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OZET (russian: ОЗЕТ, Общество землеустройства еврейских трудящихся) was the public Society for Settling Toiling Jews on the Land in the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
in the period from 1925 to 1938. Some English sources use the word "Working" instead of "Toiling".


Background

The principal sources of livelihood of the Jews in the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
were trade and small crafts. After the
October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...
, the
Russian Civil War , date = October Revolution, 7 November 1917 – Yakut revolt, 16 June 1923{{Efn, The main phase ended on 25 October 1922. Revolt against the Bolsheviks continued Basmachi movement, in Central Asia and Tungus Republic, the Far East th ...
and instability and devastation that followed, these traditional occupations withered.
Dictatorship of proletariat In Marxist philosophy, the dictatorship of the proletariat is a condition in which the proletariat holds state power. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the intermediate stage between a capitalist economy and a communist economy, whereby the ...
,
War Communism War communism or military communism (russian: Военный коммунизм, ''Voyennyy kommunizm'') was the economic and political system that existed in Soviet Russia during the Russian Civil War from 1918 to 1921. According to Soviet histo ...
and
command economy A planned economy is a type of economic system where investment, production and the allocation of capital goods takes place according to economy-wide economic plans and production plans. A planned economy may use centralized, decentralized, part ...
were accompanied by persecution of those deemed
class enemies The term enemy of the people or enemy of the nation, is a designation for the political or class opponents of the subgroup in power within a larger group. The term implies that by opposing the ruling subgroup, the "enemies" in question are ac ...
or exploiters. As a result, in the early 1920s more than a third of the Jewish population of the USSR were officially counted as ''
lishenets A ''lishenets'' ( rus, лишенец, p=lʲɪˈʂenʲɪt͡s), лишение ''deprivation'' + -ец '' -ee''; "disenfranchised"; plural ''lishentsy'', russian: лишенцы) was a disenfranchised person in the Soviet Union from 1918 to 1936. ...
'', disenfranchised people. A significant part of the population of ''
shtetls A shtetl or shtetel (; yi, שטעטל, translit=shtetl (singular); שטעטלעך, romanized: ''shtetlekh'' (plural)) is a Yiddish term for the small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jewish populations which existed in Eastern Europe before ...
'' (a small town with a large Jewish population in Central and Eastern Europe until the Holocaust), in former
Pale of Settlement The Pale of Settlement (russian: Черта́ осе́длости, '; yi, דער תּחום-המושבֿ, '; he, תְּחוּם הַמּוֹשָב, ') was a western region of the Russian Empire with varying borders that existed from 1791 to 19 ...
moved to big cities.


Tasks and leadership

In order to resolve socio-economic difficulties of the Russian Jews and promote agricultural labour among them, on January 17, 1925 the
CPSU "Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first)Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspaper ...
formally created a government committee, the
Komzet Komzet (russian: Комитет по земельному устройству еврейских трудящихся, ) was the ''Committee for the Settlement of Toiling Jews on the Land'' (some English sources use the word "working" instead of ...
, and a complementary public society, the OZET. While the land for new
kolkhoz A kolkhoz ( rus, колхо́з, a=ru-kolkhoz.ogg, p=kɐlˈxos) was a form of collective farm in the Soviet Union. Kolkhozes existed along with state farms or sovkhoz., a contraction of советское хозяйство, soviet ownership or ...
es was contributed and distributed by the Soviet government via the Komzet, the job of the OZET was assisting the transfer of settlers to a new location, housebuilding, irrigation, training, providing them with cattle and agricultural tools, education, medical and cultural services. The funds were to be provided by private donations, charities and
lotteries A lottery is a form of gambling that involves the drawing of numbers at random for a prize. Some governments outlaw lotteries, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find some degree of ...
. The OZET was headed by respected
Old Bolshevik Old Bolshevik (russian: ста́рый большеви́к, ''stary bolshevik''), also called Old Bolshevik Guard or Old Party Guard, was an unofficial designation for a member of the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Par ...
s, not all of them Jewish:
Yuri Larin Yuri may refer to: People and fictional characters Given name *Yuri (Slavic name), the Slavic masculine form of the given name George, including a list of people with the given name Yuri, Yury, etc. *Yuri (Japanese name), also Yūri, feminine Jap ...
, and later
Semyon Dimanstein Semyon (Shimen) Markovich Dimanshtein (russian: Шимон (Семен Маркович) Диманштейн (21 March 1886 – 25 August 1938)) was a Soviet state official, publisher, and leading theorist of national issues in the USSR, and ...
, and its board included such figures as
Solomon Mikhoels Solomon (Shloyme) Mikhoels ( yi, שלמה מיכאעלס lso spelled שלוימע מיכאעלס during the Soviet era russian: Cоломон (Шлойме) Михоэлс, – 13 January 1948) was a Latvian born Soviet Jewish actor and the art ...
and
Vladimir Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (, ; rus, Влади́мир Влади́мирович Маяко́вский, , vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ məjɪˈkofskʲɪj, Ru-Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky.ogg, links=y; – 14 Apr ...
.


