94 Chapter 5as being hostile and chauvinistic. In May 1924, the proposal of Korean
autonomy was rejected by Moscow.^62 Certain portions of Khan’s speeches dis-
played his intense belief in socialism. Publicly, Khan was a model cadre. Pri-
vately, he was vociferous in his stance on Korean autonomy and against Great
Rus sian chauvinism whether to local superiors or Moscow. But Khan had
transgressed the Party line in his reports. The Korean Bureau was disbanded
in 1924. Voitinskii recommended that Khan further his education in a Com-
munist Party School (Institute) as part of his next assignment. Khan refused
this referral. From 1924 onwards, he played only secondary leadership roles
among the Koreans. His next position was in Yakutia as the head of a Profin-
tern soviet of the Aldansk okrug from 1925 to 1927.^63 The main lesson was
that there were clearly limits on Soviet cultural autonomy and construction
for the diaspora peoples and that these were prescribed much more strictly
than for other nationalities, almost to the point of paranoia. This restraint
sought to prevent any of the diaspora peoples from even appearing to engage
in d e pen dently in relations or geopolitics with states outside of the Soviet
Union and its allies. It effectively handcuffed Soviet “internationalism.”
At the same time, Afanasii A. Kim rose to replace Khan as the leader
of the RFE Koreans. I shall now examine korenizatsiia in the larger Korean
community and look at examples of how indigenization (also called “social-
ist construction”) was being carried out among Koreans and in the RFE
through the lens of Soviet media such as Krasnoe znamia, a Far Eastern Soviet
daily newspaper with a circulation of around 21,000 in 1928.^64 The Arsenev
and Geitsman reports are particularly instructive about why the Koreans did
not receive a large autonomous oblast and help to demonstrate that Rus sian
nationalist and populist views of the Koreans as “aliens” foreign to Soviet
socialism, as “yellows,” and as serf- like agricultural laborers were transferred
into Soviet policy as early as 1928.
SOCIALIST CONSTRUCTION OF KOREANS VERSUS GEOPOLITICSBeginning in 1926, small- scale collectivization began to resolve citizenship
and land issues for Koreans. In regard to education, Koreans had inherent
advantages. They were a national minority and the majority of them were
from the peasant class. These attributes made them eligible to receive
scholarships and stipends to enter institutes and universities. In the 1920s
and 1930s, the Soviet Union lacked well- educated specialists such as engi-
neers, technical specialists, accountants, agronomists, economists, and fi-
nance specialists. During korenizatsiia, young Koreans with higher educa-
tion were often able to find state jobs and develop a career path within state
institutions, enterprises, and collective (see Figure 5, the Li family as a good