[17] Prior to 1858, the area of what is today the Jewish Autonomous Oblast was ruled by a succession of Chinese imperial dynasties.

[19] Expeditions of scientists, including geographers, ethnographers, naturalists, and botanists such as Mikhail Ivanovich Venyukov, Leopold von Schrenck, Karl Maximovich, Gustav Radde, and Vladimir Leontyevich Komarov promoted research in the area.

[18] The only industrial enterprise was the Tungussky timber mill, although gold was mined in the Sutara River, and there were some small railway workshops.

[18] In 1922, during the Russian Civil War, the territory of the future Jewish Autonomous Oblast became the scene of the Battle of Volochayevka.

[20] Although Judaism as a religion ran counter to the Bolshevik party's policy of atheism and their crackdown on organized Jewish communities by closing synagogues and harassing believers, Vladimir Lenin also wanted to appease minority groups to gain their support and provide examples of tolerance.

[21] In 1924, the unemployment rate among Jews exceeded 30 percent,[22] as a result of USSR policies against private property ownership, which prohibited them from being craftspeople and small businessmen as many had been prior to the revolution.

[22] The Soviet government entertained the idea of resettling all Jews in the USSR in a designated territory where they would be able to pursue a lifestyle that was "socialist in content and national in form".

Socialist Zionists such as Ber Borochov were gaining followers at that time, and Zionism was the favored ideology in the world's political economy to the Yiddish interpretations, which were essentially incompatible with the USSR because of the Yiddish movement's growing opposition (e.g. Emma Goldman) to the very ethno-nationalism which constituted and structured Soviet states.

At the time, there were only about 30,000 inhabitants in the area, mostly descendants of Trans-Baikal Cossacks resettled there by tsarist authorities, Koreans, Kazakhs, and the Tungusic peoples.

[26] The Soviet government wanted to increase settlement in the remote Russian Far East, especially along the vulnerable border with China.

General Pavel Sudoplatov writes about the government's rationale behind picking the area in the Far East: "The establishment of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in Birobidzhan in 1928 was ordered by Stalin only as an effort to strengthen the Far Eastern border region with an outpost, not as a favour to the Jews.

"[27] On 28 March 1928, the Presidium of the General Executive Committee of the USSR passed the decree "On the attaching for Komzet of free territory near the Amur River in the Russian Far East for settlement of the working Jews.

[21] Birobidzhan had a harsh geography and climate: it was mountainous, covered with virgin forests of oak, pine and cedar, and also swamplands, and any new settlers would have to build their lives from scratch.

[30] On 7 May 1934, the Presidium of the General Executive Committee accepted the decree on its transformation into the Jewish Autonomous Region within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.

The campaign partly incorporated the standard Soviet promotional tools of the era, including posters and Yiddish-language novels describing a socialist utopia there.

In another instance, a government-produced Yiddish film called Seekers of Happiness told the story of a Jewish family from overseas making a new life for itself in Birobidzhan.

[21] In 1991, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Jewish Autonomous Oblast became the federal subject of Russia and thus was no longer subordinated to Khabarovsk Krai.

The five- to seven-year-olds spend two lessons a week learning to speak Yiddish, as well as being taught Jewish songs, dance, and traditions.

[37] According to a 2015 article, kosher meat arrives by train from Moscow every few weeks, a Sunday school functions, and there is also a minyan on Friday night and Shabbat.

[53] Released in 2002, the film tells the story of Joseph Stalin's creation of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast and its partial settlement by thousands of Russian and Yiddish speaking Jews.

At 1,421 metres (4,662 ft) Mount Studencheskaya, located in the Bureya Range, is the highest point of the Jewish Autonomous Oblast.

[54] The territory has a monsoonal/anticyclonic climate, with warm, wet, humid summers due to the influence of the East Asian monsoon, and cold, dry, windy conditions prevailing in the winter months courtesy of the Siberian high-pressure system.

The Jewish Autonomous Oblast is part of the Far Eastern Economic Region; it has industry and agriculture and its transportation network involves roads, rail and water ways.

[55] Agriculture is the Jewish Autonomous Oblast's main economic sector owing to fertile soils and a moist climate.

[21] In 1991, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Jewish Autonomous Oblast became the federal subject of Russia and thus was no longer subordinated to Khabarovsk Krai.

The five- to seven-year-olds spend two lessons a week learning to speak Yiddish, as well as being taught Jewish songs, dance, and traditions.

[71] Judaism, despite being the associated religion of the oblast's titular ethnoreligious group, is practiced by just 1% of the population, which is only slightly higher than the national average and is close to that of communities in other federal subjects.