Where the Jews Aren't: The Sad and Absurd Story of Birobidzhan, Russia's Jewish Autonomous Region

by Masha Gessen

From the acclaimed author of The Man Without a Face, the previously untold story of the Jews in twentieth-century Russia that reveals the complex, strange, and heart-wrenching truth behind the familiar narrative that begins with pogroms and ends with emigration.In 1929, the Soviet government set aside a sparsely populated area in the Soviet Far East for settlement by Jews. The place was called Birobidzhan.The idea of an autonomous Jewish region was championed by Jewish Communists, Yiddishists, and intellectuals, who envisioned a haven of post-oppression Jewish culture. By the mid-1930s tens of thousands of Soviet Jews, as well as about a thousand Jews from abroad, had moved there. The state-building ended quickly, in the late 1930s, with arrests and purges instigated by Stalin. But after the Second World War, Birobidzhan received another influx of Jews—those who had been dispossessed by the war. In the late 1940s a second wave of arrests and imprisonments swept through the area, traumatizing Birobidzhan’s Jews into silence and effectively shutting down most of the Jewish cultural enterprises that had been created. Where the Jews Aren’t is a haunting account of the dream of Birobidzhan—and how it became the cracked and crooked mirror in which we can see the true story of the Jews in twentieth-century Russia.(Part of the Jewish Encounters series) 

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Russia, Jewish, Judaism, Soviet Union, Religion

206 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 23, 2016

About the author

Masha Gessen (born 1967) is an American-Russian journalist, translator, and nonfiction author. They identify as non-binary and use they/them pronouns.

Born into an Ashkenazi Jewish family in Russia, in 1981 they moved with their family to the United States to escape anti-Semitism. They returned in 1991 to Moscow, where they worked as a journalist, and covered Russian military activities during the Chechen Wars. In 2013, they were publicly threatened by prominent Russian politicians for their political activism and were forced to leave Russia for the United States.

They write in both Russian and English, and has contributed to The New Republic, New Statesman, Granta and Slate. Gessen is a staff writer at The New Yorker, covering international politics, Russia, LGBT rights, and gender issues.

Reviews

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The worst best idea."

In theory:
A post-Bolshevik revolution Jewish state, where Yiddish would the official language, instead of outlawed, where Soviet Jews could live autonomously. Located in far eastern USSR, just above the border with China, a week's train ride from Moscow via the Trans-Siberian Railway. Established in 1934.

In reality:
An outpost with few resources. Isolated, yet with a strong core of dedicated migrants, with hopes to speak their native Yiddish and educate their children in the rich culture. The idea started strong, and Jews who had left Russia earlier were incentivized to come back (from US and Latin America) to settle and work the collective farms. Until Stalin started the purges... Which penalized the people for the exact thing they had been encouraged to do a few years before.

So... A Jewish Autonomous Region in name only - because there never was a Jewish majority, never the fulfilled dream of a Soviet Jewish state.

Hence the 'absurd' of the title.

Masha Gessen, a Jewish Russian journalist and two-time emigre to the US, writes this little known history of the Jewish Autonomous Region, framed by their family's own story of immigration for religious and political reasons.

Although a little dry at times, this book begged a larger important question: When is it time to go? When is it no longer safe to stay?

[Cropredy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have actually been to Birobidjian (2000) for three weeks and had the opportunity to learn something about the Jewish Autonomous Region. All of the places mentioned by the author in the final chapter (she was there in 2009) were places my wife and I visited as well.

So, it w as with personal interest that I picked up this slim volume.

First of all, this is not really a history as would be written by a historian. It is more an elegy to the Jewish poets who bought into a vision of a place where Yiddish could thrive as a written language and where Russian Jews could escape from the daily tyrannies of the Soviet system.

Readers more steeped in 1930's Yiddish culture may get more out of this book than I did. Same would be true for readers interested in the Jewish experience during the time of Stalin.

