뉴스레터

The mass migration of Koreans living in the Russian Far East began with Stalin's order made on August 21, 1937. Approximately 172,000 ethnic Koreans called Koryoin were forced to board trains running along the Trans-Siberian railway and became deported to different parts of central Asia. This year of 2017 marks the 80th year since the deportation of Koryoin, so scholars, journalists, politicians, government officials, and citizens in Korea took part in a history trip across Siberia arranged by the Korean Global Foundation. Koryoin are a living part of Korean history. Following the traces of their lives and remembering them is our duty as Koreans and is necessary for realizing a global community of Koreans.

Traces of Suffering Throughout Siberia

The first place we visited was Razdolnoye Station where the Koryoin departed for deportation. The city of Ussuriysk where the station is located currently has the highest population of ethnic Koreas in Primorye. Since residents of Hamgyeong Province began to migrate to Primorye in 1864, many Koreans followed suit and crossed the Duman (Tumen) River during the Japanese colonial rule in the hopes of a better life. Koreans that settled down in Primorye turned its barren land into fields of golden waves. In 1914, a Korean village of 63,000 inhabitants named Shinhanchon was established on the eastern coast of Vladivostok. Primorye also served as a platform for Korean independence activists to carry out anti-Japanese resistance activities and patriotic enlightenment campaigns. Through this visit, I was personally able to learn about the activities of Choi Jae-hyeong who helped Patriot Ahn Jung-geun prepare for his assassination of the Japanese Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi. However, after experiencing the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, Stalin pushed forward with the deportation of ethnic Koreans under the pretense of preventing "the penetration of the Japanese espionage into the Far Eastern Krai" when he had actually been aiming for national dispersion and relief from a shortage of manpower. That was the beginning of a history of suffering for the Koryoin who were instantly deprived of their assets and foundation for living.

A distance of 6,500 kilometers lies between Vladivostok at one end of the Trans-Siberian Railway and our destination Kazakhstan. We boarded the train and crammed ourselves into sleeping compartments that each host four passengers at a time. Apart from stopping for a total of two days along the way, we were to spend seven days on that train. The sight of birch tree forests, vast prairies and hills of the steppe, and the streams flowing between them passing by made me sentimental. It must have been because of the cold, gloomy image of Siberia in my mind, but a sudden guilt crept in as I thought about the Koryoin who were transported out of Russia like pieces of luggage along the same route.

Our train stopped every twenty to thirty minutes. One of those stops was at Ulan-Ude Station, a junction of the Trans-Mongolian Railway that makes it possible to travel by train from Beijing through Mongolia to Moscow. The city of Ulan-Ude used to be part of the Mongolian Empire under the rule of Genghis Khan and is now the capital of the Republic of Buryatia that belongs to the Russian Federation. On the fourth day of our ride on the train, we got off at Irkutsk Station. Irkutsk serves as the administrative center for eastern Siberia. It also used to be a base for Korean intellectuals to carry out independence movements from being inspired by the Russian Revolution, although the city is 5,000 kilometers away from Vladivostok. That was possible thanks to the Trans-Siberian Railway. Marathon runner and 1936 Berlin Olympics gold medalist Sohn Kee-chung and Patriot Yi Jun on his way to the Second Hague Conference as a secret emissary are both known to have stopped by Irkutsk. Along the embankment of Angara River that runs through Irkutsk is a monument to Alexander III who conceived the idea of building the Trans-Siberian Railway. Nearby was the impressive sight of the organization in charge of controlling the valve to the gas pipelines running between China and Europe. We took a bus that brought us to a spot upon a mountain that presented a bird's eye view of Lake Baikal. Amid the many different kinds of trees, a pine tree that looked about three hundred years old welcomed us. Before that tree, we held a ceremony to pray for harmony and unification among Koreans. Yukdang Choe Nam-seon once pointed out through his discourse on Bulham Culture that the origin of the Korean people shares similarities with elements of the folk religion of Buryat tribes around Lake Baikal such as having a shrine for the village guardian, using spirit poles, and practicing a custom of scattering a bit of food as a sacrificial offering before eating outdoors.

The Indomitable Will of the Koryoin

After spending two more days on the train, we hopped off at Novosibirsk, the capital of western Siberia and the center of Siberian culture and education with a population of 1.5 million. The city was also where we were to switch trains to head toward Koryoin settlements in Kazakhstan. We used our spare time to buy some food and drinking water before getting back on the train for two more days to arrive at Ushtobe in Kazakhstan. The town of Ushtobe is where the Koryoin first settled down at after being deported from Siberia. When we stepped down from the train at night, we were moved by the sound of a prelude the local Koryoin were playing to welcome us.

The next morning, we went to visit a site where the Koryoin used to live in dugouts. The marking stone there says, "This is where the Koryoin built dugouts and first settled down between October 9, 1937 and April 10, 1938 after they were deported from the Far East." On the hill right behind the site was a burial ground for the Koryoin pioneers who strived to form a solid community under harsh circumstances. We solemnly held a memorial service to comfort and honor their souls. The city's mayor and many local Koryoin including those who survived the forced relocation attended the service that was also reported by the local press. We then visited a Koryoin school to see how the Korean language and culture were being taught there. We also enjoyed watching a performance of singing and dancing at a Koryoin theater that had relocated to the city after it was first built in Primorye in 1932.

From Ushtobe, we took a six-hour bus ride to get to Almaty, the biggest city in Kazakhstan. The city with a population of 120,000 is home to 70% of the Koryoin living in Kazakhstan, making it the center of Koryoin culture where the Korean edition of the Koryoin newspaper Koryo Ilbo is published. The Koryoin woman selling groceries at the local market generously passing around samples for us to taste mirrored the same sort of geniality that can be witnessed back in Korea. At the academic conference held at the Kazakh National University, Professor German Kim explained that the Koryoin were at the heart of the identity of the Korean diaspora. Many Koryoin in Kazakhstan have become successful professional farmers or are actively working in various occupations as politicians, entrepreneurs, teachers, scientists, or artists. They managed to overcome a history of suffering with an indomitable will worth taking pride in. Part of that suffering must have come from an identity crisis of once being born Russian and later having to learn a new language used at wherever they had to relocate to. It would therefore be inappropriate for us in Korea to expect them to wholly preserve their identity as Koreans. Their interest toward Korea has steadily increased since the 1988 Seoul Olympics, so it would be more accurate for us to understand the Koryoin as people who share the same roots. Thus, it will be important for us to share with them an understanding that we are all part of a global Korean community and support them to live in the mainstream of the multi-ethnic societies they now reside in.