Distinctive features . The Jewish Autonomous Region is a lost corner in the Far East. Once these lands were part of the Amur, and then - the Far Eastern Territory. Then Stalin decided to build here the "Promised Land" for the Jews Soviet Union and this was not done by accident.
After the collapse of the NEP, the set Jewish families was on the verge of ruin, and something had to be done about it. In addition, it was necessary to save the Jews from the wave of anti-Semitism that swept over European part Russia. And although there were various projects for the creation of Jewish national autonomy (in the Crimea, in Belarus), in the end it was decided to give the Jews their region in the Far East.
There was also an economic sense in this: for the development of the Amur territories, the entrepreneurial spirit and economic ingenuity inherent in the Jews were necessary. So in 1928, a corresponding decree was issued, and thousands of Jewish families from all over Russia reached out to the banks of the Amur to create an earthly Paradise here.
Despite the remoteness from Central Russia, these Amur lands are very attractive: a good climate, fertile soils, forests and rivers rich in game and fish, as well as numerous deposits of minerals.
But the second Israel did not work here. Instead of the expected millions, only 20,000 arrived, and after the 1930s, the number of Jews gradually decreased. And when the mass emigration of Jews to Israel began at the end of the 20th century, it was completely reduced to an indecent 1% of the population.
When, under Yeltsin, the “parade of sovereignties” began, and all more or less national autonomies began to be given the status of a republic, the Jewish Autonomous Region was deprived, and now it is the only national autonomous region. Despite this, the status of national autonomy is still reserved for this area.
Today, the region's economy is somehow based on agriculture and food production, building materials and mining.
Geographic location. The Jewish Autonomous Region is part of the Far Eastern Federal District. In the south, along the Amur River, there is a border with China, and from the Russian regions, the region borders in the west with Amur region, in the east - with Khabarovsk Territory. The relief of the region is diverse: there are mountain ranges in the northwest, and wide plains.
The nature of the Jewish Autonomous Region is simply a sight to behold: the taiga forests covering most of the territory are rich in mushrooms, berries, and nuts. There are a lot of beautiful and tasty fish in the Amur, including sturgeon, kaluga, chum salmon, carp, bream, pike. In general, if you run away from the city to the taiga, you will not die of hunger.
Population. In terms of population, the Jewish Autonomous Region is in fourth place from the bottom. In total, 173 thousand people live here, which is 46 times less than the population of Israel. We can say that only one name remained from the "Jewish" region. In terms of ethnic composition, Russians (90.73%), Ukrainians (2.76%) are in the lead here, and only in third place are the Jews themselves (0.92%). The ratio of the male and female population is 47.6% to 52.4%.
Since the 1990s, the population has been steadily declining. People leave these lands, moving to more promising regions. But it should be noted that the death rate in the region is almost equal to the birth rate.
As already mentioned, the Jewish Autonomous Region is unique in that it is the only national-territorial entity formed by settlers on a territory that has never been a place of compact residence of this people. Who then indigenous people area? These are the Tungus and Mongolian tribes. But now they are almost non-existent in the region. According to the latest population census, only Evenks and Nanais are more or less represented in the region.
Crime. The Jewish Autonomous Region is in 20th place in terms of the number of crimes committed per 1,000 people. And although this is a rather unpleasant indicator, the level of crime in the region is still lower than in some other regions of Siberia and the Far East. The reasons are generally the same everywhere: a difficult economic situation, poverty, drunkenness of the population.
The structure of the crimes registered in the region is very different. Here and domestic murders, and robberies, theft, car theft. In general, the whole gentleman's set. And although many crimes are solved very quickly, the criminogenic situation in the region continues to be unfavorable.
Unemployment rate in the Jewish Autonomous Region - one of the highest in Russia - 8.41%. In the ranking of regions in terms of unemployment, the region occupies the shameful 80th place. And the salary level here is the lowest in the Far Eastern Federal District - about 25,000 rubles a month. Maybe to someone this amount will seem large compared to their pay, but in our opinion, this is far from the money that makes it worth traveling a thousand kilometers.
Real estate value. Housing in Birobidzhan, the capital of the Jewish Autonomous Region, is not very expensive. For a "odnushka" they ask on average 1.3-1.5 million rubles, although there are separate offers for 700 thousand. "Dvushka" will cost a little more - 1.7-2 million rubles.
