The Birobidjan Project

Abstract The Birobidjan Project was one of the most ambitious projects of the Bolsheviks, establishing a Jewish Autonomous Region in the Soviet Far East. This chapter examines the project’s goals, which changed frequently. The dream of the Soviet regime was to turn Jewish artisans and peddlers into agricultural workers. The Committee on the Land Arrangement of the Toiling Jews (KOZET), specially organized in 1924, defined the territory for Jewish resettlement and planned to provide the Jews with agricultural equipment and consulting services. The first Jewish settlers began to arrive in the Birobidjan region in 1928. The international part of the project was supported by IKOR (Organization for Jewish Colonization in Russia), Agro-Joint (American Jewish Joint Agricultural Corporation), and Ambidjan (American Committee for the Settlement of Jews in Birobidjan) in the United States, PRAKAR in Latin America, OLEK in Latvia, Agraid in Poland, and Gazard in France and Belgium.