50 years of the Birobidzhan Children's Music School. 1987
Photo: State Archive of the Jewish Autonomous Region
February 17, 1907
On February 17, 1907, Nokhem Moiseevich Fridman (pseudonym N. Mirny) was born – journalist, poet.
As a child, he began writing poetry.
Nokhem Moiseevich Friedman. Photo: Photo: Regional Library
In the 20s he entered the Jewish Pedagogical College in Gomel. After technical school in 1926, among the first students, he entered the department of Jewish language and culture of the pedagogical faculty of the Second Moscow State University.
In May 1928, with the first echelon of settlers, Fridman Nokhem Moiseevich arrived at Tikhonkaya station. He worked for some time in Birofeld.
Since 1934 he worked for the newspaper “Birobidzhaner Stern” (12+). He collaborated in regional newspapers, central publications, was published in the magazine “Forpost” (12+) and was on its editorial board. In 1939 he became deputy editor of the newspaper “Birobidzhan Star” (12+). Since 1949, Friedman Nokhem Moiseevich has been the editor of the newspaper “Birobidzhaner Stern” (12+).
On May 18, 1951, Nokhem Moiseevich Fridman was arrested in Birobidzhan, and in February 1952 he was sentenced to 25 years in forced labor camps. In 1955 he was released. In 1956 he returned to Birobidzhan and resumed his writing activities, leading the regional literary association.
Nokhem Moiseevich Friedman died in Birobidzhan in 1976.
February 17, 1914
In the newspaper “District Bulletin” (12+) 2021, in the section “Bright moments of the small homeland” there is information that in February 1914, Governor Nikolai Lvovich Gondatti crossed the territory of today's region by train. He arrived on February 17, 1914 at the Obluchye station to take part in the ceremonial joining of the rails of the Western and Eastern sections of the Amur Railway.
February 17, 1935
Clippings from the newspaper “Birobidzhan Star”. Photo: Photo: Regional Library
The newspaper “Birobidzhan Star” in the article “Resettlement in the Jewish Autonomous Region – on New Rails” stated that in Moscow, an extended meeting was held in the central Committee, in which the secretary of the organizing bureau of the CPSU (b) of the Jewish Autonomous Region Khavkin M., the chairman of the regional executive committee I. Liberberg and many other representatives of Komzet and Ozet took part.
“The deputy chairman of the Committee, Comrade B. Trotsky, in his report, reported on the increased allocations of the Soviet government for the resettlement of 4 thousand families in the Jewish Autonomous Region in 1935… Comrade Trotsky emphasized that this year, in contrast to previous years, qualified workers will be recruited to the Jewish Autonomous Region in large numbers. A lively debate unfolded around the report, in which Comrade Sudarsky took part. (UkrOzet), Efron (BelOzet), Temkin (Komzet), Weinstein, Eidelman, Druyanov, Hoike (Ts.S. Ozet), Rafalsky (deputy manager of Birobidzhanstroy), Shprakh (Emes editorial office) and others. The comrades who spoke spoke most of all about the slowness and bureaucracy in the apparatus of the central Komzet and Ozet in matters of reception and. sending to Ev.A.O. cadres of workers and specialists who voluntarily wish to move to Ev.A.O. They also pointed out that the information received from the region about housing conditions and work at each individual enterprise where migrants are required was sharply criticized by Comrade Khavkin and Comrade Liberberg… Khavkin, in his big, bright speech, outlined the tasks of socialist construction of the region and, in connection with this, the tasks of resettlement.
“Resettlement,” says Comrade Khavkin, is the central political task of the region… Comrade. Khavkin draws the attention of Komzet and Ozet to the need for widespread mobilization of the Jewish Soviet intelligentsia – agronomists, technicians, cultural workers – to help build the Jewish Autonomous Region.”
February 17, 1937
Clippings from the newspaper “Birobidzhan Star”. Photo: Photo: Regional Library
The newspaper “Birobidzhan Star” in the section “Across the city and region” informs readers that an “air ambulance” will appear for remote taiga villages.