Climate on the territory of the Jewish Autonomous Region is very favorable. The coldest month is January, with an average temperature of -24°C. The warmest - July ( average temperature+20°С). Although the winter is cold, there is not much snow. Snow cover appears already at the end of October and lasts for about five months. But it is not deep, so the soil freezes by 15-20 cm.
There is quite a lot of precipitation - about 800 mm per year, and 85% of it falls on summer period, with a peak in July-August. Summer in the Jewish Autonomous Region is not only rainy, but also hot, the temperature sometimes reaches a maximum of +40°C.
One of the troubles that overshadow the summer days of the inhabitants of the region is floods. Due to the abundance of precipitation, floods and floods are a regular occurrence. Thousands of houses are constantly flooded. Therefore, if you want to live in the Jewish Autonomous Region, it is better to avoid buying property in the countryside.
This city with a population of 75,000 stands on the banks of the Bira River. AT Soviet times, due to the help from the center, it was still somehow possible to live here. Now everything has become much more complicated. There are no prospects here, and those who are quicker and more purposeful are in a hurry to leave for other cities. Of the advantages, it is worth noting the ecology, greenery in the city, low prices. Despite them, there are practically no people who want to move to Birobidzhan, except that those who participate in state programs for immigrants go to this city in order to receive state “elevation”.
Inside the Far Eastern Territory (later - Khabarovsk), the Jewish Autonomous Region was created - the only national entity in the USSR outside the places of historical residence of the titular nation. The Soviet solution to the "Jewish question" will fail - the Jews will not go to the taiga
The February Revolution abolished the Pale of Settlement. After the October, the Jews are active "builders of a new life." Mostly literate, most of them very loyal Soviet power, they go to work in the state apparatus, get an education, become engineers, doctors, teachers, workers of science and culture. But out of the 5 million people, not all of them are assimilated so rapidly. In the old towns, the crowded life of small owners continues. The Soviet government wants to give them land - under the tsar, they also tried to do good to the Jews. The collapse of the NEP will eliminate the Jewish private trader, making the project even more relevant. In the 1920s, options for autonomy were considered in the Northern Crimea and in the Black Sea south of Ukraine. 213 Jewish collective farms were formed there. But the benefits for immigrants outraged the landless locals, and in order not to increase anti-Semitic sentiments, the idea was curtailed.
Since the early 1930s, 4.5 million hectares of land near the Amur River have been developed. Tikhonkaya railway station is being turned into a working settlement of Birobidzhan. Why they decided that the Jews would want to move to these remote, deserted, isolated territories is not clear. According to the plan, by the end of the first five-year plan there should have been 60 thousand people of the titular nationality. 20.5 thousand arrived, of which more than 12 thousand did not gain a foothold. A furrier, shoe and brick artels were founded, but few people wanted to become taiga tillers. The Politburo does not abandon its plan, and the Jewish Autonomous Region is established with a little over 8,000 Jews in it. In 1937, a maximum of 20 thousand "titular residents" will be counted (with a plan of 300 thousand) and Birobidzhan will be given the status of a city.
Autonomy will not become an alternative to Zionism even in the times of a "restricted" country. And when Jewish emigration will be allowed- especially. The question “Going to close relatives in the Far East or to distant relatives in the Middle East?” will only exist as a joke. 80 years after the founding of the Jewish Autonomous Region, Jews will remain in it 1% of the population - about 1.5 thousand people, and in Israel, immigrants from former USSR- more than 1 million people.
Jews are allowed to emigrate from the USSR for family reunification. The Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU takes this decision at the suggestion of the KGB, which assures that the costs will be small. But like any trip to capitalist country, the Jewish exodus will turn out to be a flight from socialism
In the 1930s, the Soviet authorities sent thousands of Jews to a republic created for them on the border with China. Marek Alter went there to see everything with his own eyes.
Zyama Mikhailovich Geffen is 92 years old. Leaning heavily on his cane, he shows us the backyard and the goat pen. “They understand Yiddish!” he laughs. His blue eyes brighten up when he remembers moving to this region. It was so long ago, in the 1930s. He was 11 years old. “There was nothing at all here, only taiga,” he says. - We did everything ourselves. They cleared the land, built a city, a railway station, schools. We even opened a newspaper…”
Who knows at least something about Birobidzhan, the Jewish Autonomous Region on the banks of the Amur River, near the border with China? There are none around me. I myself, although I had heard of her, thought that she had long since disappeared. However, it turned out that at the beginning of the 21st century, Birobidzhan still has not gone anywhere, and my native Yiddish is the official language here!