Geography and membership

Unlike many Soviet organizations of the time, there was no requirement for a member to be of proletarian ancestry. By the time of its first assembly in Moscow in 1926, the OZET counted over 60,000 members. At its height in the 1930s, it reached 300,000, but in many cases the membership was mandatory and/or formal. By the end of 1920s, there were 160 Jewish
selsoviet Selsoviet ( be, сельсавет, r=sieĺsaviet, tr. ''sieĺsaviet''; rus, сельсовет, p=ˈsʲelʲsɐˈvʲɛt, r=selsovet; uk, сільрада, silrada) is a shortened name for a rural council and for the area governed by such a cou ...
s (rural councils) in
Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
, 29 in
Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
(then part of the
Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...
), and 27 in
Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...
. In Ukraine, three Jewish national regions were created: Kalinindorf, Stalindorf and Novo-Zlatopol. Crimea had two: Fraydorf and Larindorf. The Jewish settlers were given around 5,000 square kilometres of land (not counting
Birobidzhan Birobidzhan ( rus, Биробиджа́н, p=bʲɪrəbʲɪˈdʐan; yi, ביראָבידזשאַן, ''Birobidzhan'') is a town and the administrative center of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Russia, located on the Trans-Siberian Railway, near th ...
). The plan was to settle 500,000 "toiling Jews" in ten years, and to establish
Jewish autonomy in Crimea Jewish autonomy in Crimea was a project in the Soviet Union to create an autonomous region for Jews in the Crimea, Crimean peninsula carried out during the 1920s and 1930s. Following the WWII and the creation of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast i ...
. In reality, from 1925 to 1937 only 126,000 were resettled, and only 53,000 of them stayed. In Feb. 1928, the OZET's activity in the European part of the USSR was put on hold in favour of implementing the Birobidzhan project in the
Russian Far East The Russian Far East (russian: Дальний Восток России, r=Dal'niy Vostok Rossii, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in Northeast Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent; and is admini ...
and the JAO was created.


Propaganda and funding

In order to mobilize public opinion, the OZET undertook significant
propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
efforts in the West. Almost uniquely in the history of the USSR, it officially declared that it was not politically or ideologically affiliated. In November 1925 it even passed a resolution declaring its neutrality towards
Zionism Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a Nationalism, nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is ...
, officially branded as a bourgeois nationalist movement. Until the 1930s, OZET was often represented in Soviet pavilions at international exhibitions and fairs. This won the USSR many supporters in the West. One particular success was the film ''A Jew on the Land'' («Еврей на земле») directed by
Abram Room Abram Matveyevich Room (russian: Абрам Матвеевич Роом; 28 June 1894 in Wilno, Russian Empire (now Vilnius, Lithuania) – 26 July 1976 in Moscow) was a Russian film director. He was a People's Artist of the RSFSR and winner of the ...
and authored by Mayakovsky and
Viktor Shklovsky Viktor Borisovich Shklovsky ( rus, Ви́ктор Бори́сович Шкло́вский, p=ˈʂklofskʲɪj; – 6 December 1984) was a Russian and Soviet literary theorist, critic, writer, and pamphleteer. He is one of the major figures ass ...
. The
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, also known as Joint or JDC, is a Jewish relief organization based in New York City. Since 1914 the organisation has supported Jewish people living in Israel and throughout the world. The organization i ...
(Joint) alone contributed $25 million to the OZET, and established Agro-Joint, an organization specifically dedicated to the project. It is unclear how much of the collected funds was spent on further
public relations Public relations (PR) is the practice of managing and disseminating information from an individual or an organization (such as a business, government agency, or a nonprofit organization) to the public in order to influence their perception. P ...
campaigns, diverted to other projects, or pocketed by the government bureaucracy in the USSR, but the settlers were frequently left without necessities and had to survive by improvising.


