Soviet Koreans in Uzbekistan in the First Year after Deportation in 1937

Abstract

Koreans had lived on the southern territory of the modern Russian Far East before the arrival of Russian pathfinders in these lands. Therefore, they are an indigenous population of the modern Primorye region in the Russia, although, in the nineteenth century the number of Koreans was relatively small in the south of the Russian Far East. Russian Koreans supported the October Revolution and the fight of the Red Army against the old regime for several reasons. Bolsheviks put forward two principles of the new government—land for peasants and equality of peoples. These principles found a response in the broad mass of the Korean and Chinese populations in the Far East. After their victory, the Bolsheviks kept their promises. An area for ethnic Koreans, called Posiet, in the territory of the Primorye region was created, and Koreans resided in 28 districts in three areas of the modern Primorye region. A Korean Education College was created in Nikolsk Ussuriysk-city (modern Ussuriysk-city), as well as Korean language schools, a national theater, Korean-Chinese printers and so on. Korean families usually have many children, so the Korean population in Russia grew at a fast pace. This Korean population fell victim to the policies of deportation, which were applied to many of the non-Russian peoples of the Far East under Stalin. For many decades such deportations were denied, and then when admitted, the documentary materials surrounding them were unavailable. However, in the 1980s with the development of greater accessibility to archives held by the Russian Federation, the stories of such difficult historical moments are once again visible and reachable. This Research Note, in particular, explores the archival material that exists in the Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Rossiiskoi Federatsii (GARF, Государственный архив Российской Федерации, State Archive of the Russian Federation) relating to the deportation of Koreans of Primorye to Uzbekistan.