Given the numbers of Jews who emigrated to the J.A.R. (~20,000), this is a footnote In the history of world Jewry. Gessen tells the story more or less chronologically, relating it to her own family's decision to leave the USSR in the 1980s. There are many quotes from the writers and poets who lived or espoused the homeland. And of course, the endeavor and the promoters were doomed as all such things were in paranoiac post war Russia.

One is left to wonder why the place was not abandoned once the settlers realized nothing would grow, that the mosquitos made life miserable during the brief summer, and that otherwise it was cold and windy. But, a city did arise. One didn't give up on Stalin's Russia but plugged on. This part of the story is not told.

There also appeared to be considerable American aid from US Jewish communities but the scale of this versus Soviet aid is never revealed.

A quick read (90 minutes).

[Michele · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story made little impression, as the ending was always inevitable and I couldn't help but wonder how people could delude themselves again, especially after the Holocaust. I suppose when you have post-traumatic stress and absolutely nowhere to go, hope is the only alternative.

Gessen describes in detail the road taken by Jewish intellectuals of all political, theological and philosophical persuasions. In 1929, the began with enthusiasm to settle in the designated Jewish autonomous region of Birobidzhan. They endured discomforts and hunger, while creating literary magazines and symphonies. Then came a series of arrests and purges, and many fled to other countries. After WWII, displaced Jews had very few choices, especially if they were living in the Soviet Union. They went back to Birobidzhan, hoping against all odds that it would be a place where they could live freely under Soviet supervision. But it didn't work out that way, of course. Another round of arrests and persecutions drove the rest of the idealistic, desperate survivors of the pogroms and the Holocaust were forced to give up and/or make other arrangements, mostly involving emigration. It was a sad story, concentrated too much on one of the deluded cultural icons of the Jewish community, who became a flack for the Russians for a time and lost his should and his reputation.

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a relatively short, very enlightening read about the history of a supposed "solution" through creation of a Jewish "autonomous region" in a very rural area of Russia. All the lies and assumptions and glib confidence attached to developing this community match almost exactly the lies, assumptions, and glib confidence of people who drive unwanted pets into a rural area and drop them off, believing that animal instincts will keep them alive. I found the information appalling, the presentation by Masha Gessen engagingly presented.

[Elliot Ratzman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gessen’s book is the easiest intro to the “worst best idea ever”: a homeland for the Jews—the Jewish Autonomous Region of Birobidzhan—in the Easternmost part of the Soviet Union. Jews could become farmers, live off the land, speak and create in Yiddish, and not be part of the reactionary nationalist project of Zionism. Tens of thousands of Jews from all over the world (including Depression-era USA) flocked to Stalin’s Zion. Problem was, the land lacked resources except for bad weather, mud and mosquitos; most Jews who made the difficult trek left; and overall, Stalinism was a horror show of anti-Semitism and mismanagement, terrorizing its own best citizens through absurd show trials and mass murder. As the ideological winds shifted near the end of Stalin’s life “the Sholem Aleichem Library of the Jewish Autonomous Region staged a book burning…in its courtyard, to destroy every Yiddish-language book that had been found in the region.” The experiment in Yiddish national autonomy fizzled.

[Kristin]

This was written very well, from my point of view as someone who enjoys nonfiction but usually can't read it because it's written so dryly. The tone comes through clearly and engagingly, like a TED talk on paper. However, a certain point was reached maybe halfway through where it started to veer more into the dry academic paper tone, and it seemed to me that it lost its direction and became, uncertainly, a kind of biography of David Bergelson. And I wasn't really interested in reading a kind of biography of David Bergelson. A companion fiction text to this book is The Yid by Paul Goldberg, which explores essentially this exact scene. Anyway, it's an important, readable, and slim book for those looking for a good introductory run-down of the worldwide events in this time period that led imminently to the situation of Israel's existence.

[Anatl · Rating 2 out of 5]

A chronicle of a curious project that co existed with the idea of Zionism to create an autonomous Jewish region in the Russian territory close to China. The main focus of the book were two men of letters, first Dubnov and then David Bergelson, who thought that this might be the answer to anti Semitic pogroms. The land was inhospitable and lacked infrastructure, plus the Jews were simply dropped without regard to the welcome that awaited them there and whether they had the skills necessary for surviving the harsh conditions of the land.

