Conclusion

Abstract

In 1924, the young Jewish settlers in the agricultural colonies appeared to be enthusiastic as they felt a new lease on life in “going to the land.” The colonization in Crimea and southern Ukraine would not have been possible without the efforts of Joseph Rosen and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), but Rosen needed help to make the three actors in this endeavor—the colonists, the foreign philanthropies led by the JDC, and the Soviet regime—work together successfully. A unique combination of visionaries and activists on both sides of the Atlantic drove the colonization enterprise forward. Far from the colonies, the project exacerbated the key problems confronting American Jews during the interwar period. Joseph Stalin may have pressured the JDC's Joint Agricultural Corporation to withdraw from the colonies, but the latter never really planned to remain as a permanent presence in Russia. The Agro-Joint episode offers a unique opportunity to assess Soviet rural policy during the interwar period.