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THE SOUTHERN ISR A E L I T E
European Revolving Stage
The Jewish Position in Soviet Russia---The Five Year Plan and the Trend Away From
Colonization to Industrialization—The Economic Assimilation of the Jews
By WILLIAM ZUKERMAN
One of the most significant facts in Jewish life since the war
is now filtering through in the news from Soviet Russia. It is
that the great Jewish Colonization Movement in Russia has been
checked in its upward move, and is now definitely on the decline.
But at the same time and from the same source another, even
more significant, fact emerges, namely, that in spite of this decline
of colonization, the economic situation of the Jews in Soviet
Russia has not become worse. Quite the contrary, economically,
Jews in Soviet Russia are now better off than they have been
at any time since the Revolution.
The reconciliation of these two seemingly contradictory facts
is to be found in the development of the amazing phenomenon
which goes under the name of the Five Year Plan in Russia,
and its effect on Jewish life in Soviet Russia.
The Jewish Colonization Movement in Soviet Russia began in
1924. It was the almost spontaneous response of the Jewish
masses in Russia to the call of the Revolution, their first attempt
to extricate themselves from the morass into which they had
been driven by the Czaristic regime. Under that regime Jews
were forbidden to engage in agriculture and were excluded by
law from most of the industrial occupations.
The entire Jewish population of Russia was condemned to be
middlemen, petty shopkeepers, tradesmen, and just “luftmen-
schen” (persons living on air). The Revolution, having eliminated
the middleman, and wiped out the “luftmensch”, completely de
stroyed whatever foundation most of the Jews had in the economic
life of Russia. Their occupation was declared illegal, and they,
themselves, became “declassed’’, and thus subject as much to
economic discrimination under the new regime as they had been
to political discrimination before the Revolution.
It soon became clear that something would have to be done to
help the three millions of Russian Jew’s to change their economic
status, if they were not to be exterminated by starvation or to
deteriorate into a pariah caste of persecuted “nepmen”. The
Soviet Government tackled the problem with its customary
energy. In 1924 it offered large tracts of land in the Ukraine
and in the Crimea to all Jews w’ho were willing to give up their
former occupations and settle on the land. The great Jewish Colo
nization Movement, one of the marvels of the age, arose, and
within an incredibly short period, it accomplished such remark
able success that it
seemed on the verge
of achieving a grad
ual solution of the
entire vexed Jewish
problem.
In 1928 w r as the
banner year of Jew r -
ish Colonization. The
report submitted that
year to the second
conference of the
“Geserd” (Jewish
Colonization Society
in Soviet Russia) at
Moscow’ show r ed that
135,000 Jews had al
ready transmigrated
from their villages
and settled on the
land, mostly in the
Ukraine and the Cri
mea. 125,000 more
have settled since
then either as full-
fledged farmers and
colonists removed
from their homes, or
as truck farmers near
their towns and villages in White and Southern R sia Alt
gether about a quarter of a million Jewish souls have found t-
livelihood on the soil in Russia—a remarkable achievement if •
is remembered that most of them had for generations been ken
from the sight of a ploughed zeld by law. In fact, the Jewilh
Colonization Movement in Russia will probably go down in hb
tory as one of the wonders of the post-war period.
Flushed wdth such success it is small wonder that the “Geserd”
began to plan activities which were to put all the previous
achievements of the Colonization Movement in the shade. Thirteei
thousand Jewish families, approximately 65,000 souls, were sched
uled to be settled on the land in 1930, and the quota was to be
increased in the following years as the movement gained momen
tum. Circumstances seemed to favor the expansion of the move
ment. The system of land collectivisation which w^as introduced
in 1929 seemed at first to give Jewish colonization a tremendous
fillip. By pooling the land of the individual peasants and by con
fiscating the land of the “kulaks” (the well-to-do peasants), who
had refused to join the collectives, the new system had the effect
of releasing big tracts of land in Eastern Europe which was what
Jewish colonization needed most. There was no longer any need
for Jewish would-be-farmers to travel to the wilds of Siberia
or to other distant lands in order to settle on the land.
At the same time the policy of a more drastic elimination of
the declassed, and of driving everybody into the ranks of the
proletariat, which began with the introduction of the Five Years
Plan, had the effect of rounding up many more Jewish declassed
who were anxious to escape from the veritable Jim-Crow laws
which had been enacted against the “lishentzi”, (those without
rights), thus swelling the ranks of prospective candidates for
colonization. The “Geserd”, assisted by the Government, made the
most elaborate preparations for taking care of this mass of
applicants. From a mere relief movement of Jewish relief organ
izations the colonization movement was transformed into an im
portant State Plan which loomed important enough, it seemed,
to solve the whole of the Jewish problem in Russia by settling
the entire three million Russian Jews on the land which had been
forbidden them for centuries.
It was precisely then that the tide began to turn. The “Geserd
drive of 1930 for
New r Jewish land
settlers proved a dis
mal failure. Thirteen
thousand Jewish tam-
ilies had been ex
pected to settle on
the land, but lefc
than two thousand
answered the call- n
1931 the debacle be
came even bigger.
Not only was t
1930 quota of ne'
settlers not filled*
an alarming mo
tion began from J
older colonies to a*
cities, a retreat''
is still in progr**-'
The
of
nist
_ Courtesy of Intourist, Soviet State Travel Bureau
the Gostorg or state Trade Building in Moscow
is full of aiwieb
about the even • *
pictl To- standing
m° st o in
Jewish b ob ] please
turn t° ^