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6 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° ^