Fearing Japanese espionage in the Soviet Far East, in 1937 Stalin deported some 170,000 Koreans from these border areas to uninhabited regions in northern Uzbekistan and southern Kazakhstan. These Koreans had originally settled in Primorye after fleeing famine on the Korea peninsula in the 1860s. Today, the number of Koreans living outside the peninsula counts up to seven million people, and more than 300,000 live in Central Asia as a result of this massive deportation.
On arriving to Central Asia after an exhausting train journey on the Far Eastern Railway, some Koreans were hosted by the local population. Many others had to build earth dugouts to survive in the steppes. As Soviet officials could not memorise Korean first names, new arrivals were given Russian ones, but were allowed to keep their family names. They integrated into the Soviet “melting pot” and adopted Russian, the Union’s lingua franca, as their language. The Korean population participated in the Soviet agricultural plan, cultivating rice, onion, garlic and other vegetables on their collective farms. According to historian Valery Khan, Korean-run farms distinguished themselves for high labour productivity.
Khan, an ethnic Korean living in Uzbekistan, writes that “Koreans could forget and suppress a sense of humiliation and resentment” over Stalin’s deportation by applying themselves to work on the land in the collective farms - their work ethic earned them the respect of the local population. Before Stalin’s death in 1953, the Korean population in Central Asia was not allowed to study at university or serve in the army. The Soviet leadership feared they could engage in espionage for the enemy or even switch sides.