Post edit. I downgraded the review and the grade in retrospect.

[Lada Moskalets · Rating 5 out of 5]

Книжка не так про сам Біробіджан, як про пошуки свого місця, в найбільш географічному сенсі цього слова - і того, що робить країну "своїм місцем" для євреїв. Тому авторка починає і завершує розповідь еміграцією своєї родини з Росії до Америки в 1980х і пошуками своєї єврейської ідентичності в СРСР і натякає на свою другу еміграцію уже з путінської Росії. В книжці дуже багато особистого голосу. Сама історія Біробіджану крутиться навколо представника нової їдиш культури письменника Давіда Бергельсона та історика Шимона Дубнова, теоретика автономізму. Маша Гессен роздумує про вибір та стратегії порятунку героїв і пробує пояснити, чому вони, наприклад, не їхали рятуватися в Ізраїль чи до Штатів. Сам Біробіджан стає більше фоном і символом для цих розповідей.
Історія, все ж більше сумна, ніж абсурдна, насправді трагічна і жахлива. Для євреїв створили державу на далекому Сході, а потім тих, хто повірив у ідею звинуватили в буржуазному націоналізму чи розстріляли. Окремо в історію вплітається Голокост, про який немає жодної згадки в музеї Біробіджану.
Євреї Біробіджану стає втіленням радянських євреїв, в яких авторка бачить і пробує зрозуміти себе та всіх тих, хто шукав свого єврейства у мовах, не знаючи їх, релігії, не вірячи в Бога, бо п'ята графа означала дискримінації, без можливості знайти свою спільноту.
Для знавців теми тут небагато нового, але читати страшенно цікаво.

[Kitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

It could be hard to focus on this meandering book sometimes, but I'm glad I read it, and that I learned the history of this sad and absurd attempt at creating a Jewish autonomous region of the Soviet Union. The terrors and show trials of the USSR are always fascinating in their cruelty and injustice, but they seem especially poignant in the context of a people hounded to the ends of the earth, only to be further persecuted when they got there. I enjoyed Gessen's personal take on Birobidzhan more than her historical account of it, which could get a bit tedious at times.

[Elettra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Non saprei sintetizzare bene quanto Masha Gessen ha scritto in questo suo splendido ed appassionato reportage sul “sogno” e sulla effettiva realtà di Birobidžan, questo territorio vero, esistente, ai confini dell’URSS, dove vivono ebrei e dove si scrive in yiddish ma non lo si parla, ma che per tanto tempo ha rappresentato l’utopia di una regione autonoma per gli ebrei sovietici e non solo. Per questo “sogno” molti hanno lavorato, hanno sofferto e sono stati uccisi. La Gessen ha scritto più di un reportage giornalistico, direi un saggio storico, ricco di note, citazioni, facendo così luce su una storia di lotta e di disperazione, tra le più drammatiche di una parte del Ventesimo secolo, da pochi conosciuta. Un libro da leggere!!!

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't recall where I first heard about Birobidzhan -- maybe in a short story by Ken Kalfus? Anyway, I've always been interested in strange little pockets of geography and history, and was curious to learn more about this Soviet experiment in creating a Jewish homeland, so I picked this up. Coming from a journalist like Gessen, I was expecting a lively story. However, I also think I was expecting more of a social history and sense of the day-to-day life, rather than the relatively tepid (and sad) administrative story it mostly is.

Gessen opens and closes the book with her personal history as a teenage Soviet Jew who was able to emigrate to the West in the 1970s. These bookends are full of human connection and life and serve as stark contrast to the dry history between them. Obviously life as a Jew in Tsarist Russia and post-Revolution USSR was fraught with danger and complex written and unwritten rules to navigate. Factions of Russian/Soviet Jewish society (communist, Yiddish-language advocates, Zionists, etc.) were engaged in lobbying for various options for an autonomous situation, be it in the USSR (Crimea being another option that proved too strategically important to gain traction) or beyond (Palestine). The jockeying of various writers and intellectuals for primacy in this debate, and their various feuds, took up far too much time and space for my taste.