“The regional health department is receiving two planes this year. The sanitary planes will serve the most remote villages of the region, bring doctors from Khabarovsk for consultations, deliver patients to the hospital, etc. 100 thousand rubles have been allocated for the purchase and maintenance of sanitary planes for the regional health care system.”
In this section, correspondents bring to the attention of readers that in 1937 a residential building for employees, a greenhouse will be built at the Experimental Station, and a collective farm school will be built.
“This school will train foremen of all agricultural qualifications for the new resettlement collective farms. Funds for the construction of the collective farm school have been allocated by Ozet.”
The newspaper informs that the Experimental Station is preparing a number of exhibits for the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition.
“Soil samples, soil, botanical and fruit and berry maps of the region are being prepared. In addition, a meteorological album of the region and an artistic album of plants that grow and can grow in our region are being prepared for the exhibition.”
February 17, 1937
By resolution of the Presidium of the Birobidzhan City Council dated February 17, 1937, a children's music school was opened in Birobidzhan. 1937 was the year of the centenary since the death of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin and, at the request of the Pushkin Committee, at a meeting of the regional party committee of the Jewish Autonomous Region they heard the question “On perpetuating the memory of the great poet Pushkin.” It was decided to name the newly opened school the name A.S. Pushkin.
“In March 1937, the school conducted classes in piano, violin, double bass, flute and oboe. Upon receipt of the instruments, clarinet and trumpet classes will begin to work. The instruments must be sent by the Central Council of Ozeta. A workshop has been equipped at the school to repair instruments.”
In the magazine “Tribune” (12+) for 1937, information was posted that in the new academic year a choir and orchestra of mass instruments would be organized at the school. Since 1938, the school has been under the control and budget of the Committee for Arts. The same magazine published information that a children's ballet school is opening in Birobidzhan on the premises of the Children's Music School. “…at school, children will also study national dances. The school will be led by the choreographer of the Moscow Nemirovich-Danchenko Theater, Comrade Itskhoki.”
Throughout its existence, the school has experienced many transformations; since its creation, it has changed seven different addresses.
Musical groups and soloists of the school take part in city and regional concerts, competitions, and festivals. Students became laureates and diploma winners at festivals and competitions at various levels.
In 2016, the Birobidzhan Children's Music School was among the fifty best children's art schools in Russia. In 2021, the music school, as a participant in the national project “Culture”, was allocated about 3.8 million rubles to update the material and technical base of the institution.
February 17, 1947
Pavel Ksenofontovich Alekseychuk. Photo: Photo: Regional Library
The poet Pavel Ksenofontovich Alekseychuk was born on February 17, 1947 in the village of Ptichnik, Jewish Autonomous Region, in a simple large family. Pavel learned to read before school. Pavel remembered children's books with bright pictures and large letters, which he read himself. And then it became more and more difficult to read, as if fog was covering my eyes.
The disease progressed and he went to a boarding school for the visually impaired and blind, which was located in the city of Svobodny in the Amur region. Pavel was involved in athletics, participated in amateur performances, read a lot, given the young man’s successes, he was offered to continue his education at the Khabarovsk branch of the Novosibirsk full-time and correspondence school for the blind. P. Alekseychuk moved to live in Khabarovsk, began working at the VOS enterprise, and actively participated in the work of the society of the blind.
In Khabarovsk, the poet for the first time came with his poems to the literary association at the newspaper “Young Far East” (12+). Pavel tried to publish in other local newspapers, and began to collaborate with the editors of the magazine “Our Life” (12+), published by the central board of the Society of the Blind in Moscow.
The name of Pavel Alekseychuk has appeared more than once on the pages of Birobidzhan newspapers. The blind poet's poems were published in “Birobidzhan Star”, “Birobidzhaner Shterne” and in “Di Vokha” (12+). He is the winner of the city administration award for 1996. Pavel Ksenofontovich died in November 2003.
February 17, 1959
The Bureau of the Regional Committee of the CPSU adopted a resolution to send 100 communists and 300 Komsomol members to permanent work in state and collective farms in the region.
