In the 1920s, the Soviet Union's policy towards ethnic minorities was to fight calls for national independence by celebrating the culture and language of national minorities, as long as those cultural elements and languages were being used to promote the message of communism. (Things were expected to be "nationalist in form, socialist in content" - Soviet Nationalities Policy). There was also a belief that, due to the pro-Russian policies of the Tsarist government, individuals from non-Russian cultures needed additional support in order to prepare them to take up positions in the new Communist government, at all levels from local to national. They therefore introduced a series of policies that have been deemed "affirmative action" by Terry Martin in The Affirmative Action Empire, also known as "korenizatsiia", or 'nativization'. Ethnic minorities were granted their own "homelands" within the borders of the USSR, also known as "SSRs" or Soviet Socialist Republics, and within these regions, people who spoke the official language of the region were given preference when it came to hiring teachers, mayors, and communist government officials. Schools were created to teach students in the native language of the ethnic group of that region, newspapers and magazines were published, etc. There were many potential benefits to being recognized as an official ethnic minority in the 1920s. So, in order to take advantage of these potential benefits, some Jews in the USSR pushed to have Jews recognized as an ethnic group, rather than merely a religion. They were successful, but because Jews were spread throughout the USSR, they were granted schools and publications in their 'native language' (Yiddish), but no SSR. Then in the late 1920s-early 1930s the political situation of the Soviet Union changed. The Japanese invasion of Manchuria worried the Soviet government, and they decided they wanted to strengthen their claim to the eastern-most portions of Siberia by settling trusted citizens near the country's eastern border. (This was a policy they had used along their Western borders). They also wanted to increase their profile in the West and show off how tolerant and welcoming Communism was, while simultaneously encouraging donations from Jews outside the USSR to help fund the Jewish community within the country. So the Soviet government agreed to create a 'Jewish homeland' within the USSR, and selected the Far East region of Siberia, known as Birobidzhan. From the perspective of the Soviet Jewish representatives (led by Yevsektsiia, or the Jewish Section of the Communist Party), the Jewish Autonomous region/Oblast' was intended as an explicit alternative to the Zionist project. Zionists, with their allegiance to a potential homeland outside the USSR, and to Hebrew (which Jewish communists deemed the language of religion and rabbis, rather than than the language of the workers--which was Yiddish) were seen in the early 1920s as opponents to the Soviet project by Jewish communists, and were driven out of the country or arrested. So the creation of the Autonomous Oblast' was meant to steal the thunder of Zionists by establishing a Jewish homeland first. The Jewish Autonomous Oblast' was established in 1934. Immigration into the region preceded the official declaration, starting in the late 1920s, but emigration FROM the territory was common from the beginning, as it was cold in the winter, full of mosquitos in the summer, and lacking basic infrastructure. (To see more, check out Birobidzhan) So, was the Jewish Autonomous Oblast' merely a cold, Israel substitute (before the modern state of Israel even existed)? Overall, yes-- this is a fair characterization. As to why it exists, a combination of Soviet nationality policies and internal Soviet-Jewish politics came together to help create the region. But the Soviet government was already cutting back on korenizatsiia by the 1930s, starting to distrust national minorities which had an independant 'parent country' outside the USSR (i.e. Poles in the USSR who might have loyalty to Poland rather than the USSR, or Soviet Germans who might be more loyal to Germany). This caused government policies to move away from promoting national minorities, towards a more pro-Russian stance by the end of the 1930s. Having only been granted official status in 1934, the Jewish Autonomous Oblast' missed out on the height of national minority promotion and sponsorship, which contributed to the difficulties it experienced in attracting settlers.