The Korean Deportation and Life in Central Asia 153was 73.7 percent. The Polish operation exhibited the highest percentage of
death sentences at 79.4.^9 From October 2, 1937, to April 22, 1939, Choibal-
san’s “extraordinary commission (troika)” carried out the Terror in Mongo-
lia. It heard 25,785 cases and executed 20,099 Mongolians. If there was a
one- to- one correlation between the number of cases and the number of
persons executed, this execution rate would have equaled 77.9 percent for
Mongolia.^10
During the 1930s, the Soviet leadership became a dictatorship, with
Stalin exerting complete control over the Terror.^11 First, as Stalin was
the General Secretary, he controlled the Politburo and the Central Com-
mittee. After he had eliminated all of his major rivals, there was no one to
dissuade him by pointing out that the threats were not real. Second, his
control over the Soviet state and its media institutions greatly influenced the
creation of a siege or bunker mentality from above and below. For example,
newspapers such as Pravda and Izvestiia relentlessly wrote of wrecking, sab-
otage, spies, and fifth columnists.^12 This in turn encouraged popu lar attitudes
of distrust, fear, and hatred towards diaspora nationalities such as Germans,
Poles, Koreans, Ira ni ans, and Greeks. Stalin actually encouraged the idea
that t here were fifth columnists among the Soviet diaspora peoples to his
close associates and the entire Politburo.^13 On August 9, 1937, the Politburo
approved of the NKVD decree (00485) regarding the destruction of the
so- called Polish Sabotage- Espionage Group. As this was the atmosphere in
late 1937, the decision to deport Soviet Koreans possessed some of the same
characteristics as the one to deport Poles. Nonetheless, the Korean deporta-
tion was the first total nationalities deportation and contained its own pecu-
liar orders, exceptions, and logic.
THE KOREAN DEPORTATIONOn August 21, 1937, Resolution 1428–3266ss was approved and signed by
General Secretary Stalin and the chairman of the Ministry of People’s
Commissars, V. Molotov. The resolution was entitled “On the Exile of the
Korean Population from the Border Regions of the Rus sian Far Eastern
Region.” In general, Resolution 1428–3266ss called for the immediate de-
portation of the Koreans to Southern Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, the Aral Sea
administrative regions, and the Lake Balkhash region. They were allowed
to take with them farming equipment, personal property, and living neces-
sities. Article 4 stated that Koreans were to be compensated for nontransfer-
able properties such as homes and farms and their crops.
Article 5 is perhaps the most in ter est ing, for it contradicts the stated
reason for the resolution and the deportation.^14 It reads: “ Don’t affix any