Birobidzhan Station is a red brick building with a prominent inscription in Russian and Yiddish on the pediment: Birobidzhan. I expected to see Jews in the waiting room. I notice three with yarmulkes on their heads. And I go to them. I introduce myself and ask what they are discussing. They argue over a new rabbi who they think is too young. My face breaks into a smile of nostalgia: these Birobidzhan Jews are so similar to theater actors from my childhood. However, we are now not in the theater, but in Siberia, 400 kilometers from Harbin, the center of the Chinese province of Heilongjiang in Manchuria, where the Jewish community also flourished many centuries ago.
How many of them remained in Birobidzhan? Nobody knows for sure. Officially, there are 8,000 out of 77,000 citizens. However, every second of the locals has a Jewish great-grandmother or other relatives, even the numerous Koreans and Chinese. By the beginning of the Bolshevik Revolution, there were almost five million Jews in Tsarist Russia. They were forced to live in the Pale of Settlement, they were not allowed into state structures and were not allowed to go to school. But still they tried to arrange their lives. They created their own schools and trade unions, but still remained the poorest of the poor. On the day when the Red Commissars called them "comrades" in Yiddish, they felt that they were finally recognized and joined the revolutionary ranks en masse. In the 1920s and 1930s, they appeared in all instances new Russia, politics, newspapers, literature and cinema, theater and fine arts. The most famous of them were Sergei Eisenstein, Isaac Babel, Boris Pasternak, Marc Chagall, Vasily Grossman, David Oistrakh, Emil Gilels...
Stalin began to feel that his Jewish friends were too visible. And very active. Then the Chairman of the Presidium Supreme Council Mikhail Kalinin had an idea. Why not give the Jews a republic or an autonomous region, like all the other peoples of the Soviet Union? This would mean the assertion of their rights and would allow the authorities to remove them from many positions of responsibility without the risk of accusations of anti-Semitism. The Jews accepted this project with joy. They counted on the Caucasus, but received only a piece of Siberia. Birobidzhan became the capital of the new region.
The authorities sent thousands of Jewish families there: Stalin set his sights on 100,000 people. Many went voluntarily. After all, they were given a Jewish and, importantly, a socialist state! Before the establishment of the State of Israel at that moment, there were still 15 years left. War and persecution in Europe, as well as the Nazi-occupied European part of the USSR, forced thousands of Jews to move towards Birobidzhan, "Siberian Israel", as some then called it. Cultural life started to develop. Like Agriculture. The collective farm "Waldgeim" (translated as "house in the forest") became one of the best in the entire Soviet Union.
One of the eyewitnesses of those events now lives in Paris: this is the psychoanalyst Charles Melman (Charles Melman). The party commissioned his father, Moishe, who was a carpenter and a committed communist, to organize and guide the Jews to this new "promised land". Charles Melman recalls the huts that were built by brigades under the leadership of his father. In each of these houses with an area of 40 square meters lived in two families. In the center stood a stove, which also served as a dividing line.
Quite soon, Stalin's purges slowed down this impulse. 17 years later, in 1953, the death of the Kremlin leader opened the doors of Birobidzhan. Soviet Jews began to move to Israel en masse. The slow death throes of this autonomous region, coupled with the disappearance of Jewish communities in Central Europe meant the inevitable end of Yiddish and the culture that had developed around it. It seemed to me that the destruction of the world was taking place before my eyes, to which I myself belong by virtue of memory and traditions.
This world still sounds like a distant echo of a wounded civilization
But now I'm in Birobidzhdan. On the forecourt square, a monument catches the eye of a rhinestone: on the top of something like a tower there is a menorah, a seven-barreled candlestick is a symbol of the Jewish religion. A few meters away is an imposing bronze statue of Tevye the Milkman, a Jewish hero invented by Sholom Aleichem. Here he is depicted with a can of milk on a cart pulled by a skinny horse. Next to the can sits his wife Golda. Those who have seen the comedy musical Fiddler on the Roof remember them. In Birobidzhan, this character is known everywhere.
There are two synagogues in the city. The first is a large building that is adjacent to another building that houses a cultural center and a charitable association. In the library, I am thrilled to discover my mother's collections of poems. On the ground floor, a group of a dozen women gather three times a week to sing traditional Yiddish songs, tunes from my childhood.