The bottom line is that the initial geographic surveys were explicit that Birobidzhan would be a terrible place to try to create an agrarian Jewish territory, and that was entirely borne out following its establishment in 1929. Even in the best of circumstances, the land was not suitable and the necessary basic resources were not provided by the central authorities, and despite a fair amount of funds flowing in from Jewish charities in America to help develop infrastructure, the place could never hope to become self-sustaining. Within a few years of its founding, Stalin's purges began, and the whole concept of the project became untenable, then the war came. In the war's aftermath, the territory became the internal dumping ground for displaced Jews from across the Soviet Union who had no hope of returning to their former lives, creating an unofficial Eastern gulag.

Throughout it all, it's clear that Jews in the Soviet Union were in an untenable situation, as members of Anti-Fascist committees were prosecuted for being part of nationalist organizations, and other such absurdities. By the end of it all, readers will have absorbed another depressingly familiar tale of Stalin's reign of terror and despair. At the end, Gessen visits the territory and finds basically no remnants of Jewish social life as people either fled the country or resigned themselves to assimilation. It's a short book, so not a huge investment, but those seeking more of a sense of the place might prefer to check out the slim book "Stalin's Forgotten Zion," which has lots of photos.

[Jules · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gripping account of the lives of Yiddish language advocates Simon Dubnow and Dovid Bergelson as they champion a Jewish state within the Soviet Union. Masha Gessen provides some commentary of their experience growing up as a Jew in the Soviet Union which helped give perspective. I wish Gessen had added more personal commentary and a little more about Birobidzhan (aka the Jewish Autonomous Zone). It seemed to go from wooden barracks and kind Cossacks to having a factory, brutalist buildings and wooden barracks? Did the three farming communities survive? Who lives there now?

Overall Gessen did an amazing job explaining and connecting the disparate pieces of history and Soviet politics to Jews and Birobidzhan. Their scholarship, interviews and translation of primary sources make the book a gem to read.

[Shoshanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely sad. A thorough history of the Jewish Autonomous Region and Birobidzhan. You learn of the figures who had dreams for a place to celebrate being Jewish, for being left alone. You learn all this with occasional intrusions from the narrator, Masha Gessen, herself, which provides context and bookends the whole story. So much sadness. So much destruction. So much loss. When you can tell the Shoah is coming, it's hard not to cry the whole time.

I need to learn Yiddish.

[Erik Dryden · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have no idea what this book is about. It's not about Birobidzhan, not really, despite its subtitle. Nor is it about the treatment of Jews in Stalinist Russia, though it pretends to be. It's a little bit about David Bergelson, the Jewish writer, though it probably shouldn't be. It's a little bit about the Holocaust, because any book on Judaism in the twentieth century can't help but be. Overall it's a semi-coherent mess.

[Ian Hefele · Rating 5 out of 5]

interesting story about a 'failed' experiment at the edge of the world. quick read and now I want to read more from this author.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I consider myself someone who is more versed than most when it comes to the history of my people, at least over the past 100 years or so. But, somehow, I’ve made it this far in life without ever hearing of Birobidzhan.

Briobidzhan was a place that Russia sent their Jews in 1928. At first it was so that Jews could have their own autonomous region, but eventually became a place to exile the enemies of Stalin and those determined to be anti-communist. It has often been called the “worst good idea ever,” and this seems somewhat true.

Europe (yes, I’m including Russia—fight me) has never really been the easiest place to be Jewish, but at one point Russia had over a million Jews. Where the Jews Aren’t tells the story of what happened to a lot of those Jews, and the rest of the Jews of Europe, from the early to late 20th century. It’s a book filled with a lot of hate, an absurd amount of pogroms, and a long string of migrations. When the idea of Birobidzhan was first proposed, it seemed like a brilliant idea: A place for Jews to feel safe and be around their own, while not having to displace and murder and entire people, or anyone for that matter.

