152 Chapter 7mi grants and other intruders throughout the 1930s. This was the backdrop
for the Terror and the Korean deportation.THE GR E AT TERRORThe Great Terror (1936–1938) was a series of repressive purges led by Stalin
and Nikolai Ezhov (the NKVD head) against three types of state and
Stalinist enemies: elites/Old Bolsheviks, socially harmful anti- Soviet ele-
ments (social groups), and the nationalities.^5 The nationalities deportations
were simply one part of the several distinct repressive policies/mechanisms
that composed the Terror. Furthermore, the Korean deportation was one of
the many nationalities deportations that began with the Politburo- approved
decree 00485, “On the Liquidation of the Polish Sabotage- Espionage
Group” on August 9, 1937. However, the Korean deportation was the first
total deportation of a Soviet nationality and paved the way for the total de-
portations of the other nationalities (Poles, Germans, Latvians, Estonians,
Finns, Greeks, Ira ni ans, Kharbintsy, Chinese, and Romanians) through
- None of these other nationalities were offered the choice of leaving
the Soviet Union in lieu of deportation (see Article 5). This fact, along with
the presence of Soviet Koreans who remained in the RFE after 1937 (work-
ing on the Soviet- Japanese concessions) makes the Korean case unique in
comparison with the other nationalities deportations.^6
Deportations of social groups and the nationalities composed the
“mass operations.” Stalin and his entourage saw the Terror as an absolutely
necessary period for the Soviet state to weed out potential enemies and pre-
pare Soviet society for an impending war. Stalin also clearly believed that
the Soviet Union had been penetrated by espionage fifth columnists. Hence,
Afanasii Kim was arrested for fomenting revolt among the Koreans in Poset
for the Kwantung Army Revolutionary Center, and Poles in the USSR were
arrested as belonging to the anti- Soviet PMO (Polish Military Or ga ni za-
tion).^7 From the early 1930s onward, the USSR was faced by four military
rivals on or near its western and eastern borders: Finland ( until March 1940),
Poland ( until 1939), Germany, and Japan. The Japa nese Army occupied
both Manchuria and Korea. Vyacheslav Molotov, a former Soviet minister
of foreign affairs under Stalin, believed that these repressive mea sures, re-
gardless of their destructiveness, empowered the Soviet Union to emerge
victorious from the Second World War.^8
One lesser- known fact is that the Great Terror was also carried out by
the Soviet Mongolian NKVD in Outer Mongolia. This repression nearly
matched the execution rate inflicted on Soviet Poles. During the Terror’s
peak (1937–1938), the average execution rate in the “national operations”