The second synagogue is a hut from the 1940s. There was also a third one, even older, but it burned down. “It was during Khrushchev's time,” says Rabbi Andrei Lukatsky. “Perhaps it was deliberate arson.” The rabbi recalls that his father was then able to save the Torah scrolls from the fire. He is currently restoring these scrolls with the help of the nearby Jewish community in Japan. "Do you want to see them?"
We are in his synagogue, his hut, which is decorated with a huge star of David carved into wood. Inside, a watchman sits on one bench, and on the other, the rabbi's wife and three elderly women who come here in winter to warm themselves. The rabbi picks up a bunch of keys, but does not unlock the cabinet, in which, according to tradition, the Torah scrolls should be kept, but a real safe. Excitedly, I help him take off the beautifully decorated velvet cloth that wraps the scrolls.
Andrei Lugatsky tells me that he has two adult sons in Israel. But he also has a third - now he is 6 years old. He and his wife conceived him so that he would continue the tradition. "The change is ready," he says.
Former actress Polina Moiseevna Kleinerman sings “My Jewish Mother” for me. She no longer has a voice, but her facial expressions and gestures remain. I listen to it with tears in my eyes. The newspaper that Zyama Mikhailovich Geffen told me about also still exists. Initially, the "Birobidzhan Star" was published entirely in Yiddish. Today it is a weekly publication in Russian with only four pages in Yiddish. The editor-in-chief of the newspaper is not Jewish. Elena Ivanovna Sarashevskaya is only about 30 years old. She married a Jewish man and learned Yiddish at the university. The newspaper has a circulation of 5,000 copies and is sold at local kiosks. I buy two for keepsakes. Next to me, a rather young fair-haired man takes two Russian-language magazines, and then the Birobidzhan Star. I ask if he is Jewish. "Not. But I buy it every week. I wonder what's going on with the Jews. There is always something new to learn here…”
Is it necessary to explain the success of Yiddishkait on local television, which gives viewers the opportunity to get acquainted with Jewish traditions and culture? “We used to do a program in Yiddish,” host Tatyana Kandinsky tells me. - Today, few people could understand it. However, when we switched to Russian, the program became one of the most popular on our channel.”
We go to the theater by car. In Birobidzhan, everyone drives right-hand drive Korean cars. Here, Korea is within easy reach, while Europe, located 10,000 kilometers away, is lost in the fog. We drive up to the Jewish State Theatre, at the opening ceremony of which in 1936 was attended by the second man of the Stalinist regime, Lazar Kaganovich. When I enter the hall, the troupe is rehearsing the musical comedy The Seekers of Fortune, which is based on a 1936 propaganda film. This is the story of American Jews who go to Birobidzhan, their socialist homeland. I have a strange feeling when I see how young actors dance and sing to the famous music of Isaac Dunayevsky. Nevertheless, the 21st century is in the yard, and the state of Israel will soon turn 65 years old.
But here, unlike Israel, they teach Yiddish. I attend a class at school where a young teacher explains the alphabet to the children. Most of the students are not Jewish. Among them there are two Russians, a Kazakh, a Chinese and a Korean. They are just interested in learning Yiddish.
I am overwhelmed by the feeling of being at home, yes, a real home 11,000 kilometers from Paris. On the way out, I meet a Chinese woman, the mother of one of the students. "Why do you want your son to learn Yiddish?" I ask her. “That might come in handy…” she replies. I can't help laughing: Chinese are 1.4 billion and Jews are at most 14 million, and hardly a handful of them still speak Yiddish!
I always thought that Hitler failed in two of his missions: to wipe the Jews off the face of the earth and to deprive them of their human status. However, it seemed to me that he still managed to achieve one thing: we are talking about the destruction of Jewish civilization, the civilization of Yiddish. When I was born in Warsaw, there were 380,000 Jews among a million city dwellers, with their own restaurants and newspapers, theaters and cinemas, rich and poor, thieves and beggars, synagogues and political parties. And in their own language, that is, Yiddish. It seemed to me that Nazism destroyed the whole world without a trace. However, here in Birobidzhan, at the very Chinese border, this world still sounds like a distant echo of a wounded civilization.
Yes, it is much more difficult to bury a memory than a body. Especially the memory of language.
