The Korean diaspora in the USSR in the 1930s

Abstract

The article is devoted to the so-called Korean problem in the Soviet Union and ways to find ways to solve it. The Bolsheviks inherited from the Russian Empire the unresolved issue of active settlement of the Far East by Koreans. The migration from Japanese Korea was massive and uncontrolled. Unlike the Chinese, who settled all over the Soviet Union, Koreans settled compactly in the far eastern region. According to the 1937 census, the diaspora in the USSR numbered about 200,000 people. Since the 1920s, the Bolshevik government has attempted to solve the Korean question in the country, including repression of the diaspora.  However, the Bolsheviks resorted to drastic and decisive measures in the 1930s. At this time, persecution of the Korean population increased. The main reason for persecution was the desire of the Bolshevik government to rid the country of "unreliable" and "dangerous" elements. The repression of Koreans in the 1930s can be divided into two stages. The first stage covers the period from the beginning of the new decade to the summer of 1937. This period is characterized by sporadic arrests of the Korean population, with the peak of persecution being in 1931-1932 due to the occupation of Manchuria by Japan and, consequently, a new wave of the Korean population emerged in the Soviet Far East. The Japanese military threat was the main reason for the Bolshevik government to look for foreign spies and agents in the USSR, and the population living in territories occupied by Japan and ending up in the Soviet Union were charged with Japanese espionage. The Koreans therefore became a category of the so-called fifth column. The targeted repressions in the first half of the 1930s were replaced by mass punitive actions in the second half of the 1930s, which reached their peak in 1937-1938. The repression of Koreans in 1937-1938 comprised conditionally two punitive campaigns. The first campaign was the deportation of far eastern Koreans to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The second was the arrests and convictions of the Korean population during the period of the Great Terror as part of the mass operations of the NKVD (The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs ), particularly the "Harbin" operation. Before 1937-1938, arrests and convictions of Koreans ranged in the hundreds. Thus, for example, in 1933 213 persons were convicted of espionage, in 1934 - 104, in 1935 - 200. During the period of the Big Terror only under the order No.00593 there were convicted about 5 thousand Koreans.