Bergelson David. The Jewish Autonomous Region

Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1939. — 50 p.The Soviet solution of the national question is strikingly illustrated by the way the problems of the Jewish people have been dealt with in the Soviet Union. In Russia, in the past, the tsarist government pursued a policy of national oppression and national antagonism. In order the easier to keep the people in subjection, it incited the various nationalities against one another. It treated the border regions as colonies. It suppressed the national culture of the various nationalities, striving to keep them in a state of ignorance so as to be able to exploit them more ruthlessly. The Jews were subject to special restrictions; they were denied the right of domicile in the greatest part of Russia and were confined within the narrow boundaries of the so-called Pale of Settlement. Today the culture of the various nationalities is flourishing in the Soviet Union, and their languages have become enriched. Some peoples, which lived in a state of utter darkness under the heel of tsardom, have for the first time obtained their own alphabet — their written language — under the Soviet Government. The once most backward peoples now have their universities and theatres, their national poets and artists. The changes have been particularly striking in the case of the Jewish people, the most oppressed and persecuted in the Russia of the tsars. In the twenty-one years of Soviet power, the Jew's have been drawn into every phase of economic life and activity. Jews are now employed in heavy industry and engage in agriculture — pursuits which were formerly entirely closed to them, and Jewish scientists are members of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. Jewish fliers took part in the historic expedition to the North Pole. Thousands of Jews operate machines in factories and mills. In the city of Gorky (formerly Nizhni-Novgorod, in which Jews were not allowed to live in the times of tsardom) there are about eight thousand Jewish workers employed in the automobile works alone. Among the prominent Stakhanovite workers, we find many Jews like Blidman, Klienkin, Yussim and others, whose names are known all over the country. Jewish Red Armymen who took part in the battles at Lake Hassan were among those decorated by the Soviet Government for their heroism and devotion. Jewish names are among those of the Heroes of the Soviet Union, as well as among those of the Deputies to the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. and the Supreme Soviets of the Union Republics.