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The Jewish autonomy and its capital Birobidzhan, according to rumors and anecdotes, are something like the Far Eastern Odessa. They say that every second inhabitant of the region is a Jew, and Jewry is so popular here that in Birobidzhan you can meet people who wear side-eyes and a black hat with a wide brim. And they also say that Birobidzhan is somewhere in Azerbaijan. DV found out from native Birobidzhans which stereotypes are grounded and which are not
The Jewish Autonomous Region is the only autonomous region in Russia. In addition to Israel, the region is considered the only Jewish administrative-territorial entity in the world with an official legal status. In the south it borders on China along the Amur fairway. 166 thousand people live in the region. The capital of the JAO is the city of Birobidzhan with a population of 75,500 people.
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Looks very logical. But the official statistics of the national composition of the region each time refutes this opinion. Jews in the general ranking of nationalities are in third position after Russians and Ukrainians.
According to the results of the All-Russian population census in 2010, Jews make up less than 1% of the region's population - 1,628 people. However, the name and status of the autonomous region is retained.
The people of the Far East know that you can't meet a Jew in Birobidzhan now. This myth is widespread, rather, among the inhabitants central Russia, Europe and in the countries of the East. Tourists from China and Japan often ask questions about the ethnic composition of the region. So where did this stereotype come from?
Jewish autonomy became a project of the Soviet government to create a national republic for Jews in the Far East. But there were two more goals: the settlement of almost empty lands and the creation of a support for Soviet power among the Cossack population hostile to the Bolsheviks. Initially, it was planned to resettle 300,000 Jews in the region in 10 years. These plans did not materialize.
According to the census, having reached a peak of 20 thousand people in 1937, then the number and proportion of Jews in the Jewish Autonomous Region steadily decreased: in 1939 - 17,695 people (16.2% of the total population), in 1959 - 14,269 people ( 8.8% of the total population), in 1970 - 11,452 people (6.6% of the total population), in 1979 - 10,163 people (5.4% of the total population), in 1989 - 8887 people ( 4.1% of the total population), in 2002 - 2327 people (1.2% of the total population), in 2010 - 1628 people (1.0% of the total population).
The first Jewish settlers arrived at Tikhonkaya station (future Birobidzhan) in 1928. By the end of 1933, during the 5 years of colonization, only 8,000 Jews moved to the JAO. At the same time, many went back. So, in the period from 1928 to 1933, more than 18 thousand Jews arrived in the JAO, of which about 10 thousand subsequently left the region.
The Jewish population in the region has never been predominant, - said Valery Gurevich, head of public organization"Historical and cultural heritage EAO”, member of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. - In addition, assimilation and mixing began immediately after the resettlement. If mom or dad were of a different nationality, let's say Russians, then in the child's passport in the fifth column they also indicated "Russian". Most Jews did this in order to avoid national oppression, everyday and state anti-Semitism. For example, in Soviet times there was a limit on admission to universities - no more than 5-7% of Jewish students.
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Controversial question. On the one hand, culture does not live without a carrier. But Yiddish and Hebrew are not in demand in the region and are almost never used.
On the other hand, Jewish culture is maintained in the region. The choreographic groups "Mazltov" and "Surprise" work, which include dance numbers with Jewish themes in the program. Since 1989, a Jewish festival of Jewish culture and arts has been held in the JAO. The festival is international, guests from Israel, Europe, and the USA come to Birobidzhan.
Every week the city publishes the newspaper "Birobidzhaner Stern" with a page in Yiddish. Houses on the central streets of Birobidzhan are marked with signs in Russian and Yiddish. In the center, on the pedestrian Arbat, there is a statue of Sholom Aleichem. The station fountain adorns the menorah. A large Jewish community "Freud" operates in the city.
There are also paradoxes. From the city's largest synagogue to the largest Orthodox church- 500 meters, while they stand on Lenin Street. On one side of the square, near the regional philharmonic society, there are sculptures of Greek muses, on the other - a klezmer with a violin.
Valery Gurevich considers the Jewish titular culture of the Jewish Autonomous Region. Svetlana Skvortsova, Deputy Director of the EAO Museum of Local Lore for scientific work, argues that Jewish culture developed in the area in an undulating arc.
In 2010, 97 people indicated that they speak Yiddish (6% of the Jewish population of the region), Hebrew - 312 people (19% of the Jewish population of the region), Hebrew without specification - 54 people. The official language of Israel is Hebrew, which is used by half of the country. But in the JAO, they always spoke Yiddish. This is due to the fact that immigrants arrived here mainly from central Russia and Eastern Europe, and not from the Middle East.
