By 1920, war, revolution, and famine had left the newly emerged Soviet Union in chaos. JDC brought aid to impoverished Jews in the region, especially desperate after years of bloody pogroms and ongoing exclusion from any government services. JDC hoped to free Jews from such crippling conditions and provide them a secure place in the emerging society. Agro-Joint, established in 1924, created Jewish agricultural colonies and industrial schools in Ukraine and Crimea. By 1938, Agro-Joint’s work was subsumed by the Soviet system. Disturbingly, at that point, many Agro-Joint leaders and some colonists were arrested as part of the Great Terror orchestrated by Stalin.