Jewish autonomous oblast

In 1934 in an attempt to divide the Soviet Union by its ethnicity, Stalin moved the ethnic Jews way out into the far east so that the Yiddish could practice their culture while staying inside the socialist system. However according to the 1939 soviet population census, there were only about 18,000 Jews, which only made up about 17% of the population. Today, Russian make up of the largest part of the population at about 90%, while ethnic Jews only make up about 2% of the population now. The administrative center is Birobidzhan, and the JAO borders China and the Khabarovsk Krai Amur Oblast.