Deportation/"Resettlement" of Russian Koreans

     In The Manchurian Tales, I mention the deportation of Russian Koreans from Primorsky Krai in Siberia in the 1930s, followed by the deportation of Russian Koreans from Manchuria in the late 1940s and early 1950s.  The Soviets used the term "resettlement," but in reality, it was deportation.  Resettlements are usually mutually agreed upon moves (most of the time!) whereas deportations are something that are forced.
     Starting in the mid to late 1920s, once the civil war in Russia had come to a conclusion and Stalin had assumed control of the new Soviet Union, Russian Koreans in Siberia were forcibly moved, practically to the other side of the world, to Soviet Central Asia.  Most of them ended up in Kazakhstan, others ended up in neighboring states that were just as dismal and undeveloped as Kazakhstan at that time. The Soviets claimed that the Russian Koreans were "resettled" in these undeveloped regions so that they could help develop them, bring them into the modern world.  No doubt that was part of the reason.  But the main reason was that Stalin did not trust Russian Koreans.  He was afraid that they would side with Japan, since Korea was a Japanese colony at that time.  It didn't seem to matter to him that there were large number of Koreans, including Russian Koreans, who fought the Japanese in guerrilla warfare.  Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of the current "Great Leader" of North Korea gained fame as a guerrilla leader and a devout communist fighting the Japanese, and Stalin was aware of him. 
     Still, Stalin did not trust the ethnic Koreans and had all of them, all that he could round up, shipped off to Central Asia.  People had to abandon everything, just grab what they could and board cattle cars that took them across Siberia to the distant land.  Many of them were loyal communists!  The hardship suffered by these people is indescribable.  Many died in transit, others died of illness upon arrival in Central Asia.
     When the Soviets entered Harbin in the summer of 1945, at first there was terror in the form of criminal activities of the Soviet troops, looting, rape, murder, etc.  This was followed by arrests of suspected "enemies" of the Soviet Union.  People were hauled off in the middle of the night never to be heard from again.  Most were shot within days or shipped off to Gulags in Siberia.  After a while things seem to calm down, but then, another form of terror began for Russian speaking population in Harbin.  Most Russians were shipped to different places in Russia, many were simply sent to labor camps.  Russian Koreans, on the other hand, were shipped off to Soviet Central Asia.  Just as their friends and relatives who remained in Russia experienced some 25 years earlier, the Russian Koreans in Harbin were rounded up and put on trains and sent off.  They could only take what they could carry, small bundles and bags, nothing else.  They had to abandon everything. 
     Harbin was one of the most modern cities in Asia at that time.  It had all of the modern conveniences, electricity, plumbing, modern hospitals, schools, etc.  From these surroundings, the uhl mao zeh, the Russian Koreans in Harbin, were moved to remote Soviet Central Asia with primitive facilities, with no indoor plumbing or electricity.  They were simply deposited in these regions after a long and tortuous journey, and told to make do.  They were there to help develop the region.  It was a terrible and inhumane thing for Soviets to do, but then, they were not known for their kind and gentle approach!  Suicide rate among the newly arrived uhl mao zeh was high.  Some viewed their new situation as  completely hopeless.  Yet, they somehow persevered and survived, and in some cases, even prospered by attaining good jobs and positions as professionals.  The uhl mao zeh of Manchuria were no more, they disappeared.  Instead, the remaining Russian Koreans in the region, the ones that call themselves koryo saram, managed to establish themselves as an important and integral part of that region.  Koryo saram is a curious choice of name for these people, but then, that is another subject for another blog.
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