birobidja n has provided the Jews with all theattributes of a nation. It ha s opened a new era in the historyof the Jewish peo ple .

To Secure Jewish Rights, the Communist Position,

by Alexander BiHelman I~

Jewish Culture in America, Weapon for Jewish Sur-

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Constitution of the U.S.S.R. 15~

Soviet Democracy, by Harry F. Ward 15~

The Soviet Union and World Peace, by Joseph

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The Soviet Power, by HewleH Johnson.................... 60~

The Soviet Spirit, by Harry F. Ward ........................ 50¢

NEWCENTURY PUBLISHERS832 Broadway, New York 3, New York