114 Chapter 6By the late 1920s, Koreans had a plethora of magazines, newspapers,
and other media in Rus sian and Korean to choose from. By 1935, there were
nine Korean- language newspapers and six journals. The nine Korean-
language newspapers were: Avangard, Workers, Peasants Gazette, Red Star, The
Path of Lenin, The Path of Stalin, New World, Culture, and Stalin’s Tribunal.^4
By 1936, there were an estimated 204,000 Koreans of a total population of
2,273,000 in the Rus sian Far East.^5 The Korean population had increased
from 106,000 in 1923 to 170,000 in 1927^6 ; 25,043 Koreans were enrolled in
primary and secondary schools in the RFE. They made up 12.5 percent of
the total primary and secondary school population.^7 By 1935, there was a
Korean section in the Far Eastern University; two Korean pedagogical in-
stitutes; one Korean Pedagogical Institute for workers that was a four- year
university established in 1931 in Vladivostok, with 780 students; a Korean
section in the Khabarovsk Agricultural Institute (Figure 9); a Korean sec-
tion of the Soviet Party School, which was established in 1927; and fi nally,
the Korean Pedagogical Institute of Nikolsk- Ussuriisk, which was a four-
year institute with approximately 420 students.^8 Koreans were doing so well
educationally that a Korean Soviet Party School also opened in Nikolsk-
Ussuriisk in 1930. By 1933, there were 372 Korean students. Li Kvar was a
professor at this institute in the 1930s.^9 There was also an explosion of books
being printed in Korean. Over two hundred Korean villages now had their
own libraries in 1932. By 1934, there were thirty- six Korean authors who
were being published regularly, twenty- two of whom had their works pub-
lished in both Rus sian and Korean. Of the twenty most popu lar books by
Korean authors, the print run ranged from 5 to 176 thousand. The Korean
section of the state DVK publishing house, which employed ten people, still
could not keep up with the demand.^10
Raisa Nigai remembered her time at the Nikolsk- Ussuriisk Pedagogical
Institute as one in which she attended many meetings concerning all manner
of socialist ideas, women’s rights, and internationalist subjects. Nigai received
a stipend that covered tuition and the rent for her room. She left the university
before graduating, returning to Shkotovo where she began working in a mar-
ket. Serafima Kim stated that all instruction was in Korean at the Pedagogical
Institute at Nikolsk- Ussuriisk. Evgenia Tskhai also attended the institute
in Nikolsk- Ussuriisk. She finished the first month of classes, took the first
exams— and then the deportation began. One of the professors at the insti-
tute was Nikolai Pak, the first Korean gradu ate of Vladivostok’s prestigious
Far Eastern Institute. He specialized in Eastern (Asian) studies (Figure 8).
From October 1928 to October 1932, the Pedagogical Institute (Nikolsk-
Ussuriisk) produced 420 teachers for the Soviet Korean community.