Editing Colonization (section)

====Jewish oblast====
[[File:Government-hq.jpg|thumb|upright|Sign on the JAO government headquarters]]
In 1934, the Soviet government established the [[Jewish Autonomous Oblast]] in the Soviet Far East to create a homeland for the Jewish people. Another motive was to strengthen Soviet presence along the vulnerable eastern border. The region was often infiltrated by the Chinese; in 1927, [[Chiang Kai-shek]] had ended [[First United Front|cooperation with the Chinese Communist Party]], which further increased the threat. Japan also seemed willing and ready to detach the Far Eastern provinces from the USSR.<ref name="Nora Levin 1990 283">{{cite book|author=Nora Levin|title=The Jews in the Soviet Union Since 1917: Paradox of Survival, Volume 1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1Nz0N5GBW6MC|year=1990|publisher=New York University Press|page=283|isbn=9780814750513}}</ref> To make settlement of the inhospitable and undeveloped region more enticing, the Soviet government allowed private ownership of land. This led to many non-Jews to settle in the oblast to get a free farm.<ref name="Richard Overy 2004 567">{{cite book|author=Richard Overy|title=The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=32Vy2Fj4KFUC|year=2004|publisher=W.W Norton Company, Inc|page=567|isbn=9780141912240}}</ref>

By the 1930s, a massive propaganda campaign developed to induce more Jewish settlers to move there. In one instance, a government-produced Yiddish film called ''[[Seekers of Happiness]]'' told the story of a Jewish family that fled the [[Great Depression]] in the [[United States]] to make a new life for itself in Birobidzhan. Some 1,200 non-Soviet Jews chose to settle in Birobidzhan.<ref name="jewishmag.com">Arthur Rosen, [www./75mag/birobidzhan/birobidzhan.htm], February 2004</ref> The Jewish population peaked in 1948 at around 30,000, about one-quarter of the region's population. By 2010, according to data provided by the Russian Census Bureau, there were  only 1,628 people of Jewish descent remaining in the JAO (1% of the total population), while ethnic Russians made up 92.7% of the JAO population.<ref name=autogenerated1>{{cite web |url=http://www.gks.ru/free_doc/new_site/population/demo/per-itog/tab7.xls |title=Информационные материалы об окончательных итогах Всероссийской переписи населения 2010 года |access-date=2013-04-19 |archive-date=2012-06-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120601173256/http://www.gks.ru/free_doc/new_site/population/demo/per-itog/tab7.xls |url-status=dead }}</ref> The JAO is Russia's only [[autonomous oblast]]<ref>[[Constitution of the Russian Federation]], Article 65</ref> and, aside of Israel, the world's only Jewish territory with an official status.<ref name=autogenerated4>{{cite journal|author=Спектор Р., руководитель Департамента Евро-Азиатского Еврейского конгресса (ЕАЕК) по связям с общественностью и СМИ|title=Биробиджан — terra incognita?|url=http://www.nasledie-eao.ru/services/nayka/scientific-practical-conference/bir_proekt_konf_2007.pdf#page=18|editor=под ред. Гуревич В.С. |editor2=Рабинович А.Я. |editor3=Тепляшин А.В. |editor4=Воложенинова Н.Ю. |via=Правительство Еврейской автономной области|journal=Биробиджанский проект (опыт межнационального взаимодействия): сборник материалов научно-практической конференции|location=Биробиджан|publisher=ГОУ "Редакция газеты [[Birobidzhaner Shtern]]"|year=2008|page=20}}</ref>