Unfortunately, Communism sucks and Stalin was one of the worst. Though he approved of the idea at first, he eventually grew to realize his love of nazidom. After the holocaust, when so many Jews tried to return to their homes only to find them taken over by non-Jews with no way to get them back, Birobidzhan was where they went. But pretty quickly, Stalin banned Judaism. Among the many ways he showed himself he killed people who spoke Yiddish, he burned every book written in Hebrew or Yiddish, he sent exiled nazis to live there, and he stole Jewish children and sent them to Russian schools and then to non-Jewish families.

By the ‘80s one could visit this land and have no idea that it was once home to a robust Jewish community. I still don’t know a whole hell of a lot about it (this book was only 147 pages and didn’t spend much of it focusing on actual Birobidzhan), but I feel like it could have been a magical place. The land sucked, the climate was awful, and the bugs could kill you, but imagine if it had worked out: Maybe there would be one less genocide taking place in 2025.

[Umar Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating book about a group of Soviet Jews I've heard about for years and never read into. I love the way Masha Gessen intertwines her own family history into this narrative. She was coming of age in a Soviet Union full of anti-semitic practice and policy. Her parents saw the only option for her future in coming to America (which in and of itself was a difficult task as the movement of Soviet Jews was limited). The only other option was Israel, which the young Masha preferred, her logic was "why leave a place where Jews are a minority for another place Jews are a minority?".

This sets up the premise of the book. There was once, for a brief period of time, another option for Soviet (and other) Jews. An autonomous Jewish region within the USSR where Yiddish was to be the official language. In the 1930's this movement was seen as a preferable option to many given the anti-semitism in the USSR, the question of assimilation, the fascist threat from Germany to the west, and the belief that Zionism had both a reactionary nationalist element while simultaneously being a pipe dream with not a lot of chance success.

This book paints a picture in tragic detail of how this Jewish project fell victim to the violent and paranoid schizophrenia of the Stalinist era and the repercussions that had for further generations of Soviet Jews. This time period coincided with the holocaust and the theft of the property and land of Jewish holocaust survivors by their former gentile neighbors. Thus paving the way for immigration both to North America and British Mandate Palestine (and then Israel).

The book exposes the reader to a number of interesting Jewish writers of the era and the intellectual and political debates of the time along with the outright political insanity of the Soviet system. I highly recommend.

[Alvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating and highly readable history detailing one of the Jewish people's more bizarre misadventures. Gessen spends a bit too long on the convoluted intellectual, political, and personal histories of Birobidzhan's founders and champions and not quite long enough on the place itself. Still, it's a fascinating story; as is Gessen's own tale of emigration, with which she opens and closes the book.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

How can I have never heard about this - The Autonomous Jewish Region of the USSR - started in the 20's. It sounded a little bit like the Matanuska Colony settlement in Alaska. Lots of great plans, but things went badly. I recommend it.

[Duncan Baumgarten]

Gessen is my new superhero. Knowing their story helped me decide this was going to be a worthwhile read, which is why I was so interested to see them bookend the slim volume with their own life experience as a Jewish person in Russia. I walked away with even greater understanding of a relatively unknown chapter in both Soviet history and Jewish history. It asks interesting questions about the purpose of Jewish identity, the importance of protected spaces, and the faulty logic of a government with shifting expressions of ideology. Gessen presents an excellent case for the "sad and absurd story" that far more people should read in order to understand the Soviet state. My first of many Gessen books.

[Jamie Bronstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Masha Gessen writes about the Jewish Autonomous Oblast of Birobidzhan, which was created in Soviet hopes of providing regions for all of the USSR's ethnicities and then sacrificed in the 1950s on the chopping block of Stalinist excesses. I've been interested lately in the alternatives to the formation of Israel. The particular experiment chronicled in this fast read (took me like 2 days) was based on Yiddish, so it's too bad it ultimately failed.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating account of an “experiment” in supposed Jewish autonomy in a far corner of the Soviet Union that was doomed to fail from its conception. The casual cruelty of the Soviet authorities is the most horrifying and consistent aspect.

