Security Concerns Trumping Korenizatsiia 113ethnonymic homelands continued to gather momentum. By the late 1930s,
the clock was near midnight for Korean and Chinese life in the RFE.KORENIZATSIIA AND EDUCATIONLatinization was the conversion of non- Latin scripts to Latin in the Soviet
Union. It was an indirect part of the korenizatsiia programs as an educa-
tional/linguistic campaign that served to make the vari ous Soviet nationali-
ties more modern, because the Latin script was seen as an adaptable writing
system for pedagogy, learning, and campaigns to increase literacy, higher
education, and the expansion of printed media. However, the latinization of
Korean ran into prob lems with regard to financial and state support and was
essentially moribund by 1932.
In 1930, young Koreans and adults had a plethora of educational op-
portunities that allowed them to secure jobs, take the fast track to become
Soviet cadres, and show their allegiance to the state.^2 One of the most in-
ter est ing aspects of korenizatsiia in the 1930s was that RFE Koreans began
to initiate proposals and hold leadership positions in many social- policy
campaigns. The latinization campaign was one example wherein many Ko-
rean educators proposed their own ideas on how to latinize Korean lan-
guage and script. In the 1920s, the state began recruiting Koreans through
scholarship programs, campaigns, and other educational initiatives. As the
Koreans excelled in both education and demonstrating that they under-
stood Soviet socialism, they were rewarded with more programs, institu-
tions, schools, scholarships, and Korean- language publications. As an ex-
ample, Soviet economics emphasized central planning to an extreme
(five- year plans). The “defense” of the Soviet Union was stressed repeatedly
during the state campaigns to remake the national minorities and other
educational enterprises.^3 Koreans participated enthusiastically in the vari-
ous po l itic al enlightenment campaigns, whether they advocated Western
medicine, literacy, new agricultural methods, and/or mechanization/trac-
torization of the farms. During the 1930s, the Korean Communist Party
members, Komsomoltsy, and vydvizhentsy (promoted workers) understood
that they were being closely watched. Their numerous requests for an au-
tonomous region were stalled, and most had heard about vari ous state pro-
posals (Dalkrai Bureau) to resettle Koreans to the north or remove them
altogether from the Primore. Therefore, RFE Koreans sought to prove
their fidelity to Soviet socialism by dint of redoubled effort, enthusiasm,
discipline, and production in educational initiatives, Soviet campaigns, or
the economic sphere.