Russia, Siberia. Stalin deported thousands of Russian Jews from the Birobidzan region, on the Ussuri River in the Soviet Far East. This “promised land” was actually a desolate swamp literally infested with flies and mosquitoes. In a few years, the number of Jews in Birobidzan rose to 200,000. By the 21st century, Birobidzan had been reduced to 85,000, of whom only 8,400 were Jews. All the others fled this hell, most of them to Israel.
