Valdgeim by Koblents, B - 1934

Moscow: Emes, 1934. Softcover. First edition, 1 of 5000 copies; 4 3/4 x 6 1/2; pp. 20; green wraps printed in brown; age-toning to left margin of wraps; closed cut to tail of spine; top edge unevenly trimmed; overall very good.The notion of a Jewish autonomous region in the heart of Siberia was developed after Lenin's Nationalities Policy which encouraged various ethnic groups to claim their own territories and settle down with their own language and culture. In the early 20th century, Russian Jews - widely subjected to anti-Semitism and pogroms - were given the land around (present day) Birobidzhan in 1927 and in 1934 Stalin solved his "Jewish problem" by officially declaring the Jewish Autonomous Oblast (still in existence today). The Soviet Government encouraged Jews from all over the world to emigrate there and also promoted the use of Yiddish (considered proletarian in nature) as opposed to the "religious" Hebrew. Valdgeim, whose history and nature are described in the current book, was the first Jewish collective farm founded in 1928 by Leib Gefen and his family - the first Jews to arrive and settle on the grounds of Tikhonkaia Stantsiia (a small train station on the Trans-Siberian Railway.