In 1929, the Soviet government decided to create a Soviet homeland for Jews. The Jews who had been forced under the Tsars to live “beyond the Pale” could finally have their own homeland, free from oppression, pogroms, etc., and create a wonderful Soviet paradise. The only problem was, that the area afforded the Jews, Birodidzhan, an area of 14,800 squa miles (Israel encompasses 9,800 square miles) made current day pre-Israel land look like a garden of paradise. With little water, forested mountains, swamps, many bugs and wild animals, few roads and no natural resources, it offered little to Jews who migrated there, mostly from the cities of the Soviet Union. Ill prepared for frontier life (many settlers were artists, poets, etc.), many gave up when they realized that there were no paved roads, few buildings (most “settlers” lived in tents) and little if any help from the central government.
Try many did however, but with the rise of Stalin’s purges starting in the mid-1930s, the few hardy leaders were swallowed up as being “cosmopolitans” or having voiced anti-Soviet words. The settlement went downhill with the loss of idealistic leadership but revived again after WWII when several thousand Jews moved there after liberation by the Nazis. But the dream was never realized and with the thaw which allowed Soviet Jews to leave the country, immigration to the area fell off.
Today the area still exists and there are Jewish immigrants who move there to try to create a life. It has also become a bit of a tourist magnet for some Jews who seek some part of a lost heritage. But in the end, it was a cruel trick played by the Soviets, and especially Stalin who never trusted the Jews (in part because so many of his purged enemies, the intelligencia of the Revolution were Jewish).
The book is an interesting one as there are not many books on the subject. It traces the actions of one man who naturally, was purged.
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