October 20, 1936
On this day the official opening of the Birobidzhan railway station took place.
Opening of the railway station. Photo: Photo: Regional Library
The newspaper “Birobidzhan Star” (12+) wrote about this event on October 21, 1936:
“Passengers see the high, sparkling pediment of the station, tastefully decorated and decorated with ornaments. The wide asphalt platform, where the express cars stand, is flooded with light.
Behind the tall station building is the city.
On the pediment of the station there is an inscription “Birobidzhan” in Hebrew and Russian.
Today this is already reality. There are, however, no flower beds yet, the eastern part of the platform is ending, and there are some minor deficiencies in the main building. But the fact remains that the colorfully decorated station is open.
The work on commissioning the station took a very long time. Just yesterday morning a painter was working in one of the rooms of the station. Everywhere on the glass there are inscriptions in Hebrew and Russian: restaurant, reading room, hotel, mother and child room, information desk, medical room, etc.
All the premises of the station have one common quality – space, tastefully selected colors, sun and air. Everywhere sparkles varnish, polished stone, polished metal.
For the opening of the station, portraits of the leaders of the revolution, a two-meter statue of a pioneer, paintings, flowery carpets, palm trees, and a huge artistic vase were installed for the central part of the station. The bright, sunny children's room is painted with an artist's brush.
There is no need to look for old-timers to establish what the station looked like in the past. The old station is still alive – a low and dim, cramped building, where it is stuffy and cramped, like in a peasant bathhouse of a former village.
Next to this squalor, the bright halls, huge windows and asphalt expanses of the reinforced concrete beauty – the socialist Birobidzhan station – look magnificent.”
October 20, 1996
The first direct elections of the head of the executive branch of the Jewish Autonomous Region took place. The highest executive body is the government of the Jewish Autonomous Region.
Nikolai Mikhailovich Volkov was elected head of the first regional government.
October 20, 1988
Zhuravliny Nature Reserve. Photo: Photo: Regional Library
By decision of the Khabarovsk Regional Executive Committee No. 366, the Zhuravliny nature reserve was established to protect the red-crowned and white-naped cranes. By Decree of the Head of the Administration of the Jewish Autonomous Region No. 120 dated July 1, 1992, it was transformed into a complex natural reserve. According to its profile, the reserve is complex (landscape) and performs the functions of preserving and restoring natural landscapes and their components.
Located on the territory of the municipal formation “Oktyabrsky Municipal District”, on the southeastern slopes of the Pompeevsky Range and the adjacent Middle Amur Lowland, occupied by wetlands. The climate is temperate monsoon, characteristic of the territory of the Jewish Autonomous Region. The area of the reserve is 67939 hectares.
In the west and north-west of the reserve there are places where key ecosystems and increased biodiversity are localized – the Leafy Cape tract and its surroundings; interfluve of the Kulemnaya, Arachonok, Karmakovka rivers. “Classic” areas of cedar-broad-leaved forests, habitats of the order of crane-like animals, migration routes of roe deer, seasonal habitat areas of elk, wild boar, and wapiti have been preserved here. Broad-leaved and spruce-cedar forests are widespread within the southeastern slopes of the Pompeii Ridge, affecting the condition and preservation of all natural components.
Among the species listed in the Red Data Book of the Jewish Autonomous Region (6+), the following are found in the reserve: white-naped and Ussuri cranes, piebald and marsh harrier, crested honey buzzard, Far Eastern curlew, spiny owl, Amur snake and Sakhalin viper, stevenia eucalyptus, Japanese beard, hosta lanceolate.
