Role of Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in Ukraine reconstruction in 1920s

The resettlement of Jews to undeveloped lands and their transformation into peasants was very difficult for impoverished and unadapted to hard physical labor former artisans, small traders, and people of intelligent labor. Life had to be started from the beginning, with a clean slate, with dugouts and strict economy in literally everything. Many families had to starve while waiting for the first harvest. At the same time, settling in new places, women and old people worked on an equal footing with young men, doing hard work. Instructors and agronomists of Agro-Joint, who took an active part in the life of the colonists at various stages of the formation of their farms, provided considerable assistance to the settlers. They were engaged in everything: from allocating land to building settlements, digging wells, organizing agriculture, animal husbandry, etc. About this too the Soviet press wrote a lot, and in 1927, the director A. Room even made a documentary film “A Jew on land” by order of OZET.

In general, in the 1920s, the Soviet press paid a lot of attention to the topic of the resettlement of Soviet Jews to new lands and the arrangement of their lives. The Western Ukrainian press also wrote a lot about it, in particular the newspaper «Dilo», which was published in Lviv. The authors of this publication saw in the project of Jewish colonization of Southern Ukraine and Crimea a certain conspiracy of the Kremlin leadership and international Jewry. At the same time, the American press often ridiculed the activities of Agro-Joint, which competed with the Zionist project to settle Mandatory Palestine. From the point of view of the Zionists, it meant the loss of part of the money that was collected among the Jews of United States. Despite this, Joint, like his donors, preferred colonization in USSR, which was much cheaper per family than in Palestine.

In his book, M. Mitsel provides data on the scope of the work of Agro-Joint in USSR, which, according to his calculations, spent $14,946,254 on the resettlement and settlement of Jews on new lands in 1924-1936 [9]. With these funds, hundreds of residential buildings and public buildings were built, wells and water supply systems were built, machine-tractor stations and other industrial infrastructure facilities were built in Jewish agricultural colonies and collective farms. A significant part of the funds was also directed to the provision of agronomic assistance to the population, in particular, to the establishment of vineyards and orchards, irrigated gardens, etc. In addition, Agro-Joint carried out extensive work on the training of agronomic personnel, subsidizing agricultural educational institutions, in particular, Novopoltava Agricultural Technical College, which was transformed into an institute in 1930.

At the same time, intra-organizational work was carried out, which consisted in the creation of local self-government bodies, which became councils of collectives. Each Jewish village was connected to the nearest village council through its representatives. At the same time, the representatives were elected at the general meeting of the residents of the village, where the village council was also elected from the representatives of all collectives. In 1925, the newspaper «Izvestia» (an organ of Odesa Provincial Committee of CP(b)U) wrote that the relations of Jewish immigrants with the surrounding population were satisfactory, even with former tenants of state funds, who were mostly from the wealthy peasantry. “Various state, trade union, and cooperative organizations working in the village go out of their way to meet the displaced people and provide their assistance”, the newspaper wrote [11, p. 3].

The activity of Agro-Joint continued in the 1930s during the so-called collective farm construction. At that time, the main regions of the corporation's activity were the Jewish national districts of Ukrainian SSR (Stalindorf, Kalinindof and Novozlatopol), as well as Freidorf and Larindorf districts of the Crimean ASSR. In general, on January 1, 1937, AgroJoint served 218 collective farms in Ukrainian SSR, in which 13,250 families lived, including 133 Jewish collective farms in Dnipropetrovsk and Odesa regions, as well as 85 farms in Crimea [9]. In total, during colonization, about 100,000 Soviet Jews moved to these areas, who created dozens of agricultural settlements and cooperative associations with a high agricultural culture. The further success of this program was hindered by collectivization, and then the «internationalization» of some collective farms, the strengthening of the antireligious struggle, and massive political repression.

Liquidating the Jewish national public associations, the Communist Party bodies created a «surrogate» in their place in the form of organizations that were under strict party control from the moment of registration and tried to attract Jews to participate in these public organizations. This applied to Jewish cooperatives, mass voluntary societies and trade unions. In the early 1920s, Communist Party bodies tried to turn Jewish international societies into controlled organizations that would lose the status of an independent political player in the Jewish environment of Ukraine. Therefore, in the specified period, cases of applying revolutionary legal methods, administrative and criminal prosecution against them were not rare.

As a result, a large part of the youth who lived in Jewish settlements went to the big cities to study, as well as to the buildings of the first five-year schools, and the number of such settlements decreased sharply. They were finally destroyed during the Second World War, during the Nazi occupation of the Southern regions of Ukraine and Crimea. After the war, none of the Jewish collective farms were restored.

The fate of S. Yu. Lyubarskyi was also tragic. from the beginning of the 1930s, he had to work in an atmosphere of mistrust and suspicion on the part of the Jewish communists, under the constant supervision of the OGPU-NKVS. And then the arrests began.

S. Lyubarskyi was arrested for the first time in 1930 in the so-called «case of agronomists», accused of organizing activities and establishing a «bourgeois-democratic system» in USSR. According to the verdict of the Special Meeting of the OGPU, he was deprived of the right to reside in twelve cities of USSR for 3 years, for some time he lived in Kursk. Soon he was amnestied and allowed to return to Moscow in 1931. At that time, Agro-Joint remained almost the only foreign organization that operated in USSR and knew about the real situation in the Soviet countryside. Therefore, every year the pressure on the organization itself and on its employees increased, many of whom were arrested and unjustly repressed. In 1938, S. Yu. Lyubarsky was arrested again. This time he was accused of espionage for Germany and USA, as well as of preparing an assassination attempt on Molotov and Kaganovich. On September 1, 1938, according to the verdict of the Military Board of the Supreme Court of USSR S. Lyubarskyi was sentenced to the highest degree of punishment and the sentence was carried out on the same day. He was buried at the place of execution, on the territory of the Butovoy khutor near Moscow [9].

