Editing Birobidzhan (section)

===Complications during the Experiment===
Before the Russian Revolution of 1917, residence for Jews was restricted to the [[Pale of Settlement]]. As Jews relocated to Birobidzhan, they had to compete with the approximately 27,000 Russians, Cossacks, Koreans, and Ukrainians already residing there for property and land to develop new homes. This complicated the transition for the Jewish population, as there was no significant area to claim as their own.<ref name=":2" />

Logistically and practically, settling Birobidzhan proved to be difficult. Due to inadequate infrastructure and weather conditions of the area, more than half the Jewish settlers who relocated to Birobidzhan after the initial settlement did not remain.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Skolnik |first1=Fred |title=Encyclopaedia Judaica |last2=Berenbaum |first2=Michael |publisher=Macmillan Reference USA in association with the Keter Pub. House |year=2007 |isbn=9780028659282 |location=Detroit |oclc=70174939}}</ref>

When the Stalinist purges began, shortly after the creation of Birobidzhan, Jews there were targeted.<ref name="Gessen">{{Cite web |last1=Gessen |first1=Masha |last2=Interviewed by Terry Gross |date=7 September 2016 |title='Sad And Absurd': The U.S.S.R.'s Disastrous Effort To Create A Jewish Homeland |url=https://www.npr.org/2016/09/07/492962278/sad-and-absurd-the-u-s-s-r-s-disastrous-effort-to-create-a-jewish-homeland |access-date=10 September 2016 |website=Fresh Air |publisher=WHYY |format=Interview}}</ref> Following World War II, tens of thousands of displaced Eastern European Jews found their way to Birobidzhan from 1946 to 1948.<ref name="Weinberg 1998, 72-75">Weinberg, Robert (1998). ''Stalin's Forgotten Zion: Birobidzhan and the Making of a Soviet Jewish Homeland''. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 72–75. {{ISBN|978-0-520-20990-9}}.</ref> Some were Ukrainian and Belarusian Jews who were not allowed to return to their original homes.<ref name="Gessen" /> However, Jews were once again targeted in the wake of World War II when [[Joseph Stalin]] embarked on a [[Stalin and antisemitism|campaign against "rootless cosmopolitans"]].<ref name="Gessen" /> Nearly all the Yiddish institutions of Birobidzhan were liquidated.<ref name="Pipes-NRoB-27-10-16">{{Cite journal |last=Pipes |first=Richard |date=October 27, 2016 |title=The Sad Fate of Birobidzhan |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/10/27/the-sad-fate-of-birobidzhan/ |journal=New York Review of Books |access-date=17 October 2016}}</ref>