Security Concerns Trumping Korenizatsiia 115Latinization of the Korean language was an attempt made from 1928
to 1934 to make the Korean language more easily taught, read, scientific,
and Soviet. Had it been fully implemented, it would have also served to
sever the links between RFE Koreans and Koreans from Manchuria, Japan,
and K orea, which were, in the eyes of the Soviet state, cap i tal ist- imperialist
influences.^11 This event also displays the character and steadfastness of the
Soviet Korean cadres who labored to remove the mixed Korean- Chinese
script and replace it with Latin. These cadres followed the Party line and
issued statements that went against their own beliefs (in some cases) espe-
cially in the case of the Korean language. In par tic u lar, one will see Li Kvar
(Figure 5), Avangard/Sonbong’s chief editor, and Nikolai Pak (Pak Yongbin)
stand out and take leadership roles. The transfer to Latin orthography and
the removal of Chinese characters would have made the Korean orthogra-
phy more modern, allowing the science of Soviet linguistics to restructure
and influence it. Soviet influence also occurred through loanwords in Soviet
Korean. Many of the former Soviet peoples have a large number of loan-
words (especially from scientific, military, engineering, and academic vo-
cabularies), from five to ten thousand and possibly more from the Rus sian
language.^12 In early 1928, nationalities such as Avars, Kazakhs, Uzbeks,
Uighurs, Nogais, Tatars, Karaims, Crimean Jews, Tadzhiks, Dargins,
Lak, Lezgin, and Dungans adopted the Latin script.^13
Figure 8. (Left) Nikolai Pak, in spring 1928, had been the first Korean gradu ate in Oriental
Studies at GDU. (Right) The graduating class of Nikolsk- Ussuriisk Teacher’s College in
spring 1937. Serafima Kim, first row, far right. Professor Nikolai Pak, second row, fourth
from right. Photo courtesy of Serafima Kim, Politotdel, Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Illustration
courtesy of Krasnoe znamia, March 16, no. 64 (2776): 5.