Russian Koreans

     At the recent Winter Olympics in Sochi, a 16 year old figure skater, Denis Ten, a Russian Korean from Kazakhstan won a bronze medal.  Denis, I believe, is either a third or fourth generation Russian Korean.  This wasn't the first time that a Russian Korean excelled in an Olympic sport.  About 35 years ago, another Russian Korean, Nellie Kim, was a sensation in the Summer Olympics and won multiple gold medals and scored the first perfect tens in two categories in Women's Gymnastics.
     Ethnic Koreans have always done well in their chosen professions in Russia or the former Soviet Union.  Ironically, very little is known about these people and certainly not much has been written about them except in some scholarly journals with a very narrow readership.  It was this very lack of information about Russian Koreans that in part motivated me to write my book, The Manchurian Tales.  The Manchurian Tales is a family saga that takes the reader through three generations in the lives of a Russian Korean family and their tragedies and triumphs.  In the book, the Russian Koreans are referred to by the name of uhl mao zeh, a Korean pronunciation of Chinese name for westernized Asians, er mao tzu.  In Chinese the name is not flattering since it means "second foreigner" in the polite version but could also mean a "second hairy barbarian" or some such unflattering name.  Koreans in Manchuria called Russians mao zeh, since uhl means two or second in Korean, the Korean version of uhl mao zeh simply meant a second Russian.  This label or this name was applied to only those Koreans that were Russofied.
     Other ethnic Koreans who were not Russofied called themselves by the  old name of Koryo saram.  It seems that today the name uhl mao zeh has disappeared and only the Koryo saram survived and is being used, at least according to some scholars.