"Stateless"

     To most people today, the word "stateless" has little meaning, other than the fact that someone who is stateless is without citizenship.  But to hundreds of thousands of Russians and Russian Koreans (uhl mao zeh), "stateless" meant that they had no status whatsoever.  Initially, when the wave of Russians and Russian Koreans left Primorsky Krai to escape the Bolsheviks and fled to Manchuria, they retained their Russian citizenship.  Manchuria, which was under the administration of the new Chinese Nationalist government, still recognized the Tsarist government and therefore, considered all escapees from Russia as bona fide Russian citizens.  However, it didn't take long for the Chinese to establish ties with the new Soviet government and no longer recognize the Tsarist regime.  Many of the Nationalists, including Chiang Kai Shek were trained in Moscow by the Soviets. Overnight, Russians and Russian Koreans in Manchuria found themselves stateless, with no status or any sort of rights normally extended to citizens of other countries.
     It was difficult enough to find decent work in Manchuria, but when your status became that of a stateless, it was almost impossible to get a good job.  It didn't matter if you had special skills or were highly educated, you still could not get a good job. As an example, an architect would be hired by a Chinese firm to be a draftsman, not as an architect.  The only area where you could still perform your specialized skills was in medicine.  Doctors were always needed so if you were qualified, you could practice medicine.  Fortunately, "stateless" businessmen could continue to run their businesses, despite their lack of citizenship status.  There were, of course, foreign companies that would hire stateless individuals if they had the right training and skills.  But otherwise, it was a very tough situation for the stateless.  You had no papers that allowed you to travel.  Besides, to travel, you had to have money.  It was much more expensive in those days to travel than it is today.
     When the Japanese took over Manchuria officially by establishing the puppet government of Manchukuo, theoretically it improved the situation for the stateless.  But in fact, it did not do much.  The Manchukuo government was not recognized by most countries other than Japan and its allies, and bearers of Manchukuo passports in a sense carried worthless documents.  Fortunately, in those times, travel was not as restrictive as it is today for those without proper documentation.  As long as you had a document that identified you correctly, you could use that document to travel.  The main thing was to have the financial means to travel. That would not work today! 
     Of course, the stateless Russians were not only found in Manchuria, there were thousands of former "white" Russians in Europe as well.  Whether they were in Asia or Europe, the former "white" Russians (and the Russian Koreans) all suffered the same fate.  They were stateless with no place to call their own.  In the more recent times, the only similar situation that beset a large population of people was what happened to the Vietnamese who fled their country after the fall of Saigon.  Overnight, there was no longer the Republic of Vietnam, it disappeared just as the Tsarist Russia disappeared many years earlier.