Korean and Chinese Settlers and Migrant Workers in the Soviet Far East (1920–1930)

The Review of Korean Studies. 2023. Vol. 26. No. 1. P. 173–208.

Son Z.

Abstract: In the late 1920s, the Soviet Union launched an official campaign against the so-called “Great Russian chauvinism”. As a result, the Bolshevik party embarked on a relentless offensive       against this phenomenon. Decisions related to the support of national minorities were made at governmental and regional levels across all regions of the country. Soviet indigenization policy and the ill-conceived population resettlement policy contributed to the rise of nationalism. Resettlement was conducted on the entire territory of the Soviet Union with the aim of improving the economy and the national defense capability. The indigenous Slavic population often did not wish to accept the resettled people. In the Far East of the Soviet Union, the so-called Easterners, represented by the Chinese and the Koreans, often endured destructive consequences of local nationalism. Despite this negative experience, the majority of Koreans accepted the official Soviet discourse proclaiming the unity and equality of all nations, and participated in the overall Soviet social-economic development and its collectivisation effort. In the Far East, joining a Soviet collective farm (kolkhoz) was the only option of survival for Koreans who were deprived of the right to return to their homeland. Kolkhoz was a safe space where Koreans could band together under state protection against local nationalism. It also gave Korean peasants a chance to work on land in consolidated ethnic units, preserving their language and culture. The Chinese population was primarily represented by seasonal workers. Unlike Koreans, they could freely move back to China at any time. As a result, Chinese were reluctant to join kolkhoz and avoided accepting Soviet citizenship. 

Keywords: СССР, USSR, этнические меньшинства, корейцы, китайцы, minorities, the Koreans, the Chinese, local nationalism, местный национализм, the Far East, Russian chauvinism, великорусский шовинизм, Дальний восток