When Russia Ruled : Education and Social Mobility of Soviet Korean Children in Central Asia Jae PARK jpark@ied.edu.hk CIES 2016 Panel : Education of ethnic minorities within Asia: Structures, lived experiences and future directions Vancouver, 7 March 2016 The Hong Kong Institute of Education ranked 3rd in Asia and 15th in the world in Education (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2015)

Research Field Trip: March-April 2010 Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan Participants: 4th generation Soviet Koreans of Far East Russia deported by Stalin in 1937 History and Sociology

Questions (1) Who are the Korean ethnic minority people in Kyrgyzstan? (2) What has been and is their situation in former Soviet republic— agency and education?

Koryo saram (Soviet Koreans)?

Treaty of Beijing 1860 Russia gets right to the territories Ussuri krai and southern parts of Primorye. Now, Russia has a border with Korea.

Demographics 1863, the southern edge of River Ussuri, which also borders on Tizinhe: 13 Korean families. 1864, 7 villages in the Posyets area. Przheval’skiy who visited the region in 1867 states that there are 1,800 Koreans in 3 of the village alone per his estimate 1865, 60 families in that area. 1866, 100 families (Kim Sin Hwa) 1869, poor harvest & famine in North Korea. 1870, 8,700 Koreans, 4 new settlements

Demographics 1904-5 Russo Japanese War 1905 Korea-Japan Treaty - Korea loses independence. Korean patriots & freedom fighters went to RFE Korean independence Movements focused on anti-Japan political themes 1914 2/3 of Koreans in RFE do not have Russian citizenship (20,109 out of total 64,309 Koreans have Russian citizenship) April 1918. Japanese troops landed in Vladivostok followed later by American, British, French and Italian troops. The Entente Intervention lasted for 4 years to support the ‘Whites’. The Japanese withdrew in October of 1922

Why to RFE? Three Burdens which in addition to bad harvests were the cause of immigration to RFE. Tax on land cultivation Military draft Forced requisition of grain from farmers religious persecution of Catholics ( Koreans converted to Catholicism in 19th century ) was one more reason for emigration 1st 3 governors of DalKrai/Priamur felt that Koreans would be helpful in developing the Far East Russia when skilled labor was in short supply; Koreans were welcomed

Life in Russian Far East Koreans were tenant farmers, Russians were the landowners Taxes of all kinds imposed at will on Koreans Rice cultivation. Koreans had already assimilated by early 1900’s. e.g., converted to Orthodox religion, changed his name to a Russian name and surname Korean town in Vladivostok called Sinhanchon with Korean primary schools, churches, newspaper printing house, concert hall and football pitch

Solzhenitsyn: Gulag Archipelago (pp. 386-387) Korean mud houses

Life in Russian Far East Main occupations for urban Koreans at the turn of the century were: fishing, wrapping cigarettes, laundering, manual work, brewing soju and small businesses 1928 Soviet survey of rice growers in RFE: a total of 11,378 rice growers, 6 are Chinese, 1,196 are Russians and 10,176 are Koreans By 1930’s Korean kholkhozes are the major agricultural producers in RFE. In Posyets, 95% of population is Korean, 97.%5 of area had been organized into cooperatives/kolkhozes In 1932, the Soviet authorities organize official Korean theater and Sonbong (Vanguard), a Korean language socialist/communist newspaper Manchukuo 1932

1937 A political and politicized decision Resolution No 1428-326cc signed by Molotov and Stalin “of preventing the infiltration of Japanese spies into the Far East” Resolution no. 1647-377cc signed by Molotov and Petrunichev: “… the complete removal of all Koreans from the entire Far Eastern region, including remote areas …”

Deportation as forced diaspora In the September 1937 deportation, 2/3 of Soviet Koreans had Soviet citizenship

110 h (8,354.9 km) via а/д Амур/М58 and a/d Baykal/а/д Байкал/М55

Deportation of 1937 was a Logical Continuation of Tsarist and Soviet Nationality Policy in the Russian Far East(Kim) There had been other plans to deport the Koreans: 1st prior to 1904’s Russo Japanese war 2nd during Leninist reforms 3rd during Stalin’s collectivization of 1930 Kim, G. N., & King, R. (2001). Koryo Saram: Koreans in the Former USSR. Korean and Korean American Studies Bulletin, 12(2/3).

Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan 500,000 Koryo saram live in the former Soviet Union lands Two-thirds of them continue in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan

I am 1/8 Chinese, 1/8 Korean, ¾ Kazakh Tartar

Where are they now?

Chang, J., & Park, J. (2013). Soviet Koreans: Redemption through Labour and Sport. The Eurasia Studies Society Journal, 2(3), 1-21.

Research Findings : Oral History Causes of diaspora are seldom lineal usually both Voluntary (well being) and Involuntary (survival, politically forced) A diaspora is likely to generate subsequent diasporas ‘diaspora-as-diversity’ versus ‘diaspora-as-exile’ Adaptive processes in diaspora-as-exile are not uniform Soviet Koreans in Central Asia: from one Korenizatsiya (коренизация, politically forced nativization) to the next

Education and Mobility Young Soviet Koreans’ educational values are still linked to their social mobility dreams. These values are : Asian students and parents are known for holding education in high regard. They value education as a way to assure not only material betterment but also and above all, social recognition, esteem and reward (Park, 2009). Such values are rooted in the consciousness of Asians in diaspora. Regardless of perils of politics or geographical landscapes , education has consistently been regarded by Asian diaspora communities as a pathway to upward social mobility in its many dimensions and details (Hurh, 1998) (Gao, 2008)

Today Post Soviet “Kyrgyzstan for Kyrgyz” political ideology has effectively destroyed ‘Soviet Multiculturalism’ In this context, ‘Good education’ no longer implies better opportunities Exclusion type of Acculturation (worse in Tashkent)

Everything is illusory except power -Lenin

Conclusion In diaspora lands, Agency is strongly affected by contexts Efforts to adapt / compromise often override the ideal of freedom, choice and identity Soviet Koreans educational values are NOT totally annihilated by politics or ideologies