http://blogs.jta.org/ENTRY_PERMALINK_HERE/searching-for-jewish-history-on-the-other-side-of-siberia/ Masha Gessen reports on her efforts to write about the worst good idea ever: the Soviet Union’s Jewish Autonomous Region. en-us aeden@jta.org Copyright 2009 2009-11-25T;19:39:00-05:00 stan@eterna.net If Gessen wants to be a historian she should learn a bit more history.  She says the museum in Birobizhan ignores the “nearby” Japanese front in WWII as if that were a problem.  Given that the USSR and Japan remained at peace until the Soviet declaration of war in the summer of 1945, just before the Japanese surrender, it is hardly surprising that it gets no attention as opposed to the German war that cost the USSR 27 million dead.  We could uses a good history of Birobidzhan, but that really requires a good knowledge of Soviet history as a background and this comment by Gessen doesn’t inspire confidence. If Gessen wants to be a historian she should learn a bit more history.  She says the museum in Birobizhan ignores the “nearby” Japanese front in WWII as if that were a problem.  Given that the USSR and Japan remained at peace until the Soviet declaration of war in the summer of 1945, just before the Japanese surrender, it is hardly surprising that it gets no attention as opposed to the German war that cost the USSR 27 million dead.  We could uses a good history of Birobidzhan, but that really requires a good knowledge of Soviet history as a background and this comment by Gessen doesn’t inspire confidence.

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