On October 13, 1959, by the decision of the Military Board of the Supreme Court of USSR, the sentence against S. Yu. Lyubarskyi was annulled, and the criminal case was terminated due to the absence of a crime [9]. However, the merits of this scientist, agronomist and organizer of agricultural affairs are still not properly appreciated. Considering this, we consider it necessary to raise the issue of commemorating S. Yu. Lyubarsky and install a memorial plaque in his honor in Kharkiv on one of the buildings where he lived or worked.

Conclusions

Thus, in the 20s of the XX century. The American Jewish Joint Committee and its subsidiary corporation Agro-Joint launched large-scale and diverse work in the South of Ukraine and Crimea to provide practical assistance to the population of Jewish agricultural colonies. Of particular importance was assistance with the supply of tractors and other equipment that were transferred to agricultural societies, the introduction of advanced methods of farming, animal husbandry, horticulture, development of the cooperative movement, etc. Humanitarian activities for community development, provision of social needs, infrastructure development, and education played an equally important role in the recovery.

We believe that the positive experience of the activities of such a powerful international charitable organization as Joint should be carefully studied and researched, and the basic ideas and principles of its humanitarian mission can be used to overcome the negative consequences of the war in Ukraine.

References

1. Beiser, M., Mitsel, M. (2004). Amerykanskyi brat: Dzhoint v Rossyy, SSSR, SNH. [American brother: Joint in Russia, USSR, CIS]. Jerusalem, 208 p. (in Russian).

2. Borba s posledstvyiamy holoda (1922) [Fighting the consequences of hunger]. Zvezda. December 9. (in Russian).

3. Dotsenko, V (2015). Yevreiskyi hromadskyi rukh v Ukraini (60-ti rr. XX - 30-ti rr. XX storichchia) [Jewish social movement in Ukraine (1960s - 1930s)]. Autoref. diss. Doctor of Science in Historical Sciences, Kyiv, 41 p. (in Ukrainian).

4. Dysput o traktorakh (1923) [Dispute about tractors]. Izvestiya VTSIK, July 2. (in Russian).

5. Istoriia ukrainskoho selianstva (2006). [The history of the Ukrainian peasantry]. T. 1., Kyiv, 631 p. (in Ukrainian).

6. JDCArchives. URL: https://archives.jdc.org

7. Kryvokon, O. G. (2015). Rozvytok traktorobuduvannia v Ukraini v konteksti svitovoho prohresu (1920 - ti - 1980 - ti rr.).[Development of tractorbuilding in Ukraine in the context of global progress (1920-1980 years)]. Kharkiv: Tekhnologichnyi Centr, 672 p. (in Ukrainian).

8. Mykhaylovsky, T O. (2018). Diialnist mizharodnykh orhanizatsii na pivdni Ukrainy (1921-1929 rr.) [Activities of international organizations in the south of Ukraine (1921-1929)]. Autoref. diss. Candidate of History of Sciences, Mykolaiv, 18 p. (in Ukrainian).

9. Mitsel, M. (2012). Posledniaia hlava: Ahro-Dzhoynt v hody bolshoho terrora. [The last chapter: Agro-Joint in the years of great terror]. Kyiv, Spirit and letter, 464 p. (in Russian).

10. Mitsel, M. Dokumenty po ystoryy evreev Ukrayny v Niu-Yorkskom arkhyve Dzhointa (kollektsyia 1921-1932 hh.) [Documents on the history of the Jews of Ukraine in the New York Joint Archives (collection 1921-1932)]. Internet site “Jews of Eurasia”. URL: http://library.jewseurasia.org/ page66/news13466

11. Na trudovoi zemle (1925) [On the working land]. Izvestia, October 11 (in Russian).

12. Novye kadry trudovoho krestianstva (1925) [New cadres of the working peasantry]. Proletarskaia pravda. May 31 (in Russian).

13. Pohromskyi V. O. (2013) Suchasni doslidzhennia z istorii diialnosti “Dzhoint” v Ukraini u vitchyznianii ta diaspornii istoriohrafii [Current work in the history of «Joint» in Ukraine in domestic and diaspora historiography]. Naukovyi visnykMykolaivskoho natsionalnoho universytetu imeni V. O. Sukhomlynskoho. Istorychni nauky. V 3. 34, p. 272-277 (in Ukrainian).

14. Pomoshch Amerykanskoi Orhanyzatsyy «Dzhoint» v oblasty vostanovlenyia selskoho khoziaistva Ukrainy (1923). [Assistance of American “Joint” Organization in the field of agricultural establishment in Ukraine]. Ukrainian agricultural newspaper, July 20, p.15-18 (in Russian).

15. Traktory na seli. (1923) [Tractors in the countryside]. Selianskapravda, September 14 (in Ukrainian).

16. Traktorni roboty na Ukraini (1924) [Tractor works in Ukraine]. Robitnyche-selianska pravda, August 2 (in Ukrainian).

17. Trudy Hosplana: Kn. 4: K voprosu mekhanyzatsyy selskoho khoziaistva (1923) [Works of Gosplan: Book. 4: To the question of agricultural mechanization]. Moscow, 294 p. (in Russian).

18. V peredovomu seli (1924) [In an advanced village]. Selianska pravda, September 12 (in Ukrainian).

19. Uhoda z Amerykanskoiu yevreiskoiu obiednanoiu ahronomichnoiu korporatsiieiu «Ahro-Dzhoint» (1924) [Agreement with American Jewish Joint Agricultural Corporation “Agro-Joint”]. Sovietska Volyn, December 23 (in Ukrainian).

Размещено на Allbest.ru