Security Concerns Trumping Korenizatsiia 119rewarded them with institutions of higher education and media, which re-
inforced the lesson that one was Korean first and Soviet in hindsight.
Thus, the Soviet state was represented by two parallel structures vying
for primacy: local national leaders (Koreans) and all- union leaders (Mos-
cow). This structure would continue, albeit in diff er ent forms, until the end
of the Soviet Union.^34 Unfortunately, the “retrenchment” around Rus sians
and the Rus sian language was accompanied by its “other half,” the rise of
“local nationalism.” Local nationalism— that is, nationalist sentiments and
chauvinism by Soviet minorities during the second half of indigenization—
ascended above concerns over “ Great Rus sian chauvinism,” which was rarely
ever prosecuted. However, Koreans were charged, in 1933–1937 in vari ous
CP, Komsomol, and Soviet institutional purges, with “local nationalism.”
The state began to publicly advocate the view that perhaps the diaspora
nationalities could not be “remade.” Even the OGPU/NKVD and MVD began
to cast suspicions towards the inherent characteristics and the byt (daily life)
of the diaspora nationalities. For example, writing letters in Korean, cross-
border contacts, trips taken abroad, and the like began to connote subver-
sive or “fifth- column”- like activities. This initiated a double- edged nation-
alities policy that promoted and repressed diaspora nationalities for traits
that involved their inherent characteristics. The post-1934 “retrenchment”
distorted the USSR’s previous broad view of itself as a “state of nations”
with an internationalist agenda to spread world communism to a much re-
duced scope of “Rus sians first among equals” in the name of security and
mobilization of the Soviet polity. The latter turned the Soviet Union into a
de facto nation that glorified its three Eastern Slavic bulwarks while casting
aspersions on the other nationalities within its borders.
On July 4, 1936, Krasnoe znamia published an article, “Second Gradu-
ates [graduating class] Korean Pedagogical Institute for Workers [a Korean
rabfak],” describing how the institute opened in 1931 in Vladivostok and
produced its first graduating class in 1935. It had faculties (departments) in
physics/math, natu ral sciences, lit er a ture(s), and history (typically CP his-
tory). In 1935, the institute/university produced seventeen teachers of natu-
ral sciences, eight of history, and eight of physics/mathe matics.^35 There were
a total of 780 students in this rabfak by 1935–1936. Some Korean students
received Soviet stipends, which usually covered tuition, room, and fifty rubles
per month for sustenance (Figure 9). Three hundred and fifty Koreans were
enrolled across the Soviet Union in “Institutes of Red Professors.” These
numbers point out that young Korean communists (Komsomoltsy) and
young activists of the CP cells in the vari ous farming collectives of the
1920s were coming to the cities, obtaining scholarships, and finishing their