Deportation of Koreans in the Soviet Union

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The total deportation of Koreans in the Soviet Union, over 172,000 persons, in September-October 1937 from the border regions of the Russian Far East was part of the systematic Stalin's policy of population transfer in the Soviet Union. Its legal base was the joint Decree #1428-326сс of the USSR Sovnarkom and VKP(b) Central Committee of August 21, 1937, About Deportation of the Korean Population from the Border Regions of the Far Eastern Krai ("О выселении корейского населения из пограничных районов Дальневосточного края"), undersigned by Vyacheslav Molotov and Joseph Stalin. The justification was "to suppress the penetration of the Japanese espionage into the Far Eastern Krai". For the implementation of the decision, Genrikh Lyushkov was transferred from Rostov and assigned chief of the Far Eastern Krai NKVD. Soviet Koreans were resettled to Kazakh SSR and Uzbek SSR (in the latter case including Karakalpak ASSR).

[edit] History

The deportation was preceded by a typical Soviet scenario of political repression: falsified trial of local party leaders accused of insurrection: case of "Regional Korean Insurgent Center" (краевой корейский повстанческий центр), accused of plans of the secession of the Far Eastern Krai, local party purges, and articles in Pravda about the Japanese espionage in the Far East.

The deportation was controlled and executed NKVD Troikas of several levels: oblast troikas, raion troikas, and "group" troikas (кустовая тройка) under strict monitoring of the deadlines. Hundreds of party functionaries were purged and repressed for failures in this operation.

The deportation was performed in three batches, graded by the remoteness to the border, the first being the Posyet raion and "raions adjacent to Grodekovo". The deported were transported by railway trains of about 50 carriages each, with 25-30 men per carriage. The travel to the destination took about 30-40 days.

Nikolai Yezhov reported the completion of the deportation of Koreans from Far Eastern Krai on October 25, 1937. The Koreans remaining in Sakhalin, fishermen in the sea, and those on business trips were to be deported by an additional train by November 1.

[edit] See also

• Population transfer in the Soviet Union

[edit] Reference

The White Book about Deportations of Korean Population in Russia in 30-40s (Белая книга о депортации корейского населения России в 30-40-х годах) Moscow, 1992 (vol. 1), 1997 (vol. 2), compiled by Li U He (V. F. Li, Ли У Хэ) and Kim Yeon Un (Ким Ён Ун, the name is often transliterated as "Kim Yen Un" from the Russian variant "Ким Ен Ун").