Its recommendations led to a resolution by the presidium of the central executive committee of the Soviet Union on March 28, 1928, to entrust Komzet (committee for settling Jews on the land) with the supervision of Jewish settlement in the region. The first official step toward implementation of the project was the dispatch of a scientific delegation to Birobidzhan in the summer of 1927, to investigate the feasibility of an agricultural settlement there. To some of those active in the *Yevsektsiya (the Jewish Section of the Communist Party), Birobidzhan seemed to constitute an ideological alternative to the Zionist idea. Moreover, such settlement seemed to provide a partial solution to the economic difficulties facing Soviet nationalities. The association of Jews with the settlement of Birobidzhan was also meant to obtain financial support from their conationals abroad, and thus alleviate the allocation of Soviet resources for this purpose. Since the Soviet government attempted in the late 1920s and early 1930s to improve its relations with the West, the Birobidzhan project could have also played a role in influencing Jewish and pro-Jewish public opinion there. after the Japanese occupation of Manchuria in 1931–32. The settlement of Birobidzhan became of particular importance to the U.S.S.R. The Soviet decision to select Birobidzhan for Jewish settlement was influenced by several factors, the decisive one being the desire to strengthen the security of the Soviet Far East, in view of its proximity to Japan and the danger of penetration by the Chinese. However, at the time when Jewish settlement began here, the region suffered from an almostĬomplete absence of roads and land suitable for agriculture, insufficient and poor living accommodations, harsh climatic conditions, " gnus" (local name for bloodsucking insects), and unsanitary conditions.
Birobidzhan has abundant mineral wealth, for the most part not commercially exploited, except for tin ores which are the basis of a large national metallurgical works, the "Khinganolovo." Grains, pulses, potatoes, vegetables, and other crops are grown. A considerable part consists of swamps and about one-third is covered with forest. Most of its area is composed of heavy soils with an excess of moisture. Birobidzhan has numerous rivers and lakes abounding with fish. The winter is cold and dry with little snow, spring is mild, summer is hot and humid, and fall is dry and pleasant. It improves progressively southward, the most favorable conditions prevailing in the Amur River strip in the southern part of the region. The climate is influenced by the prevailing monsoons and the surrounding mountains to the west and north. Its industries include farm machinery, transformers, textiles, clothing, and furniture. The capital is located on the Bolshaya Bira River and on the Trans-Siberian Railroad which cuts through the northern sector of the territory from west to east. The Jewish population of the region numbered 14,269 (8.8% of the total) in 1959 of these 83.9% lived in cities and urban settlements, while 16.1% lived in villages.
On January 1, 1961, the estimated population of the district numbered 179,000 and that of the capital, the city of Birobidzhan, 49,000. To the west, south, and southeast, it is bordered by the Amur River, the boundary between the former U.S.S.R. Part of the Khabarovsk territory ( kray) in the former Soviet Far East, the region is located between 47° 40ʹ–49° 20ʹ N.
Petersburg| Groznyīirobidzhan is the colloquial name of the district (oblast) in Russia, for which the official designation was the "Jewish Autonomous District" ( Avtonomnaya Oblast).
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