Russian Koreans II

     After posting my initial blog on Russian Koreans, it occurred to me that there still might be some lingering confusion over the use of the name uhl mao zeh in The Manchurian Tales rather than the name Koryo saram, which appears to be the more common name used today to refer to Russian Koreans. To dispel any further confusion, let me put it this way.  The Russian Koreans who fled Primorye, the Far Eastern Siberia during the Bolshevik Revolution and ended up in Manchuria took to calling themselves uhl mao zeh, the Chinese name for westernized Asians.  Those Russian Koreans that remained in Russia and later deported to Kazakhstan and other Soviet Central Asian countries called themselves Koryo saram.  Later, in the late 1940s when the Soviets occupied Manchuria, and before they turned it over to PRC, they deported the remaining uhl mao zeh in Manchuria to Soviet Central Asia where earlier they had deported the Russian Koreans from Primorye.  So, although they were basically the same people, many related, some as closely as siblings, they were referred to by different names and had lived different lives.
     Those Russian Koreans that remained in Primorye and were deported in the 1930s, never got a chance to experience freedom, live a life style that was relatively free, be educated abroad.  They were simply moved to an isolated region but continued to live under oppressive Soviet regime.
On the other hand, the ones that escaped to Manchuria and called themselves uhl mao zeh experienced a totally different life style.  Although some had a very rough time surviving, still, they managed to live a relatively free life.  Japanese occupation of Manchuria and their rule may have been brutal in some ways, but it was not as bad as the Soviet rule.  Under the Japanese, the uhl mao zeh (if they could afford it) could go abroad to study, as many did.  Their less fortunate counterparts living under Soviet rule could not leave the country! 
     By the time of the second generation in Manchuria, the uhl mao zeh in Manchuria became somewhat different from the Koryo saram in the Soviet Union.  The younger generation, many of whom where educated abroad, were multi-lingual and very cosmopolitan, whereas the ones in the Soviet Union did not have the exposure nor the opportunity to change.  It is this particular generation of uhl mao zeh, the ones that grew up in Harbin, Manchuria in the first half of the 20th Century that were so unique, and unfortunately lost in time and history.
     The Manchurian Tales is not about all Russian Koreans, it is only about a much smaller group that was a product of post Russian Revolution in Manchuria, known as the uhl mao zeh.