Like carve out a place between Russia, Belarus and Ukraine in the former Pale of Settlement. Establish a bunch of Yiddish language schools there. Have it become a center of Jewish culture. Sure, there are already Ukrainians, Russians and Belorussians there but there were already people in the far east too.

  • GrouchyGrouse [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I'm pretty sure it was to populate a less densely populated area. The Sino-Soviet relationship wasn't as strong as we all would like to believe. The Soviet position required shoring up their power and presence in relation to China as well as post war Japan which was a staging ground for US in Korea and Vietnam later on.

    • Anemasta [any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      You're right.

      From wikipedia:

      The establishment of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in Birobidzhan in 1928 was ordered by Stalin only as an effort to strengthen the Far Eastern border region with an outpost, not as a favour to the Jews. The area was constantly penetrated by Chinese and White Russian resistance groups, and the idea was to shield the territory by establishing a settlement whose inhabitants would be hostile to white Russian émigrés, especially the Cossacks. The status of this region was defined shrewdly as an autonomous district, not an autonomous republic, which meant that no local legislature, high court, or government post of ministerial rank was permitted. It was an autonomous area, but a bare frontier, not a political center.

      • emizeko [they/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        as if NATOpedia would ever give Stalin the benefit of the doubt

        • Vncredleader [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          jesus christ that is blatant. Like its an unfalsifiable blanket statement about the intentions of a singular person used as "the truth" of an entire project. no source, no reason to say "only", but they just do. These fuckers are so worthless

          • Anemasta [any]
            ·
            2 years ago

            This is my fault. In wikipedia it goes.

            The Soviet government wanted to increase settlement in the remote Soviet Far East, especially along the vulnerable border with China. General Pavel Sudoplatov writes about the government's rationale behind picking the area in the Far East: [then the whole thing]

            • Vncredleader [he/him]
              ·
              2 years ago

              geez he seems like a super complicated figure. Guess its expected from the top spy of the USSR