OZET-lottery

In total there were five lottery drawings: in 1928, 1929, 1931, 1932 and 1933.


Birobidzhan project

The Birobidzhan project appeared in 1928. By 1932, out of 20,000 settlers only 7,000 remained and by 1938 the Jewish Autonomous Oblast (JAO) hosted 20,000 Jews constituting 25% of the total population. To increase the prestige of settling the Far East, the Soviet government raised the status of the autonomy and in 1934 JAO was declared an autonomous republic; the city of
Birobidzhan Birobidzhan ( rus, Биробиджа́н, p=bʲɪrəbʲɪˈdʐan; yi, ביראָבידזשאַן, ''Birobidzhan'') is a town and the administrative center of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Russia, located on the Trans-Siberian Railway, near th ...
became its capital and it was to become the centre of Jewish culture.


Demise

The first five year plans, intensive industrialization and militarization programs in the USSR required educated human resources and many Jews were able to find employment. On the other hand,
collectivization in the USSR The Soviet Union introduced the collectivization (russian: Коллективизация) of its agricultural sector between 1928 and 1940 during the ascension of Joseph Stalin. It began during and was part of the first five-year plan. T ...
resulted in the failure of Soviet agriculture and many starving peasants of all ethnic backgrounds found escape in cities. By the mid-1930s, the OZET had lost its usefulness. In 1937, its leadership and ranks were decimated in the
Great Purge The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Nikolay Yezhov, Yezhov'), was General ...
and in May 1938 the agency was liquidated by special order by the Central Committee of the CPSU as a "corner of various counter-revolutionary Bundist elements, turncoats and spies". International contacts, including the Agro-Joint, were discontinued. In 1938, Jewish national regions, councils, and schools were closed.


See also

* Organization for Jewish Colonisation in the Soviet Union (IKOR) * Committee for the Settlement of Toiling Jews on the Land (KOMZET) *
History of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union The history of the Jews in the Soviet Union is inextricably linked to much earlier expansionist policies of the Russian Empire conquering and ruling the eastern half of the European continent already before the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. "For ...
*
Jews and Judaism in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast The history of the Jews in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast ( JAO), Russia, began with the early settlements of 1928. Yiddish and Russian are the two official languages of the JAO. According to Peter Matthiessen, The Birds of Heaven,p20-21, “Accord ...
*
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, also known as Joint or JDC, is a Jewish relief organization based in New York City. Since 1914 the organisation has supported Jewish people living in Israel and throughout the world. The organization i ...


References

*
Howard Sachar Howard Morley Sachar (February 10, 1928 – April 18, 2018) was an American historian. He was Professor Emeritus of History and International Affairs at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and the author of 16 books, as well as nu ...
, ''A History of the Jews in the Modern World'' (Knopf, NY. 2005) p. 332-339


Further reading

* Robert Weinberg. ''Stalin's Forgotten Zion. Birobidzhan and the Making of a Soviet Jewish Homeland: An Illustrated History, 1928-1996'' (University of California Press, 1998)) * Jonathan L. Dekel-Chen. ''Farming the Red Land: Jewish Agricultural Colonization and Local Soviet Power, 1924-1941'' (Yale University Press, 2005)


External links


OZET lottery posters and tickets
featured in
Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeduca ...
's online exhibition "Stalin's Forgotten Zion: Birobidzhan and the Making of a Soviet Jewish Homeland." *
Joseph Rosen Joseph Rosen (Yiddish: יוסף ראָזין, ''Yosef Rosin''; 1858 – 5 March 1936) known as the Rogatchover Gaon (Genius of Rogachev) and Tzofnath Paneach (Decipherer of Secrets—the title of his main work), was a rabbi and one of the mo ...
'
papers (1911-1943б bulk 1922-1938)
Processed by Marek Web with the assistance of a grant from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Center for Jewish History)

by Jonathan Dekel-Chen (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) from ''Columbia Journal of Historiography'' *
Great Jewish resettlement
at Sem40 *

*

by E. Shkolnikova (Jewish heritage Society) *
OZET
(Short Jewish Encyclopedia: КЕЭ, том 6, кол. 139–142)
Holdings related to OZET
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Archives {{Authority control Jews and Judaism in the Soviet Union Civic and political organizations based in the Soviet Union Soviet phraseology Settlement schemes 1925 establishments in the Soviet Union 1937 disestablishments in the Soviet Union