[Billy DeVito · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very little discussing the Jewish Autonomous Oblast (Birobidzhan). Most of the book is comprised of varying narratives that shrouded the alleged point of the book. I found myself forgetting that this book was meant to delve into this unique Soviet region.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could not bring myself to write this review for a very long time.

This book is about cultural genocide that Jews suffered at the hands of Soviet regime. It is true that they were not the only ones - many small nationalities fared just as horribly. There is something worse than murder in denying people their language, their songs, their alphabet, their books, their schools, their culture, their religion under the guise of "friendship of all peoples", as the official slogan went. It is worse than murder, because the effects of this "culture eradication" trickle down to the future generations.

To all the people writing reviews with something like, "why would Jews throw everything away and settle at the end of the world" - the only thing I can say, you just don't understand. Even after this book, you still don't understand. Be thankful for that.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

An odd little book. It is ostensibly about the far eastern area of Birobidzhan, but that doesn't really show up until around 2/3 of the way in. Most of the book revolves around a pair of Jewish writers, Dubnow and Bergelson, who didn't really have that much connection with the Jewish "Autonomous" Region. The major subject of the book is centered in western USSR and places like Warsaw, the Baltic states and even Berlin. What the book does expose quite well is the schizo way in which the Stalinist era (i.e. Stalin himself) flopped back-and-forth on matters, as evidenced by its giving and taking support for such matters as the Jewish autonomous nation state. The show trials detailed near the end show this where the state nails people later for what it demanded they do earlier. Absurd, indeed.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

Masha Gessen tells a story of Birobidzhan and reflects the difficult and tragic experience of Soviet Jews in general. However, I would like to emphasize on the word "story". As I read the book, I regularly felt connected to her story and that of David Bergelson, yet not as much to the other figures of the book. She illustrated what many of the poets hoped to achieve, as well as their fears and doubts. Yet rarely did I get a clear picture of the actual Jewish Autonomous Region. It was often hard to follow her plot and I always felt she focused too much on certain persons, tragic trends of the Soviet Union and ideological arguments, and not on the actual goings on in Birobidzhan. That became the biggest shortfall of the book considering the title suggested it as the main subject. I hope to find a better book on the subject.

[Shrike58 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basically equal parts history, biography, memoir, and travelogue, Gessen is essentially looking at the fate of Russian Jewry through the lens of David Bergelson, a Yiddish-speaking man of letters who you can either view as being something of a confidence man, or a martyr to a certain idea of cultural Judaism. As for Gessen herself, she was the daughter of Soviet Jews who managed to get out of the USSR back in the bad old days of 1981, but who went back to Russia, only to find herself moving her family out of Russia again, due to the fear that, as part of a same-sex marriage, the current regime might strip Gessen of her children. You can also call this book a commentary on how Russia is far from overcoming the social and psychological damage wrought by the Communist experience.

Originally written: July 13, 2019.

[Helena · Rating 2 out of 5]

Con otro título podría haber sido un libro medianamente interesante, pero si su premisa es "la historia de Birobidzhan" en sus páginas espero encontrar... la historia de Birobidzhan. No sé, creo que mis expectativas son más que razonables.
En realidad trata de la vida de algunos escritores y poetas judíos en la Unión Soviética (David Bergelson en particular) y de las políticas soviéticas con respecto al pueblo judío. Birobidzhan es un escenario más en esta historia, pero siempre en un papel secundario. Las descripciones del lugar son escasas y no hay ni rastro de cómo era la vida ahí, solo de las políticas que le afectaban, algo que dado el título del libro deja mucho que desear.

[Melvyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the autobiographical parts of the book but don't feel I learned as much as I'd hoped to about the central topic, Birobidzhan.
The author rambled around the edges of a variety of topics never fully drilling down into any of them.
However, I'd never heard firsthand what it was like for Russian Jews who'd 'escaped' to America and begun to build their lives there. That for me was the main takeaway from this book and I found it eye-opening.

[B. Cheng · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was looking for more out of this book about Birobidzhan itself, instead life in the region and its development didn't really feel like it was the focus of the story being told. If you're looking for a pure history of the region, this isn't the book.