During the resettlement of Jews in the 30s of the last century, the region experienced a cultural upsurge. After all, not only the first builders came here, but also creative people, intelligentsia, - says Svetlana Skvortsova. - The creation of Jewish autonomy caused a furor throughout the world. They allocated an entire territory for the Jews, almost creating their own country. State propaganda unfolded: the film "Seekers of Happiness" was filmed, the plane "Birobidzhanets" appeared in the squadron of Maxim Gorky. Many wanted to see with their own eyes what is happening here. This is how major writers came here - Emmanuil Kazakevich, Lyubov Wasserman. A state Jewish theater with an appropriate repertoire was created in the region.
During the Great Patriotic War culture went in a patriotic direction. But the real blow to Jewish culture came in 1949-53, when a struggle against cosmopolitanism was unfolding in the Soviet Union. Books in Yiddish were then burned on fires right in the library yard. The Jewish section of the museum was closed. This was explained by the fact that the museum of local lore cannot deal with religious issues and, in particular, with Jewish topics.
In the 30s, many government documents were issued in Yiddish and Russian - this is how they tried to introduce Yiddish as a second language in the Jewish Autonomous Region. official language. After the war, this was out of the question. Then they began to write “Russian” in the “origin” column. On paper, the Jewish population of the region is falling sharply, Yiddish has ceased to sound on the streets.
Jewish culture took off again during Israeli immigration in the late 80s and 90s, says Svetlana Skvortsova. - The festival movement begins. A lot of Jewish communities are being created in the city. They study Hebrew and Israeli law. Communities have become launching pads for departure. It sounds strange, but the departure gave an impetus to the local Jewish culture. Two or three decades ago, Yiddish could be heard on benches, in courtyards and squares. Now the language remains a kind of symbol, but there are almost no native speakers who speak it fluently.
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This is not true. Rumor was also cultivated beyond the Urals in Russia and in Europe. It arose due to a certain informational closeness of the region during the Soviet era. The stereotype is still supported today. Here, for example, is an excerpt from an article by Marek Alter in the French newspaper Paris Match (translated by InoSMI), a 2012 publication:
“Stalin began to feel that his Jewish friends were too visible. And very active. Then the chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council, Mikhail Kalinin, had an idea. Why not give the Jews a republic or an autonomous region, like all the other peoples of the Soviet Union? This would mean the assertion of their rights and would allow the authorities to remove them from many positions of responsibility without the risk of accusations of anti-Semitism.”
In fact, only regional leaders were sent here by order. The decisive factor was not nationality, but professional qualities.
Ordinary people came here voluntarily, largely due to Soviet propaganda work. I myself know this not from books, older people were told about the resettlement by their grandparents, - says Valery Gurevich. - This attitude has changed only in the last 20 years. The openness of the region, the holding of international festivals have strongly influenced.
In the region, they tried to create comfortable conditions for Jews. At an early stage of development in the JAR, there were schools where they studied Yiddish, Jewish collective farms and Jewish village councils. Jews held leadership positions in the region. At the same time, it must be said that the campaign was not always fair. The German Communist Jew Otto Heller wrote in 1931:
“In Birobidzhan you will find cars, trains and ships. Smoke will come from the chimneys of powerful factories, the children of the generation of free Jewish workers and peasants will play blooming gardens. Birobidzhan will be a socialist country, the land of the international proletariat, a miracle of socialist construction in the USSR.”
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Well, or in another point of the Near and Middle East... Even some Far Easterners think so. The reason is simple - consonant.
The overwhelming majority of Birobidzhans are convinced that the name of the city came from the merger of two roots, from the words Bira and Bidzhan (these are local rivers). The names were given to them by the Evenks - the tribes that lived in the Far East from time immemorial.
The city itself stands on the Bir, and where Bidzhan is located - none of the Birobidzhans really knows. In fact, this river flows 100 kilometers from the city.
The name "Birobidzhan" comes from the "Birsko-Bidzhan resettlement area," says Valery Gurevich. - At the beginning of the century, this area existed on the site of autonomy, where, among other things, Jews were invited. Later, in 1930, it was transformed into the "Birsko-Bidzhansky national region", or "Bire-Bidzhansky" (the first part is in dative case). But in Yiddish you can’t say “Birebidzhan”, but you can say “Birobidzhan”. The modern sound was influenced by a phonetic reason.
